Anonymous wrote:Op on ccl here. Really was asking a legitimate question. Sorry if it came off as something else. Thank you all for your insight!

It was a legit question. The master thread has a bit of back and forth on CCL vs NSCL etc and it seems to strike a nerve with some folks.

Op on ccl here. Really was asking a legitimate question. Sorry if it came off as something else. Thank you all for your insight!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?

Troll

+1 nailed it. trying to infect this forum with a league debate. last thing we need is the CCL guy and his repetitive rant on this issue. dead horse. take it to the main forum!

I don't think you can assume anything about this person's motives. Remember that there are probably only a small handful of us who have been along for the ride through the big soccer thread and all the smaller ones. Someone new to the process could well be hearing that CCL is the way to go since, as we know. a lot of the clubs market the heck out of it, and a lot of parents who don't know much about the soccer scene around here believe the hype.

In general, I think it's better to ignore anyone you think might be trolling so we don't drag this tired CCL issue into every soccer thread and make innocent parents think we are all crazy.

Agree. I spoke to a parent at a tryout who said CCL was more competitive thats why they were trying out. These are U9/U10 parents. Its all new to them so not safe to assume someone is trying to lob a grenade into the forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on my child, I would wait a couple years. She made travel in 6th grade/WAGS. The next year she moved to CCL. You have to give up a lot of other activities, play dates, etc. to do travel and it can be hard for kids.

I am pulling back with my kids next year too. They are 9 and 11.

We used to have grass fields. Things would get cancelled. There was more off-season downtime. These kids go year-round 3 days per week with little break. Turf allows the show to go on no matter the weather. There is zero time to do other things. If you have smart kids with a variety of interests you don't want them to give everything up and close doors to other things.

Once the kids are older and can consciously commit--it's wiser. There are a lot of soccer burnouts in this area. There is also a lot of coaching that does the opposite of building a player's skill and individuality.

Either find a less intense club for the early years or continue with rec and some training.

I will offer a different perspective and would say for the most part it depends on the kids. My kid loves to play, practice and compete in the games. He has made some close friends on his team and I with some of the parents. It offers the hour of exercise a day and also a social outlet. I dont feel it takes anything away from our normal activities. Depends on where we go to play we make a day of it. Sometimes we have relatives or friends that live closer to the match location so sometimes we spend a night somewhere else which kids seem to enjoy. We still make it to church, family events and commitments. This year I asked my kid if he was sure he wanted to play...we could always go back to rec and he is still all in. Plays on non practice days outside with friends and weekends and they always seem to want to play soccer. I encourage other sports which he enjoys but not enough to want to commit to. If the time comes he gets tired of it so be it. We can move on to other activities. Again my experience just sharing.

^^^ Same Experience Here ^^^ Soccer doesn't take away from our family activities - we all love it.

Another fellow traveler here. I never played soccer growing up, and am not sure if I ever watched a soccer game before I met my future husband. Twelve years into organizing most weekends around our kids' soccer schedule (and travelling the world to catch EPL and World Cup matches), I wouldn't change much about the journey.

I will say that I have been worried off and on through the years about the issue in the bolded language above, especially for our child whose intellectual abilities far exceed her soccer talent. Prior to her senior year, when I started reading about the college application process and realizing all the standout extracurriculars a lot of ambitious kids have, I thought a lot about how she could have been entering and potentially winning science competitions or maybe even art prizes if she weren't devoting so much time playing for her middling club team. In the end though, the college admissions worked out well, and her peers with the same stats and more impressive academic and artistic ECs didn't do any better. She's adamant that she would have been a less happy person and less able to handle the grind of a rigorous HS schedule if she didn't have soccer as her outlet. She's looking forward to playing club soccer in college as a stress reliever and bonding activity.

Our DD was a young U9 this year. But she was the youngest of a large family with kids in different travel sports We lucked out with an amazing coach for this age group (we have seen our share of bad coaches over the years), really great team mates, nice families, many with real soccer experience but most importantly nice. The coach was analogous to having that teacher your child loves.

It has ended up being a great experience But that was a lot of things working out in the right direction for this age. Had something gone the wrong way, we would have re-evaluated. I would still say the first few month the development difference between a second grader and third grader (listening etx) is large and I was concerned, but our kid focused well and it worked. Our DC understood what it meant to do soccer over other activities as had seen older siblings and wanted that . I do think these new age brackets for the youngest who are in second grade as U9 isn't ideal. Our coach and club was sensitive to that which helped.

Note - We are not in VA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?

Troll

+1 nailed it. trying to infect this forum with a league debate. last thing we need is the CCL guy and his repetitive rant on this issue. dead horse. take it to the main forum!

I don't think you can assume anything about this person's motives. Remember that there are probably only a small handful of us who have been along for the ride through the big soccer thread and all the smaller ones. Someone new to the process could well be hearing that CCL is the way to go since, as we know. a lot of the clubs market the heck out of it, and a lot of parents who don't know much about the soccer scene around here believe the hype.

In general, I think it's better to ignore anyone you think might be trolling so we don't drag this tired CCL issue into every soccer thread and make innocent parents think we are all crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?

Troll

+1 nailed it. trying to infect this forum with a league debate. last thing we need is the CCL guy and his repetitive rant on this issue. dead horse. take it to the main forum!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on my child, I would wait a couple years. She made travel in 6th grade/WAGS. The next year she moved to CCL. You have to give up a lot of other activities, play dates, etc. to do travel and it can be hard for kids.

I am pulling back with my kids next year too. They are 9 and 11.

We used to have grass fields. Things would get cancelled. There was more off-season downtime. These kids go year-round 3 days per week with little break. Turf allows the show to go on no matter the weather. There is zero time to do other things. If you have smart kids with a variety of interests you don't want them to give everything up and close doors to other things.

Once the kids are older and can consciously commit--it's wiser. There are a lot of soccer burnouts in this area. There is also a lot of coaching that does the opposite of building a player's skill and individuality.

Either find a less intense club for the early years or continue with rec and some training.

I will offer a different perspective and would say for the most part it depends on the kids. My kid loves to play, practice and compete in the games. He has made some close friends on his team and I with some of the parents. It offers the hour of exercise a day and also a social outlet. I dont feel it takes anything away from our normal activities. Depends on where we go to play we make a day of it. Sometimes we have relatives or friends that live closer to the match location so sometimes we spend a night somewhere else which kids seem to enjoy. We still make it to church, family events and commitments. This year I asked my kid if he was sure he wanted to play...we could always go back to rec and he is still all in. Plays on non practice days outside with friends and weekends and they always seem to want to play soccer. I encourage other sports which he enjoys but not enough to want to commit to. If the time comes he gets tired of it so be it. We can move on to other activities. Again my experience just sharing.

^^^ Same Experience Here ^^^ Soccer doesn't take away from our family activities - we all love it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on my child, I would wait a couple years. She made travel in 6th grade/WAGS. The next year she moved to CCL. You have to give up a lot of other activities, play dates, etc. to do travel and it can be hard for kids.

I am pulling back with my kids next year too. They are 9 and 11.

We used to have grass fields. Things would get cancelled. There was more off-season downtime. These kids go year-round 3 days per week with little break. Turf allows the show to go on no matter the weather. There is zero time to do other things. If you have smart kids with a variety of interests you don't want them to give everything up and close doors to other things.

Once the kids are older and can consciously commit--it's wiser. There are a lot of soccer burnouts in this area. There is also a lot of coaching that does the opposite of building a player's skill and individuality.

Either find a less intense club for the early years or continue with rec and some training.

I will offer a different perspective and would say for the most part it depends on the kids. My kid loves to play, practice and compete in the games. He has made some close friends on his team and I with some of the parents. It offers the hour of exercise a day and also a social outlet. I dont feel it takes anything away from our normal activities. Depends on where we go to play we make a day of it. Sometimes we have relatives or friends that live closer to the match location so sometimes we spend a night somewhere else which kids seem to enjoy. We still make it to church, family events and commitments. This year I asked my kid if he was sure he wanted to play...we could always go back to rec and he is still all in. Plays on non practice days outside with friends and weekends and they always seem to want to play soccer. I encourage other sports which he enjoys but not enough to want to commit to. If the time comes he gets tired of it so be it. We can move on to other activities. Again my experience just sharing.

Anonymous wrote:Based on my child, I would wait a couple years. She made travel in 6th grade/WAGS. The next year she moved to CCL. You have to give up a lot of other activities, play dates, etc. to do travel and it can be hard for kids.

I am pulling back with my kids next year too. They are 9 and 11.

We used to have grass fields. Things would get cancelled. There was more off-season downtime. These kids go year-round 3 days per week with little break. Turf allows the show to go on no matter the weather. There is zero time to do other things. If you have smart kids with a variety of interests you don't want them to give everything up and close doors to other things.

Once the kids are older and can consciously commit--it's wiser. There are a lot of soccer burnouts in this area. There is also a lot of coaching that does the opposite of building a player's skill and individuality.

Either find a less intense club for the early years or continue with rec and some training.

^^ that was in NCSL. In fact, the upper teams in CCL2 used to complain that they weren't getting as much game competition as the teams below them in NCSL.

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?

No. Nothing great about CCL. In the younger years, we found we played a much greater variety of teams/styles that were much tougher than the 6 CCL/CCL2 teams we played over and over and over again.

You are a smart person. A lot of kids make it onto CCL teams at 10/11. In fact, your child will have a better opportunity than the kids on the lower 3-4 teams of a Club since new kids first are seen with the top team. The other kids never get a fresh set of eyes.

Based on my child, I would wait a couple years. She made travel in 6th grade/WAGS. The next year she moved to CCL. You have to give up a lot of other activities, play dates, etc. to do travel and it can be hard for kids.

Anonymous wrote:I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?

Troll

I am trying to figure out if U9 travel soccer is worth it for my first grader, who would be in 2nd grade next year. He tried out for a team that will be new to CCL (2 teams in CCL and 1 team in CCL2).
I am leaning towards not having him play because 2nd grade is incredibly young to start a travel sport. I am worried about burnout. My question is... Has anyone tried out at 10 or 11 and made a CCL team? He can continue playing with his current team that focuses on individual player development rather than a team. They get destroyed in games, but the kids have great skills.
Also, what is so great about CCL? The teams are far away it seems like. Is there a reason at this age to do CCL over NCSL?