Anonymous wrote:[twitter]
Anonymous wrote:Question: how many individual kids practice at home or regularly attend the different training programs like False8, HP Elite, etc?
I’m reading about how teams aren’t as good or competitive or that Valor’s program isn’t competitive, but I do need to say, having been at other clubs, that most teams that are “competitive” have players that regularly do just that. They are spending time and money outside of team practices to work on improving individual skills. Teams don’t magically improve just because of the coach.
Sure, a good coach helps, but the main thing is that parents need to understand that better teams are made up of better kids. Better kids do outside team training. My older child is in an MLSnext team and I can promise you that nearly every child does outside training.
If that’s not something your kid or you are interested in, that’s totally fine. But it’s unrealistic to expect to have this awesome, competitive team without that extra effort.
Hardly any on my child’s top team. They regularly see kids from top and second teams at Loudoun, McLean, Arlington, and sometimes a couple Valor players from older age groups. It’s baffling because there are multiple outside training places very close to Valor territory yet they never see teammates there. Valor hasn’t been great about giving feedback, and a lot of parents never played soccer, so I don’t think a lot of parents realize their kids really need the technical work and that kids on opposing teams are all doing these trainings.