If I do a great job of developing and improving say 20 out of 20 players on my roster during those 13 weeks I may get a great deal of satisfaction but if none of my players make it to the regional team I have 20 p'od parents and may be out of a job. If I get 2-4 players selected to the regional team not only am I satisfied, I keep my job. And I may not even have had to develop anyone. I had a kid two years ago do I move I have never seen before. The next session I asked him to teach me the move. Sure enough he invented it himself. He is in Bradenton now......of course it doesn't hurt that he is a 6' 160lb 91. You can't develop that.
Bite me. My kid's team had a scrimmage today. 5v5. On one team was two "ODP Regional All-Stars." Daddy the ODP coach's girls. On the other team was 100% ODP rejects. The score was, predictably, 6-1 for the ODP rejects. The ODP players blew rancid meat. Not surprising. Daddy's girls blow the big one, but they are Daddy's girls so they don't need to perform.. Your kid probably sucks too, and you are grateful to ODP for the recognition. I know the drill.
You sound bitter and angry. But most of all you sound ignorant. I never said my kid plays ODP. My kid's a 97. She'll have a try out when her turn comes. And then we'll go from here.
I already gave my opinion about dev vs id. The training is what it is. Coaches do their best to dev in the short time they have. I'll offer my opinion from my experience in Region 1 camp. I only wish that I could have participated in something like this when I was a kid. The kids in attendance are 99% soccer addicts. They play soccer from 8:30 am till 6:00pm. After they eat, many of hem either find a patch of grass under lights and play small sided games. Others play soccer tennis on the sidewalks using the crack in the sidewalks as the net. Still others play another version off the side of the brick building. While others play 1v1 in the hallways when the chaperones aren't looking. If this isn't enough after they have showered (hopefully) they go to their rooms and of all things...yup you guessed it they play fifa soccer games on Playstation till they fall asleep. If the above describes your child.....they will absolutely love the experience.
Sounds like the population density of the USA is a big problem here, which is not news to most of us, of course. I can picture the geography problem in Missouri. St. Louis on one side, K.C. on the other, and you would have to have about SIX other districts scattered across the rest of the state to have reasonable driving distances for everyone not from those two cities. If you did have six other districts, very few players from any one district would ever get selected to the state team, and then the parents from those districts would be on BigSoccer claiming that the only reason the state runs the district program is to get their money! I guess the best solution would be to have enough money to run district sessions all over the country, with reasonable driving distances, and charge some tiny nominal fee and focus on development. Spread some good technical coaching around to new areas. Provide cheap coaching clinics at the same sites. Is there enough money in the state associations to do this, or do the national organizations need to chip in? By the way, Virginia also provided an "ODP Academy" for the first time this year for the age group too young to participate in ODP competitions (1995s this fall). They got nothing but technical training, with no travel to compete in other states, etc. Held at four different district locations around the state.
Here's an ODP question: When a residency/national player is cut/sent home, does that give them automatic entry onto the state ODP team bumping off other players? If this is true and the entire purpose IMHO of ODP is to recognize talent to someday get them onto the USNT, then if they were sent home, why would they be allowed to go back onto the state team and leave off players who are just as good if not better to someday get their shot at USMNT? Answer (from what I was told): The USMNT coaches send a letter/email requesting they automatically be put back on in case they want to re-check them out at the Regional championships for future consideration. What??? If you sent them home and cut them, why would you insist they be put back on for "future consideration"? In essence, the state coach cannot choose who is on their team. The national level dictates which players are on the team. This does not make much sense to me.
There is not enough money in it. Contrary to what most believe, ODP is a money loser for most State Assocaitions. A few seem to use it as a profit senter, but many more try to contain costs to keep the program affordable. With Adidas pulling sponsorships from all but two or three State Associations it is unlikely that ODP in most States will be able to do a district wide scouting system to cut distances in low population areas.
It makes a great deal of sense if you consider the purpose of ODP is the selection of National Team players. The State Teams are to serve the interests of the National Teams. Thus, a player, who for many reasons may not be quite ready for play on a National Team, but is worthy of future consideration will still want to be kept in the system by the National Team coaches. These players are growing and evolving. One who is not in the top 25 in the Nation today, could easily be next month or year. Also realisically, a player who is cut from Bradenton is likely still in the top 100 or so in the Nation. Very few State Team players, while very good, are near this level. The cut player is going to be far superior to the current 18th player on the State Team they return to. In the same vien, if while scouting a National Team coach sees a prospect who is not on a State Team, they will often call and ask that the player be added. The State Team coach will oblige.
I think ODP is indeed a really good way to establish who the best players are. You will tend to see that the regional and national players who played ODP will be your future best college players.
Overall it's a good thing that it exists. There are some problems with it but it is a way for good players to show their stuff. There really is no development in any ODP other than being exposed to different players and coaches. If you got the money, do it earlier than later. And iff you don't do ODP at all, it ain't the end of the world.
Your opinion is entirely too sensible. Please rethink this and come back with something more bitter and extreme.
Some insight to what's going on in Region1: http://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562138441
Well, since this thread got bumped, I'll put in my two cents. My younger kid plays for good team in a smaller local club - his choice. For the past four years, he was the ONLY kid in his age group recommended for ODP by the club, and one of those recommendations also came from some ODP coach who wandered past one of our state games and noticed his play and asked him to come try out. Well, he HATES ODP. He tried it two years in a row, and both times he said the kids who hogged the ball got noticed, while the kids who make great passes, or a subtle, but perfect cross, not so much. He said that being a "showoff" got rewarded and being a good team player was never identified by anyone. The second year, he got sick with a respiratory gunk and missed two practices - by the time he was healthy enough to come back, the teams had been named. (Not blaming this on ODP, just telling what happened.) The third year, he went once to a roundup of the best and brightest, recommended players only, and said that the kids who had made the team the previous year were all passing to each other, familiar with complicated drills, etc, and made the "new" kids look like idiots on purpose. The dominant club here has the majority of kids who make ODP - no surprise there, they have a lot of good players - but my kid swears these kids pass only to each other to make their teammates look good during tryouts. Suffice it to say on year four of being nominated he just said he wasn't going to do it any more and didn't even show up for tryouts. And, in reference to whoever mentioned size about, yes, he's 6'2" and 155 lbs at U16 ... he stands out in the crowd. But I'm not going to make him keep going to the cattle calls when the teams seem to be set already. And when he doesn't enjoy it for whatever reason. And for the record, our state never seems to get out of regional play. They have the same players every year, they do about the same and nothing changes. So I don't know what my opinion of ODP is. I think it's great that coaches keep nominating my kid, but since he hates something about the structure, it doesn't do him any good. Is he good enough to BE on ODP? I don't know, ask me after this club season. I didn't have any argument good enough to convince him to stay with it.
First-step quickness and agility seem to be the preferred ODP athletic attributes. Look on the bright side, the colleges are rabid for size. Kid I know with your boy's body type never made State ODP until the U17 age, will be attending a D1 college next year on a 50% ride.
Now thats what im hoping for my daughter, to make it later, after she matures and her skill level does as well than scholarship
Well, since the HS football team has got him in the weight room now hoping to have him kicking field goals, he'll be weighing more than that, soon. I know that having that "ODP" credential can give a little weight to a player when a college coach has two otherwise identical kids, but it can't be the ONLY thing that matters. And, something tells me that (with my particular kid), he still wants to enjoy the sport and doesn't like his particular ODP age group players. Adding more practices and pressure on a kid who is already overbooked is just asking for burnout, so it's probably a good decision that he ignores ODP's kind invitation to come out every year.
Getting to the soccer camp sponsored by the college of your boy's choice is helpful. So too is the word of a club or high school coach who is known and trusted by the college coach. Somebody was telling me about an Illinois kid this year who will be attending Notre Dame on a soccer scholarship, and the boy has never made an ODP State team. Notre Dame has known him for years from its soccer camp, the club coach said "Yeah he can play," and bam he was in.
Think the kid you mentioned going to ND made exactly 1 ODP team. I'm told that one of his HS teammates from last year never made an ODP team but was recruited to play D1 ball based almost entirely on a HS/Club coach recommendation. This 2nd kid played D1 as a freshman without ever making an ODP team. I'm told camps and trusted coaches putting in a good word can make all the difference - ODP helps but is not required. My experience, admittedly only at the younger ages, says that ODP is a bit of a crap shoot. Very good players may blend into a very large crowd and go unnoticed. Mediocre players may shine for 30 seconds but those might be the 30 seconds that the coach is watching. ODP is what it is.
I will just say that ODP was the best thing my kid did. Opened up many doors. Yes, as the club coach told all the kids from the team trying out for ODP, early success facilitates later success. Advice: Make that 1st ODP team. Further, success higher up the ladder gives you certain perks lower down the ladder. I think this is simply human nature. Advice: Make the regional and national teams. Yes, returning ODP players do interact better and more frequently with players they know. Advice: Be a returning ODP player. In an ODP tryout process, you have to stand out. This doesn't mean that you have to hog the ball, but it does mean that you have to get involved and you have to make plays. This is particularly true for defenders. Staying back and stopping everything that comes to you will get you cut. Advice: Get involved, make plays, stand out. Guys, inexplicable player decisions are made at all levels. My kids HS team, player A didn't make it and player B did. Player A is clearly superior to player B, although player A does have a bit of an attitude. No politics involved that I know of, coach is a former player who appears to know about soccer. But just because I think a player is good, using my rating system, the coach may feel differently for whatever reason. Also, watch American Idol and pay attention to what the participants think about their ability compared to what the judges think. Its the same in soccer. Participants walk off the stage mystified about why they didn't make it, while the judges are moaning that they have to sit thru auditions of people who can't sing. Then, when it gets down to the really talented people, people are still mystified as to why one got voted off instead of another.
any thoughts on the boys 89 National Championships this weekend? Mich, NC, Mass and AZ. AZ is actually a 90 team that beat So Cal 90's in bracket and the So Cal 89's in the final. went 4-0 and outscored opponents 9-1 after losing 3-2 in the opener in combined 89-90 bracket.
Where we live, the ODP team is also pretty much pre-picked. My son never even attends the winter and spring training session; just goes to the final "try-out" with his teammates who were also on the team last year. It seems unfair and a bit of a rip-off for everyone else who works out with the pool all winter hoping for a spot. My son and his teammates don't attend the trainings because our actual team trainings are better. As far as college goes and the whole size/skill thing; I think college soccer differs from professional soccer in style of playand that college soccer, even at the D1 level, more closely resembles high school style soccer, where as professional soccer is more of an elite style. I believe ODP strives to promote the elite because, after all, the ultimate goal of ODP is advancement to the national team.