When to specialize?

If soccer is just about having fun, and your daughter is having fun in her current situation, then you don’t need to do anything…just enjoy that she is having fun…

However, if you are looking beyond just having fun to any degree, I think you know the path she is currently on is far from ideal; I am not going to cast aspersions on a coach I don’t know; I am sure he means well….but something needs to change…

Experience in goal at that age is worth next to nothing, especially if there is no actual GK coaching taking place along with it….whereas, lost time on the field is irreplaceable…

I don’t know what that answer is…whether it’s changing the situation on her current team, playing with a 2nd team where she's stickily a field player, or finding a new coach/team/club altogether with a better training system toward their keepers….I don’t know what your options are, but I would start looking for them…

 

this is still U10 (2007), way too early to specialize in my opinion, even just to one sport, let alone a position. how does she develop her field skills if she does not play in the field at all? Can other people say whether that is normal at U10? If it is, goodbye discouraging player unfriendly travel soccer, hello travel softball.

you tell a girl who spends 23 minutes of the 25 minutes in the game at GK leaning against the goal post (because her team is underflighted, winning by 4-6 goals every game except one 1-0 game, they spend 75 of the time within 20 yard of the other teams goal) that it is the same. and they are usually up 4 or 5 goals by half (25 minutes), and spend the rest of the game playing "corners", not even playing for possession (ie a player gets it, and kicks it as harda s they can towards their offensive corner, mostly goes out of bounds, coach has never tried to correct this to play keep a way at least, to build skills).

I have NEVER seen any team say U11 or younger where kids who play keeper ONLY play keeper. Absurd. this is not ultra elite level, this is travel, but very middle of the road. If it is not fun, kids will not play, and watching your team destroy the other team from 30 yards away is not fun. and the other keeper, who is slightly better field playeer than my girl I will say, but not all that much so, definitely plays at least 8-10 minutes in the field in the half she is not GK.

I thought youth sports was about developing players? 9 years old is way too young to know what sport these girls will be playing, if any, in 5 years, let alone a position. Pigeonholing players at this age to me is just poor coaching. this coach all but one game, every player has played the same position all year. the one game he swapped his front lines with his back lines for the game, except for my daughter (what little field team she has gotten all year was at center back), she still played back line.

and I am normally loathe to criticize a volunteer youth sports coach, as I am one myself.

If he at least ran productive practices, maybe I could take it a little easier, but he is not developing her GK or field skills really. scrimmaging for GK is pretty much a waste of time, again, lots of standing around. out of a 90 minute practice earlier this week, she was active possibly 15 minutes. but he thinks he is a genius because his severely underflighted team is undefeated.

 

Three things:

1) if you want the kid to develop as a field player, don't go into GK role - simple. Clearly other players are not playing as a goalie since there are only two of you that rotate into goal.

2) I don't know what "travel soccer" is. Not a term used in my area. Travel ball - yes. My kid played club soccer and travel baseball until he was 12 yrs old. Is travel soccer a rec team that goes to some out of town tournaments? At a competitive soccer scene around us (southern CA), goalies do specialize early. More do than not. Yet, many goalies at an older ages were field players until U12 or so, early commitment to the position doesn't mean much.

3) Nobody cares about winning at youngers, except the players and parents. No college coach is going to think highly of winning record at U10...

 

Andy, don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel…just kidding…

Seriously, as I suspected, you already have strong opinions regarding this matter…and for what is worth, I think you are absolutely correct to have the concerns you do…

Just few words of caution:

If you don’t think that kind of stuff goes on in other sports, like travel softball, think again. Unfortunately, it’s a common problem across many sports. Let’s not disparage one sport over another just because of one bad coach/situation.

You are not the determiner of “fun”…your daughter is. Despite your frustrations and concerns, she very well be having a blast! I have seen too parents project their unhappiness on to blissfully unware kids…it also sounds like your wife might see things a little differently than you do…

With that said, tread lightly. By all means, look to change the situation or for other options altogether, but do so quietly, calmly. Most kids, who have played any length of time, have suffered under a bad coach or two…it’s not the end of the world; most survive it and move on to better situations, with little ill effect…

 

On having a player just playing a back. If he is going to play a back in practice he has to do all the attacking things the rest of the team is doing. In other words even as a back he has to be a dangerous player when his team has the ball.

If not he will not last as a player playing a back when he gets older.

Now most backs at higher levels were attacking players when they were younger not just a back.

My oldest started as a striker, an offensive mid and a wing mid before he started to play the center back and a wing back on adult club teams and in college.

Just before he went to collect the coach wanted him to be a center back and or a wing back. He already had his attacking players. He sent him a paper on how he wanted to play the positions when he got there. My son would not even read it. He told me he knows how to play both positions. I told him he has to play his coaches way not his way.

I told him keep it in the bathroom and read when you had to take a dump.

So that what he did. I pass his room and I use his bathroom to take a piss. I start to read the pamphlet. Holy cow I said to myself did this guy every play the game?

I told my son I read it I asked him if he read it. He said yes I told him when you get their play your way and make a believer out of him.

Well he did that and he made a believer out of that coach. In his 4 years of college he was the fourth leading scorer on those teams.

 

Out of curiosity, why did he play for, and you allow him to play for coach that 'knows nothing?"

Was it a matter of he chose the school that happened to have a soccer team or was it his plan to play soccer and he chose that school?

 

she wants to play goal, but also wants to play in field. 9 years old is way too young to pigeonhole a girls into a position. and she is good in goal as well. but she gets bored, team is not playing equal competition. she normally plays second half in net, and after a first half with <2 minutes on field, she leans against goalpost scowling for second half. we try to encourage her to keep her head in game when she is in goal, but it is hard.

pretty much decided we are leaving team at end of fall season. coach called last night asking if we were "taking her away from him", I was not home, wife was very non commital (which is perfect). blowing smoke like mad, overpraising her (she is good athlete, not the athlete he was describing).

as far as the comparison to other sports, i know of no softball coach who would (at 9 yr old level) tell one of the specialists in softball (ie P and C) that they would see no time in other positions, could not practice other positions (while not really practicing the specialist position either), not get at bats, etc.

guy is basically just a jerk. she is not only player to get severely limited playing time. another girl, has in about 2 games played less than 5 minutes each game ( and she is not the other GK). and after last game, where he know we severely outclassed team, he had his normal front line play back and vice versa, and the "star" who normally played center forward pouted entire time, and her mother stomped away and sat in car (this girl has scored about 80% of our goals this year, really big leg/foot). of course, you can guess the only player who normally plays back line that did nto get frontline time, my daughter, mostly because none of the normal frontliners have any idea how to play defense, and she does (of course they really have not much idea how to play period, other than kick hard, dribble through players by kicking it hardeer than them and being hyperaggressive, but this is not their fault). team still won 7-1 (more than 6 goal differential in our league gets the coaches a fine per goal), 1 goal against was off a PK, my daughter made PK save, team stood by and watched after that. mom was complaining the other night to another parent (the one who in a few games has played almost none at all), and other mom went off on her. this coach is now going to see what the result of trying to please everyone is, no one will be pleased. he has blown so much smoke up everyone's backside he basically has no credibility left.

this guy has never taught about a wall, how to defend a corner, etc.

trouble is not a lot of teams in our area, may not have other options, at least in spring (not all clubs play in spring).

sorry if I ramble, really need to vent, or I may not be able to control myself at next game. as it is I (and my wife) sit away from most everyone (when daughter is GK, we move down towards that end), and say no more than absolutely necessary (normally zero) to the coach, his wife, or the AC.

to me coaching youth sports is a privelige, parents are entrusting their children to you, looking for you to develop them. failure to develop a player is the worst thing a coach in youth sports can do, and W/L means nothing compared to this. Coaching softball, I have had one winning season out of four, and I considered all of them a uccess, because the team as a whole and almost every player developed from start to finish. this guy has had most of these girls over a year now, almost all of them are exactly the same player they were when he started.

 

For purposes of this post, I'm defining "specializing in soccer" as playing soccer to the exclusion of all other organized sports.

First, I see no point in specializing in soccer unless (1) you simply like soccer so much that it's the only sport you want to play or (2) your goal is to play D1 or professional soccer. If neither (1) nor (2) applies, then forget about specializing and just play as many sports as you enjoy playing.

If you do want to play D1 or professional soccer, I would say that 13-14 years old is the time to specialize. Several reasons for this:

1. Specializing in soccer before age 13-14 may lead to burn out that may hit before or after age 18.

2. Specializing in soccer before age 13-14 may lead to repetitive stress injuries like foot, ankle, knee, hip or back issues that may hit before or after age 18.

3. Specializing in soccer before age 13-14 overly limits your exposure to other sports that can improve your coordination, balance, spatial awareness, field sense, creativity and general athleticism.

4. Specializing in soccer after age 14 makes it very hard to play on the kind of top-level, year-round team that you need to play on in order to face top competition and be seen by scouts at prestigious tournaments. Keep in mind that colleges are recruiting earlier and earlier these days, and by age 17 you're highly unlikely to get a D1 offer if you don't already have one.

My oldest son is 13 years old (8th grade) and plays three sports: soccer, lacrosse and swimming. I believe that he is talented enough to play any of these three sports at the college level, but he enjoys all of them too much to give any of them up. For soccer, that decision not to specialize will likely doom his chances to play D1 due to #4 above. I seriously doubt he will regret his decision though.

 

she is definitely not happy, she has said so, and it is evident in other ways as well. Pretty much decided that we are moving on once season is over (Thanksgiving weekend tournament is end of fall season). Coach is asking if we are "taking her away from him", blowing smoke up our buts about how good she is (I have no illusions there), etc. I am not thinking D1 sports or scholarships, etc. Just want her to have fun, develop, and compete (healthy competition, where you do your best and learn to accept losing as well as winning). we pretty much told him she is not playing indoor with team (this is outside of the organization this team is part of, but most indoor teams in area are based on club teams, and in fact the facilities running the leagues register teams, not individuals). we are going to get her training, how much depends on if she swims or not (neither time nor $ is unlimited).

typical practice last night. scrimmage for about 60-70 of the 90 min practice. time not scrimmaging was spend 6 or so girls (B group) doing some dribbling and passing, while he walked A group through how he wantes offense run, no defense in front of them. My daughter and one other girl alternated in net, and she did actually get to practice in field last night since several others were missing. The scrimmage is a done on half field with one net, so basically it is A group vs B group (6 players each side), and focus is all on A group, when A group is attempting to score, he coaches them. When A group is on defense, he pretty much is silent, because he does not teach defense. And team on defense is often times told to "keep it in play", so offense can keep practicing, rather than boot it and have offense have to go chase to restart (unless of course it is girl in A group with hardest kick on the team, she routinely boots onto other half of field where another team is practicing, but nothing is said).

this is part of her frustration, she gets hung out to dry because no one knows how to defend. examples are the two goals from the last game. One, she called keeper, was in perfect position to pick up ball, backliner on her team boots it over the end line anyway. ensuing corner resulted in a PK for a handball in the box. girl who takes PK banks it off crossbar into net, everyone including my daughter knows she had no chance at it, but she is devastated all the same. other goal she let up, she again is hung out to dry, no one even attempts to get back, shot off the post, travelling straight along goal line about 3 feet off the ground. since she knows know one is there, she tries to catch it it, rather than just deflect it out, ends up taking it across goal line as she is juggling it between left and right hands. certain of these girls get beat, the just turn and watch the other team go towards their defensive goal (not forwards, backliners), because they truly do not want to play backline (because he has put so much emphasis on scoring above all other aspects), mostly same ones who are offsides at least 6 or 7 times a game each (not always called, because they don't pass much, because they all want to score). of course this was their first loss, and he is talking about protesting formally, because he did not like the PK call or the goal call (from sideline 1/3 of the field away, he is certain it did not cross line, my daughter acknowledged privately to my wife that it probably did). I may not have like the calls either, but it seems he has not learned one of the things youth sports is (in my mind supposed to teach, that is accepting that you cannot always win, sometimes you lose. And youth sports referees have a hard enough time as it is, and they are human, they make mistakes. no one's life, career, or even scholarship is on the line because of a few missed calls, and I am certain except in some really far out cases, youth sports referees go out of their way to be impartial, even if they have personal feelings about a team/player/coach.

another game, we just score a goal, one of the other teams players takes a knee, he had already gathered up our team, prior to getting in position for kickoff, circles team up, and does their normal cheer, 1-2-3 win. we were up 4 nothing at this point already, they just had a player injured , and he is still focused only on winning. when we get to 6 goal limit , he calls for the team to play corners, which to most of them means you move ball into other team's half, and kick it towards corner. and they have won at least a dozen games in past year by this margin. you think he could coach them to play for possession, not just boot the ball out of bounds any chance they get.

I do not know soccer well enough to coach, but I know coaching young girls well enough to know how to get players to want to do other things than score (awards each game for best defense, best positioning, best passing, most potential assists, etc., with NO award for scoring goals, I used to single out in softball the girls who did the best job backing up plays each game, even if they never touched the ball, to keep them motivated to do it, even if 9 out of 10 times it was unnecessary) I figured this out in about 4 games last fall. But they continued to hand out certificates each game to 2 or 3 girls per game, the ones scoring goals, was pretty much same 4 or 5 girls all year. At least they figured out this was horrible for team spirit, but it took an entire season, and pretty much half the girls wandering off when they did it, because they knew they had no change at getting a certificate.

I have great respect for anyone who volunteers their time to coach youth sports, and know the work and sacrifice involved, but you have to have priorities in order, otherwise may be doing more harm than good. winning, going undefeated, etc. should not be a priority during the season for U10 sports. Player development over winning, every time.

I try very hard to read or something during practice, but I find myself paying attention just to try to give her some positive reinforcement (if you are not part of A group, it is very unlikely to come from coach, probably because he did not notice). "nice save", "good stop", "way to be aggressive", "good left". Last is more reinforcement of his poor coaching, my daughter may not be best player on team, but her left foot is certainly among the top 5, because we work on it outside of practice, and I force her to user her left, and she does it in the games as well if given a chance. they never are forced to use left in practice (drills or scrimmages), and most of the time in games, left wing gets ball, they have to stop and reposition ball and/or themselves to use their right to shoot or center. most can dribble and tackle somewhat with their left, but that is it, no passing.

And when I talk specializing, this coach seems to think it is OK to limit her to just GK, and that the half she is not GK each game, she should be grateful with the 2-5 minutes she gets on the field. golden girls on team easily get 40-45 minutes (14 on team, this is 7v7) per 50 minute game. I mean if our other GK, I would of course have no problem with her only playing GK, but for the entire season, they each get one half. and other GK normally will start 2nd half, and play at least 10 of the 25 minutes. I too think it is way to early at U10 to specialize in one sport, but this coach thinks they should be focusing on one position at this age, let alone play several sports. girls have mostly played same positions in field entire year. one game he switched front and back lines, except my daughter, who when in normally plays center backline, but for some reason was the only girl who normally plays backline to not play forward.

 

Our son has had some great coaches who understood the importance of playing other sports, but soccer was always his first priority by choice. And that singular focus has given him an edge, but it came from him, not us.

Unfortunately, the trend in many sports seems to be towards specialization at younger and younger ages with no clear end goal. I think if your child's goal is to make an Academy team, specializing earlier helps, but if your child is not a standout talent and doesn't have the drive and focus to play at the most competitive levels, then I think specializing is hurtful. Also, many athletes enjoy playing multiple sports; it seems a shame to limit them.

Personally, I worry about overuse injuries, especially during early adolescence when kids are growing quickly. Playing multiple sports throughout the year can help prevent those types of injuries.

Ultimately, I would go with whatever the player wants to do. I tried to get my son to play other sports, and he did for a bit, but he prefers soccer above all else.

 

Mine was the same, never had any interest in playing any other sport competitively.

 

Coaches should mix up player positions until about U15/U16

 

Maybe for non-serious players. For serious players, each position has such nuances and require tactical knowledge on the field without the ball that to be competitive, the player has to focus in certain position by the time U15.

Can a player play without tactical knowledge - yes. Can a player make a competitive club team - maybe, depends on the technical abilities, size and speed. Can a player be a consistent starter and a good position player on a very competitive team - not without having spent significant time in a given position, or at least in set of attacking or defending positions.

The problem with generalized statements is that it may be good for some percentage of examples but not others. So it all depends, in this case, how good and competitive a player wants/is to be.

 

The posts above pretty much sum it up. On a college visit in the last week the soccer coach asked my son what other sports he played growing up and when he stopped.

Part of it is the mix of rec, school and club sports. You can play rec basketball in the winter even if club soccer plays indoor. The rec leagues tend not to have a ton of practices, everybody plays and if your son/daughter is a good soccer player they will be more athletic than most of the kids. Ditto for Little League. School teams practice right after school, have short seasons etc but usually expect you to make all practices and games.

I agree with the U12/U13 range where the rec leagues lose the "just wanted a t-shirt" kids and expectations for attendance increase thus decisions have to be made. Finances and siblings should be considered too.

As for 9 year-olds playing keeper. My two cents is no 9 year old should be playing keeper exclusively. Kids grow and develop speed etc. throughout puberty and you want your player to have the most opportunities possible. Now, if the mom or dad are very tall and were good GK, basketball, volleyball players themselves I can understand some focus on the position for the long run. But I've seen plenty of 5'9" male keepers end up cut or on the JV/ B team because it was all they could play and they were never going to fit the mold.

Flute was a 5'9" QB but I wouldn't suggest that path for all short kids. One of my kids played for a coach who rotated every player through GK every half of every game. Theory being, nobody should be back there all the time at u8-u10 and they all could use some appreciation for how position is played, how field players often are the reasons for goals against and why players need to get back on D and be ready for outlets. Lastly, no 9 year old should go home feeling like they were they reason the team lost, too much GK time and kids can start to relate playing with the feeling of being responsible for the loss. (teammates and parents can be cruel)

 

Don't force them to specialize. They'll become bitter and demotivated. My son alternates between rec basketball in summer and winter and soccer in the spring and fall. He has done some programs with the Elite Training Academy and the Legacy club and is still the best on the field despite not training with them or being a year round member. He learns the skills on his own time, by himself, in the backyard, and probably puts in twice the time as the club kids that only play when they are shuttled to their organized practices where all they teach is skills. They don't teach leadership, Xs and Os, or even keep the same teams for cohesion and roles. So we work on leadership and Xs and Os in our own time. Skills are important, but if you already have them, specialization and expensive training seem like a waste of time and money at this age (U9). He really hasn't gotten much if anything out of the high level training when we have gone. He is learning more in rec right now because he can work on leadership and building a power base within the team. When we have done club programs, teams were different every week and even changes during the course of individual games and all the players want to be individual heroes. He has about 5 clubs that are bugging me 24/7 to recruit him and I know he it won't benefit much at this age and he'll resent it this summer if he isn't playing basketball.