Anonymous wrote:Lol, less intense. Okay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off season or Summer is where you can make the most gains. More to time to do strength training, speed and agility work, and try to expand your field game. Whether it be playing a different position, developing more field vision, or working to gain more confidence on the ball. There is less pressure to win games and more time for coaches to sit back and watch which players are putting in work on their own.

It is true the off-season is the best time to make gains: strength and power training, speed and agility work, expand your game. That’s why summer leagues are a bad idea for technically gifted players. If you’re in a summer league, that’s more practices and games where you can’t work on you, the individual. Summer leagues are great for players that need to play more. But the excelled players? Work on yourself.

Please understand of all the soccer players in the DMV u5 thru u19. There are only a handful of "TECHNICALLY GIFTED" players. Granted there are some better than most and can play up an age or two. The truth is for almost all players unless they are playing on multiple teams full time during spring and fall or recovering from an injury will benefit from game play anytime its possible. The handful that are technically gifted should spend the Summer playing in mens leagues if they are not already training in a youth national team program.

^ This. The definition of technically gifted is relative - buty I agree that there are ~5 or so kids per age group who are clearly better than the others - so let's call that the technically gifted group. I think it's worth pointing out that those kids got that way by playing all the time. They play on clubs, they play in unofficial leagues, they play pick-up. They play futsal, they play with older kids and adults, and they play with younger kids. They play in the fall, the winter, the spring and the summer. And they don't stop playing because they have reached the level of "technically gifted". They keep doing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off season or Summer is where you can make the most gains. More to time to do strength training, speed and agility work, and try to expand your field game. Whether it be playing a different position, developing more field vision, or working to gain more confidence on the ball. There is less pressure to win games and more time for coaches to sit back and watch which players are putting in work on their own.

It is true the off-season is the best time to make gains: strength and power training, speed and agility work, expand your game. That’s why summer leagues are a bad idea for technically gifted players. If you’re in a summer league, that’s more practices and games where you can’t work on you, the individual. Summer leagues are great for players that need to play more. But the excelled players? Work on yourself.

Please understand of all the soccer players in the DMV u5 thru u19. There are only a handful of "TECHNICALLY GIFTED" players. Granted there are some better than most and can play up an age or two. The truth is for almost all players unless they are playing on multiple teams full time during spring and fall or recovering from an injury will benefit from game play anytime its possible. The handful that are technically gifted should spend the Summer playing in mens leagues if they are not already training in a youth national team program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off season or Summer is where you can make the most gains. More to time to do strength training, speed and agility work, and try to expand your field game. Whether it be playing a different position, developing more field vision, or working to gain more confidence on the ball. There is less pressure to win games and more time for coaches to sit back and watch which players are putting in work on their own.

It is true the off-season is the best time to make gains: strength and power training, speed and agility work, expand your game. That’s why summer leagues are a bad idea for technically gifted players. If you’re in a summer league, that’s more practices and games where you can’t work on you, the individual. Summer leagues are great for players that need to play more. But the excelled players? Work on yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Off season or Summer is where you can make the most gains. More to time to do strength training, speed and agility work, and try to expand your field game. Whether it be playing a different position, developing more field vision, or working to gain more confidence on the ball. There is less pressure to win games and more time for coaches to sit back and watch which players are putting in work on their own.

It is true the off-season is the best time to make gains: strength and power training, speed and agility work, expand your game. That’s why summer leagues are a bad idea for technically gifted players. If you’re in a summer league, that’s more practices and games where you can’t work on you, the individual. Summer leagues are great for players that need to play more. But the excelled players? Work on yourself.

Anonymous wrote:Off season or Summer is where you can make the most gains. More to time to do strength training, speed and agility work, and try to expand your field game. Whether it be playing a different position, developing more field vision, or working to gain more confidence on the ball. There is less pressure to win games and more time for coaches to sit back and watch which players are putting in work on their own.

Anonymous wrote:Their is a Difference between resting and sitting on a couch for 3 straight months

Some movement/stretching is still necessary

Anonymous wrote:great way to wear out your kid's ligaments during the summer when they should be resting from the rest of the 10-month year.