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Post by Soccerhouse on Jul 16, 2018 11:00:50 GMT -5
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Post by touchlinedad on Jul 16, 2018 13:49:05 GMT -5
Both articles are completely accurate. I think the soccer tournament industrial complex is completely out of control. Personally, I'd rather play two or three friendlies against other teams in town rather than spend money in a tournament in which teams are only playing to win and not improve their players. It's completely ridiculous. This year, my son is playing in 2 preseason tournaments and I think that is ridiculous. What is the point?
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Post by ga3v3 on Jul 16, 2018 14:06:36 GMT -5
Both articles are completely accurate. I think the soccer tournament industrial complex is completely out of control. Personally, I'd rather play two or three friendlies against other teams in town rather than spend money in a tournament in which teams are only playing to win and not improve their players. It's completely ridiculous. This year, my son is playing in 2 preseason tournaments and I think that is ridiculous. What is the point? While I agree with you on the friendlies and the Tournament Industrial Complex . I think there can be value in preseason tournaments depending on the players age- if they are out of academy and into select or another alphabet league it’s a good idea to get 6-8 games under a teams belt before the play league games where points matter. Though I guess many of the new leagues aren’t pro/rep so it may be a waste of money for those older teams as well.
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Post by oraclesfriend on Jul 16, 2018 14:37:45 GMT -5
Preseason tournaments are a good experience for kids that are older because they don't matter. It is a good way to work out the kinks, work off the rust...kind of like Spring baseball in Florida or preseason exhibition games for soccer and other sports in college. For the little ones I like it because the rest of their games are meaningless and it gives them something tangible to fight for. A lot of kids love trying to get those medals. I am torn on the number of tournaments though...it really depends on how many games you have in regular season. Last fall my select age child had only 9 athena games. That did not feel like enough games so we were glad to add two post season tournaments on top of that. In the spring we played 13 Athens games and one post season tournament was fine. I think it is a balance.
As for the numbers of kids participating, I believe that is multifactorial. One issue can be the timing of practice...not everyone can get their kid to a 430 or 5 PM practice. We underestimate how hard it is for two working parents to get their kids to things. It isn't just sports...it is ballet and theater training or musical instruments lessons, etc. If it isn't at school, sometimes it just ain't happenin'
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Post by paterfamilias on Jul 20, 2018 13:52:14 GMT -5
I'd like to mention a couple of other points here that I have been thinking about as they pertain to the drop in youth soccer participation.
1) I think it is important to take into account the size of the available population when considering a drop in any activity. That is are the sheer numbers of available participants dropping as well? I spent a little time on this (on the census website and at a Kaiser Family website), but could not come up with a good answer. It does appear that the number of available participants has stayed static at best. Accounting to the Kaiser website there were 78,150,000 kids under the age of 18 in 2016. The Census website had about 80,000,000 in 2010. Not quite apples to apples, but it certainly a consideration.
2) How much does the early specialization of sports factor into the drop off amongst youth sports? There was a time when basketball and soccer could easily claim the same youth as a participant. Both are year round sports now. Both have travel leagues early on. Same with baseball, etc. Whereas Johnny and Juan each played basketball and soccer 10 years ago, giving youth basketball and youth soccer two participants, now Johnny would be playing only soccer and Juan would be playing only basketball, effectively cutting the participation rate for both in half.
Anyone out there have any additional insight?
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Post by mistergrinch on Jul 20, 2018 13:58:59 GMT -5
2) How much does the early specialization of sports factor into the drop off amongst youth sports? There was a time when basketball and soccer could easily claim the same youth as a participant. Both are year round sports now. Both have travel leagues early on. Same with baseball, etc. Whereas Johnny and Juan each played basketball and soccer 10 years ago, giving youth basketball and youth soccer two participants, now Johnny would be playing only soccer and Juan would be playing only basketball, effectively cutting the participation rate for both in half. This has to be a big part of it. My friends with baseball or softball kids get sucked into year-round travel just like we did.
Growing up, we could easily get in 3 sports per school year (without doubling up). Sadly, the days of the 'multisport star' are likely dead.
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Post by soccermaxx72 on Jul 25, 2018 15:44:16 GMT -5
The majority of our parents love tournaments and travel tournaments. As parents, it is part of most of our identities at this point and a form of entertainment. Our girls don't mind the travel and love winning medals.
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