Is it all the fault of the coaches?

[Unregistered]

Back at you PUTZ. You have the world of club soccer scoped out like no one else. Your insight is astounding.

Well, at least we had 24 posts of substance. I would like to thank the posters of 25-30 for ruining a decent discussion. We now know who is not elite.

OP

[Unregistered]

Amazing to what degree BTNT is convinced that he is full of wisdom and that he has a civic duty, better yet a religious calling, to dispense that wisdom in every moment all day and all night every single day of the year. He should have his own chapter in the New Testament.

[Unregistered]

You are mistaken in one respect. There are no elite teams anymore. The number of truly elite teams has actually shrunk to zero because the levels are so watered down. When you think about it, club level sports are the only level where you could have a legitimate blue chip elite level prospect playing right beside a player who might not even play in college. Even in high school they take the best underclassmen up to strengthen a team. In club soccer they just keep going further and further down the bench in an age group to fill out the team. It is rare to find teams these days that have tightly grouped talent at all. At best you might find a club team with a dozen or so D1 prospects on it but even then they will likely be spread amongst the wide range of program levels that is D1. In all but the rarest situations teams passing themselves off as elite are not even close.

So your argument is that by having an order of magnitude more kids getting more structured training and moving up the pyramid of teams, we are creating less talented players? That would be more than statistically improbable. The average player today is vastly more talented than a player from 20 years ago that just played town soccer.

The elite become elite with innate talent, intense work ethic, and good coaching. Having more players in the pool increases the odds for developing elite players. You don't need to be on the best u12 team to be an elite talent at the older age groups.

And on the boys side at least, the DAP system allows the talented players to play with others of similar ability, not age.

But back to my main point - those B level town players you decry as dragging down the entire youth soccer system, will go on to become the best players on the high school team in many cases. You see, just because you weren't the best player at u10 doesn't mean that is the extent of a kids potential. The talent, work, and coaching actually do have an impact. Or would you argue we should scout the best 18 u8 players and train them for the national team?

[Unregistered]

So your argument is that by having an order of magnitude more kids getting more structured training and moving up the pyramid of teams, we are creating less talented players? That would be more than statistically improbable. The average player today is vastly more talented than a player from 20 years ago that just played town soccer.

The elite become elite with innate talent, intense work ethic, and good coaching. Having more players in the pool increases the odds for developing elite players. You don't need to be on the best u12 team to be an elite talent at the older age groups.

And on the boys side at least, the DAP system allows the talented players to play with others of similar ability, not age.

But back to my main point - those B level town players you decry as dragging down the entire youth soccer system, will go on to become the best players on the high school team in many cases. You see, just because you weren't the best player at u10 doesn't mean that is the extent of a kids potential. The talent, work, and coaching actually do have an impact. Or would you argue we should scout the best 18 u8 players and train them for the national team?

You don't get it. BTDT doesn't believe kids should be playing high school soccer at all if they aren't "projecting" towards the WNT. Complete waste of time that could be used studying to secure admission to a MASCAC.

[Unregistered]

You give too much credence to Talking Soccer soccer elitists. The vast majority of club parents are not dissatisfied with the state of youth soccer. Most have very realistic expectations which don't include scholarships, D1 soccer, or professional careers. The majority of club soccer players play because they enjoy the game and their parents want to give them the opportunity to realize their potential - whatever it may be. For some that may just be getting out of the house for some weekend competition and exercise. For others it may give them the skills necessary to make their high school team. For a miniscule few, it could be college soccer or beyond.

The argument that there are too many clubs, with too many poor coaches, in too many leagues is so old and tired - and completely meaningless. There are destination teams that will supply good coaching and combine the talent from the lesser teams for those few that are good enough (and want to work hard to be the best). For the rest, just let them enjoy the game.

this!

[Unregistered]

Jump fishy, jump. You sucked as a coach and everyone knows it.

[Unregistered]

this!

? what does this mean?

[Unregistered]

? what does this mean?

This means. I am not that good with a computer. I hit the Submit reply button before I finalized writing a statement . Daaaa is me.

[Unregistered]

You are mistaken in one respect. There are no elite teams anymore. The number of truly elite teams has actually shrunk to zero because the levels are so watered down. When you think about it, club level sports are the only level where you could have a legitimate blue chip elite level prospect playing right beside a player who might not even play in college. Even in high school they take the best underclassmen up to strengthen a team. In club soccer they just keep going further and further down the bench in an age group to fill out the team. It is rare to find teams these days that have tightly grouped talent at all. At best you might find a club team with a dozen or so D1 prospects on it but even then they will likely be spread amongst the wide range of program levels that is D1. In all but the rarest situations teams passing themselves off as elite are not even close.

This post is incorrect and very misleading in several respects. The poster says that now at best we may have a team with a dozen or so D1 prospects but that those dozen are spread across too wide a range of D1s. There's never been a team in Mass where that wasn't true. The greatest of the Bolts, Scorpion and Stars teams from 5-10 years ago were exactly like that. And club level sports are not the only level where you can find a blue chip player on the same field with kids who might not play in college at all. That probably doesn't happen much on the very top teams, but such players find themselves in that situation on high school teams in all sports all across the country. The truth is actually the opposite of what this poster suggests. There are hardly ever any teams that are comprised almost exclusively of top end blue chip prospects.

[Unregistered]

You can call it elite but it is not. You are buying into labels and that is half the problem with the environment these days -- its all about labels. There is no such thing as elite now because they effectively keep all players together based strictly upon their age and regardless of their actual ability. It creates a situation akin to the public schools where they main stream special needs students and have cut out programs for the gifted and talented then put them all in the same classes. Suggesting an environment with that wide a spectrum of abilities is elite is silly.

See above.