What do you expect from a club under 14 player?

[BigGuy]

This question was asked on another coaching side.

"I coach high school girl's soccer and was recently asked by the town's
soccer club to act as a consultant for the U14 program. I was wondering
if any of your clubs have curriculums or benchmarks that the players
should have achieved at certain age levels. This club does not have
that.

I am in the process of creating my own and would love to have other
ideas to toss around.

Any help would be appreciated."

What do you expect from your under 14 club players?

I think he was annoyed at my answer. I simply said a player who has gone through our club system at under 14 a bench mark would be he should be able to start on the his Varsity HS team as a Freshman in most cases.

[rca2]

I suspect that the coach was a high school teacher and looking at it from a teacher's viewpoint. He was looking to develop a long-term training plan for the club U14s. So he wanted to know what goals his training plan should have. Teachers think in terms of measureable performance (testing students) against lesson plan goals. So he probably wants some objective standards he can use to test and measure success against. As the high school coach he is probably interested in helping the local club U14s because he thinks he will get better players for his high school team from it. He is looking at minimum performance levels for a U14 club player while you are thinking of elite performance.

So your truthful answer won't help him because your situation is different. And he can't convert your answer into a training plan. I am just guessing though. You might try asking him if he wants suggestions for developing a training plan and go from there.

[BigGuy]

I suspect that the coach was a high school teacher and looking at it from a teacher's viewpoint. He was looking to develop a long-term training plan for the club U14s. So he wanted to know what goals his training plan should have. Teachers think in terms of measureable performance (testing students) against lesson plan goals. So he probably wants some objective standards he can use to test and measure success against. As the high school coach he is probably interested in helping the local club U14s because he thinks he will get better players for his high school team from it. He is looking at minimum performance levels for a U14 club player while you are thinking of elite performance.

So your truthful answer won't help him because your situation is different. And he can't convert your answer into a training plan. I am just guessing though. You might try asking him if he wants suggestions for developing a training plan and go from there.

That sounds right but you can't start this at under 14. You start it the moment the player joins the club so by the time the players hit's under 14 he should be a real good player if he has good coaching and plays against good competion and if the season is long enough. If the same player and is athletic and joins the club at 6 or 7 he could start to look like a real player at 9 yrs old and gets even better from there.

[ctsoccer13]

I simply said a player who has gone through our club system at under 14 a bench mark would be he should be able to start on the his Varsity HS team as a Freshman in most cases.
I coach at the High School level and respectfully disagree with the answer. So, basically what you are saying is that every freshman should be starting on the varsity team. What about the people already on the varsity team? They aren't good enough to start in front of the freshman? The numbers alone would probably not allow this. I'm not sure in your area, but where I live (and I would imagine in most places) most of our freshman girls are still growing and are at a substantial size/strenngth advantage vs upperclassman. The skill and intelligence may be there, but the rest of the tools probably aren't there yet. Also, now throw in the mix the Premier players that don't play on the U14 teams are now joining the HS team and that will thin down your options more from the U14s. Just my 2 pennies.

[BigGuy]

I coach at the High School level and respectfully disagree with the answer. So, basically what you are saying is that every freshman should be starting on the varsity team. What about the people already on the varsity team? They aren't good enough to start in front of the freshman? The numbers alone would probably not allow this. I'm not sure in your area, but where I live (and I would imagine in most places) most of our freshman girls are still growing and are at a substantial size/strenngth advantage vs upperclassman. The skill and intelligence may be there, but the rest of the tools probably aren't there yet. Also, now throw in the mix the Premier players that don't play on the U14 teams are now joining the HS team and that will thin down your options more from the U14s. Just my 2 pennies.

There is a lot of good soccer played in Conn. On having younger players move over older players. If the younger player is better and works hard in practice then that player deserves to play on the versity. The best and hardest workers play that is the only fare way to choose players.

My frame of reference is with the men/boys game and not the womens game. I would not make a distinsion between the two however in general.

Depends on who you freshman are playing against in club. If they are skillful, hard tackler and speed of thought and touch is better then a big strong guy. That big strong guy will be left behind because their speeed of play would be a lot slower.

I don't believe in playing favorites if the only reason to do it was because the lesser player is already on the varsity. Just like if a new club player to the team is better then the starters already with the team he should become a starter. It means the other players have to work harder to become a starter again in general I think that is true.

One of the purposes of booking a lot of friendly games is so the non starter can get a lot of playing time and get better. Especially when you only book games with better teams.

[ctsoccer13]

Our preseason is made up mostly of friendlies. We have 4 days of conditioning and skills camp so we can get a handle on where everyone is and then we go to scrimmages to see game-like situations. I agree with you that it's a good measure. I also agree that the harding working and more skilled player should surpass a varsity player for the top spot, but the premise of the argument was "where we expect a U14 player to be". In CT our rec players rarely make it past the sophomore year. They just don't have the talent and desire. So, most, if not all, of our players come from the travel system. That being the case, it just doesn't make sense that we expect the majority of the U14 team to make the varsity team and start. Another note, I have 36 girls coming in from the travel system next year as freshman.

[BigGuy]

Our preseason is made up mostly of friendlies. We have 4 days of conditioning and skills camp so we can get a handle on where everyone is and then we go to scrimmages to see game-like situations. I agree with you that it's a good measure. I also agree that the harding working and more skilled player should surpass a varsity player for the top spot, but the premise of the argument was "where we expect a U14 player to be". In CT our rec players rarely make it past the sophomore year. They just don't have the talent and desire. So, most, if not all, of our players come from the travel system. That being the case, it just doesn't make sense that we expect the majority of the U14 team to make the varsity team and start. Another note, I have 36 girls coming in from the travel system next year as freshman.

I can not remember both of the Conn town names but the rec from Monroe, Conn was really good.

I think that might be because some of the players on the Monroe club played both club and rec one staurday and one Sunday. Put club players on a rec team and play real rec teams they will eat them for break fast.

[ctsoccer13]

I also coach rec (girls 7th & 8th grade) almost any travel player would be a standout. On the rare occasion we do conduct a "supplemental tryout" for the travel teams and only a couple of players show up so they join the travel team. Sometimes those few are not very good at all. I have one such player back on my team. She's in the middle of the pack on my team so I can't imagine she saw ANY playing time on travel considering I have at least 4 players who have never, ever played soccer previously. We are not allowed to double roster, but I would be some towns do to allow for the less experienced players to get a chance to play (rec).

[masshysteria]

Check out US Soccer's Best Practices document. Their guidelines are based around creating soccer players that love the game and want to play for life. (Which is what we all want right?)

But they also go into what coaches should do, what practices should be modeled like, and what players should be learning and capable of at the different age groups.

The document can be viewed as a pdf here: http://www.ussoccer.com/coaches/resources/index.jsp.html