Anonymous wrote:And to add, Potomac Soccer Wire had hosted a forum that was very very active but the level of snark is what I believe led to them pulling the plug.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And to add, Potomac Soccer Wire had hosted a forum that was very very active but the level of snark is what I believe led to them pulling the plug.

I think we actually interacted with the guy who runs Potomac Soccer Wire early on in the VA travel soccer thread. Many of us loved the discussion forum they had there years ago, and the move to allow only commenting on the articles they infrequently post probably helped a lot to drive the popularity of the soccer threads here on DCUM. He was pretty defensive about the whole thing as I recall.

I think people could use talking-soccer for VA, DC and MD if they wanted. For a long time the only active posts there were in the MA, FLA, CT and Oregon forums, but a bunch of people from NY and NJ who got sick of backofthenet moved over and started a decent NY thread. I'm still not sure any of those offer a better platform than DCUM though. If you like the SoCal boards (and you are welcome to talk about SoCal all you want as far as I'm concerned--that part of the country is a model we should pay attention to), I'd recommend that you just try posting topics that interest you here, and then just ignore anyone who wants to drag the discussion down to pedestrian levels. There are more than a handful of serious and knowledgeable people here who you'd probably like interacting with.

Anonymous wrote:Would be great if someone could start a Reddit Forum for DMV soccer. Free, and You could up vote and down vote comments, and a better format for sub-comments.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be great if someone could start a Reddit Forum for DMV soccer. Free, and You could up vote and down vote comments, and a better format for sub-comments.

I've never used Reddit. Just checked it out and wasn't really sure how to navigate to find models of the sorts of discussions you mean. Are there ongoing soccer threads there from other areas you could link to? I appreciate the recommendation to post under a user name, but would prefer to remain anonymous for a variety of reasons.

Also, I'd note that Big Soccer is a great platform for those who are primarily interested in talking about why soccer in the U.S. sucks.

Anonymous wrote:I just spent a good time perusing socalsoccer and talking-soccer. the flaming and trolls are huge and a lot of redudant threads about ECNL and DA. We have the same discussions going on here beating the same dead horses. the volume here is significantly lower, but the same players are part of the discourse.

the biggest difference/issue here is the lack of organization into sport specific areas and the voluminous thread lengths.

Anonymous wrote:The problem here is that you have "parents" chiming in on a topic many know little about. It's all driven by people that think their kids are better than they actually are. I participate in other forums with like minded people that share lessons learned. So for a forum to be effective, it has to be driven by players and coaches, not disgruntle parents. Get away from "anonymous" if you want a honest discussion.

PFPsisman10 wrote:I have been in this area my whole life and I will tell you all the biggest problems with youth soccer and why it is still stagnet.

Well there are a couple things. one of the biggest is parents need to get out of the way of their kids and try to stop living through your kids.if your kids don't want to play soccer don't force them, let them figure it out. They will be happier. Second, stop forcing them to do extra training if they don't want to. I have seen coaches do the same bullshit training over and over, week after week, year after year.

Your son or daughter should be progressing with the training..They should be doing stuff that a 8 or 9-year-old is doing when they are 16 or 17. Lastly stop thinking that your kid is going to play college soccer and especially D1, you all need to think about how many kids are around here and the rest of the country...if your kid want it they will put the work in if they don't do not force them, i promise you they will burn out and quite sports, I have seen it enough.

And the other thing I have seen is they do all this extra training and one they get to like 16-18 years old the injuries start to creep up, why because the compounding day and day, month after month of training, of the same shit year after year adds up. You have to give them rest to refresh and allow their body to recovery. you all think your kids are going to go pro/ play college soccer but ill tell you like it is around 1-2% that will make it.

I have talked to many college coaches and I have been there myself. I will tell you many of your kids going into college will never make it with the attitudes they have and the work rate they have. It won't cut it.

sorry for ranting but we really need to take a step back see what's going on before you start blaming clubs or coaches. Many of the issues are the parents and kids themselves.