Training with another club ?

I assuming you mean in season (which includes Dec-Feb even if your team isn't practicing), if that's the case the answer is not without your coach/clubs permission, illegal contact/recruiting rules could be broken.

as long as you get permission first from your coach/club

And as long as its not a regular team practice with the other club

1on1 is fine, maybe even a group of kids from diff clubs or teams, but regular practice with another club is just asking for trouble, plus I don't think your coach would agree

I know several kids, one may even live in my house.. who did winter training at another club a few years back. Told the trainer we weren't from his club, and he said come on. No worries.

He didn't say it needed to be kept a secret. It wasn't a secret. Our club had nothing that winter, and they were told after the fact. We all lived through it without any drama. Nobody changed clubs, they just got some work done.

Winter and summer training is different is off season. Im reading it like soccerfan did and OP asking about dual training during season. My kids have also trained with coaches from another club during reg and off season BUT I told coach AND it was a private training with some other kids, not regular training.

I think OP just needs to clarify his question?

I can't look up the exact wording at the moment but Google the GA Rules and Bylaws, should be section 300 or 400.

I served on the GA Soccer Ethics and Grievance Committee for a while when they needed neutral parties to sit in on hearings in regards to illegal recruiting. One coach got a hefty suspension because a team parent was calling players at other clubs. The rationale was that the coach was ultimately responsible even though the coach said the parent acted on their own volition, which they found not to be believable.

You may not see it as recruiting but maybe they do...no one really knows. Its best to mention to your current coach, say we have n opportunity to get extra training, its free is it ok?? You dont want it getting back to your coach from another source

This would seem to be the applicable section from the Bylaws and Rules. In the broadest interpretation of this section, even training with a coach from another club could be construed as violating this rule if one did not have permission from current club. Not even sure the current coach can give such permission given the way this is worded. So rifle, you may not have thought you signed anything prohibiting certain actions, but Georgia Soccer might say otherwise. Personally, I hate these stipulations. I think they protect the mediocre. I guess the bottom line is, as a consumer, you must be as educated as possible before buying the service. Wonder how such rules would stand up to legal challenge if some parent and/or club decided to pursue that course of action? Any attorneys out there?


330. Recruitment for Select Program

330.1 Once a youth player has signed a Georgia Soccer registration form or registered online, and that registration information has been submitted to Georgia Soccer by the member affiliate’s registrar, no person may directly or indirectly induce or attempt to induce that player to leave the team for which he/she has registered during the seasonal year, until the Tuesday following Memorial Day or fourteen days prior to the allowed start of tryouts for that age group, without fourteen days’ written notice to the player’s coach. For Academy players in the U-10 through U-12 age group, no person may directly or indirectly induce or attempt to induce that player to leave the team for which he/she has registered until the Tuesday following Memorial Day.

330.2 No registered player may directly or indirectly contact any other team during the current seasonal year, until the Tuesday following Memorial Day or fourteen days prior to the allowed start of tryouts for that age group, without fourteen days’ written notice to his/her present coach. For Academy players in the U-10 through U-12 age groups, no registered player may directly or indirectly contact any other team until fourteen days before the Tuesday following Memorial Day.

330.2a If a member ascertains that another member of the association has violated the recruiting rules, that member is entitled to seek redress by filing a grievance with the Georgia Soccer Ethics and Grievance Committee - Youth.

330.3 Recruitment Sanctions: If a coach, team official, player, parent of a player, or anybody acting on behalf of the team is found guilty of illegal recruiting, the sanctions may include, but are not limited to the following: warning, coach suspension, tournament play restrictions, team advancement restrictions, coach dismissal, and team suspension.

This was an interesting discussion. Nothing really to add from experience but some comments from the sidelines.

- Rules aren't bad, and the folks that operate clubs and teams should probably keep up with them
- The expectation that parents will read these bylaws in laughable
- My guess is about .02% of parents have read the bylaws of soccer in Georgia (was probably .01% prior to this thread) or even know they exist
- What would you say, maybe 10% of coaches have read them?

Like a lot of rules (even laws) intent usually matters even though that is not spelled out. The folks that wrote the rules and laws write wrote them with an intent to codify a specific behavior and in many cases write them in such a way that the most innocuous actions seems suspect given the wording (these aren't congressional scholars, those jokers mess up wording also). If you were to ask the guy or gal that wrote these if you kid has private training would that be okay, my guess is yeah why not if it is just training all we want to do is stop recruiting. In my mind then the goal is to stop recruiting, not place kids in bondage to clubs. I would consider it poor etiquette to train with another team at a different club, tryout mid season before asking for a transfer, etc. I wouldn't think twice about going to a camp in the summer or winter, hiring a trainer, whatever.

After several years in this sport in GA.. I still don't recall knowingly signing any "Georgia soccer registration form", or any form that mentioned the existence of said rules. When I look at the packet that goes to the club, I don't see anything of the sort.

Curious....