Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

I hate it when tournaments go with "fewest goals allowed." We're trying to promote attacking soccer in this country, aren't we? A cap on GD makes more sense to me.

At younger ages, at least, tournaments are usually more even than leagues, anyway. NCSL isn't tiered until U11, but tournaments generally do a decent job of sorting teams into appropriate levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

I hate it when tournaments go with "fewest goals allowed." We're trying to promote attacking soccer in this country, aren't we? A cap on GD makes more sense to me.

At younger ages, at least, tournaments are usually more even than leagues, anyway. NCSL isn't tiered until U11, but tournaments generally do a decent job of sorting teams into appropriate levels.

What's crazy is when kids aren't allowed to score...these 9/10 year olds literally don't know what to do. They turn around right in front of the goal and start dribbling the other way. Then you have the players that usually never get an opportunity to score---so of course they are still going to put it in the net much to their coach's chagrin. It's almost more humiliating for the opposing team when all of these tactics are employed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Their teams are strong later on due to investment in development not results young.

How exactly is one coach for six teams at 9 and 10 an "investment in development" ?

There are clubs that put their best paid coaches at those ages and have small number of players per coach. That is an investment in development, what BRYC is doing sounds more like Ponzi scheme.

Is it literally one coach for six teams? Where do these teams play? Two in each age group in CCL/CCL2 -- that's four, so where are the next two? Not ODSL -- BRYC's ODSL teams are run out of their rec program.

Is it like the program VYS used to have, with one pro coach leading an "academy-style" age group while parent coaches (who were required to have licenses) led the teams on game days?

BRYC's costs seem low-ish for this age group - $1,610 in 2015-16, though it doesn't include tournament fees, and they enter a lot of tournaments.
http://www.brycsoccer.com/about-us/fees

u9 has three teams; 2 are CCL, 1 is CCL2 and u10 have three teams; 2 are CCL and 1 is CCL2, so yes, 6 teams total. There is one head coach for all these teams with one assistant for the u9 (who is a parent who volunteered to assist, so he doesn't even work for the club) and one for the u10 (who was a volunteer, but has now been 'hired' as an assistant and is working toward credentials).

All six teams practice together sometimes and it's chaos. Anyone who says differently is being misleading. They bring in some u16/17 players to try and help with the overwhelming numbers, but I'd say that's not something standard at travel clubs. Most parents would expect licensed coaches with each team. You won't get that here unless they plan on changing things next season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

I hate it when tournaments go with "fewest goals allowed." We're trying to promote attacking soccer in this country, aren't we? A cap on GD makes more sense to me.

At younger ages, at least, tournaments are usually more even than leagues, anyway. NCSL isn't tiered until U11, but tournaments generally do a decent job of sorting teams into appropriate levels.

What's crazy is when kids aren't allowed to score...these 9/10 year olds literally don't know what to do. They turn around right in front of the goal and start dribbling the other way. Then you have the players that usually never get an opportunity to score---so of course they are still going to put it in the net much to their coach's chagrin. It's almost more humiliating for the opposing team when all of these tactics are employed.

This is consistent with what I've observed. My son was on a really dominant team as a young player in NCSL. I'm not sure it's done the same way now, but it used to be that teams were not grouped by level until spring of U11, and it almost seemed like in the fall of U11 they tried to have only one or two strong teams per group. The boys won the first game by double digits, despite the coach rotating every single player on the team through different positions over the course of the game. Throughout the next few games, he tried a variety of strategies to keep the games more even, like only shooting with an off foot after a minimum number of passes, taking a player off, etc. The efforts to make the game more even really pissed the other team coach and parents off in a way that losing by 10 plus goals to a team playing good soccer did not. The parents were very vocal about how disrespectful they thought it was to deliberately try to slow the game down to meet their level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

I hate it when tournaments go with "fewest goals allowed." We're trying to promote attacking soccer in this country, aren't we? A cap on GD makes more sense to me.

At younger ages, at least, tournaments are usually more even than leagues, anyway. NCSL isn't tiered until U11, but tournaments generally do a decent job of sorting teams into appropriate levels.

What's crazy is when kids aren't allowed to score...these 9/10 year olds literally don't know what to do. They turn around right in front of the goal and start dribbling the other way. Then you have the players that usually never get an opportunity to score---so of course they are still going to put it in the net much to their coach's chagrin. It's almost more humiliating for the opposing team when all of these tactics are employed.

This is consistent with what I've observed. My son was on a really dominant team as a young player in NCSL. I'm not sure it's done the same way now, but it used to be that teams were not grouped by level until spring of U11, and it almost seemed like in the fall of U11 they tried to have only one or two strong teams per group. The boys won the first game by double digits, despite the coach rotating every single player on the team through different positions over the course of the game. Throughout the next few games, he tried a variety of strategies to keep the games more even, like only shooting with an off foot after a minimum number of passes, taking a player off, etc. The efforts to make the game more even really pissed the other team coach and parents off in a way that losing by 10 plus goals to a team playing good soccer did not. The parents were very vocal about how disrespectful they thought it was to deliberately try to slow the game down to meet their level.

There's definitely a balance to be struck.

One easy thing coaches can do: Quit pressing goal kicks, the bane of the U9/U10 team. (Soon, USSF will have an extra line on the field requiring attackers to stay back, thereby encouraging teams to build out of their own defense.) If you're up by six goals, there's simply nothing to be gained by pressing on goal kicks -- you don't learn anything from whatever goals you get. Just pull the guys back to midfield.

And there's a tone that can be set among coaches AND parents. I saw a U9 rec game once that was 6-1 or something like that, and the parents on the winning team were yelling "OK, now's your chance!" on corner kicks. Whatever the players are trying to do on that corner kick, why yell something like that?

[Anonymous]

Agree that how the winning team's parents and coach handle a blowout makes a huge difference. During that U11 season I'd mentioned our parents never did more than clap tepidly (at most) after the first couple goals were scored, and we would cheer the other teams' players (esp. the keepers) when they made good plays too. We went out of our way to be friendly to other team's parents, and found that most of them were interested in chatting about what sort of training our boys did, whether we liked the coach and club, etc. I'm sure they would have preferred a different score line, but they respected the fact that our team was working hard to play good soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work on your left foot" is a good one, too. Everyone needs to develop his or her weaker foot.

Work on left foot...so if it goes in, it's considered running up the score. If the kid misses, then the opponent feels better about themselves?

This made me think...why do tournaments have goal differential as the first tie breaker normally? This promotes running up the score.

Most tournaments I've been in (younger ages) put a cap on GD from a given game, usually 3. And many of them use fewest goals allowed before GD or goals scored (and sometimes those are capped).

Coaching of this type needs to be done quietly, not in shouting. And sometimes you just end up scoring a lot of goals.

I hate it when tournaments go with "fewest goals allowed." We're trying to promote attacking soccer in this country, aren't we? A cap on GD makes more sense to me.

At younger ages, at least, tournaments are usually more even than leagues, anyway. NCSL isn't tiered until U11, but tournaments generally do a decent job of sorting teams into appropriate levels.

What's crazy is when kids aren't allowed to score...these 9/10 year olds literally don't know what to do. They turn around right in front of the goal and start dribbling the other way. Then you have the players that usually never get an opportunity to score---so of course they are still going to put it in the net much to their coach's chagrin. It's almost more humiliating for the opposing team when all of these tactics are employed.

This is consistent with what I've observed. My son was on a really dominant team as a young player in NCSL. I'm not sure it's done the same way now, but it used to be that teams were not grouped by level until spring of U11, and it almost seemed like in the fall of U11 they tried to have only one or two strong teams per group. The boys won the first game by double digits, despite the coach rotating every single player on the team through different positions over the course of the game. Throughout the next few games, he tried a variety of strategies to keep the games more even, like only shooting with an off foot after a minimum number of passes, taking a player off, etc. The efforts to make the game more even really pissed the other team coach and parents off in a way that losing by 10 plus goals to a team playing good soccer did not. The parents were very vocal about how disrespectful they thought it was to deliberately try to slow the game down to meet their level.

There's definitely a balance to be struck.

One easy thing coaches can do: Quit pressing goal kicks, the bane of the U9/U10 team. (Soon, USSF will have an extra line on the field requiring attackers to stay back, thereby encouraging teams to build out of their own defense.) If you're up by six goals, there's simply nothing to be gained by pressing on goal kicks -- you don't learn anything from whatever goals you get. Just pull the guys back to midfield.

And there's a tone that can be set among coaches AND parents. I saw a U9 rec game once that was 6-1 or something like that, and the parents on the winning team were yelling "OK, now's your chance!" on corner kicks. Whatever the players are trying to do on that corner kick, why yell something like that?

Arlington Rec has an 'assault rule' (at least I know it does for 1-2nd grade, not sure about older). My kid's team was often playing against a team with 2 extra players since there was always a large score differential. This helped the other team and it really makes the game more competitive. Our guys got adequately challenged with more players on the field...as the gap closes a certain percentage (I forget what) then the opposing team has to take out the extra players. They come back in once that lead is breached again. It forced our guys to play harder, pass around more and work faster with extra players pressing them.

It's kind of a good solution actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that how the winning team's parents and coach handle a blowout makes a huge difference. During that U11 season I'd mentioned our parents never did more than clap tepidly (at most) after the first couple goals were scored, and we would cheer the other teams' players (esp. the keepers) when they made good plays too. We went out of our way to be friendly to other team's parents, and found that most of them were interested in chatting about what sort of training our boys did, whether we liked the coach and club, etc. I'm sure they would have preferred a different score line, but they respected the fact that our team was working hard to play good soccer.

That's awesome. Need more parents like that.

Because here's a funny thing -- almost everyone gets blown out SOME of the time. Stuff happens. Best player gets sick or has an exam. Keeper has a bad day. Or the team that dominated NCSL D1 is playing a REALLY good team in a tournament.

Building up good karma is a very good thing.

And I should say a lot of parents on this area fit your description. Too few of them post here!

[Anonymous]

Unrelated question: Where do you draw the line regarding a coach's behavior toward young players? Our coach, a professional supposedly, has teased a kid for being effeminate and has angrily thrown a ball at another player. He's mentally ill, but no one in a position of authority wants to hear it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unrelated question: Where do you draw the line regarding a coach's behavior toward young players? Our coach, a professional supposedly, has teased a kid for being effeminate and has angrily thrown a ball at another player. He's mentally ill, but no one in a position of authority wants to hear it.

Well- I'd remove my child from the team. Seriously, wtf?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unrelated question: Where do you draw the line regarding a coach's behavior toward young players? Our coach, a professional supposedly, has teased a kid for being effeminate and has angrily thrown a ball at another player. He's mentally ill, but no one in a position of authority wants to hear it.

Well- I'd remove my child from the team. Seriously, wtf?!

How old are these kids???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unrelated question: Where do you draw the line regarding a coach's behavior toward young players? Our coach, a professional supposedly, has teased a kid for being effeminate and has angrily thrown a ball at another player. He's mentally ill, but no one in a position of authority wants to hear it.

Line was crossed.

[Anonymous]

Well I know we are trying to teach kids about respecting each other and working things out, etc etc but if I was there and I heard him busting a kids b-lls about being effeminate and if I saw him throw a ball at a kid in anger, I'd be pissed at all the adults present if there was a line of parents "engaging" this coach. There would be no need to talk to a person of authority. These kids are our kids, if we don't protect them, who will. You should really, really call out who this coach is and who the person of authority is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unrelated question: Where do you draw the line regarding a coach's behavior toward young players? Our coach, a professional supposedly, has teased a kid for being effeminate and has angrily thrown a ball at another player. He's mentally ill, but no one in a position of authority wants to hear it.

Well- I'd remove my child from the team. Seriously, wtf?!

Is the team part of a club? Because I'd inform the club in a more formal manner as one step, and potentially remove my child from the team in a second.