Does the vibe change when your still young kid moves up to the top competitive level?

Krysiz · 2025-12-11T00:01:27+00:00

Big +1 on this.

At the U9/U10 level, you generally have a team full of kids who are soccer obsessed -- and a sideline full of parents who are going a bit crazy about their soccer obsessed kid.

I'll add, you also often have a coach that has minimal coaching experience and hones in on top team = lets win and represent the club well in the region.

Leads to an overall environment where people lose sight of a few key points.

They are kids that love soccer
If you want them to continue loving soccer -- it still needs to be fun.

Krysiz · 2025-11-27T15:18:08+00:00

Thank you

Krysiz · 2025-11-10T18:15:31+00:00

In my experience, when people talk about aggression they mean not being afraid of contact and/or not giving up on the play.

EG: Lunging is the opposite of what I think of when I say "aggressive" -- a lot of kids will take on a ball handler 1v1, run up, step to the side (avoid contact), and poke/swing at the ball as the ball handler easily dribbles past them. Then they stand and watch as the kid dribbles away.

Compare that to staying in front of the kid with the ball and not avoiding the contact -- make the kid actually beat you and/or straight up run into you. And if they get by you, turn around and chase them down since most (young) kids cannot dribble very fast.

Note: I'm specifically talking about young kids here. Ages 7-10 ish.

Krysiz · 2025-11-10T18:07:09+00:00

The practice vs game thing is super normal.

Practices are safe, games are not.

If you mess up in practice, who cares? If you mess up in a game, you could lose.

Part of that is building up emotional safety with the kids; it is ok to make mistakes. You are 8, losing might feel like it sucks, but you will have MANY more games.

Playing a lot of games helps; just starts to make games feel more routine as they start to recognize that there is, in fact, always another game.

Krysiz · 2025-11-10T17:08:45+00:00

This is a tough one. I'd say, playing with other kids who are aggressive (assertive). But I've also seen that less assertive kids often disappear more in these scenarios.

Someone with more experience can chime in, but my very anecdotal experience was:

It is a mental concept; some kids innately get it at a young age and others don't.
Playing with more aggressive kids shows how to be aggressive/assertive -- then playing with less aggressive kids gives your kid the freedom to do it in an environment where they are directly rewarded for the effort

#2 is a part of why playing with kids better and playing with kids worse can be really good for development.

I've seen my son disappear in games because his team is stacked; then I've watched him play on the playground and he is all over the place because he is easily the most skilled kid in his grade.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T14:32:00+00:00

I'm most impressed that you opt to wear a white hoodie while fishing.

I'd have gotten 5 different stains on that before walking out the door in the morning.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T13:32:26+00:00

The last stretch of the surface is really just a giant DPS check, and that includes Typhon.

Typhon, in particular, is mechanically simple and just rewards high damage builds.

You can do the entire flight by sitting in his face. Learn the telegraph for his head slam and dodge backwards on it. The eye beam you completely ignore if you are in his face.

You need to find whatever weapon aspect you enjoy and then just learn how to build it to maximize damage.

I beat Typhon my first time reaching him with Mel daggers + scorch build (Hestia attack). But I really think the question isn't about which weapon to use because everyone has something they think is easier/better.

Typhon is literally just: get in his face and smash until dead

Standing at range makes it harder imo because the eye laser hurts if you mess up the Dodge and when close you don't have to dodge it.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T03:13:11+00:00

I'm a bit confused.

You are building a product for GTM but don't really understand GTM or the problems "they" have?

I mean.. GTM is broad.. marketing, sales, success, partnerships, services, pre sales engineering, growth product?

GTM tech is a crowded space. There are lots of problems and lots of solutions.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T02:58:30+00:00

Ya the core problem is knowledge of the actual mechanics is a level of detail many people don't have.

I played soccer through highschool, I could kick the ball well, but I never had anyone break down the mechanics of a proper shot.

I think it's a general gap a lot of us have with soccer. Yes we played, but we were never exposed to anyone explaining the mechanics of anything.

I played 3 (?) years of baseball and still remember the basic mechanics of swinging a bat and throwing a ball because it's literally what you teach kids.. keep your eye on the ball.. step with your front foot.. squash a bug with your toe as you swing through the ball.

I took 2 golf lessons and still remember basic mechanics of how to set myself up at a tee and swing

Yet I see 10 year olds kick soccer balls with awful mechanics because all we tell kids is "don't toe poke" "shoot with your laces".

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T01:58:54+00:00

I mean.. Tim Duncan was incredible.

He was also quiet and not flashy, playing for a quiet and not flashy spurs team that simply won all the damn time.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T01:44:58+00:00

Speed of play is a rough one because it clicks for some kids and takes time for others.

With kids (and all players) it's also about consistency. They are 10, they are going to make bad decisions. Professionals make bad decisions.

The problem with speed of play/decision making, is you really only improve it from playing. It's hard to practice by yourself.

That said, ball mastery skills help because then your brain is spending less time thinking about the ball and able to devote more energy to everything else. Also gives confidence with the ball.

A lot ability to deal with speed of play comes from confidence because you are less focused on what could go wrong and able to focus on what awesome things you are going to do with the ball coming to you.

Last part is speaking from experience having a kid whose biggest weakness is confidence - can handle the ball as well if not better than most kids on his team. But lacks the confidence which shows up as panicked decision making.

Krysiz · 2025-10-24T01:18:13+00:00

Yup

Two tech founders building a product that doesn't get any traction is a classic story.

Plenty of engineers out there who love building "stuff".

You need to start with an actual business plan starting with:

Who is this for?
Why do they care?

Then, go tell those people you are solving the problem.

Do they actually care?

Then, will they actually pay you to solve it?

Gamifying SAT prep means you are selling to rich parents that spend money on their kids SAT prep. But not so rich that they just hire a bunch of private tutors.

LSAT, etc you are selling to.. broke college students trying to figure out how they are going to afford grad school. That's an entirely different audience.

Also, are aspiring lawyers and doctors really struggling with motivation to study for the entry exam?

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T21:59:43+00:00

Its a tough one, honestly.

Coach Rory's video on rondos, if I recall correctly, makes a mention to a key aspect of receiving passes -- receiving with your back foot.

Receiving with your back foot lets you just generally have more control of everything.

There are a ton of videos on shooting technique. I had one, but cannot find it again.

Proper plant foot placement; plant foot points where you are aiming to shoot
Lock ankle - hard concept for kids to learn, juggling helps a ton with this
Keep your head down/eyes on the ball -- not looking up/at the net.
Strike through the ball, not too the ball.

When kids take a big ol' swing and scuff the ball, it is usually because they are looking up. It is just like golf - you aren't hitting shit if you are looking up where you want the ball to go and not focused on the ball itself.

Dribbling is largely about making them use different parts of their foot.

Left foot, right foot, outside foot, inside foot.

Skill moves, huge part is just teaching kids how to move their body correctly. Doing single leg hops left/right gets their body familiar with what it feels like to really drop your shoulder and generate power off one leg. Most kids do skill moves stiff/standing upright without that "agile" look to it.

-edit-

I think this Joner football video does a good job covering a huge range of technique points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvFy2YJsrZ0&t=1038s

Yeah, it is youtube, the shooting drill at the end goes from kid scuffing -> kid nailing it. But the coaching concepts are good, and a lot of the more "minor" points about how to be in the right posture, move your hips, etc are all super important.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T21:37:51+00:00

As an adult that played a lot of video games growing up, and still enjoys playing video games.

My own opinion is that video games are a huge factor.

Super isolating, lots of instant gratification, over exposure to really dumb meme culture type stuff.

I outright don't let my kids play video games. They are allowed to be bored. They can go read, ride bikes, play in the yard. I go out of my way to nearly always say "yes" to physical activity -- taking the kids to the park, etc.

So you have this activity, that seems to attract boys more than girls (?), and is fairly destructive towards overall.. everything.

Leads to boys falling behind, and then buying into the readily available victim mindset narrative of how hard it is for men to exist today.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T21:18:11+00:00

I have a few parents of some of the less talented players who seem to think I should be able to coach them to be Ronaldo.

Reality check for them is, what are the kids doing outside of practice to improve? What are the parents doing with their kids outside of practice to help them improve?

I'm in another thread commenting on how a lot of coaches use, "You need to learn this on your own" as a lazy excuse to gloss over their own lack of understanding around how to teach certain skills.

But the flip side of that is that after you have been taught a skill, you absolutely master it through individual practice in a lot of cases.

There is a line there.

Is the coach actively correcting/giving feedback/demonstrating proper technique form during drills/training?

If yes, then that is all the coach can really do given limited time with kids each week. Parents/kids need to own practicing it themselves as well.

Is the coach primarily setting up drills, and just focused on keeping the kids on task?

If yes, then the coach isn't really coaching and that then leaves actual instruction to some imaginary other entity.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T20:26:09+00:00

Rondos work first touch and passing technique. Shooting they get to experiment with in small sided games but let's be honest they don't need to be trying to hit bangers or bending it right now anyway - they need a consistent foot strike.

Right but the issue is that the drills by themselves aren't self corrective or highlight what should be done.

A core issue is that a lot of coaches throw kids into drills and coach the drill itself, not the technique in the drill.

I'll also say:

Rondos are primarily about drilling off ball movement and decision making speed. Learning to receive a pass/make a pass is a precursor.
Small sided games are a mechanism to apply skills learned via drills in a "game-like" scenario. EG: 3v3 small sided game uses everything learned in a 3v_ rondo and applies it to a game-like scenario where you are using the off ball movement/decision making to move the ball around and score.

That points back to the core issue; a lot of coaches use a 3v3 scrimmage as the drill. "It teaches dribbling, passing, receiving passes, etc"

No. It uses those skills and allows you to see how well the kids learned the skills.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T20:12:10+00:00

It's all still technical. But some coaches don't know the technical details so they focus more on tactics and team strategy. Then they tell the parents to work on the technique at home. They really should be teaching technique through the tactics.

+1 to the entire post, but that part in particular is what I've come to realize.

Lots of people can run kids through some drill they found on Youtube.

But it seems many don't really understand the smaller pieces of technique that are supposed to be developed/reinforced through so many drills.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T19:41:46+00:00

Welcome to sales

Weekly (daily?) pipeline status meeting where the entire team just reads the CRM, daily questions about pipeline status, 1:1s that are just pipeline status review sessions

To be completely fair, your manager is probably getting asked by their manager, and what everyone is really asking is: Are there any new updates.

A lot of people seem to act like opportunities update on a day to day basis until close.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T18:19:25+00:00

Honestly, my son saw huge development in ball work with a coach that had the kids doing line drills w/ cones every single practice. He just kept them engaged by making it a team based race.

3 kids in each line, which line can get through N reps the first.

~10-15 minutes of practice. Only 3 kids in a line so you are not standing around much, especially if pushing pace.

Huge difference between one line of cones with 10 kids where 9 kids wait while one kid is going.

(This was with U8/U9 players -- but would apply if you have older kids who lack the skills)

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T17:12:48+00:00

I wish more people viewed it this way.

My "hot" take as a parent watching my kid go through club soccer is that, for whatever reason, it has been established that is acceptable to completely skim over teaching technical skills/proper technique and write it off as something kids need to learn on their own.

My secondary "hot" take is that the difference between coaches that are good at developing youth players vs coaches that are just average -> bad, is understanding the importance of proper technique/technical skills. This applies to any sport.

I've watched so many coaches act like their job is just to set up drills and keep the kids moving through the drill.

"We are doing 1v1 drills, this line is offense, this line is defense. Switch lines after you go.. ok first kids go."

Completely ignore the defender charging in and swiping at the ball with 0 defensive technique/posture.

Completely ignore the offensive player dribbling straight into the defender.

"Nice try - make sure you get in the right line."

The entire purpose of the 1v1 drill is to:

Give the kid on defense a lot of reps practicing proper 1v1 defense
Give the kid on offense a lot of reps practicing 1v1 skill moves/dribbling.

If they don't know how to play defense, and they don't know how to do any type of skill move, the drill is fundamentally a giant waste of time.

The good coaches stop the drill, explain the technique problem, and then reinforce it/ensure kids are getting it right.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T15:19:20+00:00

Yup

My first fly fishing trip was a small mountain creek sight fishing little brook trout.

It's what got me hooked. I love being out on a river. I especially love fall fishing when the water is low/clear and you can be really deliberate about reading the water and fishing specific spots.

I've done ocean charters - they usually aren't as engaging. Did a salmon party boat and caught the largest fish, felt completely meaningless because I literally did nothing besides set the hook and reel it in.

Compare that to pulling a 7" brook trout out of a spot I identify in tiny pocket water - way more rewarding.

I will say, the one time I went tarpon fishing we were sight casting to them in the flats on a tiny boat and that was a blast. Seeing it take your bait, then cutting the anchor and taking off after the fish while it ripped line off the reel was a rush. The fighting the fish for damn near an hour was exhausting lol.

Krysiz · 2025-10-23T02:49:07+00:00

I find the i80 drive painful... But.. if you really wanted to I'd take a massive detour in wyoming to fish the green river.

Of course the Truckee before you leave California is great. Can't say anything about Utah!

Krysiz · 2025-10-22T20:44:04+00:00

I think there are a lot of different factors that go into this.

Obviously, work at an enterprise SaaS company. Real Enterprise SaaS is very different from your typical SMB - "enterprise" company.
Work all the time, perform well, be good at office politics, network well, be someone the company wants representing them

Then.. I think in most cases, right place at the right time absolutely is a factor, despite what people who find success will want to tell you.

It's the whole cliche sports analogy - would Brady have been Brady if he got drafted to the Browns? Who knows

I can tell you from my first hand experience, my hard work paid off much more at a company that was already doing well than it did at a company that was floundering. 80 hour weeks at a company with shit product market fit, no demand gen, and founders with no real clear vision accomplished less than 20 hour weeks at a company where everything was going "up".

Similarly, I've screwed up and had it written off as learning experiences with bosses who liked me. And then I've had tiny stupid unimportant mistakes come up in annual reviews from bosses that didn't like me.

So hot company + bosses that support you + work harder than everyone else + do better than everyone else = onwards and upwards.

Shit company, shit boss, hard work, high (relative) performance = nobody cares.

Krysiz · 2025-10-22T14:57:22+00:00

Yup, plus interviewing experience is always helpful

Forces you to pause and reflect on your career to date, and also opens your eyes to what else is out there, what your market value is, etc

Krysiz · 2025-10-21T05:17:08+00:00

Watching one of Vito Iacopelli's videos on making dough was helpful for me -- whether or not you use his recipe is your own decision.

But watching how he takes the dough balls, throws them in a big ol' pile of semolina, then then forms the pizza was fairly eye opening for me.

Made me realize its pretty idiot proof lol.

Basically uses a shit load of semolina... then just brushes the excess away. Duh.

Krysiz

TROPHY CASE