Reply to Long view / perspective of parents with older players

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Long view / perspective of parents with older players"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a parent of soccer players (boys and girls) of different talent levels, the oldest of which is a U16.  They play at different travel clubs that are appropriate for their skill levels (e.g., one of them plays for a DA/ECNL team (yes, I am being intentionally vague) and is quite good; another is with an entirely different club, as they love playing but probably would not make the “C” team of their siblings’ DA/ECNL club; etc.).

With that lengthy intro, I would love to hear from parents with older kids to get their perspective on their kids’ development as they aged through U13-their senior years.  For example, we have seen with our kids that development is not linear over the years. One of them was arguably the top player on their team in the early U little years, then declined and was one of the worst players on the top team for a couple years, before rebounding and becoming a mid-level player for the top team. One of our other kids, on the other hand, has been consistently one of the top players on the top team. I imagine these varied experiences are common among soccer players, but would love to hear from other parents on this topic. For example, for those of you whose kids were starters or significant contributors for their high school or college teams, were they consistently “top half” players for their teams or was their development more uneven until they grew into their bodies?  I would imagine the answers will be mixed, but am curious to hear people’s stories.

Thank you in advance. [/quote]

I would say definitely uneven.  And it also varies with the expectations of the team you go to.  Teams that favor more technical players are far fewer.  A lot of clubs tend to favor the fast kid.  I was very disappointed recently with my son's club.  Supposedly it's all development, but the minute a super fast kid got recruited to the team, even though he was technically one of the absolute weakest, he began starting and sees full minutes.  yes, he can outrun the other team, but his touch is so awful, that I'm not sure that initial "win" really amounts to much when the other team can just take it from him.

At the college level, it is an incredibly physical game most of the time at most levels. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics