I disagree completely. Obviously all sports use different skills but to say that none of the skills translate to each other is wrong. I took my daughter to a track coach in order to get her to run more efficiently and faster. It helped. She plays basketball in the winter. Both her basketball coach and her soccer coach believe the two sports compliment each other in the way they see the court/field. Playing angles and passing lanes, in addition to being able to play with a defender on your back are similar in both sports. Getting space to shoot are also similar in basketball and soccer as well. She uses hesitation and the ability to spin with a ball in her hands/at her feet in the same way. Change of direction are equally important in both as well. Although you are correct in the statement that there is no substitute for having a ball at your feet, there are certainly things you can take from each that help the other.
Why is everyone so black and white? Why is it "there is no substitute for having the ball at your feet" as if that is the ONLY necessary training to get better at soccer. My kid does practice at home a lot, but he also does track and SAQ. There are things that he has learned in SAQ that not one soccer coach would teach - how to start running, proper running form, agility, etc. Pro teams have SAQ trainers, and they do a lot of things without the ball. It's all good, it doesn't have to be touches only, and touches only will NOT produce the best soccer player.
We moved to a new neighborhood recently. A bunch of kids around 7-9 play football across the street. My son is 5 and turned 6 today. I got him a nerf football and spent a lot of time throwing, catching, working on step fakes with the ball so he can better hang with the bigger kids. A few days ago we started back in our daily routine of soccer. I asked him to do step fakes as he dribbled toward me. Best step fakes he has ever done, I think practicing doing them without the ball for football helped him refine the concept, then could apply it to a ball. Before he was trying the concept and the ball at the same time and never quite nailed it.
You used them all the time? Are you a young kid? I said I haven't seen a young kid use fakes from football applied in soccer games. Most kids can even barely apply what they are taught at soccer practice, let alone from different sports. Doing fakes with the ball at your feet and the ball in your hand are two different things. No doubt about that. But in soccer the more specific athletic skills are more important. Not really. Again, not really. Disagree with that. Plus it is different playing when having the ball secured in hands vs ball at your feet. Yeah, right......even Johan Cruyff wouldn't be able to do that...... Different balls, different size, different speed, different trajectory, different tracking. I've seen kids track a baseball perfectly for their age, but can't do the same with a soccer ball. Each sport requires specific coordination and balance. There could be some small general similarities, but very little. I didn't say "radically" different, just different. No. Which actions? And if general athletic development is the goal, then fine. If the goal is soccer development, then there is a difference.
I express opinion from my experience as a former player, former coach and a parent of two boys with friends from different sports. Running for track is different than running for soccer. I will say that track runners have very good running technique and one can learn it, but different running is applied in soccer. There is a video on Youtube, where they did some test on C.Ronaldo. One of the tests was running - short sprints and slalom sprints between flags/poles. He was tested against a track runner. One of the analysis was the difference in running technique between the two players. At the end, both techniques were determined to be the factor which allow each athlete to be successful at their sport. Both sports are team sports, so that helps a little bit to some extent. But it is easier to see the court in basketball, than it is to see the field in soccer. There are many reasons for that: the court is smaller, there are less players on it, the ball is in the player's hands (therefore it is controlled easier), the rules help the player in control of the ball. One of the hardest things in soccer is to teach players from early age to play facing most of the field as it helps them make better decisions, see where pressure is coming from and where teammates are positioned. It adds pressure and insecurities the fact that ball control with the feet is more challenging and the player in control is less protected, i.e. the ball is more exposed for tackling from opponent. The difference is that in basketball players shoot up and often over opponents - more space and less protected. In theory it is, but.....I've seen extremely good young basketball players with very good change of direction struggling to do the same in soccer. Explain that. Some things might be interchangeable and transferable at the earliest ages, but very few and only with limited type of sports. Obviously team sports share some basic objectives and mental aspects, like the existence of direction, target/goal, opponents, teammates, time & space. But the specific elements far out weigh the general/common elements between each sport. There is also something else. Different sports teach young players different playing habits, which many times conflict with soccer habits. At the early ages it is all about getting the kids active and "doing something" that requires effort, especially since "street play" of any kind has all but disappeared. Personally I have seen a lot of players who play better in other sports than they do in soccer, regardless of how many aspects are similar or different. And the interesting thing is that these kids practice more in soccer than in other sports, more frequently and for longer periods of the year. Youth soccer (at travel level) is pretty much the only year-round sport for many kids in most areas. Yet soccer seems the most difficult one for those kids to learn/improve on and less things from other sports are applied by the kids. It is when you are talking about turning someone into a "star" of that particular sport. With the limited amount practice time, most coaches will focus on activities with the ball and other soccer specific things to teach the players. And yet there isn't even enough time for that sometimes. If a coach had a group of players at practice 5 days/week, then you will see that coach teach other things as well. As kids get older and begin practicing soccer more frequently, you see coaches add more elements to the practice sessions. In addition, for certain activities, especially the physical ones, players need to be of certain age. It is far more important to spent soccer practices on "with the ball" activities than on other aspects. I think that having a tactical meeting or fitness training with 10 year olds is less important (and quite frankly unnecessary) than a passing & receiving session. Pro teams are not made up of youth players though. They have almost fully developed players and certainly fully developed players from technical stand point. The younger the players the more time on the ball they need. Unfortunately, the younger players usually practice less frequently also.
My head hurts . Is not rocket science folks, teach the kids technique from an early age up until u14 and "a coach can't make a huge impact on a player's technique. Especially training 2 or 3 times a week" so get out there and have some fun with your son/ daughter. All the other things will come as he or she progesses. >UNO<
"I am so grateful that I had the chance to and was encouraged to play more than just soccer," says Abby Wambach, forward for the United States women's soccer team. "It allowed my whole body to develop, not just those muscles I use in soccer. It helps you really get to know your body and what you can do as an athlete and I think it did help me reduce my injuries."
For youth (aka section 1 and pre-teens) development of general athletic skills is a primary training objective for USYSA soccer coaches. That is official policy straight from Sam Snow. Among coaching educators in the US, this is generally accepted for any athletic development program at that age.
I was thinking about the baseball crossover after watching Arsenal get demolished by AC milan dropping balls in front of or in between the defense that those backs would have benefited a lot from playing baseball. Tracking a baseball is harder than a soccer ball, its smaller and is going faster. Baseball players have to anticipate where the ball is going and know what they are doing with it before the ball gets there. -And RCA I am patiently waiting for your athletic development post. My impression is that very few soccer coaches do this.
She is supposed to say that. What do you expect? And just because Abby is saying it, doesn't mean anything. Do you read anywhere that Messi is saying how much he regrets not playing other sports as a child? That is why US soccer "stars" are not really stars, just average soccer players with good general athletic ability. Most people in US are frightened by early specialization. Soccer requires it.
Call Wenger and tell him to run a baseball practice with his players. Tracking a baseball is different than tracking a soccer ball. In some ways it could be said that tracking a baseball is harder, like you say due to the smaller size of the ball and the faster speed. But in baseball the opponents do not interfere with your process of tracking the ball. When tracking a baseball the player knows he has to catch it and throw it or catch it and tag a runner. When tracking a soccer ball the course of actions that may follow are a bit more complex. That is because their goal is not athletic development.
thought this comment from Anson Dorrance was pretty good. With soccer "experts" continually saying that players should just play soccer I found it interesting that the most successful coach in American soccer disagrees. Is there a right time for a young player to concentrate solely on the game of soccer? I really believe in a lot of cross-training. I'm not big on early specialization. Here at UNC we have four girls who play other collegiate sports. I see huge benefits for young girls playing a lot of sports growing up. The ideal evolution would start out in gymnastics as long as they could last. Being a seasonal athlete, playing every sport they can, helps contribute to their athletic ability. I think as they grow older, basketball and hockey are possibly the best training for a soccer player. Track and volleyball are wonderful as well. Hopefully, they have got another sport they have alongside it that they will enjoy for the rest of their lives. We encourage our players to take a golf class before they graduate. The only sport they can play, if they make the national team, that doesn't risk too much injury or use too much energy is golf. We encourage these athletes to play everything.
Playing other sports doesn't mean you can't specialize in soccer. So the entirety of all the professional players never played a sport besides soccer and if they did they learned nothing from it. Cesc Fabregas played tennis as a youngster.
Have you every watched a game? When the runner slides into second with his spikes up that's not an accident - that's trying to interfere with the second baseman catching/throwing the ball. And anywhere else you have to worry about your teammates running into you. Little league you get big pileups on most fly balls because kids don't know how to look around and track the ball. Anyway, we aren't going to convince each other, but I think you should ponder whether you know enough about other sports to make these blanket generalizations. It doesn't appear to me that you have watched or played other sports enough to know what skills might transfer.
Anson Dorrance is stating the generally accepted belief in the US among professionals. Here is what USYSA says: US Youth Soccer Player Development Model (Jan 2012), p. 23: "As a team sport, soccer is a late specialization sport. A multi-sport experience provides a solid base to long-term development as a soccer player. From 6 to 12 years of age, children should have opportunities to be in different sports. Concentrating on one sport is inappropriate in terms of physical and game-sense development. The goals of any coach working with a young player who is pre-pubescent should include increasing proficiency of physical ability, developing functional versatility from a strength, movement and biomechanical standpoint and lastly, diminishing the potentially negative effects of specialized training. Subsequently when working with pre-pubescent aged players, the mandate should be one of global, all-encompassing development rather than specialization in one sport."
Quite true and one reason why critics of the US soccer programs say that we need to involve better coaches in youth development. You didn't have to wait for my post on athletic development for youth. You could have just searched for it on BigSoccer and found this February 2010 thread I started: "Motor Skill Development Overlooked" https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=19923983#post19923983
My experience is somewhat diferent. I would guess, having watched players and talked to other parents in my area that the majority of players do specialize at a young age. Although some of them may play other sports in middle school, they tend to spend an inordinate amount of time working on soccer, speed and agility, and technical skills. I know of a lot of kids a little older than mine that are now entering and playing in the college ranks. They fall into two catagories. Those that get a lot of personal training at the younger ages i.e. specialize, and those that play travel but also enjoy other sports and tend to play soccer for their own personal enjoyment. Although the majority of players that seem to make it are the ones that specialize. There are still plenty of kids that don't that catch up and surpass many that have spent their whole time concentrating on soccer. I know of a surprisingly large number of girls that have gotten to the collegiate level, having specialized for many years previously, that have stopped playing because they weren't the best players on the squad and getting playing time, or they just lost the enjoyment of playing. I know comparatively fewer that have made a college team and quit that did not specialize. Having said all this, I have girls so tend to follow their careers, not boys. It may be diferent for boys.
America is a nation that does not understand "MODERATION". What the rest of the world is able to deal with on an everyday basis, we have a tendency to abuse. Food, Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking etc. We take everything to one extreme or the other. You can't live by bread alone, but chances are, you won't treat two things equally, either. You will always do more of one thing than another. It's all about LOVE. The fact is, if i want to be a soccer player, then i better spend more time on soccer than anything else. Naturally. This does not mean that i can't go and have a game of Table Tennis. C'mon boys!
Did you not read the quote? This is not about people's likes or dislikes. In the US nobody forces people to play a sport. As a parent if you want your kids to specialize in soccer at age 4, go right ahead. But don't kid yourself that it gives them a development advantage. If you want to develop the best possible soccer players, the players should not specilize in a sport until age 13. Athletes who do not specialize before age 13 will ultimately be better soccer players than those who do (assuming all other factors are the same).
But of course he is going to say that. Almost every major sports figure in US will say that. Do you know the meaning of "specialize"? It means the kid spends as much time as possible into one activity/sport. Kids can spend time playing other sports in school during gym classes, like I did. In the distant past, kids used to play on the streets whatever they wanted, but committed seriously to only one sport. Now, there is rarely much street play left, therefore kids play every organized sport, because their parents wanna keep them active. How much tennis did Fabregas play as a youngster? Yes, I've watched baseball games. I've watched enough other sports to have an opinion. Still, whatever happens in a baseball is not even remotely close to what happens in a soccer game, in terms of interference and action. Baseball is a different environment than soccer, simple as that. Soccer is a late specialization sport? Wow! Then how come all the soccer stars worldwide from past and present have specialized in soccer from a very early age? See, this mentality that kids have to specialize in soccer later in their years is one of the major things that needs to change in this country. Kids can have the opportunity to play every sport they wish, but that doesn't mean early specialization is wrong or that they learn things from other sports that they can apply in soccer. Oh, how wrong you are my friend......Early specialization is how all the world-class soccer stars are made. And that early specialization absolutely gives advantage to the player. There is a difference between spending only 2-3 days in soccer and spending every day playing soccer. Observe the difference between most Latino kids and American kids. Latino kids spend far more time playing soccer and watching soccer than most American kids. It shows on the field......even less athletic Latino kids are better soccer players than more athletic American kids.
I deleted my first post because maybe I don't understand. When you say it does not give them a 'development advantage' what do you mean? And also, why would a player that does not specialize in soccer be better than one that does?
1. During the early years coaches are trying to develop basic athletic skills in all youth sports. Specializing in soccer does not give an advantage over another player who plays soccer and other sports. Both paths will have both players developing ball skills. Playing other sports as well as soccer does have an advantage. There is less chance of injury and more progress in athletic skills development for someone playing multiple sports at that age. 2. Because studies indicate that athletes who do not specialize in the early years ultimately are as skilled or more skilled than those who early specialize. The thinking is that their balls skills are just as good in the long term and athletes who specialize early lack basic athletic skills.
That is clearly untrue, as a father of a six year old I can say categorically that it is impossible for any other child to compete with mine if they have not already invested 500 hours of soccer training by the time they are six. Kidding of course, but your post above does not seem logical. On the other hand I have no proof you are wrong so I will be a doubting thomas.
Let me make a point with your humor. If the hypothetical six-year old trains soccer 200 hours and also trains in martial arts 200 hours during each year, after six years he will be both an athletic and skilled soccer player. If he only trained in soccer, he may have better ball skills than the two-sport 12 year old but he will be an inferior athlete at the age (12) when the full game is introduced (U14). The other way to look at it is that U-Littles play SSG (intentionally) where athletic skill and off-the-ball play are less important to a player's effectiveness. At U14 (12 and 13 year olds) team tactics and physical training are introduced. Athletic skill and off-the-ball play both become very important to a player's effectiveness, as there are now more space and more players, but still only one ball for 22 players to share. The way coaches look at it is that you train for the future ("the next level") not for the present. So don't train for current success; train for success at U14.
I absolutely disagree with that! 1. The kid that specializes in soccer from early age has an advantage because he will spend more time practicing and playing soccer. Therefore, the coach that works with him will be able to cover all the basics needed, athletic or soccer-specific. You say both paths will develop the skills, but the difference is that the kid who specializes will develop his skills to a better level and perhaps even quicker. Technical ball mastery requires work and effort everyday. Can a kid learn technique practicing just 2 days? Sure he can, but the kid that works on it 5 days a week will be better, simple as that. Playing other sports doesn't lessen the chance of injury, in fact it may increase it and often leads to burn outs and disorientation. And how much progress there is of athletic skills really when the kid is doing a little bit of everything vs a whole lot from one? BTW, soccer is a very good sport for developing overall athletic ability - one of the reasons why parents love it so much for their kids. The parents have the kids in multiple sports because "street play" has disappeared from children's lives and they have no other ways of socializing anymore. 2. In soccer that is not true. You want proof? Look at all the top players in World soccer. From Pele and Di Stefano all the way to Messi and C.Ronaldo, not many of them played multiple sports. I'd say their skills and abilities are way better than any American soccer player who grew up playing multiple sports as a kid. The thing about soccer is that one doesn't have to be the most athletic or the better athletic kid/player. Obviously athleticism helps and one has to be athletic enough, but there are other elements far more important - technical ability, soccer intelligence, mentality, etc. In other sports, such as basketball or american football, athleticism is far more important for being the best player. And don't tell me that baseball improves athletic ability - hand-eye coordination for sure, but not much athletic about it.