Discussion: What actually matters to you about your club and coaches?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly if your son or daughter is good enough to play up two age groups in your league, chances are they need to find a better team in their own age group. Eventually this will matter more and more if they plan to play beyond into and beyond HS years.

I have never seen a player in Virginia good enough to play up two years. I saw one player up in NJ and she was very big and solid for her age. In fact, I didn't realize she was an underage player until it was pointed out to me. In Virginia, I have seen a few who are good enough to play up one, and some who play up who shouldn't.

Absolutely agree. There is NO need to play up two years - ever. There are players who COULD play up in a lot of the local leagues (prob not DA or ECNL), so not sure why Virginia doesn't develop players who aren't good enough. Its just a matter of IF they should...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That certainly answers the much debated question on this forum: do coaches read and post here?

Of course they do. ALL the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly if your son or daughter is good enough to play up two age groups in your league, chances are they need to find a better team in their own age group. Eventually this will matter more and more if they plan to play beyond into and beyond HS years.

I have never seen a player in Virginia good enough to play up two years. I saw one player up in NJ and she was very big and solid for her age. In fact, I didn't realize she was an underage player until it was pointed out to me. In Virginia, I have seen a few who are good enough to play up one, and some who play up who shouldn't.

Absolutely agree. There is NO need to play up two years - ever. There are players who COULD play up in a lot of the local leagues (prob not DA or ECNL), so not sure why Virginia doesn't develop players who aren't good enough. Its just a matter of IF they should...

There is no need to play up ever, except for when my Freshman or Sophomore HAS to play HS Soccer. That is different somehow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly if your son or daughter is good enough to play up two age groups in your league, chances are they need to find a better team in their own age group. Eventually this will matter more and more if they plan to play beyond into and beyond HS years.

I have never seen a player in Virginia good enough to play up two years. I saw one player up in NJ and she was very big and solid for her age. In fact, I didn't realize she was an underage player until it was pointed out to me. In Virginia, I have seen a few who are good enough to play up one, and some who play up who shouldn't.

Absolutely agree. There is NO need to play up two years - ever. There are players who COULD play up in a lot of the local leagues (prob not DA or ECNL), so not sure why Virginia doesn't develop players who aren't good enough. Its just a matter of IF they should...

There is no need to play up ever, except for when my Freshman or Sophomore HAS to play HS Soccer. That is different somehow.

But only if they make the Varsity team, correct? JV would preclude them from "playing up" in this situation. Realistically how many Freshman play on their HS Varsity team and get good playing time with upper class men/women on the roster?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly if your son or daughter is good enough to play up two age groups in your league, chances are they need to find a better team in their own age group. Eventually this will matter more and more if they plan to play beyond into and beyond HS years.

I have never seen a player in Virginia good enough to play up two years. I saw one player up in NJ and she was very big and solid for her age. In fact, I didn't realize she was an underage player until it was pointed out to me. In Virginia, I have seen a few who are good enough to play up one, and some who play up who shouldn't.

Absolutely agree. There is NO need to play up two years - ever. There are players who COULD play up in a lot of the local leagues (prob not DA or ECNL), so not sure why Virginia doesn't develop players who aren't good enough. Its just a matter of IF they should...

There is no need to play up ever, except for when my Freshman or Sophomore HAS to play HS Soccer. That is different somehow.

But only if they make the Varsity team, correct? JV would preclude them from "playing up" in this situation. Realistically how many Freshman play on their HS Varsity team and get good playing time with upper class men/women on the roster?

JV is a waste of time over club soccer.

[Anonymous]

Development---especially in the younger years!!!

Training is #1. I watch the practices (I was a former high level player). I can assess pretty quickly if the Coach/club is good.

Ethics and minimal a**-kissing. I have walked from 'top' clubs because of the culture and the politics. Insufferable, kiss *ss parents: I'm out. It should be all about the kid's merit. Parents should not be involved.

Nice coaches/not arrogant. I cannot stand the ones that walk around with a superior attitude like their sh*t doesn't stink. They should be tough on kids when needed, but the ones that just exude that undeserved arrogance---disgusting.

As the kids are older (my oldest is U15), competition becomes more important. They make their own choices about what they like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to put in a plug here for *efficiency.*

What I mean in general is a relatively high proportion of the overall time spent on soccer (including practice and game travel) to the time spent with a ball at your feet, with a higher premium on game time. So driving to Connecticut (4 or 5 hours each way) for 11 minutes of game time is atrociously inefficient. Driving to Connecticut for just about anything is inefficient. The longer I've been at this travel soccer thing, the more I'm convinced that it's not the actual time spent at practice and games that burns out the kids--it's 20 minutes of playing time in a "home" game taking up 4.5 hours (an hour each way to the game, hour warmup, 1.5 hr game). Burns out the parents, too.

Also, it's dumb. DCU academy has to go to NYCFC academy to find a team that can beat them? Dumb

ECNL teams have to go to the Carolinas to play games? Dumb (but not as inefficient as going to NYC and back for just one game)

Yeah, I value a club that values the time of their parents and players. Efficiency.

+100

It’s gotten so damn out of hand—traveling to states far away for regular games.

+1,000

I traveled A LOT as a travel player. Canada, up and down the Eastern seaboard, farther West. This was for Eastern Regionals, Nationals, tournaments, etc. only and nowhere near as frequently as my kids are expected to travel. This was not for REGULAR season games.

This sh*t has gotten so far out of hand.

As a parent now 6-7 years in my kids' travel 'careers'....ha! I just don't give a sh*t anymore. They love the game and I drive all over, but I recently just decided to DRAWN THE LINE.

I have already seen the weekends where there is a regular season several states away and we are unavailable that weekend. I don't care about consequences. I just don't. It's not ECNL or some other super travel league I knew about far in advance when I signed up.

I am doing my part to opt out and try to bring reason back to US youth soccer. Flame away. My kid's education is what I care about more. And, yes we were D1 players in my family---but the sport has jumped the shark these days...

[Anonymous]

^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

[Anonymous]

If it wasn’t for competing HS seasons and the crazy emphasis to play HS soccer ECNL could have an entire division in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

Sign me up. We have the money, and my son may have the talent, but who needs to waste the time traveling when there are plenty of elite clubs that could play each other here. Leagues and club agendas are getting in the way of common sense. The other problem in this area (and forgive the regional elitism) is that a lot of these players in this area are really intelligent and don't need to play college soccer to go to a really good school and don't want to spend all of their time traveling for this crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

Sign me up. We have the money, and my son may have the talent, but who needs to waste the time traveling when there are plenty of elite clubs that could play each other here. Leagues and club agendas are getting in the way of common sense. The other problem in this area (and forgive the regional elitism) is that a lot of these players in this area are really intelligent and don't need to play college soccer to go to a really good school and don't want to spend all of their time traveling for this crap.

We should start a revolution and have an actual common-sense approach to travel soccer in the DMV. Count me in!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

Sign me up. We have the money, and my son may have the talent, but who needs to waste the time traveling when there are plenty of elite clubs that could play each other here. Leagues and club agendas are getting in the way of common sense. The other problem in this area (and forgive the regional elitism) is that a lot of these players in this area are really intelligent and don't need to play college soccer to go to a really good school and don't want to spend all of their time traveling for this crap.

There are local leagues for your kid to play in already. Find the club, team and league that meets your family needs and be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

Sign me up. We have the money, and my son may have the talent, but who needs to waste the time traveling when there are plenty of elite clubs that could play each other here. Leagues and club agendas are getting in the way of common sense. The other problem in this area (and forgive the regional elitism) is that a lot of these players in this area are really intelligent and don't need to play college soccer to go to a really good school and don't want to spend all of their time traveling for this crap.

We should start a revolution and have an actual common-sense approach to travel soccer in the DMV. Count me in!

+1 for a Revolution. The DMV area has so many talented teams and players. If required, we can even include Baltimore and Richmond area too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ no matter how good my kids are, they know I will never join something where every other weekend they are crossing multiple state borders. It's not happening.

There are too many decent players in the DMV for this sh*t to be happening. There needs to be a movement. Too many pissing matches between local clubs and leagues without the good of the kids/families involved.

Sign me up. We have the money, and my son may have the talent, but who needs to waste the time traveling when there are plenty of elite clubs that could play each other here. Leagues and club agendas are getting in the way of common sense. The other problem in this area (and forgive the regional elitism) is that a lot of these players in this area are really intelligent and don't need to play college soccer to go to a really good school and don't want to spend all of their time traveling for this crap.

There are local leagues for your kid to play in already. Find the club, team and league that meets your family needs and be happy.

True but nonresponsive and irrelevant. This is a collective action problem (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem). If we could coordinate our actions before tryouts, you might see different, better, cheaper outcomes. Because we (and teams, and clubs, and leagues) cannot assume that others will act in rational self-interest, we each act stupidly and decrease collective welfare. So yes, we all maximize utility today, but no, we are not happy as we could be if we acted more rationally. Other people's suboptimal decisions raise barriers to better travel soccer because people need or want to get on jets to play teams that may not be as good as their neighboring clubs (and all neighboring clubs might all improve if we all agreed to stay home). This isn't hard to understand. But of course some people benefit from building barriers to participation. So things look pretty rational from their point of view.

[Anonymous]

We have a player who has been playing up 2 age groups for years, starts every match and is often one of the best on the field every game. Was competing for minutes and performing well for a U16 team when he was 12. Made varsity and started as a freshman. Whoever said there’s no reason for players to play up is asinine, and that kind of thinking holds back truly talented players who are actually on a higher level than their peers. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough.