7v7 was a joke at SURF CUP

In all the talk about "Development", have we lost touch with the fun of playing?

Frankly, I'm sick of the word. Most of the kids just want to have fun. My daughter would rather play a couple games and hang out with her friends than go to practice 4 times a week.

One of the most memorable quotes from the minimal training I've seen is "the game is the best teacher".
 
timbuck said:
US Soccer recommends that tournaments shouldn't be played at younger ages. Will the new dimensions / rules cause teams to rethink their future tournament participation?


Tournaments are fun. Kids enjoy them. For the most part, parents enjoy them. But that doesn't mean they are "good" for players.
We don't ask or expect adults to play multiple games in a day. Sure, kids have free subs, while adults play the majority of a 90 minute game.
But the point of youth sports is to learn and improve from week to week. Not much learning and improvement take place in the 3 hours between games. It becomes a war of attrition. The Development Academy concept is to have more and better training but to play less games that are more "meaningful."
Many teams play 6 tournaments a summer. That's anywhere from 18 to 36 games over the course of an 8 week summer.
Mix in hot turf fields and/or subpar grass fields. Fatigue and bad playing surfaces can lead to injuries.
And then you have coaches who want 10 year olds to act like professional athletes. "No sleepovers, no pool time, no ice cream on tournament weekends." These things might lead to a drop in performance, but they also lead a 10 year old to burnout. There are some kids out there that will thrive in this environment. I think they are in the minority.
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been saying this for some time...tournaments are nothing but fundraisers for the clubs, nothing else good comes from it. best of the best? best of what....give me abreak, what a clownshow....nice concept for the olders but not needed for the littles.
ill take league sep through may/june league with rel and promotion, 1 game per week and then give the kids a break and have them enjoy their summers. throw in 1 or 2 team bonding, away tourneys towards the beginning of league and call it a day.
 
I don't think their is one right answer in developing your son or daughter as every kid is different. My kids G06 and b07 love to play and train and they do a lot of both their dreams and passion drive them. I shut up and drive and secretly hope they want to join a surf(surfing waves) team soon so I don't have to ever see Lancaster,Norco and whatever other unbelievably hot place they make me go to HaHa I started dreaming for a second.......so my kids train 4 days a week 2 field trainings and 2 keeper trainings they love to compete and train because it's fun to them. We have one rule for them as far as activities go they have to pick something and stick with it for the season or whatever. So for now or forever you will see us on the soccer fields throughout the country well you will see them as I'm usually hiding somewhere I meen watching from a distance. Good luck to all of you and have fun. Also thank you for watching their videos on Instagram @ soccerkeeper1310.

Thank you
 
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back to back tourneys are the worst, or how about the ol back to back to back?
2 weeks, 9 to possibly 12/15 games plus practices and possibly privates for the "really committed", insane.
 
dfbmike said:
been saying this for some time...tournaments are nothing but fundraisers for the clubs, nothing else good comes from it. best of the best? best of what....give me abreak, what a clownshow....nice concept for the olders but not needed for the littles.
ill take league sep through may/june league with rel and promotion, 1 game per week and then give the kids a break and have them enjoy their summers. throw in 1 or 2 team bonding, away tourneys towards the beginning of league and call it a day.
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You are absolutely right if your kids don't think playing soccer in the summer is enjoyably. My kids can't wait for summer because they want to play soccer and go to the beach. Now if it's that you want to enjoy your summer well I understand haha. My son loved Vegas cup,Dallas cup,surf cup pats snd whatever other cup I'm forgetting my daughter also plays in 10-12 cups. I need to fill my cup up just thinking of these deserts. Enjoy!
 
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I think my kids are insane! Are their parents that think their kids are normal?I knew I was bad at this haha. You will see us at west coast sat and my daughter is at Anaheim surf I think.
 
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dfbmike said:
been saying this for some time...tournaments are nothing but fundraisers for the clubs, nothing else good comes from it.
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I must have traveled to another planet, this doesn't sound like a youth soccer forum anymore...
 
GunninGopher said:
In all the talk about "Development", have we lost touch with the fun of playing?

Frankly, I'm sick of the word. Most of the kids just want to have fun. My daughter would rather play a couple games and hang out with her friends than go to practice 4 times a week.

One of the most memorable quotes from the minimal training I've seen is "the game is the best teacher".
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Yeah, but -- if all you ever play against is bush-leaguers, that's all you w ill learn.
 
jrcaesar said:
Nice vids. But, wow, having to defend against a kickoff?!! Geez!
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Kick offs were easy. We gave up 3 goals in one game on goal kicks, there is no offsides on a goal kick and their goalie could kick it far, so they just set up in front of our goal and goalie. It certainly worked. All of the kick offs went over, too close....
 
EvilGoalie 21 said:
This thread has run its course a bit but reading back through and didn't get why you were so surprised here Wez.
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It was directed at the commentor who basically said tournaments are nothing but a club money grab and offer no value to the kids.

I couldn't disagree more. This isn't AYSO we're discussing. We pay for competitive development and for someone to have the opinion that tournaments are all bad, just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
Wez said:
It was directed at the commentor who basically said tournaments are nothing but a club money grab and offer no value to the kids.

I couldn't disagree more. This isn't AYSO we're discussing. We pay for competitive development and for someone to have the opinion that tournaments are all bad, just doesn't make any sense to me.
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What's "competitive development"?
 
Wez said:
It was directed at the commentor who basically said tournaments are nothing but a club money grab and offer no value to the kids.

I couldn't disagree more. This isn't AYSO we're discussing. We pay for competitive development and for someone to have the opinion that tournaments are all bad, just doesn't make any sense to me.
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I see. I like this thread because it has all these great socal soccer cross currents. Let's not use AYSO as the poor cousin though. For me, AYSO is great for at least three reasons. 1. If you ever had a grumpy patch with club-and it will happen-watching 5 yrs old kick the ball around in shorts that are too big can bring perspective. 2. You can watch the club coaches handing out business cards and know what keeps club in business. 3. If you start finding club parents crazy you can go watch AYSO games and see what truly crazy parents are like.

From my sliver of experience, the tourneys are of different value depending on what kind of team your kid is on. On the boys side I think there are three kind of teams: no gratification, instant gratification and delayed gratification. Different teams work for different kids and different families at different times. No gratification teams are self explanatory. It happens. Instant gratification teams are built with an eye to winning tournaments. The coaching and development can be superb, but in other cases not so much. The delayed gratification teams are like what the DA teams are supposed to be; teams that are supposed to be less about winning and more about developing for the future. So you get coaches trying to peer through the cloudy crystal ball of puberty, talking about national championships at U16 and the next round of cuts coming in two weeks. That's why I was interested in what sort of teams the newer DA clubs were fielding. And that's why Surf Cup has the new DA section. Doesn't want to lose that business.

I don't know. I think at some point each kid that takes it seriously dictates what level of development they want, fun become passion with a dash of suffering, style become important, development like a thirst for knowledge.
 
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