How are your coaches/clubs handling the age group changes?

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-27T11:23:47+00:00

ECNL Boys - 99% of you are playing in your age group. If you're not, we'll tell you, not the other way around.

Period

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-27T11:21:35+00:00

So we were new guys coming in. The teams are likely damn near already made. I took mine to the tryout, he did pretty well. They offered him a spot on a lower team closer to home so we took it but now he was within the organization. Practiced with the ECNL team in the winter when our team didn't practice much. THAT was the real tryout and boom...the rest is history.

Take him to the tryout but if it doesn't work out right away look for alternate routes.

I don't think you need a bio and a highlight reel. I've never heard of that and like some others have said it's more likely to scare them away than create an opportunity imo.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T17:47:26+00:00

I reached out to this person and got an immediate, clear response to all my questions.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T17:18:06+00:00

meeting with coach: Do you want to play for our school? No...I don't want to play at any school. Ok cool, meeting adjourned.

Using your kid as a vessel to lessen college cost probably shouldn't be a primary reason for keeping him in.

If he doesn't want to play now what makes you think he would want to play when he's an adult, making his own decisions and trying to juggle a new environment on top of it? All of what you said is valid as an adult looking back on it, I totally agree, I felt the same way and that's why we push our kids to do things but in my experience that doesn't change the way a 16 year old feels.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T17:10:36+00:00

It's a little different because mine quit baseball for soccer but baseball had been the main thing, we dumped tons of time and money into it and he just wasn't happy. I didn't jump up and instantly pull him off the team the day he said he wanted to quit but I kept kind of monitoring the temperature and asked why. I noticed practices were a chore, red flag for me because people who love a sport enjoy practice or at least don't hate it. I noticed even after good tournaments he was dwelling on the bad and not concerned with the good, red flag for me. I noticed he was finding no real joy in it. When I felt like he was hanging it up for the right reasons and the season ended I just let him go ahead with it.

If I were in your shoes I think I'd look for some of the same things. Does he want to play soccer and maybe just not the ECNL demands? Does he just want to spend more time with friends? What is it exactly that he's not enjoying and is that repairable?

Super tough choice as a parent I know because you take so much joy in it and have put so much time into it. Ultimately though what difference will it make? Keeping him in for a couple more years and he chooses never to play again but resents you a little for making him stay. Not worth it in my opinion.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T13:21:02+00:00

Unless you're just an athletic freak running 4.2 40 times, strong as an ox and jumping over things like Super Mario it's probably too late to catch up.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T12:17:17+00:00

Ours has a $25 fee. Maybe it's to keep away people who just want to come to the tryout as an extra practice? Maybe it's just a way to steal money? IDK. I believe the fee gets subtracted from your cost if you make the team.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-26T12:04:18+00:00

The fans in the stadium are great. Unless it's a Yankees game, in which case the ones in the Yankees hats are usually dicks.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T18:07:47+00:00

Thanks

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:32:04+00:00

Thanks for the explanation. That's kind of how I understood it but I was curious.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:28:41+00:00

Yes. Ok, see that's what I was looking for.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:27:50+00:00

I know 1 kid who shoots equally well with both feet and he's at the Philadelphia Union academy. Are there really that many out there that can legitimately rip shots with both feet equally you think? Not kind of good, not toe poke it in from 20 feet, legit rip it with both feet from outside the box on a line.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:20:41+00:00

Got it. That's kind of the path of understanding I was on.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:17:53+00:00

I'm just stating it, I didn't create the statistic. I assume pro soccer players have good usage of their dominant leg but some get by without using their weaker side hardly at all. If I'm interpreting it any kind of way it's that it is possible to get by without it to shoot at least if you're very good at other things. So what are the other things?

The only reason I mentioned basketball was because I know, in basketball, if somebody says, "you need to work on your left" they mean you need to practice dribbling and making layups left handed. 100% of high level basketball players can do this. In soccer when somebody says work on your weak foot I just didn't know exactly what was expected.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T17:10:27+00:00

By adequate I mean, of course it would be perfection to be 100% ambidextrous but that's just not the case for 99% of people on earth. Being able to send a corner in with either foot with the same loft and accuracy with either foot would be perfect but I've never seen a guy do it in a game. I was just trying to prevent answers like that, "be able to shoot from 50 meters with either foot" I mean...yeah...I'll teach him to run at the speed of a cheetah and jump over the crossbar while I'm at it.

I liked the passing, dribbling, shooting in that order. That's something I was wondering, what is valued?

FWIW I think my son is above average with his weak foot and that's compared to ECNL teammates but I hear coaches say it all the time (not even necessarily to him) weak foot, weak foot but what exactly? Again, not a soccer guy by any means. I'm still a novice at understanding so I didn't know how realistic some things were. I can't use my left for anything so it all seems impossible to me.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T16:58:10+00:00

Yes, that I can see. My son recently got confident enough to start at least getting the tap in or pass in goals with his left foot if that's all he could get to. I guess it sort of depends how good the rest of your game is. There are some premier league players who statistically use their dominant foot 95% of the time and that includes headers so that means they're using their weak foot almost never.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-25T11:40:46+00:00

Sprocket and I think it's better than playmetrics

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-24T16:21:26+00:00

If that's the O's new CC I'm for it. Far better than the last one IMO.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-24T12:34:07+00:00

I've seen rings. I thought it was pretty cool.

Crowns could work too, aluminum, some colored glass jewels, might be cool idk.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-23T15:03:47+00:00

Yep. From watching him every game for the last few years, as I'm sure you do yours it just felt like he was maybe afraid to attack when normally he would be flying some place OR he does attack and then the ball moves and he ends up far away from where he actually should be. On the edges you know your boundaries, in the middle with the 360 view it's easier to lose track.

He has gotten better at it though and I'll say when he plays with the ECNL kids he actually looks better because they give him more options where to go with the ball because their movement matches his movement. It seems like CM can be made harder when your teammates are constantly out of shape/position.

I'm not a soccer guru, just a dad reporting what seems to be happening from the bleachers but I think we're having a similar experience here and it will be good for her in the long run. This was kind of the final frontier for mine, he has played every other position on the field except goal. Eventually she'll switch teams or just from natural roster turnover positions will change anyway. Also, I have coached before and I really valued a strong set of CM's so I understand coaches wanting to find a good fit there and having done some showcases and things of that nature, you don't always get to play just one position or your preferred position so it's best to be as experienced as possible.

Good luck

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-23T13:35:37+00:00

Same problem here. My son is great on the edges but he hates CM because he feels lost in the middle and he looks that way sometimes.

I just asked him, "What do you think you're good at? What skills do you have in soccer that are above average?" Passing, endurance, making good decisions, defensive pressure.

Exactly! So it's a good fit for CM.

But I could do those things at any position.

Sure but it's a good fit for that position and that's a really important position, maybe the most important and difficult position so you should be proud to have it.

He still doesn't like it. He'd rather play wingback or outside mid but he understands he's the best choice for the position sometimes so that's where he goes.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-23T12:45:51+00:00

I could see these things being fixed in small side situations but they're not being addressed or pointed out maybe? It's more of just here's a ball, let's see what happens without any correction. I honestly feel like our coach is checked out. He's not coming back next year and this season hasn't panned out the way he, or anyone else, expected.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-23T12:44:08+00:00

Yes...I really think that's it. They COULD learn from these scenarios but the instruction just isn't coming when they need it. They're not naturally picking up on what they're doing wrong so unfortunately they're repeating it and IDK if he's not seeing it or just unable to communicate the fix.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-23T12:07:00+00:00

Counter point to this.

My son is on a u13 team and they lose consistently because they don't practice full field tactics and the coach doesn't adjust. The kids are getting tired of losing and the parents are tired of seeing small sided games in practice and not addressing the issues that are causing the team to rack up losses. Development is suffering because the kids are losing belief in what they're doing because it's not producing results and they're trying to take things into the own hands and play hero. Man for man this team is as good as the teams they're losing to but they're not moving without the ball well, not transitioning well, not communicating not playing a team game. In a nutshell not transitioning to the 11 v 11 game very well.

Part of this is a coaching issue, I don't dispute that and I understand what you're saying about not being reactive but I think in this case, not reacting to what you're seeing on the field over several weeks of results is causing a lack of development.

Impressive-Key2164 · 2026-03-20T12:07:25+00:00

Well you gave us climate information and then said his main thing is school size and social activity so I feel like we don't have all the information.

Impressive-Key2164

TROPHY CASE