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[quote=Anonymous]I rarely disagree with the good coach here, but as someone who has coached rec through U14 (a volunteer parent with an E license, half of a D and a lot of other training) and has a kid who has played travel through U11, I dispute the idea that the travel kids start racing away from the "rec" kids.

I've seen too many players come back to rec after a couple of years of travel -- decent players, just making the mature decision that they don't want to focus that much time and energy on soccer at the expense of other things -- and they're not necessarily the best players in the league. They're usually *good*, sure. But it's far from shocking to see a player spend U9-U11 in travel, then come back to U12 rec and not make the All-Star team.

I've also seen some SFL teams that are probably more selective than the SFL would want, and they have decent coaches. They would certainly give my son's travel team a good game.

The difference between rec and travel is this: In travel, all the kids either have the aptitude, the athleticism or the interest to be a halfway decent player. (Ideally, all three, or at least two.) In rec, maybe 20-30% of the players meet that description -- in unbalanced leagues, you may have teams in which more than half of the players are travel-quality, and they remain travel-quality because they challenge themselves and each other in practice (and maybe pickup games).

I've seen some horrible rec coaches, some of whom refuse to go to even a two-hour seminar or take the online F license course, let alone learn anything else. But I've seen a lot of E- and D-licensed "pro" coaches who are certainly no better than the parent coaches with the same licenses. I see a lot of pro coaches who ignore everything we're taught. They're joystick coaches. And they have MORE pressure to win games rather than develop players because they think that's how they'll keep earning their paychecks.

Ideally, you'd like to see everyone between U8 and U10 get at least *some* access to good coaches. It can just be practice -- it doesn't have to be gameday.

And for older ages, it'd be nice to have more "travel-lite" programs in this area. Our pyramid is upside-down. Everyone wants to be in an "elite" league and drive all over creation as a badge of honor, claiming there's no competition for their DC in Northern Virginia. Ninety percent of the time, that's a crock. "Elite" should be smaller. "Travel-lite" should be bigger. Give kids the fun parts of "travel" while giving the parents a manageable driving load, and keep them in a developmental pyramid so the "travel-lite" U11s may become "elite" U14s.[/quote]

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