Starting a New club

[Anonymous]

Club often ignores parents feedback on toxic coaches. Parents are not always wrong. A bad coach is a bad coach. Don’t cover up and be a good old jock club where all coaches are buddies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We currently have a Coach who is great for the defense and GK position, but has no offensive experience or drills for the offense.

When it comes to the GK position, make sure you have dedicated GK coaches (who really understand and played the position themselves). It is a very unique skill set and most head coaches don't truly understand it beyond "Oh, I played soccer, so I know what a GK should do!".

Goalkeeper coaches are really hard to have because you have to pay them enough to be around, but they can’t coach teams or they won’t coach the goalkeepers.

[Anonymous]

many small clubs will bring in a paid GK coach just for one night a week

[Anonymous]

Its all just daydreaming unless you have a concrete plan for field space.
Paying to rent space is cost prohibitive. County permits are all taken by legacy clubs with giant rec programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know some will chuckle at this post, others will ridicule it and many others will receive it with skepticism.

Please write a post describing:

A) what do DO NOT like about the current ecosystem (please, go beyond the pay-to-play system - that’s obviously the main problem in this country but fields need to be rented, officials too, permits and insurances, galore etc)

B) what to DO like about the current ecosystem you’d like this new organization to adopt

C) will you accept a holistic curriculum that does NOT care about scores/results until AFTER U14/U15?

D) if your DD/DS is not in HS, would you consider a club that puts emphasis EXCLUSIVELY on genuine technical and tactical development over physicality or will you keep beating the US athlete-minded focus?


Side note: this new organization will start extremely small as you can imagine but nobody will be turned away due to politics or DMV drama or whatever it is locals eat/drink here that make them this way.

This project is in the infant stages from and admin perspective but there is a financial backing to get the 501(c)3 operative by this upcoming spring.

Why do we need another club? If you try anything different and even if you have great coaching, you will never attrack the players. Parents are so hellbent on staying at a specific club that no matter how bad the practices are, or the coaches are mean, they won't leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know some will chuckle at this post, others will ridicule it and many others will receive it with skepticism.

Please write a post describing:

A) what do DO NOT like about the current ecosystem (please, go beyond the pay-to-play system - that’s obviously the main problem in this country but fields need to be rented, officials too, permits and insurances, galore etc)

B) what to DO like about the current ecosystem you’d like this new organization to adopt

C) will you accept a holistic curriculum that does NOT care about scores/results until AFTER U14/U15?

D) if your DD/DS is not in HS, would you consider a club that puts emphasis EXCLUSIVELY on genuine technical and tactical development over physicality or will you keep beating the US athlete-minded focus?


Side note: this new organization will start extremely small as you can imagine but nobody will be turned away due to politics or DMV drama or whatever it is locals eat/drink here that make them this way.

This project is in the infant stages from and admin perspective but there is a financial backing to get the 501(c)3 operative by this upcoming spring.

Why do we need another club? If you try anything different and even if you have great coaching, you will never attrack the players. Parents are so hellbent on staying at a specific club that no matter how bad the practices are, or the coaches are mean, they won't leave.

Some will leave because they are so fed up. But those will not be the top players. There is always room for a new entrant to the market that has a unique product that people want. A new club is not going to "take over" the market or change the current state of youth soccer. But they could fill a very small niche and field a few teams. I wish them luck.

[Anonymous]

In fairfax, unless you are willing to practice on unlit grass fields (which means no practice november-march), there is no field space.

[Anonymous]

I think in selling this concept you need to have an end goal in mind. Say I go with you on this journey with my kid and care only about development and not wins.

What is the path if he wants to play in college? If you aren’t ECNL or MLSNext (assuming you aren’t if you are brand new) - what connections are you offering for him to get a look? Or is your end goal more a “for the love of the game” thing and you don’t want kids who want to play in college?

I think this works best in one of two ways:

1. You have a group of kids right now that are really good (maybe they’d follow you from their current club) and agree with your methodology. You coach that one team and maybe get momentum to bring in enough like minded other baller kids to build another year out. But getting the right caliber of player to really do this when you have big clubs offering a proven path to college is going to be hard.

2. Start with private group supplemental training and put together club neutral super teams to compete in various (particularly summer) to build enough of a following to go with #1.

But it’s a hard sell as a parent to have my kid play in whatever tier you get as an unknown entity at NCSL for however many years. What did the new AC Milan get in NCSL? 8th tier? I say this not because I don’t believe in the rightness of your position but because I don’t know if you are good at running a business. Will you go belly up or move onto another opportunity before my kid finishes your program? Will he have the skills then at that moment that a big club will look at him? There’s a real bias against kids not playing top tier - so is he just going to be screwed if he doesn’t make it to the end with you?

There’s big clubs can be toxic and awful but you know the path and there’s some security in that. It’s like investment banking. Terrible job but it opens doors. So I think you need a really compelling story of where my kid will end up at U14/15 and some security of why I can trust to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

DP - I can’t tell if you are OP or someone else but assuming you are OP, I hear your point. However, what is the success you are expecting from your model if D1 is too low? Pro? What tier and what country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's your plan for accessing lit county turf field space? That's the NUMBER ONE obstacle for new clubs.

Is the county not legally mandated to distribute accordingly with all public requests? Or is it true that Loudoun SC has people on the inside allowing for a de facto monopoly on turf rental/usage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A) i) the top players and teams are not playing each other; ii) parents are uneducated on development so coaches have alot of pressure on wins even if they believe in development; iii) 2% of club focus on the technical fundamentals and off-ball movement needed to progressive to higher levels. The lack of technical ability at MLS Next and ECNL is a little shocking IMHO.

B) i) The market determines the price; ii) coaches should be paid their worth; iii) EDP Futures @ Soccerplex does it the best with all teams at one location every week and no posted scored. Yes, parents gossip and know the scores but so what. If you mention an unposted score to me at a cocktail party, I literally might backslap you. These shallow parents should not be the norm like they are here.

C) Yes - Mirror Achilles approach to early develop less the cursing and antics which keeps them boutique.

D) Yes. This is where education is involved. Parents will have to understand the results don't matter before U15 but that is where you will struggle. I am not sure it can work in the DMV as the parental base is simply wealthy parents who are driven by ego. Lookup the DCU string. It has gone silent since someone called them out on this. People here use soccer to get into Princeton vs the love of the game. Most don't understand D1 is like 4th-6th division in most European countries and not really "successful" in real football terms.

I hope you're different. I hope it works out!

Since we are all in America where a kid making D1 soccer is a marker of success, how can someone say its not a successful achievement because of whats happening in another country?

Real here is real here.

No, you have taken the application of other sports like baseball and basketball and equated them to soccer. We created football and basketball so we own the development process. We are seeing the flaws in our processes over the last 20 years with amateurism in basketball as the world has taken interest in the sport since the Dream Team. We have the same head start in women's soccer and the next 20-40 years will be interesting on whether our processes are truly better.

We don't own soccer and made D1 a pathway when it is an international off-ramp to an education and a better life for international academy washouts (men's side).

You can either accept this reality or keep complaining about internationals taking your spots because it is obvious our kids are not good enough. USL Championship teams will destroy D1 teams. USL is ranked around the 75th league in the world which is equivalent to around 4th - 6th divisions in Europe. Congrats, you get to play and learn extreme time management while you learn how to be an investment banker. Congrats, your grades would have gotten you into GW but you get to go to Columbia now because of soccer. Those are both great upgrades in life. Especially for the upwardly mobile with no real aspirations of playing pro. Naturally, there are some kids who can ball and will make the MLS and Europe through the extra development in college just like there are players in lower divisions in Europe that make it to the primetime. However, the faster US sets its standards of soccer higher than D1, the faster you will see us have international success.

We're either speaking of America achievement as a measurement OR International achievement

As the PP stated, D1 is a successful achievement for an American youth soccer player, in America.
They didn't say it was the top achievement.

Your argument is not based on what they said but rather based on what you want to argue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's your plan for accessing lit county turf field space? That's the NUMBER ONE obstacle for new clubs.

Is the county not legally mandated to distribute accordingly with all public requests? Or is it true that Loudoun SC has people on the inside allowing for a de facto monopoly on turf rental/usage?

No idea about Loudoun but the demand in Fairfax is much higher than the available field space. They have all their info on their website detailing who gets access. The short version is: you need a large rec program ti get space.

The fact that you are so ignorant about field permits makes me doubt your organizational acumen.0

[Anonymous]

Another small club is not needed. The ballers will go to the big name clubs and you'll be left with middling players and you'll get nowhere.

And if you listen to the parents here, and don't use volunteer parents for anything, you'll have an incredibly expensive club for middling players (as we already have)