Monday, May 9, 2011

It's like buying clothes... gotta find the right fit.

Making enough mistakes and learning from them is what they call "experience".

Best advice I can give if you're thinking about having your child play in any sporting "club" is find out what goals of the club are. Clubs are teams that play throughout the year and aren't a church or rec league.

We're on club #3 and this one feels like a good fit (we said that about #2 but my daughter is getting a lot of playing time on #3 and so is the rest of the team so we're pretty happy). We originally switch to team #3, switched back to #2 after a bunch of promises, then went back to #3. #3 coach said he was glad we did that because now my daughter has no doubt where she wants to be. I like this coach.

Most of these clubs don't advertise or recruit openly. Lot of word-of-mouth type info. AAU, USBA, Junior Nationals, USSSL, YBOA, there are many league and teams to play on. You really have to start looking in December to try and find a team for spring.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

New Beginning

Something you'll need to understand about AAU teams that focus on winning titles: They are not interested in player development. They wish to maintain their starters and keep the bench players on the bench. They believe this is the only way to win. Unfortunately, the only ways these teams get any better is by picking up new superstars. Otherwise they only incrementally improve. There's no big leap in performance.

We were on such a team but before the season, we got approached by another developmental team that wanted my daughter to play for them. We like them a lot but my daughter got sold a bunch of lies by her current coach and the coach asked her to stay. Said my daughter would play a lot during the games. When the season started, it went back to the same as before.

Augh but this time we had an out. The other team still wanted her so we made the switch. I honestly thought no one on the old team would make much of a fuss. It sent shock waves through the entire club. We got accused of hurting the teams chances for a state championship.

We had a meeting and I asked why everyone was so upset. She didn't play but 15 minutes in first 8 games of the season. The explanation? "But she has so much potential and she's going to be great".

Ummm yea.... maybe you should have played her more. Score one for the players.