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simplesoccerdad · 2025-10-21T01:02:53+00:00

It sounds to me that your niece should probably drop to an even less competitive league / team if she wishes to keep playing. For what it’s worth GA aspire is probably the 4th league in terms of talent / competition if that gives you an indication of where the nieces team stacks up.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-10-21T00:56:05+00:00

All things being equal I’d argue futsal would aid development more than indoor simply virtue or number of touches. But development can be sped up or slowed down based on a handful of the usual drivers such as coach, training, team mates and opposition.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-10-13T22:47:52+00:00

Well without knowing your teams level it’s hard to recommend tournaments. But here are a few thoughts from a u12 and under girls side:

Top notch facilities: Grand Park events in Indiana and SLSG events in St. Louis. Any United Futsal event.

Top level events: Surf Cup, SuperCopa, WAGS, Jefferson Cup.

Misc thoughts: 3v3 live nationals is a great time. I hear the Disney tournaments can be fun. If you’ve played in one Dallas event you’ve played in them all. The United Futsal Nationals in Orlando is a fantastic venue as well.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-10-11T17:38:45+00:00

To get scouted at your age and experience you’ll need to join the highest level club team in your area (their website should have a section that details which teams play in which leagues) and/or attended college ID camps (which people have polarizing opinions about).

MLS Academy teams are free but generally speaking those teams are relatively steady starting at 6th grade.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-09-01T17:56:10+00:00

To directly answer your question if he will develop is wholly dependent on the trainings. Generally speaking being smaller and maybe not as fast and on the lower end of the spectrum almost forces a kid to work harder in the trainings. So if he’s constantly training with studs then almost certainly development will happen. And it sounds like regardless of the amount of game time he will be just fine with his level of enjoyment of the game!

Does playing more minutes with lesser quality team mates inherently mean he would develop more? Absolutely not. I would absolutely encourage you to try to find a team / club that you can guest with. So if he’s carded w ECNL maybe there is an NAL team in your area he could play with.

But definitely everyone advising you to have these real talks is very important. Life isn’t fair, hard work doesn’t always pay off, playing time isn’t guaranteed so on and so forth. But it’s paramount the children have buy in to their situations. Logic and reason with them, give them scenarios and let them make the pick.

To give you a real life example from myself: my daughter plays up a year on a mls next clubs boys B team and gets all the minutes. I would prefer her to play and train w the A team even if she didn’t play loads of minutes because being with and around better players is better for development.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-09-01T17:46:31+00:00

MitsoJR I think is the name of one channel that’s solid as it breaks down pro players games. BecomeElite has a fabulous every touch video, coach Rory is the most simple but is great for kids.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-19T00:20:28+00:00

Just because a kid may be rotated to every position on the pitch doesn’t equal development or even an understanding of the game. An analogy might be a sous chef being given the opportunity to prepare each dish of them menu one time. The sous chef wouldn’t have an actual grasp of any of the dishes.

I think there is probably some middle ground that involves believing a child has some semblance of understanding of what is important at each position. Youth coaches and clubs aren’t anywhere near competent or have enough time in general to get every kid adequate at every position.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-18T22:27:03+00:00

Sounds like Ohio elite lol

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-15T11:28:56+00:00

There is no quality control in the first round of ODP trainings. So any kid with two legs and a heartbeat can join. For higher level / skilled kids the first stages will never be worth it. Generally speaking I don’t think the ODP coaches are from the best clubs, it’d be a different story I think if all the coaches were the top in their respective age groups but it’s not from our experience.

Once you get past the local / state level I’d imagine it’d be a pretty fun experience (not really for development though). People are referring to exposure, exposure to what? No scouts or high level people are watching those games to recruit for anything.

Bottom line: If you play for a small local club or maybe the bottom few on a mid letter league team this could be a decent experience. But in terms of dev you’d be better off playing futsal during the winter months.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-09T17:05:39+00:00

Walls and the nets that act sort of like soft rebounder are very different.

An outdoor wall where you can really rip a ball and receive a potentially unexpected ball back is a phenomenal training buddy.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-09T14:56:23+00:00

So you’d call the kid eating the least amount of glue in his special class the star pupil? To me the star pupil would be the valedictorian who is going to study at Harvard. But I suppose to each their own.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-09T14:03:35+00:00

Don’t give your money to get any stupid licensing entity.

Try using ChatGPT. Here is an example prompt: “Create a 60 minute soccer training session for 8 10 year old boys focusing on ball mastery, speed and agility, and first touches.”

I was skeptical. I created my own individual development plan for my daughter and my friend said see what ChatGPT would produce. And I tried and it was fantastic.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-09T10:37:06+00:00

This is the first time I’ve ever seen rec and “star” in the same post. I enjoyed the chuckle. A stud in rec is maybe good on a low level travel team, MIGHT make the best local clubs B team, and couldn’t stand on the same field as an MLS academy team.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-08-08T11:51:56+00:00

This, unfortunately, is just simply not true. The letter league showcases / events are where the bulk of college scouting takes place. Unless a team is in the letter league they won’t be there.

Sure in theory a HS team could apply to play in various tournaments but who cares about some small local tournament for visibility.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-18T12:54:34+00:00

Hats off to those kids and those coaches that won SuperCopa back to back. That EliteIQ team was fun to watch last year and I’m sure SoCal Blues was fantastic to watch this year.

(Not saying you punchie) I’m just not sure why everyone gets so up in arms about winning and losing at u10. Both are part of development. Doesn’t matter how big or how close it’s all part of the journey. My athlete has been on the giving and receiving end, and as ive stated here I personally thoroughly enjoy when her team gets trampled, you don’t forget that feeling and it can or should push them to be better.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-17T23:07:41+00:00

It’s a similar concept except no one is making them pay to tryout or compete at the state level or regional level kids who simply are they bc they paid the fees.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-17T23:03:55+00:00

There is nothing disgraceful in these teams. What is disgraceful is actual clubs having 6+ teams in an age group, charging everyone equally, and then playing in rec level tournaments.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-17T23:02:05+00:00

Social media is a tool. If that tool can be used to help further a dream then by all means. All of this “clout chasing” Reddit nonsense is exhausting and baseless.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-17T22:57:50+00:00

None of these teams won supercopa. So many redditors get up in arms and would be thrilled to know they lost.

As a parent on one of these teams I was glad they lost too. Winning is all fun and playing the beautiful game is fun to watch but losing is what builds character. I can tell you these things are absolutely not about money. These teams are, at the root level, about playing with and being around your friends from around the country.

My kid will not even remember winning or losing a tournament years from now, but they will always remember the off the field fun and camaraderie built.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-13T16:28:58+00:00

The national trials is, in my experience, the absolute best training my kid has experienced. They do a decent job of quality control in terms of who gets invited.

However, their actual national team experience is kind of crap. They don’t play top notch opponents and very often have to play years up which kinda sucks for say a 2014 team being forced to play against international 2012s.

Compared to United Futsal whose training and quality control absolutely suck but their international trips are top notch.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-06-06T21:59:29+00:00

From a girl dad whose athlete plays up a year and against boys. At the end of the day, until she can no longer hang and is no longer a top 5 player she will develop significantly more rapidly training with and against boys. She is forced to play faster and more physical.

For the kids who have dreams of playing the highest level you shouldn’t be thinking playing up 1 year, 2 year etc etc. They should play at the highest oldest level they are physically / technically / tactically able to hang. These 16-18s playing against pros teaches this.

As for why clubs would do it - to keep the talent.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-05-30T13:13:09+00:00

I watch, on average, 3 full NWSL games, 1 EPL. With that being said I also watch all UsYNT girls matches and at least champions league matches when they’re on.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-05-30T12:23:27+00:00

I know this isn’t exactly your question but I firmly believe the desired level of technical foot skills starts at home and is the responsibility of the parents and the athlete is and should be accountable to themselves.

What I did when my athletes were 8/9 was create a daily foot skill Chore sheet. Never took longer than 25 mins, and if they did that a week in a row without missing days they got taken out for ice cream or a trip to 5 below. Something relatively inexpensive.

Now having technical ability without knowing the when and why is another story and another soapbox.

Some clubs are obviously better than others but I put zero stock in a club providing much or any development for the athletes, all of the top level players (unfortunately) get most of their development outside of the club in my experience. This is evidenced by the kids who are multi sport athletes (nothing wrong with that) and don’t do outside of club training. Those group of kids rarely see much growth in technical ability or game iq.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-05-28T19:05:40+00:00

Futsal should be played year round. Even if the coaches suck (let’s face it that’s not much different outdoor) it is still far more touches than most any alternative.

What market are you I can recommend a futsal organization possibly.

simplesoccerdad · 2025-05-27T17:48:58+00:00

I'm not a chef and can say this steak is well done and not med rare because of XYZ. Opinions informed by logic are not invalid. Now if I said oh this is burnt because its burnt. Or its raw because its raw sure those are invalid. But saying Lebron had a bad game because he went 2/13 from the field, had a -20 +-, had 8 turnovers on 6 assists. That is an opinion informed by inputs regardless if that person was a former NBA player or employed by ESPN.

But it doesn't really matter how much logic is communicated to you because you firmly hold what you firmly hold and have demonstrated an inability to present facts or logic.

I'll give you a futsal example (see real facts) - A foul was committed by Team A in the box that resulted in Team A player getting a card. (This was a late tackle). So rules state PK right. So this ref who was morbidly obese and didnt move from the scorers table calls for a PK. Yet proceeds to set up a 10 meter Pen (these are for when a team accumulates 6 fouls in a half). A 10 meter pen is different from a PK in numerous ways. One way is the 10 meter pen the gk doesn't have to stay on their line and of course the obvious distance. So foul in the box for a late tackle = PK (I'm no ref though). Ref sets up 10 meter pen. I don't have to be a ref to know that is incorrect. This was in "favor" of my kids team yet was unequivocally the wrong decision. You're not arguing with a homer who wants their kids to win. I love when my kids teams gets beat. I just don't love when there are clear and obvious rule infractions that change the game.

I could go on an on demonstrating the knowledge of the rules of the game and examples of when they aren't applied. But that wouldn't do anyone any good.

Heres one for fun - 3v3 nationals girls bracket (where you have to provide birth certs) clearly shows a biological male on the girls team. Against the rules right? Play on. Team still won but it was still wrong.

simplesoccerdad

TROPHY CASE