Kudos. Gotta start somewhere.
No games until 2021
- Thread starter Eagle33
- Start date
Kudos. Gotta start somewhere.
jpeter
PREMIER
Youth soccer has been unfairly classified as a higher risk in CA than it should or vs many other places and that needs to be changed.
The house if cards that is youth club soccer has been exposed for what it is. For the most part a business disguised as a nonprofit that uses all kinds and manner of marketing to convince parents to pay the big $$.
What really needs to happen is reducing the costs and open up youth sports to a broader audience where $$ are not the override factor on who really participates.
sports.yahoo.com
Yeah that articles has some hits and misses but the topic is relative. Youth Soccer is segregated whether we like it or not, economically at least and that needs to change.
Time for change, I not sure the election is going to have some miraculous enlightening that's all sudden going to change youth sports guidance in California.
Making the best of whatever situations come up I've always tried to teach my kids and in the long run I think that and diversity has kept them motivated, training, happy and moving forward.
The house if cards that is youth club soccer has been exposed for what it is. For the most part a business disguised as a nonprofit that uses all kinds and manner of marketing to convince parents to pay the big $$.
What really needs to happen is reducing the costs and open up youth sports to a broader audience where $$ are not the override factor on who really participates.
The Privilege of Play: Why the world’s game is a white game in the U.S.
Soccer, in its purest form, is the most accessible and racially diverse team sport in the world. But American soccer is not. It’s disproportionately white and upper-middle-class.
Yeah that articles has some hits and misses but the topic is relative. Youth Soccer is segregated whether we like it or not, economically at least and that needs to change.
Time for change, I not sure the election is going to have some miraculous enlightening that's all sudden going to change youth sports guidance in California.
Making the best of whatever situations come up I've always tried to teach my kids and in the long run I think that and diversity has kept them motivated, training, happy and moving forward.
northeastlafc
SILVER
You made an assumption about the type of coach I am because I said I favor pro/rel and that winning should matter lol I genuinely had a laugh. Kids all over the world are exposed to those kind of environments at young ages and look at how they progress. Look at Dominic Calvert-Lewin for example. Someone who was cut at the age of 9 is now the joint leading PL goalscorer for the time being. The top players will always gravitate towards the top and pro/rel helps function this. If parents want to leave a club in search of status like you said then they’re in their right to do so. Just because they leave to go to a higher tier level club doesn’t mean they’ll make the team. It might seem unethical for parents to take their child away from a team but the way a lot of clubs are ran are unethical anyways. Not having pro/rel is a big factor in why small neighborhood clubs don’t exist anymore and sell out to be a chapter/affiliate of FC Golden State, Pateadores, Strikers, or any of the 5 surf teams. Some would rather be another clubs Flight 1 or Discovery team rather than using their own identity and work their way up.
My first ever soccer team was a recreation center team and for 2 years we never lost until I was 11 and lost a game in a Cal South league. I was now motivated to play and train harder because I now know there are players better than me. I never wanted to go to a gold team, I was fine being in my silver team and learning and I swear to God we would sometimes beat the Gold teams whenever we’d play them. Listen to the kids they probably want this.
I actually started 50 years ago with Brazil Nuts.
Youth soccer has be classified as a higher risk in CA vs many other places and that needs to be changed.
The house if cards that is youth club soccer has been exposed for what it is. For the most part a business disguised as a nonprofit that uses all kinds and manner of marketing to convince parents to pay the big $$.
What really needs to happen is reducing the costs and open up youth sports to a broader audience where $$ are not the override factor on who really participates.
The Privilege of Play: Why the world’s game is a white game in the U.S.
Soccer, in its purest form, is the most accessible and racially diverse team sport in the world. But American soccer is not. It’s disproportionately white and upper-middle-class.
Yeah that articles has some hits and misses but the topic is relative. Youth Soccer is segregated whether we like it or not, economically at least and that needs to change.
Time for change, I not sure the election is going to have some miraculous enlightening that's all sudden going to change youth sports guidance in California.
Making the best of whatever situations come up I've always tried to teach my kids and in the long run I think that and diversity has kept them motivated, training, happy and moving forward.
Yes! Thank you for finally exposing these fat cat soccer moguls for what they are. They’re raking in money hand over fist and it’s so unfair! We need to stop them in their tracks by socializing youth soccer!
Eagle33
PREMIER
and if you do this, how those Blues and West Coast coaches make any money?
This is something I can get behind. Soccer socialism. We may have more things in common than we care to admit. I've even taken a liking to the word "woke". It's won me more than one argument with my wanna be woke offspring.
Because by now they should be "woke".
jpmorris123
BRONZE
I'm more liberal than the vast majority of the person's on these crazy boards, but the three activities your listed for kids during a pandemic -- biking, skateboarding and surfing -- spoke volumes about your economic status, privileged position in life and incredibly limited understanding of the millions of masses in SoCal. Time to drop your avatar and screen name, and stop the charade of being someone from the streets of SoCal who understands what we go through or need on a daily basis. Nobody, I mean nobody, from my hood even thinks about surfing. They hope to get to the white person beaches maybe once or twice a year. Average annual family income hovers around $40k. Kids don't have bikes, ain't no bike lanes, and it ain't even safe to bike on these streets. Welcome to where the blue-collar working masses, struggling their way through life live... kids surfing, skateboarding, biking? Please stop. Your livin' in your own Truman Show.
That was me as kid sports guy when I was young and free to dream. School teachers and friends all told me to my face that I would never make it in the NBA or Pro baseball. I told them for years how wrong they were and I would prove them wrong. I was on silver level HS School baseball team and we would play and bat against future # a draft picks once in a while and the scouts had their guns out. I got my big chance against Paul Abbott when he pitched at Sunny Hills in 85'. 93 MPH and a nast change up and curve balls. I thought I had a chance ((in my dreams the night before)) for the scouts, who were watching Paul, maybe see that spark that i was brought to the team and all that hustle and "Hey nows." Well, three pitches later I was sent to bench. My once chance to shine in front of the Cubs and Twins. I got my chance and struck out swinging. I did foul tip the second pitch. First one was right down the middle and I knew I was dead after that pitch at 93. Never scene anything like it
youthsportsugghhh
SILVER ELITE
I get not surfing options, but biking and skateboarding cost vs. what club soccer costs? I truly hope that there is low cost soccer opportunities that are less than a used bike or skateboard that kids can take advantage of
This is a joke right?
MacDre
PREMIER
I’m from the MOST DANGEROUS hood in California...learn about North Richmond homie.
Hey bro, I did offer Macdre free lessons this summer but Covid hit. I swear as God is my witness that I will offer anyone free Surf Lessons next summer. I swear on my life. BTW, the last beach house I was at was owned by a super smart cat from India. Worked for Microsoft. He has his own Cove with 30 other families and I can tell you that that private beach is not all white. Maybe half, but the rest is mixed up.
MacDre
PREMIER
I assure you kids in the hood have access to bikes and skateboards.
The bikes are actually kind of expensive for a working family....remember they are constantly outgrowing them. If you live in an apartment, there's no place to store them. There's also no place for the kids to ride them safely. And working class parents make an outsized portion of the essential workers....so it's not like they have time to supervise them. In some neighborhoods you might even get shot, or at a minimum have your bike stolen.
Skateboards are obviously cheaper but at least in La County the skateparks are still closed so that leaves skateboarding out in the street, which isn't necessarily safe but kids are doing it.
notintheface
GOLD
How about we compare kids growing up in LA to kids growing up in Sheffield, where DCL spent his youth career. What bracket of play did Sheffield's U10 team come in, and what was their record the previous year? I'll save you the time-- those youngers teams don't do pro/rel.
The real factor is money, not pro/rel, but we'll save that for a completely different thread.
Kids want to play competitive matches and they want to get better. If your team was sometimes beating Gold level teams, guess what, you should have been at least Silver Elite and I can only imagine your coach wanting to play flight 2 / flight 1 in order to make your team better. That's the point of all of this. A team of U8 kids who has an absolute superstar goat striker who can dribble at speed and pass the ball into the corner of the net, but is absolutely trash on defense, will probably move up to silver, then silver elite, and maybe even gold when they're 11. They will then get absolutely annihilated when they switch to 11v11 when they're 12. Then the parents are like "wtf" and the team blows up. A good coach will know that they're not really a gold team and would keep them in flight 2 until their defense and midfield can maintain possession. See how pro/rel doesn't allow this?
youthsportsugghhh
SILVER ELITE
I get that too -- I had a girls bike that was a little big, but easier to ride without the bar and kept it in the apartment ( did take some criticism from others in the neighborhood until I let them ride it). Sidewalks and paths around the parks or sidewalks and driveways/parking lots near the apartment served as my skate park. My comment was based on the cost of club soccer v a bike or skateboard for those in the inner cities and what can be done instead of playing soccer.
The other teams' parents though will be screaming at the league to move them up to stop the goat from constantly blowing them out 10-0. The issue with the youngers, as you point out, is that one even semi-goat can ruin things.
The experience is the same with GKers BTW. The goat basically keeps the team on offense so the strikes the GK is getting aren't really as challenging. The team has been promoted anyways so until the higher levels they aren't getting a ton of competing shots on goal. The GK and his/her parents think they are doing a great job because the coaches and parents constantly congratulate them on the "shut out". The GK may not be developing their foot skills either.
Then age 12 hits and they are in the bigger goal. Suddenly the kids too have developed speed on their shots and aren't hitting it directly at the goalkeeper anymore. On the field, players have learned to head and chest the ball and those punts are no longer a footrace and the GK is turning over the ball 50% on the time on a punt. Other kids may have been working with private trainers and attending the camps we all attend and know the big guys around town and are more competitive. And this is also the age that's make or break for the bigger goalkeepers because to cover that larger goal they need to now begin to extension dive (and assuming the kid has been working on GK for 2-3 years, it's also the age a reputable GK coach will introduce the extension dive in ernest, knowing that the kid probably won't get hurt now doing it)....if the kid in puberty doesn't translate some of the size for muscle he/she will be behind in both ability to jump and quickness of reaction saves (which begin to be more important around age 10-11 as kids learn to penetrated into zone 1 in the box through passing opportunities, as opposed to just shooting from the top of the PA or outrunning the defense).
For working class Latino families, the cost of playing rec soccer (either at AYSO or in Latino League) the cost is minimal. Latino League usually gets a local business to supplement the uniform costs. My cous has great difficulty keeping her kids in bikes...she never has issues with soccer but then she's not having her kids play club. Skateboards are a different story, but she worries about as they get older the type of friends it will cause them to hang out with. We all here are complaining about our kids being unable to play club soccer but the ones that are really hurting are the ones that play AYSO and the ones that play Latino League
SoccerFan4Life
PREMIER
Coaches/Teams are always looking to move their team higher and higher. We now have Flight 3, Flight 2. Flight 1. Flight 1 champions, Flight 1 Discovery??????? That's insane and it's just a money grab.
Regarding under performing teams, they need to have at least a .500 win rate if they want to move up to the next tier. Makes no sense to go 2-12 as flight 3 to then move to flight 2 and go 0-14. Stay in Flight 3 one more year to get experience. Kids dont care about flights as much as parents do. Kids do care if they keep losing every year because the coach decided that they can compete at a higher level.
My kids had the worse experience because a coach decided to put our team in a higher bracket where we clearly didnt belong. We went 2-12 during the regular season. During State cup, the coach again decided to challenge our team and play in a higher bracket (Governors). We got crushed and lost every game by more than 4 goals. Let's just say the team folded and my boys didnt want to play soccer again.