The Brag Thread

Soccermom5 said:
I’m new to this forum and I love reading all about your keepers and hearing about their successes on this thread!

A little brag for my keeper—she was selected to try out in the ODP pool. She has tryouts this weekend. She’s among about 75 or so other athletes that were selected in all of Southern California, and I’m sure there will be a handful of other keepers there competing for the spot. I’m a nervous wreck for her! Amazing opportunity for her and honor just to try out. Hope she does her best :)
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Congrats to your little one, tell her to have fun and enjoy the time with her. The process is part talent and part luck, especially for a keeper hoping that they watch when she makes the big save!

In terms of advice, let her know to do her best to communicate out there so the coaches can hear her. Depending on the team she's on during the scrimmages, she may not see a lot of action and has to purposely stand out in other ways. Directing traffic on the field is underappreciated but not unnoticed.
 
Technician72 said:
Congrats to your little one, tell her to have fun and enjoy the time with her. The process is part talent and part luck, especially for a keeper hoping that they watch when she makes the big save!

In terms of advice, let her know to do her best to communicate out there so the coaches can hear her. Depending on the team she's on during the scrimmages, she may not see a lot of action and has to purposely stand out in other ways. Directing traffic on the field is underappreciated but not unnoticed.
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Thanks for the advice! Fortunately for her, she’s a chatty keeper (bossy seems to describe her best actually lol).
 
Technician72 said:
Congrats to your little one, tell her to have fun and enjoy the time with her. The process is part talent and part luck, especially for a keeper hoping that they watch when she makes the big save!

In terms of advice, let her know to do her best to communicate out there so the coaches can hear her. Depending on the team she's on during the scrimmages, she may not see a lot of action and has to purposely stand out in other ways. Directing traffic on the field is underappreciated but not unnoticed.
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I 2nd that. Make sure she talks A LOT to her defenders and other teammates. My DD (G05) was selected for the tryouts along with 3 other keepers. Out of all the scrimmages during the 3 days of tryouts, my DD was the only keeper to allow no goals while making some tough saves. She didn't get picked because she wasn't vocal enough. Even the other parents were surprised as anyone would take a keeper making saves over being more vocal which can be worked on more easier. The ODP 05 team went on to lost to Southern Nevada 3-2 during the ODP Western Championship in early January. Sucks but I'm sure the keepers were vocal...
 
My 05 daughter had the greatest day of sports ever(for my 13 year old it was just another day, to me it was awesome).
Saturday at noon we win 2-1 with her 05 soccer team. She then plays basketball at 3 PM in a boys league and her team wins 39-36 and she scores 11 in the victory. She then guest plays at 6 PM in the So Cal Showcase with 18 year old girls in the U19 division and they win their game 3-1 and she played keeper the whole game.
Still have a big smile on my face. Glad she has her moms athleticism because her skills didn't come from me.
 
socalkdg said:
My 05 daughter had the greatest day of sports ever(for my 13 year old it was just another day, to me it was awesome).
Saturday at noon we win 2-1 with her 05 soccer team. She then plays basketball at 3 PM in a boys league and her team wins 39-36 and she scores 11 in the victory. She then guest plays at 6 PM in the So Cal Showcase with 18 year old girls in the U19 division and they win their game 3-1 and she played keeper the whole game.
Still have a big smile on my face. Glad she has her moms athleticism because her skills didn't come from me.
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Your kid's a stud. You should be proud.

Two things to pass on from my experience, one good one bad:

1. When I talk with friends whose young adults are struggling with addictions to nicotine, marijuana, alcohol and other drugs, one common difference I have found is that the kids who are more active in sports at very high levels and have goals beyond HS sports generally are better students in school and generally steer clear of the party crowd. Not saying that playing sports guarantees your kid won't use these things, but that there seems to be a correlation in terms of the extent and depth of use and the lack of goal oriented activities and focus on physical conditioning and general health. If you keep your kid on this track, she's not ever going to have time for those typical teenage traps!

2. When I noticed your DD's age, it reminded me of what happened with my girl between 13-15. She did school soccer, club soccer, school lacrosse and school volleyball. And she (of course) is a keeper so we all know what that training schedule is like. Add the fact that she often guest played and played up two age groups in club for a while. When she was younger, she was practically injury proof. There were many stories we could tell of her hopping from one event to another during the weekend and dominating and still having energy left over to go practice some more. However at about age 13 for most girls, the elasticity of the young body meets the growth spurt. As the bodies become heavier and more powerful, the high impact stuff takes a toll. Not just the collisions on the field. Even just constantly running and jumping and falling. When you add this to the year-round soccer training and the overlap of different sports seasons, something will have to give, and if she doesn't get at least a two month physical pause, I can promise you that the thing that "gives" will be her body. Most likely, feet, ankles, knees or lower back. Not trying to be a wet blanket on her beast mode weekend, just hoping to give you a head start on planning for her future. We didn't see it coming, and she's had to deal with overuse/overwork issues that could've been avoided. It all started around about this same age and we've talked to many other parents who saw it happen to their girls right around 9th grade.

I know you've been thinking about making her pick between soccer and basketball. Which do you think she's going to stick with?
 
Mystery Train said:
Your kid's a stud. You should be proud.

Two things to pass on from my experience, one good one bad:

1. When I talk with friends whose young adults are struggling with addictions to nicotine, marijuana, alcohol and other drugs, one common difference I have found is that the kids who are more active in sports at very high levels and have goals beyond HS sports generally are better students in school and generally steer clear of the party crowd. Not saying that playing sports guarantees your kid won't use these things, but that there seems to be a correlation in terms of the extent and depth of use and the lack of goal oriented activities and focus on physical conditioning and general health. If you keep your kid on this track, she's not ever going to have time for those typical teenage traps!

2. When I noticed your DD's age, it reminded me of what happened with my girl between 13-15. She did school soccer, club soccer, school lacrosse and school volleyball. And she (of course) is a keeper so we all know what that training schedule is like. Add the fact that she often guest played and played up two age groups in club for a while. When she was younger, she was practically injury proof. There were many stories we could tell of her hopping from one event to another during the weekend and dominating and still having energy left over to go practice some more. However at about age 13 for most girls, the elasticity of the young body meets the growth spurt. As the bodies become heavier and more powerful, the high impact stuff takes a toll. Not just the collisions on the field. Even just constantly running and jumping and falling. When you add this to the year-round soccer training and the overlap of different sports seasons, something will have to give, and if she doesn't get at least a two month physical pause, I can promise you that the thing that "gives" will be her body. Most likely, feet, ankles, knees or lower back. Not trying to be a wet blanket on her beast mode weekend, just hoping to give you a head start on planning for her future. We didn't see it coming, and she's had to deal with overuse/overwork issues that could've been avoided. It all started around about this same age and we've talked to many other parents who saw it happen to their girls right around 9th grade.

I know you've been thinking about making her pick between soccer and basketball. Which do you think she's going to stick with?
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Thanks for the info. Right now it looks to be club soccer than basketball during the down time from soccer when her teammates play high school soccer. I've worried about the diving on her hips, offered padding, but at this point she still refuses. She is tall and slender, and her mom stayed stayed that way all through high school and college. I'm thinking she will have about the same body type that Aubrey Bledsoe of Washington has. Hoping that actually taking some time off soccer during Dec. - Feb. for basketball, with maybe once a week visit with a keeper trainer, will reduce the pounding of her dives on the ground for three months out of the year.

This was a bizarre weekend where the 01 team had their keeper graduating and their 02 keeper hurt, thus bring on the little one(that is what the older girls call her, even though she is taller than most of them.) She will be at the Adidas College Cup with the older girls at the end of June. She did much better with the olders than I expected, and played better than the opposing teams keeper. She has practised with them and they are pretty comfortable with her.

What is the best thing she can wear for her hips that she won't actually notice much?
 
socalkdg said:
What is the best thing she can wear for her hips that she won't actually notice much?
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My daughter wears the Storelli Bodyshield GK Sliders under the Storelli ExoShield GK Shorts. Both are very light and extremely flexible, only items she's willing to wear with padding because she feels it's not restrictive due to the cut points around the padding allowing it to bend. In particular I love the exterior shorts because they extend well into the thigh area as opposed to the "volleyball" shorts I see most goalkeepers wearing.

https://storelli.com/collections/goalkeeping-bottoms
 
socalkdg said:
What is the best thing she can wear for her hips that she won't actually notice much?
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My daughter occasionally wears the padded sliders. But the padding is really only effective at reducing abrasions and bruises. The stress and wear on the hip joints and spine will continue even with padding because all the internal torque is not reduced very much. Appropriate rest and recovery is the best way to combat that. Also I recommend getting her into yoga.

Unfortunately my daughter is too proud of her long muscular legs so almost never wears padded keeper pants anymore. #TeenageVanity
 
A little note on my kid. He's had a run of bad luck recently. Was dropped from his United team when they moved up to silver because of ADHD issues. I put him on a much weaker team so that he could work through those issues but the team struggled to assemble and then to thrive at first. He got a small concussion at camp over the summer and was out for several weeks. In one tournament, a defender fell over his leg and he was on crutches for a week after. And for the tournament on labor day he got sick with a cold but played anyway, feeling lousy for his first game.

18 shots on target. Let in only 3...2 there was nothing he can really do about. Team also came together and lost out on first place by one goal. He also really came together, so I was very happy for him.
 
Grace T. said:
18 shots on target. Let in only 3...2 there was nothing he can really do about. Team also came together and lost out on first place by one goal. He also really came together, so I was very happy for him.
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Great job. A lot easier to improve and gain experience when you face that many shots, on target on not.

New brag for my kid. As a freshman she made the varsity team in basketball at her High School. :D
 
Grace T. said:
A little note on my kid. He's had a run of bad luck recently. Was dropped from his United team when they moved up to silver because of ADHD issues. I put him on a much weaker team so that he could work through those issues but the team struggled to assemble and then to thrive at first. He got a small concussion at camp over the summer and was out for several weeks. In one tournament, a defender fell over his leg and he was on crutches for a week after. And for the tournament on labor day he got sick with a cold but played anyway, feeling lousy for his first game.

18 shots on target. Let in only 3...2 there was nothing he can really do about. Team also came together and lost out on first place by one goal. He also really came together, so I was very happy for him.
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Oh man, that does sound like he's going through a rough patch, but a great way to start the climb to out of the rough patch!! That's great for your son! Congratulations on what sounds like an exciting game and a little stressful on your GK, but what better way to improve as a GK then when you're facing so many shots!

Hoping that your son and his team continue to come together and develop and get stronger as a team! Also hope he feels better it stinks when the kids play when they don't feel well...
 
I have an awesome brag!!!

My son, 2003 keeper, was hit in the groin last fall with an extremely hard kick in practice. He was rushed to the ER for emergency surgery, where tests eventually revealed he had stage 3 testicular cancer. After 7 months of chemotherapy, 5 surgeries and a ton of fight, he was pronounced in remission! He trained and trained to get his body back at full strength, physically and mentally. And now he is the starting keeper on his ECNL team! He is my warrior and Im so proud of him every day!!!
 
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