Guest Post From Lucid Travel
Youth club soccer provides so much more than just high level competition. Its offers young athletes an environment to create close friendships, build camaraderie, and endless opportunities to develop their character.
Here at Lucid Travel, we value sports travel. Here are some tips for making team travel more effective and enjoyable.
1. Budgeting
Budgeting is most effective when its done before the season starts. This helps to minimize unexpected costs, so everything that’s needed doesn’t have to be compromised later.
The way you budget varies not only between different sports, but different teams within the same sport. Things like athletic administration budgets, and if the coach is paid or unpaid, will affect the budget.
When planning, important factors to consider are fees for coaching, facilities, and tournaments. Uniforms, supplies, hotel prices, meals, and gas will also play a large role.
Fundraising is the best way to offset these costs but it’s not always easy. Have a parent volunteer to lead this effort and organize the team to take advantage of simple ways to raise.
With Lucid Travel, teams have the option to fundraise with very little effort. Each team can simply sign up and the players can share with their friends and family for the next time they book travel. Every time the team page is used, it will generate up to 7% in proceeds for the team. No more car washes or bake sales.
To learn more about team fundraising with Lucid Travel, click here.
2. Communication
Communication is key on and off the field. It inevitably leads to honesty and willingness to work together. Coaches can share their budget plan with the players and their parents, and come up with reasonable payment plans. This will help the parents will understand the costs, and important details won’t be left to the responsibility of the players
A good way to improve your team’s communication is to use one of the many great team apps that are available – TeamApp, TeamSnap and LeagueApps are a few very popular ones.
3. Time Management
Nothing is more stressful than waiting to the last minute but just like with creating a budget early, planning ahead will help make everything go as smoothly as possible. Communication will make time management effective, by keeping everyone updated and notified about important deadlines.
Notice the best time to book a hotel is one month (30 days) in advance. This will actually save you more money than booking further in advance or closer to your checkin date. For more tips and insights about the best time to book travel and save money, visit our blog post.
The biggest tips for time management aren’t specific to team travel, but time management in general. Create schedules and prioritize and don’t forget to plan for down time. Free time and rest time are critical for everyone’s well being.
4. Organization
Organization coincides with time management and communication. The team can create itineraries, directions to and from the event, and packing lists so nothing gets left behind. In addition to helping everything go smoothly, practicing organization will also teach the players about being disciplined and working together.
5. Experience
Traveling for sports shouldn’t just be about the tournament. You should also make sure to take advantage of the experience of it. Besides rest time and free time, plan for something fun and interesting to do in the area. It can be a famous landmark, an amusement park, or even a nice restaurant one night. You can create a poll before the trip for the players to vote on what they’d like to do.
This will give them more to look forward to, and something to remember besides the tournament. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate or expensive, just something fun that will make the trip more memorable and help the team bond.
