The Road To Professional As An AYSES Player

kkkrrrrrrrraaaaccccckkkk!!! ‘’What the heck is that?’’ It`s not the most painful injury I’ve experienced but it severely limited my mobility. The scary thing was that I had no idea what it was. A couple of things going through my head, ‘’All this work for this???’’ ‘’All my hard work and dedication for 20+ years and this is how the game repays me???’’ They say, ’you get what you put in’ but I’m starting to question the validity of that statement.

I`m sitting down on my couch aware of the MLS Draft 2013. Of all teams, there is really only one team on my mind. As a matter of fact, my dad and I had spent some time watching MLS the last couple years. We both came to the agreement that this one team played soccer in a way that resembled top European soccer, far more so than any other MLS club. I get a bunch of random texts congratulating me but I have no idea what they are talking about. Apparently, they got the news before I did, on Twitter, which I was not a user of. Not long after, maybe 10-15 minutes, I get an unknown call. I answer the call and someone notifies me that I have been drafted by the Seattle Sounders and he is asking me if I am ready to take a flight either that day or the next day. I was extremely shocked by how quickly they would expect anyone to make such plans. There was no way I was going to take the chance to say ‘no’ to a dream I always had since I was a little kid.

As long as I can remember, I was as addicted to the game as much as a kid can be, at least I think so. I would always spend time with a ball in the house, in addition to outdoor training and perfect different technical aspects of my game. Of course, as a kid it wasn´t the only game I played but it was easily far more than any other game, far more! I occasionally played football or basketball with friends in the neighborhood or at school. I do remember training with my dad very often on my soccer skills as a little kid but he never forced me. I always looked forward to it. I continued training a lot on my own, even when my dad was not present. Even when I left my family to go several states away for University, I continued to train a lot on my own because I wanted to become a professional soccer player.

Growing up I was never aware of how small the chances were of becoming a professional soccer player but I did pretty much everything I thought I could do to reach that level. Sometime in middle school my mom told me that the world is not a soccer ball, my response ‘’but it is round like a soccer ball’’. Her demeanor was serious, so I was smart enough in that particular instance to keep that response in my head. If my mom was telling me this as a kid, then I knew that I was on the right track in doing what it took to become a professional soccer player. Years later I would find out how true this statement really was but you know how kids are, I just took the statement at face value and never thought anything else of it. Too much for a typical middle school kid to comprehend. Besides playing, I used to spend a lot of time watching professional soccer. This helped me on some level to see what the best players at that time were doing, what made them special, and give me an idea of what I needed to train next time I went outside. Apart from that, I just loved watching the game. Although I was born in 1990, my football knowledge goes back as far as the 1950`s. This is because I have such an infatuation with the game that I do my own research reading and watching soccer games from as early as 1955. I have researched a lot on football history but I still have a lot to learn. To sum it up, I´m a soccer fanatic.

After playing soccer at club level, I attended the University of South Florida on a soccer scholarship. A division 1 school at the time and still is. They would regularly qualify for the NCAA Division 1 Championship and even won the conference championship, ‘The Big East’ the year before I got there which was arguably the best conference in college soccer. So having the opportunity to attend this school was no small feat. I was always a hard worker and I`m not being delusional either. As a freshman within my first few months there, less than 3 or 4 months, a senior on the team told me, ‘’Outside of Chipi, you are the hardest worker I have ever seen.“ Chipi was the senior captain on the team at the time and he truly worked hard. He also put in extra work outside of our regular trainings and he killed himself in team trainings. We trained 5-6 times a week throughout the season, 2 times a day during pre-season. In my mind, I thought, ‘no, I’m a harder worker, you just don`t see all the extra hard work I put in.’’ I didn`t tell him this but I did respect what he said. I took into consideration that, Chipi, was his fellow country man from Venezuela and they were very good friends. So if he saw what his very good friend was regularly doing after 3 years and he only saw what I was doing after a few months, I thought that statement means a lot. I remember one time as a junior, my coach joked during practice that they should make shirts with my face on it saying ‘Be like Kevin’ because I worked so hard in training. I was such a hard worker and willing to sacrifice to make it at the professional level. When my dad and I realized it was a possibility to get drafted by a team, we would do everything we could to not blow the opportunity. What we did for about a month before the draft was to do fitness drills that would keep me at the top of my game. All I did for about a month straight, 4-5 times a week, for a little over an hour was ‘run’. I mean this has nothing to do with anything else but running. I`m not talking about jogging or 80% jogging, I’m talking about full out sprints, cuts, and turns for an hour! Maybe about 3 water breaks for a few minutes before another long bout of sprinting. Before you think that I´m bragging here about how hard I work, I am trying to make a point and it will make a little more sense later.

After 3.5 years at the University of South Florida, sometime in January I get a call from the Seattle Sounders coach inviting me to take an immediate trip to the preseason as I have been drafted by the team. It seemed like destiny, of all teams my father and I were hoping I would be drafted by the Seattle Sounders. Being there was an amazing experience in terms of the professionalism of the program compared to anywhere else I’ve been. However, being drafted by itself meant nothing to me. I knew that being drafted was not the goal, nor was it a sign that I made it. It was merely an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and I approached each and every training with that exact mindset. After about a week the team traveled to Phoenix, Arizona for another week or two of preseason training and it was here where I would have my fall from grace. But not before what seemed like the closest sign to making the team without being told directly, that I made the team. While I was taking a break during one of the trainings a few days into the training camp, the assistant coach came up to me and asked, ‘’Kevin, if you were to come and join this team, how would you approach the situation, how would you handle yourself throughout your time here?’’ I told him, ‘’I would do everything, every single day, every single moment to give everything, every time I step on the field for the team and the organization. I would do everything I could do to improve every time.’’ To be honest, I felt even more strongly than words could describe. Not long after, all the seemingly good fortune up till now would change. Two days before the first preseason game I made a cut to change direction and I heard a crack in my back ankle ‘kkkrrrrrrrraaaaccccckkkk!!!’ I had no idea what this was but I had to immediately sit out. Two days later the same assistant coach that asked me what I would do if I was to join the organization is now asking how my injury was feeling. I gave him an answer he probably didn`t want to hear, ‘’I have no idea what it is, and there is no sign of it getting better after 2-3 days.’’ When it was time to head back to Seattle after the preseason camp in Arizona, I had a meeting with all the coaches and they told me they were letting me go. At the time, I didn`t really feel the hurt that I had until many weeks later when it still was not showing any improvement.

I used to ask myself, ‘’How could the game after everything I`ve sacrificed treat me so poorly??? For everything I gave the game it had given me so little!!!’’ I was bitter about this and extremely confused. You always hear people say things like ‘Hard work pays off’, ‘You get what you put in’, ‘Don`t cheat the game and you will be rewarded’. Unfortunately, in sports, these statement hold true maybe half the time or a little more but it is certainly not 100% factual! By no means am I discouraging anyone to become a professional. Absolutely not!! Many professionals would tell you this holds true and you can see that evidence by what they have achieved in their careers. On the other side, there are players like myself who will see how players who did not sacrifice as much as we did, playing at a professional level that we are not playing at and question what it all means. But for the accounted less than 2% of college athletes who do end up becoming a professional, it`s totally worth it (Hence why this article is for 98% of parents)!!! You should also be informed that there are players who win ‘MLS rookie of the year’ and end up becoming bench players for the rest of their career at that level. The point is there are hundreds of different stories and paths that can take place. I can tell you this, if I were a parent not only would I make an effort to not make sports a priority with my child, I wouldn`t waste a single ounce of energy stressing over my kids ranking, whether he/she is the star of the team, what position he/she is playing, did he/she have a bad game, or any other questions of the sort. I would do everything I can to make sure he excels if he pushes me to do so out of his own will but even more importantly I would hope that he enjoys what he is doing and where he is doing it. It`s not that kids should not work hard but I think if any kid, or person for that matter, is doing something they enjoy, they will naturally commit to it and work hard. As opposed to forcing a kid to work hard or hoping a kid will work hard. In addition, many great lessons can be learned from sports without going professional. Lessons that can be applied to other areas in life far beyond youth soccer, commitment and hard work being a couple of them. These days, I no longer think that the game cheated me or that the game gave me so little. On the contrary, what the game did do for me, was give me incalculable amounts of joy and it gave me an outlet to express myself in ways that I can`t do in many other areas of life. The game did more for me than anything I ever put into the game, so just let your kid enjoy the game.

Keeping Parents Silent and Why North Texas Might Be Next

At first, one may be opposed to a youth soccer league thinking of enforcing a rule that prohibits parents from making any noise from the sidelines. No cheering, encouragement, or useful tips can be shouted to kids during a match. Sounds unrealistic, unsympathetic, or even cruel (at least from a parent’s point of view). If you are like most parents, you may even be thinking that a rule like this could never be put into effect. This rule was put into effect and tested in the South Carolina youth soccer league and was set to apply a `Silent September.’ Silent September was a month in which parents were prohibited from yelling, cheering, or communicating, during youth soccer matches. Should this rule prove to be successful, there is no reason to believe that such a rule could not be applied to other state youth soccer leagues.

Why And How Did This Rule Come To Be?

This rule of keeping parents silent is an attempt in changing our culture towards youth sports, specifically as parents. It is also worth noting, the reason why parents seem to be a target of so many negative effects to youth sports is not because they are of no benefit but rather because they are so influential. Arguably, parents are just as influential, if not more so, than any other group of people in youth sports. In South Carolina, a number of incidents have occurred with parents being aggressive towards referees in matches. Including an incident in which a parent went on the field during a match and physically pushed a referee. These kinds of incidents are causing referees to no longer want to show up to games. If we as parents are to be role models for our kids, what example are we setting by cursing, name calling, and starting physical confrontations with the referee? The referee is an authoritative figure! What do we expect from our kids if this is a common occurrence that they experience for several weeks in a year, for several years, in their participation in sports?

Immediate Consequences

Though this rule has very good intentions behind it, I doubt that it is perfect. Often times, a rule must be tested several times and tweaked before it can become as good as it can get. As a result of this rule, there will obviously be some positive aspects of the game that are taken away from the kid’s experience. Firstly, not all parents are yelling the same things. There are a number of parents who do not show disrespect to the referee, say things contradictory to the coach, and are not pointing out every mistake that their kid makes. Unfortunately, many kids will miss the positive words of encouragement from their parents. Whether this encouragement comes after making a great play or making a mistake that a kid has difficulty getting over. On the other side, there are positive comments from kids in South Carolina on the new rule. A 10 year old kid said she was in favor of the rule, stating, ”Now my father won`t coach me, and it was just like really embarrassing, for him to coach me, because I thought I was doing everything right…“. Another 10 year old kid in favor of the rule remarked “I think it`s a good idea because I don`t like when my mom screams at me from the sidelines, she distracts me, I don`t really like it.”

The Guidelines of the New Rule

The rules are straight forward, short, and simple. Firstly, parents are required to be silent, sit on the opposite side of the player’s bench, and enjoy their player and the game they love. The Second rule, requires that in violation of this rule, the referee is required to give 2 warnings. The first warning is to ASK the coach to inform parents of the rule, the second warning is that the ref TELL the coach to inform parents of the rule, and after the third offense, the parent be removed from the area. Should the coach refuse to remove the parent or the parent refuses to leave, then the coach must be removed from the game. Should there be no replacement for the coach, then the game will be stopped immediately. If the situation warrants, it is also possible that the referee skip the 1st two steps of ASK and TELL.

 

Please Feel Free To Welcome Your Thoughts!

How Your Little One Can Receive More Playing Time On Any Team-What 99% of Parents Don’t Want To Hear

The good news is that every young player in youth soccer can improve playing time. The challenge is that the three things that make this possible are very difficult to apply. The reality is that few parents and players are willing to do these things. The three things that must be applied are patience, commitment, and a willingness to improve.

Patience

I dare to say that it is extremely rare to find a parent who is willing to be patient in youth soccer development; it is goes against human nature and our need for instant gratification.

In youth soccer, there is a huge emphasis on winning among parents. Winning seems to be more important than the level and type of coaching or even the type of progress that their kid is making. Truth be told, a child playing for a winning team give parents bragging rights. I know that very few people will admit to the significant of it, but it seems to carry a lot of weight based on the evidence of which teams attract the most players.

The problem is that focusing on winning at an early age inevitably affects a kid’s long term development and thus their ability to play more in the long run. The fact is that in soccer, the most important aspects of development at a young age, which is learning, cannot be evaluated by wins and losses. Learning the right things normally results in mistakes by players that can cost games. Teams with athleticism and early growth development can exploit such a situation and win against such a team. Only later in youth soccer do these abilities learned at the younger ages bare results.

The best analogy would be the sport of wrestling. The relative level of strength and quickness when participants reach adulthood significantly diminishes and skill becomes more significant in determining results. A kid experiencing growth spurt at an early age can win without focusing on techniques. Their sheer dominance due to athleticism and size negates their appreciation of the things they need to learn. On the other hand, the kid with delayed growth spurt is challenged in every fight. They do not win as many fights but every fight exposes their weaknesses. They are forced to use the correct techniques to have a chance of winning fights. They have no choice. When both reach adulthood and are of relative similar athletic ability and size, who do you think has a better chance of winning?

Be patient when learning. It will most likely cost you some wins at a young age, but will pay off eventually in terms of development and more playing time in the future.

Commitment

Commitment pertains to two things; firstly, the player must take every practice seriously; secondly, the player must improve aspects of their game away from practice with the team.

Spending extra time on passing, shooting, dribbling skills, for example will greatly increase the ability to perform in a game situation. Every training is a chance to learn something new or improve on an aspect of the game. It shouldn’t have to be stated but the more time or days you spend on any skill, the better you will become at it. Wasting time at practice will only harm your chances of improving faster.

Another way is to spend time watching higher level players play, especially professionals. Watching professionals gives you the opportunity to observe players doing things that you will not see at the current level your kid is playing at. Not just watching but carefully observing movements off the ball and player, decision making, etc. will make a big improvement in anyone’s game.

Willingness To Improve

A player can do everything else right but if they are not actively seeking to improve their game then their progress will be affected. Growth is essential if a player desires playing time as they grow older, especially if the intent is to play at a higher level. Players at the collegiate or even the professional level will have far better skills. To separate oneself and succeed at such levels, it is important that a player develop as many aspects of their game as possible.

One thing that some players have trouble with is taking constructive criticism. Often, this happens with young players that are successful at a certain level and get comfortable and think they are too good to learn. It is important that players are coachable, meaning that they are able listen to the instruction of the coach and find a way to apply what they learn in their game.

2 Must-Do’s To Prevent Your Kid from ‘Burnout’ in Sports

It’s about time that we cleared up some misconceptions about what causes kids to ‘burnout’ in youth sports. Specifically, emotional and physical ‘burnout’. There are hundreds of articles about different ways to prevent ‘burnout’. This ‘burnout’ phenomenon seems to be a common problem mostly in America. I will attempt to explain the two things that can help alleviate this problem.

Parental Pressure (Emotional Burnout)

Parents can be a major cause of emotional burnout. If you are one of those parents that keeps tabs of statistics and gets on them on how they should have done this and that, then you are the potential problem.

Coming back to current elite soccer players and those of the past, it is important to note that parents were hardly involved in their youth activities.  Sports was considered an extension of regular kids play. Many parents had no idea their kid was even a good soccer player until a coach or scout talked to them and recommended them to play at a higher level. Imagine the heartache and emotional pain that kids would not have to experience because they did not have to deal with a disappointed parent who was shaming them for a bad game or for not scoring a goal. Kids rationalize things on a different level than adults. When you think you are doing the best thing for your kid, keep in mind that it may come across to them differently. If you have to give criticism, make sure that it is constructive and given in a calm manner.  Do not prolong the criticism.

It is also worth mentioning that some parents today expect their kids to play at an elite level. This may have something to do with the fact that athletes of today have a higher status in society than they have ever had. The result of this is parents who place undue expectation on their kids which in turn could result in burnout.

Participating In A Single Sport (Physical Burnout)

Studies show that kids heavily committed to one sport often experience ‘burnout’ which eventually leads them to quitting. How come then that some of best soccer players such as Messi, Ronaldo, Alexis Sanchez, and Luis Suarez spent hours every day playing mostly soccer and they had no burnout issues?

The difference between them and today’s kids is lifestyle. Those days, kids played games with other kids that involved many different types of movements of the body that were much different than required in soccer. Beside the relatively long walks they did as part of their daily life, they played games that involved climbing things, such as trees for example.  These were games that developed other muscles besides those that were developed playing soccer.

Many kids today in Europe and America are being driven everywhere and stay indoors playing video games or watching TV. Given the circumstances, a kid that limits themselves to one sport at a young age lacks the overall different physical development that inevitably increase their chances of getting injured. Limiting your physical activity to one sport will cause a few muscles to overcompensate and thus cause injury. What many European soccer clubs have done to prevent this type of problem is by hiring professional physical therapists and strength trainers. These professionals incorporate several exercises for soccer players to help prevent injuries by promoting multiple dynamic physical movements. If you have a kid who is under twelve years of age and is not involved in such program, then it would be best for them to develop their body by playing more than one sport to increase their resistance to injuries.  They could also find other kids to do physical activities that promote well-rounded physical development.

 

 

Why Your Coach Should Not Limit Your Kid To One Sport

Does specializing in one sport make you a better player in the long run? Are youth soccer coaches educated on the advantages of playing multiple sports? Studies on this topic show some very interesting results.

It is worth mentioning that dedication to one sport develops certain nuances and expertise that can only come from time spent on the sport.

There are two possible advantages that come out of playing multiple sports. The first is a decrease in an athlete’s chance of ‘burnout’. The second involves development of a wider range of movements and increased coordination.

Burnout Prevention

‘Burnout’ usually results when an athlete is negatively impacted by the pressure of performing, and/or feels trapped or confined to follow one particular path. This has been cited as one of the major reasons a lot of young athletes quit a sport. Young athletes need to enjoy a sport without undue pressure from coaches or parents. To decrease the chances of ‘burnout’ it is suggested that up to about the age of 12, kids should be open to try multiple sports and only up until their mid-teens, begin to specialize or commit more heavily to one sport.

Physical Benefits

Playing multiple sports can often give young athletes a wider range of movements and increased athletic ability including better coordination. The reason for this is that every sport requires different movements which inevitably emphasizes the use and frequency of use of different muscles. As a result, an athlete may be able to strengthen their physical ability to perform an action in each sport. In addition, playing multiple sports may also lead to reduced injury because it prevents the body from having to repetitively use a specific muscle, ligament and/or bone, the result of which can be overuse.

All Sports Are Not Equal

Every sport requires specific athletic, technical, and tactical skills set. There are sports in which very early specialization is required due to the peak of one’s physicality, gymnastics would be an extreme example, as kids are often at the optimal peak of their career in their teens. Such a sport requires extreme focus at an early age if one is to do well.  Hardly is there time left to participate in other sports. For sports that are largely dependent on physical ability, such as American Football, Rugby, Track, and Volleyball, the relatively few technical and tactical skillsets of these sports can be developed later. There are instances where people began participating in these sports in their later years (as late as twenty) and were able to perform at a high level due to their participation in other sports that developed their physical abilities.

Then there are sports like hockey and soccer, which require a significant level of development of technical and tactical skillsets much more so than physical abilities in order to play at an elite level. The intricacies of these sports require intense focus on the early part of a young athlete’s development. These sports contain technical movements and skills that are best optimized even before a child’s growth spurt, and anyone who attempts to begin such sports after puberty has taken place, takes on an a nearly impossible task to be able to play at an elite level.

Whatever decision you make in how many sports your child plays, be sure to take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages that come with that decision. Keep in mind that your sport(s) of choice makes a big difference.

The Path To Play Soccer In Europe as an Alternative to MLS

The vast majority of American youth soccer players who hope to become professional soccer players will usually join a university or a junior college with a soccer program immediately after high school. After junior college and/or University, they may be chosen, or drafted, to play with a team in the professional American soccer league, also known as MLS. However, there are a number of American kids dreaming of a future of playing soccer in Europe at the highest level. You may be wandering how this dream can become a reality. AYSES soccer club provides players with this alternative, through the partnership and help of Schaechter Management and Sports. Schaechter Management and Sports is a company that gives youth soccer players the chance of trying out with top youth soccer clubs in Germany. Schaechter, unlike many soccer camps held by European coaches in Texas, holds soccer camps in Texas in which American soccer players actually have a chance of being scouted by German coaches who can help give these players a chance to make their dreams come true as professional soccer players in Germany.

The Truth About Partnerships

You may be aware of youth soccer clubs clubs that are partnered with other big professional clubs in Europe. These clubs may also hold camps with Europeans to help regulate these camps. However, you must also be aware of the reasons these camps are created. Although you may like to believe that your kid is being spotted by other European coaches with a chance of playing in Europe, you should first ask yourself how many players from this camp have gone on to play in Europe. The hurtful truth, is that the ultimate factor behind many of the partnerships between American youth soccer clubs and top professional clubs in Europe marketing. Both parties win, the American soccer club brings players merely by being associated with a top professional club in Europe, and the European club benefits by increasing their brand name in America and selling more jerseys. The fact is, many of these so called ‘coaches’ being brought in to these camps in America have no intention of scouting any player and are merely there to regulate the camp, and that is even if they are qualified as coaches, as opposed to young players or volunteers.

The Typical Route of Most American Players

Almost all American youth soccer players who pursue the dream to become a professional soccer player will usually join a junior college or a university with a soccer program after finishing high school around U-18 of youth soccer. After about 3-4 years of playing soccer at a junior college and/or University, a few players will be drafted in order to have tryouts for professional teams in the MLS, the American professional soccer league. For any American soccer player hoping to play at a high level in Europe, if you do happen to get drafted and then signed by an MLS team, then you may hope to be scouted by Europeans while playing in the MLS. However, as the level of soccer in Europe, at the moment, is much higher than the level in American, rarely do European scouts take a proactive role in searching for American players to go to Europe. As a matter of fact, the way things are currently going, the MLS has developed a reputation for taking in old and retired professional European soccer players to play in their league. For this reason, it just increases the difficulty of American players being scouted by Europeans to go play in Europe. That is why there are programs such as Schaechter Management and Sports that can help ease the path.

The Difference Between Schaechter and Everyone Else

Schaechter Management and Sports is an organization that is committed to finding the best talent in the North Texas area and sending these players to Europe. Licensed coaches that have experience and a history of sending players to top youth clubs in Germany in order to give them a chance to become professional soccer players at the highest level. In addition, Schaechter does not only have contact with just a single club in Germany. This enables players to increase their chances of being chosen by filling a need that multiple coaches in Germany have, in finding the best players to fit their teams. For younger kids around 10 years old, they are invited to play in training sessions with German academies and are also capable of participating in top class tournaments such as the Bundesliga tournament for example, including some of the best competition in Germany. For the older kids, a trip is planned involving training sessions with around 3-4 German academies, specifically with teams needing players in a certain position. As these American players are not bound by contracts, unless signed with MLS or other professional teams, players get the chance to be signed by a professional team at the age of 18. Schaechter also has a history of sending youth soccer players from America to Germany, some of which are now playing in Germany or have been re-invited to come back in Germany after an initial good showing in Germany.

Be sure to visit the Schaechter Management and Sports Website for further details at: http://www.schaechter-sports.com

3 reasons why playing one position can prevent a player’s development

It is very common that parents and coaches insist on kids playing one specific position in youth soccer. The reasons could be that the player has certain abilities that enable them to thrive in one position, the action optimizes the chances of the team winning, or position is one that a player prefers to play. In the early stages of development (12 years and younger), a player playing in one position can in the long term limit their development and opportunities. There are several reasons for this, including and not limited to:

• Lack of deep understanding of the game in general.
• Problems adjusting to other teams later in their playing career.
• Limitation of opportunity when trying out for teams with multiple positions available.

Whether a player plays forward, midfield, defense, or even goalkeeper, learning to play multiple positions at an early age will help them improve in any position that they eventually choose to play.

Deep Understanding Of The Game

Playing in one position limits a player to a single positional perspective of the game, fostering a lack of understanding and development for other types of skills and positioning sense that is required by other positions. If a player were to play forward, midfield, and defense it would be much easier to have positional sense from all those positions and to better respond to situations in the game that result from this knowledge. This can involve communication with other players, as well as anticipation of where his teammates and opponents will be with or without the ball. Having this knowledge can improve the decision-making process of any player. Even goalkeepers, who learn to play on the field, can learn to better communicate with other players having experienced other positions. As far as skills is concerned, there are certain skills that are more prevalent in certain positions than others. For example, a defender will play more long balls than a striker or frequently be presented with opportunities to close down offensive options. On the other hand, a striker or an attacking player will spend far more time scoring chances and learning how to make decisions and execute passes in a more confined space and usually with less time.

Problems Adjusting To Other Teams

As players leave club soccer and go to play college or professional level, there is no telling which system a coach will deploy. Perhaps the coach utilizes a formation or applies tactics that are completely foreign to what the player has grown accustomed. The players who will have the easiest time adjusting are those that have a deep understanding of the game, and a great way to develop a deep understanding of the game is by playing multiple positions as a young youth soccer player.

Limitation of Opportunities

Often, a team has more than multiple positions available. A player trying out for that team will have a greater chance of making it if they can play more than one of the open positions. Their odds of making the team will be increased relative to the number of open positions they can play. It is highly unlikely that a forward will be good enough to play central defender for example, but a central defender that can play defensive midfield, or a central forward that can play attacking midfield can be very appealing to a coach and team.

Playing Time Vs Development: Is It Better To Play Less For A Strong Team?

Is playing time the most important thing you consider when joining a youth soccer club? If development is what you are looking for, then the answer is much more complicated.

Playing time is no doubt a critical component to a player’s development. Not only is it critical from a development standpoint, but it is also important from a psychological standpoint as well. The question here though is not whether playing time is important, because it is, but rather whether it is the most important factor if one’s interest is development.

Besides playing time, outside of a player working on their own, the other critical aspects of a player’s development are coaching and the soccer level of players in their team. We can all agree that an ideal situation is to be in a team where you are playing much, with the best players (best team) and a great coach (quality practice sessions). The reality is that it is rarely possible to find such a scenario, and players consistently must decide on which one(s) to compromise of the three things. Truth be told, most opt for “best players” option because it normally equates to a winning team. That normally means that a player will play with the highest ranked team that will accept them. The quality of the coach is almost always compromised.

There are many scenarios we can look at when it comes to playing time, but we will focus on one that is common to a lot of players. One that players face at all levels, whether it be deciding between playing for a USSF Academy team and Top level league team below an academy team, or between a top-level league team and a team playing in a league below that of the top-level league team. Do you choose a top-level team and play less or a lower-level team and play more?

Given the reality of the situation, what then is the best option for such a player when it comes to playing time if they are interested in development? To explain the situation, we will come up with two scenarios for that player:

• Play for a top-level team and play less but practice with top players above their level.
• Play for a lower-level team than above and play more but practice with players below or at their level.

If the coaching level is good and the same in both cases, then it is a matter of personal preference. Each scenario has its advantages. Either one will work well when it comes to development. There is something to be said about practicing with better players, but so is playing games on a regular basis (nothing like learning from playing). The key point worth repeating here is that the coaching level is good and the same in both cases.

Let’s examine the two scenarios.

Play Less For A Top Level Team

If the coach is good, then this is a good scenario, if the coach is not good on the other hand, then there is nothing to be gained from poor quality training sessions. Good players coached badly become bad players over time. As part of that group, your development will suffer accordingly.

There are many parents who believe that playing less for a good team is better, and place their kids in teams without consideration of the quality of the coach. The player’s development ultimately suffers and with time they fall behind. There are many examples of such players in youth soccer today. Good as young players but average at best when older.

Play More For A Lower Level Team

If the coach is good, then this is a good scenario as well. If the coach is not good though, then the consequences for that player’s development can be very severe. It is however better to play for a lower level team with less talented players and a good coach, than to play for a higher-level team with better players and poor quality coach.

There is no doubt that playing more is the preference even at the highest level of soccer. You will find that it is common practice in top professional leagues around the world to loan out players (especially young ones) to lower level teams so they can get playing time instead of having them practice with their current higher level team and not playing much. These players normally come back to the original team a season or more later with the added benefit of having played more and become better as a result. They then end up getting more playing time with their original team because of the playing experience from the loan.

Maybe not as an example of someone that had issues with playing time, but one that opted for good coaching above playing for a top-level team is Mark Pulisic, father of Cristian Pulisic, an 18-year-old professional soccer player who currently plays for the USA men’s national team as well as the soccer giants Borussia Dortmund in Germany Bundesliga. Cristian Pulisic played for a non USSF Academy team called Michigan Rush when he had the option of playing for a USSF Academy team. Michigan Rush is not a nationally recognized club. The director of coaching for Michigan Rush, Mark Zathey, when asked why Mark Pulisic chose Michigan Rush despite interest from the top clubs cited the quality training and focus on soccer development as the reason.

The reality is that Michigan Rush is the only USA club that currently has produced a player playing at the highest level of soccer. Not one USSF Academy team can claim that.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that selecting a coach is the most important decision you will make when it comes to player development. Playing time and playing with good players are all important, but if the coach is not good, then none of that matters as far as development is concerned. This is even more critical when players are sixteen years old or younger.

 

Limiting Headers For Youth Soccer – Big Deal Or Not?

The limitation of headers for youth soccer players has caused a lot of uproar among a certain group of people who claim that completely eliminating headers from youth soccer until the age of 11 will hurt the progress of US Youth Soccer. These rules were made primarily to protect damage to the brain, especially at such an early age because of the increased risk of concussions that headers bring to the game of soccer. Some people however believe that we are being overprotective and that such rules hurt development of youth soccer players which in turn prevents the US national teams from ever reaching an elite level of soccer.

No Heading and its Effect on Development

Of all the skills in soccer heading would be the easiest skill to master. Easier than developing proper decision making, ball technique with the feet and even other parts of the body such as the thigh and chest. Part of the reason for this being is that the head is not used to control the ball in soccer games as much, but merely to change the course of a ball. Probably the least used part of the body in soccer is the head, from the youth ages all the way to professional soccer. If you watch a soccer game, you will notice that the vast majority of times the head is used, it is to direct the ball in a general direction such as forwards, sideways, or backwards. This is normally when midfielders or defenders are merely heading the ball away from the direction the ball is coming from.  This could be in situations such as when clearing long balls from opposing teams, corner kicks, or goal kicks. In contrast, foot skills to a target such as passing and shooting require far more dexterity and relatively more difficult to execute.  This is not to say that a certain level of skill is not required in heading, just not as much relative to other skills.

How To Develop Proper Heading at a Young Age

There is a way to develop heading at a young age for those concerned that is devoid of risk, and that is by learning the proper heading techniques using a soft ball at practice. The most significant hazard to the head in a soccer game does not come from the ball (even though there are some slight risk from that), but rather as a result of the head coming in contact with another player or the ground. The collision can involve elbow to head contact, head to head contact, or falling on the spine area or head after going up for a header. You can develop proper heading technique by simply practicing by yourself against a wall or with another person who can cross balls to you in a private training where the risk of collision is not present.

The Advantage of Heading In Soccer

Statistics show that heading in soccer generally speaking does not have a significant baring on a team’s performance. England is a league particularly known for its amount of air balls.  It is more present than in any other of the top 5 leagues in Europe. As of March 3rd 2017, Arsenal FC has scored the most headers in the English Premier League as of today in the 2016-17 season. They have scored 13 headers out of a total of 54 goals. Chelsea FC, the top team in the league, and currently 13 points ahead of Arsenal FC, has 5 headed goals out of a total 55 goals. Manchester City has a total of 3 headed goals out of a total of 51 goals. Both teams are at this point ahead of Arsenal in league standing.

The no header rule should therefore not be used in the player development argument.  Not only is it an easy skill to learn, but its technique can still be learned safely and statistic show that it does not have a significant baring on a team’s standing.  Not using the head on the other hand forces a player to learn to control the ball with other parts of the body most used is a soccer game. It also forces teams to learn to play the ball on the ground which is where the ball is played by most good teams.

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Bad Coach… Good Results

As a parent, you want your child to play with the best coach possible and that includes a coach that has a history of winning. You want a coach that can maintain winning results for their team from an early age until the end of their youth soccer.  If a coach accomplishes that, then they must be a good coach; right?

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

Recruitment Effect

If you want your child to develop as a youth soccer player throughout their time with a coach, then you must specifically take note of the coach’s turnover rate of players from season to season. Are they regularly making huge changes to their roster? If a coach has a large set of new players every few years and is still maintaining a winning record then the winning is not a result of their development of players, but rather from recruitment of good players that other coaches have developed. People will inevitably be drawn to the coach because of results without understanding why the coach is winning.  This winning trend will continue as long as the coach can continue to recruit good players from other teams.

In this scenario, player development will stagnate.  Eventually those who stay with the coach longer, cease to develop, and are eventually replaced with players recruited from other teams.

Keep in mind that when it comes to the development of youth soccer players, a coach can camouflage their ineptitude by continuing the recruitment process. As a result of their winning ways, players will be attracted to their team and the winning will continue as along as this process repeats itself.  As the players get older, the coaches ability to maintain success this way becomes more difficult (difference in players athletic abilities lessens and good coaching becomes critical to winning), that is why most of these coaches generally abandon the teams as the players get older and start younger teams with new set of parents.

Keeping Core Players

There are reasons why coaches will lose players, among them relocation, other interests, discipline problems, etc. Recruitment by itself is not a bad thing. It is a necessary part of the process of continuing to build a good team.  You will need to replace players for multiple reasons, and frankly there are times when a player shows no ability to keep up with the development of the team.  This will happen sparingly.  It is when a coach is using recruitment to replace players that are committed and doing everything the coach requires of them, and when the coach is doing it in a way that the team ends up with the recruited players playing more than the existing players in most cases when recruitment becomes the issue.

The best way to evaluate a coach who is teaching players how to win through the correct process of development is when the coach retains a core set of players throughout the development process as the players get older. This core set of players can be about 8 or more players who are with the team from the early years to graduation. Anytime you see a coach with a team that looks unrecognizable after only a few years, you should question if the coach has the ability to develop players or is just using other means to keep the team intact from season to season.

Wins are sometimes not what they look.  Look beneath the surface.

 

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