A lot of travel programs are bad in this area. I promote finding a quality coach and program in your local community and staying with it for as long as possible. If your player shows motivation like dribbling and shooting of their own and is dominating the local intermediate level teams that move to only top teams in clubs where he fits in the starting lineup. Lower-level teams unless in the high school age groups are there to assist the top teams in fulfilling required spots in leagues and there is a lot of unnecessary travel for competition that might be better in the town next door.

At this age group, the standard should be mostly technical work, dribbling, passing, shooting, pressure, and cover on defense. They should be working on trapping, throw-ins, and headers briefly. There should be themes to the practice passing, dribbling or shooting is the major focus of the themes and it should build up to a scrimmage at the end. Lots and lots of repetitions to increase the speed of play If you are not getting the correct training you need to leave a team asap. I see too many coaches and a lot of them paid that have no idea how to develop players. They steal remarkably talented kids and then drive them into the ground by only scrimmaging and saying, "let the game be the teacher" Even at the travel level, not all coaches are good. The Premier or top-level coaches will most likely be good but some of them can be drill Sergents and if your child does not do well in that environment, I would avoid that. Ask if the coach is licensed and at what levels. Learn more about the teams you are joining.

I coached in that age group for a really long time. How good is your child? The 2006 Bethesda team is by far the top team in the area. They have the most talent a lot of which might end up D1. MRM teams at this stage are lower level due to the fact that most of the 06 coaches moved to Bethesda or recycled down. FCGB would have been your second best bet but there is always the potential for players to move from there based on this thread. MSI has a decent team as well. A former player has been there for a long time.

I would say no. There are plenty of opportunities to play soccer in the summer from local pick-up games to camps absolutely everywhere and when you get older college id events as well. The games a lot of the time are on turf and your feet just melt in the sun.

Not sure who you choose but of those options, I would choose Potomac 2 but I would have had them try out for one or 2 of the local classic teams a year up first. A classic team will practice 2 times a week, you will get to meet the coach at practice and they will never leave the county to play any games. At this age, the kids need to be playing at home more and being creative they having a structured practice environment. And to not travel 2 hours about 3 or 4 Sundays in the fall would be well worth it as well.

Agreed with soccer_dc but with one caveat. If the player can not keep pace with the team certain coaches will remove them from the group early on in the first session. So yes there is an ability factor.

I practice not too far away. She can come to one of my practices and I will give you an idea as to where she would fit. I know most of the coaches in the U12 age group. The spring is a good time to look because every team is going to add 2 or 3 more players in the next 12 monhts