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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Great summary and accurate, both on the level of play of our top DA players and the cultural gap.  We may be in a better spot culturally in 30-50 years, but right now we don't have the critical mass needed to be on similar footing to the foreign cultures.  Tinkering with league structures, pro/rel, and European training imports in the short term isn't going to cut it.  We need soccer to become the destination sport and way of life for these kids, otherwise we are pissing into the wind.  And it all starts at home.[/quote]

So what about the families that have had the culture for generations now.  Are our kids just basically screwed?  My kids have grown up in a soccer culture.  There were 2 generations of soccer in the family before they arrived.  A few professional players in the family line.  The only sport that is on the TV is futbol.  They have been watching constantly.

What we have found is that our kids have always been noted consistently for having a very high soccer IQ.  They also have good ball skill, but in the travel system in the DMV that is not what gets recognized in the U9-U12 years so it has been a constant struggle to find coaches and teams to mirror how we want them to play and to recognize and nurture their developing soccer IQ.  There was a lot of frustration from the kids about teammates not knowing where to move or accept a pass, etc.  Teammates that do nothing but dribble into the ground and coaches that still value the long ball.  Having one kid on the smaller side, there were some clubs that don't even bother with those kids at the start.

There are a lot of families now that have parents that grew up in the soccer environment and culture.  My kids are American, Caucasian but had a very heavy Dutch soccer influence carried down through the generations.  We are starting to have more parents on the sidelines that understand the sport, but I feel that due to the huge number of teams and coaches, those in charge often don't have a similar aptitude or understood basic player development.  People will accuse families of moving their kids around, but often it is very necessary as the way the system works is you are stuck with one coach for an entire year and if you find the coach for the following year isn't one you see eye to eye on, on how you want your kids developing (read: developing, not winning), it requires moving around.  I also think our 'win/gotsoccer' culture and the design of the travel system runs in the face of development.

The sport has grown tremendously/exponentially over the past two decades, but the number of people with the ability to teach and develop has not grown in the same manner.  There are still too many on the sidelines yelling the wrong things and valuing the wrong things on the field.

So we can keep saying year after year, it will start at home and we need a revolution, but the sport has had a major foothold for many decades already.

So, again, what are those that already have started at home with grandparents and great grandparents supposed to do?  Wait for their great, great grandchildren?  Some major insight will happen?  I have been hearing that since the 70s.[/quote]

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