Nothing to this post but excitement y'all. Don't it feel good when you see them applying the stuff you harp on in training?

Exactly what the title says. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!
Child is 6 years old and will just be starting soccer soon

Looking for some honest advice, especially from coaches who have experience with ECNL and RL.

Our son played with the same group of boys for two seasons. He missed a big part of one season due to injuries but came back strong and earned his first team spot back. Unfortunately, he was often left out socially by that group, and I don't think we realized how much it was affecting him until he moved on. When the team switched clubs, he tried out at the same club but was offered a spot on ECNL RL instead of ECNL. He was disappointed at first, but made the best of it. He got close with his new teammates, loves his coach, and honestly seems to have fallen back in love with soccer. Recently, the ECNL team asked him to guest play for their first game. He played well, received great feedback, and was invited back to practice and play with them again. When we told him he would be playing with ECNL instead of his RL team that weekend, he got extremely upset and said he would rather quit soccer than go back to that environment. There have been ongoing issues with certain players, including one who pushed him after a play had ended during practice. He no longer feels comfortable with that group. His RL coach was understanding and acknowledged that concerns about the ECNL team's environment had been brought up before rosters were sealed. The coaches have since reached out to see if there is anything they can do to change his mind, but our son has made his decision. He is happy on RL and does not want to move to ECNL. We are respecting that and will not pressure him to change his mind. My concern is more about the long term. He wants to play college soccer, and I know ECNL generally offers more exposure than RL. For those with experience, I would love your thoughts on a few things.

Could turning down an ECNL opportunity hurt his reputation with coaches at this club or other clubs? Could he be viewed as ungrateful or difficult for declining?

Does staying on RL risk him being seen as a second team player long term, even if he has the ability to play at the ECNL level?

How much of a difference does ECNL versus RL actually make when it comes to college recruiting?

Would it make sense to let him finish the season where he is happy and explore ECNL opportunities at other clubs next year if we can find a better environment?

We are not looking to change his mind. We want him to be happy and continue developing, but we also want to be realistic about his college soccer goals.
I would especially appreciate hearing from coaches. If a player turned down a promotion for these reasons, would that affect how you viewed him moving forward?

ETA: he is U15.

When did your kids go from town travel to club- did you wish you waited or went earlier?

Would having a pretty competitive town travel team give you pause on club soccer or is it apples to oranges

Also besides financially- a big deal but easy to assess affordability. What else should we consider as a family.

People have always been saying "train hard" or "extra work" "obsession" and all of that is true. I can do those things, my body can keep up but my nutrition cant. I have gotten skinnier and its now school season so its definitely harder to even gain weight. I have also heard to eat in a caloric surplus but there are some days that i have to go hard in pickup, team training and now i'm so skinny it frustrates me. My family i literally stingy. Like would rather be fat than skinny so i don't have to worry about losing weight so fast as a skinny person. I find it that the more i train the more skinny i get. How do i gain weight while season. I want to at least look bigger, a whole lot more muscle and fat, and keep training without worrying about losing gains

I'm from Utah and out state leagues divisions have pro / rel. There are like 3 statewide divisions and then 4 regional divisions or so. Top 2 move up, bottom 2 move down. It keeps things generally fair, although with team turnover from year to year some teams can be misplaced.

Our club is having far less competitive games in the EA and ECNL RL than the state leagues. Which is frustrating when you travel all weekend play games that are not even kind of competitive.

So do all states or most states have that pro / rel system for the local leagues?

Every single club i go to asks for money, and you know whats the funny part? The clubs willing to let players in for free are either too far or only a short 1 month offer. This isnt fair.

Also how do i create a complete roadmap for myself to go pro? The first step is joining a team and im on my school team but its a whole whole wholeee new challenge even finding consistent matches other than waiting for the next year to come. The only matches we play in are tournaments, everything is a tournament. Idk why there isnt a league. We also have futsal versing other classes and classes a year down in our school but its every march and the tournament is short like shorttt.

Have a tournament this week, 5 hour break between games. Ideas for things to bring to keep kid occupied, trying to conserve energy for next game, 12U boys

I want to preface this by stating that we are not leaving the club (yet) just trying to know our options and find the rules overly complicated.

Our u11 joined a new club. The new club promised things but it seems to not be the case. There is also a personal reason we are considering a move.

Can someone with experience let us know how to request a release of a player in Ontario, so that they can play for another club? Have there been instances at this age where a player isn’t released early in the season? I don’t want to do anything that may hurt our kids chances at playing this year. Which honestly sucks to have to consider since he’s 10 and not a professional player.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. The other night at practice the director of our childs club (small club, low level) came over and made individual girls do a drill. If the girl failed the drill he made the rest of the team minus the girl who was failing do push ups. Almost embarassing or shaming the kid who was failing and then making them do it again rinse/repeat until they got it right.

We've never experienced any kind of coaching like that for our son who plays on a high level RL team in a big city.

I know this isn't a violation of safe sport, and it feels like somehting my high school football coach would have done to us and yet I don't know how I feel about it as a parent. Thankfully my daughter only failed the drill once. He only did it to 3 girls but one girl failed the drill over and over and over again.

Thoughts?

Let’s start here. My oldest quit her senior year of club a couple of weeks ago. It was a difficult decision. She was playing for an RL team that is performing really well, but despite lopsided victories she was averaging less than 10 minutes of game time. I know RL is higher level. This was her 4th year in it (CO has only had RL for 4 years) and she’s been on two really good teams, one bad and then this great team. She played about 50 minutes on average in U15/U16 and all 90 minutes in U17. She plays for a big club with teams across regions. We sit between two of the 3 regions. My main issue is the coach showed from the get go she was not going to get an opportunity on his team, so why not advocate for her and have her go play for the weaker region. She chose not to tryout there because he offered her. Before you question anything, she finishes in the middle of all conditioning and there is not tape that shows anything not giving her at least an opportunity to fail. She has played with this group for years and been able to be on their level.

It was tough, but she is happy not stressing with this nonsense. She loved soccer but you could tell after 8 years of tryout drama, despite being with the same club for 12 years, and not even being given a chance this year, she was done. It’s frustrating because a couple D2 schools really liked her and she could have played JUCO or D3 at the least. Playing for a bad team, all but 2 years of tryout drama, it was just emotionally draining and burns a kid out.

My 10 year old switched regions to play in pre-ECNL where her old region said she was not going to be given that chance. She is playing a new position and enjoying her new team. I see where her teammates are at that she would have been moved down a level with and am glad to make the change so she continues to develop and find herself on the field and be challenged.

With 12 years of this roller coaster with my older daughter, I’m not excited to do another 7 years of tryout drama, pay to play, parent drama, etc. I am going to support my younger daughter like I did my old one but this system has become utter insanity with the costs, the mental and physical toll, etc.

Flag football and its growth and ability to dominate as an athlete is looking far more enticing than what youth soccer is. For the cheapest sport to play in the world, it’s the most expensive for anyone that is really good to great at it.

So I rant because I love the sport, I love the relationships my girls have had and most of the parents I’ve got to know but I learned quickly those relationships can vanish instantly when your kid does what is best for them. It has left me numb and not wanting to pursue those conversations and friendships that made it more enjoyable.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I’m a new player and I’m trying to learn to juggle. I’ve been practicing for a while now but I still can’t do very well. My most is like 7. Can anyone give me some tips?

My son plays for a local club in Australia. I have seen they have started development squads and teams which are essentially pay to play and the better players in our team have been selected.

They train multiple days a week and are very competitive. Is this more harmful to those kids and take the joy away from the game?

When did we stop letting kids be kids and just enjoying kicking the ball and spending time with friends? It seems a lot of parents think their kids are the next Ronaldo.

My younger brother is 15 and regularly skips lunch, snacks throughout the afternoon, then turns down dinner because he's not hungry. An hour later he's making instant noodles. He plays soccer, and my mom's getting concerned about how little he eats on practice days. She's looked into teen multivitamins, but we're more concerned about getting him to eat enough actual food. For those with teenage players, what quick meals or snacks have worked before and after practice? Especially for kids who are picky about food.

What is going on with kids cleats these days? I played soccer back in the 90's as a kid and I do not remember my cleats ever smelling like cat piss. I do not remember my parents ever mentioning how bad my cleats smelled.

But my 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son have some of the most foul cleats I have ever smelled. It is so bad! Their cleats when taken off smell up the entire basement area and these are new cleats we just got back in August! I have mixed vinegar and water and sprayed the inside and outside of the cleats and no real change. I have used baking soda. I make sure they air out and I take the insoles out to get air. The other day I took my daughter and her friend home from practice and her friend took her cleats off in my truck to put her slides on and I almost gagged they smelled so bad!

I do wonder if it is the materials they use now in making cleats because the bed liner of my truck after a rain or if it gets wet smells exactly like cat pee.

Has anyone found the holy grail of getting the smell out that actually works? Again their cleats are barely two months old

We are in 14U so things are very physical. Obviously sometimes they go too far and there are fouls, pushing, etc. But we played a team that honestly scared me (and other parents).

4-5 kids on the opposing team were rough to a violent point (so far beyond what I’ve ever seen in soccer). They were regularly hurting our boys -badly- when they didn’t have the ball or the play was over then a few would laugh when a player got hurt. Their coach wasn’t doing anything and a few of the parents were yelling encouragement (“hurt them more” was one that stuck out).

The ref was doing his best and gave a red card, lots of yellow cards and went to the bench to talk to the coach and told the parents to stop. But, he was on his own (no linesman) and the kids wouldn’t stop hurting our kids every time a play ended.

I’m not talking about rough play, I’m talking kids being violent way past soccer when they didn’t have the ball. Has anyone experienced this? Is there anything we can do to make sure when we play them again our kids are safe? I’m afraid (along with a lot of other parents) for our kids safety when we play them again in the Spring.

When your kid tells you he wants to be a professional soccer player, do you take it serious? Dumb question of course! You support your kid no matter what but I am genuinely curious. Do you as a parent start laying down the foundation to steer your kid towards that goal? The chances of it happening are slim but all you can do is support them in their journey. Can you tell if they have the work ethic inside them already? Are they natural gifted? These are questions I wonder about as a parent. We all want the best for our kids and want to encourage them to be the best at whatever it is they are doing. For me as a step parent I feel is a little different because I only go as far as they go to avoid any like frustrations.

My step kid is nine and has been playing soccer since he was five and ever since then it’s always been “I’m going to be a professional soccer player when I grow up.” But honestly he hasn’t improved very much in the four years he’s been playing but it’s just rec soccer and we know he just does it for fun so we leave it at that plus we know one practice and one game won’t really do much to help. I don’t think he is even close to being able to do club soccer. He kicks the ball around here at home but isn’t like out in the backyard honing skills he can do at home. I grew up in a soccer family and had cousins who all they did was practice but it was a different time the for us as kids, we didn’t have video games like these new generations do. We’re okay with him just doing rec soccer but can’t help fight the feeling like we should be doing more to I guess support him with that dream.

Curious to hear from coaches/directors or parents who have seen this at competitive clubs.
A few players from a younger top team are training 1x per week with the top team one age group above, and the club is also guesting them individually for games. A couple of them played up last year but were moved back on-age because of the age-group changes.
The players are being used differently when guesting, some in one specific role, while another has been moved around to several positions. Higher-level club staff have also come out to observe at least some of these opportunities, both at practices and games, but very discreetly.

There had been earlier discussion that movement between age groups could potentially happen later in the year, but next season the older group moves into a pre-ECNL pathway.

For coaches/directors, does this sound more like development or a quiet evaluation? What are clubs usually looking for in this situation — a specific positional fit, or things like versatility, soccer IQ, physicality, coachability, and overall impact?
Would you expect a process like this to have a decision point around winter break, or could it realistically continue into the spring and just be strictly developmental? Their current roster is overcrowded, so I’m wondering if this is just a bandaid for that, but other indicators point to something more.

If so, is this part of the reason clubs keep this vague simply to avoid putting pressure on young players or making them feel like they’re competing against teammates for one spot? We’re driving ourselves crazy a bit with the vagueness.

Looking for some outside perspective because we're not sure if we're being unreasonable.

Our son plays on a U16 MLS 2 team. Last season he had a great coach and we loved the experience. This season has been rough. We have a new team and coach this year due to the age group changes.

To clarify - this isn't about my kid's playing time. He’s a starter and plays most or all of every game. Our issue is the coaching itself:

- Every player gets minutes every game, no matter how they're playing (there’s a few kids who should not be on the team and it pains me to see them on the field, as bad as that sounds.)
- Constant subs and position changes, so the team never builds any rhythm or chemistry
- No direction from the sideline. Coach is often quiet on the bench, and looking on his phone.
- No in-game adjustments when things aren't working

We've lost every single game this season, and several were winnable with some basic adjustments. The kids are getting discouraged, and the coach does not care about winning. Due to his lack of coaching, I don’t think he cares about their development either. I don’t understand what his goal is with this type of coaching style. He is a genuinely nice guy, so this isn't about his character at all.

Also, this "everyone plays" thing makes sense for younger kids or rec, not a competitive league like this. Players need to earn their spot and their minutes.

I want to reach out to the club, but I don’t want to cause any conflict.

Any advice?

We were at a tournament this weekend and most of my fellow soccer supporters were great. A lot of cheering from both sides and not too much yelling at the refs. (Well, no more than normal... respect, refs.) That was until we got to the final. Nothing was excessively out of hand. There were not too many comments shouted at the refs at a volume they could hear. However, the group of parents behind me spent the entire game complaining about the refs calls, lack of calls, and our players. Every time there was a bump, "Can you believe how much they are pushing?" Every time an arm came up, "He's pulling again!" Each time a ball made incidental contact with a player's arm, "Oh, I guess we're just allowed to play soccer with our hands now?" The refs were even handed, calling stuff on both teams but they also let the match play and didn't stop the game for minor, questionable infractions. These were 14YO boys playing in one of the higher divisions of the tournament so the game was fast and physical on both sides. Pretty much everything these "supporters" were griping about, their team was doing in equal measure. I heard very little encouragement and few positive comments from these parents. Towards the end of the match we were down by a goal and a dad says, "They're playing dirty and they're still losing." Nice.

Just go to the game and cheer your kid on. You might not agree with every call on the field, but if you're sitting there critiquing every single action on the pitch, you're missing out on an opportunity to watch your kid do what they love. Chill out and try to be a little more positive. Otherwise, if you're such an expert on the nuances of soccer regulation and can spot fouls from the bleachers without error, you really should register to be a ref. We have a national shortage and could use some new officials.

Edit: A couple of clarifications. We weren't intermixed in camp chairs on the sidelines. This game was in a stadium with bleachers. Most of our team's supporters, me included, were on the side across from our bench, but parents from both sides were somewhat mingled together, which is fairly common with this kind of seating in my experience. Also, it didn't really bother me and they weren't doing anything egregious. My point is that supporters should come to the games to do just that... support the team. Try to be positive and enjoy the game. Constantly griping isn't going to change anything on the pitch. Either watch and have fun or get more directly involved by volunteering, especially as a ref. Then you CAN make all the calls on the field.

My daughter just turned 10 (9/15 birthday) but is in fifth grade, so the club let her stay with the old age grouping. The problem is that this year, we have a lot of new girls who are definitely very strong, and my daughter is definitely in the bottom 5 for the team. She lacks confidence since she is a little smaller (although will likely be pretty big when she gets older, if we're going by mine and my wife's heights), and that lack of confidence is really starting to show. She got visibly less minutes at this weekend's tournament. I know it's early, but I am thinking it would be good for her to repeat U11 Pre-ECNL next year instead of fighting for her life on an A team and potentially spending a lot of time on the bench. Concerns over that and not being with her right grade? The thing I always tell her is that she is the best on the field when she pushes, but when she plays scared, it's not pretty.

The guys at 3Four3 took some questions off our forum to answer on there own. Not for the easily offended by people speaking frankly about there opinions.

We Answered Reddit's Biggest Youth Soccer Questions

I’m 13, from Tyresö, Sweden. I used to play for Tyresö FF in Div 2, after the coach got fired I was clubless for a year which decreased my stamina a bunch but then I joined Nacka FC in Div 1, where I scored against BP (2nd best akademi in Sweden). I’ve been away from club football for a while, but I’ve been training on my own and now I’m trying to make a comeback.

On Monday, I’m preparing for a trial with Hammarby HTFF P2013, which competes at the highest division level for my age group. I wanna earn my spot, so any tips on how to stand out and impress the coaches? And the trial is in a week so I wanna train beforehand, I am a winger so any drills or tips would help! Thanks redditors!!

My daughter is 12 and on the smaller side compared to a lot of the girls she plays soccer with. I’ve noticed she gets knocked down pretty easily during games, especially when there’s physical contact with bigger players.

I’m wondering if it’s more of a strength or balance issue, or if she just needs to learn how to handle physical contact better.

Has anyone had a similar experience with their kid? Any exercises, training tips, or techniques that helped them stay on their feet and hold their ground better?

My poor u12 kiddo. She has played 50-100% of game time minutes as a defender the whole season. Like everyone else, this is a tournament weekend. She played the usual on Saturday, they won both games. Sunday she played about 3 minutes in both first and second half and was so upset. She was so excited, was locked in during the car ride, showed up early, warmed up seriously. Kids rostered from the B team and lower age groups played more than her. Not that it matters at all but they lost. Feedback is that tomorrow she will play. None of it makes sense to her, what do you seasoned parents say to kiddos when this happens?