Travel soccer parents - you’re the reason US soccer is failing

[Anonymous]

Sorry that we are ruining it, OP. I’m shelling out money because we can afford it and DD is having fun playing with her friends. She does not want to play professionally and even talks about stopping before high school. It’s a little more serious than rec and she likes that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FHS. My youngest is in travel, but only within 60 miles of home field. Keeps costs down. Why travel over rec? Because I wanted him to learn more than he can from volunteer mom coach that played soccer 20 years ago. I have no desire for him to become a professional soccer player. But I want him to actually learn some soccer skills.

We went to Barca. If I'm going to 'pay to play' anyways, it might as well be with a system and coaches that know how to develop players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FHS. My youngest is in travel, but only within 60 miles of home field. Keeps costs down. Why travel over rec? Because I wanted him to learn more than he can from volunteer mom coach that played soccer 20 years ago. I have no desire for him to become a professional soccer player. But I want him to actually learn some soccer skills.

We went to Barca. If I'm going to 'pay to play' anyways, it might as well be with a system and coaches that know how to develop players.

and do not rely on raw athleticism. In fact, the youth that are large and physical for age will train and play up so as not to rely on those physical traits in their youth which comes back to haunt them when everyone else catches up after puberty. The US travel coaches do the exact opposite, they capitalize on size in the youth leagues to win on physicality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ ha! Ok, I look forward to watching your son in the nfl or nba...riiight.

Very few kids play any sport past high school. Soccer isn’t what it was when you were a child. But, glad there are players that don’t give a shit out there on the pitch. Explains why they can’t stick with it. The sport has a way of weeding out.

You are really too emotionally invested in this as evident from all of your profanity.

It is a kids sport and one that is not really important in this country beyond the youth level, and certainly not once you get out of high school and college.

There is very little market for pro soccer in this country.

Travel soccer starts too young and youth soccer starts too young (preschool teams are everywhere).

Soccer has branded itself as a little kids sport in this country.

That may change, my friend. 'Merica isn't going to look the same in the future.

Among the minority populations, the greatest growth is projected for multiracial populations, Asians and Hispanics with 2018–2060 growth rates of 175, 93, and 85 percent, respectively.

The market for soccer will continue to grow as well....and, hopefully, by then we will get our sh*t worked out.

It is the sport the majority of American youth are playing. That develops into love for the sport that they later pass down to their children. That is how the sport grows. And since both mothers and fathers play it (unlike baseball and American football), you have the moms that are often the ones that are with the kids more often passing a ball to them instead of the old American model of dad playing catch with their sons. My kids play soccer because since I work from home I was the one with them after work and I can't stand baseball, never played American football or basketball---so we spent countless hours playing 'monkey in the middle' and me teaching them how to get the ball where they wanted to go by foot placement, etc. I grew up playing from the time I could walk and watching it at home with my dad and brothers.

[Anonymous]

“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

Passion for a sport is a good thing. The over-invested parents are the ones buying into the sh*t and kissing up ruthlessly. The normal ones are the ones fed up with the BS.

And, you have got the premise and message of this thread completely wrong. Parents are tired of the myth. They are tired of the crooks. They are tired of coaches taking the love of sports from kids and shoving it down their throats beginning with mini-kickers at age 3.

Let the coaches and Club officials and US youth soccer crooks come out and start bashing parents. That's the MO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

I thought the article was about "Financially Over-Invested Parents" who sell out thousands of dollars for crappy coaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An American married to Johan Cruyff’s daughter who runs the prestigious TOVO academy in Barcelona. He predicted Spain ranked 20th eclipsing US women. US women have more registered female soccer players than the entire planet combined. California alone has more players than Spain...and it’s happened.

As he said US women’s “fragile advantage in athleticism will wilt in the face of intelligence”.

We still have people denying anything is wrong. With those shocking numbers—our absolute glut of female soccer players compared to the rest of the entire World—it’s a crying shame. Same losers are running the women’s program and they have the numbers the men don’t have because they aren’t competing with Football, Baseball, Basketball. What is the women’s excuse?!?!?!!!

Oh yea, let’s blame it on the parents.

F@ck you Youth Soccer Federation. YOU are the problem, not parents. You built this myth and preyed on people unfamiliar with the sport.

I always knew you were a piece of sh@t because I grew up in a soccer household trained by the Dutch. I don’t put my kids in the system. They also trained privately for a good portion of youth until now as teens as we turned our back on the shitty travel system. But, how is your average American supposed to know you are selling a bag of lies?

I am writing my letter to the author of that article now. How dare you blame parents..and f@ck you too Hope Solo. You whiny loser, bad sport saying Sweden didn’t play pretty like you after your loss to them in the Olympics. Go beat down your nephew again.

Not sure how many nfl, mlb, nba players can be good at soccer though...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you keep feeding the pay to play system because you fear your kid will miss out, the system will never change.
A $4.5 billion industry that produces mediocre players.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/sd-sp-us-soccer-pay-to-play-u20s-20180814-story,amp.html

There are maybe a few hundred or so kids across this country with world-class soccer potential; the travel soccer population is orders of magnitude higher, and most of those kids have zero shot at getting anywhere close to that level. They aren't D1 players, to say nothing of MLS. Many of the parents are delusional about that. The only real reason to do travel soccer is because your kid loves and is good at soccer. That's the point, not professional development. Please. Your kid is not going pro, unless he is obviously better than everyone else on the field at the highest level you can think of.

As for why U.S. Soccer "fails," it is because the cream of the crop of our athletes play other sports--they are NBA point guards or power forwards, NFL safeties or wide receivers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An American married to Johan Cruyff’s daughter who runs the prestigious TOVO academy in Barcelona. He predicted Spain ranked 20th eclipsing US women. US women have more registered female soccer players than the entire planet combined. California alone has more players than Spain...and it’s happened.

As he said US women’s “fragile advantage in athleticism will wilt in the face of intelligence”.

We still have people denying anything is wrong. With those shocking numbers—our absolute glut of female soccer players compared to the rest of the entire World—it’s a crying shame. Same losers are running the women’s program and they have the numbers the men don’t have because they aren’t competing with Football, Baseball, Basketball. What is the women’s excuse?!?!?!!!

Oh yea, let’s blame it on the parents.

F@ck you Youth Soccer Federation. YOU are the problem, not parents. You built this myth and preyed on people unfamiliar with the sport.

I always knew you were a piece of sh@t because I grew up in a soccer household trained by the Dutch. I don’t put my kids in the system. They also trained privately for a good portion of youth until now as teens as we turned our back on the shitty travel system. But, how is your average American supposed to know you are selling a bag of lies?

I am writing my letter to the author of that article now. How dare you blame parents..and f@ck you too Hope Solo. You whiny loser, bad sport saying Sweden didn’t play pretty like you after your loss to them in the Olympics. Go beat down your nephew again.

Not sure how many nfl, mlb, nba players can be good at soccer though...

We are talking about women in that passage. Can we PLEASE stop making excuses for our failure at soccer? God, we sound like a bunch of whiners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

Passion for a sport is a good thing. The over-invested parents are the ones buying into the sh*t and kissing up ruthlessly. The normal ones are the ones fed up with the BS.

And, you have got the premise and message of this thread completely wrong. Parents are tired of the myth. They are tired of the crooks. They are tired of coaches taking the love of sports from kids and shoving it down their throats beginning with mini-kickers at age 3.

Let the coaches and Club officials and US youth soccer crooks come out and start bashing parents. That's the MO.

OMG, it is youth soccer. Get a grip. There is no reason to be "fed up with the BS". It is a game that your kids play nothing more. If your kid chose Piano or dance would be so concerned about the State of American piano playing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An American married to Johan Cruyff’s daughter who runs the prestigious TOVO academy in Barcelona. He predicted Spain ranked 20th eclipsing US women. US women have more registered female soccer players than the entire planet combined. California alone has more players than Spain...and it’s happened.

As he said US women’s “fragile advantage in athleticism will wilt in the face of intelligence”.

We still have people denying anything is wrong. With those shocking numbers—our absolute glut of female soccer players compared to the rest of the entire World—it’s a crying shame. Same losers are running the women’s program and they have the numbers the men don’t have because they aren’t competing with Football, Baseball, Basketball. What is the women’s excuse?!?!?!!!

Oh yea, let’s blame it on the parents.

F@ck you Youth Soccer Federation. YOU are the problem, not parents. You built this myth and preyed on people unfamiliar with the sport.

I always knew you were a piece of sh@t because I grew up in a soccer household trained by the Dutch. I don’t put my kids in the system. They also trained privately for a good portion of youth until now as teens as we turned our back on the shitty travel system. But, how is your average American supposed to know you are selling a bag of lies?

I am writing my letter to the author of that article now. How dare you blame parents..and f@ck you too Hope Solo. You whiny loser, bad sport saying Sweden didn’t play pretty like you after your loss to them in the Olympics. Go beat down your nephew again.

Not sure how many nfl, mlb, nba players can be good at soccer though...

We are talking about women in that passage. Can we PLEASE stop making excuses for our failure at soccer? God, we sound like a bunch of whiners.

More US women soccer players than the rest.of.the.world COMBINED! And we will continue sinking even though women talent base is ENORMOUS. Just stop with the excuses.... Admitting failure is part of growth. Make change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ ha! Ok, I look forward to watching your son in the nfl or nba...riiight.

Very few kids play any sport past high school. Soccer isn’t what it was when you were a child. But, glad there are players that don’t give a shit out there on the pitch. Explains why they can’t stick with it. The sport has a way of weeding out.

You are really too emotionally invested in this as evident from all of your profanity.

It is a kids sport and one that is not really important in this country beyond the youth level, and certainly not once you get out of high school and college.

There is very little market for pro soccer in this country.

Travel soccer starts too young and youth soccer starts too young (preschool teams are everywhere).

Soccer has branded itself as a little kids sport in this country.

That may change, my friend. 'Merica isn't going to look the same in the future.

Among the minority populations, the greatest growth is projected for multiracial populations, Asians and Hispanics with 2018–2060 growth rates of 175, 93, and 85 percent, respectively.

The market for soccer will continue to grow as well....and, hopefully, by then we will get our sh*t worked out.

People who are right generally do not need to cuss to make their point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

Passion for a sport is a good thing. The over-invested parents are the ones buying into the sh*t and kissing up ruthlessly. The normal ones are the ones fed up with the BS.

And, you have got the premise and message of this thread completely wrong. Parents are tired of the myth. They are tired of the crooks. They are tired of coaches taking the love of sports from kids and shoving it down their throats beginning with mini-kickers at age 3.

Let the coaches and Club officials and US youth soccer crooks come out and start bashing parents. That's the MO.

OMG, it is youth soccer. Get a grip. There is no reason to be "fed up with the BS". It is a game that your kids play nothing more. If your kid chose Piano or dance would be so concerned about the State of American piano playing?

I think you belong on the 'music forum'. This is a soccer forum. And the discussion isn't YOUTH soccer based it's the market for ADULT soccer, the World Cup, etc. Kid activities are hashed around in the 'elementary school' forum, btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Emotionally Over-Invested Parents” should be the title of this thread.

I thought the article was about "Financially Over-Invested Parents" who sell out thousands of dollars for crappy coaching.

Financially over-invested comes from being emotionally over-invested. It’s a game.