Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss Part II

[Anonymous]

I am one of those old former soccer players that hates the state of youth soccer these days. I'm sorry, but travel Clubs are not developing players.

After a hiatus from soccer, I had quick re-entry into this crap and within a year after we gave up coaching our son and put him in the system we saw how much development he was missing being on a travel team at one of these coveted big CCL clubs.

We pulled him out and he's done a ton of individual training and moved to an Academy. It's been a world of difference.

I kind of laugh when I hear parents chest-pound about leagues and status and teams. It is so misinformed.

Can you provide more info....for example, you didn't like the big CCL clubs but you like the academy? I'm thinking that Loudoun and Arlington are both big CCL clubs and have academies. Do you see much difference between the top Loudoun teams and the academy training? or what did you like better about the academy? Also, so you kept your son out of team play for how long? What was his schedule like doing individual training? How many hours a week? What's a ton? Was it 1 on1 with a pro coach? 1 on1 with you? small group training with a pro coach? How much did that year of individual training cost?

Believe me, I would like nothing more that to pull my kid out of his club team and just do HP Elite clinics, futsal training, and pick up soccer but 1. he NEEDS games to stay motivated and 2. I just would think that this would be crazy expensive.

[Anonymous]

I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am one of those old former soccer players that hates the state of youth soccer these days. I'm sorry, but travel Clubs are not developing players.

After a hiatus from soccer, I had quick re-entry into this crap and within a year after we gave up coaching our son and put him in the system we saw how much development he was missing being on a travel team at one of these coveted big CCL clubs.

We pulled him out and he's done a ton of individual training and moved to an Academy. It's been a world of difference.

I kind of laugh when I hear parents chest-pound about leagues and status and teams. It is so misinformed.

Can you provide more info....for example, you didn't like the big CCL clubs but you like the academy? I'm thinking that Loudoun and Arlington are both big CCL clubs and have academies. Do you see much difference between the top Loudoun teams and the academy training? or what did you like better about the academy? Also, so you kept your son out of team play for how long? What was his schedule like doing individual training? How many hours a week? What's a ton? Was it 1 on1 with a pro coach? 1 on1 with you? small group training with a pro coach? How much did that year of individual training cost?

Believe me, I would like nothing more that to pull my kid out of his club team and just do HP Elite clinics, futsal training, and pick up soccer but 1. he NEEDS games to stay motivated and 2. I just would think that this would be crazy expensive.

We aren't in DA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call me crazy, but I think parents have a right to know if a club they're considering is involved in competitive games or a long series of useless blowouts that develop neither the winning team nor the losing team.

(Silently bangs head against wall). For the8/9/10/11-year old---that one game per week is essentially nothing for their development.

Worry about your kid playing on their own and what they are actually doing in PRACTICE sessions.

You would be appalled at how absolutely shitty a lot of the $3k/per year travel practices are for developing individual players.

My kid has been on very winning teams and very losing teams. He actually got a lot more out of the losing Club because the coaches were so good. They weren't filling the field with just physical players that chased down the ball. In the teen years, these kids all replaced the little former A team CCL stars.

Winning and losing matters to their morale, egos, confidence, motivation, etc., which are all very important factors in how they train and keep going. Being on a competitive team is pretty important in alot of kids. Just as good coaching, good training, good teammates, etc are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

My son's current coach is trying to convince the parents that the kick and run approach is what they need to practice now to get ready for the older years...can you believe that crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

My son's current coach is trying to convince the parents that the kick and run approach is what they need to practice now to get ready for the older years...can you believe that crap.

Ha! Absolutely! And your club will just cut and continue to find the athletes that can still kick and run in the later years. Eventually, they will cut all of the kick and runners and recruit and sign the kids developed at the other Clubs (that you used to beat by 11-0).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

LOL. I know exactly who you are talking about? Arlingron U9 red?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

My son's current coach is trying to convince the parents that the kick and run approach is what they need to practice now to get ready for the older years...can you believe that crap.

Does your coach actually call it a 'kick and run approach'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

LOL. I know exactly who you are talking about? Arlingron U9 red?

I'd love to bash Arlington since we are a competing club, but my son played against Arlington U9 Red this season, and they were strong and we got bashed. As I recall, I would not classify them as a kick and run style - they were doing some advanced plays. I stayed to watch some of Arlington's U9 second team, and it did not end any better for our club. We have been fairly competitive against the other CCL club teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just standing at the bus stop with some of these U9 parents---humbly bragging that little Jimmy just CANNOT find any competition. We just keep winning by 11 goals. I don't know what we are going to do.

Well--you could teach Jimmy how to dribble for one. That long kick and run style you think is 'dribbling' he has going on right now ain't going to cut it in a few years. He needs to keep it close to his foot and learn how to shield it. While you are at it---there is a thing called the 'pass'. Also, given that you and your husband aren't over 5'5"---his current height advantage ain't gonna be there in the teen years.

My son's current coach is trying to convince the parents that the kick and run approach is what they need to practice now to get ready for the older years...can you believe that crap.

Does your coach actually call it a 'kick and run approach'?

I want to know this too! Just how shameless is this coach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid plays in the CCL league. The CCL website does not update or provide much information on younger year wins or scores. And for older groups, it does not provide scores and is not updated very frequently. Is there another way to find out some of the scores / wins in the CCL leagues? And no, I don't think my kid is messi, or CCL is the greatest, etc.. I just like stats and find it funny that our Rec team has better statistics than a travel league.

LOL how stupid. Comparing Rec statistics to travel statistics. It is all relative. Virginia Tech beat East Carolina 64-17 last week. VT must be as good as the New England Patriots!

What the hell are you talking about? Just want to know if a travel team we will be playing beat or lost to another travel team we played. Not looking to compare Rec teams to Travel teams, just would like to have the basic information from our travel league that our Rec league provides on wins and losses and scores.

Ok here it is. CCL does not post scores. They just don’t. And what would comparing them prove? Read the CCL site and you would know this. Leagues in general do not post scores for U9 and U10 age groups because they don’t matter. No matter how you asked the question it was stupid to ask.

No matter WHO or WHAT you are trying to compare the scores to it is stupid to do so.

No it's not. You can look at a few different scores to see how competitive an upcoming match up might be. Relax! You are the one acting stupid.

Don't disagree, but I'm not looking at ranking just the results from the other team's past performance. Just to be clear, i'm not charting the data out! Just watching tv and goofing on the web prior to a tournament.

Worrying about how competitive a 9 year old’s league soccer game is going to be is pretty stupid.

I don't care about league play, after a few years you know which club/age groups are good. For our age group Loudoun, SYA, Arlington, Beach FC, SOCA and Potomac are the toughest ones to play. I do however troll gotsoccer to see who we play prior to a tournament just out of curiosity. I never share any info with my kids though, I always tell them they should only worry about what they control which is contribute to moving the ball with the team and scoring. Any team can loose depending on the day.

I'm not opposed to this kind of research, but man, gotsoccer is totally useless for the younger ages. (I can't speak for U14 and up). In U13 boys, our club's B team is ranked ahead of its A team on gotsoccer.

[Anonymous]

2 weekends ago my team came back from behind to beat a team that played kickball for 90 straight minutes. After a shaky first 5 minutes, my players adapted and started playing soft coverage, stopping their offense. However, the other team insisted on sending the long balls every single time they had possession, which effectively meant they trapped themselves in their half and willingly gave up possession. Then their coach yelled out "it's okay guys, they're just very athletic!" as we carved them up like a turkey with our quick passing game. I thought it was rich that the guy whose team parked 8 defenders in their box and hoofed the ball down the field to their 2 fast guys up top when they had possession, was calling us out for solely relying on athleticism. Why would you pay thousands of dollars just to have your kid kick the ball and run after it like they're U8? It's like Kicking & Screaming XD. "Just give the ball to the Italians!!"

[Anonymous]

I'm not saying that there isn't value in direct play to get behind a defense WHEN THE GAME DEMANDS IT. But if that is your sole attacking approach, your only way to create penetration, then you're being swindled by your coach.

[Anonymous]

kick and run works! thats why some teams and coaches use that style and parents scream to send it. since it doesnt rely significantly on skills other than that of a decent boot, speed, receipt and shot, it can be useful as pp mentioned. eapecially if goalies are still developing. and if your end game is scoring goals, winnning and it works, then its hard to not consider it as a tool in your toolbox. we've all been told it wont work in a couple years, but clearly it siill used once in a while and can have a significant game impact.

in the end, whether wrong or right, for many (not all) winning records equal customer sales satisfaction and aids recruitment of more players, some whom may be stronger, which may influence others to join, ,hoping that training can aid in development that doesnt rely on kick and run. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

while training and development should be paramount, winning isnt meritless. having a team that can maintain significant possession and change it up once in a while take advantage of a long ball isnt terrible in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Oh I absolutely agree. Direct play does have a value. But if it's your some strategy for generating offense, and you come up against a team that can win 50/50s and control the ball, then you're essentially just forfeiting possession and playing to the other team's strengths, resigning yourself to defend for your life. It can descend into the cynical at times.