Anonymous wrote:It would be interesting to see the results of this survey.

If you are paying $3,000 or more in just club fees before any add-ons;

- Ask your club what youth specific licenses and or certifications does your child's coach have

- Ask your club when last or how often does your child's coach go to seminars or coaching education courses given by qualified coaching education instructors

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way we can call MLS Next and ECNL teams 'elite' and top tier (behind MLS Club Academies) if they have coaches who do not have quality recognized licenses and certifications from reputable organizations.

As a nation trying to achieve and earn respectable status and growth in the international soccer world, we cannot treat U6 - U12 coaching resources like babysitters instead of an important role in the key years of development.

We have a system of waiting to see which special unicorns survive the harvest through harsh conditions instead of tending to the crops properly from early.

Coaching education and true knowledge is a part of the fabric elsewhere in strong soccer nations.
We focus on the business side.

How can we catch them?

And that’s the problem…we generally have a model where the best coaches coach the highest or most prestigious teams, while in European academies, they make sure they have the strongest coaches on the younger teams.
But then again, they tend to have enough high level coaches to go around.
As referenced earlier, it’s really hard to get higher coaching licenses, and we have as much of a shortage on high level coaches as we have with referees.

The failings happen at many levels of the pyramid. While I agree in most clubs, the good coaches tend of want "older" groups, there are a lot of good coaches that stay with the younger ones. A big problem with have is everyone wanting to be labeled "elite", which really dilutes competition. IMO, this has many bad repercussions, but one of the main ones I have seen is players being able to dominate on physical tools for too long.

To this thread's point, the coaching levels are all over the place. From coaches with 0 licenses regurgitating what they learned when they played to coaches who haven't taken a coaching course in 20+ years, too often players are just being let down. Even "high level" teams can suffer from a coach who has completely stopped caring about improving his craft. This is not to say there aren't plenty of good coaches doing the right thing but the environment in the US doesn't reward their work.

Then there's college soccer... Where as in footballing nations, an 18 year old's goal is to sign a professional contract, most parent's goal is to get their kid to play college soccer. College soccer isn't a good level (in the context on the international game) and is a real impediment to progress for players. By the time these players get to the MLS, they've wasted 3-4 years of their best development years.