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    Too expensive?

    What a joke!
    Luca Modric learned to play in a hotel parking lot.
    He is not alone.
    Everything is too expensive because our answer is always to throw more money at it.

    #2
    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
    What a joke!
    Luca Modric learned to play in a hotel parking lot.
    He is not alone.
    Everything is too expensive because our answer is always to throw more money at it.
    So you want to get rid of club soccer and play in parking lots instead? Do you think that will work for a country as large as the US? What other options do you suggest?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      So you want to get rid of club soccer and play in parking lots instead? Do you think that will work for a country as large as the US? What other options do you suggest?
      It works for a country as large as Brazil.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
        So you want to get rid of club soccer and play in parking lots instead? Do you think that will work for a country as large as the US? What other options do you suggest?
        The answer is not to get rid of club soccer, it's to get rid of the bloated costs:

        Paid Coaches
        Paid Coaching Directors
        Paid Executives
        Paid League Directors
        Paid Association Staff

        In other countries, there are:

        Local unorganized games (free)
        Year round school games (free)
        'Club' teams (nominal cost, often subsidized by sponsorship and fundraising)
        League/District Select Teams (equivalent to ID2/ODP, free)
        Professional Youth Teams (free to player, at lower levels coaches and staff are still volunteer, at higher levels they are funded by the professional club)

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
          The answer is not to get rid of club soccer, it's to get rid of the bloated costs:

          Paid Coaches
          Paid Coaching Directors
          Paid Executives
          Paid League Directors
          Paid Association Staff

          In other countries, there are:

          Local unorganized games (free)
          Year round school games (free)
          'Club' teams (nominal cost, often subsidized by sponsorship and fundraising)
          League/District Select Teams (equivalent to ID2/ODP, free)
          Professional Youth Teams (free to player, at lower levels coaches and staff are still volunteer, at higher levels they are funded by the professional club)
          Sorry, but you aren't going to get far in this country without paid coaches. 10 years of soccer with volunteer coaches between my two kids and only one coach had played soccer growing up (and even he stopped playing before high school). It works in other countries because the volunteers have all grown up playing soccer and are still active fans of the game. I highly doubt you would find a volunteer soccer coach in Brazil who hasn't spent time as a youth playing the game and isn't highly knowledgeable regarding technical skills and tactics. The annual desperate appeal from our local soccer director for volunteer coaches stating, "You don't need to have any experience at all to be a coach," says it all! Can you imagine signing your kid up for piano lessons with a volunteer teacher who had never touched a piano before and was working off of a handout someone had given them 10 minutes before.

          Unfortunately, unless someone can drum up a cadre of local college players to volunteer their time to coach youth soccer, we're stuck with paid coaches if we want any type of development to happen (and, yes, every town has one or two dads that played in college and coach their own kid's team, but that covers a very small fraction of the kids in the entire program). Along with paid coaches, comes your second item, the coaching director, who is needed to vet/hire quality coaches. Perhaps the leagues & associated fees we could do without, but it would take a substantial amount of communication between the club directors to organize match-ups that would ensure a good competitive match.

          Local unorganized games would be great, and you would think it would be easy for the local rec director to send out a mass email to families in the organization (one rotating parent volunteer, who actually doesn't need to know anything about soccer, could hang around the field to ensure basic safety), but it isn't being done. Whenever we head out to the local fields in our town to play, there are never any other kids kicking the ball around to get a game going, which probably depends on the town. Chalk that up to town culture, I guess.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            Sorry, but you aren't going to get far in this country without paid coaches. 10 years of soccer with volunteer coaches between my two kids and only one coach had played soccer growing up (and even he stopped playing before high school). It works in other countries because the volunteers have all grown up playing soccer and are still active fans of the game. I highly doubt you would find a volunteer soccer coach in Brazil who hasn't spent time as a youth playing the game and isn't highly knowledgeable regarding technical skills and tactics. The annual desperate appeal from our local soccer director for volunteer coaches stating, "You don't need to have any experience at all to be a coach," says it all! Can you imagine signing your kid up for piano lessons with a volunteer teacher who had never touched a piano before and was working off of a handout someone had given them 10 minutes before.

            Unfortunately, unless someone can drum up a cadre of local college players to volunteer their time to coach youth soccer, we're stuck with paid coaches if we want any type of development to happen (and, yes, every town has one or two dads that played in college and coach their own kid's team, but that covers a very small fraction of the kids in the entire program). Along with paid coaches, comes your second item, the coaching director, who is needed to vet/hire quality coaches. Perhaps the leagues & associated fees we could do without, but it would take a substantial amount of communication between the club directors to organize match-ups that would ensure a good competitive match.

            Local unorganized games would be great, and you would think it would be easy for the local rec director to send out a mass email to families in the organization (one rotating parent volunteer, who actually doesn't need to know anything about soccer, could hang around the field to ensure basic safety), but it isn't being done. Whenever we head out to the local fields in our town to play, there are never any other kids kicking the ball around to get a game going, which probably depends on the town. Chalk that up to town culture, I guess.
            The younger developmental years are so critical too. We have a lot of well meaning but not very soccer literate parents (many never even played), or low level "pro" coaches (quotes intentional) teaching kids the fundamentals. I used to serve on our town travel board - we'd offer training all the time and very few would take advantage of it. Iceland made a commitment to training all their coaches so that even the little ones have UEFA B lic coaches. Obviously ramping that up to a large scale here would be tough but it is important that kids learn properly from the start. Other sports like baseball or basketball have more parents who played at higher levels and know the game. We don't have that same army.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              What a joke!
              Luca Modric learned to play in a hotel parking lot.
              He is not alone.
              Everything is too expensive because our answer is always to throw more money at it.
              Part of that is cultural - it's much easier to find pickup games abroad than here because there's just more players, towns and cities are more compact and it's easier to get around. Free-play and preferably unsupervised play is an important part of development. Our kids get very little of that here. As it is many towns are kicking kids off of fields because of fears of lawsuits if unsupervised kids get hurt, or the town already rented them out because the town needs the income (hefty deposits and proof of insurance first please).

              Comment


                #8
                Soccer Culture cry-daddy just woke up from his nap

                Comment


                  #9
                  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

                  Perhaps OP should start his free program and let us know how it all pans out, in say, 7-10 years or so.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

                    Perhaps OP should start his free program and let us know how it all pans out, in say, 7-10 years or so.
                    Says the club owner trying to justify his business

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                      Says the club owner trying to justify his business
                      Homosazwhut

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Instead of posting on TS, go sign up to be an uber driver

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                          Says the club owner trying to justify his business
                          Yeah, who cares how we do in the World Cup? That's the problem. The focus for 99.99999% of the kids is to have fun and be active. That is the primary goal. Perhaps the current downturn is a backlash from kids who grew up in these competitive, expensive programs deciding they will not inflict the same on their kids. There are more kids in America now that grew up playing soccer than in Britain. For decades we have had the largest numbers of players rostered in the world, except China.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            U.S. parents are the problem. Many of you do not listen to your kids. As soon as a coach says I see some potential with your child, your eyes light up and vanity sets in. Then the pushing starts, and money is no problem. Instead of teaching your children the right way to act and play, it's all about why don't you play more like Mia and an entitlement society. "My kid should be on the top team." "I can't believe so and so made it." You talk about their teammates, other families, ingratiate your way in with the coach, and look to buy your kid's future. You support clubs that denigrate your children. No pain no gain, right? If you want to know what's wrong with U.S. soccer, take a good look at yourselves. Over and out.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                              Yeah, who cares how we do in the World Cup? That's the problem. The focus for 99.99999% of the kids is to have fun and be active. That is the primary goal. Perhaps the current downturn is a backlash from kids who grew up in these competitive, expensive programs deciding they will not inflict the same on their kids. There are more kids in America now that grew up playing soccer than in Britain. For decades we have had the largest numbers of players rostered in the world, except China.
                              I'm a parent as well as a coach. Ever think that its the parents who are in the wrong in your equation. One big problem with all organized sports right now is you have waaay too many kids participating that really have no sincere interest in being even a high school level player. Not saying it is the same for all kids but for lots of the kids its nothing more than just another activity and the only reason they are involved with the expensive part of soccer is because their parents follow the crowd. I find it refreshing that some parents are finally pushing back and saying no. Believe it or not its ok for kids who just want to have a little fun to stay with a town type program and then quit when they no longer have the interest to do that.Club soccer should be for the kids that want to eat, sleep and breath it.

                              Comment

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