u/C0nditionOakland

We have games scheduled this week and it's extremely hot in our part of the country. Our club has a "suggested" policy that says if heat index is over 100 the game shouldn't be played, but it's ultimately left to coach discretion (I think because our teams play in ECNL\RL\N1\SCCL and and these games involve travel and the schedule is so compacted anyway).

We have a game at 1 PM on Saturday and the temperature is expected to be 99-101 degrees. The coach has asked the parents if they're comfortable with their kids playing. If the game is on, there will be a hydration break in each half. We do have one "buffer" weekend that can accomodate one rescheduled game, but there's concern that if we use that date for the very first game of the season, what happens later on when there's severe storms or something that we definitely can't play in.

Curious as to what your club does, at this time of year.

I know we probably can't diagnose or deep dive on this, I was just curious if there was some sort of known-issue around this like with my other Odyssey problem (windshield camera early death).

Quite randomly, our Odyssey's battery will be totally dead with no real explanation. I have a halo bolt portable jumper that for a normal weak battery it will start right up, but it gets drained so low that it takes several tries and needs to sit while connected to the jumper for a bit.

The battery and cables are both new -- i had hoped that an old battery was the culprit but it's still happening after replacement.

Doesn't seem to happen if we drive it, park, come back and go home. It's more like...if we are at home, and we've had to get something from car -- opened the back, the sliding doors, etc. I know those things take juice, but we're talking about 2 or 3 times which seems normal and in most cars wouldn't render the car totally unable to start.

Is this something any of you have seen or might have some ideas about? My wife has been stranded a couple of times and is almost to the point she's afraid to take it anywhere for fear of getting stuck.

Curious —. Our club has a new N1 team (they played NPL last year and won their conference, in our age group). We also have ECNL and RL.

The gap between our ECNL and RL team is significant. When they scrimmage it’s usually an 8 or 10 to 1 sort of score.

However, the N1 team and RL team feel almost interchangeable. If they scrimmaged 5 times one would win 3 of the games and the other 2.

Is this what you guys are seeing as well? It makes a little sense because a lot of the N1 kids were RL last year but were displaced by the age change

BARCA, IMG, Ssa, etc— does anyone have any experience with these? We have a family friend who is weighing an offer from MLS academy but is also on IMG’s radar and I’m trying to help them weigh their options

My kids got into BB over the last few months. I've been watching since season 1. I lost interest for a little bit after about season 20, life got in the way of devoting that much time and attention, etc. I've since caught up and am current again.

We've been rewatching some of my favorite "classic" seasons, and I was taken by how many are in that six season window, starting with season 6 and ending with 12 or 13.

6 was fantastic, and introduced so many legendary players (most notably Janelle). The all star season was the best of its kind in the reality space, season 7 was nonstop drama\shock\entertainment. Each season was 9 or 10 out of 10.

After season 12 (13 was good, I just didn't love having B\R and J\J immediately right back into the house), it became a little more hit or miss. The casts would have 3-4 memorable players and then a lot of fluff. The whole-house alliance became a thing. Every single eviction became a backdoor. Casting moved away from "fans" and you started seeing people that had never even watched a season, but CBS pulled them in because they were hot or crazy or had a lot of social media followers. The quality took a noticeable dip which lead to some of the revamps that have since occurred.

It's just crazy to me that run was SO good and holds up to rewatch even 15-20 years later. I have watched every season of Survivor and there's no comparable phenomenon -- it was always a fantastic hit to a boring miss, season to season.

My oldest is a good player (ECNL-RL), but a recurring thing that seems to come up in his coach evals is "he's a great kid, very coachable and a very good player, but i'd love to see him open up a little. He's very quiet and shy."

They are, of course, spot on -- his teachers make similar observations, I think he's just not super comfortable talking to adults outside of his family, which can sometimes read as aloof. We have tried to talk to him about it, and he disagrees its a problem and thinks he's quite comfortable and talks to coaches all the time. I worry that he might come off as not invested or nervous, and i don't think either of those things is true, he's just wired to be on the quiet side.

For what it's worth, he plays outside (and sometimes center) back and he does talk on the field. He will push the other defenders up or back, he communicates with the keeper, the midfield -- he's not a ra-ra captain, but he does the talking necessary to play the position, it's more like when he's getting coaching feedback, he's not a super active participant, it's more of a "listen and nod, maybe say 'okay, sounds good, i'll try that next time'" and it feels like coaches want him to be more actively engaged.

For those of you that have coached a kid like this -- where do you stand on it, can it hold him back, or is the important thing that he's a good player that's respectful to coaches and teammates?

So, like most of you, I've seen across all my socials a lot of proselytizing and solutions for "fixing" USA soccer. One of the prevailing common threads is that the reason USA is bad is because of the financial gate and "pay to play," and that the obvious solution is to disband the alphabet leagues, or greatly reduce them and make them only available to "truly elite" players with national team prospects, and...make them free for those players.

Maybe I'm an idiot, and i certainly feel that way when I find myself agreeing with Alexi Lalas of all people but,

1. If you make the bulk of soccer free or very low cost, you are essentially leveling the USYS pyramid to the point that 2/3 of it are just "rec soccer." The bulk of what we (a family with an ECNL RL player and an N1 player) pay goes to two things we are happy to fund: the salary of a professional, USSF-licensed coach and facilities; we train and play at two different complexes, one is a brand-new, beautiful turf facility and the other are very well-maintained grass fields. Both of which are much nicer than the dusty, weedy fields I grew up on.

2. If you're not paying coaches, you have what we ran into when my kids were younger, the the thing that pushed us to travel soccer at an earlier age than i would have preferred: the coach is a dad who happens to have the most free time, with very little likelihood of any soccer knowledge, even at a fundamental level. People will say "Lamine Yamal was playing youth soccer and he was a freak talent, so he got pulled into La Masia at 7, that's how the USA should be doing it." Okay, but Spain isn't the US -- not only is the idea of "rec" soccer very different than what we have EVER had here, there's a government-subsidized infrastructure to pay for coach education, facilities, etc. The kids at those younger ages are getting training at a very young level that far eclipses the "sharks and minnows" and "freeze tag" soccer practice games rec teams play at that age in America.

3. This isn't uniquely a soccer problem! ALL of US youth sports have basically devolved into a pay to play model! Are there inner city kids playing basketball on public courts that shine and turn into high school\college stars? Yeah, maybe -- but they are far outnumbered by the kids that have similarly paid-to-play in AAU basketball. Where all the stuff that's rampant in high level club soccer shows up -- everyone has a private skills coach, a speed\strength\agility coach, etc -- and they're paying the same insane dues and tournament costs. Baseball and Hockey are even WORSE than soccer, in this way. Only gridiron football seems to be exempted from this model, and for how long?

4. Finally -- in my opinion, the bulk of a lot of these arguments are founded in soft racism or white savior stuff. With no real knowledge of say, LeBron James or Jamarr Chase's background, they say "if they had free soccer in their community, they would have done that instead of basketball\football, and we would be like Spain." Dude, that's so insanely flawed its unbelievable. Cheap soccer exists EVERYWHERE in the US, but ultimately -- the kids have to want to play it. How do you do that? Continue to grow MLS -- easiest win in my book, kids love to get behind and go watch a hometown team. That's going to be even more effective than the temporary boost the World Cup gives us. Ultimately those kids with no background or immersion is going to just decide to start watching AC Milan and say "i can do that." The other thing is that those MLS teams -- and the bigger youth clubs -- should keep doing what I've seen and offering free or low-cost camps and clinics, especially in lower-income areas. Get the coaches that know what they're doing to spend a week with 7-10 year olds in a fun environment. use those sessions as an ID clinic -- if some kid that's never touched a ball comes in and has something that catches their eye -- offer a scholarship\financial aid package and bring them into the club org, and try to sell the rest of the kids on the area rec programs to keept hem interested and improving.

Apologize for what turned into a longer rant than intended, I just feel like people are far too quick to oversimplify or just say "pay to play is why the USA is bad," which ignores a couple of truths:

-The USA isn't "bad." It's progressing, just not as fast as some unrealistic fans would like. They made the round of 16 and yeah ,they sucked dogwater against Belgium, but I think the circus around that game and the political stuff likely contributed. Maybe they wouldn't have beaten Belgium regardless, but they should have\could have been more competitive. People will forget that same team beat the snot out of a strong Paraguay squad. Incremental progress, and as the older "blah" players like Ream fall off, theres a next generation -- many of which came up through the "broken" pay to play system and parlayed success there into opportunities in europe, coming in starting with the next WC.

-for the rest of us, the existing club structure isn't a means to an end, it's the end itself. My kids are both "very good" players, not "very great" players. They aren't going to play for the national team. They're not going to play pro. They might top out with a D3 college offer and ultimately turn it down because they want to go somewhere with better academics. That doesn't negate that they love playing at the level they're at now, with good coaches, consistent quality teamates, and good facilities. They play soccer for fun, and we can afford the costs that come with it. They played at a high enough level to make middle\high school teams, which is something that in our area is not possible if you're a rec player -- there's just too many good players that have been playing ECNL\RL\NPL\N1 that have ball skills and knowledge that 5-month players can't keep up with.

Longish story short, when I was 16 or so, my friend and I were watching porn together. He started to jerk off and told me it was fine if I wanted to as well. Being super horny and turned on like most teenage boys, I absolutely did want to. Somehow, at some point...he reached over and started playing with my dick. Didn't say a word, just...started stroking while he also stroked himself. I didn't stop him, even though I was a little weirded out and uncomfortable. This escalated when he leaned over and took me into his mouth. He proceeded to give me the best BJ I've ever had before or since, and when I was finished -- again, without a word, I reciprocated.

I'm now 43 and have been married for nearly 20 years, 3 kids. I don't find myself attracted to guys and haven't ever considered trying to repeat this experience, but I often think about that day and find myself turned on all over again...particularly because he was so good at it and it's been something my wife, in our entire relationship, has never been willing to do.

One of my sons has a wide foot, particularly in the ankle area. He wore predators last year and found them really hard to pull on and once his foot was in, the length was good and they were comfortable in the toebox, but the ankles were tight to the point he would sometimes even get blisters. He tried on Nike phantoms and found the same issue.

Anyone have a similar situation that can recommend a cleat that might work well?

So, my son is turning 7 this weekend and all he wants, all he's been able to think about, is a "real" storm trooper helmet, something better than the half-mask voice changer he got for Christmas.

I'm looking at the various black series options on Amazon, and the reviews seem to suggest some people's children have been happy with them, and they were able to use the built-in adjustments to get the fit to be decent.

So -- that's my question, is there a particular helmet that you'd recommend or one to stay away from? The most favorable reviews from people getting them for kids seem to center around the classic helmet, whereas they say the Clone Trooper helmet is so bulky and comically large it looks big even on an adult, so I'll stay away from that.

If not this line, is there something else that might work? I can't emphasize how badly he wants this to be his gift, so trying to make it happen for my little man!

By "beaten path" i mean no Phantasy Star, Shining Force, etc.

As a kid, my dad loved RPGs and my brother and I would get cozy under blankets and watch him play these games which we were too young for at the time, but it was better than any movie and even watching him grind levels was a fun family bonding activity. When we got older, we eagerly played the games we had watched him complete and have been through most of them as kids and later as adults.

Some games we loved:

Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World
Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun
Super Hydlide (this game gets a lot of hate but it was one of our favorites and I play it to this day on occasion)

Sword of Vermillion (another one I don't understand the amount of hate...great game, amazing soundtrack!)

Landstalker (the way the enemies said WOW! WOW! when you hit them, maybe a little derivative of Secret of Mana but a lot of fun)

Beyond Oasis

Crusader of Centy

Traysia

Have seen two local clubs operating this way, wonder if you guys are seeing this too:

ECNL: older kids from the previous upper birth year (say 2012) and bigger 2013s. A lot of older RL players have jumped up to ECNL N at our club

RL: displaced 2013 former ECNL players, 2012 RL and high end of whatever is a level below(NPL in this example) from 2012

And so on down the line.

In a lot of cases it seems like they’re trying to make “big” teams, but in some cases a smaller 2012 might trump a bigger 2013

U14 son plays for an EA team, got an offer from current team as well as another offer from another club for their former NPL team, now set to compete in N1. Promising to let him train and be a part of the guest pool for the ECNL RL team he wants to get to.

I’ve done some cursory digging and it sounds like a reasonable alternative with better travel than we are accustomed, the team looks strong based on who we know that will be on it.

Have any of you signed on to play in this league that have done deeper digging?

Just curious if anyone has seen this...

We are trying out for a new club, and on the second day of tryouts, a small group of players was boasting about how they got offers the prior day. Similarly, a couple of kids were told they weren't the right fit or the right level for this team and were redirected to tryouts for the B and C teams. Everyone else is in limbo, but I think there's a bit of a negative psychological impact to the kids that haven't heard anything yet. My son took it as "work harder and get noticed," but he also admitted he did feel a little nervous.

Apparently, the offers were made with the caveat "you can't tell anyone until tryouts have concluded," but none of the kids honored that request.

I understand why they might do it this way, I was just surprised because at our previous clubs, offers began immediately after the last night of tryouts, and cascaded from the top so they could pull bubble players up if they got declines at the higher level, so I was curious if this is common.

My one theory is that our tryouts started a little earlier than some of the other big clubs in the area by a day or two, and they come with a 24 hour expiration -- so maybe the idea is to lock up some of the 'star' players they've prioritized and keep them away from competing tryouts, and everyone else will be role players and supporting cast.

You stop in for a quick browse -- the curiousity and rumor-mill in your small town has been buzzing for weeks.

You are casually perusing when you see __________, that stops you in your tracks, and before long you're promising to play a simple prank in exchange for this unbelievable find.

FILL IN THE BLANK!

Coach or parent a kid that plays ECNL, MLS Next, Girls Academy, etc? What would you recommend to parents\players that are getting ready to try out for upper-tier clubs, how does a player get noticed in what's often a sea of hopefuls and established players that already have a relationship with the club. It's a short window -- often no more than 3 or 4 hours spread over 2 or 3 days, and most kids there will be some level of "good," so what tips would you give for rising above the noise?