Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why asking a serious question on a forum is waste of time. The prior two replies say
-Achilles has excellent training
-Achilles is not a serious development program

I have no dog in this fight as I live in VA and know nothing about Achilles. Just funny to me how two comments back to back can be so clearly opposing. Makes me think you only true path to the truth is to do your own homework and roll the dice with what your gut tells you. He is 10, chances are his interests will change in life anyway so dont over think it.

Achilles is the most cut throat program I've seen...the better the kid is, the better training he'll get.
If the kid isn't good, you'll hate the program.
Even at the younger ages, the best players play the whole game, and the other kids sit on the bench the whole game.
So just consider if this is the kind of club you want or not...some it'll be great, others awful.

+1
It's a good club if your kid is good. Bethesda's also a great choice if you can get on a top team and Stoddert. PPA's not at the same level, nor to they purport to be. Head guys are solid but heard that parents have been up in arms about some of the coaches being terrible. The stories are not good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why asking a serious question on a forum is waste of time. The prior two replies say
-Achilles has excellent training
-Achilles is not a serious development program

I have no dog in this fight as I live in VA and know nothing about Achilles. Just funny to me how two comments back to back can be so clearly opposing. Makes me think you only true path to the truth is to do your own homework and roll the dice with what your gut tells you. He is 10, chances are his interests will change in life anyway so dont over think it.

Achilles is the most cut throat program I've seen...the better the kid is, the better training he'll get.
If the kid isn't good, you'll hate the program.
Even at the younger ages, the best players play the whole game, and the other kids sit on the bench the whole game.
So just consider if this is the kind of club you want or not...some it'll be great, others awful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why asking a serious question on a forum is waste of time. The prior two replies say
-Achilles has excellent training
-Achilles is not a serious development program

I have no dog in this fight as I live in VA and know nothing about Achilles. Just funny to me how two comments back to back can be so clearly opposing. Makes me think you only true path to the truth is to do your own homework and roll the dice with what your gut tells you. He is 10, chances are his interests will change in life anyway so dont over think it.

Achilles is the most cut throat program I've seen...the better the kid is, the better training he'll get.
If the kid isn't good, you'll hate the program.
Even at the younger ages, the best players play the whole game, and the other kids sit on the bench the whole game.
So just consider if this is the kind of club you want or not...some it'll be great, others awful.

+1. From experience

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why asking a serious question on a forum is waste of time. The prior two replies say
-Achilles has excellent training
-Achilles is not a serious development program

I have no dog in this fight as I live in VA and know nothing about Achilles. Just funny to me how two comments back to back can be so clearly opposing. Makes me think you only true path to the truth is to do your own homework and roll the dice with what your gut tells you. He is 10, chances are his interests will change in life anyway so dont over think it.

Achilles is the most cut throat program I've seen...the better the kid is, the better training he'll get.
If the kid isn't good, you'll hate the program.
Even at the younger ages, the best players play the whole game, and the other kids sit on the bench the whole game.
So just consider if this is the kind of club you want or not...some it'll be great, others awful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You don't want to go near DAs that focus on recruiting kids within their own club even if they are not the best players. That means politics, less competition for your kid, insularity and a host of other comorbidities that will make the experience unpleasant over time. But if you are looking to build a wall around your club and protect your son from competition, by all means you should go to the clubs that do this.

I don't understand this point of view. If you want to be a Senior Engineer at Google, your best chance is if you are a Junior Engineer at Google. Of course they accept applications from outside the company, interview people, test them etc. And they probably hire a number of them from outside. But there is no better way to know what you are getting in an employee than seeing them on the job over time; and there is no better way to know what you are getting in a player than to have had them on your club for a few years.

That's not "politics"; it is a reasonable system to assemble the best team (at Google or a top soccer club). You are trusting a large sample size (years together) over a tiny one (interview/ID session). So, if you want to work at Google in two years, the best way is to work there next year; and if you want to play at Bethesda DA (or any other DA) in two years, the best way is to play there next year.

What reason would a club have for keeping a player who is worse over taking an outside player who is better? I truly can't think of any incentive to do this. The answer is that they don't think that outside player is better--or at least not better enough to be worth the risk of basing a decision on a small sample. But some parents go to these ID sessions and are in the exact opposite position from the coach--they have a large sample size from their own player, and just see a tiny one from the players already on the team (and those top players aren't trying that hard, to be honest). So they think "how can they take that guy over my kid?!" But you know a lot more about your kid than they do and a lot less about the other players than they do.

The vast majority of players are better off with a year- (or years-) long tryout than an hours-long tryout.

I agree on your incentives point alone, which is why boys DAs take players from mostly outside the club. Many players do not benefit from prolonged exposure to coaches. Your point about Google is way off. It is more akin to thinking you have a better chance of going to Harvard Law School because you went to Harvard College vs Princeton or Yale. If you do, it would have to do with legacy policies, not because you got a better education there than at MIT, Stanford, etc. But the reality is you don't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You don't want to go near DAs that focus on recruiting kids within their own club even if they are not the best players. That means politics, less competition for your kid, insularity and a host of other comorbidities that will make the experience unpleasant over time. But if you are looking to build a wall around your club and protect your son from competition, by all means you should go to the clubs that do this.

I don't understand this point of view. If you want to be a Senior Engineer at Google, your best chance is if you are a Junior Engineer at Google. Of course they accept applications from outside the company, interview people, test them etc. And they probably hire a number of them from outside. But there is no better way to know what you are getting in an employee than seeing them on the job over time; and there is no better way to know what you are getting in a player than to have had them on your club for a few years.

That's not "politics"; it is a reasonable system to assemble the best team (at Google or a top soccer club). You are trusting a large sample size (years together) over a tiny one (interview/ID session). So, if you want to work at Google in two years, the best way is to work there next year; and if you want to play at Bethesda DA (or any other DA) in two years, the best way is to play there next year.

What reason would a club have for keeping a player who is worse over taking an outside player who is better? I truly can't think of any incentive to do this. The answer is that they don't think that outside player is better--or at least not better enough to be worth the risk of basing a decision on a small sample. But some parents go to these ID sessions and are in the exact opposite position from the coach--they have a large sample size from their own player, and just see a tiny one from the players already on the team (and those top players aren't trying that hard, to be honest). So they think "how can they take that guy over my kid?!" But you know a lot more about your kid than they do and a lot less about the other players than they do.

The vast majority of players are better off with a year- (or years-) long tryout than an hours-long tryout.

Anonymous wrote:
You don't want to go near DAs that focus on recruiting kids within their own club even if they are not the best players. That means politics, less competition for your kid, insularity and a host of other comorbidities that will make the experience unpleasant over time. But if you are looking to build a wall around your club and protect your son from competition, by all means you should go to the clubs that do this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our son is on one of the Stoddert travel teams at a competitive level. We have always been with Stoddert and don't know about other teams and clubs. For a kid who dreams about playing in college or beyond, how does one go about assessing area clubs and rankings? We have tried to search for a post that compared the various travel teams but no luck yet.


Any tips or comparisons would be appreciated.

If your son truly wants to play "in college or beyond," they will need to end up at a top club, probably a DA (yes, D2, D3 and some D1 players come out of non-DA programs, but they're at a disadvantage). The DAs that area reachable from inside the District are probably Bethesda and (maybe) Arlington. DC United is a wildcard, because they are/maybe/it's unclear moving to Loudoun County. They also don't start until U14. So set them aside for now.

You can move to these clubs later, but it is much easier to make their DA teams, starting in U13, if you are already on the club for U12 or earlier. They'll see your player over a long period of time, you'll meet the coaches, you'll talk to other parents, etc. I'd suggest looking at one of those two, so you have the most options available as you go forward. (Note that Arlington DA currently only goes to U15 for boys, though they are trying to add U17 and U19 DA teams for next season.)

You don't want to go near DAs that focus on recruiting kids within their own club even if they are not the best players. That means politics, less competition for your kid, insularity and a host of other comorbidities that will make the experience unpleasant over time. But if you are looking to build a wall around your club and protect your son from competition, by all means you should go to the clubs that do this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our son is on one of the Stoddert travel teams at a competitive level. We have always been with Stoddert and don't know about other teams and clubs. For a kid who dreams about playing in college or beyond, how does one go about assessing area clubs and rankings? We have tried to search for a post that compared the various travel teams but no luck yet.


Any tips or comparisons would be appreciated.

If your son truly wants to play "in college or beyond," they will need to end up at a top club, probably a DA (yes, D2, D3 and some D1 players come out of non-DA programs, but they're at a disadvantage). The DAs that area reachable from inside the District are probably Bethesda and (maybe) Arlington. DC United is a wildcard, because they are/maybe/it's unclear moving to Loudoun County. They also don't start until U14. So set them aside for now.

You can move to these clubs later, but it is much easier to make their DA teams, starting in U13, if you are already on the club for U12 or earlier. They'll see your player over a long period of time, you'll meet the coaches, you'll talk to other parents, etc. I'd suggest looking at one of those two, so you have the most options available as you go forward. (Note that Arlington DA currently only goes to U15 for boys, though they are trying to add U17 and U19 DA teams for next season.)

Anonymous wrote:Our son is on one of the Stoddert travel teams at a competitive level. We have always been with Stoddert and don't know about other teams and clubs. For a kid who dreams about playing in college or beyond, how does one go about assessing area clubs and rankings? We have tried to search for a post that compared the various travel teams but no luck yet.


Any tips or comparisons would be appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:

FWIW a few of the Stoddert travel teams beat Bethesda this past year but there are a lot of people here that are sour on Stoddert for a variety of reasons.