Originally posted by Unregistered
View Post
The article offers only generalities. I am yet to hear Mr Gans say anything specific. "Joy and Passion" is the central theme, which you dismiss and conclude is wrong and replace it with 'hard work and sacrifice'. Well, you are wrong to replace 'Joy and Passion' at all. While I don't know what you do as a living and certainly hope you are successful at it, but to be very very successful at anything you have to have the 'Joy and Passion' to be wiling to 'work hard and sacrifice'. Not only aren't the two mutually exclusive, but they go hand in hand. Mr Gans never mentions the latter and you dismiss the former.
One does wonder if Mr Gans has generalized US soccer based on his own kids who either lost the passion, weren't able to work hard, or simply are not great soccer players. Instead of the latter two, he uses the 'lost passion' as an excuse to explain why they aren't at Wake Forest, or playing professional ball. I think it is simpler than that. They might not be great soccer players and, like many, had parents that saw the 'American Soccer Dream' leaving the port. As for 'joy and passion' I wonder if parents are the ones who suck it out of the game by un-met expectations from kids who might have otherwise enjoyed a fun game at whatever level they are at or able to get to.
As for the clubs, there are certainly ways to improve that realm as well, none of which are mentioned in the article or any other article that I have read. It has become a massive business. Although my kids have enjoyed GPS quite a bit during the years they were there, one has to look at it as a massive industry and one that hasn't really produced todays or tomorrow professional or national team players. On the other hand, maybe they understand it better than others. Perhaps they do provide the opportunity for kids to excel at multiple different levels......as long as their parents accept it i.e. no 'little mias or messi'. The one good thing I see from regulation is to improve the ability and maturity of coaches so that each and every player can find some success. However, the larger clubs (especially Bolts, NEFC, Stars, ? GPS) seriously emphasize the top level teams while the others seem to exist to help fund the top talent.
Personally, I see US soccer as a failed entity with a misplaced goal. Actually what is the goal? If the goal is to produce a great national team then the path is not less club soccer and more high school ball. The path might be more. All across the world the prominent clubs have residencies. Training occurs twice a day (5-7 days per week) including skills, small games, strategy sessions, and fitness. These clubs have selected out the top talent and they make no apologies for weeding out from the start, during, and toward the end of the process. An education is provided at the same time. It is 'hard work and sacrifice', but without the 'joy and passion'.....and, dare i say, ability....your child will be weeded out. As across the country, the sacrifice is not money, but instead, it is the separation of child from primary family and child-hood friends to go school/camp year after year to try to achieve something that they may or may not get. In the big picture, top players come out, while many others have to accept some 'lesser' sport reality. The latter, with the right support i.e. parents...can be turned into another path of success in something else.
I can't see American families willing to give up their kids at the age of 10, 11, or 12 to attend a soccer residency. It is the joy of every parent, and the benefit of every kid to maintain the nuclear family and be together every day to be supportive in success and failure. Especially in the current 'pansy' like environment that is perpetuated more by the left, 'each and every kid wins a trophy' and 'no one can experience failure and/or feel bad about it'. We, as a society have this fear that our children will grow up as mass-murderers if they experience any failure. What we have is a generation that now might not be able to cope with failure. Well, this is the failure of parents. If you want to build the best then the family has to be willing to sacrifice and be supportive at the same time. The child needs to have 'joy and passion' to work hard even if not a huge success in the end, which might only reflect abilty. The success is, instead, the process of working hard and sacrificing for something you love. That is the ability that will allow that child to be successful in another path. But, it is the parents that have to be supportive.
Parents, and, perhaps US soccer.....and Mr Gans, have not accepted this reality or are unable to be supportive and adjust and adapt to success and non-success of their kids. It is this that spoils the 'joy and passion'.
One does wonder if Mr Gans has generalized US soccer based on his own kids who either lost the passion, weren't able to work hard, or simply are not great soccer players. Instead of the latter two, he uses the 'lost passion' as an excuse to explain why they aren't at Wake Forest, or playing professional ball. I think it is simpler than that. They might not be great soccer players and, like many, had parents that saw the 'American Soccer Dream' leaving the port. As for 'joy and passion' I wonder if parents are the ones who suck it out of the game by un-met expectations from kids who might have otherwise enjoyed a fun game at whatever level they are at or able to get to.
As for the clubs, there are certainly ways to improve that realm as well, none of which are mentioned in the article or any other article that I have read. It has become a massive business. Although my kids have enjoyed GPS quite a bit during the years they were there, one has to look at it as a massive industry and one that hasn't really produced todays or tomorrow professional or national team players. On the other hand, maybe they understand it better than others. Perhaps they do provide the opportunity for kids to excel at multiple different levels......as long as their parents accept it i.e. no 'little mias or messi'. The one good thing I see from regulation is to improve the ability and maturity of coaches so that each and every player can find some success. However, the larger clubs (especially Bolts, NEFC, Stars, ? GPS) seriously emphasize the top level teams while the others seem to exist to help fund the top talent.
Personally, I see US soccer as a failed entity with a misplaced goal. Actually what is the goal? If the goal is to produce a great national team then the path is not less club soccer and more high school ball. The path might be more. All across the world the prominent clubs have residencies. Training occurs twice a day (5-7 days per week) including skills, small games, strategy sessions, and fitness. These clubs have selected out the top talent and they make no apologies for weeding out from the start, during, and toward the end of the process. An education is provided at the same time. It is 'hard work and sacrifice', but without the 'joy and passion'.....and, dare i say, ability....your child will be weeded out. As across the country, the sacrifice is not money, but instead, it is the separation of child from primary family and child-hood friends to go school/camp year after year to try to achieve something that they may or may not get. In the big picture, top players come out, while many others have to accept some 'lesser' sport reality. The latter, with the right support i.e. parents...can be turned into another path of success in something else.
I can't see American families willing to give up their kids at the age of 10, 11, or 12 to attend a soccer residency. It is the joy of every parent, and the benefit of every kid to maintain the nuclear family and be together every day to be supportive in success and failure. Especially in the current 'pansy' like environment that is perpetuated more by the left, 'each and every kid wins a trophy' and 'no one can experience failure and/or feel bad about it'. We, as a society have this fear that our children will grow up as mass-murderers if they experience any failure. What we have is a generation that now might not be able to cope with failure. Well, this is the failure of parents. If you want to build the best then the family has to be willing to sacrifice and be supportive at the same time. The child needs to have 'joy and passion' to work hard even if not a huge success in the end, which might only reflect abilty. The success is, instead, the process of working hard and sacrificing for something you love. That is the ability that will allow that child to be successful in another path. But, it is the parents that have to be supportive.
Parents, and, perhaps US soccer.....and Mr Gans, have not accepted this reality or are unable to be supportive and adjust and adapt to success and non-success of their kids. It is this that spoils the 'joy and passion'.
I agree that this is what Soccer America should be writing. Mr Gans, or at least the Mr Gans that is portrayed by his Soccer America interview sounds like a lost parent whose kids are going pro or D1.
Words like Joy and Passion are tossed out there but have to be joined with hard work and sacrifice. We don't need less soccer and high school soccer is so variable that I can understand why kids might not want to participate.
What is needed is more training and more quality training as stated above.
Comment