s/o - HOW to change clubs

[Anonymous]

I didn’t want to pull the “will you change clubs” thread off topic, so i started a new thread to ask for help with figuring out the logistics of a change.

Every club has different try out dates and then wants a answer within 24-48 hours of an offer. How does this work for people changing clubs? Do you just ask for more time to respond?

My kid is young (U11) and one of the best players on a not-great/not-top-level team. So it’s not like clubs are vying for her or dying to accommodate any special requests. But, we just moved and she has friends in a couple of local clubs and would love to try to end up with some of them which would be impossible to figure out unless you were comparing offers. Which seems like you can’t do because of the timing.

Tips and advice for the clueless from experienced parents please?

[Anonymous]

That's a great question! I think that's why most of the major clubs have earlier tryouts.

I would put whatever club your DD wants to tryout for 1st on the calendar followed by other clubs you are interested in after that date.

[Anonymous]

if you know what team you want to move to, contact that coach and let him/her know your situation and see if you can bring your kid to a few practices. They most usually say yes. The coach will take a look and give you some feedback and that conversation will help you determine your next step.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to respond in 24-48 hours, that is just the club wanting your deposit. They won't pull your offer without contacting you. Just tell them you need more time.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree most people dont go blindly to a try out. You contact the team and do practices with them first, you wouldn't want them to judge your DC on a 2 hour try out anyway.

[Anonymous]

When planning tryouts, prioritize hitting the first tryout at each club. If you have not made contact, that first one is the most important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you know what team you want to move to, contact that coach and let him/her know your situation and see if you can bring your kid to a few practices. They most usually say yes. The coach will take a look and give you some feedback and that conversation will help you determine your next step.

This is good advice. Not only will the coach give some feedback after your child has attended a practice or two, but, if your child did well, then the coach will likely make your child an offer for one of the teams, prior to any official tryout or ID session. There is no 24-48 hr window on these early offers, and it would give you time to have your child attend practice(s) at other clubs and see which one is the best fit.

IMO, rosters are pretty much set before any official tryout or ID session, and the main purpose of those tryouts/sessions is optics and to not miss out on someone that shows up out of the blue. Most people that are serious about making a switch do not wait until tryouts to contact the club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you know what team you want to move to, contact that coach and let him/her know your situation and see if you can bring your kid to a few practices. They most usually say yes. The coach will take a look and give you some feedback and that conversation will help you determine your next step.

This is good advice. Not only will the coach give some feedback after your child has attended a practice or two, but, if your child did well, then the coach will likely make your child an offer for one of the teams, prior to any official tryout or ID session. There is no 24-48 hr window on these early offers, and it would give you time to have your child attend practice(s) at other clubs and see which one is the best fit.

IMO, rosters are pretty much set before any official tryout or ID session, and the main purpose of those tryouts/sessions is optics and to not miss out on someone that shows up out of the blue. Most people that are serious about making a switch do not wait until tryouts to contact the club.

It really depends on the coach, we had a situation where we (returning player) knew before the tryouts started that we were welcomed back, but that was not extend to 70% of the team. A good coach wants to secure their top players and the let the middle, low, and new players battle out for the remaining spots to ensure he/she can field the best possible team from the pool.

As for responding to any offer, I would strongly encourage you to be say less than more. Just say that you appreciate the offer and that you would like to discuss it with your child, once the time is up (48/72 hours), be honest and tell them you have not reached a conclusion but please make sure you contact the coach to maintain professionalism throughout. Most of the clubs bunch up within a 2-3week window and they all know families club shop.

If you really don't care (I personally wouldn't do it), you can accept any and all offers until you decide. You may be tagged as a jerk for accepting and backing out, but that's a risk you have to take with this option. I will note that the soccer community is very small and everyone knows someone so don't be surprised to see that coach in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t want to pull the “will you change clubs” thread off topic, so i started a new thread to ask for help with figuring out the logistics of a change.

Every club has different try out dates and then wants a answer within 24-48 hours of an offer. How does this work for people changing clubs? Do you just ask for more time to respond?

My kid is young (U11) and one of the best players on a not-great/not-top-level team. So it’s not like clubs are vying for her or dying to accommodate any special requests. But, we just moved and she has friends in a couple of local clubs and would love to try to end up with some of them which would be impossible to figure out unless you were comparing offers. Which seems like you can’t do because of the timing.

Tips and advice for the clueless from experienced parents please?

I'd also like to ask what clubs your are considering. There is a lot of BS on this forum, but also some good insight so if you provide a list of the U12 teams you want to join/considering, i'm sure the community can provide some feedback. Keep in mind coaching assignments won't be made until april so the feedback you get will only be accurate to a degree.

[Anonymous]

Ask if your player can take part of a session(s), rather than banking everything on the tryout. Your player could have an off day just as much as they could stand out on the day but be actually out of their depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you know what team you want to move to, contact that coach and let him/her know your situation and see if you can bring your kid to a few practices. They most usually say yes. The coach will take a look and give you some feedback and that conversation will help you determine your next step.

This is good advice. Not only will the coach give some feedback after your child has attended a practice or two, but, if your child did well, then the coach will likely make your child an offer for one of the teams, prior to any official tryout or ID session. There is no 24-48 hr window on these early offers, and it would give you time to have your child attend practice(s) at other clubs and see which one is the best fit.

IMO, rosters are pretty much set before any official tryout or ID session, and the main purpose of those tryouts/sessions is optics and to not miss out on someone that shows up out of the blue. Most people that are serious about making a switch do not wait until tryouts to contact the club.

It really depends on the coach, we had a situation where we (returning player) knew before the tryouts started that we were welcomed back, but that was not extend to 70% of the team. A good coach wants to secure their top players and the let the middle, low, and new players battle out for the remaining spots to ensure he/she can field the best possible team from the pool.

As for responding to any offer, I would strongly encourage you to be say less than more. Just say that you appreciate the offer and that you would like to discuss it with your child, once the time is up (48/72 hours), be honest and tell them you have not reached a conclusion but please make sure you contact the coach to maintain professionalism throughout. Most of the clubs bunch up within a 2-3week window and they all know families club shop.

If you really don't care (I personally wouldn't do it), you can accept any and all offers until you decide. You may be tagged as a jerk for accepting and backing out, but that's a risk you have to take with this option. I will note that the soccer community is very small and everyone knows someone so don't be surprised to see that coach in the future.

I agree with this. When I said rosters were set, I should have been more clear. I meant that the coaches pretty much know who will make their rosters before the tryouts, even if that is not communicated to the players. First, the coaches already know the talent of the current players at the club, and will have already tiered them based on their development over the last year with the club. The coaches will have also already seen kids from outside the club who are attending practices at the club. They also know who has registered for the official tryout or ID session and what clubs those kids currently play for. As a result, the potential player pool is already well known by the coaches, and they are rarely surprised by someone from outside the club who attends the official tryout.

I also agree with your comments about early offers being made to certain players currently at the club, as well as certain players who may be coming from outside the club. You are right that coaches want to lock up the top players well in advance of the official tryout or ID session.

[Anonymous]

^ their big problem is judging a player simply by what Club/team they are coming from. They use that to undeservingly out a player in a field with potential teammates or a field with duds that they barely watch at tryouts. You get kids that aren’t that great coming in seeded high and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

to OP, although the coaches do have a very good idea of at least half the team prior to trying #1, I would not let that discourage you or DC. Folks do just show up to tryouts and make the team. Doing your best to hit that first one as someone has already pointed out is key, and attending all is even better. If you cannot make one, send coach a note to that effect otherwise they may cross you off. You may have to do a little scouting so you can prioritize the clubs that are most attractive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ their big problem is judging a player simply by what Club/team they are coming from. They use that to undeservingly out a player in a field with potential teammates or a field with duds that they barely watch at tryouts. You get kids that aren’t that great coming in seeded high and vice versa.

This. You can seem them sort at the first tryout. If your kid goes to the field that is a low team or a cut field you will know immediately. They don't watch those fields--or very, very briefly. It's crazy with new kids that they have never seen play before.

I also would not give weight to the Clubs that put a shitload of kids in one teeny, tiny cordoned off field. Even the older kids look like crap as its a free for all and more like Rugby scrum than soccer. A smart player is not going to be recognized since they are moving to space and passing. Two of the things that don't get noticed---kid makes one pass and never gets it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t want to pull the “will you change clubs” thread off topic, so i started a new thread to ask for help with figuring out the logistics of a change.

Every club has different try out dates and then wants a answer within 24-48 hours of an offer. How does this work for people changing clubs? Do you just ask for more time to respond?

My kid is young (U11) and one of the best players on a not-great/not-top-level team. So it’s not like clubs are vying for her or dying to accommodate any special requests. But, we just moved and she has friends in a couple of local clubs and would love to try to end up with some of them which would be impossible to figure out unless you were comparing offers. Which seems like you can’t do because of the timing.

Tips and advice for the clueless from experienced parents please?

I agree with the PP. Ask if your DD can practice with her friends' teams. This is the BEST advice if your kid isn't one who is going to immediately stand out at tryouts, which is hard to do at clubs that have cattle call tryouts. It also gives you a feel for coaches, teammates, etc. Of course the team composition might not be the same next year, but it gives you some idea and lets the coach see your child.

I will say, I think that the tryout process is insane and you will find that clubs pressure you to make a decision, even though you don't know who else on the team, what league the team will play in, and sometimes, who the coach is. Clubs have no loyalty to existing players and will hold off on giving your kid an offer until their best picks give a final decision, but once you get the offer, they want an answer immediately. One year, when we were going through a family crisis, I had a coach berate me for asking for more time to decide on whether to commit to a C team (a C team!!!), even though soccer was not our primary focus at the time. I hate soccer tryout season! Be prepared for pressure. Our experience has been if you are new to a club, they will be nicer to you in terms of giving more time to make a decision, but if your kid is an existing player not worthy of the A team, they really don't care.

Looking back, if I could do all of this over again, I wish I could have found a team for my kids at a young age that would have/could have stayed together for years. Those teams tend to gel and develop the best, without a continuing revolving door of players and coaches. But of course, club and parent obsession with wins and fake "elite" status, US soccer's change in age groups, etc. have all combined to make that virtually impossible for anyone, even the sanest of parents. You can't be reasonable in an unreasonable world!

For anyone reading this who remembers their childhood teams fondly and judges parents who move their kids from club to club as crazies, keep in mind that none of the families with kids in the 12-16 age group (I think???) had a choice about attempting to keep our kids with one group or one coach. US Soccer took care of that for us when they changed the age groups. And for girls in particular, who need to gel with their teammates, that has been difficult to overcome.