Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 11:33     Subject: Re:If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
It's not fun or worth the money, to pay the same amount for those bubble players to play on a B team that mostly made up of unskilled kids who should probably be playing rec. It's hard to get better on these teams, no matter how hard you work.


Right, and to add to this, I am not laboring under the assumption that my son is incredibly talented and the club is not realizing it. But he is decent, and does the work of endurance and strength training outside of practice, working with a private coach, practicing drills outside of practice And I am totally ok with him being on a team of kids that are not superstars, but putting in comparable work to try to improve.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 11:24     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our child is young and joined the pool for the Spring season, but we were told initially she'd start out on the second team. She's been with the first team all season, though, and despite not as much field time as her first team peers she is happy to be playing with that group int he matches. We know the player pool is expanding substantially for the next year cycle. We didn't ask about team placement for next year, because from our perspective it would be impossible for the coaches to know that now as much can change over summer and until they can have the entire group together to train in pre-season to see where it makes sense to sort things out. To me, it doesn't matter until they reach 11v11 and positions become really specialized. Then you have a good sense as to whether or not your DC is a top player in their position or not. At the younger ages, I don't think parents should concern themselves with it too much unless they are seeing their DC is not getting much playing time at all on whatever team they are grouped with.


It's very club dependent. If the club fields 4 teams at an age group, moving through them is probably fine and the kid is best off playing more. If the club fields two and one is playing high level and the other low, then a kid probably won't improve much playing and practicing with the B team (especially compared to a similarly skilled player playing and practicing with the A team)


Facing this issue. It's a bad position to be in.


This is the major issue with most clubs. Dissatisfaction with being moved down a team isn't about crazy parents or kids who don't want to work. The problem is that clubs either can't field quality lower teams or they don't invest the attention to developing lower teams. It's fine to be an a B team made up of players who would be on the bubble of making the A team. It's not fun or worth the money, to pay the same amount for those bubble players to play on a B team that mostly made up of unskilled kids who should probably be playing rec. It's hard to get better on these teams, no matter how hard you work.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 11:15     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our child is young and joined the pool for the Spring season, but we were told initially she'd start out on the second team. She's been with the first team all season, though, and despite not as much field time as her first team peers she is happy to be playing with that group int he matches. We know the player pool is expanding substantially for the next year cycle. We didn't ask about team placement for next year, because from our perspective it would be impossible for the coaches to know that now as much can change over summer and until they can have the entire group together to train in pre-season to see where it makes sense to sort things out. To me, it doesn't matter until they reach 11v11 and positions become really specialized. Then you have a good sense as to whether or not your DC is a top player in their position or not. At the younger ages, I don't think parents should concern themselves with it too much unless they are seeing their DC is not getting much playing time at all on whatever team they are grouped with.


It's very club dependent. If the club fields 4 teams at an age group, moving through them is probably fine and the kid is best off playing more. If the club fields two and one is playing high level and the other low, then a kid probably won't improve much playing and practicing with the B team (especially compared to a similarly skilled player playing and practicing with the A team)


Facing this issue. It's a bad position to be in.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 11:09     Subject: Re:If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
I also think that moving a kid off the A team to make it competitive is fine, but your kid is the consumer and is free to shop elsewhere if they don't like the product being offered.


PP here and I agree, you should always look for your best opporuntiy, no reason not to. But for many, that has to take into account travel time to practice, carpool availability, playing with at least some schoolmates or friends etc. So unless: 1) my kid gets an offer that is considerably better elsewhere; or 2) the current club demoted him as a money grab vs. judgment call, I would not agree to move him only because he was demoated one team. Trying out elsewhere and seeing how it shakes out is reasonable.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 11:06     Subject: Re:If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
And unfortunately there are younger teams where position s seem fully set by U11. Personally I think that is doing a disservice to the kids; bodies and skills change over time and they should know how to play each position before their teen years. But what do I know, I’m just a parent...


No, I agree with you (also just a parent). My son has played defender exclusively for the past 3 years with his travel team. He also plays rec to be with friends, and when the rec coach puts him in a forward position, he looks totally lost, because he has not done it since U9.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:58     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
And unfortunately there are younger teams where position s seem fully set by U11. Personally I think that is doing a disservice to the kids; bodies and skills change over time and they should know how to play each position before their teen years. But what do I know, I’m just a parent...
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:53     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our child is young and joined the pool for the Spring season, but we were told initially she'd start out on the second team. She's been with the first team all season, though, and despite not as much field time as her first team peers she is happy to be playing with that group int he matches. We know the player pool is expanding substantially for the next year cycle. We didn't ask about team placement for next year, because from our perspective it would be impossible for the coaches to know that now as much can change over summer and until they can have the entire group together to train in pre-season to see where it makes sense to sort things out. To me, it doesn't matter until they reach 11v11 and positions become really specialized. Then you have a good sense as to whether or not your DC is a top player in their position or not. At the younger ages, I don't think parents should concern themselves with it too much unless they are seeing their DC is not getting much playing time at all on whatever team they are grouped with.


It's very club dependent. If the club fields 4 teams at an age group, moving through them is probably fine and the kid is best off playing more. If the club fields two and one is playing high level and the other low, then a kid probably won't improve much playing and practicing with the B team (especially compared to a similarly skilled player playing and practicing with the A team)


In big clubs with 4 or more teams, there is some gap between A and B teams (the size of which varies among clubs). In some clubs, moving between A and B teams has marginal effect on the quality of play, while at other clubs there is a fairly significant difference. However, in most clubs there is a huge drop off in quality between B team and lower teams.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:14     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:Our child is young and joined the pool for the Spring season, but we were told initially she'd start out on the second team. She's been with the first team all season, though, and despite not as much field time as her first team peers she is happy to be playing with that group int he matches. We know the player pool is expanding substantially for the next year cycle. We didn't ask about team placement for next year, because from our perspective it would be impossible for the coaches to know that now as much can change over summer and until they can have the entire group together to train in pre-season to see where it makes sense to sort things out. To me, it doesn't matter until they reach 11v11 and positions become really specialized. Then you have a good sense as to whether or not your DC is a top player in their position or not. At the younger ages, I don't think parents should concern themselves with it too much unless they are seeing their DC is not getting much playing time at all on whatever team they are grouped with.


It's very club dependent. If the club fields 4 teams at an age group, moving through them is probably fine and the kid is best off playing more. If the club fields two and one is playing high level and the other low, then a kid probably won't improve much playing and practicing with the B team (especially compared to a similarly skilled player playing and practicing with the A team)
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:06     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:What are you doing PP? Are you assuming you'll just accept whatever offer they give or are you looking around?


They each tried out one other place just to have options. Younger one actually ended up moving to new club for a better team. Older one still in the process and weighing options as tryouts for both places currently ongoing.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:05     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
To 9:50: agree. There can be a big gap between A and B. We did go elsewhere for next year.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:04     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Our child is young and joined the pool for the Spring season, but we were told initially she'd start out on the second team. She's been with the first team all season, though, and despite not as much field time as her first team peers she is happy to be playing with that group int he matches. We know the player pool is expanding substantially for the next year cycle. We didn't ask about team placement for next year, because from our perspective it would be impossible for the coaches to know that now as much can change over summer and until they can have the entire group together to train in pre-season to see where it makes sense to sort things out. To me, it doesn't matter until they reach 11v11 and positions become really specialized. Then you have a good sense as to whether or not your DC is a top player in their position or not. At the younger ages, I don't think parents should concern themselves with it too much unless they are seeing their DC is not getting much playing time at all on whatever team they are grouped with.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 10:03     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
What are you doing PP? Are you assuming you'll just accept whatever offer they give or are you looking around?
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 09:55     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Our club has only guaranteed existing players a spot but will not commit at all to which team, nor to a timeline for that commitment. We are leaving, it is not worth the drama at this age.


What club? That's anxiety provoking.


Both clubs my kids play for told the kids the same thing. This is common.
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 09:50     Subject: Re:If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:
Be proud of your kid. He’s no fool and not falling for their BS...smart kid. I hope he ends up in a great situation elsewhere!


Agreed.


I think it depends. If the reason they are moving him down is to get more $, by all means, getting out of there is 100 percent the right choice. If the reason that they are moving him down is that they think the other players are better, then the club is doing what it is supposed to. Much as I would like to think that clubs are working to develop kids, and I hope that they are, at the end of the day, another consideration that they have is to put together the most competitive teams that they can. I get that it stings - my son was not offered a spot on his club's futsal team, even though he did a good job for them in multiple previous years, because there were players outside the club that they felt were stronger.


not having a guaranteed spot on a winter team seems miserable to me. Our club includes winter and views futsal as a way for the team to train together. I also think that moving a kid off the A team to make it competitive is fine, but your kid is the consumer and is free to shop elsewhere if they don't like the product being offered. If there is a big gap between A and B, it's likely that a kid who gets bumped off of A will not be placed on a developmentally approbate situation off the B team and is better off looking elsewhere
Anonymous
Post 05/25/2021 09:27     Subject: If you think your child may be moved down did your DD's coach talk to you or to her?
Anonymous wrote:Our club has only guaranteed existing players a spot but will not commit at all to which team, nor to a timeline for that commitment. We are leaving, it is not worth the drama at this age.


What club? That's anxiety provoking.