General tryouts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top kids work their asses off year round. Fall and Spring 4 practices a week, 1-2 games. Winter 3 practices, plus Futsol and scrimmages. Summer, SuperY. Add in Capstone, HP Elite, at home practice and weight training and they are honing their skills all year long almost every day and playing against tougher competition. The coaches recognize the kids they see putting in the work. Usually work increases skill. If they don’t recognize your child as a top performer, they have not seen them put in the work.

Can we stop pretending like the kids who are not putting in this type of work should get the same looks as the ones that do. There is a large skill gap between the kids that work this hard year round and those that don’t. If you don’t get that, it is because your child hasn’t. Sorry. But hard work pays off and the coaches see who is putting in the work. Stop thinking your DC should get the same looks when they have not put in the work.

If your child has put in the work, they should stand out on whatever field they were assigned. IDs are not a random process, they reward the kids who are standouts and the ones that have been working harder for it.

100% agree except the HP Elite part. They are a scam. There way better places than that.

HP is awesome. We love the program and the coaches. Some kids can get lost in the mix but they do try to separate based on level/skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is over-the-top fantastic, I would skip the top clubs that will consider your kid part of a revenue team and never give them the opportunity to move up. Go to a club that works to develop all players, moves kids up to play and sometimes practice with the top team if they are on the second team, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg

How do we know which club is developing players?
What does that look like?

Bingo. You don't. The above poster would not know either. No one could know ahead of time, because it is primarily coaching dependent and coaching assignments change a lot and unless you have been on a specific coaches team before, there is no way to know.

Let's say you leave Big Club A in favor of Medium Club B, there is no way to know ahead of time what team level you will land on and or what coach will actually show-up and coach in the fall time. Clubs will announce the Coaching Slate in April, but a lot changes by August. And even if you do know who the coach is at the new club, there is know way to know how much they will develop your player. It is simply impossible to know.

We have had 5 coaches in 5 years, none of them focused on individual-development. They all focused on team-development. My kid, for example, only knows how to play R Wing. They could care less if she can pay central-mid or defense. All they want her to know is her position and how to play on a team. There is a total lack of individual development, but she is a heck of a right winger. Also, all coaches have their favorites, they naturally ignore the lesser skilled/ quiet kids. So, we have a few parents who love our coach, but half the parents notice the natural bias....so it's extra development for some, but not all.

..You Can't know ahead of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is over-the-top fantastic, I would skip the top clubs that will consider your kid part of a revenue team and never give them the opportunity to move up. Go to a club that works to develop all players, moves kids up to play and sometimes practice with the top team if they are on the second team, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg

How do we know which club is developing players?
What does that look like?

Bingo. You don't. The above poster would not know either. No one could know ahead of time, because it is primarily coaching dependent and coaching assignments change a lot and unless you have been on a specific coaches team before, there is no way to know.

Let's say you leave Big Club A in favor of Medium Club B, there is no way to know ahead of time what team level you will land on and or what coach will actually show-up and coach in the fall time. Clubs will announce the Coaching Slate in April, but a lot changes by August. And even if you do know who the coach is at the new club, there is know way to know how much they will develop your player. It is simply impossible to know.

We have had 5 coaches in 5 years, none of them focused on individual-development. They all focused on team-development. My kid, for example, only knows how to play R Wing. They could care less if she can pay central-mid or defense. All they want her to know is her position and how to play on a team. There is a total lack of individual development, but she is a heck of a right winger. Also, all coaches have their favorites, they naturally ignore the lesser skilled/ quiet kids. So, we have a few parents who love our coach, but half the parents notice the natural bias....so it's extra development for some, but not all.

..You Can't know ahead of time.

my kid had a different experience. Five coaches and each one played her in a different position. So maybe your kid found the position at a younger age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is over-the-top fantastic, I would skip the top clubs that will consider your kid part of a revenue team and never give them the opportunity to move up. Go to a club that works to develop all players, moves kids up to play and sometimes practice with the top team if they are on the second team, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg

How do we know which club is developing players?
What does that look like?

Coaches and clubs don’t develop players. Parents and players develop players. 80% of the development starts at home. You may ask the coach, “how do I do X?” For us, the first milestone was “how do we play up one year?” My child did the daily ball mastery work, juggling and wall passing. Confidence exploded. Older age group was missing players and my child was called up. They balled out and the rest is history.

Next target: “how do I do Y?”

Rinse and repeat until you get what you want.

The best development is 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5. Small sided games in tight spaces (futsal).

[Anonymous]

Uuuuugggghhh... So how does a kid switch clubs if the try-outs are such a disaster?? My U13 kid loved his club until now, but had a new coach this year that was "not a fit" for him (or a lot of players.) We would hate for him to be w/ the same coach again. I have not given up hope that our kid can continue to develop. So he's trying out at a different club, but there's 85 kids out there for a couple slots. It feels hopeless. This never gets talked about, but it's not about him working hard. It's that as a single-mom I genuinely don't have the bandwidth to drive 30-40+ minutes each way to a club practice farther away 3 days a week. Who are these people who try out at 3-4 clubs? They're just messing up tryouts. Do they have jobs? Are they actually going to drive that far? I am apparently the only soccer parent in NOVA who has limits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uuuuugggghhh... So how does a kid switch clubs if the try-outs are such a disaster?? My U13 kid loved his club until now, but had a new coach this year that was "not a fit" for him (or a lot of players.) We would hate for him to be w/ the same coach again. I have not given up hope that our kid can continue to develop. So he's trying out at a different club, but there's 85 kids out there for a couple slots. It feels hopeless. This never gets talked about, but it's not about him working hard. It's that as a single-mom I genuinely don't have the bandwidth to drive 30-40+ minutes each way to a club practice farther away 3 days a week. Who are these people who try out at 3-4 clubs? They're just messing up tryouts. Do they have jobs? Are they actually going to drive that far? I am apparently the only soccer parent in NOVA who has limits.

You have to go to practices before the first tryout so your kid is on the coaches’ radar and they can do some evaluation of his skills outside of the chaotic tryout environment. Which means more time and driving for you. I get that it sucks. It seems like that a part of the problem with US soccer and probably a lot of other youth sports. The kids who “make it” often aren’t the ones with the most talent, but rather the ones whose parents were the most invested aka the craziest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uuuuugggghhh... So how does a kid switch clubs if the try-outs are such a disaster?? My U13 kid loved his club until now, but had a new coach this year that was "not a fit" for him (or a lot of players.) We would hate for him to be w/ the same coach again. I have not given up hope that our kid can continue to develop. So he's trying out at a different club, but there's 85 kids out there for a couple slots. It feels hopeless. This never gets talked about, but it's not about him working hard. It's that as a single-mom I genuinely don't have the bandwidth to drive 30-40+ minutes each way to a club practice farther away 3 days a week. Who are these people who try out at 3-4 clubs? They're just messing up tryouts. Do they have jobs? Are they actually going to drive that far? I am apparently the only soccer parent in NOVA who has limits.

You have to go to practices before the first tryout so your kid is on the coaches’ radar and they can do some evaluation of his skills outside of the chaotic tryout environment. Which means more time and driving for you. I get that it sucks. It seems like that a part of the problem with US soccer and probably a lot of other youth sports. The kids who “make it” often aren’t the ones with the most talent, but rather the ones whose parents were the most invested aka the craziest.

Def the VRSC philosophy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uuuuugggghhh... So how does a kid switch clubs if the try-outs are such a disaster?? My U13 kid loved his club until now, but had a new coach this year that was "not a fit" for him (or a lot of players.) We would hate for him to be w/ the same coach again. I have not given up hope that our kid can continue to develop. So he's trying out at a different club, but there's 85 kids out there for a couple slots. It feels hopeless. This never gets talked about, but it's not about him working hard. It's that as a single-mom I genuinely don't have the bandwidth to drive 30-40+ minutes each way to a club practice farther away 3 days a week. Who are these people who try out at 3-4 clubs? They're just messing up tryouts. Do they have jobs? Are they actually going to drive that far? I am apparently the only soccer parent in NOVA who has limits.

Where do you live? Some clubs are doing "come to a practice" instead of tryouts.

[Anonymous]

Why must tryouts occur before the previous season is even over? My kid’s team has one more tournament this weekend. Instead of practicing for the tournament, the whole club is having tryouts during their normal practice time.

It’s not a big town so there are 1 or 2 teams per age group. One currently in my daughter’s age group, but the club is combining them with the next age up to form one team. There will be girls left out or put in the “pool.” They will most likely be from my daughter’s team with a good chance she’ll be one of them. They’re announcing the on Friday which will put a real damper on the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is over-the-top fantastic, I would skip the top clubs that will consider your kid part of a revenue team and never give them the opportunity to move up. Go to a club that works to develop all players, moves kids up to play and sometimes practice with the top team if they are on the second team, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg

How do we know which club is developing players?
What does that look like?

See what your thousands of dollars gets you. Is it practices, games and tournaments? Or, does it also include personal development plans each season (written, plus coach meets with player and parent each season to review), team summer camp opportunities, extra gk and positional clinics throughout the year, etc.

And, is your child on the first, second or maybe third team? Great. If 4+, go to another club, because your child is on a revenue team, paying for the support of the elite players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uuuuugggghhh... So how does a kid switch clubs if the try-outs are such a disaster?? My U13 kid loved his club until now, but had a new coach this year that was "not a fit" for him (or a lot of players.) We would hate for him to be w/ the same coach again. I have not given up hope that our kid can continue to develop. So he's trying out at a different club, but there's 85 kids out there for a couple slots. It feels hopeless. This never gets talked about, but it's not about him working hard. It's that as a single-mom I genuinely don't have the bandwidth to drive 30-40+ minutes each way to a club practice farther away 3 days a week. Who are these people who try out at 3-4 clubs? They're just messing up tryouts. Do they have jobs? Are they actually going to drive that far? I am apparently the only soccer parent in NOVA who has limits.

I had a mom ask me, completely seriously, why I don’t hire an aux pair or nanny to drive my kid to practices. She said that’s what all her friends do. Yes, really. Soccer is a sport for the rich if you want to be at the top levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The top kids work their asses off year round. Fall and Spring 4 practices a week, 1-2 games. Winter 3 practices, plus Futsol and scrimmages. Summer, SuperY. Add in Capstone, HP Elite, at home practice and weight training and they are honing their skills all year long almost every day and playing against tougher competition. The coaches recognize the kids they see putting in the work. Usually work increases skill. If they don’t recognize your child as a top performer, they have not seen them put in the work.

Can we stop pretending like the kids who are not putting in this type of work should get the same looks as the ones that do. There is a large skill gap between the kids that work this hard year round and those that don’t. If you don’t get that, it is because your child hasn’t. Sorry. But hard work pays off and the coaches see who is putting in the work. Stop thinking your DC should get the same looks when they have not put in the work.

If your child has put in the work, they should stand out on whatever field they were assigned. IDs are not a random process, they reward the kids who are standouts and the ones that have been working harder for it.

How old is your kid who is putting in all this extra work?