Did your child have a breakout year?

[Unregistered]

whoa. take it easy, folks. could have been in rec still and wouldn't have cared. another parent told us that my kid should play at a higher level. i didn't know that premier, odp, etc
even existed until last year. it was just chance that my kid tried out and the coach took a
chance knowing the background and experience. don't get me wrong, it was very, very
steep climb and learning curve in less than a year. fortunately, i have the money and time to get the help my kid needed. the coach was fantastic and must have believed in my kid to allow to be on the team and play minutes. there were lines of kids who wanted to be the team, so it wasn't the club trying to get my money.

difference i am figuring out is that my kid can learn something much quicker than most kids.
for example, i showed a video of trick about one hour before a game, kid practiced it
at warm up, and did the trick at full speed in the game. extreme example, but imagine
if your kid can learn something 2-3 times faster than most kids. maybe it is a short-term
thing or when it will stop. i keep a healthy skepticism, almost flippant attitude, because
who knows how long this will last. main thing is my kid loves playing and that's best
i can hope for.

Read "The Sports Gene" by David Epstein. He covers a number of cases where athletes have different baselines and respond differently to training. Some are already at a high baseline and don't improve. Others start at the bottom, but move up quickly. And then there are those who start low and never really improve much.

This isn't just in regards to VO2 max or strength/muscle development, etc. This could be hand-eye or foot-eye coordination, etc. Pro baseball players all have excellent vision, 20/10 at a minimum, which helps them to read queues from the pitcher and the ball from farther away, which allows them to adjust and hit 95MPH fast balls. Part biology, part training. When lower level baseball players are measured, they invariably have worse vision. I'm sure your kid has some of these types of advantages. The thing about it is, she may be able to train less and reach a high level than others that train more and never reach the same level. Some call it "natural athleticism", but it isn't really. It is the accumulation of a number of physiological advantages combined with the opportunity and will to use them and improve them. Make the best of it.

[Unregistered]

So you have been telling everyone for years. Must really suck though to learn that kids can play rec soccer and end up at the same or in a better landing spot as your kid did simply because you didn't supply the right sort of genes. Sort of explains all of the hatred and bitterness you display on this site. I generally laugh my butt off picturing you feverishly typing away explaining how happy you are that your kid ended up at a second tier D3 every time I read one of your stupid comments. Never fails to bring a smile to my face and encourage more chain yanking. Thank god your kid apparently more brains than soccer ability. Have to admit that Med School is pretty cool even if the soccer detour didn't pan out like you obviously thought it was going to. At least you can cling to that. After all was said and done, it was only money. That said, you still don't know bumkie about high level youth soccer, recruiting, or half the topics you arrogantly invade each day and probably would be better off either spending ALL of your time split between some political forum and a college admissions one because here you just make a complete fool out of yourself.

Why so bitter? Seriously.

Your bitterness infects these threads and is incredibly unpleasant.

No one else seems upset except for you.

Just stop it.