Next Season plan

D K Asked 1 week ago

Greetings Pingskills Team and wishing all the best in the New year.

I would like to ask for your opinion on my situation.

This is already my third season trying to compete at the regional level.
However, this season I am practically unable to get to training sessions.
They are relatively good quality – although I run into players, who are too weak for me to train with effectively,more often than I would like.
But I constantly struggle with commuting – the trainings simply start too early and I live in neighboring city.
The coaching staff told me that this might change – but they have been saying this for the second year now and the trainings are still at four o’clock.

In the previous season, I played for a small village team in the outskirts of the region where I was a registered player, and I only trained in my current club.
I participated in regional-level matches only minimally.

And the season before that, we played the higher regional league, where I had little chance to score points.
At the same time, the district-level competition in our district is too weak for me – I had over 90% there.

I am thinking about what to do.
I feel stuck in a loop.
I am afraid to leave, because I might not find training conditions of comparable quality again.
In my city, nobody offers structured, coach-led practice, except for one club,where I previously played in and which I parted with on bad terms.
Other clubs with structured trainings usually only play at a very high league level.
On the other hand, in my current club, I simply do not get into matches or trainings as often as I would like.
I finish work at 15:30 and it does not seem that this will improve any time soon.
And getting there within half an hour is a serious problem for me.
In addition, I play only one league.
Besides that, we are hopelessly last this year – both I and my teammates average 0–1 points per match. Some because they have not yet reached the level, and me because I have a training deficit.

However, if I move somewhere closer, I will very likely end up in a club that does not train, or trains only sporadically, and where players mainly participate in order to socialize over beer rather than to improve.
This exact attitude was one of the reasons why I left the previously mentioned club with which I parted on bad terms.

I was also thinking about private sessions,but I simply cannot afford to pay for 6 hours of training each week given that 1 hour usually costs around 20$.

Thanks,
Dan

Alois Rosario Answered 4 days ago

Hi Dan,

It sounds like your main challenge is finding consistent, high-quality training that fits your schedule and travel constraints. You have a few options:

• Consider short, targeted private sessions occasionally, even 1–2 per week, to address specific weaknesses.

• If you stick with your current club, make the most of the training you can attend and supplement it with self-directed practice to maintain progress.

• League play can still be valuable for experience, but don’t rely on it as your main improvement method if matches are few.

The key is maximizing the time you actually have rather than stressing over perfect conditions, which seem unlikely in your situation.

You can steadily improve by combining limited club sessions with smart, structured solo practice.