Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.

If you look for a travel coach with at least a ‘C’ license, if not an A or a B license you wouldn’t be having these problems. Who cares if they’ve played before? They need training that teaches them how to develop and coach young players.
This coach sounds like a meat head.

My experience that licensed coach who did not play as player generally is a parent coach who may coach many years.
They could not demo moves, such as juggling, or other personal skills
They could not point at the detail level for the player on the field for the improvement, such as parent coach could tell the forward player to hold the sprint to avoid the offset trap , but fail to tell player to make a curve run to defect the offset trap, this is just an example on parent coach does not have detail tricks.

there are a lot more differences between a parent coach who could read game well, follow the game plan well, and was licensed.. and a licensed player/coach who has more to offer to your DC, generally.

You don’t want a parent coaching travel soccer. That’s not travel soccer. Coaching young kids to ‘win the game’ by ‘holding the sprint’ is useless in the grand scheme of things. You want the coach to be teaching them skills and technique. Then they develop their own game and use their own brain for decision making while they play on the field. That’s how a well coached travel team works. You don’t coach decision making at that age at all.

It’s not at all about ‘tricks to win a game’.
Without developing essential skills and instead focusing on tactics your kid won’t even make the high school team. Parents get upset when they notice that the high school teams only accept kids from certain clubs but it’s too late to unteach them parent taught tactics and to teach them the essential skills.

Teaching a kid what to lookout for and teaching them how to think are two totally different things.

I agree that a travel coach should have played. We can see the difference in coaches who have versus those who haven't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.

If you look for a travel coach with at least a ‘C’ license, if not an A or a B license you wouldn’t be having these problems. Who cares if they’ve played before? They need training that teaches them how to develop and coach young players.
This coach sounds like a meat head.

My experience that licensed coach who did not play as player generally is a parent coach who may coach many years.
They could not demo moves, such as juggling, or other personal skills
They could not point at the detail level for the player on the field for the improvement, such as parent coach could tell the forward player to hold the sprint to avoid the offset trap , but fail to tell player to make a curve run to defect the offset trap, this is just an example on parent coach does not have detail tricks.

there are a lot more differences between a parent coach who could read game well, follow the game plan well, and was licensed.. and a licensed player/coach who has more to offer to your DC, generally.

You don’t want a parent coaching travel soccer. That’s not travel soccer. Coaching young kids to ‘win the game’ by ‘holding the sprint’ is useless in the grand scheme of things. You want the coach to be teaching them skills and technique. Then they develop their own game and use their own brain for decision making while they play on the field. That’s how a well coached travel team works. You don’t coach decision making at that age at all.

It’s not at all about ‘tricks to win a game’.
Without developing essential skills and instead focusing on tactics your kid won’t even make the high school team. Parents get upset when they notice that the high school teams only accept kids from certain clubs but it’s too late to unteach them parent taught tactics and to teach them the essential skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.

If you look for a travel coach with at least a ‘C’ license, if not an A or a B license you wouldn’t be having these problems. Who cares if they’ve played before? They need training that teaches them how to develop and coach young players.
This coach sounds like a meat head.

My experience that licensed coach who did not play as player generally is a parent coach who may coach many years.
They could not demo moves, such as juggling, or other personal skills
They could not point at the detail level for the player on the field for the improvement, such as parent coach could tell the forward player to hold the sprint to avoid the offset trap , but fail to tell player to make a curve run to defect the offset trap, this is just an example on parent coach does not have detail tricks.

there are a lot more differences between a parent coach who could read game well, follow the game plan well, and was licensed.. and a licensed player/coach who has more to offer to your DC, generally.

I’ve never met a C or higher licensed coach who didn’t at least play division 1 college.

Is there a Classic equivalent in NoVa?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s called Recreation for a reason. At about $30 per child to play each season, don’t expect the parents and/or their kids to be serious about soccer especially at the younger ages (U8-U11).

Where is this? We pay around $190/kid per season out in the boonies for regular rec soccer.

My bad. It was a typo. I meant around $90/per season. It’s MSI Recreation.

If you're doing MSI, then try a Classic team. More serious than Rec; less serious than Travel. We're on such a team (U10) with a professional coach who gives all kids the same effort. He says that playing time will depend to some extent on showing up at practices (though I think even that is against the rules in Classic-- kids are supposed to get equal playing time, I think.) This policy hasn't really been tested, though, because all kids are serious and show up to practice regularly. (It's much more expensive than Rec, though, which is probably why parents consistently make their kids show up.)

Second this. We lucked onto a Classic team (played Rec w/a coach who was Classic certified) and it's just great. Coach cares about all the kids and genuinely engages with each of them around skill building. Playing time isn't perfectly equally distributed but it's very fair. Kids are all good players and genuinely nice boys who get along well. My kid can't get out the door fast enough for practice or games. I hear such horror stories about soccer and I feel like we hit the jackpot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid doesn't have to play travel right now if you don't think he's getting anything out of it.

That’s the point. My kid is in a REC league, but we have a parent coach who has delusions of coaching the next Messi.

This is the problem with my kid...he doesn't like the intensity of travel but rec is just god awful. Parents just bring their kids "to run around and get some exercise" or to "socialize" and the parent volunteers...let's say they do their best. But kids don't pay attention, kick other kids' soccer balls, etc. It is so hard to watch. Parents...stick around and watch a practice now and then and, if your kid is a disrupting practice a lot, do something about it PLEASE! Ruining the experience for everyone.

In the younger age groups, yes, this happens but you'll see a huge jump in maturity between U9 and U10. Many kids drop rec soccer at U10 so the ones that remain are the ones who are more serious even if it's just rec. DS and I never had an issue with kids not paying attention, kicking other kids' soccer balls. Don't get me wrong. All this happened but it was all in good fun and he really enjoyed the rec experience anyway. At U10 and U11 things in rec got more serious. There were a few good players who stayed in rec because they play other sports and some less sporty kids but every kid took it seriously. There was very minimum horsing around at practice, just enough to keep things light. DS plays travel now and he does miss rec practices sometimes because it was about enjoying yourself with your friends. Travel practices help you advance your skills but they can be a grind.

Surprise surprise, when parents pay more money for their kids to be in the soccer program they are more committed

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s called Recreation for a reason. At about $30 per child to play each season, don’t expect the parents and/or their kids to be serious about soccer especially at the younger ages (U8-U11).

Where is this? We pay around $190/kid per season out in the boonies for regular rec soccer.

My bad. It was a typo. I meant around $90/per season. It’s MSI Recreation.

If you're doing MSI, then try a Classic team. More serious than Rec; less serious than Travel. We're on such a team (U10) with a professional coach who gives all kids the same effort. He says that playing time will depend to some extent on showing up at practices (though I think even that is against the rules in Classic-- kids are supposed to get equal playing time, I think.) This policy hasn't really been tested, though, because all kids are serious and show up to practice regularly. (It's much more expensive than Rec, though, which is probably why parents consistently make their kids show up.)

Yes. Classic requires equal playing time for all kids on the team which could be frustrating when kid(s) is/are daydreaming during a game. This is one of the reason why we went to travel team. Aside from this, we enjoyed the classic experience for 1 year. I think it’s a good step before doing travel. I see girls going directly from Rec to travel and they are way behind, but this really depends on the coaches’ style of play and coaching.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.

If you look for a travel coach with at least a ‘C’ license, if not an A or a B license you wouldn’t be having these problems. Who cares if they’ve played before? They need training that teaches them how to develop and coach young players.
This coach sounds like a meat head.

My experience that licensed coach who did not play as player generally is a parent coach who may coach many years.
They could not demo moves, such as juggling, or other personal skills
They could not point at the detail level for the player on the field for the improvement, such as parent coach could tell the forward player to hold the sprint to avoid the offset trap , but fail to tell player to make a curve run to defect the offset trap, this is just an example on parent coach does not have detail tricks.

there are a lot more differences between a parent coach who could read game well, follow the game plan well, and was licensed.. and a licensed player/coach who has more to offer to your DC, generally.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s called Recreation for a reason. At about $30 per child to play each season, don’t expect the parents and/or their kids to be serious about soccer especially at the younger ages (U8-U11).

Where is this? We pay around $190/kid per season out in the boonies for regular rec soccer.

My bad. It was a typo. I meant around $90/per season. It’s MSI Recreation.

If you're doing MSI, then try a Classic team. More serious than Rec; less serious than Travel. We're on such a team (U10) with a professional coach who gives all kids the same effort. He says that playing time will depend to some extent on showing up at practices (though I think even that is against the rules in Classic-- kids are supposed to get equal playing time, I think.) This policy hasn't really been tested, though, because all kids are serious and show up to practice regularly. (It's much more expensive than Rec, though, which is probably why parents consistently make their kids show up.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.

If you look for a travel coach with at least a ‘C’ license, if not an A or a B license you wouldn’t be having these problems. Who cares if they’ve played before? They need training that teaches them how to develop and coach young players.
This coach sounds like a meat head.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s called Recreation for a reason. At about $30 per child to play each season, don’t expect the parents and/or their kids to be serious about soccer especially at the younger ages (U8-U11).

Where is this? We pay around $190/kid per season out in the boonies for regular rec soccer.

My bad. It was a typo. I meant around $90/per season. It’s MSI Recreation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

I can’t tell if this post is sarcasm. Is it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Yes, 45 practices per season run by professional coaches is better than the 7 or 8 parent coached practices you get in rec. There are several practice activities you just can't do in rec because many of the kids can't do the basics. The kids love rec to be with their friends but are only maybe learning the most basic skills, even if their rec coach is very good. I don't know that things like nurture and supportive are part of the travel vocabulary, and is pretty coach dependent, that's what parents and good assistant coaches are for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing wrong with keeping your kid out of travel at u9 but they tend to fall behind. If you wait 3 years to put your DC in travel, everyone else has had proper training and you tend to be playing catch up unless your kid is naturally talented. They are getting zero development or competition at the rec level, its mostly for the fun aspect.

Is travel training really that much better than rec?

Which travel leagues in DC are the best? Best being nurturing, supportively, about player developmental.

I thought rec leagues were supposed to be better for that and travel leagues were all about grooming stars.

Anybody can coach rec and any child can play rec. Rec coaches tend to be parents, and travel coaches need to have either played and/or have experience/licensing for 90% of the clubs in the area. If your kid is also training with other kids of equal or better talent, they will get better. They are not going to develop with weaker kids around them and no expectations on attending training or games. There are leagues at every level, but if your child is just looking to ease into travel then an ODSL team or NCSL team is a good start. Have them attend several clubs tryouts in may and go from there. You may find you like a certain coach or club mentality more than others. You will also have a good idea where your kid falls with the rest of their peers.