Back to the original post, Coaches can and do naturally develop favorites.

It is more than just starting them or rarely subbing them out at U12 and below. It can be frustrating when they use them for 'examples' on how to do the drill correctly, always call on them, always put them in the middle, always use them as the 'neutral player,' and when their favorite player makes a mistake, they stop the play to let them do it over until they get it correct! -All while the other kids are on the periphery and have to watch over and over.

A kid who is treated so well, will 100% pay attention and identify with the Coach far more then the other kids.

Then, there are the parents who talk to the Coach before or after a lot of practices. So much so, you have to wonder what is going on.

We have had to put on feed back for the Coach to rotate the 'neutral players' more and mix the kids up more as they are still developing.

Its shocking to me a Coach doesn't know to do this. The Coach has very young kids, so its obvious he doesn't know how to deal with older kids.

Favoritism can easily occur after spending so much time together, the Coach must work on developing a skill to not let perceived favoritism ruin the Esprit d Corps of the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

Sorry, but if you are realistic with what coaches want - bigger/stronger/faster. That's a nice little cherry on top, but you can't teach a slow/small kid to be bigger/faster and almost every coach sees it this way. We don't live in this idealized 'perfect' world.

Yes bigger stronger and faster but can’t do much with the ball when they get it. This is not 🏈 it is ⚽️

want to bet. If they played soccer whole career the less technical athletes generally beat smaller slower but more technical. You can do crap if you cant win ball in space or constantly get knocked of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen. It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true. It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Explain. Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable? Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too? Often the latter is far easier, imo.

How many times can your kid juggle in a row? Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.

you describe maybe the top 3-4 kids on the top team. The next 7 are generally replaceable. Then we all know the rest are generally B team kids who joined earlier. Unfortunately youth soccer is about timing and who you know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

Sorry, but if you are realistic with what coaches want - bigger/stronger/faster. That's a nice little cherry on top, but you can't teach a slow/small kid to be bigger/faster and almost every coach sees it this way. We don't live in this idealized 'perfect' world.

Yes bigger stronger and faster but can’t do much with the ball when they get it. This is not 🏈 it is ⚽️

Well I'm talking about the girls side and that's all that matters there. Sorry if you don't like that, but it's what they select. You can continue to bury your head in the sand. Coaches continue to think they can teach those aspects later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen. It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true. It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Explain. Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable? Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too? Often the latter is far easier, imo.

How many times can your kid juggle in a row? Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.

YES do all this and it still may not matter. LOL this unfortunately is youth soccer today, mom and dad are doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

It's also life. There are all kinds of disappointments ahead for our kids. They learn how to deal with them in sports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

Sorry, but if you are realistic with what coaches want - bigger/stronger/faster. That's a nice little cherry on top, but you can't teach a slow/small kid to be bigger/faster and almost every coach sees it this way. We don't live in this idealized 'perfect' world.

Yes bigger stronger and faster but can’t do much with the ball when they get it. This is not 🏈 it is ⚽️

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen. It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true. It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Explain. Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable? Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too? Often the latter is far easier, imo.

How many times can your kid juggle in a row? Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.

Yes. Yea yes yes. Juggling record in the thousands. Makes opponents fall in 1v1. Equal shots and goals w both feet . Scans constantly. Second team. Why? Very late to grow and develop. Still growing at 16!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen. It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true. It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Explain. Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable? Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too? Often the latter is far easier, imo.

How many times can your kid juggle in a row? Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.

This is less things to do than a list of attributes/results which may define a player good enough to overcome politics. So in essence, the advice is "get good." These questions are: does your kid have good touch; is your kid good; is your kid fast; is your kid a smart player; is your kid self-motivated? All these points may define parts of a good player, and are worth working towards. But the complaint people are making stands - after becoming better than kids ahead, in all the ways mentioned, unless you are *sufficiently* better than those competing for spots, politics will matter.

My kid has gone from B to A, switched to a higher-caliber club, and again went from B to A. She worked hard on all these things. But the real push over the edge, in both cases, when she was in that B/A overlap range, was that the coaches really liked her work ethic at practices, while on teams with attitude-problem players. She became a coach's favorite both times through a good attitude in practices (and games) more so than getting good enough to immediately be top half of A. I consider that a form of coach-favorite politics, but I find it less offensive than some other types of politics because it's somewhat earned.

In my observation, most of the bottom half of A teams are: early developers who made the A track at 8-9 years old and just keep hanging on to the spot, kids with all-star siblings in the club, kids who do lots of private training with a coach at the club (not outside), kids with parents who threaten to leave, or kids who were stolen from the club's biggest rival. These kids are hard to displace unless your politics are stronger or you are undeniably better.

Anonymous wrote:Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

Sorry, but if you are realistic with what coaches want - bigger/stronger/faster. That's a nice little cherry on top, but you can't teach a slow/small kid to be bigger/faster and almost every coach sees it this way. We don't live in this idealized 'perfect' world.

Cause American soccer coaches are trash. You bettter have an accent or have spent time abroad with receipts for there to be any trust in your footy knowledge

Look at Gio Reyna

Anonymous wrote:Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

OP is saying. Some favorites don’t know how to juggle. How do you explain that?

I get annoyed when my U14 girls coach puts his DD in the most when she actually is on a different team because she “ plays up”
Hes the Coach though, it is what it is.

Juggling is probbaly most important, Being able to do it shows attention to craft and training cause its not hard but it takes dedicated time to get comfortable doing. This time plays out in every touch on the field when you learn inherently how the ball behaves when you use outside foot, insole, botton, top of thigh, inner thigh, chest, shoulders, head etc.... Manipulating the ball = soccer . Juggling is kind of important simple excercise to ball mastery

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So tired of people always crying politics or favoritism when their kids dont get chosen. It bleeds down to the players and creates a culture of excuses as opposed to working harder to be better.

so tired of people who complain that all it takes is to "work harder" when there is clear favoritism at play. It wouldn't be such a trope if it wasn't at least a "bit" true. It sucks, but sometimes a decision is made early on and there is nothing the player can do to overcome it.

That is a poor attitude. There are plenty of ways to overcome it.

Explain. Do you mean by working hard to become so good it's undeniable? Or do you mean by deciding to play the political game too? Often the latter is far easier, imo.

How many times can your kid juggle in a row? Can they keep up the ball 50x in a row with laces, inside foot, outside foot, thighs, chest and head?

Are their 5-10-5 shuttle, 400m, 800m and 1,600m times in the top 10% percentile of your age group.

Can they win 25% of their 1v1’s?

Is your kid scanning at least every 10-15 seconds (which is a slow rate) and able to scan and turn with anticipation?

Are they proficient with shooting, passing and receiving with both their left foot and right foot?

How is their ankle flexion, hip mobility and CofD agility?

After all of that, can they play in a neutral field without their squad or support from Mommy and Daddy?

Everybody wants to talk a great game without acknowledging the work. If you don’t get picked, pick a question above and start doing the work to become undeniable.

YES do all this and it still may not matter. LOL this unfortunately is youth soccer today, mom and dad are doing a lot of the heavy lifting.