DA Disaster?

[Just a Coach]

Yes there is some element of that, but soccer is not the solely the game of the urban poor. The bigger difference is that soccer is a respected, desired and fairly well compensated career path. Here it is not. Most are in it for college - either for scholarships or to use it to parlay into a better school. The pay isn't very good (neither is much of the competition to make you a better player). Even those with a possible pro career have a hard time saying no to a (probably free) education given how much school costs here. Abroad you can pursue a pro career and if you decide to go back to school later you can afford it (yes those higher taxes go to good use, along with universal health care). The exorbitant cost of higher education drives a lot of decisions in this country, not just with sports.

If you play soccer because you want to be rich, you will not be rich. If you play soccer because you want a scholarship, you will not get a scholarship. Play because you love it and because you want to be the best. That may earn you a scholarship, or maybe even make you rich.

[Unregistered]

My kid is on a U15 DA team in the state of FL this coming year, so he is 14 going on 15. He is practicing 4 times a week and a 5th on Sat if there are no games. Each game this coming year is expected to be very competitive and much higher quality than regular club soccer in FL. He gets out of school in the early afternoon and will also be doing extra technical and physical (more technical) 3 to 4 days per week, right when he gets out. He is also, most importantly, expected to keep up high grades in a very challenging school. I just don't know what more we or he can do. Maybe people in Europe don't care about educating their players and they train more, not sure. I believe that if he can excel on his schedule and stick with it, it will set him up for really learning tactics and a more advanced form of soccer when he is 16 - 18. That seems to be all we can do and hope that he does not burn out. In the summer, we try to give him as much time off from soccer as we can. From what I can tell, most of his team are doing the same thing as he is. These are boys that have committed and sacrificed a big part of their lives to the sport, at a young age. I think that this is replicated by most DA players all over the country, even more so than just 5 years ago. I believe you are going see an explosion of soccer talent produced by the DA system within the next 5 to 10 years.

The difference is cultural at this point.

[Unregistered]

Soccer in South America is also evolving into a middle to high class sport. The days of seeing kids play barefoot on a dirt patch are so 30 years ago. Go down to Argentina and try too find a path here of grass that's feee and available to the public. It's takes money to play , that's just the way it is

[Unregistered]

If you play soccer because you want to be rich, you will not be rich. If you play soccer because you want a scholarship, you will not get a scholarship. Play because you love it and because you want to be the best. That may earn you a scholarship, or maybe even make you rich.

AMEN Just a Coach!!! A freakin' men!!!

[Unregistered]

The difference is cultural at this point.

for all those that say da system doesn't work b/c we don't beat the best soccer nations, Da is in my mind a huge improvement over everyday fysa club soccer. not even close. I agree it starts too soon. I think 2007 is too early to get into any sort of program, but by u13 the difference da v. non-da is very noticeable.

[Unregistered]

Early selection is the worst possible thing that can happen to developing players, and this is exactly what the DA has been doing.

Yeah, that is why Ajax and Barcelona are scouting 6 yr olds. You continue to post garbage. We need to select younger and train more. Like Japan and N. Korean women...

[Just a Coach]

Yeah, that is why Ajax and Barcelona are scouting 6 yr olds. You continue to post garbage. We need to select younger and train more. Like Japan and N. Korean women...

The fact is, one should read ten times more than one writes.

[Unregistered]

Yeah, that is why Ajax and Barcelona are scouting 6 yr olds. You continue to post garbage. We need to select younger and train more. Like Japan and N. Korean women...

Train more at younger ages? yes. But that means better coaching at younger ages. Little ones are almost always coached by parent volunteers or an inexperienced 20 year old "coach". Train them right from the get go - all kids.

Select at younger ages? absolutely not. You limit your total pool by anointing one group and essentially ignoring the rest. All but a very few know enough about physiology and puberty. Imagine the yahoo coach at a typical club trying to guess how a 7 year old will develop physically and more importantly mentally.

Also, it's easier to select a small group and train them for a national or Olympic team. It's very different to improve the overall quality of soccer here, improve the quality of soccer, build leagues and build culture.

[Unregistered]

To improve US Soccer we need better coaches and better development at the younger ages. Too many mommy and daddy coaches, even though there is a cost to play. That said, there will always be A and B teams, with real coaches kids could move up and down more appropriately.

Participation trophies and the thought of everyone should get equal time also hamper growth.

[Unregistered]

Early selection is the worst possible thing that can happen to developing players, and this is exactly what the DA has been doing.

Really?!?! Well someone better let all those European for-profit clubs know how they are f**king things up before it is too late!

Give me a break. This is what the whole world is doing now. Do you live in a bunker underground? You do know they have newspapers online now on this new thing called the internet right? Soccer has changed a lot from the 70s. They are signing kids who still believe in Santa Claus to teams in Europe. I'd explain "market forces" and "commodities" to you but you might have to stay up late and miss an episode of Matlock and I wouldn't want you to get cranky.

[Unregistered]

Train more at younger ages? yes. But that means better coaching at younger ages. Little ones are almost always coached by parent volunteers or an inexperienced 20 year old "coach". Train them right from the get go - all kids.

Select at younger ages? absolutely not. You limit your total pool by anointing one group and essentially ignoring the rest. All but a very few know enough about physiology and puberty. Imagine the yahoo coach at a typical club trying to guess how a 7 year old will develop physically and more importantly mentally.

Also, it's easier to select a small group and train them for a national or Olympic team. It's very different to improve the overall quality of soccer here, improve the quality of soccer, build leagues and build culture.

You don't need top coaches to teach skills at the early ages. As kids age up the better ones start getting collected and put with better coaches. It doesn't happen at some single arbitrary age, the process continues over a half dozen years. This is what builds a strong base of national players. If you want to improve overall soccer then you need to grow the sports popularity to increase the knowledge base.

The US needs to create more Elite players, not increase the percentage of above average to good players who will quit sometime in their teens to pursue other interests anyways.

There are no DA teams at age 7 so your exaggerations are pointless. There may be some club teams at the lower age groups that are stacked with the best players but they aren't receiving elite coaching and training at that age. The better coaches are still going to older teams.

[Unregistered]

Really?!?! Well someone better let all those European for-profit clubs know how they are f**king things up before it is too late!

Give me a break. This is what the whole world is doing now. Do you live in a bunker underground? You do know they have newspapers online now on this new thing called the internet right? Soccer has changed a lot from the 70s. They are signing kids who still believe in Santa Claus to teams in Europe. I'd explain "market forces" and "commodities" to you but you might have to stay up late and miss an episode of Matlock and I wouldn't want you to get cranky.

I am no expert here but I do know of a couple of kids that we re looked at in Europe and sent back because they were too young. Maybe some very very special kids they would get..but as a rule of thumb what I have seen and heard is that at 7, 8, 9 ,10 or even 11 they are just too young..

[Just a Coach]

Train more at younger ages? yes. But that means better coaching at younger ages. Little ones are almost always coached by parent volunteers or an inexperienced 20 year old "coach". Train them right from the get go - all kids.

Select at younger ages? absolutely not. You limit your total pool by anointing one group and essentially ignoring the rest. All but a very few know enough about physiology and puberty. Imagine the yahoo coach at a typical club trying to guess how a 7 year old will develop physically and more importantly mentally.

Also, it's easier to select a small group and train them for a national or Olympic team. It's very different to improve the overall quality of soccer here, improve the quality of soccer, build leagues and build culture.

Younger ages do not need to train more: they need to play more.

[Just a Coach]

"My position is this – street soccer is the most natural educational system that can be found." Rinus Michels

[Just a Coach]

You don't need top coaches to teach skills at the early ages. As kids age up the better ones start getting collected and put with better coaches. It doesn't happen at some single arbitrary age, the process continues over a half dozen years. This is what builds a strong base of national players. If you want to improve overall soccer then you need to grow the sports popularity to increase the knowledge base.

The US needs to create more Elite players, not increase the percentage of above average to good players who will quit sometime in their teens to pursue other interests anyways.

There are no DA teams at age 7 so your exaggerations are pointless. There may be some club teams at the lower age groups that are stacked with the best players but they aren't receiving elite coaching and training at that age. The better coaches are still going to older teams.

The goal is not to find the six, or nine, or eleven years old who we think will become an elite player when reaches adulthood, because during childhood, there is no way of knowing who will become an elite adult player. The goal is to increase the level of the average players, so more kids have the chance to grow up to be an elite adult player. Or if you prefer this: every kid should be in the DA.

"In order to increase the level of the elite player, we must increase the level of the average player." Rinus Michels