Reply to Most of you have no idea the REAL goal of travel soccer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is no denying youth sports are a big $ business relying on the egos of parents or the poor souls that go into it not knowing the particular sport.  In the US soccer wins make $ for youth Clubs.  Parents only want wins starting at the youngest ages.  They want the pride of saying their kid is on the elitist little kicker team.  So, of course, every traditional travel soccer Club (barring a very few) only focus on the perceived best/actively recruit (because in the younger years, and European scouts say this, there is no clear tangible way to determine which players ultimately succeed (barring of course the Messi/Pele/Ronaldos of the World) .  It is not a development mindset in this Country.  Parents aren't willing to understand how soccer development works and the Clubs capitalize on that. Go to any DA tryout in the area and see how they sort kids to fields based on wherever the kid is coming from prior.  If you come from a less perceived team in a 'good' Club or from a lesser perceived Club, you are on the field and pre-sorted and ultimately that field is not looked at.  Further, watch the Kindergarten style soccer being played and watch the kids that have soccer IQ.  Smart players are making movement to get open and never get a touch, or they pass the ball and never get it back. So, obviously they aren't noticed.

There is also no concept of doing this for pure joy once a kid hits 8 or 9 years old.  The push is on.  Parents think they are falling behind so force their kids into the rat race, sign up for this and that and more.  I think we have made every level pay-to-play so what is left in Rec are kids that don't really want to be there signed up by parents that want them off the Xbox.  Once a kid is a certain age, it is near impossible to play Rec if they are an experienced player and much more likely to get injured playing with kids that don't know how to tackle or control their bodies.  So, if a kid loves soccer and even if they have no desire to go chasing the mythical soccer scholarship or National team berth, the parents have to pay to get them to play with players that at least know the sport and to get adequate competition for fun.  The ratio of travel Clubs to Rec Clubs (very few #s of travel Clubs with a huge # of Rec players) used to be the opposite and this is not because more kids are truly talented.  It is because people found they could make money off of it.  Now nobody is left in Rec.  Our Club had to relax Rec rules and let a certain number of travel players play or they wouldn't have been able to field teams.

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*came out wrong, meant to say the ratio tipped in the other direction because of $ flow---huge # of travel vs tiny # of rec teams.[/quote]

^agree and this from OP are spot on:

"Fact 1 - If your kid is scenario B above, and wants any shot at Myth 2, the experience of professional soccer is what should be their goal. Most college scholarship players never get drafted, and most of the ones that do, don't get a contract. Boys and Girls. Pro soccer's peak age is 24, and most American kids who go the college route are 22 or 23 by the time they even get a chance on a pro field. The goal needs to be to go pro at 18 or 19 to have any real shot.

Fact 2 - 98% of youth soccer travel coaches have NO IDEA how to develop players to succeed at the pro level as a 19 or 20 year old. One very basic requirement is that the coach actually knows what it takes to be a pro. They must either have played at that level, or have worked many years with other coaches who have. Players can't spend their whole lives playing "on age", get to 18 and be thrown into a grown up world and expect to be near ready. Only programs that endeavor to push younger players up in age or find training opportunities with college age player or pros for their 16 and 17 year olds should even be able to say "we develop players". Everything else, everyone else, is just making a living off parents egos.

Say what you will about DC United or WS academies. Compare your U15 team results to their teams. Boast about he one time you played them in a tournament and won. It doesn't mean crapola to the truly professional coaches and clubs. What matters to them is nothing more than if they are producing 2-4 18 year olds every year that have a shot at succeeding as a pro within the next 3 years. And by definition, the other 6-8 high school seniors on those teams will get those college scholarships and still be equipped for a potential professional future." [/quote]

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