U11,u12,u13 playing time

[Unregistered]

Only some

At this age if the players would learn to pass and move they would be winning games. Have you never thought of this? Every club, coach and parent that says we are developing the basics for later on is just lying. Truth is, the teams that are winning already know these skills.

It is my observation that the "majority" of the teams that are winning U11-13 are the teams with the bigger and faster players as the balance of the team does not have the skills to make the pass or receive the ball. As I said earlier if we spent more time on those skills including movement with and without the ball we would develop more complete players U14+.

Every once in a while we see teams at these ages attempting to play possession style soccer but they tend to get beat by the teams with the faster players on counters or long passes over the top. If the parents of players on the possession teams who lose to the long ball teams with a couple of fast players would realize that in the later years their players will be the ones winning the games and getting the better offers because they are more complete players we could change how the game is coached and played at the younger ages.

Sadly a solid majority of parents don't understand the game or the concept of development so they expect the instant gratification of "wins" over the long term reward of developing a complete player and since they are writing the check they are going to go where ever they and their player can get the "reward" they are looking for.

If the are lucky they will find a quality coach who attracts the best players because of his approach to development which will produce wins. IMHO that is a 50/50 proposition in the Metro area.

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It is my observation that the "majority" of the teams that are winning U11-13 are the teams with the bigger and faster players as the balance of the team does not have the skills to make the pass or receive the ball. As I said earlier if we spent more time on those skills including movement with and without the ball we would develop more complete players U14+.

Every once in a while we see teams at these ages attempting to play possession style soccer but they tend to get beat by the teams with the faster players on counters or long passes over the top. If the parents of players on the possession teams who lose to the long ball teams with a couple of fast players would realize that in the later years their players will be the ones winning the games and getting the better offers because they are more complete players we could change how the game is coached and played at the younger ages.

Sadly a solid majority of parents don't understand the game or the concept of development so they expect the instant gratification of "wins" over the long term reward of developing a complete player and since they are writing the check they are going to go where ever they and their player can get the "reward" they are looking for.

If the are lucky they will find a quality coach who attracts the best players because of his approach to development which will produce wins. IMHO that is a 50/50 proposition in the Metro area.

Check out the GU11 team at Pacific FC. Coaches that teach a possession game, passing, receiving, ball control, movement, etc...Good athletes but definitely not the biggest or fastest team. They have found good success and a great balance of winning and development. Despite all the nasty stuff that gets said on this forum - they have a great philosophy for that age group and I wish my daughter was that age so she could play with them.

[Unregistered]

Check out the GU11 team at Pacific FC. Coaches that teach a possession game, passing, receiving, ball control, movement, etc...Good athletes but definitely not the biggest or fastest team. They have found good success and a great balance of winning and development. Despite all the nasty stuff that gets said on this forum - they have a great philosophy for that age group and I wish my daughter was that age so she could play with them.

Yeah, you're not a parent of a player on that team. Sure.

[Unregistered]

Yeah, you're not a parent of a player on that team. Sure.

What does that matter? Just giving an opinion based off of fact. Take it or leave it, but stop making your own irrelevant comment. Some people are actually on here to learn or be informed on local soccer.

[Unregistered]

Check out the GU11 team at Pacific FC. Coaches that teach a possession game, passing, receiving, ball control, movement, etc...Good athletes but definitely not the biggest or fastest team. They have found good success and a great balance of winning and development. Despite all the nasty stuff that gets said on this forum - they have a great philosophy for that age group and I wish my daughter was that age so she could play with them.

They are good team, too bad the coach can't get their parents in line!

[Unregistered]

Really how closely do you read a sentence? What the post you were replying to said is that since we don't train 4 times a week the games are the SUBSTITUE for the extra session. Additionally, I the original poster who pointed out the flawed American system, said that we put too much emphasis on games and not enough on development & training.

We agree on the goal of more training and less emphasis on games and winning at the early ages..

What I am saying is that practicing on your own should be the SUBSTITUTE for the extra session and not playing time in the games. Playing time in a game should be earned.

[Unregistered]

Actual coaches limit playing time for a variety of reasons. Foremost among them are missing practices, bad attitude, not paying attention, not working hard in practice, etc. Kids that try hard with good attitudes get playing time. Not every coach is as stupid as many here make them out to be.

I guess our coach is. There are 4 or 5 stars who run the show & get away with all the above and still play all game because, frankly, they are the best players on the team by far & their Premier team doesn't have a shot to win if they don't get majority playing time. The players know it, the parents know it & the coach pretends he's playing hardball but there are never any consequences.because he wants to win & keep his stars & their parents happy. I know because I have one of the "stars". Not saying it's right. Just the way it is.

[Unregistered]

Check out the GU11 team at Pacific FC. Coaches that teach a possession game, passing, receiving, ball control, movement, etc...Good athletes but definitely not the biggest or fastest team. They have found good success and a great balance of winning and development. Despite all the nasty stuff that gets said on this forum - they have a great philosophy for that age group and I wish my daughter was that age so she could play with them.

Yeah, we will pull up stakes here in western Oregon, make the drive up to vantucky for my GU11 because of the great coaching. Not.

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update

still on the bench.

[Unregistered]

Sometimes the problem is most teams have 12-13 premier players and the rest do not make the cut. But the team still wants 16-17 kids for expenses, in case someone gets hurt. Those 4-5 kids are sitting. The coaches know they are not good enough to begin with. Hardly any playing time, and at the end of the year their love for soccer is dead. That is an injustice to the kids.

If you pick a kid at U11-U13, and they come to practices and work hard, then I think they need to play them. They picked them for the team.

If a kid is not good enough to play, then DO NOT pick them for the team.

[Unregistered]

Play down or leave Club

still on the bench.

If you have had a discussion with the coach asking what she can do to earn more playing tome and she has done that to the best of her ability you should ask to move down because NOT playing is the WORST thing at the early ages.

If that is not an option switch clubs even if that mean spending extra money because again WHAT are you paying for if she is not getting time during games.

I know that this advice is contradictory to my posts that said practice is more important than games but it's been my experience that these type of coaches do not run very valuable practices because they do not understand that their job at this age is to develop EVERYONE. Therefore her onlu change to develop a game IQ is to play.

[Unregistered]

If you have had a discussion with the coach asking what she can do to earn more playing tome and she has done that to the best of her ability you should ask to move down because NOT playing is the WORST thing at the early ages.

If that is not an option switch clubs even if that mean spending extra money because again WHAT are you paying for if she is not getting time during games.

I know that this advice is contradictory to my posts that said practice is more important than games but it's been my experience that these type of coaches do not run very valuable practices because they do not understand that their job at this age is to develop EVERYONE. Therefore her onlu change to develop a game IQ is to play.

Moving down to the "B" team can be the end of the line at many clubs that don't move players up/down on a regular basis. You get labelled as a "B" team player and get passed over for the new talent that shows up at tryouts each spring, deservedly or not. Better to find a club that actually moves kids up/down every week so you don't get stuck either sitting on the "A" team bench or playing "B" forever.

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So if you (when I say you I mean your kid) are on one of the top teams in the state, playing some but not quite half a game combine total time, but are getting really good practice, and against very quality players, do you stay, or ask to move to your B that is not going to be good practice/ good competition at practice but you would get way more playing time. What do you do?

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My kids really benefitted from asking to step down to the lower team. Both played down on the B team for a year (& one for two years). They both thrived. They got to play all game, be captain, hone their skills on lesser players and renew their love of the game. When they tried out again the coaches hadnt seen them in awhile and were impressed. When back on the A team, they played better & much more & were much happier. Self-confidence & love of the game will get the player much further in soccer than which team they are on. Especially if the parents help encourage this bump in the road as actually a great chance to get better than all the other bench players on the A team! We had more parents tell us they wish they'd done the same thing sooner. Instead, many of theirs were eventually demoted to the B by not making the A team (vs ours asking to move down) and totally lost their self-confidence & drive.

[Unregistered]

Play-ups

What if they get good playing time for some games - depending upon the opponent? And not for others?