For high level players and parents only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

So absolutely nothing to develop as a soccer player.

The more time they spend together tightens the bond between teammates, Karen.

Bonding brought to you by the Lifetime Channel

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Not to mention the number of quality soccer players that can no longer participate because they aren't only children or don't have parents that can afford the dozens of mandated "vacations".

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

It’s absolutely better to me. We get to stay overnight and explore a new city. Spend a lot of quality time with my kid. Have fun with the other families. When we are 20 minutes away everyone just shows up for the game and goes their separate ways as soon as it’s over. When we go far away people stick around, have meals together, go shopping between games. The experience is totally different. For us the experience has little to do with what’s happening on the soccer field.

You should be on a Travel forum

Here’s some news for you. There are a lot of people like us on your kid’s high level soccer team. My kid is a good athlete and soccer is a fun activity we can afford. Development is not important to us because our kid is not going to play pro or in college.

First and foremost, there aren't a lot of casual soccer tourist people like you on my kid's team

Second, did you read the heading of the thread?

Well there are plenty of casual soccer tourist people on my kid's GA team. It's not the top team in the area but is near the top of the standings and is still considered high level except by ecnl dad. Considering more than half of players on GA teams don't play in college I'd say many are willing tourists.

Not making it and having a mentality not even trying are two different things

Mentality? We’re talking about a kids activity here. Just because you take it too seriously doesn’t mean we all do. Not everyone has the same goals. As long as my kid is good enough to play on the team they can have whatever mentality they want. I’ll bet it really burns you to know that there are players on your team who lack the “mentality” but are just as good or better and sharing the stage with your kid.

This is interesting. You are advocating to teach your child to not give their best after making a commitment to the team?

Actually, you're saying you're fine with your kid being mediocre and just showup?
Hopefully they learn better work ethics from others

Your kid giving 50% doesn't hurt the kid giving 100%

This convo has nothing to do with effort. My kid gives 100% every time they are on the field. The discussion was about the value of traveling long distances for games. My position is that we prefer longer travel because we get to spend time together and visit fun places with the team. We have no intention of playing soccer in college or pros. Someone called that soccer tourism and implied these kids aren’t giving 100% on the field. That’s not true. They enjoy the full experience 100% - traveling, competing, socializing.

Are you the guy who said they don't care about development or about what happens on the soccer field because it's all about the travel experience?

No, but I agree with them.

I hear there's this new concept where families can do vacations and weekends together that doesn't involve a sport schedule.
Sounds radical

But we like vacations with sports schedules. Who made you judge of how families should spend their time and money? You do realize these travel leagues (aka sports vacations) exist because there are so many of us who enjoy them and are willing to pay. Radical?

Yeah, sport vacations to cowdunk county in Pennsylvania, Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina etc where these games are are all the rage on the Travel Channel

5pm game on a Sunday with work Monday morning for many

Not to mention the number of quality soccer players that can no longer participate because they aren't only children or don't have parents that can afford the dozens of mandated "vacations".

An unfortunate liability of our Pay-to-play culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

I enjoy every waking moment with my son. Spending 4 hours in a car with him is awesome.

*as son stares at phone or tablet for 3hrs 54 minutes 👀

You have terrible parenting skills if you let that happen. Terrible.

[Anonymous]

This thread is getting silly... there is a happy medium between expecting your kid to honor their obligations and put full effort into playing and some crazy expectation that the kid will go pro. There is absolutely a better chance of your kid becoming a doctor than a professional soccer player. However, you should still support your kid if they are trying hard at sports and encourage them to be better - worse case scenario its a good life lesson if they don't make it. The only crazy thing is to hinge everything (and $10s of thousand of dollars if not more) on the possibility of going pro. Also, long drives with my kid are great, I don't mind at all - they will grow up and not want to do them anymore - no electronics for our drives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is getting silly... there is a happy medium between expecting your kid to honor their obligations and put full effort into playing and some crazy expectation that the kid will go pro. There is absolutely a better chance of your kid becoming a doctor than a professional soccer player. However, you should still support your kid if they are trying hard at sports and encourage them to be better - worse case scenario its a good life lesson if they don't make it. The only crazy thing is to hinge everything (and $10s of thousand of dollars if not more) on the possibility of going pro. Also, long drives with my kid are great, I don't mind at all - they will grow up and not want to do them anymore - no electronics for our drives.

If going professional was a crazy expectation to all, we wouldn't have a Men's national team with professional players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is getting silly... there is a happy medium between expecting your kid to honor their obligations and put full effort into playing and some crazy expectation that the kid will go pro. There is absolutely a better chance of your kid becoming a doctor than a professional soccer player. However, you should still support your kid if they are trying hard at sports and encourage them to be better - worse case scenario its a good life lesson if they don't make it. The only crazy thing is to hinge everything (and $10s of thousand of dollars if not more) on the possibility of going pro. Also, long drives with my kid are great, I don't mind at all - they will grow up and not want to do them anymore - no electronics for our drives.

If going professional was a crazy expectation to all, we wouldn't have a Men's national team with professional players

Let it go. This is an easy example of why some people create and run companies and most people work for those creators. Some people believe in creating something not yet tangible or facing impossible odds. That takes vision. Most people just don't have it and that's okay. I hope people watch the video that led this post as the information would help alot of families navigate their journey whether they have a potential pro or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

I enjoy every waking moment with my son. Spending 4 hours in a car with him is awesome.

*as son stares at phone or tablet for 3hrs 54 minutes 👀

You have terrible parenting skills if you let that happen. Terrible.

My kid is on a group chat with their old teammates who have had a few games 4 hrs away. His tablet sits out on a desk on weekends and is pinging with messages the entire time they are all apparently driving to the games. It’s quite annoying. Clearly some parents do just hand the kid a tablet and let the rot on it for the whole car ride.

[Anonymous]

While your kid’s judgey parents rot on DCUM message boards all week?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

I enjoy every waking moment with my son. Spending 4 hours in a car with him is awesome.

*as son stares at phone or tablet for 3hrs 54 minutes 👀

You have terrible parenting skills if you let that happen. Terrible.

My kid is on a group chat with their old teammates who have had a few games 4 hrs away. His tablet sits out on a desk on weekends and is pinging with messages the entire time they are all apparently driving to the games. It’s quite annoying. Clearly some parents do just hand the kid a tablet and let the rot on it for the whole car ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long distance travel for non professional academies is non value-added

What part of yourh development in soccer happens in a plane or bus or hours in the car?
It's all about training and executing your training in games at game speed decision making

You can play the same 6 clubs all season in under an hour drive and develop as a player.

Long distance travel happens because in the US, soccer is a pay to play activity more like competitive dance than a tier 1 sport. Half the people don’t care much about developing their kids in soccer and are more about the experience. Long distance travel is a better experience.

Explain how driving I-95 or NJT for 4 hours and eating stale gas station food is a better experience than playing the same quality team 20 minutes from home?

I enjoy every waking moment with my son. Spending 4 hours in a car with him is awesome.

*as son stares at phone or tablet for 3hrs 54 minutes 👀

That pretty much sums up our rides! I spend a LOT of time with my kid. (A lot more than the parents of non-soccer friends.) Every minute can't be quality time.

[Anonymous]

I love spending time with my DS as well, but, the point of this recent thread - besides my signalling that we are super duper elite - is to lay bare the fallacy that tons of long distance travel is necessary for development.

In our not DMV area there are 3 ECNL NL, 3 ECNL RL teams, 3 MLSN 1 teams (including a MLS Academy), 5 MLSN 2 teams, a host of NPL/NAL teams and a variety of other teams and leagues including UPSL.

That's within 1.5 hrs from my house, so why did I drive 2 states away for one game!