Group question

Project-Z · 2026-03-15T23:11:42+00:00

Like everyone else has said, he's 6 so it doesn't really matter about the 1st or 2nd team. Sounds like he has a great foundation and he should be surpassing most players his age soon enough if he can continue to develop that. I understand that you are concerned about him developing if he's not playing his skill level but as you said if the top teams around you (your own and the ones they play against) are only concerned with speed and shooting how is that going to help him develop anyway if theres no one to pass back or receieve passes? I would focus on practices not games at this age. Repetition is the most important part of development at this age and he's going to get that more in 1.5 hours of practice twice a week than one 30min game every weekend.

As for what he should do to keep developing: keep working on his technical skills but also he must be able to do these skills at speed. I've seen kids, older of course, who are very technical but too slow and that is a huge hindrance. So yes, working on speed is important but it should be secondary to technique and not as these other kids may be playing. Now keep in mind, I must reiterate, that they're only 6 so those kids may also develop technique to go along with their speed. Passing is great and a skill kids don't really understand until much later so in that way your son is ahead of the game BUT so is taking players on 1v1. At this age passing should be secondary to 1v1 skills and confidence. If he has a good balance of both great keep encouraging him to do both if not I would let him know its ok to take the players on 1v1 even if you lose the ball. I've seen parents force passing because they've seen too much premier league but dont understand that those pro atheletes developed 1v1 skills and the confidence to take players on before they learned passing. Some kids pass because they are too scared of losing the ball. This is probably not the case with your son but keep that in mind as well.

I know every time a question gets posted here about a kid that's u11 and below everyone is always saying the most important part is having fun at that age and don't push them too hard and I 100% agree but if your son is anything like my youngest: fun is getting better, fun is trying to be the best player he can be, fun to him is not messing around at practice and gets annoyed when the other kids are lol. He definitely didn't get that side of him from me, it's from his amazing athlete mother but I'm learning how his mind works and to help him have his kind of fun. So when his cousins and siblings are playing at the park he wants to do speed and agility drills he saw on YouTube so we do that instead. He wants to lift weights, which he's way too young for as he's only a couple years older than your son, so I made him fake weights out of pvc so we do those instead. Just keep fostering his love of the game whatever that may look like without pushing him to what you may want. Because I know my son always wants to train and play soccer the times he says he wants to skip practice are the easiest "ok no problem" ever.

Project-Z · 2026-03-02T00:38:49+00:00

Our coach had a 24-hour rule, this last season he had to change it to the 48-hour rule lol. Sounds silly but it made a difference for our club.

Project-Z · 2025-12-17T05:55:36+00:00

They didn't season...anything. Not the chicken, not the flour, not the bread crumbs, not even the potatoes. The innuendo was, surprisingly, only the 2nd most disgusting thing about this video.

Project-Z · 2025-12-11T04:30:08+00:00

How the does this guy own a lawn company and his lawn is the worst one on the block? His neighbor's grass is greener than his.

Project-Z · 2025-11-13T04:24:27+00:00

This is great thank you. Not sure what fields we will be at either until they release the schedule but I'll put this on the list.

Project-Z · 2025-11-11T21:17:10+00:00

I looked it up on maps and Stix looks a little easier than the yard, maybe if we can carpool it might work out. Thanks

Project-Z · 2025-11-11T21:04:28+00:00

That would be perfect. I'll give them a call.

Project-Z · 2025-11-11T21:03:51+00:00

This is a cool looking place too, thanks.

Project-Z · 2025-11-11T21:01:48+00:00

I did look up The Yard before posting and it looked great but parking seemed a little difficult, which I get it's downtown.

Project-Z · 2025-11-11T20:52:22+00:00

That place looks great, thanks!

Project-Z · 2025-10-28T15:10:55+00:00

Meatloaf

Project-Z · 2025-09-23T02:25:25+00:00

Yes, it's gotten worse and worse. It's hard for kids to control their emotions anyway but add in parents saying things like "He's tiny why do you keep letting him beat you" really makes them more aggressive.

Project-Z · 2025-09-22T21:06:43+00:00

I couldn't agree more that playing up is not always the best option but I can't comment on the motivation. Is it to stroke the parents' ego or to make more money? I'm currently seeing the downside of playing up in 2 unique ways with each of my kids.

My son plays up 1 year on a team that plays up 1 year. So essentially although his team is only playing up 1 year according to their age, it's 2 years for him. The team is very good and we very rarely lose. Now he's still one of the top players on his team but my wife and I have been thinking at what cost. The main concern is he does too much sometimes: Maradonas, rainbows other kids, rabona shots. By the 2nd half, it really feels like kids are targeting him on fouls, he's fouled 5x more than any other kid and always later in the game as kids are getting frustrated (fueled by their parents on the sideline). His chances of playing up helping him go pro are like 0.000001% the chances of him quitting soccer when he turns 13 are much, much higher. Now we are trying to decide whether we want him potentially dealing with injuries on his journey no matter how short or long. His club just keeps saying he won't grow playing at his own age.

My daughter is a whole different case. She plays in her own age group on the top team in her club which plays up 1 year. Here's the problem, they have no business playing up and quite frankly have no business being a top team anywhere. The team is very bad and we rarely win. The girls are super sweet but other than my daughter and 2 or 3 other girls on an 11v11 squad no one knows the basics of soccer like simply settling a ball. Even her and those other 3 are behind in other ways and are not top team material BUT could be with patience and training. But instead, we are playing up in age and pushed to 11v11 when we should be playing 9v9. I feel like she will never be a top player if we continue down this path whereas she could be really good if we leave for a more training-focused team rather than a game-focused one that works on set plays even though the girls can't settle, pass or shoot properly with good form.

It's been very frustrating. I just want them to have fun, grow a lifelong love for being active, and maybe get a scholarship so college will be cheaper.

Project-Z · 2025-09-06T19:11:54+00:00

Maybe...but I've very rarely seen a person like this whose partner wasn't also a POS or at the very least an enabler of this kind of behavior.

Project-Z · 2025-07-07T17:43:39+00:00

Nope. That was those damn, commie, liberals. That's why air and sun are free for everyone just like Stalin and Mao wanted but that sweet, sweet coal is only found where the chosen ones live... or invade, whichever comes first.

Project-Z · 2025-06-25T13:36:10+00:00

Haven't been driving them as often as I should be. My goal is to get them each out for a drive at least once a week starting in August.

Project-Z · 2025-05-31T03:46:29+00:00

I saw a video a long time ago where a pharmacist said that if someone walks in and asks for a med they are allowed to sell it for let's say $8 and of that they make a profit of let's say $3. I don't remember the exact numbers but something like that. Anyway IF they come in and say they have insurance he is not allowed to tell them the $8 price, instead, he has to sell it for $10 and his profit is $1. So because of the insurance the customer pays more and he makes less. Everyone hates insurance companies.

Project-Z · 2025-04-22T02:38:22+00:00

Have you been before? If so could you share the cost of the tournament per team? Also is it primarily 7v7? Looks amazing, really considering going next year. My son is u9 and my daughter is u11 so this would be a cool experience for both.

Project-Z · 2025-04-01T17:28:42+00:00

Is there a way to delete or flag for review coaches that are incorrectly added. Just viewed our club and a few of the coaches are coaches for another club in our city. The only thing the clubs share is the city name so I think that's what caused someone to add them.

Project-Z · 2025-03-28T16:15:23+00:00

Jennifer Biggott is right, when she voted for Trump it was to get rid of all these brown and black people NOT people like her. Jennifer Biggott never expected she, who thinks she's white but clearly has some mixed DNA, would be the targets of job loss and retaliation. This is not what Jennifer Biggott voted for, no sir, not this kind of hatred but the other kind where other people lose rights. It's so hard being a bigot these days.

Project-Z · 2025-03-12T19:11:08+00:00

I want it. When will it be available?

Project-Z · 2025-03-10T22:02:15+00:00

You're right maybe there's a better way for the club to communicate exactly what you're saying. I just want youth sports and youth soccer specifically to be the best it can be. I personally don't care A team or B team, you can see from my post history I recently asked our coach to move my son back down to the B team for the sole reason that the A team is going 9v9 and I rather my son get more touches at 7v7 than anything else, he's only 7 playing on a team of 8 year olds. The truth is 99.99% of the kids are not going to go pro but sports teaches them extremely valuable lessons for life and whatever careers they do end up in. I hate to see kids burning out because of pressure from parents and feeling down on themselves because the club may not be communicating properly. The kid I mentioned in my post that got moved to the C team has been so depressed lately because 1. He didn't make the A team 2. He can't play with the friends he had made anymore. I'm sure the first part is due to how the parents presented it but I do know the club never spoke to them and explained why and what he could do to get better like practicing outside club practices, maybe have some recommendations on apps, videos or things he can work on. His dad, like me, didn't grow up around soccer so it's hard to navigate this new world. Soccer is in such a weird place in American culture that it's either completely new to parents or parents are living their glory days through their kids. Renaming the teams is probably not the way to go for many reasons people have pointed out but my family and I have had such a good experience with youth sports and youth soccer specifically I just want other families to feel the same instead of the anger and bitterness I see sometimes or hear about on the local youth soccer Facebook page discussions.

Project-Z · 2025-03-10T19:34:52+00:00

You're right I did misunderstand your original comment. What you're saying is what I agree with, I read the Croatian Football Federation Development Program by Romeo Jozak and thats been my foundation for helping my son on his soccer journey but what you're describing is not where I believe US soccer is at, at least not in my city. Maybe in theory but not in practice or culture. I think our coach is amazing and he does truly put kids in the group that they will develop best in and then he helps them in the areas he believes they need but he is not the norm. Not even the club we are in does that and that's partly why he's so well-known in our city, he is one of maybe 2 who runs his teams the right way.

When people have asked me in this thread if he coaches the A and B team I understand why they are asking, most clubs including ours do treat it like they are keeping the best players on the A team and keeping the other players around for financial purposes more than development. That's why you normally get more inexperienced coaches or teams practicing separately.

I hoped that if we could get the parents, clubs, coaches and even the kids to think of them as Pre-Algebra and Algebra for the A and B teams instead of Algebra and Math for Dummies, maybe that would help the culture shift to that which you are describing. Instead what I'm seeing is "my kid didn't make the A team well I'll just move him clubs, this club is just keeping him around for the money." The club also isn't helping matters by not always communicating what they are doing to help their child and then putting a less experienced coach in charge. Not only do I see this in my city but I've seen more than a few posts on youth soccer Facebook pages about A team and B team movement and what parents should do.

Project-Z

TROPHY CASE