Valor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

Pretty much standard around here. If you get a coach that coaches actual teamwork, passing, and moving into space you're team probably won't do well in the u-little groups because the field is small with next to no off sides... but the takes completely turn once the girls grows and actual skill starts mattering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

Half a small field 2x a week and a shared small field 1x a week. You don't need a ton of space to do drills and Valor teams scrimmage each other regularly during practices.

My friend's kid shares a 1/3 of a large field with 3 teams every practice in FCV South at Mason. You aren't going to find many programs giving any team more than a quarter of a large field or half of a small field until they are much older and a top team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

Half a small field 2x a week and a shared small field 1x a week. You don't need a ton of space to do drills and Valor teams scrimmage each other regularly during practices.

My friend's kid shares a 1/3 of a large field with 3 teams every practice in FCV South at Mason. You aren't going to find many programs giving any team more than a quarter of a large field or half of a small field until they are much older and a top team.

Anyone who uses Hanson has a similar problem with field space. Walking the park I think it's Loudoun that's shoving the ulittles on a 1/4 of a small field to practice. I believe when StJ was using the front fields they were doing the same thing but I've not seen them there this season when we're there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

4-6 teams on a full-sized field. Each team would get their own postage stamp-sized space. It probably was coach-dependent because if you take a less ideal day/timeslot, you'd probably get more space. A small space is fine if you have a technical session planned, but it really showed on gameday when the team had no concept of spacing and movement. So it was "kick it to the fast player and hope for a miracle".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

4-6 teams on a full-sized field. Each team would get their own postage stamp-sized space. It probably was coach-dependent because if you take a less ideal day/timeslot, you'd probably get more space. A small space is fine if you have a technical session planned, but it really showed on gameday when the team had no concept of spacing and movement. So it was "kick it to the fast player and hope for a miracle".

4-6 11 v 11 age teams per field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

4-6 teams on a full-sized field. Each team would get their own postage stamp-sized space. It probably was coach-dependent because if you take a less ideal day/timeslot, you'd probably get more space. A small space is fine if you have a technical session planned, but it really showed on gameday when the team had no concept of spacing and movement. So it was "kick it to the fast player and hope for a miracle".

That's standard around here. All the clubs do this. Strongly disagree on spacing and 'kick it and pray' play outside of bottom teams, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a nearby club and have had multiple Valor kids show up and practice with our ds's team this year. Two in the fall, two different kids this spring. That seems like a lot from the same place.

What team did they play for? Silver? Blue? The team matters; maybe there isn’t any movement to a higher team.

If they are all gold players from same team….

IDing is smart and free... especially if you're trying to get on a higher team.

A few kids looking is standard. Loudoun and fcv hemorrhaged players this winter to the point of pulling rec kids up to fill spots. That's not happening at Valor.

It's a money grab at low level teams for sure; Valor coaching style is much better than other local programs. As someone said already you can plow through competition with a couple really good players when they are young. Very few clubs are working on actual field play moving into 9v9 and 11v11, which at least I've seen happening at Valor.

There isn't any movement from 4th and 5th teams even if you kids is better than 2nd or 3rd level team players. Looking at last years teams that were not first, second or third teams, only 2 moved up and the rest of the parents left. Doesn't say much for opportunity. Valor will even sub players from higher level teams to win games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

4-6 teams on a full-sized field. Each team would get their own postage stamp-sized space. It probably was coach-dependent because if you take a less ideal day/timeslot, you'd probably get more space. A small space is fine if you have a technical session planned, but it really showed on gameday when the team had no concept of spacing and movement. So it was "kick it to the fast player and hope for a miracle".

4-6 11 v 11 age teams per field?

How much space do you think a u11/12 team needs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:similar
at GFR they have coaches with:
a) no license listed
b) coaches with license that shows at
https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory
c) coaches listed with licenses that do not verify at https://learning.ussoccer.com/directory

the 2014 Spirit coach wins quite a lot, but only shows as having grassroots license

not sure it all matters

I know players on 14g Spirit, the coach is not why they win. Some parents complain about how aggressive the girls are trained to be vs actual skill work tbh. However, there are a couple AMAZING girls on the team that should be playing up. We'll see how they do this spring in u-11 since they pushed the whole team up instead of just one or two girls.

But yeah, coaching super important... unless you've got a few good kids that just carry a whole team, which happens everywhere.

Eventually having 3 amazing girls won't enough. That's why results at u littles shouldn't matter.

100%

It's why certain big clubs do really well at the younger ages and then fall apart when they hit 11v11.

News flash, if your coach isn't working on the whole team learning passing and proper spacing/basic soccer stuff and foot skills they are not a good coach and your kid's team is riding other kids' coattails, which will very abruptly end at some point.

And to this point, valor is one of the better clubs I've seen as far as knowing field play and passing. Kids might not be all-star/ all American athletes but at least they can pass around those kids.

Agree with this. Valor may not win a lot at the younger ages but they do pass and play out of the back. Loudoun ulittles' style of play is annoying. They just have a bunch of kids big and strong enough to boot the ball any time it's in their half of the field.

Loudoun is SO bad about this. They don't even. Rey and hide it.

I don't get parent's paying $1,000s year after year to watch a team of kids watch one kid on the field ball hog and single-handedly determine If your team wins to loses. The kick up to XYZ player and then they run straight through other team's players 90% of the time until u12 when the'big, fast, and aggressive' formula doesn't automatically win you games anymore.

I guess metals are more important than their child getting development during developmental ages, at those mega clubs, though.

Ha, yeah we were at a different club/team, but that was the formula. Kick it to the 1-2 really fast players (not big though) up top and get breakaway goals. Then U12 hit, and that formula crashed and burned. We couldn't score at all. Of course our practice field size allocation was tiny so it's not like the team could practice real tactics any way.

How much field space did you get for how many days a week and what age? I am curious how much practice space others get. It really affects what the coaches can do at practice.

4-6 teams on a full-sized field. Each team would get their own postage stamp-sized space. It probably was coach-dependent because if you take a less ideal day/timeslot, you'd probably get more space. A small space is fine if you have a technical session planned, but it really showed on gameday when the team had no concept of spacing and movement. So it was "kick it to the fast player and hope for a miracle".

4-6 11 v 11 age teams per field?

How much space do you think a u11/12 team needs?

U11 and U12 don't play 11 v 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a nearby club and have had multiple Valor kids show up and practice with our ds's team this year. Two in the fall, two different kids this spring. That seems like a lot from the same place.

What team did they play for? Silver? Blue? The team matters; maybe there isn’t any movement to a higher team.

If they are all gold players from same team….

IDing is smart and free... especially if you're trying to get on a higher team.

A few kids looking is standard. Loudoun and fcv hemorrhaged players this winter to the point of pulling rec kids up to fill spots. That's not happening at Valor.

It's a money grab at low level teams for sure; Valor coaching style is much better than other local programs. As someone said already you can plow through competition with a couple really good players when they are young. Very few clubs are working on actual field play moving into 9v9 and 11v11, which at least I've seen happening at Valor.

There isn't any movement from 4th and 5th teams even if you kids is better than 2nd or 3rd level team players. Looking at last years teams that were not first, second or third teams, only 2 moved up and the rest of the parents left. Doesn't say much for opportunity. Valor will even sub players from higher level teams to win games.

My dc was on the white team and "gold" (higher team players) would show up to play games (taking play time away from our large roster of "white" players).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a nearby club and have had multiple Valor kids show up and practice with our ds's team this year. Two in the fall, two different kids this spring. That seems like a lot from the same place.

What team did they play for? Silver? Blue? The team matters; maybe there isn’t any movement to a higher team.

If they are all gold players from same team….

IDing is smart and free... especially if you're trying to get on a higher team.

A few kids looking is standard. Loudoun and fcv hemorrhaged players this winter to the point of pulling rec kids up to fill spots. That's not happening at Valor.

It's a money grab at low level teams for sure; Valor coaching style is much better than other local programs. As someone said already you can plow through competition with a couple really good players when they are young. Very few clubs are working on actual field play moving into 9v9 and 11v11, which at least I've seen happening at Valor.

There isn't any movement from 4th and 5th teams even if you kids is better than 2nd or 3rd level team players. Looking at last years teams that were not first, second or third teams, only 2 moved up and the rest of the parents left. Doesn't say much for opportunity. Valor will even sub players from higher level teams to win games.

My dc was on the white team and "gold" (higher team players) would show up to play games (taking play time away from our large roster of "white" players).

That literally never happened on my child’s white team. We would have games with zero subs, where we wished the coach would have reached out ahead of time to ask for a couple of guest players. Just goes to show the complaints here are very age group, gender, and team specific.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are at a nearby club and have had multiple Valor kids show up and practice with our ds's team this year. Two in the fall, two different kids this spring. That seems like a lot from the same place.

What team did they play for? Silver? Blue? The team matters; maybe there isn’t any movement to a higher team.

If they are all gold players from same team….

IDing is smart and free... especially if you're trying to get on a higher team.

A few kids looking is standard. Loudoun and fcv hemorrhaged players this winter to the point of pulling rec kids up to fill spots. That's not happening at Valor.

It's a money grab at low level teams for sure; Valor coaching style is much better than other local programs. As someone said already you can plow through competition with a couple really good players when they are young. Very few clubs are working on actual field play moving into 9v9 and 11v11, which at least I've seen happening at Valor.

There isn't any movement from 4th and 5th teams even if you kids is better than 2nd or 3rd level team players. Looking at last years teams that were not first, second or third teams, only 2 moved up and the rest of the parents left. Doesn't say much for opportunity. Valor will even sub players from higher level teams to win games.

This is the case at every club in the area. I've heard of two kids moving up to first and second team from 4th teams and they are amazing and threatened to go to other clubs before being moved up that high. This isn't just a valor problem. 90% of the time you have to leave your club to make higher teams no matter how good they are.

[Anonymous]

One of our kids does valor and is on the 2nd tier team. A few of the kids from our team moved up to the first tier team (the gold). It seems that all you need to do is ask and they will give your kid a shot at it. We like the 2nd tier team. Our coach is really nice and knowledgeable and our kid plays other sports so we are not interested in gold. If you kid if on gold then you pretty much have to make soccer the top priority. Gold is intense. The cost is 3k per year. It's steep but that is pretty much the cost of a travel sport. The coache,s seem professional and we haven't had any issues. There are a few parents that may be delusional that think their kid is the next Ronaldo and have left but overall our experience has been positive. I will also add that we are pretty experienced with multiple travel sports and this is our youngest kid. Some of the parents we encountered in travel sports are jerks and are delusional about their kids abilities.

[Anonymous]

How many of the 2011 Valor Gold girls are following their coach to SYC?