Revo Elite FC

News Detail

10

Jan, 2019

The road more traveled ... and the Genesis of Revo Part 2

Many moons ago my children's soccer journey began in the usual fashion. First my daughter played Rec (recreational) soccer at school starting in kindergarten. She played for almost three years or about 5 seasons. She then focused on Irish Dancing and stopped playing soccer.

Two years later my son followed the same path but only played three seasons before playing Club soccer. At this junction, after watching the Rec approach for about 5 years, I had a hunch then that it was a poor way to start and since then I can now explain exactly why this is the case. As well, it's perhaps the worst way to start and it's where all the bad habits begin. This is not to speak negatively about the parents that step up and volunteer their time and energy. Hats off to them. It's about the process and Rec formulation of this process.

Here's the initial problem. Well meaning parents that volunteer ... but know very, very little and with this limited ability the games are simply a type of kick-ball. The few times they touch the ball they mostly kick it forward ... "kick ball" ... because that's easy to do and the truth is attempting to play actual soccer requires more that this. What's truly sad is to see Rec games with older kids ... still playing an ugly "kick ball" type of game and thinking it's soccer.

Another problem is that the teams are too large for the age group and different ages are mixed together which creates a huge disparity when comparing the skill set and athletic ability of the players in the group. Oftentimes the weaker players really should not be playing against the more advanced players if we really want to give them the best chance and a better start. This happen on ever team every season ... so about 1/3 of the players will be totally overwhelmed.

A biggest problem, however, is that with minimal practice full size games start right away. Sometimes 1, hopefully 2 and maybe 3 or 4 sessions before the games start. So too few practices, minimal skills if any, games too soon with too many players (too crowded and less touches) and usually players that are not really ready to go head to head.

"There really is an absurdity in this process and as a result quite a few actually quit before they ever had a fair chance to begin."

Yes it is a way to socialize, get exercise and create an activity for the parents to do on the weekend but it's far from being the optimal way for a young child to become skilled in the game of soccer. It might not be that fun either ... for most of the kids. Maybe ask them sometime?

So is joining a typical soccer Club the magical answer ???

Yes, it is better than Rec soccer, but it is far from being the best way for most young players to develop to their full potential! And at about 20 times more expensive that Rec soccer,it's nowhere near 20 times better. It could be argued it's only slightly better and there are several similar problems as well.

Elsewhere the specifics are discussed more thoroughly, but the general problems are this. As they increase in size there is always the problem of keeping the coaching/training at the desired level as the size increases. Mergers always happen ... to get larger because it's easier to get bigger than it is to get better. With this growth, a few top teams benefit with a few more top players added but as well there will be players moved down the line to lower ranking teams. The same players, same coaches and trainers, same drills and methodologies so on the whole the only thing that has changes is the size overall ... and of course the revenues.

Then there are split offs as some become disgruntled ... the general problem with a ship having "too many captains" with the typical growth. Most interesting, perhaps, is how many of those involved have bounced around from one Club to another locally in a sort of musical chairs approach. It's not to say that this is so bad but it does support the argument that to a degree most Clubs are really all the same. Or more accurately, they have more similarities than dissimilarities.

It is the rare case that a smaller group breaks off and succeeds in doing everything at a higher level but this is actually the better way to attempt this. Usually the new smaller Club is inferior 99% of the time as is the case with a few local Clubs that fall into this category.

So with the typical politics, arguments, egos, growing and shrinking of most Clubs most places ... the Club experience is not always the best. Most players are affected by this at one point or another, unfortunately. If the chance to chat with a seasoned Club parent arises ... please feel free to inquire about these details.

Now the actual quality of the training across the board, existence of and implementation of a curriculum and honest focus on long term development of the entire group verses a few top teams ... this is a whole area of discussion to be considered when assessing a Clubs "product" or ability to actually develop a group and is discussed "in parts" on this site. The simplest bit of caution on this matter is quite easy to understand though if you really think about it:

"It's not about the Club... it's about the individual directly working with the players/team during that season or period of time."

Website Manager

Revo Elite FC

News Detail

10

Jan, 2019

The road more traveled ... and the Genesis of Revo Part 2