Yes - its a topic trying to cause "replies" but before you know soooooo much - this exam is very very simple. Tell me how many hours per week the player spends on the game and getting better at it - that does not include drive time and so on - actual physical activity !! For anybody age 11-14, if its less than 18 hours per week - not top level. For anybody 15+ if it less than 25-30 - again not top level - this is true in all sports - very simple - do the MAX - do everything possible. That means morning practice for example - you know before school. 2 games on the weekends ... team practice every single day 2hrs plus... maybe one day off a week which is an active recovery day ... and individual practice technical and physical every single day ... not making this up -- ask a top gymnast - ask a top any sport -- I did it in a different sport and thats the actual "academy" .....
How many real academy top level teams are there in SoCal ? Maybe 2 ?
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RandomSoccerFan
GOLD
There are likely a very small handful of teams that meet that criteria, and maybe it is only the few MLS Academy teams, and even then maybe it's a subset of them. For the vast majority - these are kids that are cosplaying as soccer players. For the few on those teams with that level of time commitment, they are soccer players cosplaying as kids.
The reality is anyone on a college track will never be able to make this kind of commitment. That means in SoCal it's basically for the olders the 2 boys academies, and even then my guess is for most players it's on your lower end 11-14. In Europe, it's pretty much any older that plays for an academy....and for the residential ones you throw in a healthy bunch of fifa and foosball. Randomsoccer's great quip notwithstanding, you are quite right about the hours require for elite athletes in other sports some more (figure skating, gymnastics) than others (gridiron football, track).
Yup. Bout right. The kid is at 19-20/wk give or take the particular week.
I think you need to re assess gymnastic work load. While they might be IN the gym a lot of hours, they actually working actively far less than that.
My son was max 11 hours a week when he was playing DA/MLS (non-academy), and rarely touched a ball outside of practice. My daughter was easily 20+ hours a week training in dance. We laughed when he complained about how much he practiced.
He's a placekicker now, and others have claimed that he's the top kicker in the County for the class of 2026. He trains less than 3 hours per week kicking, but does weight train another 6 or so hours a week during the offseason. In season, not much more kicking time just more general football training, maybe 10 hours.
The amount of training required to be top of your game is sport and athlete natural ability dependent. Precision or endurance sports require the most training. While generally more training is generally better, I think Malcolm Gladwell has greatly distorted the amount of practice required to be an "expert" with his 10,000 hour rule.
I believe the much bigger problem in developing exceptional soccer players in the US is the quality of training, and until this problem is fixed, more training isn't going to provide much benefit.
He's a placekicker now, and others have claimed that he's the top kicker in the County for the class of 2026. He trains less than 3 hours per week kicking, but does weight train another 6 or so hours a week during the offseason. In season, not much more kicking time just more general football training, maybe 10 hours.
The amount of training required to be top of your game is sport and athlete natural ability dependent. Precision or endurance sports require the most training. While generally more training is generally better, I think Malcolm Gladwell has greatly distorted the amount of practice required to be an "expert" with his 10,000 hour rule.
I believe the much bigger problem in developing exceptional soccer players in the US is the quality of training, and until this problem is fixed, more training isn't going to provide much benefit.
3253
SILVER
As one familiar with the MLS academies, a day at LAG starts with at 8 with team training, then school, then training/gym/video and ends at 4. LAFC does early afternoon Team training, followed by gym (twice a week) and video. Most individuals are also training outside likely an extra hour a day. Both clubs have specific people that monitor workload. I'd guess most players are engaged in soccer-development specific activities approximately 4-5 hours a day plus two games a weekend.
That amount, is at minimum, adequate to prepare high level D1 players. With less than 1% of players becoming professionals and less the 7% becoming college athletes, the MLS academies and the required workload is consistently producing high percentages of their teams becoming collegiate athletes. When they produce 1 every year, which both SoCal are averaging more than that, that's 1 in 30 (3.3%) so based on Duenas at LAFC, Leone and Torres in LigaMX, I'd say LAFC is producing at MLS or LigaMX level players at 3 times the national average. LAG would be the same.
That amount, is at minimum, adequate to prepare high level D1 players. With less than 1% of players becoming professionals and less the 7% becoming college athletes, the MLS academies and the required workload is consistently producing high percentages of their teams becoming collegiate athletes. When they produce 1 every year, which both SoCal are averaging more than that, that's 1 in 30 (3.3%) so based on Duenas at LAFC, Leone and Torres in LigaMX, I'd say LAFC is producing at MLS or LigaMX level players at 3 times the national average. LAG would be the same.
Karlton Athletic
BRONZE
Really not sure what the point of this post is. There are currently two MLS clubs in Southern California, so there are two academies. Next.
That's the thing. I see all these programs do 20 hours a week along with school but everyone keeps saying we can't do it with soccer. Am I missing something? I think we can create an academy program within our current school structure. I see dancers and gymnasts do it often.
I'm curious about the "dancers and gymnasts do it often". Do you have more info? As a former dancer, from what I understand now most of the hard core dancers (whether ballet or ballroom) looking to go pro (not just high school dance team) will go to an arts academy so their dance program is integrated into the school curriculum. I don't know about gymnasts, particularly the older ones looking to compete on the national and olympic level....my understanding from some older documentaries was remote school plus residence at the training camp once they got older (with the youngers only going periodically like in summer and winter break), but my gymnastics knowledge is pretty shallow which is why I'm curious.
I see more and more kids do this with soccer. I know some youngers in 10-12 years old range do soccer charter schools. Some of the olders, I see home school + training program. Another group is sports/academic private schools.
I was actually going to make a post on this because I'm trying to compile a list... maybe I should do that now...
the serious gymnasts and dancers attending public school, practice between 3-5 hours after school mon-thurs. Train between 4-8 hours on Saturday and Sundays if they are not in competition that weekend. If they are in competition, they might train on Fridays too. While in competition, the dancers are still training what they are able to.
These are serious competitors at very high levels. They are managing school and social life just fine because they have most of their Friday, Saturday and Sunday night opens when they are not in competitions.
The burn out factors normally happen if their bodies get too many injuries. This also happens with soccer players, boys or girls.
It's a humbling experience to see their dedication.
It might require lighted fields or futsal during the winter, but otherwise its doable if your kid has the passion to pursue that level of training. My daughter did (or does) and my son did not (at least for soccer).
My daughter did it all through high school while attending public school and cheerleading. She was in competitive dance at a local studio and trained in Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Lyrical. She also trained in Ballet, but didn't compete in it, that's a whole other world and commitment. She competed in solo, duo and groups, on average about 9 dances per competition. Many kids at the studio did the same, but again it requires passion to pursue that level of training. She is on a "Pac 12" college dance team now, but the team doesn't compete, although they dance at most men's and women's home athletic games and travels to some away games. The amount of dance practice is nothing now compared to her high school years. It felt like I got a raise when she went to college and I didn't have to pay for dance
. Just FYI, there are no meaningful college scholarships for dance, so there is no potential for monetary pay back. The dance team is under the athletic department so she does get most of the perks of the other D1 athletes, including a ton of swag. However she didn't get a free lease on a brand new Dodge truck like all the scholarship men's football and basketball players, or a Jeep Cherokee like the women's basketball players.Fascinating, though I'd note if you buy into the OP's system the 5 would be top level but the 3 wouldn't. At 5 hours, given SoCal driving, that means homework is not started until 9, unless class is starting before school.
It might require lighted fields or futsal during the winter, but otherwise its doable if your kid has the passion to pursue that level of training. My daughter did (or does) and my son did not (at least for soccer).
My daughter did it all through high school while attending public school and cheerleading. She was in competitive dance at a local studio and trained in Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Lyrical. She also trained in Ballet, but didn't compete in it, that's a whole other world and commitment. She competed in solo, duo and groups, on average about 9 dances per competition. Many kids at the studio did the same, but again it requires passion to pursue that level of training. She is on a "Pac 12" college dance team now, but the team doesn't compete, although they dance at most men's and women's home athletic games and travels to some away games. The amount of dance practice is nothing now compared to her high school years. It felt like I got a raise when she went to college and I didn't have to pay for dance
First, no offense or derision is intended to your daughter AT ALL. But I think your daughter would not be what the OP would consider the highest of his tiers (possibly the second highest he outlines). The equivalent for that is the pro ballet or ballroom dancer (or on the cheer side one of the competitive cheer teams, which if you watch "Cheer" on Netflix, they do hit those hours due to the national competition). Or to draw a comparison, your daughter was to dance what a non-Academy MLS Next boy at a rigorous problem would be. Still great commitment...no belittling intended of the commitment...but I think the OP's point is directed to "that's a whole other world and commitment" athletes.
I did competitive Latin ballroom in college. 9 dances...wow...I thought mine were demanding. Admire the dedication.
No offense taken. You can't compare world class ballet, international gymnastics and Olympic level skating to national competitive dance. I disagree with ballroom dance though. One of her dance teammates won just about every competition in ballroom dance and still danced the same load as my daughter's competitive dance training. (I believe most of her ballroom dance training was limited to weekends, or random blocks of training) This girl also competed in pageants. There is no way she was adding more than 20+ hours a week in ballroom dancing. IMO, Competitive dance is more demanding than competitive cheer. With cheer the stunting is more demanding, but you just don't have the variety of routines and disciplines that you have in dance and there are only group routines in cheer.
The public school system changed a lot, reducing homework loads and pushing for a more efficient day. Which at first upset me because I thought they were training weak workers but then I think about how much work I do after work and it makes sense. Homework should be no more than 1-2 hours per day. Some of the dancers/gymnast do homework from 9-11 and a few prefer mornings at 6-8 am. For the most part, they try not to have homework by trying to complete their work at school. Due to the leniency of allowing more time for completion of work, the weekends allow them to catch up if they fall behind.
The school backpack travels to all competitions and time is allocated for study hall or reading time.
Home schooling/online schooling is very popular with top D1 tennis players. Visit UCLA and Stanford tennis team home page and look at where these tennis players went for high school. It will be a sad day when soccer players have to be home schooled to play in college. When that happens we know soccer has become an elitist sport.
I know a kid who does that for tennis... trying to make pro... Impossible to go to normal school with the daily training required.
But is it more a product of tennis players peaking early... so they have to put that time in now... and the ones that "don't make it pro" are the ones going to college... so it's not necessarily doing homeschooling to play tennis to get to college... but you're just getting all the "I'm not going to make pro" applying to college? And those "did not make it to pro but was on pro path" kids are clearly the best of the bunch... so they end up going to top programs like UCLA and Stanford?
For college soccer scholarships, I've heard a lot of the spots are reserved for the foreign players being cut from their academy teams in England or wherever. If they're cut close to college aged, backup option is to come to America and play college and get an education. I forget which one but a popular college recruiting Twitter page had the roster of a college team and just how many came from overseas. It was a lot.
I think most parents are clueless about how much scholarship money they could get for college until their kids are in their junior year applying for schools. If you ask tennis parents, they will likely say they want their kids to get a college scholarship. For D1 men’s program, there are 4 scholarship for a tennis team of 12-13 players and 9.9 scholarships for a soccer team of 30 players. No one is getting a full ride. Kids should just play sports for the love of the game and nothing more. There is opportunity cost associated with 3 day practices and all the traveling time. If you have a kid who does well in school, having him on a team that requires that much time commitment, soccer might actually be detrimental to his chance of going to a top school.
My oldest did dance about 20 hours per week for 6 straight years. She was good, but never had a chance to go professional or be great. My youngest plays D1 soccer, did about 8-9 hours practice per week when younger, plus games. She now puts in 15-18 hours per week, but that includes weight training. She could have played D1 basketball if she had put in 8 hours of basketball practice. Genetics play a part that give advantages to some kids and disadvantages to others.
This 100%.
They gotta love playing. And parents gotta love - or at least tolerate - the travel and being on the sidelines. Consider out of state showcases/tourneys as vacations or family trips. Build memories in the journey. And enjoy and learn from it. Anything else (college or beyond) is a bonus.
It's certainly a terrible financial investment. But if you just consider it a family activity together and not an "investment" then it's fun and something to do. If they don't play soccer (or any other sport), it's not like the kids will sit at home and not do anything else at all. They'll do something else - music, debate team, dance, arts, gaming, spelling bee, whatever - so it's not a "complete waste" if it doesn't lead to a "return on investment".