Girls Development Academy

Changing the patch is not gonna make your kid a better soccer player.

A mixture of a good club coach, personal trainer (soccer and weightlifting) and some discovery play at big showcases will be enough to give your kid a shot at the national team.

The data shows BDA has not produced a winning World Cup team. What makes anyone think the girls side will be any different? Has everyone noticed how other countries are catching up to the WNT?? Not sure ECNL or NPL is the answer either.
 
eastbaysoccer said:
Changing the patch is not gonna make your kid a better soccer player.

A mixture of a good club coach, personal trainer (soccer and weightlifting) and some discovery play at big showcases will be enough to give your kid a shot at the national team.

The data shows BDA has not produced a winning World Cup team. What makes anyone think the girls side will be any different? Has everyone noticed how other countries are catching up to the WNT?? Not sure ECNL or NPL is the answer either.
Click to expand...
Neither will the status quo....everyone has the opinion DA isn't the answer, well, then what is? ECNL hasn't pushed the WNT forward enough to outpace teams like France, Japan, Korea, ect. US soccer and the ECNL brass couldn't work together to do what is best for the growth of the Women's game so it has become even more fractured.

As I've stated before, I'm not sold that DA is going to live up to the hype. But for an '04 DD who can play locally under a great coach in a great organization that happens to be DA why wouldn't you?
 
Kicker4Life said:
Neither will the status quo....everyone has the opinion DA isn't the answer, well, then what is? ECNL hasn't pushed the WNT forward enough to outpace teams like France, Japan, Korea, ect. US soccer and the ECNL brass couldn't work together to do what is best for the growth of the Women's game so it has become even more fractured.

As I've stated before, I'm not sold that DA is going to live up to the hype. But for an '04 DD who can play locally under a great coach in a great organization that happens to be DA why wouldn't you?
Click to expand...

I think it's more important to focus on skills at the younger ages. There are a lot of poor ulittle coaches and those kids are developing bad habits at 8-11 that are hard to fix later on. I see a lot of girls in our age group who cannot correctly collect a ball and have a bad first touch. DA will not fix that. More oversight of coaching at the younger ages will.
 
eastbaysoccer said:
Changing the patch is not gonna make your kid a better soccer player.

A mixture of a good club coach, personal trainer (soccer and weightlifting) and some discovery play at big showcases will be enough to give your kid a shot at the national team.

The data shows BDA has not produced a winning World Cup team. What makes anyone think the girls side will be any different? Has everyone noticed how other countries are catching up to the WNT?? Not sure ECNL or NPL is the answer either.
Click to expand...

With the other countries catching up or surpassing the USWNT, it had exposed the domestic player scouting process as flawed. I understand that DA is a money grab and power play from ECNl. But I am not so naive to think that the powers at be want a different process than ODP.
 
Kicker4Life said:
I am lead to believe that is one of the main points of DA, but who knows. Based on the balance of your point, you are reaffirming our decision to go DA and remain with her coach.
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Da doesn't start until age 12-13. Too late to teach those skills. Any girl who wants to play da should have a good first touch and ability to collect a ball and have her head up to make a smart play. I don't see that being the case right now. US soccer should be taking more control over the real development ages, instead of stepping in at 12. If your Da coach is a good coach, and your daughter wants to make that commitment, by all means stay. But don't discount that taking control of the younger ages would be more effective in creating a greater pool of top players.
 
San Diego area GDA tryouts.

Albion appears to be the first to have official tryouts starting this Friday, March 24th (see bottom of page).
http://www.albionsoccer.org/tryoutinfo/161391.html?1490121233

LA Galaxy San Diego has been having kick-arounds and some open practices depending on age group. It appears that there are tryouts for the 2001/2002's starting March 29th.
http://lagalaxysd.com/tryout/

Surf does not have any tryout dates listed yet, but they do have a very good FAQ page.
http://www.surfsoccer.com/ussda-girls/
 
chargerfan said:
Da doesn't start until age 12-13. Too late to teach those skills. Any girl who wants to play da should have a good first touch and ability to collect a ball and have her head up to make a smart play. I don't see that being the case right now. US soccer should be taking more control over the real development ages, instead of stepping in at 12. If your Da coach is a good coach, and your daughter wants to make that commitment, by all means stay. But don't discount that taking control of the younger ages would be more effective in creating a greater pool of top players.
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I agree with your assessment 100%.
 
chargerfan said:
I think it's more important to focus on skills at the younger ages. There are a lot of poor ulittle coaches and those kids are developing bad habits at 8-11 that are hard to fix later on. I see a lot of girls in our age group who cannot correctly collect a ball and have a bad first touch. DA will not fix that. More oversight of coaching at the younger ages will.
Click to expand...

There is some recognition of this by US Soccer. That's why they are putting in place the small-standards this year from u-6 through u-12.
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel

Better coaching would be awesome, but's it tough to find high-level a coach that wants to coach 10 year olds all their life.
 
Scouting is a big deal. Does anyone here think U soccer has better scouts that the NFL or NBA? Heck no.....they earn less and don't have the big money to truly evaluate and vet players.

IMO the fist thing scouts should look is mental toughness. Can u play at a high level when u are sick and injured? Do u raise your game when it counts? Do you make the biggest plays in the biggest moments?

Busts - Sam Bowie, Ryan leaf, Jared Geoff, heath Schuler, Greg Oden,. Perhaps US soccer has scouts with the same eyes that scouted these dopes.

I believe we can fix this area right away.
 
chargerfan said:
Da doesn't start until age 12-13. Too late to teach those skills. Any girl who wants to play da should have a good first touch and ability to collect a ball and have her head up to make a smart play. I don't see that being the case right now. US soccer should be taking more control over the real development ages, instead of stepping in at 12. If your Da coach is a good coach, and your daughter wants to make that commitment, by all means stay. But don't discount that taking control of the younger ages would be more effective in creating a greater pool of top players.
Click to expand...
I agree 200% with you! These skills need to be taught and mastered at a young age to be able to play at a high level and be successful at an older age! I don't think there are enough "technical" coaches at the younger ages hence why some players are missing these skills later on. I would say CB has spent much of his soccer life with 10 year old's and he has mastered how to teach technical soccer. If only we could clone him. :)
 
This weekend in Vegas I asked someone much more knowledgable than I for his opinion of GDA. He has a son in Academy, and a daughter who has played with various ages of the US YNT. He is also a pretty good player himself. He is glad for the change from ECNL to GDA. He says the schedule is better and the increase in practice time his son has had in DA is very beneficial.
 
chargerfan said:
Da doesn't start until age 12-13. Too late to teach those skills. Any girl who wants to play da should have a good first touch and ability to collect a ball and have her head up to make a smart play. I don't see that being the case right now. US soccer should be taking more control over the real development ages, instead of stepping in at 12. If your Da coach is a good coach, and your daughter wants to make that commitment, by all means stay. But don't discount that taking control of the younger ages would be more effective in creating a greater pool of top players.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. I don't think anyone should believe that it is the DA intention to do so, either. Fine tuning, elevating, advancing within a team concept, yes. However, I would think that certain players that have been identified already within a club, already possess these skills. I would expect tryouts to identify the rest. If not, it's just the same teams of players with a different acronym in front of the team name. I think the idea is to get as many of the best players as possible playing together. This IS how individuals elevate their game, being surrounded by as good or better than you players. Don't kid yourself in thinking that ODP coaches are teaching skills to anyone. No, they are just managing a great group of players. Again, the theory of DA is good. Just as ECNL is/was. We will see if it all works out.
 
JMHO, but one big difference between a DA club and an ECNL club, is the fact that teams are pretty much set for the age groups. Sure, each year and from time to time there might be individual adds and drops, but there is no "graduation" into DA. Whereas, say an 04 "team" at an ECNL club, promotes and becomes ECNL at U14. Same team, bigger pedestal.
 
I would kindly disagree. Maybe I am misreading but I think some things may be very hard for DA players even if we have made a team. There are hidden pitfalls within the DA system that I suppose separate the girls:
1. Lack of playing time
2. Learning how to focus on training- making training days 100 percent as opposed to a "practice mentality" that I see now in my DD team. Proving yourself at training and not waiting for "game day" to show up or that "big tourney"
3. Lack of unlimited substitutions- learning how to be impactful to the game or you will be subbed out and not get that chance to go back in
4. A very real chance that if you are 11-18 on a DA you may start in as little as 25 percent of games and you have to find a way to "break in" to the top 11. How do you do that? How do you "prove" worth at training because there will be fewer games
5. It's a grind and so the motivation can't come from parents- it has to come from players to "show up" four days a week. Can they?
6. Ten month season and at the end your 11-18 player can be replaced. It has the potential to be a much more cut throat arena especially if the DA records are poor. I haven't seen the quantifers but I can only assume there will be some discussions with families that girls aren't cutting it or families leaving out of exasperation no play time etc
7. I think that the truly elite would have no issue going DA to DA- but the rest of us won't be able to change teams and clubs so freely anymore. I would think that in theory some clubs with depth would want to move up current girls in a system within their club vs an outside DA unless she was very elite
8. ECNL was my dream for my DD prior to all this because it appeared to be a beautiful balance of competition and lifestyle and social. Now there is more pressure and some girls will not thrive in that role or environment
9. Studying the game and being an actual student of the game vs "just playing". Some girls are not good in school or learning new concepts but are instinctual athletes. Can those who have relied on athleticism start learning space, movement, off the ball involvement? These are things my coach never taught my daughter
I know a ramble. Just being honest about some challenges my DD may not even know are coming.
To be sure, my DD thinks she "made a team". I don't think she gets it yet
 
One more thing :
There is so much talk about ECNL vs DA but it's the same coaches. The issue becomes can US soccer from afar actually make impactful change?
If they do the gaps should widen significantly at the 04 level between an ECNL or a DA player in theory. In theory the ECNL girls or non DA will have to work that much harder to "break into a system"
The "system" at our age group is plagued probably like most with family alliances, money, politics. Will clubs forego concerns about records and retain the "fringe player" who has made a team due to non merit or will they adhere to the "system".
That will surely be an interesting outcome but not one seen until 2018 at the earliest for our age group. I have a feeling my previous 9 concerns will have a potential to "weed out" players who have coasted onto teams thus far
 
Glen said:
There is some recognition of this by US Soccer. That's why they are putting in place the small-standards this year from u-6 through u-12.
http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2015/08/24/18/07/150824-coaching-player-development-initiatives-rel

Better coaching would be awesome, but's it tough to find high-level a coach that wants to coach 10 year olds all their life.
Click to expand...

I think
Striker17 said:
One more thing :
There is so much talk about ECNL vs DA but it's the same coaches. The issue becomes can US soccer from afar actually make impactful change?
If they do the gaps should widen significantly at the 04 level between an ECNL or a DA player in theory. In theory the ECNL girls or non DA will have to work that much harder to "break into a system"
The "system" at our age group is plagued probably like most with family alliances, money, politics. Will clubs forego concerns about records and retain the "fringe player" who has made a team due to non merit or will they adhere to the "system".
That will surely be an interesting outcome but not one seen until 2018 at the earliest for our age group. I have a feeling my previous 9 concerns will have a potential to "weed out" players who have coasted onto teams thus far
Click to expand...

No doubt there is politics and money involved already. And believe me, it will not be pretty when those girls are getting playing time and those more worthy are sitting.
 
Striker17 said:
I would kindly disagree. Maybe I am misreading but I think some things may be very hard for DA players even if we have made a team. There are hidden pitfalls within the DA system that I suppose separate the girls:
1. Lack of playing time
2. Learning how to focus on training- making training days 100 percent as opposed to a "practice mentality" that I see now in my DD team. Proving yourself at training and not waiting for "game day" to show up or that "big tourney"
3. Lack of unlimited substitutions- learning how to be impactful to the game or you will be subbed out and not get that chance to go back in
4. A very real chance that if you are 11-18 on a DA you may start in as little as 25 percent of games and you have to find a way to "break in" to the top 11. How do you do that? How do you "prove" worth at training because there will be fewer games
5. It's a grind and so the motivation can't come from parents- it has to come from players to "show up" four days a week. Can they?
6. Ten month season and at the end your 11-18 player can be replaced. It has the potential to be a much more cut throat arena especially if the DA records are poor. I haven't seen the quantifers but I can only assume there will be some discussions with families that girls aren't cutting it or families leaving out of exasperation no play time etc
7. I think that the truly elite would have no issue going DA to DA- but the rest of us won't be able to change teams and clubs so freely anymore. I would think that in theory some clubs with depth would want to move up current girls in a system within their club vs an outside DA unless she was very elite
8. ECNL was my dream for my DD prior to all this because it appeared to be a beautiful balance of competition and lifestyle and social. Now there is more pressure and some girls will not thrive in that role or environment
9. Studying the game and being an actual student of the game vs "just playing". Some girls are not good in school or learning new concepts but are instinctual athletes. Can those who have relied on athleticism start learning space, movement, off the ball involvement? These are things my coach never taught my daughter
I know a ramble. Just being honest about some challenges my DD may not even know are coming.
To be sure, my DD thinks she "made a team". I don't think she gets it yet
Click to expand...
All very valid points Striker. Trust that I meant no slight. Honestly, I have no experience with ECNL, except mine being asked to DP. The substitution thing, I get. The 10 month commitment is what it is. That's the nature of our youth sports landscape now. In nearly every sport! Agree or disagree, it's simply the truth. I personally don't prefer it. I long for the days (like when I was a teen) where you could be a multi sport athlete, no conflict. I also agree, the player MUST be intrinsically motivated, or it could very well be a waste of time and sacrifice. The decision is 100% my DD's. I could care less what the club or coach pushes for or says where she should be. Who knows, we could be relocating to play ECNL in lieu of DA. I, like a lot of others out there, am very curious how this will all shake out. Best of luck to you and your DD. Whatever works out, is meant to be. If you believe in that line of thought.
 
Kicknit22 said:
All very valid points Striker. Trust that I meant no slight. Honestly, I have no experience with ECNL, except mine being asked to DP. The substitution thing, I get. The 10 month commitment is what it is. That's the nature of our youth sports landscape now. In nearly every sport! Agree or disagree, it's simply the truth. I personally don't prefer it. I long for the days (like when I was a teen) where you could be a multi sport athlete, no conflict. I also agree, the player MUST be intrinsically motivated, or it could very well be a waste of time and sacrifice. The decision is 100% my DD's. I could care less what the club or coach pushes for or says where she should be. Who knows, we could be relocating to play ECNL in lieu of DA. I, like a lot of others out there, am very curious how this will all shake out. Best of luck to you and your DD. Whatever works out, is meant to be. If you believe in that line of thought.
Click to expand...

No I took no slight at all! My issue was that I think getting into a roster on the DA represents the very beginning of what could be some rough terrain. ECNL had some options for my DD, and a way to soften the blow to speak due to structure of play.
This has the potential to be a system that many girls will simply not be able to compete in from my perspective.
 
Striker17 said:
No I took no slight at all! My issue was that I think getting into a roster on the DA represents the very beginning of what could be some rough terrain. ECNL had some options for my DD, and a way to soften the blow to speak due to structure of play.
This has the potential to be a system that many girls will simply not be able to compete in from my perspective.
Click to expand...

I agree that it will be harder for girls to break into the top 11. Especially those that "show" better at games than practice.
 
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