Reply to We don't need to think about travel soccer right?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Best on my experience with several kids who play or played at the most competitive levels, you do not need to rush into travel at this age. If your coach is strong, technical training is a focus and you are playing against good competition given your DS's abilities, you are safe. Let him develop skills and a love for the game. Once that happens then I would recommend revisiting travel at U12/U13.

Don't get caught up in this push to travel. To be frank, unless your kid in a super star and is head and shoulders above everyone else and the coaching is horrible, you will waste time and money. At the top clubs, if your are playing on anything other than the A team, you are traveling around the DMV to play against team on par or worse than the teams you play at PPA. The coaching is also uneven because the best coaches as coaching the older kids.

At this age, keep your DS at PPA if the coach is good. Get their input. Ask if they plan to play in the local travel tournaments like Mid-Atlantic. Use the money you would have spent on travel to enroll your DS at a strong summer clinic or summer camp.

Many of the DC parents are like lemmings and just follow everyone off of the cliff into the money pit called travel soccer. We did the same until we realized that travel soccer was a waste at the younger ages for most kids. If your DS develops, he will run circles around current travel players at the u12/u13 tryouts.
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I think you take too dim a view of most travel teams/clubs, but otherwise think this is good advice.  The one thing I'll add is that from what I have seen of PPA "premier" teams, most of the kids do not have good footwork and technical skills compared to most of their travel counterparts.  I think it's worth doing some extra work over the next few years to make sure the kid has skills that are sufficient to allow him to move to a good travel team at some point if he chooses.  PPA has several good coaches who could probably do extra work with any kid who wants to put more of a focus on skills, or there are always Coerver camps, you tube videos, or other resources out there if the parents don't know how to help.[/quote]

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