GCAA Rec Soccer Fall Registrations

It seems in the past parents step up and coach the teams if ones have not come forward beforehand.

 

I was given a different impression of the competitiveness of the GCAA, re: the direction in which they are going. Of course the kids should be go getters, but at the U6 level? Basically I want my daughter to learn the ropes, have fun, and make some friends. Also, not having parents screaming in my ears would be a plus. Those kids can't hardly hear you on the field anyway - esp in March with the wind blowing. All that did was give me a headache and wake/terrify Thing Two when she was an infant.

Any word on restrooms?

 

Great!!! I think they they will both enjoy it.

For some reason, coaches tend to sign up in the last week or two. Even after the close of registrations we actively search and try to recruit coaches so that every child who wants to play can. We start by asking those who signed up as assistant coaches or team parent to step up to coach... and then if that fails we ask the parents of the kids on the waitlist to coach... if your kid is on the waitlist and you volunteer to coach, then your kid is guaranteed a spot on your team and will play soccer that season. Historically we have done well and have rarely, if ever, turned away a child due to lack of space on a team. Although this season could be different. With our move to small-sided games, the team sizes have been greatly reduced, which will probably increase the number of teams per league thus creating the need for several more coaches.

So... my guess is that your son will get to play... but I can not guarantee it. If you or anyone you know would like to or are willing to coach, sign up (or ask them to) to increase the chances of your son playing. Also we have some coaches training classes on July 26 (for U08 and below coaches) and July 27 (for U10 and up coaches). These are great for new or experienced coaches or soccer parents. These classes will help prepare you as a soccer coach. Anyone may register for these classes by visiting our website www.gcaasoccer.com and following the registration instructions.

 

There will always be some level of competitiveness at every level (soccer is a competitive sport). However the competition should come from the kids, NOT the parents and NOT the coaches.

As a U06 coach for the last year I can tell you that the U06 league has gotten much less competitive. During this past season, most of the coaches worked together during the games to make sure that all of the kids were having fun and enjoying the game (by trying to match up skill levels on the field, by pulling kids back who were scoring at will, etc.).

Historically U08 has been our MOST competitive league... (and to be honest, that age group seems to always be the "problem" group for any sport for any organization)... it probably has to do with the fact that the kids are really starting to "get it" at that age... and that starts to be the "magic" age, kids will either begin to blossom and become a "great" player or athlete who will be working toward playing in the Challenge program, or for the middle school team and then the high school team or the player will simply begin to realize that he/she is not a "natural" athlete and will either have to work harder to continue to be a good player or could start to lose interest in playing sports (our biggest registration drop offs start for the U10 league and then by U12 we usually have lost at least half of the players from the ones who played in U08 ). And I think parents start to believe that this U08 league "will determine the outcome of the rest of the life of their child" and some begin to pressure their kids either b/c they are trying to re-live their "glory days of youth sports" or want their kids to succeed at something that they themselves "failed" at as a child. Not sure about the psychology of all of that... but it is largely an American problem in youth sports (this doesn't really happen in the countries where the truly GREAT soccer players come from).

Anyway, we are actively working to make our U08 and below games significantly less competitive and and I think the U04 and U06 leagues are 90% of the way there. This season the U08 league will undergo several rule changes (fully adopting the small sided games, no goalies, coaches are the refs, no score keeping, no standings, no end of season tournament, etc.) that should also begin to move this league in this direction.

The U04 league is suppose to be about introducing the kids to the game of soccer... a game about using your feet to move a ball in a general direction. U06 should be about ball control and dribbling. U08 should be about passing and position play. This is the fundamental structure for a "player development" program. Then, when the kids move to U10, the coaches should have the "framework" of a soccer player (a kid who has the basic skills needed to really play the game). That is the league where kids with good fundamentals can start to learn about advanced position play and game strategy (soccer is a "thinking" game that rewards fast, creative, thinking... not just a game of speed or brute force). And when you get kids thinking and being creative on the field... you end up with healthy competition.

If all of the parent could just sit back and watch as their kids move through the program year-after-year, I think they would be truly amazed at what these kids could do. The parents just need to cheer for the team and applaud nice plays or attempts at play and let the coaches coach the team. Parents who yell instructions to their kid or any other kid, do nothing but confuse the kid and cause more harm than good... but not every parent understands that. The best coaches very rarely yell out specific instructions during a game. A majority of the teaching and instructing should be done in practice. A game is the time to see how the kids can apply what they have learned in practice and see how creative they can be on the field. The worst coaches are the ones who essentially try to run the game play-by-play as if this is a video game and they can control every player on the field. Kids must be allowed to have their own successes or even to make "mistakes" during the game. They see the consequences of their actions (or inactions) and can learn from it. A good coach will be able to take note of plays from a game and reenact it in practice and provide examples of what the player should or could have done.

GCAA Rec Soccer is trying to move in this direction. This is our goal and our focus but it does require the help and cooperation of all who are involved (players, parents, coaches, soccer committee, etc.).

*****

Restroom update: Currently the GCAA campus is undergoing an extensive site survey (paid for with county grant money) to identify any and all issues with our external facilities (fields, drainage, etc.) My understanding is that this process will take 6 weeks or more before we get any data back from them. Once this process is complete, we will be presented with a "site plan" which will include recommendations for how to best spend the grant money we received from the county. Then the Board of Directors will meet and discuss these findings and decide how to proceed (which may or may not include rest room facilities... nothing will be decided until all information is received and considered).

 

U6 is NOT very competitive at all...You'll usually see 1 or 2 kids per game that are obviously older and/or bigger than the rest and should obviously be moved up, but it's not aggressive at that age group at all!

 

AWESOME post jeff, you answered all of my questions and more. We definitely have the same mindset here. I am so glad the program is taking this direction.

 

I see what you're saying, but couldn't this lead the kids to be VERY shocked when / if they decide to go into challenge soccer? Challenge is very competitive and is ref'd in a whole different way. I'm all for instructional soccer, but I really thought that's what the practices were for and not the games themselves.

Just out of curiosity I sent your very well written explanation to fellow soccer moms & dads that I know within the GCAA and other local soccer organizations. I must say the majority of the responses I received back are not digging the new road that rec is taking.

As far as not officially keeping score.... The kids do that anyway on the field and are very aware of where they stand. Especially in U8 so I think not keeping it is futile.

Like another parent stated and I have to agree. Winning and losing is a part of life that everyone will experience and something we take with us into adulthood. Why is this something we are sheltering the kids from?

One last question...With all the changes will there still be the end of the season tournament for U8 and up??

I'm not trying to start drama or an argument. I'm just trying to understand how this less competitive direction for soccer games will affect the kids in the long term. You know me well enough to know I'm not the argumentative type, but I do like to understand when something that worked is being changed.

 

sent you an email response to your concerns and questions...

although I did forget to answer one question that I will answer here...

We will not have a tournament at the end of the Fall season for any league, however, we will probably have a "Festival" tournament for most, if not all, leagues at the end of the next Spring season (this is the same model that most other soccer programs are adopting). There will be more details available as they are ironed out.

 

Got the email and responded back. I think you should put it all on here, but that's just my opinion :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

 

No offence meant to anyone, but this is why we avoid sports around here. Everyone always is bickering about it... how it should be done, who should do it... etc....

Maybe that is how sports is everywhere, but it makes us uncomfortable.

Our daughter (who is in college now) played soccer many a moons ago and they made it to the tournament (she stunk, but had fun) the coach did not play her, on accident, he was a great guy!! They won the tournament, but the other coach pointed out our daughter was never played, and the kids had to forfeit the game. What a shame...

It becomes so clouded the kids get lost in it all... at 5 years old, our daughter was MORTIFIED that she was 'the reason' they lost. (no matter how hard we tried to tell her it was NOT her fault in any way) She still lives with that guilt and NEVER tried another sport in her life. And now is a very overweight adult. How sad.

I know your bickering may seem in jest, but think of the kids.

 

No one is bickering. If parents cannot ask questions to understand change then something is wrong. Change is unavoidable, but it doesn't mean parents do not have the right to know the who, what, when and whys?

Sorry for the experience that your daughter had, but I think that has to do with the decisions of an individual coach that was wrong for not playing her.

 

He was wrong and he admitted it, but it was a mistake, totally non intentional. He got caught up in the game and forgot her!! But he was an awesome coach, who loved each child and they all knew it. He stopped coaching due to this which was also a shame. She was ok sitting on the bench playing with the rocks and pretty flowers. :lol::lol: Had I known it was a 'rule' I would have spoken up, but it wasnt a big deal to us as parents, or to her! We all enjoyed cheering the kids on!

I was not saying you two were fighting, just that it usually starts out like this and ends up with some sort of animosity by the end.

 

I understand your concern and yeeeesss thread on here do sometimes take a turn for the worse , but I can guarantee there will be no hard feelings or animosity between jeff and myself.

Just a little fact finding, question answering session going on that I would hope most parents could walk away feeling more knowledgeable after reading. :hurray:

Believe me, if it turns into a *issing contest I'm all for having it yanked.

 

First off... yes Mary and I know each other away from this forum and she and I, I think, are really on the same page here. We both want GCAA (and especially soccer ) to continue to grow and improve.

But as I explained to Mary (I'll give you the shortened version here)... a public forum like this is not always the best place to have these kinds of discussions for many reasons. However, I AM ABSOLUTELY willing to discuss any of this with anyone who would like to in a more private setting... you can email me with your comments and questions at info@gcaasoccer.com, you can email me your phone number and I will call you, you can come to a soccer committee meeting, or you can come to a GCAA Board of Directors meeting. All of our meetings are always "open door" and everyone is invited to attend any meeting. My goal is not to shut down the flow of information... just the flow of MIS-information.

This will be the last post I put here on the topic of changes in our Rec Soccer program. If you have any follow-up questions or comments of what you are about to read you are invited to email me at the email address listed above.

The following is a slightly edited version of what I sent Mary regarding her original questions about the changes coming to Rec Soccer:
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We are trying to change the atmosphere of our sports program... it has NOTHING to do with sheltering kids. We are trying to build confidence through success. With success will come excitement about the game and then with excitement comes the desire to play more and if the kids play more... they get better. Right now our Challenge program is not really a program... we will have 4 teams this upcoming Fall. And most of our teams consist of mostly players who are not great soccer players... they are simply great athletes who play decent soccer (there is a distinction). Our teams win games often because we have better athletes not necessarily because we have better soccer players. Our Rec program must change in order to train soccer players (referred to as "Player Development"). The good soccer players that emerge from this training then will be prepared to truly play great soccer when they start on a challenge team in U10. Those who are not really good enough will move on to our Rec U10 teams and that is when we introduce Refs and goalies into the game. But since it is all in house and we hopefully will have pushed all of the best players to Challenge then the Rec program will continue to improve as well. All kids will always be naturally competitive. I just don't think adults should get so caught up in the competition of a kid's game. This is hard b/c all of us parents have some pride and love to see our kids do something better than other kids... but we all must learn to smile and enjoy it... not brag about it and rub it in the face of others.

Sure winning and losing are a fact of life... but just like in life you can't let winning get you too high or losing get you too low. You've got to learn to be even-keeled. And in soccer... it's just a game. There will always be another game tomorrow. Sport is supposed to be about fun and exercise... sure having more points on a score board at the end of the game is nice... but does it really matter at the end of the day? (I know for a fact that it doesn't in a "Recreation" League.) Kids rarely process these emotions the same as adults. They get mixed signals from parents and coaches and are left feeling confused and upset.

Right now the competition level is out of whack in youth sports around the country... I have no problem with kids keeping score... but when you have parents keeping score and coaches worried about wins and losses with 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 year olds... they are missing the point. My U06 kids tried to keep score this season, but honestly they had a hard time keeping up. Scores are way up with no goalies and the kids are loving it. If the kids asked me if we were winning or losing, my response was typically, "are you having fun?" they would reply "yes" ... I asked "are you trying your hardest?" and they would answer "yes"... then I would say "then we're winning". Usually they were excited. Within an hour of the game being over, most the kids had no idea what the final score was. To be honest I never kept score either... I just always had a sense of whether our team was way up or not... if we were scoring a lot of goals and the other team wasn't... then I pulled my better kids back or subbed in the kids that weren't quite as skilled. I had a few players on my team this year alone that went from having never really played to being able to dribble the ball up and down the field and run circles around many other players in our league. These kids, if they continue with the right kind of coaching and support, will be ready to be Challenge players when they age out of U08. They need to learn passing skills and a bit about position play in U08 and they will be ready. These kids are starting with a strong foundation. And I saw these same results on other teams with coaches who were teaching soccer under this new system (we still had a couple of coaches who had not bought into these ideals yet). These are the kinds of players that you want when putting together a Challenge team.

I'm not sure who you sent your emails too... but let's just say that I highly doubt any of them have the credentials of the experts who are promoting this "player development" philosophy... these are top soccer experts and coaches not only in North Carolina, the U.S., but also in the world... this stuff is not my idea nor is it the GCAA's idea. Everything we are doing is fully supported and documented on the NCYSA website, the US Youth Soccer Association's website, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and others and has already been instituted with great success in some of the largest soccer organization in America (and in the world). The truth is, U.S. soccer is way behind the rest of the world in turning out talented soccer players. Our methodology for teaching soccer in the U.S. and in at GCAA is flawed. We have to change. I know there will be resistance... people are always scared of change and the idea of moving away from what is comfortable. But in the long run, I know that this change will be good for our organization. It will be weird for coaches and parent to watch a game in our U08 league with no goalies and coaches as refs and the scores being in the 20's or higher for each team. But if these players are coached right, then the players will become great soccer players.

We want this to be a success and this is why we are offering the coaches training classes in late July. The classes will train a person to coach under this system, by explaining the mentality that a coach in these leagues needs and by providing specific drills and games that can be used to teach our kids. The more coaches and parents that sign up for these classes, the better our program can be. We also have a Director of Coaching for soccer (Joel Tucker) who has completed a ton of classes and had a lot of experience under these systems. We mandate that all coaches come to a class with him at the beginning of each season where he give a VERY abbreviated training session in these ideas.

I promise you that any team who comes through a successful program like what we are trying to institute will run circles around any team we could possibly turn out under the old philosophy. Our current system doesn't really work... this is part of the reason why we don't have as many challenge teams as we could. Our Rec program is too big. We have one of the bigger Rec programs in the area and the smallest Challenge program. Our Rec program is failing to teach our kids to be good Challenge players.

None of this is intended as argumentative. These are just the simple facts of what we are working with. I know you (Mary) do care about the kids and the organization and so do I. And collectively the soccer committee really believes that this is the right way to go. We share your same concerns, but the research does show that all of this should take us where we need to be.

Thanks,
Jeff
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This is the shortened version? geesh! :lol::lol::mrgreen:

 

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