Before You Book That Tournament, Ask Yourself Why
Tournaments are a big business. If you've ever run one, or even just walked around one on a busy Saturday in August, you don't have to squint too hard to see why they're given such a high priority in the youth soccer calendar.
Here in Northern California, the second-to-last weekend of every month has no scheduled league games. That slot exists so teams can go to tournaments. And whether it's your club making the call, the families pushing for it, or just the culture of your program — you're probably going to some of them.
I'm not here to argue whether you should or shouldn't. That's a different conversation. What I want to ask is: why are you going?
Not sarcastically. Genuinely. Why are you going to this specific tournament, with this specific team, at this specific point in your season?
Two Categories — And You Can Only Be In One
The way I see it, there are two types of tournament experiences: fun and performance.
Fun looks like a Halloween tournament with younger players — costumes, trick or treat, a hotel with a pool, siblings hanging out, parents relaxing together. It looks like a play date format where you run three games and treat it as an extended training opportunity. It's a team-building trip where the soccer is the vehicle and the togetherness is the destination.
Performance looks like Surf Cup. Like an ECNL showcase where scouts might be watching. Like ODP Arizona in January, where everything around the games is built to put the players in the best position to compete and win.
Here's the thing: you can't be in both categories at the same time. You can't go for fun, win your first two games, and suddenly decide you're going to win the whole thing. And you cannot go to win, lose your first two, and tell your families "well, we were here for fun anyway." One has to be the priority. Choose it. Own it. Build around it.
The ODP Example: Setting It Up to Win
When I take our ODP group to Arizona, we go to compete. And everything around the tournament reflects that.
Players are only allowed to wear ODP gear when they're out of their rooms — not because of ego, but because it keeps them mentally connected to why they're there. They are ODP players on an ODP trip, and wearing the gear is a constant reminder of that.
We send tactical information in advance — formations, set pieces, positional responsibilities — because we only see each other once a month. Players know their role before they land. They have something to read on the plane.
The schedule is mapped out: activation time, arrival at the field an hour early, meals, bed by 10pm. We can't control the referees, the fields, the opposition, or whether a national team scout is watching during warmups. But we can control everything inside our environment. And we do.
You can take elements of this for your club team even if you're not doing ODP. If you're going to win, tell your families what that means before you go. Tell them what the nutrition looks like between games. Tell them the pool is available after the last game on Sunday, not Saturday night. Set the standard early so no one is surprised by it later.
Setting It Up for Fun
If the purpose is fun, flip the approach entirely.
Book the hotel with the pool. Plan the team dinner on Saturday night. Go to the movies after the last game. Make the breakfast on Sunday morning a group event that everyone contributes to.
The kids will still look at the standings. The parents will still be doing the math on "if we win this and that team loses by two, we're in the final." That competitive energy doesn't disappear — it just isn't the thing you've organised everything around. The underlying commitment is that everyone goes home having had a good time, and next year when tournament sign-ups open, they want to go again.
Fun still has structure. It doesn't mean stay up all night and eat junk between games. It means the structure is designed around the experience, not the result.
Communicate Before You Go
Here's the part that gets skipped most often: communicating the purpose to your families before you leave.
Families will show up to a tournament with their own expectations. Some of them think it's a win-at-all-costs competition. Some think it's a low-key team trip. Some have no idea what to expect at all. If you haven't told them what it is, they'll fill in the gaps themselves — and everyone fills them in differently.
The coach who doesn't set expectations ends up managing five different versions of the same trip simultaneously. Don't do that to yourself.
Send a message, run a quick Zoom, or just pull everyone together before you head off: this is what this tournament is for us. This is what we're going to do, this is what we're going to avoid, and here's what success looks like. Families will trust you to tell them. Most of them are just waiting for someone to set the tone.
One more thing worth asking — and I genuinely mean this — try explaining the tournament to a non-soccer friend. Someone who's not immersed in the culture of youth club soccer. Tell them where you're going, how much it costs, how many days, what the goal is. Then listen to your own answer. Do you like it?
If you do, great. Go build around it. If you hesitate, that hesitation is worth paying attention to.
Why are you going? Answer that first. Everything else follows.
Listen to the full episode: Ep. 83 — Tournaments
@LeeDunneSoccer