Choosing clubs: pick the coach or the team?

[Unregistered]

Question for all the parents out there. I am considering moving my U9 son to a different development academy/club in town, however, based on my experience with moving my daughter around to different clubs, I discovered that all clubs are dysfunctional in one way or another - there are always tradeoffs. Everyone will claim that they "develop" players, so with my daughter, I did the homework before tryouts. I attended at least three training sessions incognito for the prospective club(s) and I asked the parents sitting around me during these training sessions to describe the coach. I would also ask the coach questions about their philosophy, roster size, playing time, focus areas, etc. I now have developed the following criteria to determine whether we will move from one club to another. My final take is this: follow the best coach for your kid, not the club or the team. Here's my criteria:

1. Does the coach like and support your kid? If the chemistry is good between your kid and the coach, then most likely, we will stay with the coach.
2. Is my kid happy? Does my kid have a passion for soccer as a result of the coaching and his/her interactions with teammates?
3. Development. What does the coach do as training exercises during the practices? Lots of ball mastery work, lots of possession soccer, what? Does he/she have a balanced program in which the players work on dribbling, shooting, passing, field awareness, combination plays, etc. or is everything tactical?
4. Does the coach yell a lot from the sidelines, screaming corrections at the player during the game and deflating the player (embarrassing the player too) instead of pulling the player out and quietly discussing the correction with the kid?
5. Are the parents completely nuts? I've observed that most of the crazy parents were never soccer players or understand the game.

Question to everyone out there. When choosing clubs, do you pick the coach or the winning team?

[Unregistered]

We always base our decisions on Best uniforms.....

[Unregistered]

Question for all the parents out there. I am considering moving my U9 son to a different development academy/club in town, however, based on my experience with moving my daughter around to different clubs, I discovered that all clubs are dysfunctional in one way or another - there are always tradeoffs. Everyone will claim that they "develop" players, so with my daughter, I did the homework before tryouts. I attended at least three training sessions incognito for the prospective club(s) and I asked the parents sitting around me during these training sessions to describe the coach. I would also ask the coach questions about their philosophy, roster size, playing time, focus areas, etc. I now have developed the following criteria to determine whether we will move from one club to another. My final take is this: follow the best coach for your kid, not the club or the team. Here's my criteria:

1. Does the coach like and support your kid? If the chemistry is good between your kid and the coach, then most likely, we will stay with the coach.
2. Is my kid happy? Does my kid have a passion for soccer as a result of the coaching and his/her interactions with teammates?
3. Development. What does the coach do as training exercises during the practices? Lots of ball mastery work, lots of possession soccer, what? Does he/she have a balanced program in which the players work on dribbling, shooting, passing, field awareness, combination plays, etc. or is everything tactical?
4. Does the coach yell a lot from the sidelines, screaming corrections at the player during the game and deflating the player (embarrassing the player too) instead of pulling the player out and quietly discussing the correction with the kid?
5. Are the parents completely nuts? I've observed that most of the crazy parents were never soccer players or understand the game.

Question to everyone out there. When choosing clubs, do you pick the coach or the winning team?

Choose the club with the development philosophy that you like best. Coaches come and go. Teams form and break up. But a club with a consistent philosophy and a philosophy consistent with your values is usually the best fit.

[Unregistered]

With my daughter it was really simple. Stick with the kids she likes.

We thought about moving her to a "better" club with what we perceived to be better coaching. But then we decided to ask her what she wanted. She wanted to be with her friends. She goes to school with half her teammates. She has played with a big group of them for 7-8 years. She loves those girls. She goes to Timbers games with them, celebrates bdays, has sleepovers, goes to Thorns games with them..etc.

So after all my handwringing over best club and coach, we stayed put based on her choice. Don't get me wrong she loves soccer and is very good and wants to be successful. But in the end it was the relationships with the other players that won out.

Maybe she would have made friends at a different club. Maybe she would be a better soccer player. Who knows. Maybe it's different boys v girls.

I couldnt be happier with the bonds she has created. And the best part is the chemistry on the field has helped her existing team develop into a top 1-2 in the state.

[Unregistered]

?

Question for all the parents out there. I am considering moving my U9 son to a different development academy/club in town, however, based on my experience with moving my daughter around to different clubs, I discovered that all clubs are dysfunctional in one way or another - there are always tradeoffs. Everyone will claim that they "develop" players, so with my daughter, I did the homework before tryouts. I attended at least three training sessions incognito for the prospective club(s) and I asked the parents sitting around me during these training sessions to describe the coach. I would also ask the coach questions about their philosophy, roster size, playing time, focus areas, etc. I now have developed the following criteria to determine whether we will move from one club to another. My final take is this: follow the best coach for your kid, not the club or the team. Here's my criteria:

1. Does the coach like and support your kid? If the chemistry is good between your kid and the coach, then most likely, we will stay with the coach.
2. Is my kid happy? Does my kid have a passion for soccer as a result of the coaching and his/her interactions with teammates?
3. Development. What does the coach do as training exercises during the practices? Lots of ball mastery work, lots of possession soccer, what? Does he/she have a balanced program in which the players work on dribbling, shooting, passing, field awareness, combination plays, etc. or is everything tactical?
4. Does the coach yell a lot from the sidelines, screaming corrections at the player during the game and deflating the player (embarrassing the player too) instead of pulling the player out and quietly discussing the correction with the kid?
5. Are the parents completely nuts? I've observed that most of the crazy parents were never soccer players or understand the game.

Question to everyone out there. When choosing clubs, do you pick the coach or the winning team?

Depends what your goals are.

If you want a good overall experience, travel tourneys, state cups etc. Then you choose the team.

If your child wants to grow as a soccer player and reach there full potential on the field, you choose the coach.

Somtimes the choice is both ie, coach and team is great, and for that it is truly the best scenario. But often this isnt the case and it is a very difficult decision. At under 14 I would recommend the coach.

[Unregistered]

I pick the team that can kick the ball the furthest.

[Unregistered]

I pick the team that can kick the ball the furthest.

Where is the 'LIKE' button for this post

[Unregistered]

Shouldn't all decisions on where kids play be primarily decided by the kids themselves? Such a microscopic number of kids actually play college ball and even smaller get scholarships.

I want my kid to get the best training/coaching but I also think that the primary focus should be on balance and what makes them happy.

[Unregistered]

Philosophy first. Then Coach and lastly good parents. You see good parents have good kids, are supportive, have fun and share common goals. Theoretically.

[Unregistered]

Yea

Philosophy first. Then Coach and lastly good parents. You see good parents have good kids, are supportive, have fun and share common goals. Theoretically.

Parents are only good as long as there kid is getting adequate playing time. As soon as there kid gets slighted, claws come out. Choose the coach that can handle the parents and trearts kids playing time proportionally to how they play on the field.

[Unregistered]

Parents are only good as long as there kid is getting adequate playing time. As soon as there kid gets slighted, claws come out. Choose the coach that can handle the parents and trearts kids playing time proportionally to how they play on the field.

Not true. I initiated this post and my two children get close to 100% playing time - more playing time than the majority of the kids on their teams. You may want to consider that playing time is one element of development. In my daughter's case, the coach is not capable of progressing the girls further. He is limited himself on ball skills and cannot push the boundaries of the more skilled players because he is incapable. In my son's case, the coach is so technically gifted, but the practices are so short and on a few occasions, practices are canceled, yet we are paying the full price of a development academy. Coach and club aren't really committed.

You are basically saying that the kids who play well should be rewarded with more playing time and those that are struggling should be punished with little playing time? That's a great way to look at development of players. How are the kids that struggle supposed to improve without that experience and time needed during a game to work on those skills? Come on, it's not like they are being paid to play. A club that develops players focuses on individual progression. When players reach high school tryouts, they will not be playing with their team - their individual skills will be examined, not how many wins their previous team had.

[Unregistered]

Choose the club with the development philosophy that you like best. Coaches come and go. Teams form and break up. But a club with a consistent philosophy and a philosophy consistent with your values is usually the best fit.

I am personally tired of hearing club philosophy. It all starts to sound the same. Better than club philosophy is what the club actually does. Do their players in general look skilled, good ball handlers, and do they have a high game intelligence? Or do their players have to rely on their physicality instead of skill? Watching the training sessions are the best way to measure coaching ability.

[Unregistered]

Not true. I initiated this post and my two children get close to 100% playing time - more playing time than the majority of the kids on their teams. You may want to consider that playing time is one element of development. In my daughter's case, the coach is not capable of progressing the girls further. He is limited himself on ball skills and cannot push the boundaries of the more skilled players because he is incapable. In my son's case, the coach is so technically gifted, but the practices are so short and on a few occasions, practices are canceled, yet we are paying the full price of a development academy. Coach and club aren't really committed.

You are basically saying that the kids who play well should be rewarded with more playing time and those that are struggling should be punished with little playing time? That's a great way to look at development of players. How are the kids that struggle supposed to improve without that experience and time needed during a game to work on those skills? Come on, it's not like they are being paid to play. A club that develops players focuses on individual progression. When players reach high school tryouts, they will not be playing with their team - their individual skills will be examined, not how many wins their previous team had.

We've run into that in the past. Kids go from first tier to struggling and they start to lose playing time to kids who are improving quickly.

That is really what the B team is for. This is competitive sports and the best players are going to get playing time ahead of other kids. The other kids aren't going to thrive if they sit on the bench, so they move to the B team where all the sudden they are better on a relative basis and get more playing time.

It was a bitter pill for a lot of parents to swallow when everyone stopped getting equal playing time, but it really is the nature of the beast.

It does create an atmosphere where the kids on the B team have been working their tails off and have earned promotions to the A team by putting in the extra work.


We had a kid go from very little playing time on the A team to full time player on the B team and that eventually led back to the A team.

[Unregistered]

So which clubs in the area have a consistent development program through all years?

[Unregistered]

So which clubs in the area have a consistent development program through all years?

Westside Timbers for boys.