Great article. Living this right now with my older daughter. I think a great part 2 to this article, which seems to be another driver of this behavior, is the desire to get kids to "play in college". The national team for most isn't a consideration, but college can be, and the clubs and others in the industry have fully economically tapped into that FOMO around college. That seems to be the bigger focus for parents, and it's driving the behavior that's happening. National team seems to be an afterthought, which doesn't help that situation either.
Very good point. You’re right. The desire to play in college is a huge factor. The sad aspect is that to play in college many kids/parents view playing in high school as a negative.
As somebody who's on the other side of it, you look back and see what a rip a lot of it was.
The bigger issue is what it the goal of youth sports? In Europe, soccer is a passion and the clubs want to develop professional players as a business model.
In the US, IMO, the goal of youth sports is to provide a commercial activity to provide entertainment for kids and their families who can afford it. Soccer, baseball/softball, volleyball have all developed expensive P4P models that drain well meaning suburban parents out of as much money as they can. (Note the lack of Americans, especially African Americans in MLB now. Nobody plays baseball, even casually, unless it's P4P anymore.
Every parent wants to the provide the best they can for their kid. But what is 'the best'? Is it spending money to travel around to play teams they could play within their own city? Is it creating Diamond/Gold/Silver/Bronze/Bronze II/Almost Bronze brackets so that every team who has a check has an 'equally' talented team to play against.
As well as camps, private training sessions, endless gear requests under the nebulous flag of 'development.' All of which prices a lot of kids out of the whole system.
I'd love sports to get back to competitive truly being the 'elite' players of any sport and build a cost effective level that more players have access to. And the sport being about allowing as many kids as possible to enjoy the benefits of it, not the just the ones who have parents who can scratch a big check.
There is a sweet spot between current competitive and rec if our goal is doing what's best for as many kids as we can. But the sweet spot for making money is the system we have now.
Right on. Agree, creating that sweet spot in between rec and comp is key. But who's going to fund it and give it clout. Maybe some a-list pro athletes? The amount of kids playing travel and club sports who shouldn't be is mind-boggling.
Agree. Our model is broken for growing talent organically. That said I do have a client right now who is a product of playing for a top MLS club team, so I think that has shifted a bit here in the US from 2007 where the club pipeline to the pros didn’t exist. Top athletes are also being asked to forgo in person school so they can get even more practice time throughout the day…which will lead to, yes, potentially more success, but will also come with more potential for burnout and overuse injuries. Ahh, the professionalization of youth sports is broken and we’re heading down hill fast with no brakes
My son played with the FC Dallas youth club. The MLS academies sort of do both, IMO. Yes they have an academy first/second team where those kids eat/live/breath soccer. Then they have literally hundreds of youth teams all the way down that are your generic P4P club teams with skill levels from near academy to almost rec. When he played there was usually at least 8-10 teams at an age level playing in various leagues.
It felt like the club teams were funding the FC Dallas academy team more than the parent club - but it works for them.
The academy kids did train twice a day and the kids were required to go to a school nearby that accommodated their early and afternoon training session.
They have developed some good players out of the FC Dallas Academy. Some so good that they forgo playing for the club team to sign somewhere else as a pro, Weston Mckinnie and others who played with the MLS team, Jesus Ferreria.
I would bet a lot more kids got burnt out along the way. I was co-coach of a U5 team who had an absolutely amazing player. He joined a club team at U7 and dominated everything through U13. His parents even sent him to Brazil one summer to train with the Santos club down there.
He never did pursue/make the club team. He ended up playing at SMU had a a fine career. It illustrated to me just how high the mountain is to climb to become a world class soccer player. At age 13, I figured he'd be a lock to go pro.
They did not. He went straight from the academy to Germany without playing on the MLS team. While it was a feather in their cap, the model was to get players to the MLS squad where they are under contract and they would get a transfer fee.
Great article. Living this right now with my older daughter. I think a great part 2 to this article, which seems to be another driver of this behavior, is the desire to get kids to "play in college". The national team for most isn't a consideration, but college can be, and the clubs and others in the industry have fully economically tapped into that FOMO around college. That seems to be the bigger focus for parents, and it's driving the behavior that's happening. National team seems to be an afterthought, which doesn't help that situation either.
Very good point. You’re right. The desire to play in college is a huge factor. The sad aspect is that to play in college many kids/parents view playing in high school as a negative.
As somebody who's on the other side of it, you look back and see what a rip a lot of it was.
The bigger issue is what it the goal of youth sports? In Europe, soccer is a passion and the clubs want to develop professional players as a business model.
In the US, IMO, the goal of youth sports is to provide a commercial activity to provide entertainment for kids and their families who can afford it. Soccer, baseball/softball, volleyball have all developed expensive P4P models that drain well meaning suburban parents out of as much money as they can. (Note the lack of Americans, especially African Americans in MLB now. Nobody plays baseball, even casually, unless it's P4P anymore.
Every parent wants to the provide the best they can for their kid. But what is 'the best'? Is it spending money to travel around to play teams they could play within their own city? Is it creating Diamond/Gold/Silver/Bronze/Bronze II/Almost Bronze brackets so that every team who has a check has an 'equally' talented team to play against.
As well as camps, private training sessions, endless gear requests under the nebulous flag of 'development.' All of which prices a lot of kids out of the whole system.
I'd love sports to get back to competitive truly being the 'elite' players of any sport and build a cost effective level that more players have access to. And the sport being about allowing as many kids as possible to enjoy the benefits of it, not the just the ones who have parents who can scratch a big check.
There is a sweet spot between current competitive and rec if our goal is doing what's best for as many kids as we can. But the sweet spot for making money is the system we have now.
Right on. Agree, creating that sweet spot in between rec and comp is key. But who's going to fund it and give it clout. Maybe some a-list pro athletes? The amount of kids playing travel and club sports who shouldn't be is mind-boggling.
Agree. Our model is broken for growing talent organically. That said I do have a client right now who is a product of playing for a top MLS club team, so I think that has shifted a bit here in the US from 2007 where the club pipeline to the pros didn’t exist. Top athletes are also being asked to forgo in person school so they can get even more practice time throughout the day…which will lead to, yes, potentially more success, but will also come with more potential for burnout and overuse injuries. Ahh, the professionalization of youth sports is broken and we’re heading down hill fast with no brakes
My son played with the FC Dallas youth club. The MLS academies sort of do both, IMO. Yes they have an academy first/second team where those kids eat/live/breath soccer. Then they have literally hundreds of youth teams all the way down that are your generic P4P club teams with skill levels from near academy to almost rec. When he played there was usually at least 8-10 teams at an age level playing in various leagues.
It felt like the club teams were funding the FC Dallas academy team more than the parent club - but it works for them.
The academy kids did train twice a day and the kids were required to go to a school nearby that accommodated their early and afternoon training session.
They have developed some good players out of the FC Dallas Academy. Some so good that they forgo playing for the club team to sign somewhere else as a pro, Weston Mckinnie and others who played with the MLS team, Jesus Ferreria.
I would bet a lot more kids got burnt out along the way. I was co-coach of a U5 team who had an absolutely amazing player. He joined a club team at U7 and dominated everything through U13. His parents even sent him to Brazil one summer to train with the Santos club down there.
He never did pursue/make the club team. He ended up playing at SMU had a a fine career. It illustrated to me just how high the mountain is to climb to become a world class soccer player. At age 13, I figured he'd be a lock to go pro.
Fascinating. Guess different paths for anyone. Curious: did FC Dallas get a transfer fee or anything for basically developing McKinnie?
They did not. He went straight from the academy to Germany without playing on the MLS team. While it was a feather in their cap, the model was to get players to the MLS squad where they are under contract and they would get a transfer fee.
FC Dallas has mixed feelings to be sure