Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

This has not been our experience. DS played at 3 clubs over the years and we saw kids demoted. As a matter of fact, he was himself demoted at Potomac.

I think it widely varies by club. In general, I think the more athletic a kid is, the later you can start. The less athletic a kid is, the sooner you want them in travel practices getting in better shape and getting technical skills. This is true across most sports

How does the athletic kid starting later aquire technical soccer skills before starting soccer?

More athletic kids pick up physical skills faster and, ultimately, the slower plodding kid or the physically weaker kid who has spent years perfecting their first touch is going to lose their position to the faster stronger more coordinated kid who is a bit behind on technical skills, especially at younger ages. You can teach an athletically gifted kid technical skills a lot easier than you can teach a less athletic kid how to be athletic

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

This has not been our experience. DS played at 3 clubs over the years and we saw kids demoted. As a matter of fact, he was himself demoted at Potomac.

I think it widely varies by club. In general, I think the more athletic a kid is, the later you can start. The less athletic a kid is, the sooner you want them in travel practices getting in better shape and getting technical skills. This is true across most sports

How does the athletic kid starting later aquire technical soccer skills before starting soccer?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

This has not been our experience. DS played at 3 clubs over the years and we saw kids demoted. As a matter of fact, he was himself demoted at Potomac.

I think it widely varies by club. In general, I think the more athletic a kid is, the later you can start. The less athletic a kid is, the sooner you want them in travel practices getting in better shape and getting technical skills. This is true across most sports

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start good individual technical skills as early as possible

That's needed and required and guaranteed value.

Joining a team is a crapshoot in what you get.

How? Summer camps and clinics? We've done a bit of that and the ratio of kids to coaches is not good.

There are videos on YouTube teaching Ball Mastery that your kid can do in house or backyard.

Most kids playing rec and travel can't master the ball, but are focused on winning.

Anonymous wrote:Start good individual technical skills as early as possible

That's needed and required and guaranteed value.

Joining a team is a crapshoot in what you get.

How? Summer camps and clinics? We've done a bit of that and the ratio of kids to coaches is not good.

You generally get better training in travel but the maturity of the player and what your family wants to invest in terms of time and money are also factors. If the child is bored in rec, then that’s a sign that the travel environment would be good. If they can’t get enough of the game, another sign. Also pay attention to the players on your rec program. Generally a large percentage of the best players go leave for travel at U9 which causes two problems- fewer good players and fewer good coaches since a lot of the coaches’ kids go to travel too so they don’t come back. U9 looks much different than u8 and not only because of goalies. If your club has a pre-travel program see if you can go see what it’s like this spring.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

This has not been our experience. DS played at 3 clubs over the years and we saw kids demoted. As a matter of fact, he was himself demoted at Potomac.

4 kids thru travel. And watched coaches come and go. The core of most teams are generally the kids who started early. Some kids may get demoted, but generally more so or not the developing kids are waiting in line. Coaches only promote elite or new kids from outside clubs.

Start good individual technical skills as early as possible

That's needed and required and guaranteed value.

Joining a team is a crapshoot in what you get.

My best recommendation at this point is to have your child try field hockey, flag or other sport. Soccer is becoming a nightmare because there are so many dark interests behind the organized sport that it is becoming a crap experience for kids and teenagers. A group of people saw opportunity of the popularity of youth soccer as a way to fill in their own pockets.

Just keep in mind, over 98.5% of the people on this forum are giving social commentary and have no substantial knowledge nor experience of developing (high level) soccer players.

So continue your research elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:Avoid this cesspool as long as you can!

Rec can be a cesspool too. Just look at CYA.

Anonymous wrote:Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

This has not been our experience. DS played at 3 clubs over the years and we saw kids demoted. As a matter of fact, he was himself demoted at Potomac.

Travel soccer is politics, and basically first come first serve for top teams. (minus the rare instance of elite talent. ) If you join late, you will suffer thru many a year of waiting for a kid to move on. Most kids are not elite, but coaches generally will not demote kids. And then you become the sucker paying top dollar for which you could get in rec play.

Earliest I have ever seen "real" travel soccer is U9. For a good reason!