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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen.   It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.  [/quote]

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true.[b] It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.[/b] [/quote]

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it. [/quote]

Explain.  Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable?  Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too?  Often the latter is far easier, imo.  [/quote]

How many times can your kid juggle in a row?  Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.[/quote]

This is less things to do than a list of attributes/results which may define a player good enough to overcome politics.  So in essence, the advice is "get good."  These questions are: does your kid have good touch; is your kid good; is your kid fast; is your kid a smart player; is your kid self-motivated?  All these points may define parts of a good player, and are worth working towards.  But the complaint people are making stands - after becoming better than kids ahead, in all the ways mentioned, unless you are *sufficiently* better than those competing for spots, politics will matter.

My kid has gone from B to A, switched to a higher-caliber club, and again went from B to A.  She worked hard on all these things.  But the real push over the edge, in both cases, when she was in that B/A overlap range, was that the coaches really liked her work ethic at practices, while on teams with attitude-problem players.  She became a coach's favorite both times through a good attitude in practices (and games) more so than getting good enough to immediately be top half of A.  I consider that a form of coach-favorite politics, but I find it less offensive than some other types of politics because it's somewhat earned.

In my observation, most of the bottom half of A teams are: early developers who made the A track at 8-9 years old and just keep hanging on to the spot, kids with all-star siblings in the club, kids who do lots of private training with a coach at the club (not outside), kids with parents who threaten to leave, or kids who were stolen from the club's biggest rival.  These kids are hard to displace unless your politics are stronger or you are undeniably better. 
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