Had you told me 10 years ago I would have 5 kids and couldn’t wait to get my 4.5 year old daughter into Club Soccer vs. Rec Soccer I would have told you – you were nuts! But here I am – crazy about soccer!!! Why? Because our kids are – period. This is their journey and they love it!
We started with our older two doing 2 seasons of recreational soccer – where we live that is 8 weeks each season. They were 6 and 4. During the second season our youngest was ‘scouted’ /spotted to move up to the club level. A vigorous discussion at home happened. 😉 I am cynical of others’ motivations and then I may warm up to you. I thought what a money grab this is, these kids literally have only used a bathroom independently for a couple of years this $100 rec program is just fine for us. This is not necessary at this age, don’t club sports start at 13?! No, 13 will be too late. What?! Why? Well hubs won the debate and we switched to Club soccer.
I was skeptical and quite frankly, not pleasant about it for the first two years. I wanted our family (with three kids at that moment) to have family time – dinner together at home. I wanted to know if we could or couldn’t attend their friend’s birthday parties. I was resentful of our decision honestly. But it was not soccer’s fault. I had been an athlete too. And all the practices I saw were feeding into what my brother-in-law has referred to the sport as ; long distance with a ball. Now, no way is that my perspective!
One son’s team – had an awesome coach with fabulous volunteers who also knew what they were doing. I didn’t know what they were doing – ha! They did touches and more touches and more touches. Working with these boys to develop their footwork consistently and quite frankly very precisely. That son moved on to another Coach – club decision – not ours. We were told he is a top coach and he was good, but the practices seemed redundant to me, though by then I had two littles to manage on the side, so how much attention was I really paying to practice?
Our oldest had a Coach who was a great man, and a good employee. I was confused after the first year and asked him, why are you teaching these boys (a 3rd team) strategy when they do not know how to keep the ball? Shouldn’t that be worked on first? He openly said, I agree with you and I would like to Coach that way, but I have to follow the plan I have been given. My cynicism from earlier flooded me at that moment – this IS a money grab!! In Club-wide meetings they discussed wanting to develop our sons and daughters and that anyone could move up. But that was not what they set these kids up for. They set up the parents to pay for the 1%. Link to Club Evaluation
I went to a meeting that the Head of the Club held for parents to chat with him. Side note; whenever the Club or Coach offers a time for communication, even if one sided – go!
All the other parents provided feedback first. Really it was gripes. I was in shock as it was bashing their coaches and he was a ‘friendly’ ear. By this time our 3rd was also playing with this club, so when it got to me and he asked who my child’s coach was- he was surprised to hear me say I love all 3 of our kids Coaches. His look seemed to say – why are you here then? I asked why are you not developing and training fundamentals with our kids? Why are you telling these Coaches they have to teach strategy to kids who cannot follow the strategy as they do not know how to keep the ball? He went on and on with a very Corporate placation answer and by the end said the ball work would come later.
Anyone who has played or observed youth sports knows that it is better in all sports to work on fundamentals at the young ages so that it becomes natural. (Coach Evaluation)