Bethesda SC "virtual" training...money grab or earnest attempt?

[Anonymous]

For those that think this is too much, surely you have reached out to your coach about it. What did they say?

[Anonymous]

OP: you are 100% correct. Every upset parent at our club (not mid-Atlantic) is on the same page. Coaches and clubs are mandating this asinine virtual training forced by pressure on families and players in order to justify keeping the money paid in by US. It would be OK if it was optional or if we could even have a refund option, but no, these soccer TD and DOC idiots are tone deaf. We have MULTIPLE kids payed in and invested and just want this "mandatory" nonsense from clubs to end! Every parent on all my kids teams says the same thing, but no one speaks up. It is just too much with home schooling, telework jobs, and the stress of this health crisis. We loved our travel teams and coaches, but this virtual BS has to end. What a scam. You coaches all over this forum should be embarrassed by participating in the charade.

[Anonymous]

We have an 11 year old BSC player who is enjoying Techne and seems ok with Healthy Baller. He does everything on his own, including the zoom meetings. It adds some structure for him and no stress for us, so we are fine with it. It is clear that Bethesda is doing this because they need to justify hanging on to fees. Not ideal, but they’d have to totally screw over the coaches otherwise, so we are ok with it. We really like our son’s coach, who is also a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking about the money. I just posted in another soccer thread where I said I was wondering if this virtual training is to keep from having to refund us anything. Virtual training is not the same as actual training and I agree with OP, I have too much on my plate already to add "coach" to my day. That's why I'm paying the club.

[Anonymous]

Refund issues completely aside. My kid likes it. Good with techne. Mixed on healthy baller, but knows these type of exercises are necessary. Very much likes staying connected to their team - more connected than with their classmates. While it was a lot of work, learned a lot from the analysis of the game. The coach's interaction has been good. and ran a very good teaching session this week. (Honestly , better than much of our school's online teaching . . sigh). DC is 11 and can do this on their own. Its adding a bit of structure and they are determined to come back and show how they improved. Again refund issues aside, our parents are happy to have the team stay connected through this time and have stuff to do. I'm guessing it depends a bit on the team and coach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking about the money. I just posted in another soccer thread where I said I was wondering if this virtual training is to keep from having to refund us anything. Virtual training is not the same as actual training and I agree with OP, I have too much on my plate already to add "coach" to my day. That's why I'm paying the club.

Of course it’s to stop people asking for refunds. Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or both? I get that BSC is not going to give me a refund. I've accepted that. But for God's sake, I have a full time job, so does my husband, and now we (like most of you reading this) are in the unenviable position of having essentially homeschooled children. I'm so stressed out trying to get my work done and get my elementary-school aged children on Zoom and in their virtual classrooms every morning, and keep everyone safe and healthy that I cannot handle overseeing my oldest child's "virtual training" on Techne and HealthyBaller. If he doesn't do it, or fill out his coach's ridiculous Google spreadsheet, too Effing bad because I cannot hold one more responsibility in my head. And my kid is not the type to have enough executive functioning to keep up with the coach's schedule on his own. I have to let soccer go. If he gets kicked off his team or downgraded a team because his parents are too busy WORKING to oversee his virtual training, then whatever...BSC, you might be the straw that broke the camel's back.

UGH the Techne App. So boring. Not enough variety in exercises. Just a way to have a little competition with little kids. Hey coach - you do know they can just turn it on and watch nexflix at the same time right? Why not earn your $$ and send a training plan that YOU created??

[Anonymous]

all these threads the same. Home ridden coaches and higher ups acting as parents to convince us to continue to drink this kool aid. What a joke. We all know this will only last so long bwfore refunds will become mandatory. please stop pretending. even our 8 year old is asking now if this is what it is going to be like for the next 9 months. Hello Parents. Soccer is done. There will be no NCAA fallmsports. Get your youth sports money back now by at least sending an email to these posers. We did.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yeah, the refund thing is tough. But, in a exercise in eating crow, I will say that DS is actually doing some if not most of what he's supposed to be doing on his own and really enjoyed the meeting with his buddies and his coach. And to a PP, yes, I was naive to think that BSC would put him on a lower team next year if he it turned out that he was too irresponsible to do it on his own. Our experience over the past few years is, short of being an ax murderer, if you're a good player, they will overlook soooo many character flaws (I am thinking of a totally disruptive crazy U8er who's now on DA U11).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all these threads the same. Home ridden coaches and higher ups acting as parents to convince us to continue to drink this kool aid. What a joke. We all know this will only last so long bwfore refunds will become mandatory. please stop pretending. even our 8 year old is asking now if this is what it is going to be like for the next 9 months. Hello Parents. Soccer is done. There will be no NCAA fallmsports. Get your youth sports money back now by at least sending an email to these posers. We did.

What did they reply to you?

[Anonymous]

Geez folks, if you like your coaches, don't you want them to get paid in these tough times??? This is how they make their living - do you want them out on the streets? I appreciate that they are trying to come up with interesting programming to try and make the kids think about soccer and how it is played, etc. I agree - of course it is not as good as live training. But these are desperate times all around. Also - if you want your club to be viable/around in the future when society gets through this, you might need to suck it up and pay these poor coaches. Otherwise - just like with restaurants - we will come out on the other end to a bunch of boarded up store fronts/no soccer clubs/etc.

[Anonymous]

I see this theme on several threads. The problem is that many other workers correctly get laid off instead of the company doing the equivalent of selling ECNL and DA families Zoom meetings, virtual trainings, and the likes.

Many families need the money and have laid off workers. Even Disneyworld is issuing refunds to annual pass holders instead of trying to give them Zoom Disney in its place.

The clubs should be ashamed and the coaches are clearly going along with this because they are focusing on their own self-interest and self employment over the needs of their players who, e.g., have two parents out of work. No one should be forced to call a club and ask for a refund. I agree with that sentiment.

I hope others are right that refunds will be coming on the travel side.

[Anonymous]

Look, I'm a BSC parent, and I think the apps are stupid and a waste of money, but at least they're trying.
What I hate is having to push the timing button every few minutes instead of just entering how much you practiced. And before you say, "well, people would just cheat,' I can guarantee you that there are parents sitting around hitting the buttons all day to make it look like their kids are superstars.

[Anonymous]

And, god forbid, your kid doesn't have a device to run the app? My wife and I need the devices we have to work at home, so my DD can't log her activities.
We told the coach, and he said he understands, but that doesn't change that when you go look at the team leader boards, it looks like she isn't doing anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, I'm a BSC parent, and I think the apps are stupid and a waste of money, but at least they're trying.
What I hate is having to push the timing button every few minutes instead of just entering how much you practiced. And before you say, "well, people would just cheat,' I can guarantee you that there are parents sitting around hitting the buttons all day to make it look like their kids are superstars.

It’s more like the parents are telling the kids to do it...and in the end if you are a good player it does not matter how much or how little of this you do.