Is Any Keeper Completely Happy Club/Team

Just curious what other parents have to say in managing expectations. My ideal club/team would include the following:

1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc.
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game
5. A coach with a passion to develop
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too

Do you get the above on a DPL, DA, and ECNL team or is that a hit or miss? Our club experience has been that we don't get many of the above items and I am just wondering what items in my ideal list do I knock off the list because my expectations are too high. My daughter is an 06 Keeper and her goal is to play College Soccer. She is currently playing up 2 years and has risen to the occasion because she loves the challenge. She is a nut! Right now she just wants to get better and works at it all of the time. Whatever information you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I try and help guide her in her path. Thanks in advance!
 
My dd had never had Any luck with teams checking even half of these boxes. Only one checked 5-8 and that was her playing forward on s boy’s team for a year.

This year though she (we) got very lucky and found a situation that checks every one of those boxes. Her team now (DA) has keeper training twice a week with only the DA keepers, the keeper coach is the assistant coach for the team so he’s at all practices and games. She gets instruction mid and post practice and during games.
The head coach and girls on the team have all bought in on trying to keep possession. My dd gets a lot of work due to them still trying to get the hang of the system. She absolutely loves it and is working harder now than she ever has. Good luck in your search. It took us way too many clubs to find the right fit but it’s out there.
 
Just curious what other parents have to say in managing expectations. My ideal club/team would include the following:

1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc.
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game
5. A coach with a passion to develop
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too

Do you get the above on a DPL, DA, and ECNL team or is that a hit or miss? Our club experience has been that we don't get many of the above items and I am just wondering what items in my ideal list do I knock off the list because my expectations are too high. My daughter is an 06 Keeper and her goal is to play College Soccer. She is currently playing up 2 years and has risen to the occasion because she loves the challenge. She is a nut! Right now she just wants to get better and works at it all of the time. Whatever information you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I try and help guide her in her path. Thanks in advance!

We currently are covered for 1,2,3,5,6
We actually moved down to F2 to play for this coach. Great coach. Teaching the girls to play soccer the right way. Possession-style. The results are not quite there yet. Neither is the speed of play. He/they know this. But with time if they continue on this path they will become a really great team.

I'd have to say that we are missing #4. But then again my G03 has never gotten a good warm up unless I was warming her up. Not chest-pounding by any means..just a fact. We've been doing it together long enough since she was younger that once she got older and the coach was doing it there was a huge difference in the time/quality of it. That's been my observation that past two years or so.
#7 They work hard together..sometimes.
#8 is missing as well.
 
Just curious what other parents have to say in managing expectations. My ideal club/team would include the following:

1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc.
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game
5. A coach with a passion to develop
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too

Do you get the above on a DPL, DA, and ECNL team or is that a hit or miss? Our club experience has been that we don't get many of the above items and I am just wondering what items in my ideal list do I knock off the list because my expectations are too high. My daughter is an 06 Keeper and her goal is to play College Soccer. She is currently playing up 2 years and has risen to the occasion because she loves the challenge. She is a nut! Right now she just wants to get better and works at it all of the time. Whatever information you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I try and help guide her in her path. Thanks in advance!
My DD has many of those. But not all. 2-4 almost require the head coach to be a former keeper themselves. We had that and it was the best thing that ever happened to her in club soccer. Funny thing was that we didn’t know that the coach had played keeper when we chose to join. We just really liked how my DD responded to the instructions and how much support was given when she made errors. When we found out, we were like, “Oohhhh. No wonder!”
 
The most important thing IMO for a keeper is to find the right trainer. Everything else is secondary.
That is important, but having a head coach that constantly wants all players playing back to the keeper is just as important, otherwise you end up with a keeper that can make the saves, but not one that can bail out a defender that plays back to the keeper from 10 feet away. So far this season my daughter has more touches with her feet than she does with her hands.

I'll grade these from A to F
1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer - Currently a B
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately - Strong A
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc. - D grade
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game - B-
5. A coach with a passion to develop - B+
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other - B
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together - A
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too - B-
 
My dd had never had Any luck with teams checking even half of these boxes. Only one checked 5-8 and that was her playing forward on s boy’s team for a year.

This year though she (we) got very lucky and found a situation that checks every one of those boxes. Her team now (DA) has keeper training twice a week with only the DA keepers, the keeper coach is the assistant coach for the team so he’s at all practices and games. She gets instruction mid and post practice and during games.
The head coach and girls on the team have all bought in on trying to keep possession. My dd gets a lot of work due to them still trying to get the hang of the system. She absolutely loves it and is working harder now than she ever has. Good luck in your search. It took us way too many clubs to find the right fit but it’s out there.

Thank you for the info...This would be a dream scenario for my daughter and she would respond just like your daughter has with working so hard. I noticed the better her training is the more she loves what she does and the more confident she becomes.
 
Thank you everyone. I read every response to my daughter and the private message I received offered such great advice for both my daughter and I. My daughter sooooo appreciated it and it helped both of us see into the future and think about patience.

My nature is to build a strategy with goals/objectives etc. when one of my kids tells me what they want to do and that just doesn't work in this crazy soccer world.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Thank you everyone. I read every response to my daughter and the private message I received offered such great advice for both my daughter and I. My daughter sooooo appreciated it and it helped both of us see into the future and think about patience.

My nature is to build a strategy with goals/objectives etc. when one of my kids tells me what they want to do and that just doesn't work in this crazy soccer world.

Thanks again everyone!

As parents it can be difficult navigating the soccer world(I guess it is the whole world). On one hand we need the kids to keep having fun or they will just quit soccer. On the other we parents need to push the kids a bit to succeed. How much pushing is always the question.

We pushed her to guest play and she ended up doing three tournaments and it made her and us realize that hey, she is a pretty good keeper. With her current club there is kind of a unspoken requirement to finish in the top two in league so we can move up as we didn't move up last year. We are always searching for a keeper coach that only cares about her getting better and not recruiting her to another club. The most recent opportunity is for her to practice with an 02 Premier team that has been offered by the club president(she is an 05). She has done one practice, but has been resistant to another, even though she did great during the practice. So we approach it very slowly, because we see this as an amazing opportunity.

Involving your daughter in the conversations is great on your part. Good luck.
 
As parents it can be difficult navigating the soccer world(I guess it is the whole world). On one hand we need the kids to keep having fun or they will just quit soccer. On the other we parents need to push the kids a bit to succeed. How much pushing is always the question.

We pushed her to guest play and she ended up doing three tournaments and it made her and us realize that hey, she is a pretty good keeper. With her current club there is kind of a unspoken requirement to finish in the top two in league so we can move up as we didn't move up last year. We are always searching for a keeper coach that only cares about her getting better and not recruiting her to another club. The most recent opportunity is for her to practice with an 02 Premier team that has been offered by the club president(she is an 05). She has done one practice, but has been resistant to another, even though she did great during the practice. So we approach it very slowly, because we see this as an amazing opportunity.

Involving your daughter in the conversations is great on your part. Good luck.

Be very careful with this. Girls 02s talking about and interested in very different things than 05s.
 
As parents it can be difficult navigating the soccer world(I guess it is the whole world). On one hand we need the kids to keep having fun or they will just quit soccer. On the other we parents need to push the kids a bit to succeed. How much pushing is always the question.

We pushed her to guest play and she ended up doing three tournaments and it made her and us realize that hey, she is a pretty good keeper. With her current club there is kind of a unspoken requirement to finish in the top two in league so we can move up as we didn't move up last year. We are always searching for a keeper coach that only cares about her getting better and not recruiting her to another club. The most recent opportunity is for her to practice with an 02 Premier team that has been offered by the club president(she is an 05). She has done one practice, but has been resistant to another, even though she did great during the practice. So we approach it very slowly, because we see this as an amazing opportunity.

Involving your daughter in the conversations is great on your part. Good luck.

You really said it perfectly!!! The elusive balance in everything is a hard one as a parent. I can't wait until my daughter gets home from school so I can read her your response. She absolutely refuses to guest. She just turned 12 and is gaining confidence so I decided to not push it right now but guesting was mentioned in a private message to me and the value in doing it and she literally hung her head down and said, "You were right mom". LOL Practicing with a higher level team is such great experience. It makes no sense to me that my daughter is not bothered by playing up 2 years but won't guest with another team but of course I am an adult not a kid. Like you said, approaching it slowly is key.
 
Just curious what other parents have to say in managing expectations. My ideal club/team would include the following:

1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc.
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game
5. A coach with a passion to develop
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too

Do you get the above on a DPL, DA, and ECNL team or is that a hit or miss? Our club experience has been that we don't get many of the above items and I am just wondering what items in my ideal list do I knock off the list because my expectations are too high. My daughter is an 06 Keeper and her goal is to play College Soccer. She is currently playing up 2 years and has risen to the occasion because she loves the challenge. She is a nut! Right now she just wants to get better and works at it all of the time. Whatever information you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I try and help guide her in her path. Thanks in advance!



10 years and two keepers. Everything from Presidio AA-B to USSDA (At two clubs). All the clubs tell you they have GK training, and they may, BUT none of them have been worth the time spent.
The GK in youth soccer is an ignored art, disrespected at all levels.
And yet my two keepers still love every minute.
 
10 years and two keepers. Everything from Presidio AA-B to USSDA (At two clubs). All the clubs tell you they have GK training, and they may, BUT none of them have been worth the time spent.
The GK in youth soccer is an ignored art, disrespected at all levels.
And yet my two keepers still love every minute.

My experience is much more limited (only 2 years of club, and a year with the older in Extras) but based on my limited experience I have to agree. Either the training isn't up to par, or the trainer has turnover or attendance issues, or the level of people in the training is too varied (either too advanced or too new, too old or too young) or there just aren't enough touches on the ball because the class is too full or they can't customize the training to address individual concerns that need working on. I finally just resolved to pay for a trainer and to keep him in a club that's o.k. with outside training (one of my few red lines). Everything else, lesson learned...just going with the flow.
 
Just curious what other parents have to say in managing expectations. My ideal club/team would include the following:

1. Skill appropriate Keeper training 2 days a week from a solid trainer
2. A coach that works and teaches possession style soccer teaching both team and Keeper how to play it appropriately
3. A coach with the desire to and understanding how to develop the Keeper on the field including decisions in field play, decisions in goal and angles etc.
4. A coach that knows how and does an appropriate Keeper warm up for every game
5. A coach with a passion to develop
6. A coach that knows how to develop a team that supports each other
7. A team that works hard together and has fun together
8. Of course a desirable location would be great too

Do you get the above on a DPL, DA, and ECNL team or is that a hit or miss? Our club experience has been that we don't get many of the above items and I am just wondering what items in my ideal list do I knock off the list because my expectations are too high. My daughter is an 06 Keeper and her goal is to play College Soccer. She is currently playing up 2 years and has risen to the occasion because she loves the challenge. She is a nut! Right now she just wants to get better and works at it all of the time. Whatever information you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I try and help guide her in her path. Thanks in advance!
1 - 1 day a week training, (we supplement with privates when we can),
2 - At current & immediate prior club, absolutely,
3 - I hope so, current coach played professionally so I think he may have a better appreciation for the position,
4 - When we had 2 keepers it was great, now we have players warming her up. She knows what she needs and once the position players understood it isn't shooting practice for them but a warm up for her, it improved,
5 - Yes!!!
6 - I believe so,
7 - All signs point to yes,
8 - Local DA club would be closer, but I am willing to drive a few miles to make it work.
My kid is on a DPL team. She turned down a DA offer to play with this team. Very happy to date with coach and team. Results have been very good, development is even better. My kid will be better at the end of the year in current situation. Playing up is always an ego boost, but as others have cautioned, be careful. Once in HS I don't think playing up makes a difference, but until then the ages do matter (IMO). Good luck to you & your kid.
 
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