Originally posted by Unregistered
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What you call propaganda offsets this sort of propaganda. "Soccer Academy: A Day in the Life at the IMG Academy soccer program" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oiDU03eOvE For anyone who doesn't know, IMG is a boarding school down in Florida that costs in excess of $70,000 a year to attend. It will take kids as young as 12 for soccer and 8 years old for sports like golf and tennis. It is really a pro sports type academy masquerading as a prep school. It has spawned other such endeavors like the Shattuck-St Mary School up in Minnesota ( http://ssmsoccer.org/page/25/ ) which is essentially a real prep school masquerading as a pro sports academy. It is a relative bargain costing only around $50,000 and like many boarding schools, it will take kids as young as the 6th grade. Calling that article propaganda totally denies that we have extremes like IMG and Shattuck-St Mary in our midst and that the mindset that feeds them students even exists. The fact is the mindset that feeds those two entities DOES exist and it is essentially the same mindset that feeds the upper tiers of club soccer. That mindset is what we are actually discussing.
There have always been parents who have shipped their kids off to boarding schools and in many respects you might say that the traditional thinking behind that decision has now been infused into the top levels of club soccer as evidenced by the numbers of prep school and ISL players on the top level teams of our various local clubs. Though there really shouldn't be any debate as to the benefit of those types of educations nor the value of the experiences had while at one of them, the fundamental issue really comes down to whether or not one actually NEEDS any of it to succeed in soccer if soccer is the actual goal. After all there are plenty of examples of kids who follow far less exclusive routes to find success in soccer so it should be pretty clear that the exclusivity of those environments certainly isn't the major factor in soccer success.
So what does going to a place like IMG or Shattuck-St Mary, and by extension being on a top level soccer team, really get someone if they don't actually possess the potential to be a top level soccer player? The factual answer is it doesn't really get them anywhere in terms of soccer because intuitively we all recognize that eventually talent level determines the level of soccer success, not spending level. Granted there may be some ancillary benefits to going along for the ride. For example it may help some kids get into a college they covet and that might do great things for them in their life but then one really needs to look at how necessary the soccer element was and whether it actually had any measurable impact on their kid's life success. When you get right down to it, unless a player has a high level of soccer potential of the sort that may put them in a position to be able to capitalize on soccer as a career, going to places like IMG are really just a frivolous use of resources that in many ways might actually impede life success. It shouldn't take much imagination to see that if your kid's life is not going to be ruled by their soccer endeavors that there are lots of more direct routes they could follow to get them where they ultimately will end up.
There are those that will always defend their right to send their children to the IMG's and Shattuck-St Mary's of the world. If those people have the resources and the will to do it, of course they should be able to send their kids to those types of environments but their thinking shouldn't be driving youth sports the way it really does now. Denying that mindset exists and is having the impact that it is having is ridiculous. When one surveys today's youth sports environment, way too many people seem to think that spending money to be on some exclusive team is all that it takes to capture the rewards of an athletic career. We seem to have lost all objectivity and don't really have a clear sense of what it actually takes to capitalize on one's ability to play a game like soccer. Ask any club coach about the work rate of the individual players on their teams. Almost all are going to tell you that 99% of the players aren't working hard enough to actually maximize their soccer potential (whatever that potential may be). Doesn't that then set up parallel to the IMG type situation where if the player isn't really going to work to maximize their potential then spending all of the money to be on the exclusive team is similarly frivolous?
The real issue with club soccer right now is we have eliminated all of the harshness of competitive selection so that we can increase soccer participation and push up the popularity of the sport but in doing so we have completely watered down the whole environment and have really negatively impacted our ability to develop soccer talent. If that is what suits everyone that is fine but let's at least be "real" in our assessment of just how "elite" things are and where these environments actually lead because a lot of what is being bandied about is nothing but pure fantasy. It is plain to see that there are a lot of people capitalizing on that fantasy and it would be rather sad if there weren't room for discussion about it all. Labeling the discussion as propaganda or otherwise dismissing it does everyone a disservice.
There have always been parents who have shipped their kids off to boarding schools and in many respects you might say that the traditional thinking behind that decision has now been infused into the top levels of club soccer as evidenced by the numbers of prep school and ISL players on the top level teams of our various local clubs. Though there really shouldn't be any debate as to the benefit of those types of educations nor the value of the experiences had while at one of them, the fundamental issue really comes down to whether or not one actually NEEDS any of it to succeed in soccer if soccer is the actual goal. After all there are plenty of examples of kids who follow far less exclusive routes to find success in soccer so it should be pretty clear that the exclusivity of those environments certainly isn't the major factor in soccer success.
So what does going to a place like IMG or Shattuck-St Mary, and by extension being on a top level soccer team, really get someone if they don't actually possess the potential to be a top level soccer player? The factual answer is it doesn't really get them anywhere in terms of soccer because intuitively we all recognize that eventually talent level determines the level of soccer success, not spending level. Granted there may be some ancillary benefits to going along for the ride. For example it may help some kids get into a college they covet and that might do great things for them in their life but then one really needs to look at how necessary the soccer element was and whether it actually had any measurable impact on their kid's life success. When you get right down to it, unless a player has a high level of soccer potential of the sort that may put them in a position to be able to capitalize on soccer as a career, going to places like IMG are really just a frivolous use of resources that in many ways might actually impede life success. It shouldn't take much imagination to see that if your kid's life is not going to be ruled by their soccer endeavors that there are lots of more direct routes they could follow to get them where they ultimately will end up.
There are those that will always defend their right to send their children to the IMG's and Shattuck-St Mary's of the world. If those people have the resources and the will to do it, of course they should be able to send their kids to those types of environments but their thinking shouldn't be driving youth sports the way it really does now. Denying that mindset exists and is having the impact that it is having is ridiculous. When one surveys today's youth sports environment, way too many people seem to think that spending money to be on some exclusive team is all that it takes to capture the rewards of an athletic career. We seem to have lost all objectivity and don't really have a clear sense of what it actually takes to capitalize on one's ability to play a game like soccer. Ask any club coach about the work rate of the individual players on their teams. Almost all are going to tell you that 99% of the players aren't working hard enough to actually maximize their soccer potential (whatever that potential may be). Doesn't that then set up parallel to the IMG type situation where if the player isn't really going to work to maximize their potential then spending all of the money to be on the exclusive team is similarly frivolous?
The real issue with club soccer right now is we have eliminated all of the harshness of competitive selection so that we can increase soccer participation and push up the popularity of the sport but in doing so we have completely watered down the whole environment and have really negatively impacted our ability to develop soccer talent. If that is what suits everyone that is fine but let's at least be "real" in our assessment of just how "elite" things are and where these environments actually lead because a lot of what is being bandied about is nothing but pure fantasy. It is plain to see that there are a lot of people capitalizing on that fantasy and it would be rather sad if there weren't room for discussion about it all. Labeling the discussion as propaganda or otherwise dismissing it does everyone a disservice.
BTNT, are you pushing promo-relegation for the NBA, and NFL???
You don't think an ISL is essential for your kid going to a good college do you? Then why are you contributing to the mindset that going to an ISL does something special for you? Did you buy that mirror yet?
Disservice? When will you have had your fill of the "discussion"? Rather sad? Really? How sad exactly? Are you in tears?
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