Broken - A Deep Dive Into the Flaws of American Youth Soccer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ธ.ค. 2020
- Hello everyone! My name is David and this is the first video for my new channel “The Stepover”. I’ll be producing in-depth, soccer specific content right here . If you liked what you just watched, please subscribe and leave your thoughts in the comments!
Image Courtesy: Getty Images, New York Times
Video Courtesy: ESPN, US Soccer
Music by the very talented Christopher Morrow: / chris-morrow-3
Very special thanks to Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, Marc Connolly, Jon Solomon and Ryan Mooney for their help.
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Talent vs Money. "If you don't have money, you aren't good enough to play the game." - USA
As an ex-player and current “high level” coach, I have to admit that things are really broken here. I personally coach because I have always loved the game, and I want to help my own kids and now other kids excel like I did. Coaches like myself don’t get paid much, but we love developing players. The club owners are making mad money though. That’s after they pay for space at a local park or some place to train. Parents spend way too much money on all of this. However, all youth sports here are becoming this way, so I agree it’s not the route cause of poor player development. It is a big factor though because lots of clubs make decisions based on profit. I essentially “donate” my talent and time to develop players at a young age, but I admit there aren’t a lot of people like me who are willing to do this. The best coaches should be developing U14 and younger. At this point, the genie is out of the bottle and I have no idea how to make a dramatic switch.
Thanks for your service to the sport. We need more people like you
Im with it
Probably worth mentioning are the effects of school sports, the college economy, and then the professional sports structure. It's starting to change, but a lot of good athletes that could become pro soccer players wind up playing all sorts of high school or middle school sports instead of just playing competitively for a club soccer team, and pick up for everything else. Their experience playing against lesser athletes in school likely affects their soccer IQ.
As for the college side of things...I was a division 1 player 15 years ago and was constantly fatigued, mentally drained, and wanting to drop out of college every year. My senior year after the winter holiday I was invited to Minnesota's USL tryout, and then asked to stay for preseason. I had 3 months to graduate, was getting burnt out of soccer even though it was my youthful dream at the time, and ended up not taking the offer and getting a shitty degree lol.
We tell every teenager that they immediately need to go to college after high school, but for a teenager that has a chance to be a professional athlete I'd argue that they would be more successful at their sport if allowed to fully pursue it at 17 or 18, and then go to college down the line if it doesn't work out. Instead, as mentioned in this video, and before the growth of the pro academy within the last 4 years, kids were playing 4 years of college while trying to get a "degree", and then trying to go pro completely broke or in debt at that age. Looking back, I regret not going to preseason, and if I were to do it over I would have tried to go pro at 18 in another country, and gone to college later if it didn't work out.
Finally, the pro system is terribly uncompetitive without a promotion demotion structure. We aren't even giving ourselves a chance of evolving sport without that...
as a coach for Fort Worth Vaqueros and getting mentored by a coach named Mark Snell who is one of the best youth coaches everything you mentioned was correct. i played select with a hispanic group and played with Dallas Texans as well. Those latinos who played indoor soccer growing up are so technical and most never play college soccer or even select. In addition, now that im a coach a young one (19) i can see the flaws first hand. I often get criticized for not telling 7 year olds what to do and let them express themselves by parents cause the format is so unique. I’ve seen all forms of coaching, players and mentalities cause i grew up in Ft. worth. I’ve many Asians, Africans be ballers but never be recognized and just play UPSL. I’ve seen some select teams that have questionable talent and just milk parents.
USSF ‘A’ licensed coach here, and can’t find a club where I can coach for free! The SoCal soccer club coaching scene is about who you know and not what you know.
Parents need to take over these money-making youth academies… There are a few decent ones out there at each town but definitely you need to do some research… Do not fall for the nice websites, uniforms and turf fields… Get a feeling of the coaching staff, experience and passion for the game… Get involved in local sports organizations led by families in addition to your standard soccer club…. Keep soccer fun and affordable!!! Sincerely 5+ years soccer coach volunteer at SBMSA/Houston
You nailed it man. I hope you make more videos or find ways to keep this conversation going.
My 7 year old was about to tryout for the soccer travel team but its going to cost $1600 to join. At age 7 for a sport that is a ball and a field and a ref. We're out.
I contend it's the soccer pyramid that drives this disfunction. If we had a proper pyramid with levels linked together through promotion and relegation, we can let the markets do the player development instead of MLS Next, DA, ECNL or whatever flavor of the month league pops up.
Don Garber: "Not if I have anything to say about it. Bwahahahahah"
Great job on this, it’s complicated but the first step is for those at the top to recognize that the system is the problem and they have the ability to change it.
Why we are not successful is we aren't giving our older players opportunities to play challenging soccer past HS. Look at how many colleges are putting rosters together from foreign players that have aged out of academy programs from overseas. It's common to see 22-24 year freshmen players on a men's D1 and D2 soccer team. At a recent college ID event where the college stated in their recruiting packet that they recruit from their ID Clinics and charging upwards of $250, the asst. coach after the morning session told all the players and their families that their head coach was not at the camp because he was in France scouting players and then went on to say that primarily they were recruiting from overseas because they felt it was more beneficial to invest in 22-25 year old coming out of a professional environment then an untested 18 year old. It's not uncommon to see college starting rosters being 80-90% foreign academy players.
Well said!!! I've experienced it myself. System here is messed up.
In NJ, academies train at 5pm when parents are still at work. You pay about 600 - 800 for EACH Fall and Spring training which DOES NOT include Winter Futsal. Also, academy teams are erroneously placed in groups with much more advanced teams (a travel B teaM in a travel A group). This is all assuming you get a decent coach.
In my state, to tryout for the Olympic development program you have to pay $35, travel to tryouts, etc. if you are selected, you have to travel to practices and the fees is $600 annually…plus travel costs to play other teams and states. Oh yeah, and they only select the best offensive players and completely ignore any defenders other than goal keeps lol. It’s a joke.
ODP became a big joke 20 years ago, once local coaches quickly learned they could game the system.
How is club Tijuana doing it though? Have they found the most amazing volunteers in the world? I know in Europe we say it's not pay to play, but it's more like subsidized by taxes and the community through the professional club level to play. There has to be money involved.
Thanks bro. Super informative amd inspiring ⚽️🙏⚽️🙏⚽️🙏⚽️🙏
Totally agree system geared to pay coaches
Ain’t capitalism great!!! It’s a rich man’s world guys. I thought Uncle Sam was all for it? You’ll be wanting a socialist economy, along with universal healthcare next. Hell guys the USA is awesome. You’re American!!! You don’t wanna be like them European bums USA,USA, USA.
Paid for my kid to train for a couple days at one of the local facilities. First thing the guy did was try to coach out my son's ability to kick the ball from multiple parts of his foot. The only "correct" way was with the laces. At that point I never took him back. We pay money for substandard coaching from coaches who see themselves as American Guardiolas.
Reserve more spaces for kids to play amongst themselves.
Great vid🤞💪
but to add to the joy stick coaching - 14:08: kids in us soccer don't play pickup games or practice really on their own. They go from one sport to another so they don't have time to do that. For the majority, the only time they practice is during practice. A lot of the players here aren't as technically sound which shows in the games. So how can you allow a kid to play freely when they don't have the technqiue/flair? As a coach what should you do then? Joystick their decision making a little bit and help them out or don't help them out at all and let them fail?
It's also a problem in a lot of other youth sports now as well. Realistically, unless you have the right coaches and play on the right team, going pro in baseball is almost impossible.
Great video. Solid points. All coaches should have access to mentors and additional coach training at minimal fee. If we can improve coaching training ,we will reduce helicopter coaching. Subscribing now.
Thank you!
Pride is our problem.....I did the US licensing and it's been harder to find a team to coach....I use the play practice play and the parents want lines and cones. I want to do more 4v4 for the younger kids, but thats not cool we have to get them to 11v11 asap.........I've had success in my development and record, but the stress to conform to the classic US way is too much.
We play indoors 7-8mo of the year in MN. Dome time costs money. I don’t see that changing ever.
Imagine the greatest players to ever play the game would have never been able to afford to play in the US.
biggest key that wasnt mentioned: Soccer is not the main sport. Football and baseball and basketball are.
My son has been playing soccer for club for years now and playing at the highest level and when i tell you its all about the money it is. He has been held back from getting opportunities to compete at higher levels because of our blue collar income even though he is the best player on his team. Its sad but it is true the parents who are willing to pay for the travel the full club fee the children will get pushed up and the kids who are not the well off get pushed back. Also now with the MLS Next league if your child is not on that team he is playing with kids and against kids not on the same level basically your playing a regular team instead of a premier team and paying more money
The biggest flaw of this video is that other sports are now following the same pay to play model....so it’s not the root cause of not developing elite players
How do you reduce the cost of soccer in parts of the country where for six months out of the year you need to play in a dome because of the weather? Our club fees in MN are what they are because we have to rent indoor field time that’s not going to change.
AAU is also expensive, so stop focusing on the “white” part. It’s an economic problem.
Exact same thing in Mexico
It’s the same problem that the u.s has in other stuff, talent isn’t developed because everything is about monetary gain
There is NO SOCCER CULTURE in the US. Your precious Pulasic is not even American. He is a turncoat Croatian trained by a Croatian player (his father). He played in Germany with CROATIAN CITIZENSHIP. Sad. In America kids only play at practices and in organized games. In the rest of the world? THEY PLAY ALL THE TIME, mostly without adults around. THE. END.
Exactly!!! Well said his father was the assistant coach for Borussia Dortmund when he joined at 16/17 yrs old.
mark pulisic (christian's dad) was born in the US, played college soccer in the US, began coaching in the US, and has most recently coached in the US. the only reason why he was in dortmund is because they gave him a U10 position as part of christian's contract.
christian's grandfather immigrated to the US from croatia, making him second generation american.
i agree with you on the latter parts of your comment but please get your facts straight before calling somebody "not an american" because of their family roots.
@@vvvigil played in Croatia and has citizenship as well. Look that up.
@@martinsuper4545 i have my mexican citizenship but i've never lived there. he's american from an immigrant family
@@vvvigil but he did live there and did play there. So whats your point?
A new subscriber here... you have not released content in 2 yrs. You ok?
They made it this year. Are the problems fixed? Maybe it wasn't a problem in the first place.
It still a problem.
Not sure how you found BUSC? You should look at the Get on the Bus gotbsoccer.org to see how we are doing it.
Wish my parents stayed in Mexico where they die for the sport I would’ve been in a 2 division or sum like that i had a cousin around my age who had I all going for him in Mexico but that was until he got a knee injury that ruined this career 😢
this is mostly incorrect. this solves worthless coaching into actual coaching. pay to play is everywhere even in Europe it is just 'who is paying'!
people say its broken. i say the NFL is the biggest league financial than anywhere. yet they do pay to play so why follow a flaw to the top?
has nothing to do with race, just the greedy clubs. I am a middle class white and it's difficult paying these ridiculous fees
Soccer is not the third most popular team sport in America. Football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey are far more popular than soccer. Young people can always play soccer by joining their school soccer team (High School and College). In additional African players are among the world top professional soccer players. They make the most money playing in European professional soccer leagues. Most of the African soccer players grew up playing soccer with their friends in Africa villages with no coach, no shoes, on dirt cover fields, wooden sticks for goal posts, plastic bag filled with newspaper for a soccer ball, and they still make it as top soccer professionals (e.g. Didier Drogba, Sadio Mane). If an American child wants to play soccer then get a round ball and find some friends and play soccer. Some Americans love soccer. Most Americans do not care about soccer, so America does not produce top 10 world class soccer teams. It is as simple as that. All this other stuff is just excuses. Plus this video does not mention that in the 1970s-1980s the US had the NASL. The NY Cosmos spend tons of money attracting top soccer players like Pele to come out of retirement to play in the US. The NASL failed in a few years because the NY Cosmos were the only team that can attract an audience. So MLS is a fragile experiment. Most Americans do not care about soccer, so the owners of MLS teams have to be cautious in the way they run their team. Or the MLS will end up like NASL, in the toilet. In this video the presenter keeps saying how European Professional League sponsor soccer academies which pay for everything to develop young soccer talent. Really? Do you believe that? Where is the money coming from? Especially when less than 10% of the students have a chance to play for the football club that sponsor them. Where is the money coming from? Does it fall down from the sky and into the pockets of professional soccer team affiliated youth academies? Let us not forget that a ton of African and South American players end up taking 50% of the positions among top European Soccer Leagues. In fact these European Soccer Leagues put a ceiling on the number of positions made available to foreign nationals because African and South American soccer players are just too competitive. So much for the effectiveness of European Youth Academies. It seems poor African and South American children develop into superior footballers playing with their buddies on their village dirt covered fields. As far as the evils of making money, another communist myth, the top African and South American footballers play for the top European Leagues because they pay the most Euros or Sterling Pound for the top players. This documentary is full of distortions or lies. The primary problem is that most Americans do not care about soccer, so American soccer is not among the top 10 soccer countries. Americans destroyed the absolute power of Monarchy by creating the first democratic republic in human history. This problem with elitism is another distortion by ultra left-wing progressives. The real problem is Americans do not care about soccer. I know Americans are disappointed with losing to Trinidad-Tobago and missing the 2018 World Cup. But Ghana lost to the US 2-1. Ghana must be like "God how can we lose to those Americanos. They do not care about soccer." Good teams sometimes lose to bad teams. It happens once in awhile. Even to the USMNT.
USA after missing a world cup: we can’t keep doing like this, we should change our whole perspective on the game
Italy with 4 world cups won missing it two times in a row: Italian teams in every european final baby 😎🤫 (we didn’t win any of them)
I hate soccer in America have to spend alot of money just to compete SMH and they ask for alot to be in a league
Why pay to play doesn't impact Basketball, football, baseball? Tennis, golf, etc. waiting for a response...
I think he said it somewhere jn the beginning of the video, it’s just never been embraced in American culture. I think baseball is one of the most boring team sport ever & I just don’t understand America’s love affair with it. Hopefully todays youth can start to change the culture, but they’ll need help from the adults too
@@jicalzad he didnt mention it
Profits over everything - sucks
The build-out line and "New Ball" format are two of the awful AYSO rules that kill youth soccer. That, along with incompetent adult coaches and even more incompetent unpaid youth refs, make it live up to its acronym All Your Saturdays Occupied.
AYSO sucks, plain and simple.
This video doesnt provide even so much as one clear example of where the money would come from. It's easy to say "provide low cost options" and "invest locally". It's hard to find the money to do that. That's why "pay to play" exists. It's the only source of available money. There isn't a pyramid in the US. There isn't going to be one. So who pays?
The answer isn't those rich white suburban parents. They arent going to shell out money to watch little Chad sit while scholarship kids from a soccer culture get play time. There is no ROI in that.
It's a hard question. You just can't ignore it.
This is the reason of pay to play. There is no pyramid that can sustain a senior team playing in Tier 1,2,3,4,5 etc that can generate revenue for the club and allocate a percentage to the youth teams of the club. That is how it works outside of the US. The better a club is in 1) finding the most talented kids and 2) improving and developing their football skills, the most likely is that they will help the senior team promote up the ladder bringing more revenue to the club as they promote. If they are too good for the level the senior team plays then they will be transfer to a bigger club, bringing extra money that can help fund the club and the youth team budget to start the cycle again and recruit and develop the best footballers that they can. In America they have it upside down and they are building the sport from the top (wealthy investors setting up franchises (not clubs) in big size “markets” to capture “an audience”. They are not giving a chance to grass roots with no pyramid.