Bethesda Soccer-girls
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Anonymous
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Please share your experience ... the good and the bad.
Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Can you be more specific? Age, team level, etc? |
Anonymous
| We have had a positive experience with our dd moving though the YDP program (younger kids) in terms of coaching, friendships and development. The team of coaches knows our kid. She has fun and wants to go to practice. We see her improving in many areas and metrics. We have had other kids in travel sports including soccer at this age and this has been a much better consistent experience. The downside is that a few of the parents are a bit intense and can bring a slightly negative element - though the majority are really great. (And they are not negative to the girls, they are positive at games - just complaints on program) Think the soccer annual try out process in soccer brings the parent stress out more (the process differs a lot by other sports) |
Anonymous
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Younger age
negatives: Coach is a screamer, will freeze kids out(not talk to girls in the doghouse, single girls out for with mean comments, etc). Girls play scared. Some parents love her...the girls just try to avoid her wrath. Communication non existent with staff. You are warned not to talk to staff about your kid for fear of retaliation. Practices are joyless. Practices locations are far away(Brettonwood) and coach has lots of teams(sometimes it’s drive by coaching). After tournaments loss talks- 50/50 one or two girls will be crying because the coach went after the girl by name. Skill level drops quickly on the second team causing frustration with parents and players. First team hierarchy is enforced by coach, girls and parents. Formation is different vs most clubs and terminology is dumbed down(new girls will be confused). Teams usually carry a lot of players(reduces playing time). Inability to adapt to different type of players. Inability to think outside the box. No play(no creativity, non linear thinking, risk taking, etc) in practice or games. Little passing or team tactics till u13. Heavy emphasis on individual attacking(girls are encouraged to go 1v1, 1v2, 1v3, etc). This emphasis and coaching style causes many of the girls to put their heads down and attack, retarding development of situational awareness. Team loses to less skilled teams in competitive tournaments because of lack of team play. Positive: The big club machine works- tournaments invites, always have enough players, nice uniforms, BSC Tournament is a big event, etc. Emphasis is on individual skills development through u13. They do not care about winning regular season games. All players are rotated through all positions and get fairly equal time(changes in tournaments). As you move towards u13, the girls start to get slotted into positions. Girls are encouraged to play other sports. Can miss practice for other sports. Most practices are for the whole age group. Good for the less developed players. Staff is heavily female. Staff will respond to female parents vs male parents. It’s funny watching the fathers get shut down and ignored by the staff. One systems and one way of doing things. System will work for most players but players with high skill and high soccer IQ will get bored. Individual skills are developed more vs other clubs. |
Anonymous
| 9:58 - you do realize that this is a pretty scathing review, right? Even your positives are not terribly positive. Are you going back for 18/19? |
Anonymous
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We had a dd below U13 YDP program and have a different experience than above - so maybe its year specific. Our girls do well at tournaments, winning or at least being competitive against tough teams. They do well in league play Yes, individual development is emphasized, but there is a lot of passing in most games and continued development on game awareness. Creativity is encouraged (but maybe that is coach specific?) Does everything work well all the time in a game? No. Do girls get upset after a tournament loss? Yes - that has happened to my kids at this age across different sports, though boys seem to put on brave faces and girls maybe more ok with crying. Do all girls love every single practice? No - but that is also more typical at this age (in any sport). My dd generally loves 90% of practices, though I have kids at this age in other sports not like their practices, but love the games. We have found the coaches to be strong in communicating verbally to parents and being pretty transparent throughout the year. Email, not so responsive, but if you know that, you just talk than. We never felt like there were surprises - And we have seen our share of that in other sports.
But yes - Bretton Woods, Muldoons, are awful locations. Indoor locations can be equally bad making winter training not that impactful but saw they are getting new facilities .. The november BSC tournament is late so often cold and not the best way to end the fall season. there is often no dedicated goalie below U12 - so makes its more challenging to win games against teams with dedicated goalies and some kids don't like rotating through goalie. Coaches have multiple teams. The positive is that many coaches know your kid because they coach practices together - trade off games and see your kid play. The coaching is more consistent. The impression of your kid, is by all the coaches in the age group and even coaches around your age group. We have had past experiences where one coach only knows your kid and that is tough when they leave or if they are not a good coach. The negative is that you have a sub coach a few times or no time to debrief. Also, If you disagree with the impression of your kid by the age group coaches, then its probably going to be a very bad experience for you as a parent and perhaps, your kid. Females coaching? We have kids in different sports - and have seen many different types of coaches, but primarily male. Its nice for my dd to have some role models. My personal observation - In many sports, Dads probably dominate the coach - parent relationship more than mothers. Maybe that doesn't happen as much in this Bethesda environment, but I'm not sure that is a terrible thing if the dynamics are a little different. Btw - there are male coaches too in Bethesda that my dd has enjoyed playing for too. |
Anonymous
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Also have a dd at BSC. Bost comments above reflect my experience. It is a big club. I would also add that at u13 and above, things get quite serious and that many of the stronger players on top teams come from other clubs, i.e. not developed from u8/u9. There are some great girls but there are stronger teamsin Baltimore and NoVA. Even looking at where girls go to university, you will see that McLean, Pipeline and FCV are sending girls to the top schools compared to BSC.
The clubs oes a fair job at training but the BSC hype is overrated, IMHO. |
Anonymous
Heard a lot of the 2008 left the club. Did not go to tryouts. Lots of unhappy girls. |
Anonymous
2008s? lol |
Anonymous
From what color teams were the 08s from? |
Anonymous
| This is all gossip, but 2/4 of the rising '08 coaches are reputed to be serious yellers. |
Anonymous
without even looking i bet Gary Burke is one of them, |
Anonymous
He is with the 07s and is fantastic IMO. |
Anonymous
Mi would like to know from what color team as well. |
Anonymous
Maybe someone will post with direct knowledge. We am not in the age group but heard there were competing letters sent out to teams in that age group. I think it was similar to what happened at Potomac a few years ago. Why do you care about which color? |