All-Purpose Soccer Parents Thread

Discussion in 'Youth & HS Soccer' started by becomingasoccermom, Apr 15, 2020.

  1. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    One my son's coaches, years ago (probably about that same age, U11/12), came over after a game to have a chat as well, both about yelling instructions to our kids as well as yelling at refs.

    My son at an early age developed a glare that he would shoot us if we dared say something to him during a game. :laugh:
     
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  2. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    I'm not for joystick coaching.
    I'm not seeing much nuance in this discussion. There's a big gap between silence and joystick.
    Let's say there's a vocal spectrum, 0% is quiet and 100% is joystick.
    I like something in the middle, like 30% to 60%.
    And the type of instruction matters, the tone matters. I don't like screaming.
    I would say I like the US Soccer approach of "guided discovery" for the youth. You ask them and make them think. Eg - where should you be? who's job is it to press? etc.
    I've analyzing a lot of coaches and I've coached myself and experimented with different approaches and I've concluded that some instruction is good, but also leave room for creativity, self learning, mistakes, etc
     
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  3. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is fair. Younger players may actually need a bit of on-the-spot feedback and guidance.
     
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  4. MySonsPlay

    MySonsPlay Member

    Liverpool FC
    United States
    Oct 10, 2017
    Granted, the discussion got off target a bit with the parent discussion, and the emphasis on screamers and joysticking are a bit overstated, but the assumption of being quite on the sideline is a sign of a inferior coach is also an overstatement.

    The nuances of coaching are vast, ironically enough, my boys often learned quite a bit from some of what I thought were their worst coaches. Also, with our family having spent 12 plus years with the same club, my boys had a lot of the same coaches and if not head coaches, they at least trained at some point with the same coaches. And often the same coach got very different things from each of my sons. What one liked about a coach, the other did not. Coaches cannot be everything to everyone, the 30% to 60% may work for you, but some might like the 0% -30% or the 60% to 100%. But if they are good, regardless of how vocal, the kids will learn and more importantly they know they are learning.


    On separate point, there lot of experienced parents on this board and seem to have a genuine interest in helping out the next set of parents. Years ago when my boys started the soccer journey, I knew nothing of the sport, never played, never watched: I found the NC Soccer forum to help wade thru the process, once that forum went defunct I found Big Soccer. i wish I would have taken a lot of the early advice from that old NC Soccer forum: Don't over think this, follow your gut and child's lead. If they are going to be good, it's on them and if they are good they will be noticed and found.

    P.S. Your Spurs are up 2-0 in the North London Derby
     
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  5. sam_gordon

    sam_gordon Member+

    Feb 27, 2017
    As I mentioned earlier, of ALL the coaches we've worked with (multiple select teams/programs, multiple school programs, ODP, etc), there has not been ONE coach that is absolutely silent during games. Some have yelled (big field, lots of noise), some talk loudly (depending on where kids are), some talk when kids are near them (even if it's to say "tell Bobby to stay out wide"). Now that I think about it, that also applies to the coaches we've gone up against.
     
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  6. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    I've become more open to a quiet coach. We've had such a good coach the past year that to me anything else will feel not quite up to par, but I know we have no choice but to be open to other coaches. And yes, quiet ones I think actually would have some benefits. So this thread has changed my mind a bit :)

    That was quite a game! Will be interesting to see how the remaining couple games play out in the EPL.
     
  7. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    What do you do end of season? For youth comp, do you typically have a end of season party or give a gift to the coach? We did this for U6 rec but this is our first season of comp
     
  8. sam_gordon

    sam_gordon Member+

    Feb 27, 2017
    Talk to your team manager. One team we had a pot luck at one family's house. They had a pool and the boys all went swimming. The boys took turns telling the coach what he meant to them. I think this was ~U12.
     
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  9. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    It's just dawned on me that tomorrow night might well be my son's last club soccer game of his career. It's their last game of pool play for State Cup and while they're in a tie at the top of their group, due to goal diff they're going to need help to move on to the semis this weekend.

    If they don't make it through, they technically have one more league game on their schedule, but it's looking like it will likely be cancelled. They've had a lot of cancellations and postponements this season. What started out looking like a busy spring has turned out to be a series of games that never got played. I think he played in a total of 15 or 16 games over two different leagues (and state cup). 9 of those were in three showcases and the 3 state cup games, so he's maybe played 4 league games all season.

    He's unlikely to be playing next spring, as he won't be playing in college. And with some of the changes within the club, he's not interested in playing with this team again anyways.
     
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  10. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    Enjoy whatever's left -- it flies by, doesn't it?

    I had a similar thought recently. Mine's a junior, too, and still trying to play in college, but there's no guarantee he stays interested or gets there (girlfriend, injuries, the tug of a dozen other things his senior year, ...). I asked him not long ago if he still wants to do club next year given the commitment, and he's all in so far. But you never know.
     
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  11. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    It definitely flies by - this is my youngest, so this fall's high school season is likely the end of somewhere in the range of 18 years of soccer between my two boys.
     
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  12. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    Similar here. Also my youngest. His older brother (college junior) did track and cross country, and I've missed it since he stopped after his HS-senior track season. I've been tempted to ask him if my wife and I can come watch him go for a long run sometime (kidding, mostly).
     
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  13. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    My older son also just finished his 3rd year of college (he's in a 5 year engineering program).
     
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  14. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    Do some teams cheat by playing older players?
    We played a team and I was sure a few of their players were a year older than our age group. Now it was just a scrimmage, so not really a big deal, but they listed their team as our age group (in the official table). But later I saw their birthdates on roster sheet and sure enough they had some year-older players.
    I feel that's kinda shady. (mind you, they had plenty of players our age, they had a huge roster)
    Can teams get away with this in official tournaments and league play? Does the administrative body actually check birth certificates? (we submitted ours to our club at registration but does the central governing body check this also to weed out any cheating?)
     
  15. soccerdad72

    soccerdad72 Member

    Chelsea
    United States
    Apr 5, 2021
    For a scrimmage? Nobody is going to care.

    A tournament or league game is different - I'm sure teams have tried to cheat this and some have probably succeeded, but most tournaments are fairly diligent about this. Usually most players have to get carded for a given league and that almost always requires an upload of a copy of a birth certificate.
     
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  16. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    In a scrimmage, coaches can work things like this out between them -- playing overage players (though a huge age difference wouldn't make me happy even if my child's coach agreed), changes in how many kids are on the field at a time, ...

    Regarding games, I've always heard people say it happens but I've never known for a fact that it happened in a game my son played in or at a tournament where I was working. That said, at the tournaments I was involved with, we relied on the player cards from either the state association or US Club Soccer to be accurate and vetted by the organization. While we checked them all when teams registered and made sure field marshals checked the cards again before each kickoff, we didn't see birth certificates.
     
  17. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    Thanks. I am at least glad they my eyes did not deceive me. I kept saying to others I was sure some of those kids were older and people did not believe me. I've seen many kids play can get a good sense. It's not the height as much as the musculature. Of course there's always that exception but that's usually like one kid every couple of teams.
     
  18. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    Best way to record?
    If you are recording a match and it's just a plain field with no stands or anyway to get up high, and so you have a side view (that is, not from high looking down), do you just sit with the rest of the parents on the sidelines and record from there? Do you like to use a tripod, monopod or just hand hold it?
    I have recorded but still figuring out the best method. I usually sit in the middle to have an equal view of both sides of the pitch, but often I will be near the opponents and so my audio is full obnoxious yelling. Maybe I should go more towards our end of the pitch? Also I have tried a tripod but I find it a bit hard to use when the ball is close and the angle is tight, and it's just more slow to move the camera around and keep it on the ball as opposed to hand held.
     
  19. Kroad

    Kroad Member

    Apr 17, 2020
    Even in 11v11 I’ve gotten by with an iPhone and simple $100 monopod which I’ve found to be both affordable and easily transportable. If you are ambitious you can get a gimbal to keep things level. At U13 my daughter isn’t at the age yet where “recruiting style” footage is relevant so not worth investing more at this point but I do know folks with more elaborate setups.

    As to crowd noise and positioning, I’ve moved all over the field for better views or for variety and try and ignore any comments by other parents and not make any myself while filming. Most of the time I’ll just then edit the footage down to 4-5 minutes of highlights and lay a music track over it.

    I do find it challenging to both really enjoy the game and capture good footage at the same time so my advice is to mix it up and don’t get too neurotic over capturing the perfect shot.
     
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  20. sam_gordon

    sam_gordon Member+

    Feb 27, 2017
    The best way to record is to have someone else do it.

    If you have to do it yourself, height is your friend. A "normal" tripod is better than handheld, but still not ideal.

    If I had to do it all over again, I would be talking to the club/team about investing in a VEO camera. https://www.veo.co/en-us
    There are other similar cameras (I think @CornfieldSoccer has experience with Trace).

    I built a DIY tower that gets about 12' above the field and was probably about $500-600 total (including camera and monitor).

    Personally I think recording entire games (much less entire seasons) at U10 is overkill, but I know there are people who do it.
     
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  21. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    As Sam said, my son's team uses Trace. As players get older, if they have college ambitions, it's worth talking to the club about it if they don't do something like this on their own. Having a camera up high that none of us have to operate is a big deal (the height really is huge -- field-level video is, to me, borderline useless for really seeing what's happening, particularly as players get older and the game gets faster and more crowded). Trace includes AI that tracks the players and separates out clips for each, but it isn't reliable. Access to the full-game video is worth it, though. I couldn't tell you what it costs me since it's built into our fees. I've used some Veo footage from other clubs for highlights that we didn't have and, for what I see, I like it, too.

    I've seen keeper parents stand near the goal with a camera, so maybe that works for that position. But otherwise, I think you need to be at the midfield line. The Trace camera is usually set up on the players' sideline, so you hear coaches and sometimes players in the bench -- that's actually a plus for me. If they'll let you set up on that side, I'd so it.

    My son's HS team has a camera on a boom that I'm afraid I'm about to have to learn to use. It's manually operated, so the operator has to watch the game on a tablet screen and use something like a joystick to follow the play. I haven't priced these, but I don't think they're cheap.
     
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  22. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    And, to echo Sam, the best way really is an option that doesn't have you standing there with a camera unless you just really enjoy that.
     
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  23. sam_gordon

    sam_gordon Member+

    Feb 27, 2017
    I think the cheapest one is around $1600 once you get the camera, monitor, cables, and tripod.

    I have found that operating the camera "separates" me from the game. Sometimes that's good (I don't get AS emotionally involved in the game) and sometimes that's bad (since I'm looking at a relatively small screen, sometimes it's hard to tell which player is which).

    One of our former coaches told me the BEST video you can get is to just shoot your child. Ignore the ball and stay a little loose. I never tried that.
     
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  24. CornfieldSoccer

    Aug 22, 2013
    Interesting. I don't have any video of my son off the ball (aside from the seconds before and after a touch, dribble, challenge, ...). I'm not sure I'd use any off-the-ball video in a highlight reel, but it would definitely be useful for learning.
     
  25. Kroad

    Kroad Member

    Apr 17, 2020
    I think both the veo/ trace and handheld have their value, they are just obviously very different things.

    I’ve seen the same play on my handheld that looks amazingly fast and then you see it on the veo and it seems much less impressive. So I think the “in play” highlights of a personal camera can’t be beat.

    That said the veo/ trace does show you all of the little things that likely escape the field of view of the personal cam - namely movement up the play and position of other players.

    If you just wanna see the amazing stepovers and Ronaldo’s your kid is busting out at U9, keep it simple!
     
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