Or you can just be strong and run fast and never master soccer skills, which is totally possible. You're absolutely wrong on this, some kids are way more athletic at 14 than they were at 8 for a lot of reasons, but then again you think it's a sure thing that Messi would be a hall of fame second baseman if he had played baseball since age 8, Or LeBron is 100% sure to have been world class in soccer
Or you can just be strong and run fast and never master soccer skills, which is totally possible. You're absolutely wrong on this, some kids are way more athletic at 14 than they were at 8 for a lot of reasons, but then again you think it's a sure thing that Messi would be a hall of fame second baseman if he had played baseball since age 8, Or LeBron is 100% sure to have been world class in soccer
Maybe, but there's no guarantee they'll be as good at soccer as they were at the sport they played. I was a crappy football player, I played in a summer basketball league with a guy who made the NFL, I easily dominated him, he was stronger, faster, but that was about it, two guys on my team in that league played D1 college football, I averaged like 15ppg, the two of them combined averaged like 4ppg.. The QB of my high school team, sucked at basketball too.
But I was a crap athlete, I grew up with these guys, in the era where we all played different sports based on the season, so they developed as great football players, but I developed as a better basketball player than them. We all put about the same amount of time into different sports.
This is the funny part!
as if you are some sort of authority and because you said it, it must be true Basically you are NOBODY not an authority of any kind.
There’s an extra layer to this. There’s so much going on that we just won’t ever know. I was listening to Tony Meola and Eric Wynalda, both are connected as former USMNT players and Eric is good friend with Claudio Reyna. So there’s a lot that he knows that he won’t say on his radio show publicly.
Aren't the MLS clubs starting their own academies now? I thought a lot of the successful USA kids came from those?
So, ALL the best athletes, ALL of them leave for those other sports, 100% of them? All of them know for sure they will go pro in something already before age 13? Really? I know several people that I grew up with that made the NFL, really none of the one's I knew where sure things for the NFL even when they graduated from high school. None of THE BEST think soccer is what they do best and they all leave with dreams of the NFL, NBA and MLB, none of the best are among the Americans that go pro in soccer or reach the USMNT now? If these best started at age 7, we would have never heard of Aaronson, Pulisic, Reyna any of them? They'd have been beaten out by LeBron, Mahomes and Lamar Jackson I suppose, 100% for sure?
Well just like college, you can blame the cost of soccer on the over protective nature of today’s parents. Where being forced to toil away in crap dorm rooms with crap food and services is an obscenity to them, So busting your ass training on your own isn’t allowed. Feeding the ego having their child take flights to tournaments and pay obscene fees is the only thing their little babies should have to accept as the norm.
Really, I think it’s more than that. People are being convinced that their 11-year old kid needs to play in a league that encompasses the Eastern half of the US, and not just Western PA. And that’s where all of the travel costs come from. (Heck, we used to bitch when one of our PA-West travel games was in the Erie area!)
That is just totally untrue. It is impossible to predict an athlete’s future athleticism at that early age. Studies have been done that follow top athletes at age 11. 6-7 years later only 1 of 5 top 5 athletes are still in the top 5.
Doesn’t that same problem exist for most other youth sports anytime a kid decides to focus on one given sport and move into the elite competition levels and club teams with a lot of travel. That’s certainly the case for baseball and hockey. Maybe not as much for football because aside from camps football is still centered around the local area and HS systems.
I’d be hesitant - even reluctant - to put USA soccer in charge of anything that big. After all, when was the last time that they did anything right?
I’m objective. All sports have their quirks. I defend all of them at times and rip all of them at other times. They’re all great in their own way. I just like to rip people who rip sports and weirdly flex for reasons that show they have no real understanding of what they’re talking about it.
I think it’s easier to project girls at that age. But it’s really difficult for boys.
This is so true. I’ve seen it in basketball, soccer, and wrestling. Kids certainly develop at different periods, so that kid who was ahead of his competitors earlier in life might find himself being quite average later, and visa-versa. Wasn’t it Michael Jordan who got cut from his high school team the first year that he tried-out?
Too bad Michael Jordan did not make his high school team and got cut the first year. As far as those athletes mentioned, probably true., but not necessarily.
I think that's how it is in your area, so you think it's like that everywhere. Where I live there isn't some huge exodus to other sports at age 13, a few sure, but nowhere near 90%.
That's how I remember it from experience, there where kids that kicked everyone's ass in 6th grade, who couldn't even make the high school team 4-5 years later and vice versa. Sure, there was that 1 in 5 that was always the stud.
Totally untrue that it is too late. Most boys are not through puberty yet at that age! Look at Freddy Adu(sp?). He was the greatest soccer player ever at age 14-15 years old. He never got any bette. He went through puberty early and was advanced for his age.
So, in your world LeBron, Kobe and Lamar would have 100% surely beaten out Pulisic, Reyna and Aaronson? There are no other intangibles or anything else? Slam dunk? 100%?
