Player development question

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I have a bit of a quandry for next season… my 13 yo son plays on a very good team that plays in high level leagues(AZ National Premier League, Desert Premier League), but the coach is basically a manager. He gets good players and they push each other(bunch of egos and assholes). He isn't really a developer. The improvements in the players basically come from competition and intensity at practice. Not a lot of tactical training or attention to technical details.

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This is the problem with our youth soccer development in a nutshell... not nearly enough professional coaches at the youth level. It's getting better but we still have glorified dads in charge of talent in some spots.


ETA: As for your son, it's a catch 22 from the way you describe it, if he stays with option A, his growth as a player will likely take a hit, but he will have the better chance to get seen by club scouts at the bigger events. Option B is basically the opposite, better coaching, but not as much exposure if he wants to make that next step.

Yes. But tactical recognition and training would tqke a hit.

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I was on a team with a coach who hired a trainer to take care of our practices typically while he was the one making in game coaching decisions and the trainer rarely watched us play.

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This would be the arrangement at the second club, only the trainer(club president) does attend games and watch from a distance. He would take over practice every other week(trade weeks with the mgr/coach) to teach both the players and the coach.

The first club coach wouldn't hire a separate trainer… not necessarily a raging douche, but probably has ego. The great trainer is president of competing club so it's against the rules anyway.

None of the coaches or trainers anywhere near here teach the game like this trainer does. It's pretty pathetic for a state with a lot of players. I have looked around at various clubs looking for a good trainer/coach and have been severely disappointed.

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brag

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How, exactly?

He's not a starter, and is the smallest kid on the team. Is that better? Care to input on the substance?

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Lol dude it was a joke, lighten up.

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sorry man.

Question still stands. Put up or shut up

Eta: In my defense, a good percentage of the people I deal with in the club soccer world would have said that seriously so…

Hahah it's all good

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value of good training and will bail on the team (my son's team is dealing with this now - will likely not have enough to field a team next year

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That's what happened with us before with this trainer. He has an A license and is a badass(trained ASU women's team for a bit), but not a businessman or recruiter. One year we even trained with 5 kids in our city while another coached the rest of our team(9 over there) about 3 hours away. The only time they'd see each other was for tournaments, and they wrecked shite because they were taught the same system. It was fun to watch, but not sustainable for a club with only one other team to support the field costs.

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Training is better than being on a stud team

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I think I'm leaning this way, but it really depends on what the player wants. He'll likely be playing for his high school for a large chunk of next year anyway. Though, I don't think I want him to risk injury playing with football players and other athletes who don't have the foot skills to not hack at their opponents.

You're comparing youth academies to Rec leagues...that's apples to oranges. I imagine the technical aspect will take precedent when we have more full fledged soccer centric developmental atmospheres.

We are way behind the 8 ball in the process, but really not that far behind in the results. That's probably frightening to some outside the US

Depends on what your son's goals are and his enjoyment of the different environments on each team. Ultimately, his enjoyment of the game and how much he wants to do with it will drive him to seek more opportunities or quit in pursuit of other interests. I would take the route that keeps him having fun and interested for the longest amount of time.

Neither of your two options will develop your kid in the best possible way as their are big drawbacks to each.

In your current team you are getting to play against high level competition all of the time, in practice, in league and in tournaments. The key benefits are big in terms of long term development, namely speed of play (one thing the US is way behind on, our soccer brains are just a hair slower than the rest of the world) and tactical in game development (mostly off the ball positioning and awareness which are about 80% of decisions made in a game). The main draw back is lack of technical on ball coaching and other aspects of a holistic development approach to soccer.

The technical development of the new team is obviously the main benefit and is inline with US Development Academy model but it has to be paired with very high level play and high level talent in order to develop a kid. There are a number of reasons for this but the main is speed of play and a large difference in in-game tactics. A generally weaker category of players changes the way your son will play the game. Others may not understand when to do/be capable/be trusted enough by other team mates to do a variety of key soccer items such as: when to pass back, reading a wall pass opportunity, seeing a trough ball, when and how to switch field of play, ability to play through goalie to switch, ability to press high, ability to step and create offsides, etc... I could go on but I think you get the point. Not saying this will necessarily be true but a much higher likelihood than the other team. All of this changes the way your son perceives and plays in a game. If he feels that he can't rely on the other players the it will effect the way he plays the game and could actually hurt his development.

Again, I would say choose the team that he will enjoy most. If he is not getting everything from one team but is willing to do more they you can always get outside coaching or lessons or play in tournaments at higher levels as a guest player.

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are you positive about this? there (at least used to be) is a rule in georgia where you needed 8 players that played at a certain level (and didn't get relegated) in the prior season to remain at that level. this likely wont get you into a regional or national league, but you could at least possibly play in your state's highest league if this exists.

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That would take an insane amount of recruiting to a club without a name. I wish.

Arizona is similar.

However, the state can still put you in a lower division. I think it would take a couple years to get back up to the regional level.