For those of you whose kids stopped playing other organized sports to focus on soccer, at what age did you/they make that decision? I was talking to a coach from a well respected club and he said their preference is for their players to only play soccer or, at a minimum, for their club to be the priority for any conflicts with other sports/activities. This applies even at the youngest ages. I was surprised by this since I thought the current position of US Soccer opposes specialization at such a young age.
u12 - where my daughter is at now. Prem League and IWSL League with 3 practices a week. Overall it will be 4-5 days of soccer a week. I have asked her to put her all in this season - to see if it's what she wants to do. But I want her to experience the ask. If she likes that then we move on to the ECNL. If not then we stick with league play + NPL perhaps - but I'll leave the flexability for her to to other activities. That's not to say she cannot do other activities if she chosses soccer. She can but at the dedication and cost of soccer, it will come first pending any conflicts. So far this has been the best season ever! She's even playing more with a satelite location closer to home because it's "fun".
Coaches don't want there players playing any other sports if they had their way about it. Why, other sports are considered taking training time away, and they can even miss games because of other sports. Heck, some coaches don't want their players missing even if they are going to visit GrandMa on their birthday if they might miss training or a game to do it. We also do not want kids missing for divorced families visiting the other spouse. So what did I do encourage their whole families to come to our practices and games. I even used them to help in practice. On picture day I even had us all in the team picture. Not because I am a wonderful human being. Because I wanted these kids at training and games. -------- If they are sick there sick. --------- I wanted my kids to just play the game I loved. But if their friends played other games I found it hard to tell him no. So when he wanted to play basketball in the CYO with his friends I said ok. Since I am a coach I thought I would help him train for basket ball. I know his friends and know that they played the game longer then him. But I also knew he was very athletic and is coach able. So I started to work with my oldest son now 45 yrs old. On how to start at the forward position I thought that is where he had his best chance to start. I saw a lot of players never played on that team that were on that team. He did become a starter they won the diocesan champion ship in his first year playing. He still played soccer for many teams including BW Gottshee in queens. When he hit HS still played two sports soccer on the HS team Basketball on his HS team and club at the same time. College on a soccer schorship. Now he plays softball on many different teams in different states because he travels a lot for his job as their VP it has nothing to do with sports.
From u-6 through u-10 our coaches encouraged missing practices for birthday parties, family events and religious activities. I think any club that wishes to maintain players and desires well-rounded players (people) would and should do this. The problem is that to many clubs are focused on winning - picking great teams at the point of try outs and then pushing them to dedicate themselves to the team rather than developing players and focusing on the individual and their development.
My son (now 13) dabbled with other sports (football, basketball, baseball) along with soccer until about U9/U10; all at a rec level…that’s when he/we made the jump to club/completive soccer…he was totally his decision not to play other sports at the time; he just didn’t have any interest in anything other than soccer…I actually encouraged to continue with other sports, especially basketball, but to no avail… Since hitting middle school he’s been running Track in the Spring; he loves it…any conflict with his soccer has been minimal so far…he’s missed Track Meets for soccer and he’s missed Soccer games for Track…it’s all about finding a balance…. Adults that encourage specialization, especially at an early age, are either chasing meaningless wins or long odds scholarships…
Funny I would not want my sons playing American football now. To many coaches trying to do the players thinking for them even in HS and kids sandlot. I am watching a HS game they won't the quarterback call plays on his own or call an audible at the line of scrimmage anymore from what he sees on the field. What if a receiver tells the quarterback he can eat his defender for breakfast on a down and out and go long? They can't do that either? Until later in the game after they run it by their coach. Ridiculous
On specializing on a position like the keeper. I don't want that at a young age I want all the players to learn to be field players first even if they want to be a keeper. The future of the keeper is being a sweeper/keeper. He can't do that if he doesn't have good foot skills. I don't even want young keepers to think defensive when we have the ball. I have seen keepers who want to play defensive before we lose the ball. When we break teams up to play against each other at the end of every practice I don't play with keepers. I use our keeper as field players during that time. Even when the get older I still do that. We had a keeper trainer to train our keepers. The Sweeper/keeper is like having 12 players on the field. Having enough confidence to cut off threw passes is very important in the modern game. You need timing and foot skills to play it.
[ I tend to agree with your last statement which is why I was surprised to hear this view from this particular coach. My son has played with him a few seasons (winter and summer, so not for the club) and he's not the sort of guy who's looking to fill the trophy case. He's always mixing ages at training and will often play the kids up a year for 3v3 tournaments to acclimate them to a faster game. Given he typically takes the long view with the players, I wanted to get some perspectives on whether early specialization is more prevalent than I had thought.
I think it's unfortunate that specialization is almost required even at U12. They are still only in 5th or 6th grade. But the time requirements makes it so difficult to participate in more than one sport and be a reliable and contributing member to both teams. My son likes soccer a lot, and he also likes hockey a lot. The rec level competition/training for soccer stinks, and hockey is expensive no matter whether it's rec or competitive, but at least the training is good. For my U12, we chose competitive soccer (not super high competitive) and rec hockey, with soccer being the priority. In rec hockey they have larger rosters with the assumption that there will always be a missing kid or two, and they roll the lines so all the kids play. I just hope that his teammates don't resent him for potentially being a bit unreliable, luckily hockey ramps up in January through March, which is the least time consuming part of the year for soccer.
My eldest is only 4, but based on my own experience juggling multiple sports/extra-curriculars,my suggestion would be to just let them play whatever they want as long as they want within reasonable time/budget constraints. If they are a gifted soccer player, it'll be fairly obvious by U10 and I'd discuss the pros and cons of specualization within the context of their own personal aspirations on and off the field. Same with tennis and golf where early specialization is such an advantage at the highest levels. For basketball, football, & baseball, you don't need to specialize -- I know kids who played all 3 in HS and did fine, some even earning college scholarships.
I let my daughte's make the decision; we have a 5 and 8 year old. The 8 year old preferred to spend the summer focusing on soccer camps and clinics and wants to continue spending the majority of her time on soccer, but will still do a day/week on dance, rock climbing, and gymnastics. A lot of our time will also be spent on skiing/snowboarding once the snow starts to fly. Soccer has certainly become her preference; basketball went out the window this year and I think dance will be next, but expect her continue with gymnastics. Our 5 year old says she doesn't want to do soccer right now so, rather than forcing it, she wants to focus on dance (ballet). I suspect soccer will make a return in a year or two but, if it doesn't, whatever. I had to be real careful with our oldest to make sure it was her decision and that she wasn't just trying to please dad to make sure she doesn't get burned out, but the kid wants to play soccer 4-5x/week regardless of how much I try and talk her into other activities. My opinion, let the kids make the decision. I know every night when she begs me to go play 1v1 for hours on end in the backyard that she isn't getting burnt out.
@VolklP19 @P.W. @miketd1 i think you guys make some excellent points in being skeptical about specialization in soccer among kids. The more that a kid has going on in their life the more well rounded they will be and its probably better in general for kids to just have fun until they are in their teens before specializing son that they have an idea of whats out there. However, if this country wants players like Messi and Ronaldo and other world class players, it is crucial that these kids be immersed in the game at a young age. In order to be the best of the best at anything sacrifices are going to have to be made and theirs no two ways about it. The top players are always thinking about soccer, they get so many more touches on the ball, hence they become more creative, and commit early on to being the best at what they do. In saying this, im not saying that this concludes that kids should specialize at a certain age. 'When to Specialze' is too much of a general question. Perhaps it should be expanded to 'When to specialize in order to be an MLS pro' or 'When to specialize in order to be the elite of the elite'.
Yes I agree "immersed in the game at a young age"... Which is why my kid went to the best coach I could find with a proper program to back that up in terms of growth, developing a passion and providing for competitive opportunities. That's really all one can do at the ages of 6-10 IMO. You cannot push it as a parent but you can guide and support you player in a positive manner. In this country, I see the big issue with club/travel soccer is that is does not enough to build passion. Of course every kid may not grow to love the sport - but many can becuase it's really not just about the sport. The sport is the vehicle that helps them build bonds/relationships, confidence in themselves which leads to positive perseption of themselves and a willingness to take risks and try something different or new. Team building eventually comes in and with that social skills based on events (wins/loses) get developed. In the right environment - regardless of what sport it may be, a child can get a whole lot more than trophies and bragging rights. I think we've turned a corner - more clubs are realizing in order to retain players at a younger age, they have to build this passion over the concept of using wins as a baseline to keep parents paying. Long way to go however. But still - even immersed, the younger ones should experince other sports to at the very least, preclude injury from over use of muscles and so on.
I too would agree immersion is a key factor… However, that immersion can be natural and organic; or it can be forced and dictated… Although maybe/hopefully, we have turned a corner in this country…I still cringe at how adult forced and adult dictated this “immersion” ends up being in practice in many cases, especially when talking about 6-10 year olds…
I'm curious about when you think a player should focus on keeper or at least spend significant time on it. My son's u12 team still uses a bunch of different kids at keeper, with widely varying results (a couple are pretty good, others much less so). And practice time at keeper (scrimmages, ...) is a free-for-all with all kinds of kids jumping in, including kids who want no part of keeper in a game. It's a minor source of frustration for some of the parents (me among them) who'd rather see the two or three kids who have some aptitude and interest back there getting all the game and practice time (they would still get field time, too, since none would be a FT keeper). Of course, it's the coach's call (and he's a good coach). None of us are going start offering him advice on it.
The problem with utilizing a couple full-time or even “semi”-part time keepers at such a young age is it essentially “locks” them into that position going forward…once you start down that keeper path it’s very hard to go back to being a field player, at least at a comparable competitive level…their field player teammates will simple out pace and out develop them… Whereas size isn’t the only factor when it comes to keeper, it certainly is a factor…having great technical keeper skills and experience, but only being 5 foot nothing at 16, doesn’t bode well for anyone’s long term prospects at keeper… Even if they end up having the minimal size requirement, specializing too early can cause their foot skills to be underdeveloped…which will also hurt them in the long run… The onset of puberty is really the time to start thinking about specializing…any time before that is a crap-shoot and can be really, really unfair and unfortunate to the kids who do… On my son u14/15 team, we have 2 full time keepers, who have been full time for at least the last 4 years…unfortunately, their height is starting to be an issue/liability…one seems to be growing a bit, the other shows no sign of it…both are in danger of being replaced next season…and I can’t really see them staying with the team as meaningful field players…
Exactly. My daughter got locked in as goalie at u9 (only girl who didn't refuse playing it) and it killed her development. It took a solid year and outside training to get her back to speed.
On keeper specialization, which is a perennially controversial subject, here are a few thoughts I have based on 14 years coaching rec and rec plus (tournament and all star) soccer teams and 8 years being involved with and managing mid and high-level club teams (with professional coaches), plus having one son who started playing GK early, one who played a little early only because he was willing and he was the coach's son and then played again for part of a season of HS when he was a little dinged up and they were desperate, and two others who wanted nothing to do with the position. I've coached or managed teams from U5 to U19. Consider the following three scenarios at ages 9-13 (since few play GK exclusively at 6-8 and many play GK exclusively at 14-18): 1. A kid who wants nothing to do with playing GK: If your kid doesn't want to play GK at all, then they shouldn't play it except if the team is rotating everyone through goal. Even if they are good at it, by all means don't let them get pigeon-holed in the position. That's true even if they are better at GK than on the field and they will be sitting on the bench otherwise. Find a team more appropriate to their level if possible rather than force them to play GK when they don't want to do it. Make sure they know not to ever volunteer that they can play GK when they are trying out for a new team. Playing GK on a regular or semi-regular basis when the kid doesn't want to do it will spoil the sport for them. I take it no one disagrees with this, although there are some who don't think you should even put a kid in the rotation in an "everyone takes a turn" system if it's going to be traumatic for them and I have definitely made concessions in some situations. 2. A kid who likes playing GK, but also wants to play on the field: This is the tough case. Frankly, the kids who do this often end up being weaker at both positions and I have seen several leave the sport early even though they showed great promise early on (in part because the reason they were good at both is because they were a bit more athletic than the other kids on the team). Both positions require great technical skills and they usually underdevelop both of them. It doesn't have to be this way though. There is absolutely no reason that playing a half in GK should stunt a kid's growth on the field as long as they play the other half of the game on the field, they attend two practices a week and play on the field 75% of the time at practice, they do skills training on their own or at the club's optional Friday skills clinics, they attend a summer soccer camp as a field player, and they go at least every other week to the club's separate GK training practice with a GK coach or they do private training in lieu of the club skills training and/or the club GK training. The reality is that most of the kids who do the split GK/Field play aren't committed to either (they often just want to be in the team with their friends or to be on a top team), which means their parents aren't committed to either and the result is that they don't do much more than go to their team practices and maybe occasionally a GK session. That's not the end of the world (soccer isn't everything), but it's not surprising they fall behind their peers. 3. A kid who wants to play GK full-time. This is what people often mean when they ask about specializing, but those who flatly reject it are usually thinking about the first or second scenarios. I'm talking about a kid who wants you to shoot on him all the time, who begs to play GK in the game before there are full-time GK's or who always wants to get to practice early and asks other kids to shoot on him. These are kids who tryout as GK's and, although they might say they are willing to play on the field if needed, their first choice is GK. Do you let them be a full-time GK at 9 or 10? Arguments that this will harm the development of foot skills and field awareness, while worth consideration, are not inevitable. If they play 75% of the time in practices on the field (e.g., warmups, drills, 5 v 2's etc), go to their club's skills training, work on juggling etc on their own, and watch a lot of soccer without being prompted, they do just fine. If they play on the yard at school and/or for their school team, even better. Add on to that the club's GK training sessions once a week and a private GK trainer and/or agility trainer once a week and both a field player soccer camp and a GK specialized soccer camp over the summer, and they will be great. Of course, that means that your kid and their parents are REALLY into being a GK and into soccer generally and they want to play all the time. Overuse is not really an issue (or anymore an issue than for field players) because the muscles and skills used for GK are so different than that used for a field player most of the time that it's like playing two different sports. Sure there is a possibility that they will physically underdevelop and not be able to continue as a GK after puberty, but if they've been doing the other stuff with the ball work etc, they can be fine. Is there a possibility they can't stay on the team because they aren't as skilled five years later and they haven't grown into being a keeper with a full-size goal? Yes, but most (and I mean more than 50%) of kids in every position quit before high school and if a kid wants to play GK now, why deny him pleasure now because he might want to keep playing five years from now and might want to stay on this team. So, the real question I ask parents and kids (and I asked myself when one of my kids really wanted to play GK at an early age) is how passionate is he about doing it and how committed are the parents to supporting that passion. In other words, if the kid isn't going to do skill work on his own or with the club, doesn't really watch the game on TV, and just wants to play GK because he likes to get dirty and he doesn't like to run very much, then try to delay starting for awhile until he is a little bit more mature to understand what the position really entails. If the kid, however, understands that he needs to work on both parts of the game and, as a GK, he will have to essentially do twice the training of other players, and he looks excited at that prospect, then he's ready.
Great post… Actually #3 has to be broken down to two kids, which you have somewhat done…but just to be clear… 3a. A kid who wants to plays GK full-time and is willing to put in the time and effort to mitigate the risks of specializing so youth, along with parents that support those efforts (with their time and money). 3b. A kid who wants to plays GK full-time but isn’t willing to put in the time and effort to mitigate the risks of specializing so youth, and/or doesn’t have parents that understand or support those required extra efforts. My guess there are far more 3b kids running around then there are 3a kids… Like you say controversial subject… If you look at it objectively, academically, best practice wise, it’s hard to justify specializing so early…too many ifs, buts, and hoops to jump through to even get to the point where it might be ok… However, looking at it more as a parent who just wants their kid to have fun and enjoy themselves…what the hell….it’s just soccer; a sport 99% will never play competitively past high school, if they even make it that far…
[QUOTE 2. A kid who likes playing GK, but also wants to play on the field: This is the tough case. Frankly, the kids who do this often end up being weaker at both positions and I have seen several leave the sport early even though they showed great promise early on (in part because the reason they were good at both is because they were a bit more athletic than the other kids on the team). Both positions require great technical skills and they usually underdevelop both of them. It doesn't have to be this way though. There is absolutely no reason that playing a half in GK should stunt a kid's growth on the field as long as they play the other half of the game on the field, they attend two practices a week and play on the field 75% of the time at practice, they do skills training on their own or at the club's optional Friday skills clinics, they attend a summer soccer camp as a field player, and they go at least every other week to the club's separate GK training practice with a GK coach or they do private training in lieu of the club skills training and/or the club GK training. The reality is that most of the kids who do the split GK/Field play aren't committed to either (they often just want to be in the team with their friends or to be on a top team), which means their parents aren't committed to either and the result is that they don't do much more than go to their team practices and maybe occasionally a GK session. That's not the end of the world (soccer isn't everything), but it's not surprising they fall behind their peers. .[/QUOTE] My son right now falls squarely in option 2- Is a U10, and plays on the top level team for his club. The club did offer goalie tryouts for the 2017 season, but because we did not want him to get placed based on his ability to play goalie, we did not do the goalie tryout portion.- Loves playing goalie- but is also an above average field player right now. On his team the coach has everyone play goalie at least one half per season, after that he rotates through the players more interested in goal. We attend all of the club offered goalie training unless it is in conflict with his team practice. Our concern with him as mentioned above is in 5 years he may not meet the physical requirements for the position, right now he is the shortest on the team, but also one of the youngest. My thinking is even if he ends up not playing goalie as he gets older, the extra practice and on the ball training he receives doing goalkeeper work is beneficial, especially since (and this ties into the OP) he only plays soccer on a serious level. We do other sports in the back yard, and he generally excels at all sports related activities, as he is very athletic, but his focus is soccer. Financially it is all we can commit to for a season.
There's no concrete answer here. If you are worried about elite development, then yes, you probably have to wait until puberty or at least look at the parents stature to determine which players will have the physical attributes to play keeper at a high level. That being said some players and parents play soccer because it is fun and could care less about development. If that kid thinks keeper in the most fun position and has no interest in playing the field, I'm not going to stop them. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Agreed. I look for passion and maturity. If a kid is passionate about playing GK, no reason to deny them that. Most kids who seem to like GK at a young age, however, just think it's really cool to dive in the dirt a lot. They like it in drills where they are getting shot on a lot, but aren't so excited in the games where they touch the ball only a couple of times. They probably aren't ready. In other words, it isn't an age thing, but a player maturity and commitment thing. One misconception is that the separate GK training ignores foot skills. Any GK coach worth his or her salt (and most aren't, to be fair) is going to incorporate foot skills in many, if not all, drills. E.g., they get a pass from another GK, have to pass it back to that kid or shift their hips and switch field and pass it to a GK on the other side, and then shuffle their feet back to the middle to be in position for a shot. Another example is the GK coach delivers a ball on the ground to them with two other GKs bearing down on them like strikers and they either have to deal with it like a breakaway (which gives the GKs imitating strikers practice being strikers since they try to get and dribble the ball to shoot around or over the onrushing GK) or the coach will yell "backpass" and the GK has to quickly decide whether to push it to the right for a pass to a GK imitating a Right Back, to the left for a GK imitating a LB or to the center to the GK coach (splitting the attackers). These drills often don't allow the GK to select the "boot the ball" option, which is an attempt to get them to think more like a sweeper-keeper and maintain possession.
When my kids were U-little, they played soccer during fall-winter, baseball in winter-spring and basketball during the summer. Its really good to develop all different coordination skills. My older son, who just committed to one of the top academic universities to play soccer next year, chose to focus on soccer at U13. How we got here is basically a natural selection of his desires to want to excel and his preference for faster game. From U6~U9, he played rec soccer, baseball and basketball. At U10, he moved to club soccer and travel baseball, while playing rec basketball. The complication was that both were essentially a year around commitments. There were many times where we had a soccer tournament and a baseball tournament on the same weekend. I recall having to carry uniforms for both and my son changing in the car while going from one field to anther, then to change again to go back to the other event. He continue to play travel ball until we did the Cooperstown Dreams Park summer tournament (its a nationally known 12U tournament). He quit baseball thereafter. I would have predicted that he would have quit soccer before baseball early in his life, as he was a really good middle infielder and a contact hitter, but the game was simply too slow for him. As for basketball, our gene pool simply would not set him up for a great success. He's currently 5-10 and probably done. He understood the limitation and never gave it a serious consideration. So I believe kids will pick the right sport for themselves that they'll excel at, if you let them. He wanted to play forward as a soccer player and has always played in an attacking position (mid sometimes but mostly as a forward or winger, depending on the formation used). He has stayed true to his desires and has succeeded thus far, including his understanding with the coach for how and where he fits next year at college level.
this is always an argument between me and my wife. daughter is 9, she likes to play keeper. her team has two, and we are pretty upset, the half each game she is not in goal, she plays maybe 2-4 minutes (out of 25 ). there are a lot of girls on the team (14, they expanded before they took a player off). Coach claims she plays more than most because she is in goal an entire half each game. Does not understand (tried to explain to him) that time in goal is not like time in the field, MUCH less action. Also, 60% of each practice is a half field scrimmage, two keepers alternating, seems like a waste of time for them, mostly standing around. worst of all is little to no coaching of the defense or GKs in the scrimmage, just offense, offense offense. D and GKs are pretty much just sparring partners. even tells defense they must keep ball in play (to avoid offense wasting time chsing down a ball kicked far down the field or far out of bounds). no 6 kicks, no throw ins, just play and score. how do I get my daughter the practice she needs in goal, as well a sthe practice and game time she needs to develop in the field. She is not best player on her team, but not the worst, probably in the lower end of uppr half of team (ie middle of the road). Even in blowouts (4+ goal leads, most games, team is under flighted), no change to positions or playing time.
You probably don't want to hear this but playing in goal is field time. EVERY team I now through younger to olders, if there are 2 full time GKs, each plays a half and NO field time other than in goal. Occasionally, a GK may get to go onto a field (almost always as forward) just give a field player a rest. It is not unusual for U10 player to be a dedicated GK but there are many that play GK and also play field position. It just depends on a kid. So you kid is getting 50%+ playing time. Your coach's accounting is correct and consistent with all other coaches. As for you not liking the practices and how GKs are not trained, you have a point. Most successful clubs (at least in our area) have goal keeper training done by a dedicated GK coach outside the regular team practices. It does require you to attend the 3rd practice a week. At the end of the day, if you don't like it, change it. It is a business relationship between you and the club. Find another club and a coach to place your kid. Just make sure you select the coach and not the club. Make sure that you like his training and ask around for the coach's reputation.