For high level players and parents only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

So absolutely nothing to develop as a soccer player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

Guarantee their kid spends more time looking at a screen than interacting with them lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all these discussions here and with parents on the sidelines, the one absolute change I'd like to see is the reduction of a travel. I like the idea of soccer hubs, like the DMV, Atlanta, NY/NJ etc. where there is enough density to provide opportunities across a range of skill levels.

100% agree, so unnecessary. Even more frustrating to go to SC to play Bethesda when your club is from NOVA.

On the girls side, the whole GA and ECNL thing is going to need to resolve itself so that there isn't a dilution of talent on the top teams. Then we'd be in business.

We'd be in business for what? What do you think changes if there are fewer GA and ECNL teams? The talent is already mostly concentrated to just a few teams. It wouldn't be better for top players who may be forced to commute further to training? It wouldn't be better for mid-tier players who wouldn't have access to national leagues anymore. It wouldn't be better for parents who will need to travel out of state more often to play league games. It certainly wouldn't bring down prices with less competition. It wouldn't be better for coaches with less opportunities. It wouldn't be better for clubs who lose GA or ECNL access. I'm trying to understand who would benefit from fewer top teams.

So you drank the kool-aid. There is NO reason for midtier players to NEED a national platform. They can continue to grow and improve playing other midtier players locally. The reason for travel should be to find competition. If you can get that locally there is absolutely no need to travel for it.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

So, I think our problem is distinguishing between tournaments and league play. I agree with this post. One of our favorite tournaments last year was on the Jersey Shore. We would have NEVER chosen the Jersey Shore as we are a OBX, Hilton Head, Foley family. It was one of our best weekends of the year. There is real bonding at out of state tournaments. What is irritating is league play far from home. You get none of the bonding described by this poster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

So, I think our problem is distinguishing between tournaments and league play. I agree with this post. One of our favorite tournaments last year was on the Jersey Shore. We would have NEVER chosen the Jersey Shore as we are a OBX, Hilton Head, Foley family. It was one of our best weekends of the year. There is real bonding at out of state tournaments. What is irritating is league play far from home. You get none of the bonding described by this poster.

When done right league play works this way. We had 2 teams to play in NC this season. The games were scheduled for the same weekend so we had only one trip to make and stayed for multiple days. With all the new teams added to GA this year most of the league games are close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Great comment. I don't fundamentally understand why someone would respond to a post for high level players and parents to state that don't have any ambitions but we're going to provide our opinion anyway.

I think most of us fundamentally understand our kids have a .001 to be a professional and probably a .0001 chance of them making life-changing money. It does not mean it is not worth a shot if the kid is geared towards it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Great comment. I don't fundamentally understand why someone would respond to a post for high level players and parents to state that don't have any ambitions but we're going to provide our opinion anyway.

I think most of us fundamentally understand our kids have a .001 to be a professional and probably a .0001 chance of them making life-changing money. It does not mean it is not worth a shot if the kid is geared towards it.

if you understand actual probability, you know it's not worth the shot (now if the kid is having fun - great/excellent/awesome and do it for those reasons), but if you are actually chasing those probabilities you are a bad gambler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

This happens in ECNL, too.