Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, would you rather your kids get their asses kicked in high leagues/tournament brackets or be competitive in lower leagues/brackets? Honest question.

As a parent, I hate the feeling of watching my kids' teams lose big.

DP. Our coach specifically looks for tournaments where they will end up competing against teams beyond their current level. We always get our asses locked in tournaments. But in his view, we spend most of the season competing in a division where we are competitive, so tournaments are a good opportunity to to play against much better teams and learn from them. Sure, it’s a bummer to watch your kid’s team get blown out, but it’s also really exciting when you see them play unexpectedly close because they’ve really risen to the challenge.

Bonus, we always know we can make plans for Sunday afternoon of a tournament weekend. 😆

PP, I think that's a great strategy and works well--as long as there's buy-in from the kids AND their parents.

I think it's a very selfish strategy. The teams you are playing against are paying for and traveling to the tournament too. They don't want their time wasted by administering an ass kicking to an inferior team - they want good competition on their own level. Enter the bracket you are suited for.

Ya, sorry, invested coach is trying to improve his team and so is indeed selfish. Doesn't care about your feelings. Waaahh...

On the other hand, if the coach of the stronger team cannot take advantage of the opportunity to improve his team (by rotating players positions or trying out new tactics), sounds pretty non-invested.

Again, we have the delta here between what entitled upper-middle class American parents *think* is quality coaching (winning) and what is actually quality coaching.

Either way, don't care about your feelings. Take it up with the manager, Karen.

Non invested coach here. I do 3 teams and make 16k per team. Do you think I’m giving that up? Think again.

Anonymous wrote:As an aside, I always imagine the brackets to be part statistics, part coaches input and part magic and feelings. It has to be extremely hard to balance teams (outside of really well know top teams) fairly in a way that will be fun for everyone.

Is it really just the coach gets a list of brackets and picks one?

I'm a first year travel parent in a small community club and I also wonders how the brackets work on tournaments. Our last tournament was rough - we lost all 3 by 7 and 3 goals. There were 2 divisions and DS team was in the top one. I don't know how we got there. First team we played is in the division that's 3 levels up on our regular league. The second team is 2 levels up. The last one not sure as they were from out of state - it was the closest game at 1-4.

Our upcoming tournament is huge with 7 divisions in DS age group. We are in div# 4. I see a bunch of movements on the teams since the schedules were first released. 2 teams that we originally were scheduled to play move up - one move 2 levels up and another move up a level. Hopefully that means it'll be more even now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, would you rather your kids get their asses kicked in high leagues/tournament brackets or be competitive in lower leagues/brackets? Honest question.

As a parent, I hate the feeling of watching my kids' teams lose big.

DP. Our coach specifically looks for tournaments where they will end up competing against teams beyond their current level. We always get our asses locked in tournaments. But in his view, we spend most of the season competing in a division where we are competitive, so tournaments are a good opportunity to to play against much better teams and learn from them. Sure, it’s a bummer to watch your kid’s team get blown out, but it’s also really exciting when you see them play unexpectedly close because they’ve really risen to the challenge.

Bonus, we always know we can make plans for Sunday afternoon of a tournament weekend. 😆

PP, I think that's a great strategy and works well--as long as there's buy-in from the kids AND their parents.

I think it's a very selfish strategy. The teams you are playing against are paying for and traveling to the tournament too. They don't want their time wasted by administering an ass kicking to an inferior team - they want good competition on their own level. Enter the bracket you are suited for.

on the one hand, an easy win is a nice break for some kids. On the other hand, if points scored or differentials matter, you may have other teams trying to beat you 10 or 15-0

Goal differentials are usually capped for tiebreaker purposes

FWIW at smaller tournaments it seems like DD's team is in a bracket and usually stays there. At bigger tournaments, there seems to be more movement and fine tuning.

At our club the team manager asks the coach which bracket to be in and then the manager does the registration. At the younger age groups, it seems like it would incredibly hard to make the brackets.

As an aside, I always imagine the brackets to be part statistics, part coaches input and part magic and feelings. It has to be extremely hard to balance teams (outside of really well know top teams) fairly in a way that will be fun for everyone.

Is it really just the coach gets a list of brackets and picks one?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, would you rather your kids get their asses kicked in high leagues/tournament brackets or be competitive in lower leagues/brackets? Honest question.

As a parent, I hate the feeling of watching my kids' teams lose big.

DP. Our coach specifically looks for tournaments where they will end up competing against teams beyond their current level. We always get our asses locked in tournaments. But in his view, we spend most of the season competing in a division where we are competitive, so tournaments are a good opportunity to to play against much better teams and learn from them. Sure, it’s a bummer to watch your kid’s team get blown out, but it’s also really exciting when you see them play unexpectedly close because they’ve really risen to the challenge.

Bonus, we always know we can make plans for Sunday afternoon of a tournament weekend. 😆

PP, I think that's a great strategy and works well--as long as there's buy-in from the kids AND their parents.

I think it's a very selfish strategy. The teams you are playing against are paying for and traveling to the tournament too. They don't want their time wasted by administering an ass kicking to an inferior team - they want good competition on their own level. Enter the bracket you are suited for.

on the one hand, an easy win is a nice break for some kids. On the other hand, if points scored or differentials matter, you may have other teams trying to beat you 10 or 15-0

Indeed. An inferior team entering a bracket above their level can be highly disruptive to the integrity of the competition as well as wasting the opponents' time. Top tournaments at the older ages usually spot teams trying to enter too high or low a bracket and they don't allow it, but many smaller tournaments are not very good at this - hence teams playing at the wrong level. I agree with the poster who noted this was selfish - it is exactly that. If you enter a bracket which you are not good enough for it is just as selfish as entering one which you are too good for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, would you rather your kids get their asses kicked in high leagues/tournament brackets or be competitive in lower leagues/brackets? Honest question.

As a parent, I hate the feeling of watching my kids' teams lose big.

DP. Our coach specifically looks for tournaments where they will end up competing against teams beyond their current level. We always get our asses locked in tournaments. But in his view, we spend most of the season competing in a division where we are competitive, so tournaments are a good opportunity to to play against much better teams and learn from them. Sure, it’s a bummer to watch your kid’s team get blown out, but it’s also really exciting when you see them play unexpectedly close because they’ve really risen to the challenge.

Bonus, we always know we can make plans for Sunday afternoon of a tournament weekend. 😆

PP, I think that's a great strategy and works well--as long as there's buy-in from the kids AND their parents.

I think it's a very selfish strategy. The teams you are playing against are paying for and traveling to the tournament too. They don't want their time wasted by administering an ass kicking to an inferior team - they want good competition on their own level. Enter the bracket you are suited for.

on the one hand, an easy win is a nice break for some kids. On the other hand, if points scored or differentials matter, you may have other teams trying to beat you 10 or 15-0

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, would you rather your kids get their asses kicked in high leagues/tournament brackets or be competitive in lower leagues/brackets? Honest question.

As a parent, I hate the feeling of watching my kids' teams lose big.

DP. Our coach specifically looks for tournaments where they will end up competing against teams beyond their current level. We always get our asses locked in tournaments. But in his view, we spend most of the season competing in a division where we are competitive, so tournaments are a good opportunity to to play against much better teams and learn from them. Sure, it’s a bummer to watch your kid’s team get blown out, but it’s also really exciting when you see them play unexpectedly close because they’ve really risen to the challenge.

Bonus, we always know we can make plans for Sunday afternoon of a tournament weekend. 😆

PP, I think that's a great strategy and works well--as long as there's buy-in from the kids AND their parents.

I think it's a very selfish strategy. The teams you are playing against are paying for and traveling to the tournament too. They don't want their time wasted by administering an ass kicking to an inferior team - they want good competition on their own level. Enter the bracket you are suited for.

There’s always one…