Underage soccer clubs that welcome all abilities

Motivator wrote: »

Lots of “I’s” in my post because I was talking about myself. The only thing this thread has shown is that there are an awful lot of bitter people who’s kids are sitting on their arses every Saturday morning or who were in the same position themselves when they were younger.

Moaning about the set up of a current club does nothing, either put the child in a weaker team or a different club or encourage them to work harder at their game. Cronyism doesn’t win teams matches so that’s nonsense talk. In my experience for competitive matches, players are picked on ability and not who their dad is. If a player is crap, no matter what age he is, he’s not going to play. Expecting a coach to play a young lad that is useless isn’t doing anyone any favours.

Flow Motion wrote: »

Just to clarify things I'm not bitter at all. I just put forward a few points that I happened to notice whilst standing on the sidelines. And your use of the words crap and useless about a young fella at a club is less than inspiring. Is essence you have proved my points by the tone of your replies. Then again your username {Motivator} tells me everything I need to know about your attitude : only winners need apply for my team. Just remember children are not machines and some need to be nurtured and treated with kid gloves in order for them to develop. TBH I would rather a child be allowed play ball with a crap, useless team filled with weaker kids where there all could at least play and enjoy the game.

Motivator wrote: »

I fully agree kids need to be nurtured, like I said it took two years of development for my lads to learn how to be competitive. I started coaching them when they were u12 so I had lads that were 10 and 11 and I stopped coaching that group when they came out of u14. I had some of the younger lads in the group when they stayed u14. When we won something the parents especially said they were delighted they had something to show for all the driving to and from training and matches over the previous couple of years. There’s pride in winning something and it gives young lads a great sense of achievement and makes them feel a bit special. They go into school after playing against friends or classmates and they talk about the games. Sport matters to people and so does winning.

Anything before u11 competitive games kick in, absolutely the games should be about fun and inclusion and they are. But it’s important to know that those years are what gives coaches and clubs the base to work from when things get serious. Kids are competitive and they want to win, anyone says any different is talking nonsense. Yeah there needs to be enjoyment in playing but tell me where the enjoyment is in getting beaten every week? Losing drains every bit of fun out of a game, a team and a player and a team or club that is happy to lose games is a team or a club that eventually won’t have any players. If a child is unhappy about not playing at u12 or u13 then I think they need to go and play for a weaker team immediately.