I’d stay on the top team at the top club. First due to better training. Second is recruiting and name recognition for college. The top team will do much better in college recruiting, and I don’t think colleges coaches will always distinguish the amount of playtime as long as they get to see him if he watches. Most coaches will make that happen because it raises the club if kids are recruited, even if he’s not a starter.

Novafam wrote:

Dcum1300 wrote:We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.

Had to reply as my DC was in this same exact situation. After a year of moving from a top team in a top club to a smaller club for the purpose of more playing time and "leadership," I can confidently say it was a VERY bad move. Similar to some of the comments, the main difference was the quality of players on the small club team vs big club team. I can also say after seeing this first hand, it is 100% correct that your DC will only develop based on teammate ability during PRACTICE. More game time (Played almost every minute of every game) did absolutely nothing for development. Now at the end of season, it is clear that my DC's skills has tremendously suffered while teammates that were not as skilled at the beginning of the year significantly improved. It was as if they absorbed my DC's skills and my DC was worse for it. To see my DC play at a level that is below what is was before the season started is very frustrating. It is like wasting a year and now having to redevelop over the summer and catch up with their new team for next year. Save yourself the frustration and use avoid the pitfall we went through.

This is exactly what happened to my kid but he is on the top team. New kids joined because the coach has a college soccer teammate that has a kid who was on VDAs b or c team and wanted to be on an ECNL team. Then this parent identified some more players to the coach to join the team who were all on VDAs b and c teams. They have no idea how to play soccer and they hold the the ball too long. its been a whole year and those kids still don't know how to play in the system the coach wants them to play. Its as if the coach is using my kid to show these kids how to play in his system. My kid is pretty technical, knows when to dribble and knows when to release, knows how to fill space, etc. Because my kid plays the way the coach wants he's regressed. Yet he lets these new kids dribble away and force the ball up the field. There's definitely a double standard. What a waste of a year. The coach is not very good, some of the kids after two years still don't know how to play the style the coach wants. And then the club decides my kid will be better off on the b team. Good thing I had my son work out with another club and he will be moving over to their top team for next year.

Dcum1300 wrote:OP here. Thank you all for your perspectives and own personal experiences. Although it seems that there is no one size fits all solution here, it seems sticking with their team may be the way to go. Increased confidence will need to be earned. We just hope they don’t lose joy for the game in the process.

I should have added above that a private soccer coach has done wonders for my average travel soccer player, both in skill and confidence. I got the coach for him specifically but he does the sessions with his brother. I see them use the skills they just learned during matches and it's been very cool to see them get better immediately. They only do it every other week and it still makes as a difference. They even incorporate the skills they use when just goofing off and playing in the backyard. So if you are staying on the tougher team and you can afford to, I think private coaching could do wonders for any player, regardless of level, and even for just a little bit. I think more playing time is always good too so maybe ask if he can play on the B team in your club? Or maybe have him play in your local rec league? Good luck!

OP here. Thank you all for your perspectives and own personal experiences. Although it seems that there is no one size fits all solution here, it seems sticking with their team may be the way to go. Increased confidence will need to be earned. We just hope they don’t lose joy for the game in the process.

Novafam wrote:

Had to reply as my DC was in this same exact situation. After a year of moving from a top team in a top club to a smaller club for the purpose of more playing time and "leadership," I can confidently say it was a VERY bad move. Similar to some of the comments, the main difference was the quality of players on the small club team vs big club team. I can also say after seeing this first hand, it is 100% correct that your DC will only develop based on teammate ability during PRACTICE. More game time (Played almost every minute of every game) did absolutely nothing for development. Now at the end of season, it is clear that my DC's skills has tremendously suffered while teammates that were not as skilled at the beginning of the year significantly improved. It was as if they absorbed my DC's skills and my DC was worse for it. To see my DC play at a level that is below what is was before the season started is very frustrating. It is like wasting a year and now having to redevelop over the summer and catch up with their new team for next year. Save yourself the frustration and use avoid the pitfall we went through.

100% agree - in order to make the leap up to a higher tier of play my DS had to do extra activity outside the team (mostly a trainer once per week but also summer camps and practicing alone). The rest of the team just didn't push him at all to improve and though the teams we played did, that's just a small slice of the total time played.

We were in a somewhat different spot as prior to the fall he hadn't been excelling, so I don't feel the year was wasted, but rather eye opening.

Dcum1300 wrote:We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.

Had to reply as my DC was in this same exact situation. After a year of moving from a top team in a top club to a smaller club for the purpose of more playing time and "leadership," I can confidently say it was a VERY bad move. Similar to some of the comments, the main difference was the quality of players on the small club team vs big club team. I can also say after seeing this first hand, it is 100% correct that your DC will only develop based on teammate ability during PRACTICE. More game time (Played almost every minute of every game) did absolutely nothing for development. Now at the end of season, it is clear that my DC's skills has tremendously suffered while teammates that were not as skilled at the beginning of the year significantly improved. It was as if they absorbed my DC's skills and my DC was worse for it. To see my DC play at a level that is below what is was before the season started is very frustrating. It is like wasting a year and now having to redevelop over the summer and catch up with their new team for next year. Save yourself the frustration and use avoid the pitfall we went through.

[quote=anonimouswon]To me, the most gains are made in practice. If your DC isn't giving 100% in practice (effort, paying attention, learning the game, etc), then don't waste your money especially if your DC has goals of wanting to play pro. Games are there to see the progress they've made in practice. If you aren't giving 100% in practice how do you expect to give a 110% in games? Too much emphasis is placed on game time at early ages. Your DC will never reach their potential if they aren't outworking every kid in practice. And when I say outworking I mean in effort/work rate, in paying attention to the coach, in learning the style of play the coach wants to the team to use, in being focused at practice and not goofing off, in doing drills to where only perfection matters. When you see this type of player in practice at younger ages, you know they're going to be something special. Build that work ethic early in your DC and you'll see some really good progress.[/quote]

Agree with this 100% We made this mistake and wasted a whole year of development. Similar age to OP. You need to be with better players. You need to be with focused players. Stay with the better team. Don't think twice about it.

To me, the most gains are made in practice. If your DC isn't giving 100% in practice (effort, paying attention, learning the game, etc), then don't waste your money especially if your DC has goals of wanting to play pro. Games are there to see the progress they've made in practice. If you aren't giving 100% in practice how do you expect to give a 110% in games? Too much emphasis is placed on game time at early ages. Your DC will never reach their potential if they aren't outworking every kid in practice. And when I say outworking I mean in effort/work rate, in paying attention to the coach, in learning the style of play the coach wants to the team to use, in being focused at practice and not goofing off, in doing drills to where only perfection matters. When you see this type of player in practice at younger ages, you know they're going to be something special. Build that work ethic early in your DC and you'll see some really good progress.

I would argue strongly for staying with the "better" team on the bigger club. The most important driver of progress for young players is *who you train with* not how much playing time you get in games. Training with better players makes you better, and makes you want to get better still -- a virtuous cycle. Training is better and more focused with better players; so everyone gets better faster.

All of these cycles work in reverse with lesser players. It's not that fun to be the best player on a not-as-good team. You get frustrated with your teammates -- should I pass that guy the ball, or will he fumble it out of bounds? So you develop bad habits like over-dribbling that won't fly on better teams later on.

This advice is even more true for younger players (like U10/11) because they can improve so much so quickly. At these ages the point is to get better, not play the most minutes. So I say play on the best team that will have you and then work to keep up with and maybe eventually pass your teammates.

Don't be too sure about getting "unlimited playing time" at the smaller club. Many clubs still try to allocate roughly equal playing time to kids at U10/U11. Even if your kid is the best one on the team, he/she may end up playing no more than any other kid on the team.

I don't disagree with the PP but I'm just going to throw my hat in for going to the smaller club, assuming the smaller club is playing in the same or similar league and division as the current club.

We moved our boys to a club where they could play in a more competitive league where the bigger clubs played. Previously, they both were the best players on their teams playing in a rec-level league. In their new club, the training is the same but there are more great players. My superstar child got decent playing time immediately but has gotten even more as he has noticeably improved and benefited from competing against better teammates at practice and against better players in a more competitive league. While he is not the best player on the team yet, he's not far off.

My average child did not get much playing time at first but he now gets a lot (which is significant as there are a lot of reserves on his team) and has clearly become a player that the team relies on. He too has noticeably improved.

My point is that both came into the new club confident in their skills and it didn't matter if one was a superstar and the other was average. Both also knew that they were not playing against the best they could at their previous club and I think that knowledge contributed to their willingness to work hard and fight for more playing time. If that is what you want your son to get out of the smaller club, then I would move him.

Dcum1300 wrote:

westsidesoccer wrote:

Dcum1300 wrote:We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.

If this is a function of his size, and he is a serious player, then go to a smaller club and team with more PT so long as coaches are good and teammates are good and play the right way.

Size isn't the main factor here as they are about average on size. Our DC just isn't quite as fast or aggressive as their very high end teammates. In our opinion still a very good player in their own right with the technical ability and enough athleticism to be one of if not the best player at the smaller club. Smaller club teammates are either not as technical or not as athletic whereas their current teammates are high end at both. Would the increased playing time and role possibly grow their aggressiveness with increased confidence? I guess we are concerned that if they stay in their current role, they will always have that mental hurdle.

If I were you, I'd stay at your current club. We made the opposite move with our DC a couple years ago - went from a smaller club where he was the top player and got unlimited playing time to a large, way more competitive club, where he was more in the middle of the pack on his team. One thing that the change made me realize is how much the skill level of our DC's teammates matter. Your DC only plays 1 game per week for 60 minutes against another team, while they likely practice 3 times a week for 1.5-2 hours at a time with their teammates. I think they get a lot more from practice than whatever minutes they play during a game - whether that's 20 minutes or all 60 minutes of playing time. For us, making the move helped our DC improve way more than they would have at their smaller club because they were competing against better players 3 times a week. That's what made them more aggressive, more interested in improving, more focused during practice, etc. When they were coasting along at their old club, they could afford to be a bit lazy at practice and during games against lesser quality teams and it stunted their improvement quite a bit.

Of course, you gotta do what makes your DC happiest - especially at this age. So if not being "the best" and not getting a lot of playing time makes them sad/miserable or is taking the fun out of the game, then by all means make the switch. Not a huge deal at such a young age. Just be prepared for something akin to our experience where, once at the smaller club, they start to slow down a bit and the gap between them and the top players for their age across the various clubs widens.

westsidesoccer wrote:

Dcum1300 wrote:We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.

If this is a function of his size, and he is a serious player, then go to a smaller club and team with more PT so long as coaches are good and teammates are good and play the right way.

Size isn't the main factor here as they are about average on size. Our DC just isn't quite as fast or aggressive as their very high end teammates. In our opinion still a very good player in their own right with the technical ability and enough athleticism to be one of if not the best player at the smaller club. Smaller club teammates are either not as technical or not as athletic whereas their current teammates are high end at both. Would the increased playing time and role possibly grow their aggressiveness with increased confidence? I guess we are concerned that if they stay in their current role, they will always have that mental hurdle.

Dcum1300 wrote:We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.

If this is a function of his size, and he is a serious player, then go to a smaller club and team with more PT so long as coaches are good and teammates are good and play the right way.

We have a U10/11 DC that plays at one of the more competitive and successful clubs in the area for their age group. We were wondering what thoughts anyone had regarding staying with the current team next year and playing as a reserve with less playing time vs. playing on a top team for a smaller club and helping to lead that team with unlimited playing time. Practices and tournaments would be less competitive but gaining confidence and playing time are intriguing.