Travel Soccer for Dummies

[Anonymous]

OP said unknown club is LMVSC. I was asking what the known club is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! I have a 10 year old and we’ve completed tryouts. We’re trying to decide between two offers - one with friends and a known program but what seems to be a weaker team and a weaker league and one completely unknown but in a club that seems to play in a better league (according to DCUM). We are completely clueless about travel soccer in general other than having heard about a few local clubs that are supposedly “the best” but nowhere near us. And my kid isn’t really in need of “the best” club, just the best fit and a good experience. This kid is a decent athlete and enjoys soccer, but this is going to be for fun, not for college/career/etc. it’s just a thing my kid likes doing.

I’m nervous about going somewhere that i know nothing about and parents/kid won’t know a single person going into the team. But, it seems pretty likely that the unknown club and team are stronger programs and would face better opponents at a bare minimum. Odds are the team members would be better players too unless it’s a really off year for the club.

Based on this info you have provided, it's an absolute no-brainer: Go with the team where he has friends.

How do you know at age 10 that your kid doesn't have great potential? I guess the approach we've taken is to expose our kids to what we think is the best training environment (with little regard paid to game results or Got Soccer points which don't matter at this age), so we can prepare them with a good foundation should they decide to take it more seriously down the road. Foot skills have to be learned at this age if your kid wants to be a good player...this doesn't mean going all psycho and making your kid practice 6 days a week, hire a personal trainer, and send him to Europe for playing opportunities...it just means putting him in a good training environment where he'll have fun and learn the skills of the game. One of the best things my kids have learned from travel soccer is how to mix in with a new group of friends - we've not followed their school friends b/c we didn't think our neighborhood club was the best training option. We drive 15 mins and now our kids have a whole circle of friends they've built from their club that is different than their school and neighborhood friends. Not a bad thing, in my opinion.

There's no right or wrong answer here, but I'd suggest keeping an open mind as to your kid's future in the game. If you and he are going to show up at field 3 times a week for travel soccer, he may as well get the best available training, even if he decides to keep it casual long term. Kids like to get better at something and feel like they're part of something meaningful. Just another perspective to consider - good luck, whatever you decide!

Great advice. Would (humbly) submit that for a 10-year-old it's also important to play other sports, but that may mean imposing or recognizing an off-season that the club doesn't acknowledge. For example, skip winter soccer training for now and play an intense basketball schedule instead, or skip summer pickup and go to daily swim practice instead. Two cents, etc., etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you! I have a 10 year old and we’ve completed tryouts. We’re trying to decide between two offers - one with friends and a known program but what seems to be a weaker team and a weaker league and one completely unknown but in a club that seems to play in a better league (according to DCUM). We are completely clueless about travel soccer in general other than having heard about a few local clubs that are supposedly “the best” but nowhere near us. And my kid isn’t really in need of “the best” club, just the best fit and a good experience. This kid is a decent athlete and enjoys soccer, but this is going to be for fun, not for college/career/etc. it’s just a thing my kid likes doing.

I’m nervous about going somewhere that i know nothing about and parents/kid won’t know a single person going into the team. But, it seems pretty likely that the unknown club and team are stronger programs and would face better opponents at a bare minimum. Odds are the team members would be better players too unless it’s a really off year for the club.

Based on this info you have provided, it's an absolute no-brainer: Go with the team where he has friends.

How do you know at age 10 that your kid doesn't have great potential? I guess the approach we've taken is to expose our kids to what we think is the best training environment (with little regard paid to game results or Got Soccer points which don't matter at this age), so we can prepare them with a good foundation should they decide to take it more seriously down the road. Foot skills have to be learned at this age if your kid wants to be a good player...this doesn't mean going all psycho and making your kid practice 6 days a week, hire a personal trainer, and send him to Europe for playing opportunities...it just means putting him in a good training environment where he'll have fun and learn the skills of the game. One of the best things my kids have learned from travel soccer is how to mix in with a new group of friends - we've not followed their school friends b/c we didn't think our neighborhood club was the best training option. We drive 15 mins and now our kids have a whole circle of friends they've built from their club that is different than their school and neighborhood friends. Not a bad thing, in my opinion.

There's no right or wrong answer here, but I'd suggest keeping an open mind as to your kid's future in the game. If you and he are going to show up at field 3 times a week for travel soccer, he may as well get the best available training, even if he decides to keep it casual long term. Kids like to get better at something and feel like they're part of something meaningful. Just another perspective to consider - good luck, whatever you decide!

Great advice. Would (humbly) submit that for a 10-year-old it's also important to play other sports, but that may mean imposing or recognizing an off-season that the club doesn't acknowledge. For example, skip winter soccer training for now and play an intense basketball schedule instead, or skip summer pickup and go to daily swim practice instead. Two cents, etc., etc.

Totally agree about other sports. Our kids are in HS now, and only play soccer, but through 8th grade they also played basketball, and tried field hockey and lacrosse. We found it was no problem to play hoops in the winter even with futsal or indoor soccer which was always more casual than regular season. The only issues we ran into were in March when hoops playoffs were happening the same weekend as Jeff Cup or Arlington tournament.

[Anonymous]

we only tried out for the club that practices close to our house and we knew people on the team, liked the coaches and did not want to spend hours every week in traffic. Having friends on a team is awesome when they are young because it really is a social event for the kids.

our daughter has loved it and I think we would have had a different experience if there had been traffic, lots of time to get to practice, no friends from the beginning, etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: is the 'known' club SYC by chance?

Nope Alexandria. Don’t even know what SYC is due to the aforementioned cluelessness

[Anonymous]

Based on everything you’ve described, Alexandria’s the better choice right now.

[Anonymous]

What's wrong with Alexandria?

[Anonymous]

For whatever it's worth, We just let our 9 year old chose to play on the "bad" team instead of on the better team. He wants to play with his friends. He's excited to play on the team and doesn't care that it's not the top division.

I just want him to have fun and get exercise and learn some teamwork and life skills.
So to me, your choice is a no-brainer.

[Anonymous]

Well hope for the best that their coach knows how to train and develop players.

[Anonymous]

Alexandria’s actually pretty great as a young kid development environment. And I think they’ll be in the same league as LMVSC next year (CCL). Their boys teams tend to be strong all the way through the club. Girls teams tail off significantly at U13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria’s actually pretty great as a young kid development environment. And I think they’ll be in the same league as LMVSC next year (CCL). Their boys teams tend to be strong all the way through the club. Girls teams tail off significantly at U13.

Only because other Clubs get the girls they developed up to U-13.

[Anonymous]

How do you know at age 10 that your kid doesn't have great potential? I guess the approach we've taken is to expose our kids to what we think is the best training environment (with little regard paid to game results or Got Soccer points which don't matter at this age), so we can prepare them with a good foundation should they decide to take it more seriously down the road. Foot skills have to be learned at this age if your kid wants to be a good player...this doesn't mean going all psycho and making your kid practice 6 days a week, hire a personal trainer, and send him to Europe for playing opportunities...it just means putting him in a good training environment where he'll have fun and learn the skills of the game. One of the best things my kids have learned from travel soccer is how to mix in with a new group of friends - we've not followed their school friends b/c we didn't think our neighborhood club was the best training option. We drive 15 mins and now our kids have a whole circle of friends they've built from their club that is different than their school and neighborhood friends. Not a bad thing, in my opinion.

There's no right or wrong answer here, but I'd suggest keeping an open mind as to your kid's future in the game. If you and he are going to show up at field 3 times a week for travel soccer, he may as well get the best available training, even if he decides to keep it casual long term. Kids like to get better at something and feel like they're part of something meaningful. Just another perspective to consider - good luck, whatever you decide!

lol, we know lots of families that do all three of these things. We have so far done none of these things for our u13 DA boy, but we are thinking about it...

[Anonymous]

Both are good clubs and both have their top teams in CCL. At that age put them in a team that will get the most playing time. That's the part that counts. No one cares about level and if you do, you are absolutely wrong.

[Anonymous]

Can't go wrong with Alexandria or LMVSC at the younger ages for boys. Both clubs seem to have a lot of talented players. I'd pick the one your son will have friends at and is convenient. I cannot explain how much convenience matters. We ended up moving mid-season at u9 because I couldn't take the commuting anymore to practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't go wrong with Alexandria or LMVSC at the younger ages for boys. Both clubs seem to have a lot of talented players. I'd pick the one your son will have friends at and is convenient. I cannot explain how much convenience matters. We ended up moving mid-season at u9 because I couldn't take the commuting anymore to practice.

With Alexandria moving to CCL, if they would hold practices more convenient towards Arlington, they could certainly draw a lot of talent away from Arlington. I'd send my kids in a heartbeat (and they are on top Arlington teams) - but just too difficult to make that drive from North Arlington to Alexandria's practice Fields.