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Does anyone have any info or pros and cons of starting travel for players at U10? Our club starts at U11, however we are getting requests from members to start at U10. We have a solid rec program and the thinking is that this would be a detriment to the kids development and our abiltiy to field enough rec teams at this age group.
Any help on how to develop a proposal for or against this be helpful.
Thanks.
That's always a tough question, and honestly I think you have to step back and decide what is best for your club and the kids overall. I'm curious why it would be a detriment to the kid's development since the travel coaching tends to be better than Rec coaching - though not always.
My view is this - assuming the kids will get the same or better coaching on a travel team as they do in Rec, the variable is the travel and playing teams and kids the players haven't faced before. In our league's view, we think this helps the kids in their development, but the U10 coaches have to be a special breed and understand that in U10 (and even U11/U12), its not about the wins/losses. It's about development. I think player son travel teams with coaches who get it do every well. On teams where the coach just wants to win - you'll find a few strong kids benefiting and the others not because they don't play much. So if you do decide to do U10 travel, you should lay out the leagues goals for having U10 teams. Everyone always talks about equal playing time in Rec, but once you move to travel it's not assured anymore. That's silly at younger ages. Your younger travel teams should have fairly equal playing time to ensure that entire block of kids is getting the most development possible. Once they hit U13 and on - fine, go for the wins and play the starters much of the match. But below that, you really need to ensure all the kids playing at the next level get serious playign time, even if it means a loss or two. One of my favorite phrases I picked up from another coach: "Leagues are for learning, tournaments are for trophies" You play your regular season matches in full development mode - the kids get lots of playing time. When you go to a tournament, THEN you play to win. Its a balanced approach that works well.
One other thing about not having U10 teams is if other leagues do, your kids will start behind. My U11 Girls team was new this year - only one of the 14 girls played U10 Challenge (with the boys) What we found was we had a lot of ground to makeup against most other teams, even teams with less skilled players. The additional year of experience playing at the 'next level' in U10 made a big difference. We have a very competitive Rec program and our girls play on coed teams with boys. They're good players. But the lack of travel play for a year definiteyl made a difference we've been working to make up.
So in the end, do what's best for your kids. U10 travel shouldn't be like U13 travel, nor should the coaching philosophies.
That's my take anyway :)
SD - Thank you for your insightful response. We are meeting next week as a subcommittee to discuss further. I'll post our outcome to keep the thread going.
I'm curious to hear what happens. I'm working on a post for OTP about development programs at U8/U9, believe it or not. Something between 'Rec' and 'Travel' and for reasons you wouldn't think (ie it's not the parents pushing for it)
I'm starting to see a number of hits on this thread from people searching for 'pros and cons of travel soccer' so I've been working on a blog post about it. So if you have any thoughts on the subject, by all means post them!
SD,
In all we had a very productive discussion as a club. The most important thing coming out of this was an increase focus on coaching and player development. Everyone was in agreement with this approach pending a cost analysis on hiring outside trainers to develop our players and coaches. However, the pervading questions from those not in favor of travel at this age was, 'why do you want travel, since our in-house rec program is as competitve if not more competitive travel teams we would be facing without any history as a travel club at this age level without the travel times....'
The following recommendations were submitted to our board for consideration and will be debated and decided on in the next two months:
1. The club provide trainers for the U6 through U9/U10 coaches and players to enhance their skills. – Motion was TABLED pending further discussion.
2. The club changes the names of the various rec age groups to Pewee, Micro and Novice. – Motion was TABLED until the names used by other clubs could be verified.
3. The club increase registration costs to $65.00 to cover the costs associated with the recreational training program. Motion PASSED.
4.The club polls the U10 parents at registration to see how many want to travel. Motion PASSED.
5.The club institutes a U10 Fall travel program fielding as many teams as needed based on the poll results. – Motion was TABLED pending results of the poll.
If any one has any advice on hiring trainers or forming a soccer academy I would appreciate the advice.
____
As a side note, Soccer America just released its top 25 club teams, I used the girls list and have started to research how many clubs travel at U10. No suprise that the top 2 teams do. And I am hazarding a guess that the remaining 23 do as well.
Criteria
Soccer America selects the top 25 clubs, based on success of their teams in national youth championships over the last three years and national recognition for players (including U.S. national youth team selections, NSCAA/adidas Youth All-Americans and U.S. Youth Soccer ODP Interregional All-Stars) from these clubs in 2007.
Soccer America's Top 25 Girls Clubs Offer U10 Travel
1. Eclipse Select Yes
2. Dallas Texans Yes
3. Slammers FC
4. PDA
5. So Cal Blues
6. Irvine Strikers SC
7. McLean Premier Soccer
8. Sting Royal
9. Carmel United
10. Real Colorado
11. San Diego Surf
12. Edmond SC
13. World Class
14. Michigan Hawks
15. Colorado Rush
16. Arsenal FC
17. St. Louis SC
18. Bloomfield Force
19. Eagles SC
20. Pleasanton Rage
21. Real So Cal
22. Free State SA
23. Bethesda SC
24. Mustang Soccer
25. Internationals SC
Very interesting post SD. Youth soccer varies a bit by geography for sure, but there are similarities. Here's some thoughts from out NC league which is a little farther along.
Like yours, our U8 and U10 Rec divisions were very competitive. The matches were hard fought, standings kept, and the end of season tournament matches would often draw well over 100 spectators. No joke.
Once we started our travel teams, the U10 division has seen the level of play drop a little bit as the stronger players moved out to travel teams. But there are still a lot of U9 players who likely will travel next year along with U10 players who aren't at that level or just aren't interested. But the division is still exciting. So while it has changed some, I've found the competitiveness of our older Rec divisions is still there - proof in that lies with our U12 division which is VERY small compared to the rest (as our league is only 6 years old, most U12s weren't playing soccer when they were 4, etc)
I will say this - even with our very competitive Rec division, the level of play at U10 Challenge is still a significant step up.
The focus on training is definitely a good one, but the trick is how much to 'spend' vs develop in house. Some clubs spend a lot of their money on player development, while the coaches stagnate. I tend to be more of the mind that coaching development should be a TOP priority since better educated coaches will result in better developed players, allowing the trainers to focus their player development skills on taking things to the 'next level', a level that rises as the coaching pool improves. This was one of the reasons our league mandated coaching certifications recently and are constantly looking to leverage coaching development out of any paid player training.
The results of your survey will be interesting to see. I know for us there is a LOT of pressure from talented U8 and U9 players to provide something more than Rec, be it an alternative training program, development travel teams, academy type training, etc. We're still debating the best option there.
I think paid trainers are a useful tool, but I also see how they can become a major drain on club finances for the benefit of the top teams, while the lower levels struggle. Some clubs balance this well, others don't.
I'm curious about the motion to change your division names? I know that PeeWee, Mite, Midget, etc are well rooted in football and basketball - but soccer is almost universally known by the 'U' moniker, and while confusing at first, I can't imagine if we still called our divisions PeeWee, Mite, and Sprite or whatever. 'U'nder X makes so much more sense because you instantly know the age level. They're 'U'nder 10 or 'U'nder 5.
Definitely keep us posted!
To me a better solution is to provide a soccer academy for U-10 and younger. Most families want the higher levels of training without the travel. We tried this at our local association and the parents and kids really enjoyed it. We had a 4 team league. There were 2 practice sessions each week, one team practice and one academy practice where we mixed up the coaches and players. In addition to league play, we played in our association tournament by reorganizing the kids into U-9 and U-10 teams. We were very competitive with the travel teams that came in.
We're doing something similar at U9. Not quite Academy - sort of a hybrid between Academy and Travel/Select. Kids will probably team train once a week, pool train once a week, and play against other academy type teams in a non-competitive league on the weekends. Will be interesting to see how the kids like it and how it prepares them for U10/U11. Definitely in flux - I've found no one solution will work for all clubs. Too many state/national organizations don't seem to grasp that. A lot is driven by local issues.
Well the season started and the verdict is in, Fall Rec and then Spring Travel for U10. We compromised and decided to hire UK Elite to run 1 practice a week for all U10 players and then have the coach run the 2nd practice for each Rec team, 6 Girls U10 and 4 Boys U10 teams in total, this fall. Additionally we hired a goalkeeper trainer fo U10 and above for 1 night a week as well.
Our ultimate goal to teach the kids and coaches was accomplished and based on the success of the program so far, we will look to hopefully roll this program out to U9 and below in the coming years.
Thanks again for providing the open forum to discuss.
I'm Head Coach of a U9 Boys travel group (we have two teams) in Nashville. We just started travel this fall season.
However, we did something that other teams might want to consider. Last Spring and Fall season I coached a footskills academy session for those U8 boys from Rec who were considering stepping up to travel soccer at U9 level. There were six sessions, once a week, every Friday for six weeks.
This accomplished two things. Number one, it got the parents and boys used to the coach (me) so when the travel season started they saw a familiar face. Number two, it gave the boys an idea of what a training session might be like at Travel level soccer.
We also did this for girls.
The program was so successful we've gone ahead and made the program permanent every year. I think the kids can really benefit from this and it makes the transition to Travel soccer a little easier.
Now that the kids are playing travel the ball skills I teach are getting progressively harder. I emphasize two things - team work and ball skills. To the parents I emphasize player development. If their kid is having fun in training and playing and is also becoming a better soccer player then I've done my job as a coach.
The hardest part the kids and parents have is understanding my English accent...
atmcevoy,
Glad to hear it's moving along. It sounds like you implemented an excellent program. We did something similar here, paying to have a professional coach work with each team once a week and their team coach manage the other practice and the games. We'll see how it goes. By all means keep us updated on how it progresses! Travel soccer can be a LOT of fun if the parents and coaches keep things in perspective, especially at U10-U14 - it's still mainly about development, you're just facing new teams, styles, and coaches.
Good luck!
PS - Happy to provide the forum - tell your friends! ;) I'm hoping we reach a point where enough people are posting that it'll sustain itself. Right now it's pretty quiet!
geordieinexile,
Excellent advice. A lot of leagues around here are doing something similar, though at U9 instead of U8. Our travel programs in NC start at U10, so many leagues have U9 development programs where the kids get introduced to travel soccer, but it's fairly informal and low key. It's a stepping stone. Then when U10 rolls around, the kids aren't as unsure about the perceived 'big jump' from Rec to travel. So far our program here has been VERY successful. WE'll see how it pans out next Spring when tryouts roll around.
Be sure to keep us all posted on your program's success!
Our league is looking at starting an academy/hybrid type program. This post has been pretty helpful to me. I do have a question. Do you charge your players (parents) a training fee for the program? I imagine the Travel coaches would want compensation for their time but I also think that since it is an intro to select teams, there should be no charge.
Any advice or thoughts are welcome!
TNsoccermom,
We managed to get local businesses to cover the training costs for this year, but don't expect to have that luxury in the future. So training was not included in our budget. The training itself was mixed in terms of what I think the kids got out of it. So we may think about doing our U9 training in house as a pool type setup and have the professional training for the travel teams at U10 and above.
Our travel coaches get a gas stipend and that's it. They are not paid. That's something we're trying to maintain since it sets us apart from other leagues that charge a lot more - this way parents have a choice and we do everything we can to recruit and train willing volunteer coaches.
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