A parents must read.. player development

I'm not sure how we stop the snowball but until parents learn, north Texas will continue to lag behind.. The fact that we have rankings for ages as young as U8 shows delusional parents AND coaches are. Ive had parents ask me to guarantee their kids will get a scholarship if they play on my U8 team..

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/more-sports/soccer/headlines/20150607-why-isn-t-texas-producing-members-of-the-women-s-world-cup-team.ece

So true! Thanks for passing it along!

Like so much else in this country it's someone else fault. It's the coach, the leagues, the refs, and the fields. Wrong. It's simply the parents, if you're on a team at 10 years old that places winning over development you simply need to leave. When enough people decide to walk their own path instead of worrying who walking with them the clubs and coaches will change.

But be ready, that may mean there's no spot at the top clubs for your big and fast DD and you may have to invest time and effort helping her develop into the best footballer rather than a trophy collector.

^ what he said.

Maybe, it's just extremely difficult to make the USWNT.

Maybe WNT hasn't won a world cup since '99 because they don't use enough NTX players. Just sayin'

Sho'nuff wrote:Maybe, it's just extremely difficult to make the USWNT.

This.

The average age of WNT is 30...add to that the groups of coaches that run the program are all connected...clearly politics is a massive part of the equation.

The whole...big/fast/athletic thing is just a tired argument easily rehashed but has litttle bearing on reality. If anything the recent player selections on YNTs have favored small, quick  technical players over big and fast ones.  The whole NTX focuses too much on winning is also a lazy argument...roll out to surf cup where they are trying to win national tournaments at u10 and tell me how socal focuses any less on winning. Winning and development are not mutually exclusive and over the years I've come over to the side that says if you roll a bunch of scrimmage leagues out you will ID the practice players but you won't separate the wheat from the chaffe on who can do it under pressure in big games.

If Waldrum and his entire coaching network were running the NT instead of Ellis, you'd see more texas girls at every level. All the other stuff is mostly noise and there isn't some huge difference in development between all these pay to players from coast to coast.

Yes, Poor coaching and the win-at-all-cost system are the easiest to blame - but I think the referees are to blame as well.  Too many times, you see a team that is clearly superior skills-wise just get beat up by a bigger, more physical albeit less skilled team.  By not calling these fouls, they encourage the overtly physical play, and establish it as the NTX "style".  Haven't you noticed that when you travel outside Texas for a tournament, that your team seems to get called on what you perceive to be every little ticky-tacky touch?  That's because you are so used to it not being called here in NTX.

U-11 players make mistakes.  They don't have a first touch like the pros and when the player is getting shoved, elbowed, tripped, etc. before they can get their second touch or get their head up, the game devolves into a typical NTX shoving match, and the thuggiest team wins.  That's why the big, fast, aggressive player succeeds in NTX, but not on the world stage.  Sure, there is a smaller player here and there that play with skill and are successful - but many more potential world-class NTX players give up on soccer before the game can come back to them.  

Around U-15/16, the game changes a bit, and skill becomes a factor again.  Defenses can't commit 3 roving defenders to chase the ball all over the field, and skill becomes a much larger factor.  The big/fast/aggressive player had better learn some skills real quick or they are in trouble.  The skilled players that have been in hiding are starting to make their presence known, and the college recruiters start coming around.  All of a sudden, coaches have to coach soccer instead of rugby, and it becomes a mix of a few very good players surrounded by a bunch of phenomenal athletes that are just now learning the actual game.  Again, the skilled player is hampered by the lack of development in their teammates, and although they are easily identified as skilled players, the result of the match is not always pretty soccer. When your outside mid is just learning how to do a 1-2 run at U-15 instead of just blasting full speed up the line and outrunning everyone as they have for the last 4 years, its not pretty.

Result?
NTX has top teams nationally at U-11, but by U-15+ not so much.  The reason may very well be that the limited number of skilled players that survived the NTX program up to this point are all playing center-mid on 10 different teams, instead of having skilled players at every position.  But at U-16, its a bit late to start teaching skills that they should have been learning at U-11...but then again that the NTX style...if you don't like it, move....right?

Hooligan wrote:  Haven't you noticed that when you travel outside Texas for a tournament, that your team seems to get called on what you perceive to be every little ticky-tacky touch?  That's because you are so used to it not being called here in NTX.

No - haven't noticed this at all. What I've noticed is some refs call tight games, some allow lots of contact. Some teams are very physical, and physical and skilled are not mutually exclusive at the highest level. The best team I've seen at DDs age group was very highly skilled, AND extremely physical. NTX style has a bad rap historically, but I don't think it applies to current crop of players. Socal and east coast have their share of direct, physical teams, and the best technical teams in NTX are every bit as skillful as the best technical teams in other regions.

Hooligan wrote:
Around U-15/16, the game changes a bit, and skill becomes a factor again.  Defenses can't commit 3 roving defenders to chase the ball all over the field, and skill becomes a much larger factor.  The big/fast/aggressive player had better learn some skills real quick or they are in trouble.  The skilled players that have been in hiding are starting to make their presence known, and the college recruiters start coming around.  All of a sudden, coaches have to coach soccer instead of rugby, and it becomes a mix of a few very good players surrounded by a bunch of phenomenal athletes that are just now learning the actual game.  

Again - some of this is overused cliché material. Do you watch college soccer much? The routine contact you see in college would have these club soccer parents screaming bloody murder. How does college soccer end up such a physical game unless the college coaches are selecting these players? Please stop with the big/fast/aggressive vs skill...as if you can only be one or the other. The top players are fast, aggressive AND skillfull...size is only important in a few positions. I agree with you that the group being LET DOWN the most are the big/fast/aggressive early developers who are used to win games moreso than nurtured...but I just don't see much evidence NTX is any worse or better at this than anywhere else.

Hooligan wrote:
Result?
NTX has top teams nationally at U-11, but by U-15+ not so much.  The reason may very well be that the limited number of skilled players that survived the NTX program up to this point are all playing center-mid on 10 different teams, instead of having skilled players at every position.  But at U-16, its a bit late to start teaching skills that they should have been learning at U-11...but then again that the NTX style...if you don't like it, move....right?  

How are you defining top team? Winn - loss records? NTX has as many "top" teams at U15 as they do at u11. We don't win as many national championships as we used to because ALL the talent no longer funnels into the same two clubs.

OK...I am the crazy outlier - you are in the majority and actually believe that all is rosy in NTX. Which is exactly why NTX will remain on the same downward spiral when it comes to development - and then the only national team that will want our NTX players is Mexico. (oh wait, that's true today)

Hi Coach, please don't blame the parents for this issue.

You have the similar kind of parents all over the country, it is NTX failed to produce players for Team USA.

The problem is the Clubs, to be specific, Solar, Texans, FC Dallas, Sting. It is these big clubs select to not spend effort to develop young players, but waiting other clubs to feed them.

SEAOTTER wrote: I'm not sure how we stop the snowball but until parents learn, north Texas will continue to lag behind.. The fact that we have rankings for ages as young as U8 shows delusional parents AND coaches are. Ive had parents ask me to guarantee their kids will get a scholarship if they play on my U8 team..

 http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/more-sports/soccer/headlines/20150607-why-isn-t-texas-producing-members-of-the-women-s-world-cup-team.ece

Hooligan wrote:OK...I am the crazy outlier - you are in the majority and actually believe that all is rosy in NTX.  Which is exactly why NTX will remain on the same downward spiral when it comes to development - and then the only national team that will want our NTX players is Mexico.  (oh wait, that's true today)

Clearly I'm the outlier. What you're saying is party line and oft repeated. We used to have a very eloquent poster calling himself Dr. Soccer that used to post every YNT camp roster and go on a tirade about the missing NTX names.

So now we get a coach who is in the Ellis/Heinrich coaching tree that moves to Texas...lo and behold...more Texas players magically start showing up on rosters of youth national teams. Was that magic? NTX development had a sudden and dramatic improvement?

I'm not saying all is fine and dandy in NTX soccer...far from it. It's a cluster...made more diluted by recent business moves by competing soccer orgs. All I'm saying is whatever is ailing NTX is also ailing the other soccer regions, and you can't use NTX lack of presence on full national team as a barometer. We've been all over the country and I don't see anyone else playing like Bayern or Barca. They have the same collections of styles as we do.

show me trends where NTX is committing fewer and fewer players to college...then I'll buy the "downward spiral" argument.

And yes, US Soccer is well aware they have lost some players to Mexico, and they are being much more careful to ID and bring players with hispanic ancestry into the fold (in the YNTs). some of them wouldn't make US teams, but some of them USSF would be crazy NOT to have in the pool. If you're thinking all of them are going to Mexico because US doesn't want them, you're misinformed. Some of them just don't want to wait on the politics.

If Crystal Dunn couldn't get past the politics, I don't know why anyone would think random top player from NTX can do it.

Wait, since when did the U.S. WNT play pretty soccer? Maybe still under Pia, but what they do now is simply an upgraded version of the college kick and chase game. Whatch FSU from last season and you'll see everything in living color. We win because we physically wear down the opponents or win one on one battles. Watch tonight and tell me we play nicer football than Sweeden.

Haven't seen many of the games, but did watch the last France game. Night and day playing style difference between the two.

Oh, and you can't look at the National team in a state by state manner, you have to look at by college. If your DD can't play for UNC or Stanford then she's got a long road ahead of her. Given that ask yourselves how many members of NTX squads are good enough, recruited, and willing to attend?

SD69 wrote:Haven't seen many of the games, but did watch the last France game. Night and day playing style difference between the two.

Not this argument again. Good soccer at the pro and national team level is evaluated by which team outscores the other. How pretty it looks is irrelevant.

I am sick and tired of hearing that its the "PARENTS FAULT".

I as a Parent (and probably everyone else) I want 2 things for my DD (and it will never go away either):
1.  Is my DD and the team developing?
2.  Want a winning record (60-70% is fine)(Who starts out telling their child "...ok go out and play for 4th place???)

    The cards are stacked against us Parents.  We as parents act this way because we get treated this way!  We have to worry about signing day, is the team going to make, does the coach like us, is the club charging to much, do I have to keep fundraising/selling those damn "Flats of Flowers   .  We as parents HAVE to play by the rules...the same rules that Associations, Clubs, & Coaches set.  This process only gives us parents 1 choice:  Move to another team.

So when you don't give us much options......don't expect much back from us.

    Everyone knows that its "Big Business" here in NTX.  Yes, I'm kinda old school and I didn't see any coaches in my youth be able to coach 10yr olds as their sole occupation.

    I do agree that there is pressure there to WIN.... No DOUBT, but its also development and us Parents can tell when were not getting either of the two!  So because those Associations, Clubs & Coaches take my money....DAMN STRAIGHT I GET A SAY IN THE MATTER!

Associations, Clubs and Coaches:  You are the RULE MAKERS and CHANGERS.

Change the Mind and the Body will follow!

SocDad wrote:     Yes, I'm kinda old school and I didn't see any coaches in my youth be able to coach 10yr olds as their sole occupation.

And we have a winner. Too many adults making too much money off too many kids. If coaches and DOCs weren't paying bills off these kids, there wouldn't be such a rat race. The explosion of profit makers replacing volunteers is not exclusive to NTX, which is why NTX is not really any different than socal or east coast, and the idea their players are any better developed goes out the window once you see them for yourself.

A very select few of these kids need to be trained by pros, and those gifted few shouldn't be paying much at all. The vast majority of our kids could be equally well served by better educating dad and mom coaches and getting the big bucks out of what should be an inexpensive youth sport.

Funny how when coach speak articles rail on parents for being too focused on winning, the part about them getting paid for what used to be volunteer work is never brought up.

Right on, it is the clubs and coaches that messed up our talents and wasted our money for generations. And now those suckers try to blame the victims and their customers for their failures.

SocDad wrote:

Associations, Clubs and Coaches:  You are the RULE MAKERS and CHANGERS.

Change the Mind and the Body will follow!

What BS. Stop paying and the system will crumble. But no it's easier to simply complain about the system. And guess what your 10 year old doesn't care who she's playing and how many games she wins. You do. You have put the pressure on her to win. By what you've said, how you have reacted in the car, and the coach you've stuck her with. Why else would she be on a team in D1 that plays kickball? If you really cared about her development you'd search out the coaches and clubs that do try to do things the right way even if that meant dropping to D2 or D3. But that would mean taking the fancy sticker off your car wouldn't it? Wait you've already bought into college recruitment story for your 10 year old already, haven't you? And let me guess if your little darling isn't playing in the Surf Cup already her career is shot.

Blaming the system is the same mentality that creates a 2 hour wait at Olive Garden and then wondering why the food isn't better.

ElClassico wrote:What BS. Stop paying and the system will crumble. But no it's easier to simply complain about the system. And guess what your 10 year old doesn't care who she's playing and how many games she wins. You do. You have put the pressure on her to win. By what you've said, how you have reacted in the car, and the coach you've stuck her with. Why else would she be on a team in D1 that plays kickball? If you really cared about her development you'd search out the coaches and clubs that do try to do things the right way even if that meant dropping to D2 or D3. But that would mean taking the fancy sticker off your car wouldn't it? Wait you've already bought into college recruitment story for your 10 year old already, haven't you? And let me guess if your little darling isn't playing in the Surf Cup already her career is shot.

Blaming the system is the same mentality that creates a 2 hour wait at Olive Garden and then wondering why the food isn't better.

This is spot on. The frustrating thing is while the clubs are in a lot of cases mismanaged by morons...there's a line of idiots out front wanting to pay. When you watch some of the teams fielded by some clubs play you scratch your head. Crappy coach not teaching kids anything and kids that should probably be playing for fun instead of "competitively " I think it's a great sport and it shouldn't be limited to the 10 yr old superstars but when someone is willing to pay $3k so their kid can play higher level rec....can't blame the used car salesman for coming out of the woodwork.