My son turned ten this week, so he is a rising U11 for the 2013-2014 season. He is with a club that focuses on "individual player development" and spends zero time on tactics. Training sessions consist of ball mastery and other skill development. They do 1v1 and small sided games, but nothing about how to play a position, how to get open, the importance of staying goal-side, etc. Game format is 7v7. Despite the club's claim that every player should play every position, my son has been pidgeon holed as a right forward/midfielder in a 3-3 formation. On game days, he is completely lost. He does not get back to defend, he does not check to the ball and generally is not involved in the game. The few times he does receive the ball, he looks good. He has silky smooth skills and can beat his man, keeps his head up and can connect nice passes if people make good runs. But, as I said, without the ball he is totally lost. Even after a good pass, he just stands and watches and makes no attempt to work off of the ball. His coach gives him virtually no instruction either before, during or after the games. He is never told to check back, never told to defend, nothing. The philosophy seems to be that the kids should figure it out on their own and not be told what to do. Some kids do just fine in this setting. They seem to "get it" somewhat naturally. They know how to get and stay involved in the game, they make intelligent runs and they stay goal-side of their man. But they are not being taught this. They just "get it." My son does not. He's plenty smart, high IQ and all, but he doesn't possess any natural field awareness. And since he's only being taught tecnical skills, that's pretty much all he has. My question is whether I should be worried about this. The informed view seems to be that U12 or U13 is when tactics matter and, until then, the focus should be on developing skills. Game days are viewed as superfluous. If this is true, I guess I should be unconcerned and should trust that my kid will be taught and will learn tactics in a year or two and, for now, should concentrate on skill development. But it's painful to watch him float aimlessly around the field while other players, with less skill, are employing solid tactics and having far greater results than him. Do people thing I should be concerned or is this something that will just sort itself out over time?
Basic tactics/U-10 survival guide Bad. Very bad. I am only now, at 2nd year U-12, starting to use some players at a primary position. I still very much move everyone around. I especially like to put left-footed players on right side and right-footed players on left side so they realize the damage they can do by beating a defender 1v1 and still have the ball on your strong foot. Clubs do a disservice by playing primary positions. A defender never learns to play with his back to the play. Wingers never learn to see the field like a center midfielder. Attackers that never play defense don't know how a defender will think in a situation to use that info against him, etc. Checking is a tough one. My lower level U-12 team cannot grasp that. Sounds age appropriate, admiring the ball. Its difficult for a kid to comprehend that every time the ball is touched or rolls, the game situation changes. You figure out why, I'll buy your DVD If you are looking for him to go to the Barcelona youth squad, yes be worried. If he is going to be playing for a state cup team next year, be worried. If you club has poor coaches waiting at the next level, be worried. If you are OK with next year's coaches or you have a decent club in mind, don't be worried. They will learn a lot in the next two years.
Yeah, he's clearly not on that level. I actually think he could be on that level if he knew how to apply himself, but I think I'm the only one in the world who can see that. His skills are great and very broad. Dribbling, passing, receiving, shooting, finishing, he does it all very well. But only in snipets. During games he's pretty worthless until the ball happens to hit him in the feet. As for the coaches on the horizon, we have some good ones at the club, but I don't think my son's team is going to get one of them. We'll probably get an inexperienced kid who maybe played D1 soccer, but has little to no coaching experience. It's a crap shoot, really. When I'm in one of my rational phases, I understand that the kids that "get it" are few and far between. My kid is playing at the highest level in our area (comprising probably the top 5% of players in the U10 age group when you take into account rec, advanced and travel players) and only about half the kids at that level "get it" at this age. This means that maybe only 2-3% of all U10s in my area "get it" and understand how to play and stay involved when they don't have the ball when playing against other high level players. When I think about it that way, I can keep things in perspective. Sitting on the sidelines and watching the games is another matter altogether!
Don't underestimate this guy. He could be very good. Just worked with one last year. He was unbelievable. Better than some of our veteran coaches. My son was U-11 and learned a ton. Myself, I learned a ton from him and have used it this year. Sad to see him move on.
Yes, some of them are good and some are not. As I said, it's a crap shoot. I do know that the coaches I know to be good will not be assigned to my son's team. Again, doesn't mean that the unknown coach will be bad, but it could go either way. I wonder a little whether a light bulb is just going to go on for my kid without the coach coaxing it out of him. Some of the stuff I've read suggests that U12-U13 players suddenly get tactics due to natural evolution of their minds. I don't remember how it went down for me as a player, and this is my oldest son so I don't have any experience observing it. Does anyone have any emperical evidence to suggest that players evolve in this way and start to understand how to get involved in the game and how to employ tactics without being explicitly taught it? I have this scary vision of my son standing around waiting for the ball at age 16, but is it really possible that he'll still be that clueless at that age?
The one thing to start noticing is the quality of the other players, because as you ask them to become more team oriented, if you have too many 'weak' players' a player's tactical quality will suffer. The whole high tide/low tide thing.
He's playing at a high level, so all of the kids have technical skill. Oddly, my kid is probably the most technically skilled of the 10 kids on his team, but also the least tactically adept. They are in a tight enough range in terms of technical skill. The other kids can complete good passes and can receive passes just fine. Only a couple of them make the right runs at the right time. I think the other players on the team would have more room to complain that my son's tactical deficiencies are impeding them than for my son to claim that the other kids aren't good enough. Another problem is that our team is getting killed, meaning it's tough for any of the attacking players to get involved. We played a double header last weekend and lost 0-12 on aggregate. Hardly any shots on goal and defending for our lives most of the game. Part of that comes from the other clubs teaching tactics and team play, whereas our club focuses solely on the individial. We probably have more individual skill but limited ability to move the ball as a team. To be fair, it's pretty hard for my boy to do much on the offensive side in those kinds of games, and it's easy for him to lose interest as the games slip out of reach.
If you buy your club's philosophy, you deal with the losses (and try to explain to a child that losses don't matter). As a father, you are your child's harshest critic. I know I am on my son, unfortunate for him, I am his coach still (this is my last year coaching him).
I coached my son until this year as well. As hard as being his coach was, I can tell you that it's even harder watching someone else coach him (at least when that someone else isn't coaching the way you want him to!).
The thing that really helped my son at that age and younger was playing pick-up SSGs with a couple of very experienced coaches (one is in his sixties and played pro in Eastern Europe). The coaches played with the boys and modeled what they wanted the kids to learn: making runs off the ball, pacing the game, surveying the field, not passing into pressure, keeping possession, passing back etc. My son didn't even realize he was learning, it was an organic thing - it was just how you played the game. This might be something you can organize yourself with your son's team and friends.
Good idea. I'm planning to do something like that this summer. Since the club does not focus on tactics in the fall and spring, I intend to do some stuff in the summer and winter to supplement and hopefully jump start my boy. I have a feeling that he'll quickly revert back to standing around in games, especially when they are getting killed. I think this is the problem that some people describe with joy stick coaching. A very vocal coach can tell my boy where to go all game long and he'll do it, but the instant he stops getting those instructions, he just stands there, lost again. Something has to happen within him to change this, I suspect. For my sanity, please let it happen soon!
The method these coaches employed really worked for my son. They too held these pick-up practices over the summer, and I remember his first game in the fall season of his last year in U10, he knew exactly what he was doing and was in complete control. The coach of his team also allowed the boys to play with very little sideline instruction, if any.
Dcole what coaching license does your sons coach have and what level did he play at? You would've amazed if you saw what level some 8 yrs olds can play at. Of course they do simple 2 man tactics give and goes, takeovers an then getting a third player into those tactics. I don't know any good coach that is happy if they see their players make a pass and then stand around and not get involved and move up in the flow of play. Getting open is easy even if you stand around when to get a pass put yourself in a position to see the ball with no defender in between you and the dribbler. If the defender is behind you but close. Go meet that pass don't wait for it to come to you.
Current coach, who we will be rid of in two weeks, has no coaching experience and never played beyond high school. Unacceptable to me. However, the DOC attends most of our games to help the kid along. Even the DOC does not give much instruction during games. DOC also runs the training for the entire U10 pool and training is about 60% technical drills (Coerver, etc.), 30% small-sided games, 10% game-specific drills. There is no time spent on explicit tactics. No one ever mentions the terms "goal-side" or "check-to" or anything like that. I would not be amazed by how high of a level 8-10 year olds can play at because I have coached and watched a few 8 year olds players who play at the level you describe. I do think they are the exception rather than the rule however. I would say that fewer than 1% of 8-9 year olds are capable of playing as you describe. People sometimes get fooled by watching the absolute top players in their area play and then say "well, 8-9 year olds can play at a really high level." Sure, the very best ones can, but you're watching the top 10-15 players out of 5,000 players in your area. The overwhelming majority of players don't understand the sport at that level. For every 8-9 year old prodigy, there are 1000 8 year olds picking grass on a rec field or crying on the sideline, afraid to even go into the game. I get your point though, that it CAN happen. I know you're a really experienced coach, so you must be familiar with kids who have great technical ability but who are lost on the field. At what age would you really worry about a kid like this? Is it true that the light bulb often comes on at age 11-13 and suddenly (or even gradually) these players become more engaged?
Forgot to respond to this part. My son's coaches are not at all "happy" with the level to which he gets involved in the games. In fact, they bench him a lot. They are, however, too "new-age" in their coaching philosophy to actually tell my son why he's getting benched, and he doesn;t even view it as a benching. He just thinks he's coming out because it is his turn. Again, they think he needs to figure this out on his own. So not only do they not give him some verbal cues to get involved in the game, they also don't tell him after the fact that they are displeased with him. He often sits for half of the game. The team only has two subs, so he's sitting way more than his share. This frustrates me because if you are not going to coach the kids, then you also shouldn't punish them for failing to figure things out on their own. I mean, if the theory is that they need to figure it out on their own, that would imply that the kis who have NOT figured it out should play the most, not the least, right? Not only that, but my kid actually is a dynamite center forward. He understands how to play that position because it doesn't involve much two-way play. He scores about a goal per 25 minutes when playing center forward, but they almost never play him there. Other kids get to play their best positions all the time, but not mine. It's frustrating, but that's another part of the story. The part I'm focusing on here is my kid's seeming inability to get involved in the game when he's NOT playing the #9.
I can only relate what my experience has been with our son. At U13, his club is just now beginning to work on tactics. However, the boys on the team have so much more understanding than they did at U11 (when the team was formed). It has been a gradual aquisition of knowledge. There are still a few players who appear to switch off or not to know what they are doing sometimes, but for the most part the kids are really getting it. The club utilizes a proprietory, systematic training ciriculum, so this isn't a haphazard thing, there is a method to their training. Give your son a couple of years, and I think you will see a big difference.
Thanks. This is nice to hear. What I hear most of the time is stuff like, "he's going to get left behind" or "if he doesn't figure it out pretty quick he's in big trouble." This stuff stresses me out. I do think he's behind where he should be in terms of his engagement level, but I wonder how much that matters. I mean, he's got skill, and he's had days where he has been a monster. He scored five goals in one game in the fall and could do no wrong that day. Did that make him a better player? Not really. The next game he didn't do squat (mostly because he was pushed back out to the wing where he gets lost). I think people look at him (maybe even me included) as something of a disappointment because he has so much skill and athleticism and seemingly wastes it. He's almost 5 feet tall, weighs about 90 pounds and can abolutely kill the ball. Plus he's super-skilled and has great touch. I have some faith that one of these days he's going to turn it on and start running through walls like some of the other kids in his age group. But it's easy to lose hope as you sit on the sidelines and watch on a minute-by-minute basis.
I understand, but my best advise to you is relax, don't get too stressed out with his success or apparent lack of success. I a know this is a cliché, but the director of my son's academy likes to stress that youth development is a marathon, not a sprint, there are going to be ups and downs along the way. We all want our kids to excel, but they are just kids and they have to pretty much find their own way through this course. It sounds like your son has all the basics in place, which is great, and he just needs to mature a bit more so that he can keep his concentration through an entire game. That will come with age. Try not to make him nervous with your expectations (easier said than done, I am sure I am guilty of that), and I am sure you do, but give him lots of encouragement.
If they don't cover things in practice they will never do them in games like magic. You only take a player out of a game if they are doing something no covered in practice. Then you always tell them the reason they are comming out. If you don't they are confused as to why they left the game. I guess his coaching bozos did not know that fact. I would take a player out if he just stops running and decides to watch others play. He does that he is telling me he is tired and he wants out. If he is even just walking in the direction of the flow of play I might leave him in because you can support the play 8 yards away and you can support tge play 18 yards away. Any further back then that you can not support the play. Same is true when your team loses the ball.
My u10 son's club team sounds a lot like the dcole's. Almost all individual skill development and very little team tactics. There are lot's of skill drills and SSGs, but no full field scrimmages despite having 2 teams practice together. About the only tactic they have is for everyone to push up to support the ball, which leaves them very vulnerable to the counter attack. They have given up more goals than any other team in their division, many if not most by breakaway. They are 1-6 so far with 1 game and 1 tournament left in the season (1-9 if you count the early bird tournament) . Last night was the first time I have seen a full field practice scrimmage where they worked on team tactics, shape, positions, etc. My son might differ from dcole's in that my son is probably the most tactical player on his team, which can be frustrating to him because not many of the other players are tactical at all. He makes runs into open space for passes that never come and also looks for teammates making such runs. I am pretty sure he leads the team in assists. In fact, I can only think of one goal set up by another player's assist. If it was not an assist from my son, all other goals came on a break away or a rebound after a save. He might be one that should be more "selfish" than he is. When he is goalie, he calls for passes to be made back to him , but the pass has been made only once. His biggest weakness is tackling and challenging for 50/50 balls. I think his tactical knowledge comes from watching a lot of professional soccer, playing a lot of FIFA video games, and his rec league coach last fall taught mostly tactics (but no skills). He is also just has a high game IQ in all the sports he plays. I am OK with what the club is doing because I think it will benefit him greatly over time. I also have no other choices because they are the only club within 30 miles of our small town. Their goal is to develop players who are comfortable with the ball under pressure at the early ages. Many of the club's older teams win a lot of games once the players have developed and then learn tactics. Some of the younger teams also win a lot of games. That could be are because their coach also teaches more tactics than my son's team is taught or it could also be a talent issue as well. It can be frustrating, but I am OK with the lack of wins, although I think a couple of the other parents are bothered by it. The bottom line is my son's skill level has improved significantly in his first season of club soccer. He is having a lot of fun and is looking forward to next season.
The more I think about this topic, the more I think that my son's issue is less about tactics and more about work-rate. He's not a lazy kid. In fact, he's very active and loves to run and play sports. But he doesn't work very hard during games. Part of this is due to not understanding how to get involved due to his not being coached on tactics. Part is due to the fact that his coaches refuse to give verbal cues to keep him engaged. Part is due to the fact that he's playing in an attacking position on a team that is overwhelmed in its division due to mandatory promotion from a lower division. And maybe the biggest part is simply that he lacks a proper work rate. I've tried several approaches to jump start his work rate, including the following: 1. I've watched games with him and picked out players like Franck Ribery to watch closely and see how hard he works all game long. My son can see Ribery's work-rate and understands how valuable it is. 2. I've told him about Cruyff's quote explaining that a player only has the ball for a few minutes per game, tops, and that it's what you do when you do NOT have the ball that matters. He understands this. 3. I've explained very directly that other players work harder than him during the game and that, if he worked harder, he could be dominant. I've told him that he needs to work so hard that he can feel his heart beating and his sweat dripping, and that he should be working so hard that he literally requires being subbed out. He nods his head and seems to get it. Even with all three of these things, he still ends up standing around and watching on game days. He does not get back on defense, does not run after passing and often day dreams on the field. Any thoughts on how to get a player like this to engage? (Sorry for flogging this dead horse, but -- like all of you I'm sure -- I'm really trying to work this issue through without exposing my obsession to friends and family!)
Sounds like our club's have a similar approach and, like you, I have no problem with the approach. I understand the desire to avoid "joy-stick coaching" but I am not crazy about a silent coach for U10 games. I would appreciate it if they would help spur my son into activity. All this new-age, silent, zen-like, soccer guru stuff is going a little too far for me. There's got to be some middle ground. On to your son's tackling. I suspect he's not getting square to the tackle and is just throwing a leg out hoping to drag the ball free. This attempt to steal the ball rather than tackle it is very high-risk, high-reward, but almost never works. It's the equivalent of the defensive back trying to jump the route and make an interception, or the point guard trying for the steal. There's a really simple drill for getting a kid to understand tackling and it has pretty much instant translation into game play. Have him stand face to face with you about one foot apart with the ball on the ground between you. You say: "1, 2, 3, tackle!" On "tackle" you both tackle the ball simultaneouly. If you're doing it right, the ball should stay pretty much still. Keep doing it over and over again until you find a rhythm. Plant foot should be right next to, but very slightly behind the ball. Tackle should be performed with the inside of the foot, ankle locked, toe pointed up. Hips and shoulders should be square to the tackle. Too many little kids try to just throw a leg out without getting square to the tackle and locking their ankle. After about 50 "tackles" using this drill, he should get the point and you'll probably see his tackles become much more effective.
One v one tackling. Then how to practice winn ing 50/50 balls Make sure he is wearing shin guards. Let's talk about the stand up block tackle. It is all about timing and form not about being physical or big or even contact with the player. it is about winning the ball, then starting your teams attack. Tell player the idea is not to crash into the dribbler. The idea is to win the ball from the dribbler. You don't go for the tackle when the dribbler has close control of the ball. You do close space on the dribbler. Meaning if the dribbler is alone you close that open space within two yards of the dribbler. That alone limits the dribbler options, his view of the goal and also his passing options. Then you position your self to be ready to tackle. You get into a side ways position, and again you wait for the moment where the dribbler does not have close control of the ball. Then at that time you go for the tackle. So it is a lot about the timing of the tackle knowing when to tackle. You never go straight into the player. Your not looking to bang into him just take the ball away from him. Then you can start your teams own attack. You come in from an angle to the left or the right of the dribbler not straight into the dribbler. You tackle using only the inside of the foot with a bended knee not stiff legged. You want to hit the center of the ball so your tackling foot should be slightly off the ground with the heal down, and toes up ankle locked. It looks very similar to the form she uses for his push passes. So he hits the center of the ball, and the tackling foot follows through riding up the ball. That gives the ball top spin. You want to put top spin on the ball to help the ball go over the dribblers right or left foot depending on the angle he took. He wants to put the ball behind the dribbler off the dribblers left or right shoulder. Then you go to the ball and win the ball and start her own attack. If you don't hit the ball over the dribblers foot the first time. Immediately tackle the ball again, and keep tackling until he does win the ball. When you tackle you will hear a loud noise of your foot hitting the ball, not your foot hitting the dribbler and not the dribblers foot hitting his body. A loud noise but no one should be hurt either player. Both of you hit the ball at the same time again loud noise both neither player should be hurt because your just hitting a ball. Take a ball put it down. You come from one angle he comes from another angle you both hit the side of the ball your facing at the same time. You both will hear a loud noise, and you both will be okay. Do not turn your inside of the foot after the touch. Keep it square with the ball just like he does with the push pass. If he can't do the push pass think of it as when you putt in golf. You don't turn the face of the club immediately after the putt as your follow through you keep the face of the club in the direction you want the ball to go. The tackling foot also faces in the direction you want the ball to go. Also the non tacking foot points the direction you want the ball to go. Eye on the ball and tackle coming in from an angle, hitting the ball with the inside of your foot so it goes straight over one of the dribblers feet with your top spin follow through. You don't want to hit the ball into the dribblers body. Practice-last thing is you don't go for a tackle unless you have a team mate supporting from behind just in case you miss. Practice - once he understands that you are not making contact with the dribbler just the ball, and the foot to ball contact does not hurt she will be fine. Once he sees that he can win the ball she will be like the terminator on his tackles Good luck practice and have fun with it. -------------- Steal the bacon Play steal the bacon, and on each end play with goals. It starts with a 50/50 ball situation. One of the players wins the ball then the defender again must win the ball not just knock it away. Who ever wins ball can then attack his goal to score. You dribble the ball into the goal or make a short push pass no shooting or long passes to score want to see battles for possession. The defender can chase the dribbler and try to win the ball back and then tries to score on his goal. You get 1 v 1 tacling practice, you get making recovery efforts to win the ball back, and you get scoring practice with a defender on you. Practice good luck
When player push up into the attack. The last players have to be staggered and spaced well. Closest defender close to the ball the next defender space and furth back, next defender space and further back. So the chances are good one of your defenders will get to the ball before the attacker does. Your backs are never in a straight line. Last thing you need after that is a mobil keeper. He plays like a sweeper. The future keeper is a sweeper/keeper. His job is top gobble up through passes
I'm not sure when the right time is but if you want him to get more touches during games, you'll teach him those things that you're concerned about. Just show him clips of what the pros do to get the ball and what they do when they don't have it. Most likely, he'll start emulating those behaviors.