Reply to Reflections from an aging soccer dad

Forum Index » Soccer

Reply to "Reflections from an aging soccer dad"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You are adding making this way more complicated than it needs to be and bubble players just don't happen in a vacuum.

1. If your playing time went from 60% to 30% you might be a bubble player.
2. If your player is suddenly seeing reduced playing time and playing in vastly different positions, you might be a bubble player.
3. If a new kid comes in and starts in your kids main position, you might be a bubble player. 
4. If your kid is asked to "guest" in a couple of games on the lower team, you might be a bubble player.[/quote]

Fine. Who cares? I guess if your kid is a bubble player they deserve no feedback, coaching or encouragement?   You you think that it is totally acceptable to cut fully participating youth players mid season because they must know they are bubble players?  It is right to significantly reduce or eliminate the playing time of a fully contributing, committed player because new kids are added to the team (and there is no lower team)?

Basically, you seem to be saying that unless your child starts and plays an entire match, they are clearly bubble players, they obviously suck, they must know they suck, and if they had better parents, they would take them elsewhere.  OK.  You prove my point, which is that it must be all about winning now.  I think that kids can learn from being bench players.  I'm not shopping from club to club because my child isn't a starter.

You do realize that in your C team statements you proved my point, right?  Today's little tiny non-starter may be tomorrow's star.  Today's man child striker could be tomorrow's bench player. Both need to work, independent of their size, on their other abilities.  But the not quite there kid is less likely to get better (or stick with it) if she's always an afterthought and never gets to play.

[/quote]

It isn't about "who cares" it is about tell tale signs that should be a red flag that a conversation needs to happen with the coach. Yes, not all coaches do not communicate with parents or parents particularly well but they do speak through playing time, and positional roles.

As far a C teams, yes, they are transient. C teams exist to keep kids playing the game at a competitive level. Some kids improve and  advance and others do not. Some kids/paretns care if their kids improve and advance and others do not. Every year during the spring season players and coaches alike should be assessing where they are. Coaches are assessing if players are a good fit or not. Parents should also be assessing their players role on the team and the overall improvement of the player and team.

[quote]But the not quite there kid is less likely to get better (or stick with it) if she's always an afterthought and never gets to play.  [/quote]

This is the perfect example of the kid is not in the right environment. The player should either move down a team in the club or seek another team  for the following season. Sometimes things just don't work out. [/quote]

If your kid was on a C team for a year, has improved a great deal, is the best player on the team and does not move---you need to switch Clubs.  It happens.  We had several benchwarmers that hardly play the entire season move up because of parent pressure or the Club owed the family a favor, while the kid that played the entire game every game and was a crucial/key player did not move.  Zero behavioral or parental issues.  If anything, we were the least PIA/quiet and supportive parents on the team. And the Coach had him listed as #1 when giving names to TD/age group head.   I am not a squeaky wheel.  When we announced we were leaving, they were shocked.  They offered to move the kid up to get us to stay.  That completely turned me off.  Too little, too late.  My kid said 'who wants to get on a team that way'?

Ended making a much more competitive A team, playing and starting in a First Division of a competitive league vs the low division in the middling league where we were before.  Sometimes the only option is to move on.  The kid has progressed light years playing at a higher speed and against better players.  He never would have had that opportunity at the other Club.

There is sticking it out and working hard, but at some point you need to realize that it is futile at some Clubs and it doesn't matter if you progress above the players above you---they just aren't demoting their favorites.[/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