Cony Konstin is the Director of Coaching of Westside Metros SC, a small club based in Beaverton, Ore., that has gotten national attention with the success of its U-19 Internationals boys team and has sent players to the U-15 national team pool.

It seems to me that playing soccer with different kinds of balls is good for children's skill development. I don't have scientific evidence for this, but a lot of anecdotes from great players.

The choice of where to have your child play youth soccer can be very difficult. Multiple clubs, "select teams," or leagues will tout their services or programs, often with promises of glory down the road. There is no shortage of choices for where your child can spend the next year of development -- and in the United States, parents have more choice than in any other country.

The Youth Soccer Insider continues its series in which we ask the leaders of U.S. youth clubs to address key issues on the state of American youth soccer. Charlie Slagle is Chief Executive of the North Carolina's Capital Area Soccer League (CASL), a "full-service club" with 9,000 registered players.

Officiating professional soccer is definitely not for the faint of heart. This is not surprising as people's livelihoods are based on the results. Officiating youth soccer is sometimes not for the faint-hearted either. The majority of youth soccer referees quit within their first two years with verbal abuse by kids' parents being the No. 1 reason for quitting.

In a new Youth Soccer Insider series, we're asking the leaders of U.S. youth clubs to address key issues on the state of American youth soccer. Tim Schulz is the president and CEO of Rush Soccer, which has affiliate clubs in more than 20 states, representing 34,000 youth players.

Ambitions to play college soccer can have a significant impact on a child's path through the youth game -- and the dream of a college soccer scholarship is undoubtedly one reason why parents are willing to spend so much on club ball. We've asked Avi Stopper, the founder of college recruiting software company CaptainU.com, to address the issues faced by parents and players, and how clubs have become involved in college counseling.

Are you taking your eye off of the ball in regards to your recreation program? In many clubs the recreation side gets much less attention than the travel side of things. This is unfortunate because the recreation side, in most clubs, has participation of three to four times more players then travel.