outside!
DA
Then you have the coaches that are relentless recruiters AND good coaches like Gandalf. Still pretty classless to call players from the opposing team right after a close game however.
Why some clubs seem to do better and win more?
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46n2
SILVER ELITE
The competitive teams/coaches IMO make moves both good and bad.......this is still club ball to some of us. I like seeing the earners get their spot and the right to play on a good team. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with being recruited to play on a good team, I can tell you , we are not recruiting the parents , thats for sure......and when a kid gets dropped it shows that club means business, and as a paying customer everyone should appreciate that.
True. That's why the smart parents let the coaches/clubs make that decision, there is no benefit for a team to keep playing their same age or flight if they are dominating the league with 9-0 scores. A handful of teams do it and it works out for the club, parents but most importantly the kids.
Paul Spacey
SILVER ELITE
Thanks, I appreciate that. It’s something opponents regularly notice and that’s a pat on the back for the kids more than anything.
You’re spot on. Clubs with DA and ECNL will always have the pick of the top players; that’s understandable.
OCsoccerdad7777
SILVER ELITE
How about a combine/US Soccer test type of system to get to Flight 1?
You have to do x amount of technical drills in x amount of time to qualify to even move up. Or something like that. Obviously you will still have to be able to play the game but the big fast kid will even have to learn and will eliminate some of the F2/3 kids that think they can play F1.
Then whether you make it or not will be up to the player/club.
This way you'll see more kids practicing technique and coaches teaching it in practice.
You have to do x amount of technical drills in x amount of time to qualify to even move up. Or something like that. Obviously you will still have to be able to play the game but the big fast kid will even have to learn and will eliminate some of the F2/3 kids that think they can play F1.
Then whether you make it or not will be up to the player/club.
This way you'll see more kids practicing technique and coaches teaching it in practice.
US Soccer right now is the opposite. They don't think coaches should be teaching technique in practice, and are discouraging it in the licensing training. Instead they believe kids should pick up skills by actually playing the game in realistic conditions (e.g. scrimmages). It would require a change in the thinking of US Soccer.
Extras and United do this to some extent (as does the UK), but at least in the case of AYSO those tests aren't always a good indication of how a player will perform in the game and a lot of coaches tend to disregard them anyways for other concerns (positional, speed, politics, etc.)
Eagle33
PREMIER
Where you getting this information from? Did you attended US Soccer coaching clinic and that's what they told you there?
I know I did recently, and nothing remotely close to what you are saying is happening.
I've posted my anecdote before. Went out for my E License. Put together level 2 exercise on playing from the wings. I put together a crossing exercise for 9 year olds with a keeper, a working winger who crosses, a receiver and a defender. I was told I used too few people and it wasn't realistic enough. Instead I should set up a more scrimmage like situation which was game realistic. I asked what if the 9 year old doesn't know how to properly cross the ball. I was told he needs to learn that in a game situation. I said well not all 9 year olds pick things up through osmosis. He said that's what private trainers are for. That was consistent with the information I got and with the 9 new aside course I took, not to mention some stuff with the US Youth Soccer Council.
I admit it was 2 years ago though. If they've backed away from that, great.
From what I have read, crossing is not an effective strategy.
https://soccerment.com/2017/11/26/crossing-effective-strategy/
OCsoccerdad7777
SILVER ELITE
Not saying the kids should not be taught how to play. But for F1 at a minimum, need to have good ball skills to qualify. After that, IQ, game play, hustle, whatever the coach is looking for can determine if they actually make the team.
This way, just having size and/or speed doesn't automatically make you a F1 player.
Sad to hear of your experience.
"E" license to me would be more for teaching maybe F3 type players (not to say if you have an E license, you can't coach or not qualified to coach higher ups. Just on E definition). More emphasis on ball control, technical skills. Of course teaching the game too but more emphasis on the latter.
I've heard plenty of coaches say "Give me a big kid or a fast kid and I can teach them how to play soccer." And they'll overlook the smaller kid with the silky touch and the pinpoint passing to try and get Mongo on the team.
OCsoccerdad7777
SILVER ELITE
Totally true. But that's where if there was some Cal South rule or requirement to get a skills test (recorded) before being even considered F1, then Mongo will be denied and coach can't do anything about it.
Then it is up to the F2 or F3 coach, whomever he goes to to develop the technical skills before being moved up. Not to mention that if Mongo really wants it, then will work on it him/her self at home. Currently Mongo just sits at home playing Fortnite because he/she scores 2 goals a game and is the golden child.
Results will be that everyone in F1 will be way more skilled from defenders to strikers and kids that come up from F2 will have some basic skills to start with.
I know it's a pipe dream lol.
Lambchop
GOLD
You can't teach "fast". Skills are acquired over many years of training and practice where ever that may be. Many of those big kids will frequently switch sports in high school. Too many people stress over their ulittles.
You can teach "faster", but it still might not qualify as "fast".
Thunderstruck
BRONZE
We play for a club that has multiple teams in age groups and I can tell you they definitely don’t move kids from the higher team to the lower team to be strong across the board (although this would help my team at State Cup)!
El Clasico
GOLD
Every single time!! It's embarrassing really..
ItsCalledSoccer
SILVER
Ultimately, there are far too many flight 1 teams. If that is the top level, it should be elite and difficult to get into. Separate leagues by each county, then have 10 teams in flight 1, 20 teams in flight 2 (two brackets), 30 teams in flight 3 (three brackets) etc. If there are 10 teams in flight 1, that's 100 spots for a 7v7 team. In the whole of Orange County, that would be very difficult to get into (which it should be). Far too many kids playing flight 1 who shouldn't be. For the older age groups, with all the add on's above flight 1, its not prestigious anymore anyway.
Paul Spacey
SILVER ELITE
My understanding from talking to people who have been involved in club soccer for many years here is that club soccer used to be like this. To make it onto a ‘top’ team (or even to make it onto any club team), you had to be a very good player, otherwise you just played AYSO. Not sure how accurate that is/was?
In San Diego in the 70's, it was local rec teams (not even at the AYSO level of organization) with a County Cup tournament at the end of the season, or try out for travel teams -- Nomads for Boys and Surf for girls (San Dieguito Surf, to be exact).
ItsCalledSoccer
SILVER
I haven't been in soccer long enough to know, however I do know a few people who failed to get into the AYSO Extra team for their regions, and then went to a flight 3 club team. We have been through 7v7 and now into 9v9 and I have yet to see a flight 3 team who I think to myself "These guys would easily win AYSO Extra in South OC". I just hope people aren't paying the regular sums that get banded around to play on flight 3 club, when AYSO Extra is so much cheaper and a better environment for their kids to play the game.
The weakness with the Extras program is the same one with the core AYSO-- that it relies on volunteer coaches so you don't really get a chance to shop for the coach (you take what you have in your AYSO area) and that coach is likely to be a parent volunteer (who may or may not know what they are doing, though AYSO's training materials IMHO are better than US Soccer's and AYSO tends to assign the better coaches to Extras, though as a ref I have run into a couple that made me wonder). The United program, for instance, is moving away from volunteer coaches because they feel paying their coaches will make them more accountable (a volunteer can take the position fire me if you don't like what I'm doing). As a ref I can also tell you the "better environment" is dependent also on what attitude the AYSO region imposes on both coaches and the parents (I've had more issues reffing Extras games, than either core or club games...some regions are really good and have zero tolerance, others not so much).
As to performance, Extras has an advantage in that it can pick from among the best of its core program from Extras (though that advantage is being diminished somewhat by the competition from United). It's not true that they are better than all flight 3 teams (my son's experience in the first and second year were that the Extras teams were relatively easy competition), and indeed United is hoping to structure it as a lower level to their United bronze team with each United region offering an experience in at least gold (or silver elite)/silver/bronze. There is a disadvantage in that Extras teams have a coach/team commit only for 1 year and then get completely reshuffled with the best players looking for promotion to United (though that's also the case now for many flight 3 teams) And finally, there is a weakness in the Extras tryout process....the exams in many regions tend to favor fast moving strikers (as opposed to defenders or specialists like CBs or GKs) and allowances get made for politics (for intermediate refs/board members/coordinators/the coach and assistant coach).