Playing Both Academy and Town Team

[Guest]

Anyone out there do this when their child was about U10/U11? Opportunity exists to get more competitive training while not having to give up playing with friends. Is this a good idea or does it lead to burnout? Doesn't seem sustainable long term.

[Guest]

Anyone out there do this when their child was about U10/U11? Opportunity exists to get more competitive training while not having to give up playing with friends. Is this a good idea or does it lead to burnout? Doesn't seem sustainable long term.

my kids play both with the town travel being mostly for fun with their friends - even at older ages. It helps avoid the soccer burn out because it reminds them that soccer is just a game

[Guest]

There are no real "academies" at u/10 u/11 unless you are in Europe.

[Guest]

If you mean "club" plus town yes some kids do it, but really just at those young ages and for a year or so.

1) It gets to be too much/parent and kid burnout is real
2) there will always be conflicts so what gives? Usually it's travel - is that fair to the coach and other kids on the team?
3) travel drops significantly in middle school so your kid gets less and less out of it other than some more touches and staying with friends (who they will play with in HS). Some teams are so depleted they barely have one team left by U14
4) as kids get older the schedules make it impossible

If you think your kid needs more training, something more intense then seek that out. They may hate it or it's not a good fit. Travel will always take you back. Another option is stay with town and do some of the training programs some clubs run to see how it goes.

[Guest]

My D did it for a year when she moved to club. It kind of helped the transition of playing with her friends to playing on a new team, but it wasn't worth it. Told the coach not to play her too much to avoid issues with other parents/kids since she missed a lot of practice. Just wasn't worth the hassle. If she plays a lot, "full time" kids and parents will be pissed and rightfully so. If she doesn't play a lot then whats the point? So you can't win. Halfway through we realized one team was more then enough so she didn't play spring with the town team.

[Guest]

My D did it for a year when she moved to club. It kind of helped the transition of playing with her friends to playing on a new team, but it wasn't worth it. Told the coach not to play her too much to avoid issues with other parents/kids since she missed a lot of practice. Just wasn't worth the hassle. If she plays a lot, "full time" kids and parents will be pissed and rightfully so. If she doesn't play a lot then whats the point? So you can't win. Halfway through we realized one team was more than enough so she didn't play spring with the town team.

I try to send my kids to one travel practice a week, but the non-club kids/parents/trainers know they aren’t at the others because they are training with their club (not eating Doritos playing Xbox) and it’s a non issue. Most of the “other” parents appreciate the club players because they know how to move the ball where the only-town-travel players dribble too much