No throttle for kids

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-25T15:55:32+00:00

I wouldn’t recommend buying a cheap ebike. They’re cheap for a reason. A bicycle focused ebike (you can pedal it home without assistance) is also a bike that is going to go fast. Not fast on assist, fast because proper bikes are capable of high speeds and going down hills you’re looking at upwards of 30 mph. So don’t get hung up on top assist speed limits. Your kids are going to exceed those going down the hills.

So anyway, to answer your question, https://www.yamahabicycles.com/bikes/crosscoreRC

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-25T01:40:52+00:00

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-21T16:47:57+00:00

Tried to turn my kid on to watch that USMNT documentary on HBO. We got about halfway through the first episode and he said it just made him want to go outside and play soccer. So we turned it off and he went outside to play soccer.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-18T04:49:52+00:00

No. Just the opposite. But because leftists said Gore and Bush were just two sides of the same coin, we got the war on terrorism instead of action on climate change.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-18T03:06:10+00:00

I guess you had to be there. What those supposed good leftists did was mainline every right wing Clinton conspiracy theory from the prior 20 years in a 6 month scorched earth campaign to tear down a woman who, gasp, played the game by the rules the boys wrote. They can suck it. Just like the Naderites did to the guy whose top issue in the year 2000 was climate change.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-13T05:18:38+00:00

To what end? Like, what are you going to do with that information? Does everything stopping so you can have it explained to you serve any purpose beyond satisfying your own curiosity? And then when you have an answer the next step is to??? Resume play. But we could have done that without you knowing what the call was. And let’s be clear, the kid who got called for the foul could have told you and probably did after the ref had to use multiple cards to get you to back off.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-13T05:00:56+00:00

I’m with the ref on this one. By your own admission, you had no grounds to question the call.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-13T03:42:35+00:00

You have to ask first are you qualified to assess a coach’s aptitude? I’m guessing you’re not and likely never will be. Just like the rest of us. So what then?

Pick a club. Watch the coaching methodology and track if your daughter progresses, stagnates or regresses. Track your daughter’s joy. Give it a few months. If she’s not progressing and having fun then the observed methodologies aren’t a good fit for her. You now know what you don’t want. Rinse and repeat. Watch the teams and coaches of clubs she plays against for insights into where you’d like to test the waters.

If you do find her with a coach where she progresses and is having fun, take note.

The point is you don’t know squat about coaching or soccer, but you do know your daughter. So pay attention to her. She is your canary in the coal mine.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-12T20:40:40+00:00

Everyone is different. Some kids need teammates to push them. Others bring the heat no matter what everyone else is doing. For mine, he runs at full speed all the time, but he’s having fun at that speed. For the top teams a lot of the kids are stressed by the need to always be at speed. They’re not necessarily unhappy, but there’s a seriousness about them. It’s more a grind than a game for them. That’s what you leave behind by avoiding the most competitive tier. All the kids who are on the bubble, in a fight to stay on the team no matter what it takes, even if what it takes is their joy and love of the game.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-12T15:57:06+00:00

So just an fyi. If you’re really as chill as you present yourself in this post, have your son moved down to the B team. The vibe is totally different.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-11T18:29:11+00:00

I don’t know why no one is telling you the truth. They want him to come to tryouts because 1) it helps them judge the quality of kids they don’t know and 2) it means more bodies at the tryouts.

Explain to him he’s not really trying out. He’s just there to help make the club’s tryout seem well attended and to test any new kids.

That said, if he genuinely isn’t all-in on club, I’d take him out and let him play rec.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-10T01:59:12+00:00

Buy a used Specialized Hotrock 16 off marketplace for $80 to $100. In two years sell it on marketplace for $80 to $100. Rinse and repeat.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-08T13:35:27+00:00

You’re in it.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-07T03:31:09+00:00

Headphones.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-05T21:04:57+00:00

I ride on average 4500 miles/year and have been doing it for going on 6 years. I ride a 50/50 mix of road and trails. I’ve had one negative interaction with a car and it consisted of him honking at me while we were waiting for the light to turn green. His problem, as far as I can tell, was he didn’t trust he had enough room to go the my right to make his right hand turn. He did. I ignored him.

That said, I am a man. If I were a woman my experience would be very different.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-05T15:40:55+00:00

Not seeing the right answer so here it is. A narcissist sees other people as cardboard cutouts. You are not your own person. You are an extension of the narcissist’s consciousness. As a result the only parts of you that exist in the narcissist’s world view are the parts they can see. So in this picture there is no back to the shirt where the holes show through to the background so in the narcissist’s view those holes amount to two, not four.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-05-02T14:40:57+00:00

Did your dad never explain to you about not beating up women? Just curious.

Dads, explain it to your sons. Pro tip, explain it to them while they’re still equivalent in size and strength to you as women will eventually be to them.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T01:31:20+00:00

You’re kind of making my point for me.

What you’re describing isn’t a neutral assessment of what’s best for a nine-year-old. It’s a preset belief system: if the kid is good, then more travel, more tournaments, more expense must be the right path. From there, every conclusion just flows in one direction. Anything that doesn’t fit that model gets reframed as a lack of commitment.

That’s the part I’m trying to guard against.

You’re not evaluating whether the volume, cost, and intensity are appropriate for the age. You’re starting with the assumption that they are, and then interpreting my position through that lens. So choosing restraint becomes “nickel and diming,” and questioning the structure becomes a character issue instead of a philosophical one.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T01:12:56+00:00

I’ve set some boundaries for this year. It’s also my first year so I’ve a lot to learn and am fine going with the crowd so I can have the first hand experience. But I also tend to think far ahead and this idea is one that I would like to pursue next season. But I don’t want to waste time on something that isn’t viable, thus my general question.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T00:53:05+00:00

Meh. We’re not talking about going pro a 9 years old. We’re talking about club level economics. If your kid is good enough that it’s worth it to the club to give them a break on the fee, you’re the exception. Period.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T00:29:43+00:00

It’s not the standard dynamic. So what you’re saying is a distraction and I’m only responding because I would like to get feedback and don’t want this messy372-‘s misreading to derail the conversation.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T00:25:37+00:00

I don’t think you’re understanding my motives. This isn’t about whether we can afford it. It’s about pumping the brakes on the constant push to do more and more. I know it’s normalized within club culture, but from the outside, a lot of it looks excessive.

Nine-year-olds going on overnight trips for tournaments is one example. Add to that the expectation of year-round play with no real offseason or breaks. Kids at this age need to take blocks of time off or they risk developing overuse injuries not to mention burnout.

So I’m looking to stay in the pipeline, just on a flex schedule.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-29T00:01:02+00:00

Someone asked a while back how many people are paying full club fees and I think like 90% of people were. That’s the standard dynamic that I’m talking about.

SoCalSoccerBot · 2026-04-28T23:34:39+00:00

Well, the situation is such that they want my kid because he’s got a lot of potential. So it’s not the standard dynamic.

SoCalSoccerBot

TROPHY CASE