SoCal Schedule

[Jamisfoes]

Therein lies the issue with pro/rel at the youth level. The players need to make mistakes in order to learn. Imagine if in school every test was a binary win/lose; how would our kids education pan out.

I love a coach who encourages risk taking regardless of outcome.

I would argue make mistakes in your pickup games with your friends and in practice, and make no mistakes in the club game. Risk taking is overrated when failed attempts have no consequences.

 

[Grace T.]

I would argue make mistakes in your pickup games with your friends and in practice, and make no mistakes in the club game. Risk taking is overrated when failed attempts have no consequences.

The goal and the humiliation are a reasonable consequences. Soccer is so low scoring that it becomes a game of mistakes esp on a full field: if someone doesn’t make a mistake it should be a 0-0 game. If you don’t learn from it the academy (or team) will next season drop you. The parents coming for your head blaming you for a loss in a meaningless game (except possible promotion for their kid) is not a good consequence. The coach berating you for trying something is not a good consequences. The doc berating the coach for not winning the game and costing them promotion is not a good consequence. The only thing the latter teaches you is to play it safe and not take chances next time. Conversely making mistakes during practice or pickup when there aren’t some stakes on the line doesn’t develop anyone. The key isn’t no stakes: it’s proportional stakes to allow risk taking and learning without becoming risk adverse or reckless

 

[Jamisfoes]

I don’t think we can assume that kids will play safe in a pro-rel system. The pros don’t always play safe. If anything they probably take more chances in the last game when they are about to be relegated.