Travel Soccer teams around NOVA let's discuss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whaaa!!!! I pay $3000 and my kid practices on a patch and is in a low division of ODSL!!! Clubs are evil!!

Our brilliant coach ran to another club and now we don't have academy night anymore!!! And did I mention I pay $3000 a year!?!? Clubs are evil!!!!!

Our club makes us pay for tournaments on top of our club fees and we spend $3000 a year!!!! Clubs are evil!!

Our club only recruits kids and charges them $3000 a year!!!! Clubs are evil!!'n

We have to drive a hour away for a game and we pay $3000 a year for that inconvenience!!!! Clubs are evil!!!!!

That is what you morons all sound like.

Most of us aren't paying $3,000 a year.

Many of the complaints we make here are about clubs we have LEFT.

Other complaints are just constructive criticism. I know some club directors who would like to cut down the distances in lower-level travel. But if everyone quit and formed his or her own league over every disagreement with a league, then every club would form its own league. (In other words, we'd all be playing rec soccer.)

I'm astounded you would read this thread if you don't want to talk about clubs, compare them and ask how things could get better. What do you think we should be doing? Bragging anonymously about our kids?

Why on earth do you read this thread?

Leagues have been discussed and I have disagreed with your viewpoints. I've not said don't discuss CCL or other low level leagues. I just don't happen to agree with your perspective on it. I get some of your points but I don't believe that having One single league to rule them all is the answer. I don't believe in monopolies.

But complaining that this club charges $3k is pointless and doesn't paint the whole picture. Considering that nobody needs to even play soccer of course anything spent is a waste of money. But everyone has varying degrees of expectation and acceptable loss. But there are cheaper alternatives but general ego won't allow most parents in this region to accept that. Heaven forbid your kid just plays rec, for most kids the end game is the same. So fine bitch because your ego made you spend $3k but blame the clubs instead.

Didn't even read the first sentence of my post and responded as if it didn't exist. Wow.

Assuming you're the same person who made the "I'm the guy you're all bitching about" post -- thanks for that, but you didn't answer the primary question: Why are you reading this? OK, you're not a TD protecting the cash cow of travel soccer. Do you just come in here to act superior because you think all these "complaints" (which are often either info-sharing or constructive criticism) are beneath you? That would be ... sad. I've dealt with some Internet trolls in my day, but they at least seem to be enjoying it.

Let's try again:

1. We aren't all paying $3,000 a year. Those that do have every right to come here and discuss whether they're getting their money's worth, then decide to either stick with it or go with something cheaper. That means we'd be discussing the merits of elite soccer, including (gasp) CCL.

2. Most travel parents have realistic expectations. I know a lot of B-, C-, D-, E- and F-team parents, and they're not under the illusion that their kids are going to break through and play for D.C. United at age 16. Some realize their kids don't even have much of a shot of playing high school soccer. (Do the math: Let's say a medium-sized club has four travel teams in the early age groups and feeds into three main high schools. That's 44 kids per year. Rounding up, that's 15 kids per high school per year. Already far more than the high school can take, and that's not even taking into account the kids who play for other clubs and the occasional rec-league phenom who doesn't play travel for cost reasons.) They play travel because rec leagues have been so thoroughly undermined (in some areas, not all) that they're not close to real soccer, and their kids want to play real soccer. They'd rather be paying $1,000 instead of $2,000, but the market is what it is.

3. A lot of parents DON'T know the difference between all these leagues and clubs. They come in here because they don't know CCL like you do, and they want to know if it's worthwhile. That doesn't make them stupid. They may have just moved to the area, or they may have other things in their life besides being up to speed on the U12 coaches at Arlington and Alexandria.

Do some parents protest too much? Absolutely. You could probably have a better experience in this thread if you just called them out individually instead of declaring the whole conversation a waste of time. (I'd probably agree with you in many cases.)

Enjoy.

Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm the guy you're all bitching about. I'm not a TD at any club. What people expect from their $3k is unobtainable.

1. As a parent you cannot be objective about your own child.
2. The reality is most clubs and coaches, I believe, do try to have a good product. That doesn't mean it actually happens.
3. It's just an activity and your child's mileage will vary as well as your experience but it truly is, for most kids, it is a zero sum game.
4. There is no magic club.
5. Just enjoy it.

The above is pretty much my personal opinion. I don't like club bashing because I believe in most instances it really lacks proper perspective. Mostly, I really don't know what the parent expected from the program is to gauge whether their complaint is justified or not. Blame is often wrongfully cast. Quite often it is as much the parents delusional expectations as it is bad coaching or poor club management.

So while I respect that we all want the most of our $3k "investment" I'm gonna tell you that you are going to be disappointed if that is how you view it. If you want a almost guaranteed fun time spend that $3k on a family trip not soccer. Travel sports are competitive, unpredictable and on top of it they are kids trained by people of varying degrees of skill. Accept that and you'll be fine and you'll understand what I'm about and getting at. Don't accept that and you'll think I'm a TD who just wants your money. If your the later I don't really give a fuck, you are and will have a miserable experience with your kids endeavors no matter what they are because you expect a return on your "investment" that is not in line with reality.

Just curious, are you the same guy that used the word fu#%tard about 50 pages ago ?

[Anonymous]

No that was me

[Anonymous]

If by fu#%tard you mean fucktard.... Then that was me the pp to this post

[Anonymous]

love this forum! . . . same 6 fucktards arguing anonymously over 100+ pages and picking each other's ass arguments apart . . . joined occasionally by 100+ others over a few pages with a couple interesting questions or informational offerings. reminds me of the sideline of the typical U12 CCL soccer match: 1-2 know-it-all fucktard dads helping the rest of the idiot mons and dads understand how clueless they are. why doesn't one of you 6 fucktards rank all the soccer clubs inside the beltway from best to worst in terms of developing a rising U9 Travel player talented enough to make the A team at any club of their picking for for 2017-18 season? Is it Arlington or FPYC? What do the 6 fucktards advise?

[Anonymous]

Hahhahahha if you're a dude lets get a beer mannnn
If you're a female...... Let's get married

[Anonymous]

Cheers! I realize I typed too quickly, so why doesn't one of the 6 fucktards rank all the soccer clubs "around" the beltway from best to worst in terms of developing a rising U9 Travel player talented enough to make the A team at any club of their picking for the 2017-18 season? Is it Arlington or FPYC? Loudon, or points similar, is probably the outer limit. Please educate me. Just give me a list from top to bottom. Every match I go to I have the same couple parents talking loud so we all can hear, and I am always "taking notes," whether I like it or not. I have 3 more kids that will be rising up into U9 Travel, I don't mind paying for it, and I think they will be good enough to make the U9 A-Team at any club they try out for. So, please give me the list from top to bottom of where my $3K is best spent on an A team. I don't care about this notion of trying to find some great coach (and don't disagree with it), but I can't do that, I don't have the time for that and need to start with the big picture club list. Is it Arlington, big, or McLean, medium, or FPYC, small? Give me a top 10 list and stop fucktarding around over whether we shouldn't be naming clubs and should take such remarks to separate discussion threads. All the CCL parents do it on the sidelines at the older ages, so why are the six fucktards and company afraid to do it here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm the guy you're all bitching about. I'm not a TD at any club. What people expect from their $3k is unobtainable.

1. As a parent you cannot be objective about your own child.
2. The reality is most clubs and coaches, I believe, do try to have a good product. That doesn't mean it actually happens.
3. It's just an activity and your child's mileage will vary as well as your experience but it truly is, for most kids, it is a zero sum game.
4. There is no magic club.
5. Just enjoy it.

The above is pretty much my personal opinion. I don't like club bashing because I believe in most instances it really lacks proper perspective. Mostly, I really don't know what the parent expected from the program is to gauge whether their complaint is justified or not. Blame is often wrongfully cast. Quite often it is as much the parents delusional expectations as it is bad coaching or poor club management.

So while I respect that we all want the most of our $3k "investment" I'm gonna tell you that you are going to be disappointed if that is how you view it. If you want a almost guaranteed fun time spend that $3k on a family trip not soccer. Travel sports are competitive, unpredictable and on top of it they are kids trained by people of varying degrees of skill. Accept that and you'll be fine and you'll understand what I'm about and getting at. Don't accept that and you'll think I'm a TD who just wants your money. If your the later I don't really give a fuck, you are and will have a miserable experience with your kids endeavors no matter what they are because you expect a return on your "investment" that is not in line with reality.

Just curious, are you the same guy that used the word fu#%tard about 50 pages ago ?

No, that was not me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

Different poster here, but it's working out ok. You have to take the long view. The Arlington bashing was running out of steam for this round before you drew more attention to it. The lady who thinks its funny to say fucktard will fade back into the woodwork again soon too. And we'll be on to the next thing.

IMO, if you like a good discussion, it's better to post questions or comments on topics that you think worthwhile than it is to call out other people's posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

Different poster here, but it's working out ok. You have to take the long view. The Arlington bashing was running out of steam for this round before you drew more attention to it. The lady who thinks its funny to say fucktard will fade back into the woodwork again soon too. And we'll be on to the next thing.

IMO, if you like a good discussion, it's better to post questions or comments on topics that you think worthwhile than it is to call out other people's posts.

Like you just did yourself? I'll take note, thanks for the hypocrissy though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

Different poster here, but it's working out ok. You have to take the long view. The Arlington bashing was running out of steam for this round before you drew more attention to it. The lady who thinks its funny to say fucktard will fade back into the woodwork again soon too. And we'll be on to the next thing.

IMO, if you like a good discussion, it's better to post questions or comments on topics that you think worthwhile than it is to call out other people's posts.

Like you just did yourself? I'll take note, thanks for the hypocrissy though.

Man, you are thin-skinned. I was actually trying to be helpful, and I'm no hypocrite. I like this thread just the way it is, including all the comments from the crazy people and would-be censors, so the advice I gave you doesn't apply in my case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

Different poster here, but it's working out ok. You have to take the long view. The Arlington bashing was running out of steam for this round before you drew more attention to it. The lady who thinks its funny to say fucktard will fade back into the woodwork again soon too. And we'll be on to the next thing.

IMO, if you like a good discussion, it's better to post questions or comments on topics that you think worthwhile than it is to call out other people's posts.

Like you just did yourself? I'll take note, thanks for the hypocrissy though.

Man, you are thin-skinned. I was actually trying to be helpful, and I'm no hypocrite. I like this thread just the way it is, including all the comments from the crazy people and would-be censors, so the advice I gave you doesn't apply in my case.

No, I'm not hin skinned, just pointing out that perhaps your suggestion, while well intentioned, perhaps isn't really any different in either intent or tone as what I had said about laying off club bashing.

Again, thank you for your tips!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I don't owe you an explanation or reason why I read this thread.

No, but you might owe it to yourself.

So, how is all of this terrific discussion working now? The reasons why not mentioning clubs by name is a good thing because this kind of crap doesn't happen. Mention a club and inevitably somebody piles on and somebody comes to defend and then people start calling each other or accusing each other of calling someone a fucktard.

All I did was offer a suggestion based on seeing exactly what happens in other threads happen here now. But hey, you sure told me.

Different poster here, but it's working out ok. You have to take the long view. The Arlington bashing was running out of steam for this round before you drew more attention to it. The lady who thinks its funny to say fucktard will fade back into the woodwork again soon too. And we'll be on to the next thing.

IMO, if you like a good discussion, it's better to post questions or comments on topics that you think worthwhile than it is to call out other people's posts.

Like you just did yourself? I'll take note, thanks for the hypocrissy though.

Man, you are thin-skinned. I was actually trying to be helpful, and I'm no hypocrite. I like this thread just the way it is, including all the comments from the crazy people and would-be censors, so the advice I gave you doesn't apply in my case.

I never suggested that people weren't free to club bash, I suggested that they start a seperate thread for such club specific issues, just like the thriving Vienna thread. So your accusations of "would-be-censors" is flat out wrong.

Bash, bash, bash to your hearts content, just start another thread for it, try to leave this particualr thread bigger and more general interest for everyone.