ESPN: Does America Have Talent?

Rongen and his goddamn positions.

Think back to the last batch of U20s he drilled into positions: Zizzo, Altidore, Rogers, Szetela, Adu, Bradley, Sturgis, etc.

Which one of them turned into a dominant high-level player? All of them, growth stunted and turned into role players.

Rongen should know better than to preach about positions. if the kids know "principles of play", can make decisions, and can defend properly, they can play anywhere on the pitch.

There it is. Imagine players getting developed for ages 4 until 10 instead of playing merely for the social aspect and then, if you happen to show you might have some skill, getting picked for special training.

I'm seeing better coaches in the younger ranks, but rarely see the elite coaches belittle themself to that level. They all want the developed players that they can hone and help win them a title. And the clubs are of little help. They seem to put the best coaches with the higher age groups and the younger ones are given the unproven coaches.

When you go down to the lowest age levels, where the coaching is really important, you have fathers and mothers who don't know the game and who know more about basketball or [American] football. - Hackworth

This, in my mind, is the next big step we will take. It is changing. I'm seeing more and more parents realizing the need to get their kids properly trained at a young age. And, there are more coaches who recognize this void.

Playing the game more is huge. I coach a U8 team and wanted to increase our practices to 2/week. Checking with the parents, only 4 out of 11 said they could make a second practice every week.

We only have 8 weeks sessions in the spring and the fall. It takes 2-3 practices before the players are back up to where I had them at the end of the previous session because the kids have hardly touched the ball since then.

Last summer I invited the whole team and a few others to a weekly pick-up game - no cost, same time every week. Most of the parents thought it was a great idea, but only a couple times did we have more than 3 players show up. We had to include parent so that we could have enough for a game.

That being said, we are one of the most skilled teams in the league. There's only one other team that really pushes us each session. So I don't think the parents even see the need to increase our amount of playing time, but there is so much I want to teach the kids that I'm struggling to narrow it down while putting together our spring practice plans.

We're only talking about 2nd graders here, but the amount of time our players actually get with the ball both formally and informally is far far far behind our international competition that I can't see how we can expect to produce the same level of talent.

Hello guys,

i think the US has a lot of passion in every sports they play. Soccer needs an evolution, and i hope they will get a better knowledge about soccer and more experience at every level, especially at the lower ages. The basement is very important. In my opinion the soccer in the us needs an exchange of experience. Its not a shame to ask for help. In germany american football is getting bigger and bigger. And there are many coaches who helps us to develop the players and coaches. I would love to coach in the states because i like the enthusiasm, but i m not sure if it is so easy to find a job and sometimes i heard about coaches and organisations who wouldn´t like some "help".
I hope that everybody is learning that it´s not a sign for weakness to ask for some help. UK, the netherlands, spain, germany have a lot of great youth systems and many of great coaches, the US soccer as well, but not as much as they need to get into the world class level.

Hey, very interesting. What is the problem for the parents or the kids? I totally agree with you that it is hard for you to reach the next level. Practice is the basement, and you can only put the players to the next level if you can work with them!!! Can you tell me more about your problems? Do you have the problems everywhere or does it depends regional or at different ages?

This is probably best for another thread, but I would encourage you to dissect how and why you think they would improve.

Chances are, it is not so much positions that they need to learn movements that work best in certain areas/thirds of the field or sections of the formation.

I am with Twenty26Six 100% on positions. Positions are not tactics and not skills. Positions aside from "Fullback, Midfielder, and Forward" are meaningless without the context of a particular system of play. I also equate coaches practicing "positions" with functional training.

US coaches spend plenty of time teaching positions. The error is teaching positions too soon. It is in essence teaching the fine points of soccer before you teach the fundamentals. We cannot compare us to Holland and say coaches in Holland teach positions at U10, because our U10's don't have ball mastery yet.

We all know the biggest problem: we need to focus on ball mastery by age 12. It is our biggest failure, and that failure limits the effectiveness of all subsequent training.

Our professional coaches for the most part do not train U-Littles because there are no paid coaching positions to train U-Littles. Traditionally you would see some professional coaches working with U-Littles as parent coaching on a volunteer basis. Sometimes they volunteer to coach a kids team out of community spirit.

But the bottom line is a professional coach has to take care of his professional obligations first. This is particularly true of college and high school coaches. I would expect most of them don't have free time to coach U-Littles.

Someone trying to make a living coaching club teams is going to be even more strapped for time. If he has free time, then finances are probably going to force him to get a day job to pay the rent rather than do volunteer coaching. There just aren't jobs available here to train U-Littles. We have millions of youth playing soccer, most of whom are coached by parents who have never played the game so don't have any skills to pass on. but they all feel competent to teach systems and positions to U-Littles.

I've got a great group of parents who don't complain about the way I coach, they don't yell at the kids during the games, and in general really enjoy how the team has been going. Unfortunately though, only a couple of them know much about soccer - only one having actually played in high school. So they rarely play soccer at home and it's even more rare for them to watch a game.

I've invited the team and parents to my house to watch games, but usually only get at most 3 to show up. For the summertime weekly pick-up games, I sent out reminders every week, but only consistently got a few to show up.

Basically at this point, it's just another in a long list of activities for the kids. This is fine, but it would be nice to get one more practice out of them during the season. It's very difficult to expect a player to advance very far if we're always starting from scratch after such a long break, which essentially takes at least 2 weeks out of each 8 week session for catch-up.

Part of it at the younger ages, like MonkeyBoy alluded to, is that unlike many soccer-strong countries we have many sports to play.

In Holland or Spain, the vast majority watch and play soccer formally and informally all year long. Here the idea of the "three-sport star" is still the norm: baseball in the spring, football in the summer, basketball in the winter. Add in those sports, including soccer, moving to two seasons like spring and fall baseball, summer and winter basketball, spring and fall soccer and you have a lot of options for young kids and their parents for sports -- and that doesn't include non-sport activities.

I scheduled two practices a week for my U8s and most of the time I'd have kids missing for scout meetings, fall baseball, school plays or fundraisers, etc. In a short 8-9 week session with spotty attendance it makes it difficult to advance much past the raw basics every season and then every move up the age group they redraw teams out of a pool so you never have the same team stay together for long.

Plus, as much as I love soccer I don't want my 7YO son to only play soccer year-round just yet, even if he says he wants to. I want him to experience other sports as well. A lot of parents here are torn about focusing in on one sport these days but feel compelled to do so as they feel their kid might get left behind.

That's an issue with multiple sports that most parents abroad don't typically face.

What MonkeyBoy and equus say is a frustration, but it is the same in Europe and everywhere. Barca's and other professional club's programs are rare exceptions. Most kids do not wish to put in the time necessary to become skilled players. And that is fine. For U-Littles contact for 3-4 hours a week (2 practices and a match day) are sufficient organized sessions for learning ball skills. Mastery however requires the players to touch the ball outside of organized practices. Unmotivated kids won't do that. So they make a choice. Very few people truly want to be professional athletes in any sport, although almost everyone wants to daydream about it.

What we need though for the big picture is to make quality coaching like yours available to all kids that want it. What we don't want is motivated kids who cannot find quality coaching.

And if we charge for coaching U-littles, we get ripped a new one by folks who complain that youth sports are too expensive and we're just trying to make a buck off them.

I run programs year-round for U4 through U11. They aren't super-expensive, but we need to charge enough to make it worthwhile (and pay the indoor facility we use). The kids love it, and it's basic technical instruction many of them get nowhere else. Nothing I like better seeing a kid I worked with at U6 out tearing it up on the field when they get older.

Actually Rongen's 20's were some of the best we have ever seen as a team. Beating Brazil in WC and Chile in a freindly and almost beating Argentina in a friendly. You cannot knock what he did with that group.

I think of it as "story time with a soccer ball". Lots of short activities, 8-10 minutes each (sometimes with several repetitions within that time). Each activity is very simple and has a simple "story" to go along with it: escape from the volcanoes, puppy dogs fetching the ball, hungry bunny rabbits eat the carrots, pirates stealing the treasure. Couched in these terms, it engages the kids' imagination right away. All kids have a ball or can easily get one for all the activities.

Here's an example of one popular game I call "Helicopters". Each kid gets a ball, then I tell the story: "Did you know there's a place nearby with lots of helicopters? Sometimes they fly around over the field. You have to keep your soccer ball close to you, because do you know what will happen if it gets far away from you? The helicopters will take it! So if I see a helicopter, I will shout, 'Helicopter, hit the dirt!' and you have to squash the ball with your foot to stop it, then get down on the ground as quick as you can. Okay? All right, follow me, be on the lookout for helicopters!" Then we dribble around the field and I yell "Helicopter, hit the dirt!" every so often. Sometimes 2 or 3 times quickly in a row, other times start to yell "Helicopter" but stop and say, "Oops, that was an airplane, keep going" to mix it up a bit.

As for what I am teaching them, it's pretty simple as well. Mainly for 3yo it is keeping the ball close to them and using different surfaces of the foot--and not their hands! A couple sessions we'll do games that involve more speed dribbling (lots of small touches using the top of the foot) or an instep kick (which is actually easier for preschoolers than a push pass). There is no actual game play at this age, most aren't ready. Instead, I have a final activity for every session that involves kicking the ball into a goal, with multiple balls so every kids gets several opportunities to score (I act as a "defender").

Perfect example of winning over development. Thanks for stating my case.

Where are they playing now compared to talents from those other nations?

Did Rongen develop them properly as players, or did he just teach them how to win?

I think we talked about some of this in a previous thread on small sided games. Teaching players to play in relation to their position of the ball is a much better way to go than teaching players to play "positional" soccer. Ajax can train players by position because they go out and find the best youth players in the country. If FC Dallas or LA Galaxy go out and scout they are trying to find players for the academy teams that fit positional needs. But my local youth association is in a completely different spot than these, and we need to train players to be as comprehensive as possible in the developmental stages leading up to competitive soccer.

I'm proud to say that my club has a fulltime technical director in charge of our U-little programs. He's the second highest paid coach in the club behind our DOC. I think you can make a career training youth soccer, but you have to be in an area that values the development of kids before U12's.

I know that it is difficult because the parents dont play with them at home because they arent familiar to the game. But i think the kids want to play and move, someday they play basketball, the other day soccer. Or am i wrong?

I mean the "street soccer" style is dying out, in germany as well. The problem is that they can do so much more than the kids back in the 80´s or 90´s. Internet, PS3 or Xbox... especially in the US is the problem for soccer that baseball, ice hockey, american football,... are more important! But i know there are a lot of people who loves soccer. And i´m pretty sure America does have a lot of talent. It needs some time before kids know what they want, so i agree that some 7yo kid dont have to decide at this age what he loves to do for the next 20 years... but there is a point they have to make this decision if they want to become a great player... in which sport however.

But when you have problems to find some coaches for the lower ages, why you don´t involve some U17-U19 players? They are familiar with the game, they have some experiences. In germany you find a lot of young players who coach a U4/6/8/10 team.

Some of the best players i have ever played with quit playing after high school just because they weren't interested in continuing. That includes a few All-American high school guys. The drive in the US to play at a higher level isn't there like it is for football, basketball, or baseball.

With that said, some of the younger kids at the club i coach at are already playing at a very high level. One U12 team we have passes the ball around better than many U15-U18 teams i have seen relatively speaking. The skill is coming earlier and earlier for kids in the US. In 5-10 years, soccer will be on a whole new level here.

Everybody i know, soccer player or not, plays FIFA(the video game) now. It is a good start. It is an educating tool if nothing else for Americans. Soccer just keeps growing more and more each year and shows no signs of slowing down. I am very happy to see this happening.

I don't see any educational value in the video game. I would agree that it has promotional value, but it promotes the sport as entertainment, not as a participation sport. There is no training value in the video game at all, unless someone is training to play video games.

I am not saying that video games are not fun, or that kids and adults shouldn't play video games. But let's not kid ourselves. If anyone wants entertainment that also has training value, watch a match.

i think this depends on the video game. obviously, there's no development of skill or technique. but i think there is educational value in the form of understanding the laws of the game, tactics and strategies, reading the game and soccer smarts. (again, it depends on the video game. some video games are more arcade/action style. other games are more realistic, and you can do better as you understand soccer better. cheats and lower difficulty levels obviously negate that. but the opportunity to learn about the game is there, if you choose to take advantage of it.)

for example, i was not much of a football (pointyball) fan growing up. my parents were immigrants, and they didn't really know much about the game. then, in college, my roommates and i got hooked on a couple of video games (cyberball and madden). while it didn't make me a football player, i did start to understand more of the rules as well as a few concepts like checking down (when you're qb), play calling, disguising the defense, disguising the offense, etc. some of that even translated into soccer a few years later, when i took it up again.

As for Fifa the game, it taught me over the years about several things including having a better vision on the field, passing, the best angles to shoot at, tactics, breakaways, skill moves, and more. There are over 100 skill moves in fifa now. My friends and I will do moves in fifa then try to do them in real life, as do many younger kids that i coach. Fifa is so realistic now to where there are 6 or 7 different ways to cross the ball into the box that it teaches you when to use an early cross or a driven low cross or whatever. The game has a driven, chip, and finesse shot. You have to learn to position your players correctly to win headers, etc. The list goes on and on. All my friends from school who never played soccer now understand the offside rule, and learn about the other players in the world besides just C. Ronaldo, Messi, and Rooney because of playing fifa. This has great value to me and i think to many Americans in particular who are uneducated to the game of soccer.

But in terms of the younger kids getting the skill, yes i agree. The focus is on skill for sure. For the U5-U7/8s in my club, we focus on almost solely skill just to develop a good touch on the ball. A good touch on the ball is one of the most important traits for a player in my opinion. The focus on skill at the young age is mainly due to the fact that their brains aren't quite developed enough to think about tactics. You do get the occasional kid who gets it very early on though, which is awesome to see. The talent in the US has come a long way over the past 10 years, but it does have quite a ways to go to catch up with the rest of the world. I look forward to helping it grow in every way i can.