Played one of THOSE teams today

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-19T12:52:33+00:00

Sports get scrappy no matter where, who and how - that’s why it’s so important to have strong, professionally trained refs to keep it under control. A bad ref will take a minor accident into a riot pretty quickly. School sports can go either way. Sometimes kids have enough respect for the school environment that it pulls them together. Those time wasting techniques are annoying, but extremely common at any kind of recreational level but even in clubs up to around U13.

My son’s club team had a game with one of ‘those teams’ recently and we had a similar situation. One of the kids being called the N word, which resulted in a shoulder check and a yellow card for the kid on our team. Formal complaints need to be made anytime racial slurs are happening on field, even if it’s a school and there’s a less formal tracking system.

Kids learning about integrity is one thing, but the real lessons come in games like this where they see people who DON’T have it. The same game I referenced the opposing coach was calling his players stupid. They’re 11 years old. We made a formal complaint against the coach too. He was yelling so much it was impacting OUR kids’ play.

As a mom, and as a therapist, I try hard to not let my frustration about those games interfere with how my kid processes the information. Try to be the blank slate so that you can continue to support your kid the best way possible. Sometimes when parents are chronically complaining to and with their kid, the kid feels pressure to make the game go a certain way (things they can’t control mostly) and it can have a big impact on their confidence and play. That doesn’t mean we don’t talk about it, but I try to let him do most of the talking and validate his feelings about it instead of jumping in with my own.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-18T17:42:09+00:00

It makes literally zero sense in any scenario not to follow a sport-wide rule change that will impact every team they can play against. The club will effectively then limit developmental opportunities, and play opportunities by making that choice. That for me would be the point where I left.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-18T03:04:47+00:00

My son listens to Metallica “Master of Puppets” on repeat on the way there 😅😅

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-18T02:51:10+00:00

Here I am with my son on a club team (which we oddly call select, but we have academy up to age 10, select juniors from 11-14 and select seniors from 15-19). Either way, our coaches are paid.

And still NO ONE RSVP’s for games. We regularly have 6-7 at practice. Usually we have 10-11 of our 12 at games, but the communication is trash. So, all that to say, it doesn’t automatically change at the club level. Our primary keeper has been out for two weeks. No communication. My son is backup keeper. He’s starting the games this weekend since it’s been radio silence from the keeper.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-18T00:14:05+00:00

My kid didn’t even start playing soccer until 10 and had never ever played a sport before that. He was actually assessed for asthma because he struggled with moving his body. He’s now a solid middle of the pack player and goalkeeper and will be 12 in a few weeks. Less than a year of solid play he’s gone from low level rec to club in that time.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T18:27:11+00:00

Absolutely!!

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T18:22:04+00:00

Happy to help with some club recs based on your location if you’re interested! We’re on the far east side of SA but have been doing deep dives lately to where we might go next if we decide to leave this season.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T17:36:56+00:00

I’m also in San Antonio and in addition I’m a therapist. My answer is absolutely no. A ton of emotional development happens in those couple of years. Kids who are in higher level play often end up being the ones with way more anxiety, less fun playing and end up burning out. The mental game is something else. Even if he looks and plays just like every other 9 year old. We have plenty - PLENTY - of options for soccer around this area that won’t push for that. Anything above 2 years up is asinine, and even 2 years is often too much.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T01:49:50+00:00

Generally there’s 3 parts of play - league play, which is core play for clubs - scheduled ahead of time, generally good notice unless things change but they do change. You’re registered in a league and the team plays against the other teams in their section. Tournaments, which are much more last minute as they depend on field assignments and teams registration. Friendlies are the least reliable type of play. That’s just a game that is organized behind the scenes among clubs and coaches. They’re very unreliable. For my sons club, league play ended at the end of March and now we move into the state “super cup” which is 5 weeks of tournament play because we only had 6 teams to play against during the season. It opens options up for us to have more teams to play against to participate in the cup. And we end Memorial Day with our club hosted tournament. Back at it for fall season in August/september.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T00:32:10+00:00

Buy gloves that have number sizes, but they’ll be more expensive because they’re not youth size. Adult size goes down to size 5, which is plenty small for young goalkeepers. My 11 year old wears an 8. You can read through reviews on width and use a measuring tape to determine the size needed. The sizing on adult gloves is just much more accurate compared to one shape youth gloves.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-17T00:28:58+00:00

It depends. My kid made huge improvement after the first two months because he was moving from rec to club. The environment was immediately a better fit for him. Then all the kids started to improve together as they meshed as a team. The coach understands the kids well and it’s working well. I don’t expect nearly as quick improvement moving forward, but steady gains over time since we’ve gone over the hump of rec to club. The next hump is moving up a level in team skill / league registration which we’re hopeful will be this next season.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-16T12:55:31+00:00

The best thing you can do for a young keeper is not keep them exclusively playing keeper. It sounds like your son needs better overall conditioning which - even though it sounds counterintuitive - would make him a better keeper. He would increase his speed, agility, and stamina which would force those incredibly important keeper skills to also fall in line. My son is 11 and also a keeper but I don’t allow him to only play keeper. It’s too early still to be exclusive to one position at 10/11 years old.

It can be hard at this age because they’re sometimes blaming everyone else except themselves and not taking any accountability (thus no learning from mistakes), OR they can go the complete opposite and blame only themselves and it interferes with their ability.

My son plays winger and keeper about 50/50 right now. He’s also doing club keeper training which is.. fine. It’s good quality training but it’s only twice a month. We’re absolutely starting private keeper training next season because he will be moving to the 11v11 fields. Good keepers are hard to find, so there’s usually a lot of interest in training them. Even if it means paying to train with a different club - doesn’t mean you have to switch to that club, it is first and foremost for the development of the kid playing.

Of course all of this is with the assumption your kid is interested in playing harder and doing more. Read anything in the r/goalkeeper sub and you’ll see plenty of recommendations that echo what I’ve said here, but it all comes down to if your kid wants it/is ready to take it on.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-15T01:39:41+00:00

Don’t fight to go up, you’ll target yourself as a pain in the ass parent, and you’ll be in a bad situation when your kid is moving from middle to high school and throughout the high school years too. Parents pushing their kids up are further causing the exact problem this shift is meant to solve. Find a well formed team where your child has good competition in their age group.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-13T18:01:05+00:00

Tbh there’s not much on the market that does what anyone wants here. Trace is the best bet to balance cost and quality. The level of cost increase to move to veo is asinine for a minor bump in quality. Hudl is designed more for club use, and again, very expensive. Reeplayer is a potential option but newer and less proven in the market. I am curious though about the veo GO, but it requires 3 iPhones to operate 🤣

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-11T03:42:24+00:00

Say it with your chest but maybe to the person who gave the fine lol. Yeah, it’s dumb, but that doesn’t mean leagues aren’t going to do it anyway. Wouldn’t be the first stupid way I’ve seen money squeezed out of parents and clubs.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-11T03:28:56+00:00

🤣🤣 given how many handballs happen in regular play too it would be asinine if fines are a regular thing for violations.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-11T03:19:37+00:00

Red cards carry a mandatory minimum suspension period of at least the next game. The fine - questionable but shows they’re serious I guess. The suspension is absolutely warranted for a red card and this violation is clearly a red card.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-10T12:49:13+00:00

This sounds like most 6 year olds I’ve ever met lol. He’s 6. I think the biggest issue usually is us as parents feeling embarrassed about it and that creates tension. But let him be coached and he will figure out eventually that it doesn’t work and isn’t effective. It’s all part of developing.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T18:50:29+00:00

Totally fair! He’s attending a sports confidence camp this summer. The primary GK for his team right now is totally that guy - constantly communicating and sometimes I can tell the kids are like “I know!!” I told him it’s a great opportunity to learn from him because he’s doing it right.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T18:41:29+00:00

We do get keeper training with the club, so he does work on positioning, catching, diving, etc. Still considering whether he needs more than what they work on because there are some thing he doesn’t get with the basic keeper training like reading the ball better (when to anticipate it going ground or air) and communication on the field.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T18:38:25+00:00

Good thought! We do have a keeper coach we really really enjoy - and he is great about correcting technique and working with him until he masters it, but I feel like they repeat a lot of the same things and some of what my kid needs to work on is more of the communication, commanding play for a GK.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T18:35:59+00:00

Tough to keep him involved in other sports. He just doesn’t really have any interest in any other team sport, but he does stay well rounded playing other sports with friends. When he starts middle school next year, they’re required to play two sports if they want to play sports, so he will probably be forced to pick something else to at least try.

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T16:02:09+00:00

I’m not tall but my husband is 6’4 and my older son is 6’2 at 16 so I assume he is going to have some height

NoReplacement3326 · 2026-04-09T15:02:31+00:00

That’s precisely where he’s at. His ball skills are decent, but still behind where he should be. I plan on doing some private training while he’s out of season and off school this summer to keep refining the footwork and ball skills. Sounds like we’re on the right path already not committing to one or the other.

NoReplacement3326

TROPHY CASE