re: Kids soccer, winning or coaching more important?

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Switch him to baseball

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Where it's all about eye black, flat bill caps, necklaces, sunglasses. And any other accessory a kid can find.

Little douche starter kits.

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I'm sure you know a lot about being gay with Perm in your name. Glass houses and such.

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If you don't know who Big Perm is then you may be the gay one, baw.

Thanks. I mainly want to get him exposure to the best coaching as possible, but that seems to take on the form of 'being discovered' by better coaching staffs. He's not a polished player compared to the kids who've been doing this since 4, but he's the tallest, fastest kid with great accuracy and power and he just loves the game.

Even though he's a prototype striker the academy plays him all over the field. I think in the end an attacking midfielder will be his bet fit, but there's no way he learns what he needs if all of his time is spent up front.

I'll talk to the select coaches about their vision of his development to determine what I should do. He wants to practice with them for now, and academy ball doesn't start for a few weeks.

What do you mean by "academy" by the way?

Academy is not select in that they focus on development of all kids and no one is turned away. They practice together then make two even teams to play tournaments. Even though we have 20 kids they don't select the best ten to play on an A team.

No offense but if you want the best for your kid 5 years from now you are making a huge mistake.

Are you in Baton rouge academy? If so...huge mistake to pull the kid out if he wants to be a player.

Good coaching is important but if you want him to reach his potential, he needs to play against better competition than the "everyone gets to play league."

What is the set up in Louisana? (Assuming that's where you are).

You are saying Academy is the same as rec? Then select is at any age group? I'm just trying to compare to NTX.

Here, you have rec, which is any league where teams don't select all of their players (YMCA, local and church leagues). Then you have select soccer. This includes Acadmey (U11 and under) soccer (like FC Dallas, Liverpool, Sting, etc) and Select (U12 and up) where kids are on yearly contracts.

Kid doesn't need to be playing one or two games a weekend traveling all over at this age. He needs to be playing small sided and having more touches to learn ball control at age 10. And that is what most competitive academies (through u10) are moving to.

Playing against good competition will come in the coming years. But if there is a good acady system focused on ball skills then he should stay in that.

The academy (when done right) isn't about "everyone gets to play" it is about having kids get as many touches as you can get to learn ball skills rather than winning some meaningless select game where they get slotted into some "position" where they never learn a full skill set and maybe touch the ball half dozen times a game.

It is counter to everything that kids sports are about so I know most won't get it.

What are his goals and your goals for him? Only a tiny percentage of kids will play even college soccer much less any of the pro teams either in the US or overseas.

There IS however thriving and growing high school soccer in the state. And while club soccer is doubtless technically more accomplished, the experience pales in comparison to a high school team where there is a good or even decent team. He is more likely to develop a life long love for the game.

In the school they take a definite pride in representing their school colors, they develop a camaraderie and friendships that will last them far beyond their high school years and they even get to play for a few more people in the stands than the typical handful of parents on lawn chairs that the clubs play in front of.

So unless your kid is the next Mesi or Ronaldo or even Patrick Dempsey, I'd say concentrate on where the better coaching is, and when he gets to HS age, let him play some club when high school is not in season if he really wants to concentrate on one sport and let him play on his school team.