Anonymous wrote:It could be we are burning parents and kids out by pushing them into travel at u8.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

And they paid for private training.... probably not a cost savings at $50-$100 per hour

Nope. They trained him for free. Good friend of the dad's. The coach came over to play college ball after Ajax academy and owned a local soccer store.

"Select" (aka travel) was virtually no $ back in the 70s/early 80s because most of the coaches were not getting paid. My parents say there is no way they would have been able to afford for the three of us to play travel at today's prices.

I will add that this scenario just won't work into today's area of elite, ELITE leagues that you have to be a part of to even be seen. He was scouted by one of the State team Coaches that was playing in the adult league and that's how he ended up on the State Team.

There are just too many kids playing and if you aren't part of the 'system', it's unlikely you'll be on DA at 16/17. It was starting to get very political by the early 90s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

And they paid for private training.... probably not a cost savings at $50-$100 per hour

Nope. They trained him for free. Good friend of the dad's. The coach came over to play college ball after Ajax academy and owned a local soccer store.

"Select" (aka travel) was virtually no $ back in the 70s/early 80s because most of the coaches were not getting paid. My parents say there is no way they would have been able to afford for the three of us to play travel at today's prices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

And they paid for private training.... probably not a cost savings at $50-$100 per hour

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

And they paid for private training.... probably not a cost savings at $50-$100 per hour

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

Anonymous wrote:^ less structured training as long as they are playing/practicing on their own daily.

Less overall, not so much.

Friend’s father pulled him out of travel at 12 and he trained privately with Dutch coach and played in the adult embassy league here at age 13. He went back to Club and joined VA State team at 16/17. He was the top college recruit in the country and played Pro.

But, that kid had a ball with him everywhere he went.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to non-MoCo options but Classic/Select in MoCo has strong classic/select teams and it is not a leap of faith to put your kid in a classic/select program and get just as good of an experience if not better than the Potomac/Bethesda B and C teams.

I shared enough team names above that should enable people to do their own research. There are quality coaches, some of who I know because they also coached travel. The experience is different than travel for sure but as I mentioned above, I have seen too many kids come from classic and beat out other travel players for spots on B teams that I am certain that classic/select can provide the right environment for some kids and that the practice sessions are better than the sessions of travel programs.

Just do your research. The best classic teams actually stay together and progress to travel teams over the years. Some break up at the u13/u14 age as the parent does not want to coach a travel team and the top players leave to go to the top travel programs.

Classic can be a serious alternative to B/C teams. The question with which we all agree is that the timing to enter soccer and the motivation of the kid is key but with the $2,000 in savings, you can't tell me that you can't provide additional training for your classic-playing DC, play 3 or 4 travel tournaments a year and not get a strong experience which is better than the B/C team experience.

Sorry for using names but when I provide examples and links to teams and people still make the same stupid comment about unicorns, then the shoe fits.

Lets take Toca Jr as an example:
Kit: $150
Winter training/Futsal full season: $450 for new members for 24, 1 hour sessions.
Winter training/Futsal half season: $325 for new members for 12, 1 hour sessions.

Now unfortunately prices are not listed for Fall or Spring seasons currently but I would imagine that they are in the range of $300 per season.

So to do 10 months of Toca Jr the cost is around $1200/year. This is in line with the training fees for a travel club that is providing 3 practices a week vs Toca's 2 practices a week.

And there are still opportunities to play in local tournaments and those will still carry fees as well.

So if you are comparing Toca Jr to say a C level travel team in NCSL the games may be spread around the DMV more than MSI's league. A typical U10/U11 C level travel team will play in 2-4 local tourneys per year like Dulles National and other smaller tourneys held out at the SoccerPlex etc. Certainly not leagues or tourneys going up and down 95 as you claim. In a head to head comparison if one is comparing the actual value for dollar per training session they actually come out a wash. Travel usually includes 3 1.5 hour practices a week compared to Toca's 2 1 hour practices a week. (The actual outside season may have 1.5 hour sessions).

So would this classic route cost less? Yes, but it pro-rates about to be nearly the same as travel.

So you're saying that DenseMan stumbled across the concept that playing less soccer costs less and is less of a time commitment, but is still a better pathway to "Elite" soccer. Someone call the USMNT!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak to non-MoCo options but Classic/Select in MoCo has strong classic/select teams and it is not a leap of faith to put your kid in a classic/select program and get just as good of an experience if not better than the Potomac/Bethesda B and C teams.

I shared enough team names above that should enable people to do their own research. There are quality coaches, some of who I know because they also coached travel. The experience is different than travel for sure but as I mentioned above, I have seen too many kids come from classic and beat out other travel players for spots on B teams that I am certain that classic/select can provide the right environment for some kids and that the practice sessions are better than the sessions of travel programs.

Just do your research. The best classic teams actually stay together and progress to travel teams over the years. Some break up at the u13/u14 age as the parent does not want to coach a travel team and the top players leave to go to the top travel programs.

Classic can be a serious alternative to B/C teams. The question with which we all agree is that the timing to enter soccer and the motivation of the kid is key but with the $2,000 in savings, you can't tell me that you can't provide additional training for your classic-playing DC, play 3 or 4 travel tournaments a year and not get a strong experience which is better than the B/C team experience.

Sorry for using names but when I provide examples and links to teams and people still make the same stupid comment about unicorns, then the shoe fits.

Lets take Toca Jr as an example:
Kit: $150
Winter training/Futsal full season: $450 for new members for 24, 1 hour sessions.
Winter training/Futsal half season: $325 for new members for 12, 1 hour sessions.

Now unfortunately prices are not listed for Fall or Spring seasons currently but I would imagine that they are in the range of $300 per season.

So to do 10 months of Toca Jr the cost is around $1200/year. This is in line with the training fees for a travel club that is providing 3 practices a week vs Toca's 2 practices a week.

And there are still opportunities to play in local tournaments and those will still carry fees as well.

So if you are comparing Toca Jr to say a C level travel team in NCSL the games may be spread around the DMV more than MSI's league. A typical U10/U11 C level travel team will play in 2-4 local tourneys per year like Dulles National and other smaller tourneys held out at the SoccerPlex etc. Certainly not leagues or tourneys going up and down 95 as you claim. In a head to head comparison if one is comparing the actual value for dollar per training session they actually come out a wash. Travel usually includes 3 1.5 hour practices a week compared to Toca's 2 1 hour practices a week. (The actual outside season may have 1.5 hour sessions).

So would this classic route cost less? Yes, but it pro-rates about to be nearly the same as travel.

Anonymous wrote:Dense was used to describe people who did not follow the argument. WADR, the argument should be as clear as day.

If you have $3,000 in disposable income per kid just for soccer and have the time to drive up and down I-95 to play B or C level u-9 teams then feel blessed. For folks like me who have more than two kids doing multiple activities and who as a parent has other obligations, spending 4+ hours in a car on a Saturday or Sunday is not feasible. Now at u12/u13 after DC has demonstrated interest in playing at an elite level, we can then look at travel as an option.

Anonymous wrote:Dense was used to describe people who did not follow the argument. WADR, the argument should be as clear as day.

If you have $3,000 in disposable income per kid just for soccer and have the time to drive up and down I-95 to play B or C level u-9 teams then feel blessed. For folks like me who have more than two kids doing multiple activities and who as a parent has other obligations, spending 4+ hours in a car on a Saturday or Sunday is not feasible. Now at u12/u13 after DC has demonstrated interest in playing at an elite level, we can then look at travel as an option.