You KNOW it's being done "properly" if you (as a presumed competent trainer who KNOWS what he's doing) can see individual improvement. In short, the people within your club who actually know something, can tell if players are developing without ever stepping beyond a training environment. Yes, game experience is important. Yes, tactical understanding and the excperience of competing are important. But winning and losing is NOT a benchmark for INDIVIDUAL PLAYER development. In fact, I'd say that playing a series of lopsided, non-competitive matches is actually a detriment -- fool's gold.
Now, I'll assume you've actually coached somewhere. If you did, and you've got a clue, you know when your kids are getting better, and when they're not WITHOUT EVER PLAYING a single game.
The point is, parents pay. Most parents have neither played nor coached soccer. Their metric is winning games, and a lousy metric it is. That "metric" encourages kids/parents to change clubs more often than socks, OFTEN to their kids' detriment. That kind of thinking results in kids training one or two nights a week "locally," often in a non-challenging coed environment, for the privilege of winning a state cup.
