r/youthsoccer

Two years in a row they cancelled day 2 at Tuckahoe Turf. We have had multiple events cancelled at this location over the years. It’s shameful , at this point it’s obvious they are protecting profits and cheating the kids. They leave the grass purposefully long to limit damage, the ball plays slow, passing and shooting becomes more difficult. Last year it was out of their hands because the governor claimed a “state of emergency “ but even late into Saturday they wanted to cancel and got major pushback. We should not host events there anymore, parents don’t get refunded, every other tournament in the area went off with no issue. Anytime it rains even a bit they cancel the games because they want to protect the sod and their profit margins. They shouldn’t host anymore, plain and simple. The edp should demand the grass be manicured properly, and there should not be a blanket rain cancellation policy in place . Families and kids sacrifice for this event, hotels are expensive travel is expensive teams come from out of state, teams come
From Canada , it’s a money grab . I think they pray for bad weather to make even more money. It’s disgusting .

My child is really good at D and due to roster mgmt issues has been slotted at D for last 4 games. I feel at this level it hinders development, especially cause my child wants to get some minutes to develop at midfield. I’m not saying my kid needs more time, but some of that slotted in a MF role.

I feel the roster as a whole this kids are getting slotted into role too early . I get it’s a hard balance between winning and development; suggestions on how to address.

We are working outside of practice on ball mastery and technical skills…

a local medium-sized club sent 2 players from their ECNL-RL team to guest play in bronze today against our small grassroots club. They weren’t short, they had 6 players on the bench for 9v9. The RL team is one year up, an 11v11 team, but has several kids like this playing ‘up’. Turns out they do this often, based looking at past game rosters. Location: NorCal. I don’t know if complaining will do anything since that club director is also the regional chair for NorCal. This is mostly just a rant

Why are parents so fascinated with the idea of their kids playing up 2-3 years.

Especially when they clearly are not ready. Just watched a U10 team that plays 7v7 but played 9v9 today play a U12 team. The U12 team had 5 girls that are U10s. These girls are on the field but do not touch the ball at all. How is that beneficial to them?

Just kept hearing their parents talk about how they’ve been playing up for years and that their kids don’t like playing 7v7.

The U10 team beat them btw.

The good news is we don’t have to pay to park or travel over an hour. The bad news is the toxicity around it both from players and parents.
We are not going for the cup.
Happy weekend

My 12U daughter is on a new competitive team this year on which she plays goalie and forward. There are a couple girls on the team who constantly are making mean comments to her while playing, even when she has played great during the games. She is really taking it to heart and ends up crying after games. I want to go to her coach but my daughter is insistent that I don’t, and that may be the wrong way to handle it. We are at the beginning of a year long season and I don’t not want her to have to put up with this all season long. It’s making her hate playing.

If you find yourself feeling drained after soccer games due to other parents, you’re not alone. As a soccer parent myself, it pains me to hear these adults constantly berating kids on the sidelines. I really hate it. Just let kids be kids and they’ll find their flow, also be kind to other kids. Why are we putting someone’s kid down and making weird comments during a game?

I hate parents like that, and that’s why I keep my distance at all the events. Yet, I find it hard because I do want to be updated on all important things minus gossip, but it seems hard to do. Any thoughts?

Hi. This is my first year as a coach, and I coach at a pretty prestigious club for U9 girls. Today I was told by my opponent that if I lost this game, I would be moving down a division, (my club was aware, I was not). I was pretty flustered by this bc we won two games and lost two by a few goals, game was balanced just one or two bad mistakes that lead to a goal.

I always play fair playing, however this game we were down 4-1 and I made the decision to play to win. At one point, I told one of my players that we were moving down a division. (This was my mistake) and at the post game, I was pretty upset at the lost, but not necessarily my girls. I told the girls we were going to be moving down divisions and I'm sorry for not playing fairly. I think the girls took this as I was upset at them bc I probably didn't think about my words. I own up to this dearly. Parents messaged me saying their daughters were crying after the game, and I profusely apologized. Now parents are asking for a team meeting so they can talk to me about how to speak to their girls.

How do I even come back from this. I feel like I lost my parents trust. I normally have a great relationship with my girls, and am very positive. Multiple parents send me emails about how well I treat the girls and how much they love the game bc of my training/coaching. I used to be very confident I was a good coach, but now I'm second guessing myself. I love coaching, but I don't want to do more harm than good.

Looking for perspective. I have twin daughters about to be 12. We’ve played in our town club/travel team since they were young. They do skills clinics and camps and play other sports. I almost signed them up for the local big club a few years ago. As I was about to put in credit card info, I came to my senses.
They are good, skilled players. But I think big fish little sea. I coach them currently.
I played d2 in college in an era that is vastly different from today’s landscape (no recruiting, just showed up- and yes I’m an older parent) I’ve since learned in the last years about the youth sports industrial complex Whoa.
My one kid loves loves loves to play. She’s not aspiringq to be a pro. But I think would end up playing in hs and college. I think d1 women’s soccer is not a path for her or her sister (lot of reasons)
She is one of the more skilled kids in our (non-academy) club. Next year she enters middle school (7-8th grades) and the team is middle of the road with coach changes frequently bc the coach ends up being a parent with a kid on the team and leaves when the kid enters hs. we have a good hs team that goes to states but it’s d3. Small town.
Long story short - is it a reasonable trajectory that she does camps/clinics and the middle school- high school route to achieve a goal of non-d1 play.
I feel also dumb asking this bc my kids are both 12 and there’s 1,000,000 variables between now and then. They know they can quit any time.
I just don’t want to miss some window of opportunity at this age My one daughter in particular has a lot of drive to play and I want to honor it to give her opportunities
Sorry for the rambling ….

I am trying out for the freshman girls soccer team on Monday and I have almost no experience. Any tips?

I’m coaching a rec plus team u10. First - lost by 16. No goals by us. Second - this team was playing with two guest players who play travel. No pumping the brakes. Third - at half time a parent comes to the bench with a player and the players says “he’s leaving because the team won’t help him.” Parent does not speak to me.

Any advice?

Thanks.

I wanna practice soccer at home but I lack cones andy family won't take me anywhere to practice, my back yard is full of dog crap so thats a no too, and I wanna do rec but if I mess up my team will mock me, and my experienced friends will tease me for being in rec

Hi all,

Im coaching girls in U10 Rec league, and although we work on 1:1 defending, and defending a point, only a couple kids really get it. week after week we get into the games, give up the middle to attackers, or worse, clear the ball into the middle, and give up uncontested goals. Its becoming demoralizing, frankly. Please help me ID some drills or concepts to reinforce to get us defending the zone of doom :)

What does everybody else play on at this age? The games usually have 7-10 goals scored versus about 3-5 last year, but damn, it is rough on the goalkeeper kids. That is so much space to cover for somebody that's not even 5 feet tall.

Any suggestions? My daughter is almost 9 and seems to have a knack for dribbling straight into opponents. She can usually pass before she loses the ball, but I think it’s a scanning issue. Maybe this just needs to develop with experience. I figured I’d ask here though in case anyone has advice.

Hello. I am a parent of a u13 girl who plays both in a club and also on a rec team too. She has been with her rec team for 5 years, but only on a club team since June. She plays 6 days a week between games and practices. She loves soccer, loves running, and loves the excitement of going after the ball.

After every game, be it rec or club, she is angry and frustrated. She often has a list of things she is mad about, but a big one is that she does not think her teammates pass enough either to her or at all. I can see the anger and frustration getting to her during the game. It’s sticking to her and making her lose her drive on the field.

I also think she is right, kids are hogging the ball and they are globing together rather than passing, but I see it as a development problem, not a personal one. They are just not to the point where they know how to work as a team and they need more development as a team.

I’m not a coach and I will not step in or try to manage the coach’s job with the players or my daughter. It’s not my job and I respect the authority of the coaches.

But I also want to affirm my daughter and not dismiss her feeling and observations.

I tell my player to talk to the coach about her concerns and help her with how to have the conversation. I also encourage my player to be assertive, and not aggressive when on the field and with her teammates. She needs to speak up for herself and communicate without being mean or rude. We run though how she might so that too.

My questions are:

Is there more that I can do?
Is this average for this age, both for my player to be frustrated and for other players to be lacking in team skills?
Should we stick with the club or have her try out another team to see how she meshes with them?

Any advice, help, thoughts would be appreciated.