Around here the ECNL clubs NEVER, EVER, give the kids a break, they treat them like machines. I let my hs 'club' players skip our practice if they have a club 'running around the pitch' fitness training 'practice' later that evening. Most hs teams aren't much better....they enter stupid ass 'tournaments' early season where they play as many as 4 and always at least 3 games in less than 40 hours....! just f'in nuts. The so called 'National Elite Prep Showcase' in Ft Worth each early January a prime example of this idiocy. The ratio of games to practices is turned on it's head in North Texas and it is ALL driven by $$$$. My hs team entered the Highland Park Tournament the last three seasons....( won it in 2015 and had 2 draws and a win in 2o16...all against much bigger 6A public schools..) and we are done with that this season as our conference brought forward conference play by almost a week. Were we to be in it again, January 5,6,7 then we would be faced with 5 tough games in 8 days (we are in Ft Worth and then Okla City for our opening two conference games early the following week ).....just silly, so we opted out and will have a couple of practices instead.... I get emails all the time wanting us to enter their 'Tournaments' and promising 'four games' (in two days) like this is some sort of positive...It is time to call these clowns out for being the idiots they are....
With my teams youth and adult we practiced three days a week before the season started. After the season started 2 days a week most of the time once in a while an extra practice. It all depends first did you get most of what you wanted to do on the practice field I did it by using dual theme sessions. Coaches for the most part only train more then that when they have not did enough training on the practice field. Because they did not use their time on the practice field efficiently. Those are the same guys that actually try to coach their teams during games. It too late to coach during the game. I hear them coach in games I know they did not get it done on the practice field. I adjust in games it helps to have a good captain in games and in practice from under 16 and up. A guy that can play his own position well and knows enough about the game to help others with the game plan. He should be working a lot with the manager during the week as well. Those guys are our future managers.
I think it is ridiculous to let a team play in a tournament before you even start playing your regular season games. What are you trying to accomplish when you do that? Learn how to lose? Ask yourself why do you even want to play in a tournament? We never played in a tournaments just to play in them. We played in them to try and win them. They were all invitationals meaning we were invited to play in them. Because the organizers knew we were a very good team with a chance to do well and even a chance to win it. Other good teams want to play against the best teams not the no chance to win teams. A tournament is not a place to go for a vacation and play.
Then parents need to be smarter about where their kids play if they don't want them having osteoarthritis at 30. I am sure US Soccer has mandatory guidelines for the scheduling of breaks, training and games. Almost half of my dd's team are nat team (U17/20) players and they train 5+ times a week. Difference is they are closely monitored and not all trainings are intense (video analysis, tactical). Almost no 'running around the pitch' fitness at her trainings.
I doubt you live in North Texas then...5 years ago when I took over the varsity women's program at our school, my A.D. called me into his office after about 4 weeks of the season. He told me he had received a 'Parental Complaint' about me....told me the dad had called to say 'I wasn't yelling and screaming at the girls at all during games so therefor I was not 'coaching' them....we both laughed our asses off....realizing that this was all this particular dad had ever witnessed from his daughter's so called club 'coaches'.....!
No we don't live in the US, but don't think that parents that have no idea are particular to North Texas!
I am from central VA where we play it in the Spring. Trust me, this is not what you want in a lot of the country. It is simply too hot, with out last game reaching 90+ degrees. Fall would be a blessing for us.
We have it in the spring in Iowa as well. Start with games in the snow or freezing rain/wind (late March)and end with a heat index around 100 (early June).
I coach HS lacrosse and have coached both HS Soccer and travel-level Hockey. I would say that the process of planning athletic development is not really different. You have to plan, plan and plan some more. Practice plans have include fitness, skills, and team play. And you must plan for games and REST. Two buzz words that you hear a lot are periodization and imbalance. You plan your athletes' progrees based on what they intend to be doing throughout the year - including other sports and rest periods. Yes, that means that not every player has the same off-season workout plans, and it means that if you are really looking out for your athletes as people and individuals you take into account when they have vacations, chorus recitals, exams, etc. You also trying to make sure that their bodies are in a regular state of imbalance, having to do different tasks, differrent motions, new skills, etc. I can't overstress the need to mix it up to prevent overuse injuries and fatigue (both physical and mental) At the HS level, you will have at least 1 game (usually 2/week). That leaves 3 or 4 practices. Any serious and competent coach is going to plan his practices so that his players are not only pushing themselves to improve fitness, but also work on skills & team play. Every practice is not the 1.5 hours of high-intensity work. You will have some days of low intensity skill work, some with short periods of really high-intensity work, some just fun days, and even days where we watch film and have a light recovery workout. But I guarantee that every practice has an objective and every activity has a purpose. Travel schedules are different because you will typically practice once or twice, then have games on weekends. So you will work the fitness heavier (and incorporate the skills into higher-intensity drills) in the week knowing the off-days will probably be rest days and you'll have the weekend grind. If you are trying to do both without having both coaches making the athlete the priority, then it is a recipe for disaster.