College soccer. How good do you need to make a decent team

[Anonymous]

My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

[Anonymous]

Ignore it as a way in to college, or the way to pay for college. Please.

[Anonymous]

Where do you live OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

Just focus on foot skills, foot skills, foot skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

Just focus on foot skills, foot skills, foot skills.

eh - d1 footballers have more physical capabilities than foot skills.

that's why your average d1 roster is taller and weighs more than fc barcelona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

if you aren't in da by age 14 or at the latest 15 in this day and age, you 80% won't be playing d1. a strong endurance athlete with ok ability can get recruited by nescac or centennial league without being in da and showing up to college camps run in junior year summer (how my siblings got 'found' by schools like williams, swarthmore, haverford, etc).

at age 12 i can start to see the separation between those who can play in college and those who cant. 12 year olds that can play in college don't take 3 touches to control a ball, the touch the ball into the right space when receiving a pass in order to set up their next decision point without having to further manipulate the ball, they recognize where to move with respect to both offensive phases and defensive phases of the game, they can shoot without 'stutter stepping', they are confident on both feet, they don't have to be super dribblers - but are able to get out of a tight spot when called on, can play out of pressure instead of looking to always 'boot it' etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ignore it as a way in to college, or the way to pay for college. Please.

no - don't listen to this OP. esp if you are asian or unhooked kid. My siblings were all a decade younger than me and we pushed them in soccer as a way to get a hook that otherwise wouldn't have nabbed them acceptance to 'top schools'. i.e. your typical 2100/2150, top 10% student that gets shut out of ivies or top slacs because they are non-urm and un-hooked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

Just focus on foot skills, foot skills, foot skills.

eh - d1 footballers have more physical capabilities than foot skills.

that's why your average d1 roster is taller and weighs more than fc barcelona.

Depends what d1 programs you're talking about. Stanford and UCLA have many average sized players, for example. UVA and Georgetown usually do as well. All have very good coaches.

[Anonymous]

12 is too young to know. I made my first "select" team at that age only because I was fast. 5 years later I was being recruited by colleges all up and down the east coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

Just focus on foot skills, foot skills, foot skills.

eh - d1 footballers have more physical capabilities than foot skills.

that's why your average d1 roster is taller and weighs more than fc barcelona.

Depends what d1 programs you're talking about. Stanford and UCLA have many average sized players, for example. UVA and Georgetown usually do as well. All have very good coaches.

no you are wrong. stanford is a perfect example. they have no defender under 6'0 (very common in almost any D1 program in the country). barcelona's strongest xi runs with 3 defenders who are 5'9 at most.

stanford is actually a pretty big and strong team - virtually ever d1 school is. i think you are skewed by thinkging 5'11 175 is average size (which is with respect to the common american man) but not with the rest of the world.

every d1 program you mentioned there would be 'big' compared to first team (but definitely u23 la liga side).

i cant comment on how good the trainers are because in the US d1 college soccer expectations are weird (do i judge them on if they win matches or develop kids?).

If it is the latter, they aren't great trainers - the college pipeline has dried up if you want to go to the next level. DA academy coaches are better than d1 coaches.

The best coaches in the country right now are in DA. They are the ones getting invited by mls and ussf to take part in coaching training in conjunction with France Football Federation (if you are in the coaching world, you know what program i'm talking about). D1 college coaches aren't getting into these programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12 is too young to know. I made my first "select" team at that age only because I was fast. 5 years later I was being recruited by colleges all up and down the east coast.

how long ago was this? the median technical skill of the top 10% of US players now at age 12 is MUCH higher than it was 10 years ago. that's why you are starting to see guys like pulisic, lynden gooch, perez, and a bunch of kids do decent in europe by the time they are 18.

I'm 31 and when I go back to the club i played for in pa as a kid, the kids now are technically miles ahead when comparing where we were at an age. and this is a club that used to get the top players but now doesn't because the real top studs go to philly union.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

12 is too young to know anything about their athletic future, just let the kid play and see what happens. It is hard to predict how good an athlete they will turn into in the later teen years or what might happen with injuries. Of course there are 12 year olds that will stand out from their peers, but that could change over the years. A standout 12 year old might not want to train 4 days a week at age 17, or might turn out to be lazy or not willing to work hard. Colleges will expect high work rate and effort in addition to all the other skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is 12. He shows promise but not on a da. I dont think we live near a da Or i am not familiar. We will try out for oda
From thus age on , how do college level kids start standing out? Is there a clear difference? Would you be able to tell if a kid has potential at this age or not? Im not thinking only d1. For maybe top 2-3 college levels

Just focus on foot skills, foot skills, foot skills.

eh - d1 footballers have more physical capabilities than foot skills.

that's why your average d1 roster is taller and weighs more than fc barcelona.

You can't control how big, fast, small or physical your kid will be but you can control how much footskills training they receive.

[Anonymous]

D1 you need to be really, really fast. Pretty much any kid who plays D1 soccer would also have been one of the fastest kids on their track team.

You need to be strong. And you need to be competitive

And of course, you need to be skilled.

Once soccer, or any field sport for that matter, starts to winnow down to the most most talented players, speed is a critical difference maker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore it as a way in to college, or the way to pay for college. Please.

no - don't listen to this OP. esp if you are asian or unhooked kid. My siblings were all a decade younger than me and we pushed them in soccer as a way to get a hook that otherwise wouldn't have nabbed them acceptance to 'top schools'. i.e. your typical 2100/2150, top 10% student that gets shut out of ivies or top slacs because they are non-urm and un-hooked.

Yeah, it can help you get in, but you still have to have great academic stats for those schools. (A superstar can probably get into an Ivy with less-than-great academics but each team will probably have a few.)