I'm a fan of patterns of play. They're not coached so often now, as small sided games and rondos, seem to be all the rage in youth football training Call me old fashioned but I still like a pattern. I think they are especially important in a defensive context, probably not so much in an attacking sense, as the element of surprise and imagination are more difficult to harness and coach. There are obviously thousands of different variables that would determine an attacking pattern (defensive position, supporting movement etc), but a defensive pattern can be so much more predicatable and help to build a solid starting platform for more mercurial attacking play. What they can be useful for is developing patterns of movement using corridors of the pitch. Obviously, we work on this shadow format, which can be tedious for the players and result in a flat session, but the results can be devastating if you persevere. Would love to know your thoughts from an American perspective. Are they being taught at youth level or are they considered a bit old fashioned and out of date.
I'll bite. Practice for a u12 girls top flight team in Chicago consists of Rondos, small sided games, spacing-passing with free movement and neutral players, 6v6 scrimmage, 2v2, 3v2 quick attacking plays and sub. We have never worked on defensive positioning, attacking patterns, formation positioning (basic), tactics, triangle passing, channels or corridors movement. We rarely work on footskills! Pretty awful coaching and this from "A" licensed coach. Balancing free play and creativity with structured positional play is a necessity. And to think 11-12 year olds are not capable of this is wrong. It borders on lazy to allow only Rondos and SSGs as part of your coaching. Structure to a certain point and introducing ideas of free play foster creativity. All great artists learn technique first. The rage on footskills training in America is where it's at, but vision and passing seem lacking and I believe some positional pattern play would build on that.
Does this coach preach (the highlighted) things during games and yell and scream if they aren't doing them? Scrimmaging is such lazy coaching i cant stand it.
I'd also like to add that my daughter came from a club with an "A" licensed coach who spent the entire practice doing 6v6 with 2 bumpers and would stand there and scream at the girls for every bad touch and if they didnt get rid of the ball quick enough. 1.5 hours 2 times a week! Maybe on a rare occasion they did some 1v1 work for 15 minutes before hand but that was it. Why is it that i have no license and no soccer backgroud and could absolutely run a better practice just based off of what i've read here and online?
That's a gimme... only need to look at the USMNT. The changing youth soccer landscape has ruined the men's team and it will be a long time before they are ever relevant again. The American men becoming pros now were the first to be exposed to the $3,000/year mega-club landscape and standardized "academy style" training that was supposed to be the answer to all our problems and turn us into Germany. Now we can't even win a game, much less make the World Cup. Good thing they have their footwork down because in all their training, they never learned vision, creativity, passing, or even the concept of team.
Depressing to hear this from ppierce. Same for my U15 boy and I've been upset as I thought we were isolated in this experience. First I thought at U14 they would get kids exposed to more complex parts of the game.... Then I thought U15... I see the USSoccer training materials seem to show this at these ages. Whats happening? Can anyone speak to what is covered in the different coaching licenses? Are these pars of the game included, brushed over? I see youth baseball at this age using signals in batting situations, outfield shifts. Obviously youth footbal running set plays as well as bball at this age. I'm thinking of all these kids that leave the sport at 14 or 15... played years and never really played the game in it's fullest context I have noticed at age 15 many kids dont have the attention span to hear and execute pretty basic concepts from coaches but shouldnt that be part of the player evaluation and placing kids higher/lower accordingly? I'm so frustrated for my kid as well as for our national team. Sorry for ranting
Yelling and ranting at games over CB positioning that was not taught, including not covering fast enough for LB/RB miscues. Yelling at strikers who cant recover long balls fast enough from goalie punts. Telling goalies to play out of the back without teaching that. Yelling about width from wingers during games without teaching that positioning Yelling about moving the ball fast enough, but only taught pace from rondos and not taught who to look for during the game Yell Make a run without teaching where Expecting CB to play back to goalie without working on it Yelling about corner kick positioning offensively and defense without ever teaching it I could go on. Top Flight team - Chicago u12. Kids quit soccer because it's repetitive practices without fun. And teaching principles beyond footskills( if you get that) is incredibly boring sitting in a square Rondo. Expecting game production and perfection without covering that in a pause and reflect practice only will lead to a bored and scared player. Only the Elite players pick up things fast, and the good players who can be elite will quit. The Elite players will be too structured and lack creativity.
My oldest child can do a pretty good post game analysis of what went right, what went wrong, what should have been done based on the situation, etc. I would say that is recognizing patterns. I think some of that is from her experience as a player. But some of that must be from training as she can describe pretty concisely what should occur. My guess is that they do go over patterns of play in practice but probably not a lot. One limitation is that they usually only have a quarter of a field to practice on if that.
Isnt the definition of insanity ranting and raving about something that was never taught? Or something like that....Its like walking up to your dog and smacking him on the nose for crapping in the house 4 days prior. They have no idea what you are talking about.
Agree completely. But please don't misunderstand my post. I'm not having a go at these other areas of coaching. SSGs, rondos and skills training are all highly relevant, but for me they seem to have taken precedence over teaching the basic fundamentals of playing a team sport. I understand that every country wants to produce the next Ronaldo or Messi, but unfortunately, no matter how much a kid practices the vast majority will never get near that level. That's not to say that every kid who practices and is dedicated can't be a very good player. The beautiful thing about football is that is caters for so many different physical and mental attributes. Tall players, small players, fast players, players with good endurance, players with good handling skills, skilful players, athletic players etc etc.. My issue with skills training, and correct me if I'm wrong state side, but money making programmes and skills academy's use it as a way to lure parents to part with their cash. Have skills like Ronaldo, play like Messi..... spend your cash! I'll tell you now. 6-10 work on skills training, after that its too late. Older kids would be better dedicating their time to learning the fundamentals of the game: control, passing, finishing and dribbling. From 11 up they need to be focussing on the tactical side of the game and all that comes with it: positioning, supporting play when in possession/nt in possession etc To shout at a kid on his position or not aking a supporting run when he's not been taught basic team shape is ludicrous.
I think it's less an issue of clubs trying to separate parents from their money than US Soccer's susceptibility to fads and random 5 year plans, which are then adopted by the clubs. "All skills, all the time" is merely the latest flavor of the month.
I thought of this thread when watching my son's team's first game in Super Y this weekend. The team they were playing against was big, fast and showed amazing footskills in warmups. We were significantly smaller (half the team is playing up a year) and definitely less skilled (not unskilled, though). Everyone on our sideline had the "we're going to get crushed" look on their face. Then the game started and they primarily used these skills to string together a series of harmless passes 50 yards away from the goal. Almost like they were allergic to creating scoring chances. Our guys had the ball less, but were significantly better at playing in the final third. The other team got very frustrated and lost their composure (a couple yellows). My son's team ended up winning 5-2, primarily because they created and finished scoring opportunities.. If this other team had even a little tactical knowledge, they would've won in a rout.