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Message: [QUOTE="Chuck, post: 1745900, member: 1646"] I don't agree with some of what is being said in the last few posts. (not sure they were even your points). I actually think that US Soccer pushes clubs to unstructured practices with tons of touches. The practices are structured in that they exist, and there is a trainer, but I've watched my kids (and I coached my daughter's team) at practices. They are broken into small groups and they play loose games. They also work into the game that inventiveness is rewarded over pure speed or power. So a kid gets an extra point for a goal off of something with foot skills. Also, they play small sided until U13 (or whatever that will be called now). This results in less kids on the field so more touches and blasting it up the field becomes useless. So I think they are getting a lot of free-play in their structured practice. I was taught similarly in my coaching licenses that I had to take. There is no dribbling around cones going on (they don't guard much better than a chair in basketball). That being said, I DO agree with your point about the academies. We have a few solid academies near me that I respect. I don't think they are necessary for the second tier of kids (like my kids), but the top kids should be playing with them by a certain age. I've also seen academies pop up that are around just for the money. They charge a fortune, have one elite team, and fill out a few other teams that wouldn't touch my son's town club team. Every year I hear that the elite team from X academy left and went to Y academy and vice versa. So the coaches are just as bad as the academies. One of them just folded by us. A friend paid about $3,000 for the year. His son played in two tournaments and two league games in the fall. But they had really nice uniforms! Another thing I recently saw puts some real life into the issues you bring up. I saw Odell Beckham Jr. showing off some soccer skill on ESPN. I was impressed and looked up his soccer background. I didn't realize he was an elite soccer player until about 13 or 14. He focused on football because he would've had to move away from his family to continue up the soccer ladder. I'm not sure if that's true for every US youth player (that they'd have to move), but I can see where that would be a check mark against focusing on soccer for a teenager. When you are a freak athlete like OBJ, it's pretty easy to move to another sport that is easier on your life. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach