If you ran a club...

[Guest]

or dont actually accept them in the first place? A volume based pay to play model is exactly what most parents want, which is why we have one and yet you want honesty? Funny. Priority one is to fill the roster with the best group of players who are willing to pay AT THE TIME. Once that is achieved, it becomes a job of recruiting, adding and cutting to improve WHILE KEEPING THE ROSTER FULL. If you really want a quality based pyramid, then accept your kid that you love dearly is unlikely to ever be considered among the top players. Most parents want a system in which they can aspire to buy credibility because it feeds in to so many other parts of what they consider important. College, status, etc. They lose all control when it becomes about their child's talent and drive only.

Evaluating a player is not always easy, especially mass tryouts. Even the best won't always get it right. During the year a player may just not make the same progress as the rest, and some may have an attitude/lack enthusiasm. The coach may need some time to figure out what to do with a player.

Coaches and families agree to a year long deal. Both sides should try to stick it out, unless there's something really wrong. How many families would sign their kid up if they could be gone by December? Clubs wouldn't want it either because they would have to greatly lower the price or refund money. Worrying about midyear isn't useful to clubs either. Families are always able to leave if they really want, and some will. However they usually won't get their money back. I have seen two instanes of clubs giving some $ back when it was obviously clear the players were on the wrong teams (pure coincidence that I knew both families well). They're not going to give $ back if you want to make a lateral or upward move.

[Guest]

Why the coaches? Far too many coaches are mentally abusive to young girls. Gotta love a blowhard 30-40 yr old man abusing kids

Maybe that is why the coaches need it. I think many (most) are ego maniacs and their failures as players reflect in how they coach the kids. Add in financial pressures, home life issues, parents complaining, club boards and DoCs BS, traveling around, etc and there are definitely some factors that stress them out. Perhaps being encouraged to deal with their problems would make them less A-holes. Or maybe not, who knows.

[Guest]

Evaluating a player is not always easy, especially mass tryouts. Even the best won't always get it right. During the year a player may just not make the same progress as the rest, and some may have an attitude/lack enthusiasm. The coach may need some time to figure out what to do with a player.

Coaches and families agree to a year long deal. Both sides should try to stick it out, unless there's something really wrong. How many families would sign their kid up if they could be gone by December? Clubs wouldn't want it either because they would have to greatly lower the price or refund money. Worrying about midyear isn't useful to clubs either. Families are always able to leave if they really want, and some will. However they usually won't get their money back. I have seen two instanes of clubs giving some $ back when it was obviously clear the players were on the wrong teams (pure coincidence that I knew both families well). They're not going to give $ back if you want to make a lateral or upward move.

MASS TRYOUTS. Why do clubs have them? To recruit volume and get a window on what supply demand looks like. Its a volume based game, even if it means taking risks on overall quality. That is how the system works because its what parents actually want. They like the power that paying to play gives them to control the narrative.

[Guest]

Why the coaches? Far too many coaches are mentally abusive to young girls. Gotta love a blowhard 30-40 yr old man abusing kids

Demanding your kids never have to experience discomfort is a form of emotional malnutrition.

[Guest]

Demanding your kids never have to experience discomfort is a form of emotional malnutrition.

A coaches excuse to abuse a 10 yr old girl. Imagine being a 30 something yr old man who gets kicks over abusing little girls. Here's to hoping you encounter the wrong parent one day

[Guest]

Demanding your kids never have to experience discomfort is a form of emotional malnutrition.

Parenting at its finest. Do everything you can to make sure your kids can live in a bubble for as long as possible. Starts early with this demographic can persist at NT level (see Gio Reyna). Soccer in the RoW is a game of the people. Poor folks play. The game teaches them. It works. We win WCs on the girls side because the economics of the game are very different.

[Guest]

I would ban all parents from practice and the sidelines of games.

[Guest]

I'd hire someone to act as a COO and leave all the operations to seasons business administrators (with a staff) and leave the coaches to coach.

[Guest]

All Inclusive Player fees - so that the club can use the economy of scale to better price services beyond uniforms (travel, hotel, tournament fees etc.) and this would allow parents to budget better.

[Guest]

detailed player evaluation at least once a year, if not twice.

[Guest]

Like the following:
-cheaper kits
- ban parents at practices above u10
- player evals mid year and end of spring
- better coach professional development
- rule that if parents yell at players, coaches, ref or each other their child is benched, strike 1. Strike 2, parent booted.
- add agility and speed training nights

[Guest]

All Inclusive Player fees - so that the club can use the economy of scale to better price services beyond uniforms (travel, hotel, tournament fees etc.) and this would allow parents to budget better.

Totally agree it should be one price. No one wants to get hit multiple times for more $. If a coach wants to add an extra event not in the original price they should tell parents how much it costs and take a vote. Don't have enough? Oh well.

Unfortunately tournament fees are per team and set by event organizers. Unless you start bunking coaches together you can't save that much on coach travel.

[Guest]

Totally agree it should be one price. No one wants to get hit multiple times for more $. If a coach wants to add an extra event not in the original price they should tell parents how much it costs and take a vote. Don't have enough? Oh well.

Unfortunately tournament fees are per team and set by event organizers. Unless you start bunking coaches together you can't save that much on coach travel.

The issue with some coaches are they have higher aspirations than their current team. In turn they use the current team to help pack their resume, in hopes of eventually moving on from the team. So they add 1-2 tournaments not on the initial fee that require air fare. It's fun to hear the parents on the team rationalize this to themselves