My take on US Youth Soccer coaches specifically in the DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DMV is about two decades behind in coaching. Best coaches I have seen are at Arlington and VDA (besides DC United). The coaches that played in the 90s coach like they played in the 90s. We’ve had some players go to small European countries for trials and they’ve admitted they were behind the curve.

DMV coaches are people, and like most people they’re not angels. They’ll show up and run through the motions but never go beyond the minimum to be more, do more in terms of helping your child grow.

If we can all agree the playing climate in Europe is different, you’ll have to accept the coaching climate in Europe is different.

If you want to mirror Europe we need a ton of clubs willing to sponsor academy teams. Accept that the girls are, by and large, screwed and that they boys who won’t play at least at the college level aren’t worth anyone’s time. You may get that with mlsnext or the mls academies, but parents will still pay to play, so what we have will survive in parallel

Brand name doesn’t dictate quality. SYC pulled in tons of kids for their two MLS Next groups. 2008 boys did okay, 2007 boys did horrible. The coach is a massive reason why.

Guest players rostered with other clubs were a big reason why. When they did not have them, they dipped. So that is an aspect of coaching - finding talent developer elsewhere to goose your results and recruiting other players by any means necessary to mask shortcoming in players developed at the club - but that is not what we are describing as knowledgeable soccer coaches. I don’t think you can infer much from results. You need to look at what they do with players over a long period of time with the players.

[Anonymous]

Last season, DC played on a travel team at "young club
in the Leesburg area (no, I'm not going to name them but you can no doubt figure it out). The coaches passion for soccer was never in doubt but they seemed to think that just because they loved the game, that made them good coaches. Outside of one or two teams, which largely seemed to be down to having a good group of athletes, most of the teams at the club performed poorly and finished in the bottom half of their respective leagues. When I would watch some of the teams play in the late spring, they didn't look any better than they did in the early fall. It just looked like a group of individual players running around kicking the ball. And for the price that people are paying, that's just sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last season, DC played on a travel team at "young club in the Leesburg area (no, I'm not going to name them but you can no doubt figure it out). The coaches passion for soccer was never in doubt but they seemed to think that just because they loved the game, that made them good coaches. Outside of one or two teams, which largely seemed to be down to having a good group of athletes, most of the teams at the club performed poorly and finished in the bottom half of their respective leagues. When I would watch some of the teams play in the late spring, they didn't look any better than they did in the early fall. It just looked like a group of individual players running around kicking the ball. And for the price that people are paying, that's just sad.

This *has* to be VA Revolution.

[Anonymous]

The guys at FCGB do a great job of developing and teaching good soccer but they don't have a serious track record of wining so they struggle to attract players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most coaches in DMV didn’t play in college or pro team. Most coaches get a license by attending a course paying a fee.

This is especially true at FCV. With the exception of Christian - NONE of the coaches played beyond rec or club. And none played in college. I read about about brain surgery... come on over if you have a headache.

[Anonymous]

This thread is pathetic. Stop whining, and if you’re so disappointed get out there and coach yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pathetic. Stop whining, and if you’re so disappointed get out there and coach yourself.

OP here, I am a coach. I’d like to explain to you again: most coaches “teaching” travel soccer in the DMV are molding their players into the way their coach played. There are some exceptions but the overall lack of knowledge and professionalism is pretty sad. The evaluations are entirely subjective, the players selections are extremely biased and over the period of 2 hours. For girls it’s worse: if your DD is not good friends (or even worse disliked) with the best player then she’s not part of the team. Don’t believe me? Next time there is a tryout, ask to see the “notes” they are took of your dear child. More than half of the time they don’t even bring out rosters.

The coaching license courses are also very far from any type of proper function. The D course is useless because the C course will teach conflicting material. The B course is basically adding to the racket; there’s no statistical instruction, no analytical instruction, and essentially it’s who agrees with the instructor. I don’t understand how this is so upsetting to some. The most “technical director” do for “continuing education” out here is show what they do in training maybe once a year.

If soccer within our culture is far behind Europe, why would anybody not think coaching is the same way? How many directors does your club have? Ask to see their development plans. How many of your clubs prioritizes development? Ask to see their formula for age group, team, child. You think they plan their sessions? Ask to see their plans. You people are paying thousands of dollars for nothing. It’s a racket.

If you want some free advice:
- if your coach has ever brushed off your child by telling them “just go home and juggle” or “just play some wall ball”, you’re sustaining the racket.
- if you have a older DD and your club is doing nothing to prevent ACL injuries, you’re sustaining the racket
- ever notice the trainings are always technical warmup, possession, play? Sustaining the racket

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most coaches in DMV didn’t play in college or pro team. Most coaches get a license by attending a course paying a fee.

This is especially true at FCV. With the exception of Christian - NONE of the coaches played beyond rec or club. And none played in college. I read about about brain surgery... come on over if you have a headache.

Yes and often times those “I played at <level>” will just cascade themselves. So if he/she was a goal-scoring via breakaways and your child enjoys a different style: you’re screwed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DMV is about two decades behind in coaching. Best coaches I have seen are at Arlington and VDA (besides DC United). The coaches that played in the 90s coach like they played in the 90s. We’ve had some players go to small European countries for trials and they’ve admitted they were behind the curve.

DMV coaches are people, and like most people they’re not angels. They’ll show up and run through the motions but never go beyond the minimum to be more, do more in terms of helping your child grow.

If we can all agree the playing climate in Europe is different, you’ll have to accept the coaching climate in Europe is different.

Best coaches we ever had were at Barca.

[Anonymous]

There is a reason every professional coach of any FIFA team was a first team FIFA player. The best were great players of their time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pathetic. Stop whining, and if you’re so disappointed get out there and coach yourself.

OP here, I am a coach. I’d like to explain to you again: most coaches “teaching” travel soccer in the DMV are molding their players into the way their coach played. There are some exceptions but the overall lack of knowledge and professionalism is pretty sad. The evaluations are entirely subjective, the players selections are extremely biased and over the period of 2 hours. For girls it’s worse: if your DD is not good friends (or even worse disliked) with the best player then she’s not part of the team. Don’t believe me? Next time there is a tryout, ask to see the “notes” they are took of your dear child. More than half of the time they don’t even bring out rosters.

The coaching license courses are also very far from any type of proper function. The D course is useless because the C course will teach conflicting material. The B course is basically adding to the racket; there’s no statistical instruction, no analytical instruction, and essentially it’s who agrees with the instructor. I don’t understand how this is so upsetting to some. The most “technical director” do for “continuing education” out here is show what they do in training maybe once a year.

If soccer within our culture is far behind Europe, why would anybody not think coaching is the same way? How many directors does your club have? Ask to see their development plans. How many of your clubs prioritizes development? Ask to see their formula for age group, team, child. You think they plan their sessions? Ask to see their plans. You people are paying thousands of dollars for nothing. It’s a racket.

If you want some free advice:
- if your coach has ever brushed off your child by telling them “just go home and juggle” or “just play some wall ball”, you’re sustaining the racket.
- if you have a older DD and your club is doing nothing to prevent ACL injuries, you’re sustaining the racket
- ever notice the trainings are always technical warmup, possession, play? Sustaining the racket

OP, thank you for your insight. As a parent, I completely agree with you. Don't worry about the grumpy poster you responded to. He umps in on every thread urging "whiners" to go somewhere else if they don't like what a particular club or coach is doing - as if there's really that much of a difference between the clubs. You are correct that it is a racket at which parents don't want to look closely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a reason every professional coach of any FIFA team was a first team FIFA player. The best were great players of their time.

Carry that logic and look at playing careers of Tuchel, Klopp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most coaches in DMV didn’t play in college or pro team. Most coaches get a license by attending a course paying a fee.

Yep check profiles of coaches even those those that label themselves top teams. No experience, all they do is select and recruit the big athletic players and a few ones who dribble. This selection makes it easier for the coach to get wins without having to instruct the game. When the team becomes U17 they get crushed by competition that caught up in size.

[Anonymous]

Nepotism, incompetence, corruption, relying on athletic players outside of the club? You must mean SYC

[Anonymous]

Wow, coach is really fired up! Who cares about the supposedly over paid coaches? Go play in some rec league like everyone else if you dont like it. None of these kids are going to the pros, though a few kids might get their books paid for at a D2 school.