SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP ODP

Just curious as to what age you all think ODP should be considered. Is it worth the time and money for the 12 & 13's since they practice sporadically and don't select teams?

Thanks!
Soccermom

Depends on how much support you want to give child to ODP. Some younger kids like ODP, other kids have no idea what they are supposed to be doing. ODP for the younger kids is not worthless, but not a big deal.

I would imagine that you will get varying messages regarding ODP.

From what I have seen is that good friendships can come from ODP, and that the players and parents learn that the players and parents from other club teams are for the most part very nice people. And when the club teams play each other it's good to see everybody again.

Also it could be beneficial to have exposure to other coaches and coaching philosphies. Some people say it's worth the money, others will disagree. It seems that many of us parents take this stuff way too seriously. First and foremost, it's got to be fun...

Can you PLEASE repeat again that some parents take soccer WAY TOO SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!! I would like to see those parents get out and do as much work as the players are doing and then see if the parents talk as much trash as they do now.

ODP is very frustrating. The organization of the program seems to be very broken.

But if you want to do ODP at some point then you need to start early. The friendships the players build helps them to relax during the tryouts and the coaches tend to be the same ones each year which is never a bad thing.....

My son's experience with ODP has been very positive. He has enjoyed meeting players from other club teams and he has developed some friendships from this. The level of coaching has been very good as well.If a player is selected to play in Atlanta Cup,Sub regionals or Region camp the level of competition will be very high. If you line up across from a player from NC, Fla, Tx,or Ga, you know you facing an outstanding player. I agree with previous posters that some parents get WAY too carried away with this.As long as you approach it as a chance for your child to improve as a player,meet and compete with other top players, and for the most part recieve very good coaching I think it is OK. Many parents place so much emphasis on making the State Select team that they miss out on the benefits that ODP can give.It's not a perfect program, but overall I think my son has benefitted from his participation.

In my experiences, ODP has been a very positive experience, but the program is a little sketchy, and the organization of South Carolina's program is not as good as that, say of North Carolina or other states in the region. Also, once a player gets into the older age groups and goes to region camp, they do not have a good chance of being selected to participate in the region pool and on the region team because of South Carolina's reputation. Other than this though, ODP is a great experience and you should give it a try.

Thanks everyone for your input. I have to agree with you, getinthegame, that some of the younger kids are essentially clueless, which is one of the reasons for my posting the question in the first place. I feel my son is getting far better coaching with his club team and the ratio of coaches to players is small. The kids on his team are very knowledgable for 11 & 12 year olds. I wasn't impressed at the ODP training that I took him to and still trying to ascertain the benefit other than making statewide friendships. He has guested with other teams and made lots of friends without ODP. I'm thinking that maybe as a 13 or 14 year old, ODP is much more important. My biggest concern is if we wait, will he be at a disadvantage? Every parent thinks that their child is awesome (hey, that's our job ), however, I do feel my son has some potential and want the best for him but at the same time want him to be able to just hanging out on off weekends....with soccer games and tournaments the amount we are traveling is already high - do we need to add ODP as well?