Where to go for information

[Unregistered]

Looks like it's gonna be a very long day.

Blame cabin fever. Folks need to get outside more and clear their heads

[Unregistered]

7:05 am, first post of the morning on TS, and we get the request and rapidly the link right after to a thread started by a guy named beentheredonethat that begins with SEVEN consecutive posts from beentheredonethat.

Apparently subtlety is not in play today.

[Unregistered]

Hate is a powerful thing. Unfortunately it all too often is a substitute for intelligence.

[Unregistered]

Here is a primer about club soccer.

Understanding the New Soccer Landscape http://talking-soccer.com/TS4/showthread.php?t=104051

As was pointed out earlier threads like it tend to get awfully snarky but it you read through it you'll get a pretty good idea of what club soccer is all about these days.

One thing can be said about this link is it actually does lay out the whole club scene pretty well. The information is there as well as all of the hate spewed from the various camps.

[Unregistered]

One thing can be said about this link is it actually does lay out the whole club scene pretty well. The information is there as well as all of the hate spewed from the various camps.

Right, now let's move right along to The Environment is Broken -- Let's Fix It.

BTW, love the title of this new thread. Direct and to the point. And the lead-in fiction was not overdone. Just enough for a lead-in to today's treats.

[Unregistered]

Thanks to those who are offering advice. As for finding this site, it comes up quick when you start googling or trying to figure out the club soccer scene. My family has been involved for 6 months now... Long enough to hear many different perspectives and acronyms thrown around at my daughter's games. And long enough to get recruited by people and find it crazy that idle chocolate kids are recruited. I readily admit I am naive and trying to figure this out. I have no agenda. But when you type in certain clubs and things like "best youth soccer club" and your region of MA, talking soccer comes up. I have a full- time career and a few kids and don't live and breathe my daughter's hobby. But her hobby that she began in preschool has become to her more serious than that. I am trying to guide her through something I don't fully understand and was just looking for opinions or, even better, unbiased information.

As for age, it's u11.

Just my two cents. I've been around the club soccer scene for about 8 years now and seen a lot of different clubs and while we have settled on one club for my kids (boys and girls @ different ages) we have tried out a few. We have happened to land at one of the "smaller" clubs. A club that only has one team at each age bracket (not multiple like many of the larger clubs) and a club where we feel the training is exceptional. For us this works very well. For others, they find a lot of value in the larger clubs. The only issue that we had with the larger clubs (especially for boys) was that they tend to only focus on the bigger kids and move them to the top teams (not always the more talented kids). At the younger ages, the bigger kids can win a lot of games for you and the bigger clubs have the reputation of only caring about the win. Again, just our experience. With that said, I felt like one of the larger clubs that we were with (NEFC) had some really great programs for the younger kids and did a really great job. That was a number of years ago now so I can't speak for what they are doing today. Not personal experience, but I've also heard that MPS does well with the younger kids. It can be a bit of a crap shoot with the larger clubs and your personal experience can be determined by the team you get on, the coach you get and the training that particular team has. Problem with the smaller clubs is that you get what you get and there aren't a lot of other options expect to change clubs if you aren't happy. So much depends on the coach and the training. I know our club does and I suspect that other clubs do as well, but reach out to some clubs and see if you can join a practice. This will give you the opportunity to see the training and the coach in action. You will get all kinds of responses about which league is better. Everyone has their own personal bias about the quality of teams in the leagues and the quality of the play. The truth is that most leagues have 4 of 5 teams that are really good and 4 to 5 that are so so in each bracket. This is one thing that is very consistent. Personally, I don't think that it really matters. What does matter is if the club (especially at the older ages) are doing some of the big tournaments (and there is all kinds of opinions on that as well), but you want a club that is going to some of the bigger showcase tournaments (Disney is an awesome one, but the team has to be excepted and it gets extremely expensive for the family) and also a club that is involve in leagues outside of MA (like Region 1 - Again, lots of opinions on this as well). So, just my two cents and you will see that a number of people will disagree with me on some of this, but oh well, just trying to help if I can. Last piece of advice, just don't allow your kid to get lost in one of the clubs which is very easy with the big clubs. Good luck

[Unregistered]

Can we get an answer on the idle chocolate kids reference?

[Unregistered]

Use your head. He was trying to type 'middle school',screwed it up, and his smartphone changed it to 'idle chocolate'.

[Unregistered]

Can we get an answer on the idle chocolate kids reference?

That kind of language is used by the likes of Rep. Scalise and his fellow race reactionaries. Ask BTDT for "information": those are his people.

[Unregistered]

Since I seem to get blamed for just about every post on this site these days, here's my two cents about the club soccer scene and how to get information about it. I hope you find it helpful.

Club soccer is a lot like taking a taxi ride. The single biggest mistake you can make is getting into a taxi without a clear idea of where you want to go. You'll end up on a very expensive site seeing tour otherwise. The next biggest mistake is trusting the taxi driver to navigate to your location on the route they choose. What you end up doing is taking the long way around because the longer you stay in the cab the more expensive the ride gets and the more money the cabbie makes.

If you are new to all of this you will find no shortage of opinions about what [b]YOUR[b] tip should be. Half of the people you talk to will tell you that you are nuts for taking the trip in the first place (truthfully it can more be like a roller coaster ride at times) while the other half will try to convince you that you either need to take a limo or take a bicycle to get to your location. My advice is that even though there are a lot of members of the fellowship of the miserable on this site you actually want to listen to all of them and simply pick out the stuff that makes sense to you. Just go into it knowing that there is no one size fits all answer and what you are really going to find is about a million shades of grey.

The key thing that I have learned after almost 13 years of club soccer is that you want to know where you want to go, what you are willing to pay to get there and then figure out the most direct route realizing that the taxi driver has a vested interest in keeping you in the cab.

--BTDT

[Unregistered]

Since I seem to get blamed for just about every post on this site these days, here's my two cents about the club soccer scene and how to get information about it. I hope you find it helpful.

Club soccer is a lot like taking a taxi ride. The single biggest mistake you can make is getting into a taxi without a clear idea of where you want to go. You'll end up on a very expensive site seeing tour otherwise. The next biggest mistake is trusting the taxi driver to navigate to your location on the route they choose. What you end up doing is taking the long way around because the longer you stay in the cab the more expensive the ride gets and the more money the cabbie makes.

If you are new to all of this you will find no shortage of opinions about what [b]YOUR[b] tip should be. Half of the people you talk to will tell you that you are nuts for taking the trip in the first place (truthfully it can more be like a roller coaster ride at times) while the other half will try to convince you that you either need to take a limo or take a bicycle to get to your location. My advice is that even though there are a lot of members of the fellowship of the miserable on this site you actually want to listen to all of them and simply pick out the stuff that makes sense to you. Just go into it knowing that there is no one size fits all answer and what you are really going to find is about a million shades of grey.

The key thing that I have learned after almost 13 years of club soccer is that you want to know where you want to go, what you are willing to pay to get there and then figure out the most direct route realizing that the taxi driver has a vested interest in keeping you in the cab.

--BTDT

One of the most patronizing posts I've seen in a long, long time.

How about your two cents on wiping one's butt replete with another analogy to aid those with difficulty comprehending?

[Unregistered]

Since I seem to get blamed for just about every post on this site these days, here's my two cents about the club soccer scene and how to get information about it. I hope you find it helpful.

Club soccer is a lot like taking a taxi ride. The single biggest mistake you can make is getting into a taxi without a clear idea of where you want to go. You'll end up on a very expensive site seeing tour otherwise. The next biggest mistake is trusting the taxi driver to navigate to your location on the route they choose. What you end up doing is taking the long way around because the longer you stay in the cab the more expensive the ride gets and the more money the cabbie makes.

If you are new to all of this you will find no shortage of opinions about what [b]YOUR[b] tip should be. Half of the people you talk to will tell you that you are nuts for taking the trip in the first place (truthfully it can more be like a roller coaster ride at times) while the other half will try to convince you that you either need to take a limo or take a bicycle to get to your location. My advice is that even though there are a lot of members of the fellowship of the miserable on this site you actually want to listen to all of them and simply pick out the stuff that makes sense to you. Just go into it knowing that there is no one size fits all answer and what you are really going to find is about a million shades of grey.

The key thing that I have learned after almost 13 years of club soccer is that you want to know where you want to go, what you are willing to pay to get there and then figure out the most direct route realizing that the taxi driver has a vested interest in keeping you in the cab.

--BTDT

Don't be surprised if there is a major disconnect between where you want to go and what it costs to get there. Plenty of us have to settle for a gypsy cab.

[Unregistered]

Don't be surprised if there is a major disconnect between where you want to go and what it costs to get there. Plenty of us have to settle for a gypsy cab.

I think once you have some experience you can spot things pretty easily and you don't have to settle at all. The big thing is knowing where you are want to go. What it takes to get there is pretty variable and is usually more a function of personal preference than anything else.

--BTDT

[Unregistered]

I think once you have some experience you can spot things pretty easily and you don't have to settle at all. The big thing is knowing where you are want to go. What it takes to get there is pretty variable and is usually more a function of personal preference than anything else.

--BTDT

Obviously not for some, but cost is a huge factor for many families. It is not realistic to pretend otherwise.

[Unregistered]

Obviously not for some, but cost is a huge factor for many families. It is not realistic to pretend otherwise.

I have felt your pain and have said "no" to many opportunities because of it. There are a few here however who are fortunate that they have never had to say "no" to their children. Unfortunately they their hedonistic message seem to dominate this site these days.

--BTDT