Maintenance and Growth (O)

MLS Next won’t let my kid play High School.
Our coach says High School isn’t very good so we shouldn’t play.
Should we play pick up? Even if there is no coach?
There’s adults playing.

Instead of weighing up which of these activities is more likely to get your player to where they dream of (college/pro), try weighing them fairly as either maintenance, or growth activities.
Then consider the second factor, that for every hour your player is not playing soccer, there are thousands of players all over the world who are playing.

Here it is laid out:

Your club team should = Growth.
This is where you spend 2-3-4-5-10 hours per week learning and competing. You likely pay good money for this too.
This environment should be purposeful, and connected with a master plan - A serious periodization plan that outlines the development and readiness for your player and the team throughout the season. There should be purposeful breaks, and ramped up intensities for events like showcases or tournaments, or in general as the season progresses.
This is the growth factor.

Pick up soccer, part time soccer like school soccer, and even indoor teams or guest play = Maintenance.
It should be fun. It should be with friends. It should be informal, or for a short duration (IE the High School season). Your player might learn, and they might have a different coach than they do in club soccer, but they need to be independent here and experience the game in a different way. Here they should be able to express themselves, to play in a different way, but importantly it counts as hours of play for a player.

When framed this way, you can see the value that both growth and maintenance have, without exclusively committing to one or the other. Importantly, both provide hours of play that all players desperately need. In maintenance we often find more game play. In growth we find more training - think of a typical club week - 2/3 practices to 1 game.

With a lacking culture of ‘play’, playing with friends or in pick up situations can foster the maintenance required for players to love the game without a focus on growth all of the time. We cannot always grow. We know that development is not linear, and playing in different situations with different people with different voices can provide an opportunity for your player to PLAY. And when they PLAY, they can be creative, they can have fun with the ball, they can play a different position, and gain confidence in new ways.

And importantly, it helps your player learn to play without the club structure guiding them.
They can be free. Which, in turn prepares them to be coached and to grow.