ODP is a great opportunity to go from one club/team, and experience another on the side without any stereotype of you being good/bad or position or coach bias on favorites or whatever. A young kid can break free and be a new person that's exciting.
We've all noticed that when the time in ODP practice comes for scrimmage, the coaches ask who's playing midfield, every kid raises their hand. Yes a few strikers, but Defense is like jury duty. I have three kids on offense and the competition for that spot is so intense we had to teach them to speak up. If they don't, they are stuck on D and nobody subs them out. FYI we also coached them to not say "center mid" as that's the spot that gets subbed out by the bench kid every 90 seconds. Perhaps as a parent I'm part of the problem.
But that's just scrimmage, right? If you look at the region 1 pool ODP selection lists, for all years going back 5 years. One defender chosen. One of a few dozen. Odd. Then you look at 2018's region 1 pool list for CT (which was a great year for CT) and almost two dozen kids, all offense. Zero defense. The kids chosen for regional pools are usually the flashy or shooting offensive types who admittedly look great in a tryout futsal situation. So I just presumed some other state had some strong fast defenders that make the pool, or at least politics that supply some defenders and the regional camp would be good. Nope. So the region 1 camp was more of the same. It didn’t stop there.
We were lucky enough to get chosen in a prior year to the region 1 camp and subsequent regional team and fly to another country. Once we were 2000 miles from home and about to take the field, the coach asked who is playing midfield and the entire team raises their hand. It was like being in scrimmage again. Odd since the team was hand picked by that coach. The coach became frustrated, and randomly assigns kids to Defense (and oddly striker). $2k of travel to play defense and get smoked in 3 games. Two of the 4 goals we scored were self goals. Great.
Here's the problem, those who actually are good at D stop coming and quit, or continue to pretend to be midfield and haven't been sent backfield yet. You can't have a good team or even a pass upfield without good defense, so I selfishly asked them to come back to ODP. Gosh I wish I didn't. They cited zero coaching given to D, the only D moves rewarded are abandoning your position and running or kicking it up but then nobody covers you, midfielders who don't come back to help out else be associated with defense, and goalies who aren't allowed to punt so they roll the ball out to them into the pressure of an opposing team with 5 forwards and 4 mids. Then the coaches yell at Defense for the inevitable outcomes of the constant 5 offenders on the only 2-3 defenders. Their other choice is a club who does the exact opposite, and builds from the back and thus tells the Defenders to quit ODP. So they leave with zero chance of coming back. Then with the remaining team, the situation becomes worse.
I learned a lot about what happens within the defensive lines. I told that bad news to the players on the state teams. They said they won't win two games, and doing well versus other states was a big promise made to them. Then they worry that they themselves might get send back to D. The (parents of) goalies we knew took it the hardest as the punching bag shifts back to them, but they joked the goalies will get a lot more action and attention.
So odd. No doubt ODP puts a stigma on defense from the state right on up to regional teams over the years. Either ODP has it right, or the club does. If ODP has it wrong, why is that? If ODP is correct, where does this go? If ODP is development focussed without wins/losses, then I don't see their vision of taking a well rounded midfielder and sending them back to D if there's a harsh stigma and no reward to being in that position.
We've all noticed that when the time in ODP practice comes for scrimmage, the coaches ask who's playing midfield, every kid raises their hand. Yes a few strikers, but Defense is like jury duty. I have three kids on offense and the competition for that spot is so intense we had to teach them to speak up. If they don't, they are stuck on D and nobody subs them out. FYI we also coached them to not say "center mid" as that's the spot that gets subbed out by the bench kid every 90 seconds. Perhaps as a parent I'm part of the problem.
But that's just scrimmage, right? If you look at the region 1 pool ODP selection lists, for all years going back 5 years. One defender chosen. One of a few dozen. Odd. Then you look at 2018's region 1 pool list for CT (which was a great year for CT) and almost two dozen kids, all offense. Zero defense. The kids chosen for regional pools are usually the flashy or shooting offensive types who admittedly look great in a tryout futsal situation. So I just presumed some other state had some strong fast defenders that make the pool, or at least politics that supply some defenders and the regional camp would be good. Nope. So the region 1 camp was more of the same. It didn’t stop there.
We were lucky enough to get chosen in a prior year to the region 1 camp and subsequent regional team and fly to another country. Once we were 2000 miles from home and about to take the field, the coach asked who is playing midfield and the entire team raises their hand. It was like being in scrimmage again. Odd since the team was hand picked by that coach. The coach became frustrated, and randomly assigns kids to Defense (and oddly striker). $2k of travel to play defense and get smoked in 3 games. Two of the 4 goals we scored were self goals. Great.
Here's the problem, those who actually are good at D stop coming and quit, or continue to pretend to be midfield and haven't been sent backfield yet. You can't have a good team or even a pass upfield without good defense, so I selfishly asked them to come back to ODP. Gosh I wish I didn't. They cited zero coaching given to D, the only D moves rewarded are abandoning your position and running or kicking it up but then nobody covers you, midfielders who don't come back to help out else be associated with defense, and goalies who aren't allowed to punt so they roll the ball out to them into the pressure of an opposing team with 5 forwards and 4 mids. Then the coaches yell at Defense for the inevitable outcomes of the constant 5 offenders on the only 2-3 defenders. Their other choice is a club who does the exact opposite, and builds from the back and thus tells the Defenders to quit ODP. So they leave with zero chance of coming back. Then with the remaining team, the situation becomes worse.
I learned a lot about what happens within the defensive lines. I told that bad news to the players on the state teams. They said they won't win two games, and doing well versus other states was a big promise made to them. Then they worry that they themselves might get send back to D. The (parents of) goalies we knew took it the hardest as the punching bag shifts back to them, but they joked the goalies will get a lot more action and attention.
So odd. No doubt ODP puts a stigma on defense from the state right on up to regional teams over the years. Either ODP has it right, or the club does. If ODP has it wrong, why is that? If ODP is correct, where does this go? If ODP is development focussed without wins/losses, then I don't see their vision of taking a well rounded midfielder and sending them back to D if there's a harsh stigma and no reward to being in that position.
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