Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid is a little younger than who OP is probably asking about, but they have been playing in one of the top leagues for their age. My kid has done some camps and trainings at the places that get mentioned here, including some things that are “invite only”. I do not appreciate their marketing tactic of making kids and parents feel like they’re falling behind if they don’t sign up for X Y and Z all summer. It’s preying on people’s worries and seems to be very effective among DMV parents. I was oblivious to all this until about a year ago when my kid started to show some promise. Now if I stay during one of the trainings I feel stressed out just listening to the parents talking. They are so damn intense and for what? None of our kids have hit puberty yet. I don’t know if I am cut out for this. I was a D1 athlete with parents who paid little attention to what I was doing other than driving me there. I wish we could go back to that being the norm.
I am in a somewhat similar boat and didn't pay much attention last year - the kids barely did any summer soccer. This year (as they have showed a good amount of promise last season) the kids have a few weeks of soccer camp and stand alone lessons as well, but also have some regular non-soccer camps/activities too. I definitely don't appreciate some club emails stating "this is a must training" prior to next season, definitely feels like a money grab. My kids are in different major clubs, one club started one day a week practices already, the other is sending "must training" emails...