Thunderstruck
BRONZE
My kid’s have played at a small boutique club and now play for a large club. For my family, it is all about the coach and dynamics of the team. We are fortunate that in both cases the coaches have been amazing as have the players and families. We chose to leave our first club because the new coach assigned to my son’s team wasn’t the best fit for him, mainly because he had initially done months of private training with him before starting to play club soccer, so he needed a fresh/new coaching perspective. We weren’t necessarily looking for a large club, it ended up at one because my son fell in love with the coach and the team during the first 15 minutes of practicing with them.
I feel very fortunate that both of my boys have had amazing coaches and while my older son has always been on a “losing” team, he is a pretty phenomenal player, because his coaches focus on developing the players and the long term goal of really being able to play the game as they are older (my boys are 2008 and 2010). Of course they have their fair share of wins; however, they like to play at the highest level because the boys know that is what will make them better players, not just going out and either playing long ball or playing teams they know won’t be a challenge. My kids have learned grit and don’t care about winning as long as they play their personal best. This is something they learned at both the small club and the large club; however, I think it is very coach specific.
I think finding the right coach and team that fits with your player is more important than the size of the club. Ironically, the communication at the larger club is far superior than at the smaller club and much less expensive as well! Both of my kids now play for less than the cost of one at the smaller club!
Depending on what you are looking for, I live in LA and know of several good coaches/clubs that aren’t too far from you, depending on what you are looking for!