Reply to Why is playing travel soccer preferable to playing MSI Classic with a professional coach?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It all depends on the quality and dedication of the coach.

There are 5 levels, really. This is specific for girls soccer.

1. Elite / Premier (whatever you want to call it)

An example would be the top team of a club like Bethesda. If you look at Bethesda Blue, you would find dedicated players who have been in training programs since a young age, or who have older siblings or parents who teach them the game at home.

Players generally have some kind of individual improvement plans from their coaches and are working on their skills at home or through extra clinics.

Expect 3x per week practices during the spring and fall, 1-2x per week practices over the winter and a futsal league. Camps/clinics in the summer or offseason.

You definitely have to try out for these types of teams, and they are hard to make if you have not had training the last few years since U8 and younger or are a gifted athlete.

2. Competitive +

An example of this type of team would be Bethesda White. They are still on the same yearly schedule as Bethesda Blue, but you may not see quite as much individual dedication or pure talent from the players outside of the normally scheduled practices to improve on their own. There are still some very good players here, to be sure, but it is not the whole team "top to bottom" as you will find on Blue.

3. Competitive

This would be a team that practices 2x per week and does some type of training in the off-season. This sounds like the Classic team you joined last year. Players may play more than 1 sport competitively, sometimes practices are only 1 hour instead of 1.5 hours. So you're only getting 2 hours per week of practice compared to 4.5 hours at the higher level - less than half.

This also means that players develop at a slower rate. A player who practices for 45 hours per season (10 weeks x 4.5hrs per week) will improve at a rate more than double what a player who practices 20 hours per season.

Most parents are apathetic to this, and players don't know the difference or generally care how many hours they practice per season. However when your player gets  to high school age and wants to try out as a 9th grader, guess who you are competing against?

4. Academy

This would be where a group of recreational players are put into some type of training program, and then the kids in the training program play games and match up against equal competition. PPA (Player Progression Academy) is sort of like this. I think they also offer the "competitive" option where there is some type of try-out process. "Academy" level teams typically don't even have tryouts - if you have signed up for the training program, you are in.

Usually the quality of coaching here is so-so, and players are doing it more or less for fun, so not always the most focused group of kids or the most expert of coaches. But still, some training is better than no training.

5. Rec

Playing for fun, usually a volunteer coach, hit or miss on the quality of the training and rate of improvement. 
Usually 1 hour practices twice a week during the season, and nothing during the off-season. A lot of turnover rate on the team from season to season and year to year.

Can't do a thing about kids with issues (low motivation level, doesn't try hard, negative attitude, doesn't attend practices) because their parents have paid their fee.

Some coaches stay with their team from year to year (have a kid on it) and actually manage the team well, do a little recruiting, and get a good group together. Other teams not so much - mixed bag.[/quote]

This was an outstanding description!  Thank you for taking the time to do it.  I've been trying to figure this out by reading the board, but this put it all together-- and it's great to see examples from Maryland because a lot of the board focuses on Virginia leagues that I'm not familiar with.  Thank you![/quote]

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