Reply to Soccer Coach in Northern VA

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Soccer Coach in Northern VA - Ask me anything"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi coach: My kid absolutely loves soccer, and is good at it but not great. Kid is 8 and wants to do better. They are at silver level for Arlington travel. Where would they learn the most? Doing travel, developmental, or just rec?  I have heard the only travel teams worth being on are red/white so the silver/gold isn't worth the money. On the other hand, I have heard kids on travel can improve greatly and move up.  Similarly, I have also heard ADP is a good middle ground between rec and travel, but have also heard ADP is a waste of money and if a kid isn't on travel they wont improve their game on ADP.  So confused![/quote]

Not a coach, but have kids who played both ADP and Travel.  ADP is generally balanced out by the coaches, so there are usually not any blowouts - just strong competition.  If one team gets too good, they will shift around players on teams the next semester.  Some kids who could easily qualify for travel have parents who don't have time for travel - so there can be some real talent out there.  ADP is not a waste of time, and is more fun than Rec, and many players have vastly improved while doing ADP and moved up to high Arlington teams.

Some lower Arlington travel teams can get kicked around pretty good by some of the ODSL teams who are playing their top players, against Arlington's 5th team - but they do end up with divisions that are balanced out after some game stats are established.  But you have real coaches for practices - and some kids have flourished.  If your child is on Silver, then they are scrimmaging with kids on Gold - so not really playing against better players to help you improve your game.

Personally, I would do ADP for a year, and if your child flourished, have them tryout for travel again next year.  Several ADP teams would be competitive with and/or beat a Gold or Silver Travel team.[/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