Ok Sam, your points are heard. I feel I have already stated that he likes both soccer and snowboarding. He likes all sports. If he gives up soccer that is fine. If he doesn't go pro he will become an engineer. I admit the 10k hours is not do-able. So scratch that. It would be do-able if we lived in Brazil or Mexico and were surrounded with the football culture. Instead of 10k hours, I am just looking at him getting many touches and shooting goals in just 1v1 with me. So he gets about 50 shots on goal every time we play. So that's 150 per week, or about 7500 per year. I think that is adequate. It's all about reps. Re physics, yes perhaps that was overkill. But I do think people should learn to, rather than kick with the "top of the foot" to kick with the metatarsal - the main bone in the foot.
Core strength- good one, that is very important! I don't mind breaks from soccer, I just wanted it to be something transferable (like basketball), but I have capitulated to [insert any activity].
They grow up in soccer being commended for and being picked for the top teams based solely based upon dribbling skills. Probably why they're still dribble first at the U Older level because that was what they were rewarded for. This is fine at the younger ages but at some point you have to develop your field vision, decision making and your passing skills. When you're a dribble first player you're narrowly focused on the next defender, you aren't seeing the whole field. In fact, your not looking at your teammates at all. If your more apt to pass you're surveying the whole field, or at least should be. Coaches are enamored with the dribbler because they claim they want strong 1v1 players. However, many coaches don't know what 1v1 means...what they identify as 1v1 players are usually are 1v2, 3 and 4 players. 1v1 is a skill, not a soccer tactic. The U-17 WNT this past year is a perfect example of why 1v1 doesn't work as a soccer tactic.
That is odd that the coach works on passing so much but it doesn't show in the games. I wonder why the disconnect. Maybe he should make a simple rule for the mids - no more than 4 touches (3 touches max and a pass). Also, work on eyes - maybe the mids are not scanning enough and checking shoulders so they don't know where to pass so they default to dribbling.
This. I don't know how many times a game we see a Mid or Fwd take a pass, engage in the 1v1 drill and its like to you can feel their brain shut down. Their world compresses into getting past that defender, and we're watching our feet and the ball...and by the time they finish their third move, another defender is on them. Hell, they even do this in the box. They will literally dribble back and forth eight yards outside the goal, and never take a shot...just totally scopelocked on dribbling, like robots. Its baffling shit, but I suspect you have the root cause nailed. This isn't quite an all-star team, but most every girl on it was one of the better players at their position on their D1 squads, so we probably have the "uber dribblers". Half the team joined this past fall, so its a work in progress....hopefully it'll improve for spring.
I wouldn't push back on him about this--for one thing, he's probably right. Secondly, it does help feed a love of the game itself.
Great post. I was going to make the same point about balance (and also knowing how to fall without getting injured) but you said it better than I would have. And also--the lack of soccer IQ is huge. I observed the same thing in my days as a soccer parent. The kids who were "all stars" as U-littles all too often never evolved beyond dribbling all over the field. What makes a good soccer player is knowing what to do when you DON'T have the ball.
Nah, not odd. People work on static patterns and other things that build the mechanics, looks good in practice. Without choreography/patterns/shadow play, they're not going to get that crossover to the game. The game isn't random when other countries play it
"field vision, decision making and your passing skills." At what age should kids start working on these? My guess is 7/8/9 yrs old? I see many 5 year olds doing basic passing, but not much vision/off ball movement, which is understandable - they can only learn so much at once. Also - I wonder if it is good for 2 or 3 kids to play together over many years so that they can learn routes and verbage and be in sync? In outdoor my kid and another kid started playing well together and I thought it would be neat if they played together every year; it seems that would be advantageous in advanced passing and movement; I wonder if others think about this.
It's definitely not "bad". I don't think 2-3 players is enough though. Maybe on small sided games, but once you get to full size, the benefits diminish. It also depends on what positions those players play. If one is a left back and the other is right wing, they're not going to hook up as much. Now, if you have two CBs, or a CAM and a F, I think it can be very good. One of my first posts on here was how well my son's team (then U10) played together. And I made a comment something like yours "it would be nice if these guys continued to play together through HS." I was told the odds were long and they are. The age group change didn't help, but only one of those kids is on my son's team now.
Good question. Probably a better question for a real coach and not my arm chair opinion. I think once a kid has developed a decent touch, its time to really focus on playing with his/hear head up. Based on my observations, at about the time kids hit the U12 level, the kids with soccer IQ really start to separate themselves (although coaches may still be choosing players based on form over substance). A clever training I've seen for vision is to have the players do Rondo's but instead of having the kids wear different color pinnies they wear different color headbands which force players to look up to find their teammates.
Well he likes to build things and I think it would be good to be an engineer like Elon Musk, or work for Elon. But in truth, he can be whatever he wants. Not to get off topic but... I think engineering will become a baseline of knowledge that everyone must learn, kind of like high school kids learning algebra, biology, chemistry, etc. As society evolves, advanced knowledge will become elementary. But ideally he would become a pro soccer player though an MLS academy. I want him to be the #1 scorer in his area which will enable him to get on an academy. I feel either you have to be the best at it or else find another job like engineering. It's the just the brutal nature of pro sports - hyper competitive.
I realized yesterday (after his last indoor game) that one thing I like about soccer over say snowboarding is the social aspect. I love seeing my kid out there on the field with all of his friends. They have a lot of fun together and they grow their social skills. In that sense, it's a great sport for any kid and offers benefits that solo sports can't offer.
The most social activity/sport my son participated in was track...which was mostly an individual sport...
True for my older (non-soccer) son, too. Track-meet Saturdays meant entire days together as a team with, as a distance runner, no more than a combined 30 minutes or so of actual warm-up and competition (and literally just a few minutes of competition, max, for the sprinters).
After 4 years of recreation soccer, 10 years of club, middle school and high school soccer and 4 years of D1 college soccer, my oldest son is applying for graduate school and his preferred school is the University of Colorado. Why: Snowboarding. (like he will have time), he picked up snowboarding at age 10.
That is nice. I told my son to apply to some western schools for similar reason. You can go to school in summer and fall semesters. Save the spring semester for snowboarding . He started riding at age 8 and is pretty good for us not living at a mountain. We get about 10-15 days a year though which isn't bad. As far as this thread goes, soccer definitely helps snowboarding. My son has much stronger leg muscles than most kids who don't play. He really enjoys riding during the winter and I think it's a great off season activity. No pressure to perform, but It is creative and builds a lot of self confidence - man against mountain. Your young son will thank you later in life for allowing him to build the skill of riding a snowboard. He will remember all of it and the great times he had riding with his family. He won't remember any of the cone drills you have him do at this age.
True, there are probably benefits as well to being solo. But he's an only child so I have always been concerned about him getting enough social exposure.
Well your 5 year old doesn't need to Rise and Grind. Sorry, but you have wasted much possible joy of your own life and you probably shouldn't do the same to your kids.
This disconnect is that the kids are 5 years old and developmentally they are still at "me and my ball". They can still be taught passing and rudimentary position and tactics but they will not implement them consistently. Most kids simply don't have the skills mastered enough to consistently pass properly or even to think about passing. But working on passing, via Rondos, in practice can build not only the muscle memory of passing properly but also movement with and without the ball as well helping to build a technical foundation. Waxing cars didn't have much to do with Karate either until it had everything to do with karate.
Perhaps, but I have no regrets. My kid is spoiled, and has as many toys and plays as much as any other kid. and your virtue signaling is kinda cringy bro
No what is cringy is your naivete wrapped up in false confidence and authority. There is probably a centuries worth of soccer experience on this thread alone telling you to chill and relax. Soccer is a marathon and you need to learn to pace yourself and understand the different stages of the race. If you want to go and sprint out in foolish directions be my guest.