NVA (Loudoun) going MLS NEXT?
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Anonymous
Yeah. I think they hold their own fairly well except in the 2010 and 2009 age groups. I think some of that might be attributed to a young coach working to find his footing. Some of it is talent. And some of it is organizational philosophy. Alexandria's train by playing approach might not be the best fit for a 4-day a week practice schedule. I think they'd do well to incorporate more individual skill work and team conditioning/speed training. |
Anonymous
When are the tryouts for these teams? We’re thinking about leaving current club. |
Anonymous
The best way is to contact the coaches individually and ask to join a training. In my experience, coaches are welcoming and would rather see kids in these environments than a mass tryout. |
Anonymous
Thank you for your advice. |
Anonymous
Don't all these teams advertise tryouts on their social media pages? |
Anonymous
Yes, but the best way to get on them is to reach out to coaches to see if your kid can attend a practice. |
Anonymous
1000% Waiting for and just showing up at tryouts puts you at a disadvantage to make the team. What if your kid gets sick or has a conflict with the tryout date? It can be hard to stand out among a lot of other kids at the tryout. Joining a practice before tryouts lets the coach see how you compare with the current players. You and your kid will also get a better feel for what the team and coach is like in a real practice. Assuming the practice goes well by the time actual tryouts come along your player is known familiar quantity, with familiar connections to the other players. |
Anonymous
As a coach I encourage all parents to do this, as as much research you can to find the right team for your child. Go to a practice (or several), go to a game (or two) and see how they play, how the coach behaves, etc. A few extra hours of research can save a year's worth of pain and regret. |
Anonymous
Can you elaborate on this? And any particular years that you know of specifically? Ds is considering trying out there for next year. |
Anonymous
Ex-ASA parent here. The traditional Alexandria philosophy was that individual/technical work and fitness were activities that can and should be done outside of practice. I happen to agree with this, strongly. And ASA top players tend to play futsal as well, which enhances technical/individual skill development, at least in the off season. But it is also noticeable that ASA players may be a little less fit or 1 v 1 oriented than players developed at other clubs, with some very notable exceptions among ASA players who have gone to DCU. Practices are heavy on buildup, shape and positional play. My son learned more at early ages there than the rest of his years in soccer combined. He took care of skills at HP. |
Anonymous
Current ASA parent here who basically agrees with the philosophy but doesn't think it's totally compatible with the MLS Next format. The kids practice 4X a week for an hour and a half as mandated by the league. they often have two games on the weekends and need at least one-day off. The tactical heavy approach works for 2 or 3 day a week practice where the kids have time to work on their own. In the 4-day a week structure, Alexandria needs to be all things for the kids, including devising ways to get them more touches, specific skill training, and speed and agility. I'd also say that, for our team, the tactical philosophy needs to be more strongly implemented, whether that's pattern play or simply a reinforcement of positioning and movement during play. I really like my son's coach and think he has a lot to offer, I just think the expectations need to be higher for what the kids can handle, physically and tactically. Futsal has been great for some of these things and the lessons learned there need to be applied to full field situations. |
Anonymous
The club has a philosophy that goes against 1v1's and focuses primarily on team tactics? What about dribbling and creativity? |
Anonymous
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I used to coach at Alexandria. Very organized club with pretty strict adherence to their curriculum plan. On one hand it made sure everyone was training the same way, on the other it limited your ability to tailor your sessions to fit your team's developmental needs. What worked well for the "top" team, didn't necessarily work for the lower teams when it came to addressing their deficiencies.
I felt there was a huge over reliance on pattern and tactical play at the lower ages. Many times I saw 8 and 9 year olds learning how to play out of the back by standing in a shape and passing a ball with no pressure for 20+ minutes for multiple sessions... poor kids were bored out of their minds. Once you get pass the u-littles it's easy to see that their teams have a system of play engrained into them by the curriculum. Again as a pro, it means players can generally fit into and get used to moving up or down a team within the club fairly easily. However, as a coach I found this play method to be entirely too predictable and lacking in creativity and tactical options. I loved coaching against them as I knew exactly how they were going to approach the game, and they really struggled when forced to play a different way. As others have mentioned there is 0 emphasis on technical exercises, and while futsal certainly helps and is great for players of any age in my opinion, it's no substitute for dedicated skill practice, which Alexandria expects you to get on your own. |
Anonymous
this is great info. can you give an example of how you adjusted your defending against the method? Was it something specific about their build-up or pattern? |
Anonymous
Best advice yet. |