What's wrong with NTX Soccer?

hmmm... seems this question was being asked 15yrs ago as well. With the advent of academy soccer we are seeing more kids at a higher level. But we see a lot more average players and still very few exceptional soccer players. Wouldn't you think that if the system really worked we would see an abundance of top caliber players? After watching many pro/youth practices in Europe and S America, I can say that the things they think are important are very different from what we see the guys coaching here. Coaches there get paid to develop players to SELL so the focus is on developing the individual technique of the player, not a winning team at 8 (or 16)yrs old to keep the paycheck coming. Teaching shooting for example would consist of every 8yr old player learning to shoot with both feet, inside and outside of the foot, swerving the ball, volleying, 1 touch from either side, chipping the goalie, and bending the ball with both feet. Is this the type of shooting practices that your club coach runs? Probs not. Most ntx coaches consider lining up and dribbling to the goal as shooting practice- if they do it at all. So our players are missing a lot of technical ability. I think the use of the term skill is misused. It is technical development that is missing, not the ability to dribble 1v3. (skill?) Imagine trying to coach a youth pitcher to throw a curve ball by saying 'just throw it harder'. Or not working on it at all and then yelling at him for screwing up on game day. Everyone knows that it requires specific technique, its the same in soccer. But very few of our coaches have learned it, and most parents can't recognize it.

Since most of our coaches cut their teeth here in NTX and then in us colleges (at best) they continue the cycle of soccer abuse on our kids. Don't blame them, they can't help it-it's all they know. And more bad coaching is just more of something bad, it's not better. So more practice is not the answer, it's better coaching. Reinforcing bad technique or just ignoring technique just makes players worse. My hope is that your girls/sons will be exposed to exceptional training at some point and they can bring what they learned back to ntx for the next generation of soccer players.

DrSoccer wrote:hmmm... seems this question was being asked 15yrs ago as well. With the advent of academy soccer we are seeing more kids at a higher level. But we see a lot more average players and still very few exceptional soccer players.  Wouldn't you think that if the system really worked we would see an abundance of top caliber players? After watching many pro/youth practices in Europe and S America, I can say that the things they think are important are very different from what we see the guys coaching here. Coaches there get paid to develop players to SELL so the focus is on developing the individual technique of the player, not a winning team at 8 (or 16)yrs old to keep the paycheck coming. Teaching shooting for example would consist of every 8yr old player learning to shoot with both feet, inside and outside of the foot, swerving the ball, volleying, 1 touch from either side, chipping the goalie, and bending the ball with both feet. Is this the type of shooting practices that your club coach runs? Probs not. Most ntx coaches consider lining up and dribbling to the goal as shooting practice- if they do it at all. So our players are missing a lot of technical ability. I think the use of the term skill is misused. It is technical development that is missing, not the ability to dribble 1v3.  (skill?) Imagine trying to coach a youth pitcher to throw a curve ball by saying 'just throw it harder'. Or not working on it at all and then yelling at him for screwing up on game day. Everyone knows that it requires specific technique, its the same in soccer. But very few of our coaches have learned it, and most parents can't recognize it.

Since most of our coaches cut their teeth here in NTX and then in us colleges (at best) they continue the cycle of soccer abuse on our kids. Don't blame them, they can't help it-it's all they know. And more bad coaching is just more of something bad, it's not better. So more practice is not the answer, it's better coaching. Reinforcing bad technique or just ignoring technique just makes players worse. My hope is that your girls/sons will be exposed to exceptional training at some point and they can bring what they learned back to ntx for the next generation of soccer players.

That generally summarizes the root cause challenges for not just NTX soccer but US Soccer in general vs the rest of the world. A 'pay to play' vs 'paid to play' model drives very different incentives and behavior by coaches and clubs.

DrSoccer wrote:hmmm... seems this question was being asked 15yrs ago as well. With the advent of academy soccer we are seeing more kids at a higher level. But we see a lot more average players and still very few exceptional soccer players.  Wouldn't you think that if the system really worked we would see an abundance of top caliber players? After watching many pro/youth practices in Europe and S America, I can say that the things they think are important are very different from what we see the guys coaching here. Coaches there get paid to develop players to SELL so the focus is on developing the individual technique of the player, not a winning team at 8 (or 16)yrs old to keep the paycheck coming. Teaching shooting for example would consist of every 8yr old player learning to shoot with both feet, inside and outside of the foot, swerving the ball, volleying, 1 touch from either side, chipping the goalie, and bending the ball with both feet. Is this the type of shooting practices that your club coach runs? Probs not. Most ntx coaches consider lining up and dribbling to the goal as shooting practice- if they do it at all. So our players are missing a lot of technical ability. I think the use of the term skill is misused. It is technical development that is missing, not the ability to dribble 1v3.  (skill?) Imagine trying to coach a youth pitcher to throw a curve ball by saying 'just throw it harder'. Or not working on it at all and then yelling at him for screwing up on game day. Everyone knows that it requires specific technique, its the same in soccer. But very few of our coaches have learned it, and most parents can't recognize it.

Since most of our coaches cut their teeth here in NTX and then in us colleges (at best) they continue the cycle of soccer abuse on our kids. Don't blame them, they can't help it-it's all they know. And more bad coaching is just more of something bad, it's not better. So more practice is not the answer, it's better coaching. Reinforcing bad technique or just ignoring technique just makes players worse. My hope is that your girls/sons will be exposed to exceptional training at some point and they can bring what they learned back to ntx for the next generation of soccer players.

I think there are some excellent coaches here in NTX, sadly they are vastly outnumbered by those that are lacking. Parents need to take the time to find the right fit for their DD/BB. What might be good today, might not be good tomorrow. Dont be afraid to make a move because it might rock the boat or you may be labeled a team jumper. If you are doing what is best for your child all else doesnt matter. I personally learned some lessons recently, I am a wiser man for it and my DD is a better player because of it I am happy to say.

Lead the pack, dont just follow.

borussia do you know Neven Subotic at Dortmund? He played for the US youth national teams for a while..

I know the player, not personally though.

DrSoccer wrote:hmmm... seems this question was being asked 15yrs ago as well. With the advent of academy soccer we are seeing more kids at a higher level. But we see a lot more average players and still very few exceptional soccer players.  Wouldn't you think that if the system really worked we would see an abundance of top caliber players? After watching many pro/youth practices in Europe and S America, I can say that the things they think are important are very different from what we see the guys coaching here. Coaches there get paid to develop players to SELL so the focus is on developing the individual technique of the player, not a winning team at 8 (or 16)yrs old to keep the paycheck coming. Teaching shooting for example would consist of every 8yr old player learning to shoot with both feet, inside and outside of the foot, swerving the ball, volleying, 1 touch from either side, chipping the goalie, and bending the ball with both feet. Is this the type of shooting practices that your club coach runs? Probs not. Most ntx coaches consider lining up and dribbling to the goal as shooting practice- if they do it at all. So our players are missing a lot of technical ability. I think the use of the term skill is misused. It is technical development that is missing, not the ability to dribble 1v3.  (skill?) Imagine trying to coach a youth pitcher to throw a curve ball by saying 'just throw it harder'. Or not working on it at all and then yelling at him for screwing up on game day. Everyone knows that it requires specific technique, its the same in soccer. But very few of our coaches have learned it, and most parents can't recognize it.

Since most of our coaches cut their teeth here in NTX and then in us colleges (at best) they continue the cycle of soccer abuse on our kids. Don't blame them, they can't help it-it's all they know. And more bad coaching is just more of something bad, it's not better. So more practice is not the answer, it's better coaching. Reinforcing bad technique or just ignoring technique just makes players worse. My hope is that your girls/sons will be exposed to exceptional training at some point and they can bring what they learned back to ntx for the next generation of soccer players.

Great post doc...best I've seen in a while.

herradura wrote:This is the stupidest thread ever.

You are all in control of your daughters soccer destiny. Stop blaming everyone else and the "system" for your inadequacies...

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept.

I agree with everything that doc said. But I go back to my original post for the root problem.

We Americans are lazy. We want our kids to be the best, so what do we do? Shell out ridiculous money to coaches to make them the best. Then, after creating this culture of paying to be the best, we rip the clubs for focusing on playing to be the best. Why do they do this? To recruit more parents that will pay for their kid to be the best. Dizzying, I know.

Whats different between us an other cultures is that we pay to have everything done for us rather than getting off of the couch and going in the back yard and practicing skills that we all agree our players lack. Want it to get better? Start with your kid. What? too busy? too hot? too... you get it.

In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10.

herradura wrote:

herradura wrote:This is the stupidest thread ever.

You are all in control of your daughters soccer destiny. Stop blaming everyone else and the "system" for your inadequacies...

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept.

I agree with everything that doc said. But I go back to my original post for the root problem.

We Americans are lazy. We want our kids to be the best, so what do we do? Shell out ridiculous money to coaches to make them the best. Then, after creating this culture of paying to be the best, we rip the clubs for focusing on playing to be the best. Why do they do this? To recruit more parents that will pay for their kid to be the best. Dizzying, I know.

Whats different between us an other cultures is that we pay to have everything done for us rather than getting off of the couch and going in the back yard and practicing skills that we all agree our players lack. Want it to get better? Start with your kid. What? too busy? too hot? too... you get it.

In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10.

Not sure you got the gist of doc's post. The clubs are being ripped because they're focusing on winning, not making kids the "best"..unless u define best by w/l, in which case you're getting what you paid for....long as you win that is...and don't get cut.

And it's not just about doing skills in the yard....you can do that for free. Doc is talking about detail technique that has to be taught and repetitively trained to master. The teaching has to come before the repetition @ home. If a good # of the coaches can't or don't teach it, you can't expect most parents to become soccer pros and do it themselves. It's a knowledge issue, and one of the reasons most parents can't ID a poor coach that wins a lot of games (or great coaches that lose more than a few).

If knoweldgeable coaches could get paid training other coaches and parents, it might improve more quickly than waiting for the next couple generations to increase our cultural soccer awareness.

Really bothered me this weekend at Dynamic Sports Complex. I was there to watch the DA games being played on field 10 so I had to walk past pretty much all the SDL fields to get to the clubhouse. I heard no fewer than 5 parents berating their 9yr old or younger bbs and dds. The "stop being lazy" and "that one is on you" and especially "stop standing around and run" yelled by parents who refuse to come down from the porch to yell at their kid is ridiculous. The most critical thing you heard at the field where the DA games took place was " let's pick it up and keep focused" directed at the team after a silly defensive mistake resulted in a goal. Let the 9yr olds play and learn and get up and walk a couple laps around the complex for goodness sakes.

SMom it's even worse when it's the coach doing the yelling. Once I actually stopped by a sideline of a U8 team and told the parents that they needed to find a new coach - he was cursing the 7 yr old girls as I walked by. After talking to the P's I went to his sideline and told him he needed to do something else with his time, and after the game I called his club DOC. I was shocked that any parent would allow someone to dog cuss their 7yr old dd, even more annoyed that any club would pay him to do it.

I've seen it. It's odd how far parents will let another adult go as far as treatment of their child. When your kid is in college, you hope you've taught them how to deal with it and how much to take, but youth academy? How can we hope to have dds and bbs that want to step on the pitch? I guess it is kind of ironic that in DA the parents and players actually have way more at stake and behavior is that much more stringently controlled. I also saw groups of u8 parents traverse straight through the DA field I'm talking midfield during halftime of the game. The coaches and players were dumbfounded.

herradura wrote:

herradura wrote:This is the stupidest thread ever.

You are all in control of your daughters soccer destiny. Stop blaming everyone else and the "system" for your inadequacies...

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept.

I agree with everything that doc said. But I go back to my original post for the root problem.

We Americans are lazy. We want our kids to be the best, so what do we do? Shell out ridiculous money to coaches to make them the best. Then, after creating this culture of paying to be the best, we rip the clubs for focusing on playing to be the best. Why do they do this? To recruit more parents that will pay for their kid to be the best. Dizzying, I know.

Whats different between us an other cultures is that we pay to have everything done for us rather than getting off of the couch and going in the back yard and practicing skills that we all agree our players lack. Want it to get better? Start with your kid. What? too busy? too hot? too... you get it.

In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10.

Fortunately, the American women have been able to overcome their inherent laziness and cultural disadvantage to maintain their #1 world ranking.

FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking

Women's Ranking

1 USA
2 Germany
3 Japan
4 Brazil
5 Sweden
6 France
7 Canada
8 Australia
8 Korea  
10 Norway
11 England

17 Spain

24 Mexico

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept

just a few thoughts mr simple, it is blazingly hot and humid in texas for many months, this is not san diego, 2nd, i'm not practicing my first touch and dont want to go out every night, third its a kids game and her first touch is not a matter of life or death...carry on

LHD wrote:

herradura wrote:

herradura wrote:This is the stupidest thread ever.

You are all in control of your daughters soccer destiny. Stop blaming everyone else and the "system" for your inadequacies...

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept.

I agree with everything that doc said. But I go back to my original post for the root problem.

We Americans are lazy. We want our kids to be the best, so what do we do? Shell out ridiculous money to coaches to make them the best. Then, after creating this culture of paying to be the best, we rip the clubs for focusing on playing to be the best. Why do they do this? To recruit more parents that will pay for their kid to be the best. Dizzying, I know.

Whats different between us an other cultures is that we pay to have everything done for us rather than getting off of the couch and going in the back yard and practicing skills that we all agree our players lack. Want it to get better? Start with your kid. What? too busy? too hot? too... you get it.

In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10.

Fortunately, the American women have been able to overcome their inherent laziness and cultural disadvantage to maintain their #1 world ranking.

FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking

Women's Ranking

1 USA
2 Germany
3 Japan
4 Brazil
5 Sweden
6 France
7 Canada
8 Australia
8 Korea  
10 Norway
11 England

17 Spain

24 Mexico

Might it be that there is no significant money to be made in developing women's soccer players in the rest of the world as no market exists for the developed assets?  

Our pay to play and college model may be the most effective model given the financial realities of women's soccer.

"In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10"

your posts are so america hating i thought this was the washington post, but i digress. kids quit soccer because frankly they dont want to play. soccer is a default sport for little kids to get exercise. it is easy, lots of running and is simple to understand. we love the game but thats the truth...

Lefty wrote:

LHD wrote:

herradura wrote:

herradura wrote:This is the stupidest thread ever.

You are all in control of your daughters soccer destiny. Stop blaming everyone else and the "system" for your inadequacies...

How about this to make NTX soccer better: Everyone go pass in the back yard with your daughter for 20 minutes a night and her first touch will get amazingly better... Wow, what a f-ing concept.

I agree with everything that doc said. But I go back to my original post for the root problem.

We Americans are lazy. We want our kids to be the best, so what do we do? Shell out ridiculous money to coaches to make them the best. Then, after creating this culture of paying to be the best, we rip the clubs for focusing on playing to be the best. Why do they do this? To recruit more parents that will pay for their kid to be the best. Dizzying, I know.

Whats different between us an other cultures is that we pay to have everything done for us rather than getting off of the couch and going in the back yard and practicing skills that we all agree our players lack. Want it to get better? Start with your kid. What? too busy? too hot? too... you get it.

In other cultures, soccer is fun. It is something that is done with family, at picnics, at reunions, on the street with friends after school. Here it's a job that we sign our kids up for at 5 years old and then wonder why the "love for the game" fades by 10.

Fortunately, the American women have been able to overcome their inherent laziness and cultural disadvantage to maintain their #1 world ranking.

FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking

Women's Ranking

1 USA
2 Germany
3 Japan
4 Brazil
5 Sweden
6 France
7 Canada
8 Australia
8 Korea  
10 Norway
11 England

17 Spain

24 Mexico

Might it be that there is no significant money to be made in developing women's soccer players in the rest of the work as no market exists for the developed assets?  

Our pay to play and college model may be the most effective model given the financial realities of women's soccer.

Lefty:  I am so disappointed in you ...

I'm guessing you didn't get the memo.  Rather than make insightful and thought provoking observations like the above, you are supposed to suggest (without support or reason) that Herradura is wrong, stupid or a whiner. Maybe include a juvenile reference to a bodily function or human anatomy to really make your point.

I take complete exception to the statement that US parents are lazy. They are not. Some are a little obsessed but never lazy.

Soccer is played for fun outside the US but it's also very organized especially for boys. Girls don't generally play soccer in an un-organized way with each other outside the States. Any more than they'd spontaneously start a game of touch or flag football here. Boys are coached and organized at a very early age. A cousin of mine from Poland was trying out for Stoke City at 15. That's assuming they're any good and if they aren't they stay playing on the street and in parks, like I did.

I happen to like the opportunities girls have in the US to be athletic and be celebrated for it. I really hope the standard continues to rise and the kids continue to improve so women’s soccer isn't a distant second best to the men’s game.

What's wrong with NTX Soccer? Nothing much. I salute it and the chances it gives kids to be really great at the beautiful game. That green grass some folks are seeing is pretty weedy when you get close, there’s plenty of burn out at the top level in any sport.

Your DD is part of a team. If the team wins you win that's why it's a team sport. If the coach is sacrificing the team's success for your daughter they are compromising the many for the one. That would be wrong of them. That is absolutely fundamental to soccer. Very communist and very European. The coachiing in NTX is generally pretty good and worth the money. As in all sports the journey is the destination. In womens soccer it had better be because the destination is not a $56 Million transer fee.

Then again I have never experienced girls soccer - so what do I know. It's fun and interesting and so far it's a good journey.

Borussia wrote:You are correct, but the 7v7 is the bread and butter, regular league play.  When was the last time the 01s in NTX played some 7v7 besides a practice drill?

..be tough for the clubs to justify 18 player rosters if only 7 were on the pitch....besides someone would have to pay for longer benches...