r/youthsoccer

Hey everyone first post here, had a question My younger son made it to a “competition” league U10 started out playing recreational, my question is what do you or can you expect at that age for the coach to teach them? As far as drills, workouts etc, I know with rec it was just for fun so they didn’t do many complex drills, with this new league they do some drills but mostly scrimmage I guess I was just hoping for more along the lines of ball handling, speed drills etc, I may be wrong tho this is our 2nd year in, thanks

My sons been doing trials for an academy in Scotland. He’s played against these kids before and now one of these kids dad is now helps out with the team ( he’s a story in his own.. ) anyway some kids the past 2 weeks have been giving my son abit of a hard time. They kick his ball away, laugh if he doesn’t understand a drill etc. my son still wants to continue. Something like this happened before and I just didn’t let my son return until someone told me it’s not good to run from everything etc which I agree to a certain extent. My sons so good for his age as are some others In this team but it’s the kids worse actually giving him shit. Then when it comes to matches in training my son hides away. Today he went to another training thing, one of these boys were here and also a kid from his old team. The kid from his old team started pushing my son 3 times like the type of push before a fight, my son was scared. Then the kid who’s team he’s trialing for now shoulder barged him ( I know level ) 3-4 times to be fair my son went back at him but then in the match he hid. It’s a reoccurring thing once my son sees or notices other kids being loud and dominate he will hide in games. I don’t want to stop going since my son wants to but I’m scared he’s doing it for me, I also don’t want to run because it looks like they’ve won.

Any recommendations for calf sleeves that will fit a slim average size 7 year old? I ordered uniforms for club soccer and it came with 3 sleeves but would like to have extra on hand for practice and camps. Adidas has some but the smallest size is S/M.

Thanks!

I just moved down here (STL) from Chicago. My son played for the Chicago Fire youth program. I’m looking for a team for him down here, all of his Chicago coaches said that I need to find “Coach Sully”?? I guess that’s who they think is the best option is for a youth coach down here. But I can’t seem to find what club he coach's for. Any STL soccer parents know where he coaches?

Just an opinion from a newish soccer parent from a coach.

My daughter played U10 last year for a strong club at a regional location. U11 is the first year they have a central team pulling the top players from each region. As part of my coaching study, I watched more than half the practices and all the games. The team is very thoughtful about its development approach with all coaches and administrators having B or C international licences.

I had sort of heard how the biggest, fastest kids get picked but reflecting back having been with much of this group 2-3 years that wasn’t it. There were a couple points, including an A/B split then tryouts and placement on the strong central team.

These were the 4 things I noticed across the kids that moved up.

1. time spent

training on the ball outside of practice

1. number one predictor IMHO
2. defensive work rate - where kids cleared the skill/ball mastery bar, whether they sprinted back to defend, hustled, and played defense was a huge predictor.
3. weak foot passing - recognize this is predicted by time with the ball away from practice, but they love kids who can functionally pass, not just shoot, with both feet.

Not predictive at all (surprisingly): strength, size

Only slightly predictive: speed - most of the kids that made it were fast enough, but no kids that were fast without a lot of skill made it. Of

Hello, I am turning 16 this summer and I have always played soccer with my friends, just not serious. The thing is im actually pretty good, so good to my friends that theyve asked me to play for their team multiple times to which ive always said no. But now with the world cup happening now, I have grown a passion for soccer. Would it be possible to join rec league and then elevate and train to a good travel team? I dont know what position to play but most likely striker or wing due to my speed, height and ball skills (also ive always been the main goal scorer in pick up games with my friends) Also are there any drills or things I can do to get better? I have a friend who also wants this so we will train together and we play pick up soccer all the time. Thank you, any help is appreciated!

Hi! Do you know of any way to download someone else’s video from YouTube?

The opposing team posted a video of the game, and I’d like to make a short montage of the goals scored against my daughter so I can show them to her goalkeeper coach.

Thanks so much, and have a great day!

Google Gemini says there are 215 D1 teams.

Without going into the details, it says on average intl makes up 33% of students and 67% domestic. The split varies and the better schools recruit heavier international.

This shakes out to be 3,870 domestic students total.

Now teams span across 5 years, so let's argue 3870/5 = ~750 kids per year getting recruited to D1 soccer club. No assumption made about if the # of freshmen are an even split or higher/lower, but keep this aside.

SoccerRankings app lists 6,500 competitive clubs in a single age group. Assume 18 kids per roster, that's ~120,000 kids per year and probably increasing.

750/120,000 = 0.625% (probably even lower)

So - what I'm really trying to assess, is where does a kid need to be to have a decent chance. For example, top 50 team, starter and among the top half of the team?

That would equate to 450 kids in this pool. Assume some kids are standout in lower ranked teams, but they are the star. Maybe a few dozen kids come from here?

Help me fine tune this. It's a harsh reality. I'm not sure how youth academy teams factor in.

Where do your kids stack up?

Hello, I'm Erulan, 12 yo kid wants to become a pro football player. But also have more problems, like bad posture or bad vision. Here some info about me: I'm 83kg 165-167 cm tall, playing in a little club in my city were I'm a striker. I want to get in shape, cure addiction to the phone, and just get better at football. Help me please, thanks to all who see this or reply under comm.

See you later

I've only been coaching for a year, but I've noticed that many kids seem to lack the creativity that previous generations developed by playing street football. Do you agree? If you do, how can we help develop that kind of creativity in our training sessions?

U12 boys dad here getting ready for OPDL tryouts soon - need to gauge from this community the collective experiences of other parents on who they believe are the best coaches in OPDL within the GTA and why they’re good plus the team program? Thanks

Do centerbacks ever get recruited? Whether it’s to an MLS academy team, or Div 1 college, or pro level? Or do scouts look only at the top performers regardless of position and mold those top Performers into centerbacks at that next level? Can you make it to the highest levels playing only centerback (and being really good at it) or do you need to be a top performer at other positions to ultimately get recruited? I hope this question makes sense.

Edit/add:

For example Tim Ream or Chris Richard’s are really good CB’s but I assume through their youth soccer career they were dominate anywhere on the field? Or not and they always focused on CB?

ECNL team …being asked to pay for new training balls split between the coaches two ECNL age group teams. Just another new unexpected expense. Is this standard to ask/expect the parents to reimburse cost for new training balls? Have not encountered this before but first year in ECNL.

(Academy)What are your thoughts on this? Coach announced all 20 kids on the roster will play the same amount. I’m torn on how i feel about this. While I think it’s great that everyone will play, but this seems like a bit much if he sticks to this plan. There is a wide gap between skill level from top to bottom. I feel like our top players are gonna hate this and leave. Also where is the incentive to bust ass in practice if playing time is already guaranteed. These kids want to win more than anything. My son is pretty annoyed by it and says he’ll leave if this affects their chances of winning.

So I’m a young player 14 turning 15 in august. I have played CB for the last 7 years and I have developed there so much so that I’m the best on the team and grew to be able to play in the midfield and attack without really training on attacking much. I do enjoy playing cb and even love 1v1s because one thing about me is that my confidence is high so I always have a good mindset that I can take anyone on as a defender and stop them. I wanted to transition to LB but after seeing Lisandro Martinez today and how he dictated all plays even though he is 5’9 made me think to myself if I am making the right decision. Even Cannavaro is one of the best cbs of all time and he’s only 5’9. Im 5’7 as of now and I think I’m going to be 5’9 5’10 in the future I don’t think I had my growth spurt yet though. My key attributes are passing, defending, reading the game, positioning, strength, pace, and my dribbling is good but not exceptional. Anyone has advice please?🙏🏿

That’s like driving 300 miles for an out of state tournament to play a team from across the tracks back at home 🤣

Told a few kids they could go to nationals but likely won’t play. Also replaced the keeper they had all year with a kid from out of state.

This club is smart enough to not violate the rules so I’m sure it’s fine from that standpoint.