USSF Development Academy 2.0

More Info. with video

http://www.revolutionsoccer.net/news/2012/05/revs-add-empire-united-youth-development-partner

According to Google Maps:

Buffalo to Columbus: 330 miles
Syracuse to Columbus: 470 miles

Buffalo to Foxborough: 455 miles
Syracuse to Foxborough: 318 miles

Buffalo to Harrison, NJ: 378 miles
Syracuse to Harrison, NJ: 237 miles

Buffalo to Toronto: 103 miles
Syracuse to Toronto: 244 miles

Considering all of the non-geography factors, they probably made the best possible choice for them. I was seriously wondering how they were going to deal with giving kids the incentive to do so much traveling for 10 months out of the year. Personally, I think they may need to also do something more on the financial side although they already have a three star financial rating by the academy. They need to do more than other academies when they draw players from cities that are 149 miles apart.

One creative thing that they also do is they have both joint practices and regional practices each week. So a player can attend three trainings a week without quite as much traveling as there would be if every practice was a full team practice. My guess is that regional practices combine under 16 and under 18 players from their city. Regardless, the whole thing is a giant trek.

http://www.chicago-fire.com/news/20...ded-academy-program-include-u-10-through-u-18

2012-13 alignment and schedules (at least the divisional games) are up on the USSDA website. The new divisions:

West Conference

Northwest Division
Santa Cruz Breakers
Crossfire Premier
Cal Odyssey
De Anza Force
SJ Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders
Vancouver Whitecaps
Portland Timbers
San Juan SC

Southwest Division
Arsenal FC
Pateadores
Chivas USA
San Diego Surf
Strikers
Nomads
LA Galaxy
Real So Cal
RSL-Arizona

Central Conference

Frontier Division
Dallas Texans
Andromeda
Texans SC Houston
Solar
FC Dallas
Lonestar
Texas Rush
Classics Elite
Houston Dynamo
Real Colorado
Colorado Rapids
Colorado Rush
Sporting KC

Mid-America Division
Scott Gallagher Metro
Scott Gallagher Missouri
Minnesota Thunder
Shattuck St. Mary's
Chicago Fire
Chicago Magic
FC Milwaukee
Crew Soccer Academy
Vardar
Indiana United Fire
Internationals
Sockers
Crew SA Wolves

East Conference

Southeast Division
North Meck
Charlotte SA
NC Fusion
IMG
Clearwater Chargers
So Carolina Utd
Concorde Fire
Kendall SC
Weston FC
Georgia United
Orlando City

Atlantic Division
DC United
FC Delco
Baltimore Bays
Match Fit
PA Classics
Potomac
NJSA
PDA
Richmond Kickers
Richmond Strikers
Virginia Rush
McLean

Northeast Division
FC Greater Boston
Seacoast United
NE Revolution
South Central Premier
Empire
Oakwood SC
NY Cosmos
Met Oval
Albertson
NY Red Bulls
FC Westchester
Montreal Impact

The Northern divisions mostly don't have matches scheduled in Dec/Jan/Feb and the warmer divisions have thin schedules in Dec/Jan...we'll see if those gaps fill in.

Less conferences - looks like more traveling, but with the 10 month schedule there will be less double game weekends as the games should (at least in theory) be spread out over a longer period.

The schedule and organization of Conferences and Divisions is a big, big part of the academy program. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out.

On another note, it looks like Andromeda and Met Oval made the cut again, while some other clubs like Potomac, who weren't sure that they would continue, have decided to give the 10 month schedule a try for at least one year.

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Develo...demy-Finals-Week-Taking-Place-in-Houston.aspx

Academy Finals taking place in Houston? In July? Are they kidding? For those who thought Dallas was hot, they have got a whole new level of hot coming to them. As many of the games as possible will be played at 8 or 9 at night, but still...it is just uncomfortable to be outside a lot of the time in July - even if you aren't doing anything - let alone playing a critical, high level soccer match.

Whoever came up with this idea thinks that they have come up with a great solution by playing at night. We will see. Still a difficult choice. FYI, Houston's new stadium - the site of the final - is already being described by the players as an oven with poor circulation. It will be interesting to see how all of this turns out.

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_...-opener-salihi-contributes-and-more.html#more

"One inescapable holdover from the playing conditions at Robertson Stadium is the Houston heat. Geoff Cameron told the Houston Chronicle earlier in the week that players can't feel any wind on the field, likening it to an oven."

Interesting two part interview with Bobby Howe -

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46638/bobby-howe-drills-are-for-the-army-qa-part-1.html

Best Quote of part 1 -
SA: What should practice be like?

BOBBY HOWE: There should be activity. Practice should be a challenge. It should be a challenge to their skill. It should be a challenge to their decision-making and it should be a challenge to their imagination. Too many times I look around and see sessions where there’s not really a lot going on. You know, drills.

People call it drills in the United States. I remember Roy Rees* saying to me, “Why do they call this drills? Drills are what they do in the army.”

They’re games. They should be stimulating little games. Every technique activity should have a game involved, or an objective, or a competition to excite the imagination of the players.

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46660/bobby-howe-dont-make-it-a-mystery-part-2.html

Best Quote of part 2 -
SA: The U.S. Soccer Federation is now much more involved in the youth game, with the launch of the Development Academy league, and last year unveiled the “Curriculum” it wants youth coaches to follow. How different is the Claudio’s curriculum from what the Federation was trying to implement when you were a youth national team coach and U.S. Soccer Director of Coaching Education?

BOBBY HOWE: I don’t think it’s a great deal different. The philosophy Claudio is espousing is a philosophy we had in the 1980s with respect to what you do with the youngest players. And recognizing that the youngest players are not mini-adults, they’re kids. It’s not that they shouldn’t be doing anything. But important is that the programming, the types of games they play, provide opportunities for them to learn from the game, and to explore and use their imagination as opposed to being too structured, as we have seen from time to time with inexperienced coaches.



I completely agree with Bobby on both quotes. The foundation for the new curriculum was being taught at coaching schools back in the 1980s. I know. I was there and that is where I learned it. Getting coaches to adopt all of this stuff that has been around forever - that is the hard part.

Well after having my son be part of RSLArizona academy for 9 months I can give a little feedback on my views. RSL have one game left and look to be on track for a solid second place in the So Cal division. Look for them to do some damage again in the playoffs as well. Once again as a father and lover of the beautiful game this is not meant to be a specific review of RSl or of my son but more of an overview of what I think works and does not work. The training and skill improvement have been amazing for Lucas at the residential academy. The ability to train almost everyday or workout in the weight room or literally walk out to the fields which surround his dorm room has been amazing. The coaching and training has been topnotch. Lucas has also developed friendships that will last a lifetime. Now for something that I have not enjoyed about the Academy and I have seen this at various MLS academies over the year. I have seen quite a few very talented boys leave academies not just RSL over the year because of lack of game playing time. I consider my son fortunate because he has played in all but a few games where he was injured but even with that I dont feel the players get enough game time on the pitch. If you take a top academy and they have 18 top players that age and you have 27 games over 10 months that is less than three games a month, Now the coach has to decide how to divide up playing time. If he does not rotate evenly that means you will have your starting eleven that will play about 60 minutes every game and the other 7 who are top players will be left to play in less than 3 games a month and might play say less the 30 minutes and that is if the coach is being fair. That is the one big hole in the system that I see. I believe that the Develepement league should schedule more games and put more requirements on playing time so that the coaches will realize that if they bring a player to the team and put him Full roster he has to get enough minutes. I have seen some good players leave MLS academies this year clubs because of this issue. I think that is the one pressing issue that needs to be addressed by the Academy league.

Very interesting insight. I absolutely agree that the benefits of residential training is just logically so advantageous. We just need to spread the gospel to other MLS teams then work on rules to allow an integrated quality professional training up through the ranks.
Your playing time dilemma is also interesting. I have a slight different perspective but agree we need to identify issues and adjust them on a weekly basis. While I agree about more games no one quite indicates how many games is sufficient and what other unofficial games are being played. Is it one a week plus added games for 5 or 6 a month. Too many games is also detrimental. At some point professional academy ages 15 and up should be somewhat of a meritocracy. Better players should play more. The competitive nature of playing time makes all players better. With that said it shouldn't mean that only good players play in games. Even the worst on an 18 man roster should be close enough in skill to start games every once in a while. This structure of competition is what we all should strive for. 20 MLS residential academies with the flexability to invite our nations best on a regional basis, training and playing an age appropriate number of times, against and with our nation's other best players. RSL seems to be the first but we need many more to make a dent in US development.

Well Said Bruce Arena: We’re inefficient in how we allocate resources in the academy. There’s a likely argument where you can say we have improved the ability to move kids to the age of 17 or 18. Where do they go from there? It’s a black hole. It’s insane. We should have a USL type of league [to develop players]. Right now, the kids would be better off going to college, and then we are back to the same thing again.
“If I didn’t have a team, I could focus on that, and hopefully someone would listen. You never know. All the [league leaders] think they are much smarter because they are in committee meetings their whole lives. We don’t have a tactical plan that makes sense. Our technical committee in the league has no influence on decision-making. It ends up going to the competition committee and then the board of governors. A lot of times what we say doesn’t even get to ownership. Ownership doesn’t really hear all they need to hear. It’s better, but not where it needs to be.
“We can improve our league competition in a lot of ways -- everything that goes into putting a team on the field. You don’t know it until you put a team on the field. That’s what [the decision-makers] don’t understand. Whether you like to hear it or not, if you’ve never done that, you don’t know how to implement policy associated with it.
“There is a model for how to do this stuff -- it’s how the rest of the world does it. The model is there for us. We just have to get that model efficiently running in our system. It takes a number of people having the time and the right voice and the right intelligence to articulate the message.
“There’s no guarantees anyone can do it, but there’s a long way to go to improve the game here. Even though we’ve made statements that we want to be one of the best leagues in the world, we have a long way to go.”

I agree a lot with the gap comment of what do the players do once they greaduate High school and leave the academy?

We fix our professional development system. We integrate all DA's and related teams to funnel up through the professional ranks, we improve professional scouting, we allow teams to trial and tryout anyone they think is good, we don't limit them to 90 miles. We let professional teams to not only establish residential academies but then don't tell them who they can and can't sign. We increase the number of youth roster spots, we get a relationship with USL or start their own league, we try to get college to a least play by standard FIFA rules, etc etc etc. We try to get our best playing our best not have 8 different leagues and paths. Everyone should know what teams they need to aspire to. The next team for the very best. We fix what's wrong. We have a world of benchmarking to follow. Slight tweaks but we are ignoring even the simple fixes.

Those are all great ideas! As of right now it seems you sign with a good college and hope you come out a few years later good enough for the MLS. Not to many of the boys are ready at 18 to play in the MLS and if they do sign that young they seem to get lost in most cases. Not enough reserve game opportunities. The other option is to go over seas and hope to make it in one to the leagues over there even if it is second or third division and then come back a seasoned professional. I sent Lucas over to Spain last year and this summer he is heading over to England for six weeks.

Please get better so we don't have to rely on Germany's rejects.

. They have to limit roster of FT players to make more playing time equitable. limit rosters to 24-25 players and that's it. do away with dp's. Dp's can train with first team and at half way point drop or add players at designated time. Most pro club academy overseas only carry the best players with the greatest potential, therefore if a 96 is as good as a 95 the 95 is going to be dropped. The problem with our system is its not geared to solely produce professionals but to get kids college scholarships. overseas 1 kid out of 25 makes first team or sold for good transfer$ that is considered tremendous success. Here DA's clubs are lauded for how many get college scholarships. the Msl hierarchy has to fundamentally decide what is purpose of youth development. Based on that answer move forward accordingly.

Thanks for the feedback. As you might recall from my previous posts on the the conference, the reduction of playing time is a big concern. Another concern was the large number of weeks without scheduled games. Clearly the residential approach is beneficial from a training perspective, but this is something the RSL is doing and not part of the academy program itself. Also since the depth of talent is not as strong in Arizona as it is in the rest of the division, I can understand why you feel the academy program is such a step up.

I'm interested in a few things about RSL. The first is what type of programs do they have for younger players? For example they have almost no 96s in their U16 team. Do they have a U15 team and if so, who do they play against? Also, how much does RSL promote college? From what I understand the Galaxy and even the Chivas program are both promoting playing college soccer pretty heavily for their players. After all Arena was quoted that they are probably better off from a development perspective going to college. I myself have written something similar that in that I've long felt that unless you could get regular playing time at the first team level, you were better off developmentally in college. Finally how is the quality of the residential schooling? One of the issues I heard from parents with kids in Bradenton was that it was not very good and that their kids fell behind.

Are these for profit camps? Also given playoffs and Sum Cup/Gen addidas or whatever they call tournament how will he have time?

With the exception of good grades, college coaches and professional coaches are pretty much looking for the same things in a player. The problem is the structure, not the goal. Overseas programs make it easy to move from team to team or do short term loans to get all players playing time. Here the academy is trying to isolate the players to make them appear more special even if many cases they are not.

Better player based on what? Should you play a 95 because he will likely score more goals today or the 96 who is stronger among the 96s. How about a player born 1/94 who can score more goals to today as compared to a player born 12/94 who might likely score more goals in two years. Should you play the more mature player because he is better today or the less mature player because he has more potential to develop into a better player? Since you really can't tell too much about the future, the smart thing to do is make sure you get them all regular playing time. Unfortunately this is not being done - especially in comparisson to previous years.

[I'm interested in a few things about RSL. The first is what type of programs do they have for younger players? For example they have almost no 96s in their U16 team. Do they have a U15 team and if so, who do they play against? Also, how much does RSL promote college? Finally how is the quality of the residential schooling? One of the issues I heard from parents with kids in Bradenton was that it was not very good and that their kids fell behind. How does he have time to go to England with the Sum Cup?

Thanks for the questions and I will do my best to answer them. I believe that RSl is learning how to do this as well. The truth is that most of the boys on the u-16 are Juniors in high school and are 95s. My son is a 95 but late birthday and so he is a sophmore and will be there two more years. There is not a u-15 team at this time. The boys that dont get enough playing time with the u-16 or u-18 team play together on a u-17 team. They dont have official games but a lot of scrimmages. I have seen some very good 96 players leave the academy for one simple reason and that is playing time. Even if you are one of the top sophmores in the country like I beleive my son is, you are competing with many of the best juniors in the country for playing time. I think RSL has 6 2013 players in the topdrawer top 150 list. So you could be a fantastic 2014 and struggle a little against older players. What this means for RSL is basically a two or at most three year program. The u-16 team for next year will be almost all new players that they will bring in. They will be talented but all new and I am sure mostly old 96s. that are Juniors in High school The u-18 team however will be almost players from this years u-16 team and a few of the young 94s. from the u-18 team of this year. The players have some options but my son attends a public school everyday and has 3 ap classes. He has a 4.4 grade point or straight As. I would not say it is quite as good as his school in Utah but pretty good. You are correct in saying that there is not a lot of free time in the summer and if the u-16 team makes it all the way to the finals they would not be done until July 22. The Sum cup is normally the first week of August. The Sum cup has a lot of rules on the different age groups that you have to bring such as 10 95s and 10 96s and a few 97s. Lucas has played in it the past two years and after talking with RSL they are fine with him getting some experience over in England for a few weeks and missing the Generations Adidas cup. Lucas will be going to England alone and staying with a family friend who works in the FA youth development. He will go spend some time with various clubs over there seeing how they train and getting to know the football world of England. Hopefully that answered your questions. I am just a soccer dad doing the best I can for my son. I certainly am not an expert and I always appreciate any offline suggestions that people in the know might have. Thanks

Agree with you 100 percent on this topic.

A better player based on what makes up the overall talent of a player which includes ALL facets of physical, emotional, tactical, and ball skills. Its up to the professional coaches and teams who are paid to make these decisions based on years of personal experience and resources and support available to them from MLS, USSF, evaluations and licensing. In your scenario the possible solution is to have him play for a lower aged club and sporadcially play up when appropriate so when he physically matures he will have more of an impact. Just as damaging is to have a talented physically immature player be forced alot of minutes against larger boys and just get man-handled. You're trying to make a black and white statement out alot of grey.
At some point in the development process better players move up the pyramid of playing more minutes, getting on better teams, playing vs better opponents. It doesn't mean you ignore the later developing player, he just moves up the ladder a little later or he doesn't.

Thanks for the reply. As a casual observer you seem to have navigated the system quite well. Your son gets regular playing time and is in environment of good players and coaches. Plus you've managed to get him some time in other good environments.

In term of RSL, At least they together regular scrimmages for kids that don't play. I'm not aware of this happening for kids on local teams. On the other hand I'm less of a fan of their almost exclusive use of 95s in their U16 program. Other than thay they seem to be doing fine. In general, my issues are more with the mistakes made by people running the academy program and less with the teams that have to deal with them.

They don't have crystal balls and even the US National team youth coaches have shown very limited understanding maturation issues in player selection. Then you take a country full of youth coaches that have been trained in the win games now approach and you expect good development results using the same type of system? My arguments are a lot more nuanced than what you undestand which is why you weren't really able to answer the question. The kid born in December is not going to get man-handled by kids born in January. Instead they will be a step slower and pushed off the ball a bit easier such that they are less effective in games. Using an August cut-off date it was just the opposite for many of these kids.

We simply disagree.