Anonymous wrote:What is the ideal height for female player?

My DD has done a few college ID camps and it appears the 80-90% of the girls are 5’-2” to 5’-4” with great skills and decent speed. They all are playing M/F, not as many defenders have come to these camps. The fastest and strongest girls in this range stood out to me. A 5’-8” to 5’-10” player with the same great skills and decent speed also stands out, but there are not many of these showing up. I looked at topdrawersoccer.com under recruiting needs and mostly they ask for speed/pace/desire/grit/coachable, but one D1 asks for 5’-8”+. As my daughter has gotten older, the 50/50 balls have become more physical and winning the aerial balls with headers have become more frequent/important. I’m thinking the ideal height would be 5’-6”+. For example, the JHU (D3) roster has 23 players 5’-6” or taller on it.

What is the ideal height for female player?

Through any ticketing Will Call

Your club coaches opinion and their network of div 1 coaches.

You are a div 1 coach, you call a highly respected club coach and ask, what do you have for me? They are honest and will tell them exactly what they have in terms of Div 1 players. or or you get a video and scripted emails from an unknown kid

who do you pay attention to?

Between u15 and u16 your club coach should give you a good idea of what level you can play.

Parents often don't agree but the coaches are usually correct.

Don't rule out D2 or D3 soccer. Have your kid develop a list of colleges she or he would like to attend that you can afford (regardless of soccer division)...then see where soccer lines up. Unless your kid is national team caliber and college coaches are falling over him or her to recruit, don't focus on a path to D1 soccer. Focus on a path to a good college and then figure out where soccer fits in. Don't assume that D3 soccer is "bad soccer." It's not.

Coaches are able to teach skills and tactics but they can’t teach speed, size and aggressiveness. Hence, is this the reason why coaches prefer size & speed?

My rising U12 DD has decent skills but it took a while for her to obtain aggressiveness. She just got her aggressiveness this past season. Size is a problem for her as she has a November birthdate. She’s quick but not fast especially compared to some of the Jan/Feb birthdate kids.

We have played against teams that have players that look like fully grown women and not U11 girls.

Anonymous wrote:Please describe the ideal path to D1 college soccer for a female player?

Don't worry which path to choose, that will come naturally. All they (ECNL, DA & beyond) care for is that their players have speed, aggressiveness/strength and height.

Skill is thrown out the window and is not important. Quickly (speed) pressuring a skillful player and tackling (aggressiveness/strength) those players off the ball is enough to create space which then creates opportunities (mostly long balls) up-field for strikers (height) to have a chance.

I will just say though --

The school my daughter played at -- the coach came early to her high school game. He left about 5 minutes into the game. I knew he was there and knew he left. I figured == that's a big "nope". Oh well. He emailed her club coach from the car on the way to see someone else that he diffently wanted her. He loved the way she walked around getting people focused for the game, and how she warmed up, and got her teammates ready.

He knew what club team she was on and had talked to the coach before. With him it was about how kids handled themselves.

The primary use of video is as a first screen for players that have not been seen in person. As such, clips can be effective. If you submit a whole game, it better be great video, marked to they can jump to the right points ... coaches are lazy, they're not going to watch a whole game looking for your player unless you lead them to the sections involving your DD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two quick points, from the perspective of a parent of a former D1 final four player.

1. There are over 330 women's D1 teams. Recruiting classes vary between 6 to 12 players. Thus, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 spots each year. If you want to play D1 and do not care about the school, its not that high of a bar.

2. Film is not necessary nor do the better coaches rely on it, unless the film is a complete game film (or half) where they can see the player off the ball. If you are a 6 foot striker and have clips of great goals that can sell you, but if you are an outside back, the coach will need and want to see you in person and watch you off the ball as much as on the ball.

Video and video clips are two different things. Coaches will watch video and they want to watch video. Highlight clips are nice to grab attention but the video they ultimately want if they are interested is full game film. They want to see how a player plays off the ball. 90% of the game is spent off the ball so they need to see if your DD understands movement, holds the line, plays cohesively and stays connected and engaged with their teammates.

I also was told that they don't want just highlight reels. They want to see the complete game. Anyone can cobble together a bunch of good moments. Seeing the player in an entire game and how they move is more important.

Can I add that it's not enough to provide a series of 10 second clips over an entire season. Coaches want to see entire games to assess the level of the player.

Position and versatility matter.

Striker/forwards and center mids are always going to be the most competitive spots. More kids identify with those positions so more players competing for those positions for college/uswnt.

Defenders have better odds. There is only one goal-keeper so that is competitive for National team (back-up rarely sees any time).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two quick points, from the perspective of a parent of a former D1 final four player.

1. There are over 330 women's D1 teams. Recruiting classes vary between 6 to 12 players. Thus, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 spots each year. If you want to play D1 and do not care about the school, its not that high of a bar.

2. Film is not necessary nor do the better coaches rely on it, unless the film is a complete game film (or half) where they can see the player off the ball. If you are a 6 foot striker and have clips of great goals that can sell you, but if you are an outside back, the coach will need and want to see you in person and watch you off the ball as much as on the ball.

Video and video clips are two different things. Coaches will watch video and they want to watch video. Highlight clips are nice to grab attention but the video they ultimately want if they are interested is full game film. They want to see how a player plays off the ball. 90% of the game is spent off the ball so they need to see if your DD understands movement, holds the line, plays cohesively and stays connected and engaged with their teammates.

I also was told that they don't want just highlight reels. They want to see the complete game. Anyone can cobble together a bunch of good moments. Seeing the player in an entire game and how they move is more important.

Isn't that what I said?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two quick points, from the perspective of a parent of a former D1 final four player.

1. There are over 330 women's D1 teams. Recruiting classes vary between 6 to 12 players. Thus, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 spots each year. If you want to play D1 and do not care about the school, its not that high of a bar.

2. Film is not necessary nor do the better coaches rely on it, unless the film is a complete game film (or half) where they can see the player off the ball. If you are a 6 foot striker and have clips of great goals that can sell you, but if you are an outside back, the coach will need and want to see you in person and watch you off the ball as much as on the ball.

Video and video clips are two different things. Coaches will watch video and they want to watch video. Highlight clips are nice to grab attention but the video they ultimately want if they are interested is full game film. They want to see how a player plays off the ball. 90% of the game is spent off the ball so they need to see if your DD understands movement, holds the line, plays cohesively and stays connected and engaged with their teammates.

I also was told that they don't want just highlight reels. They want to see the complete game. Anyone can cobble together a bunch of good moments. Seeing the player in an entire game and how they move is more important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the top 10 universities for women’s soccer?

1 Florida State
2 North Carolina
3 Stanford
4 Georgetown
5 UCLA
6 Southern California
7 Tennessee
8 Penn State
9 Baylor
10 Duke

I'm not questioning this list, but I find it interesting that none of the members of the USNWT went to most of these universities. A lot of North Carolina, Penn, and California schools.

4 from UVA

Anonymous wrote:Two quick points, from the perspective of a parent of a former D1 final four player.

1. There are over 330 women's D1 teams. Recruiting classes vary between 6 to 12 players. Thus, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 spots each year. If you want to play D1 and do not care about the school, its not that high of a bar.

2. Film is not necessary nor do the better coaches rely on it, unless the film is a complete game film (or half) where they can see the player off the ball. If you are a 6 foot striker and have clips of great goals that can sell you, but if you are an outside back, the coach will need and want to see you in person and watch you off the ball as much as on the ball.

Video and video clips are two different things. Coaches will watch video and they want to watch video. Highlight clips are nice to grab attention but the video they ultimately want if they are interested is full game film. They want to see how a player plays off the ball. 90% of the game is spent off the ball so they need to see if your DD understands movement, holds the line, plays cohesively and stays connected and engaged with their teammates.