It seems to me that a kid just can't get 100% of their development at in a club atmosphere. They would not be able to get individualized training there. Of course, they will get some good training, but it's just that the coach isn't going to (doesn't have the time to) really drill down into specific problems areas for each kid. The club is a great place for fitness, for fundamentals training, for team training. Do you agree? Are there skills that you felt if your kid was going to improve on, they would have to do it on their own or get a personal trainer?
I would disagree that the club trainings are a great place for fitness and conditioning. That is primarily done at home (with trainers, etc.). We've used personal soccer training from time to time, but that's primarily to work on footskills. We also have had our kids go to separate group footskill sessions in the past, both ones that were run by the club and independent ones.
I've said this here and there in this forum elsewhere, but I'd also toss some training balls and even tennis balls out around the house and encourage him to use them as he sees fit -- dribble, juggle, strike them in places where he can't break things (deflate them a bit if you're worried), ... Do this to the extent the family can tolerate it -- my wife loves soccer and is a saint, so this worked and to some degree still works around our house. It'll really help the foot skills and comfort level with the ball. This, for me anyway, also falls in the same lane as pickup soccer -- just fun with the ball rather than more formal training, instruction, ... I've known people who also get outside training to improve speed/quickness and agility, and we've considered it, but I wouldn't look at that until they're older and you have a better idea of what your child matures to be and, if they're still active in sports and enjoying it, whether it might help.
If you could sum up what % of development happens in the club vs outside of it, what would those %'s be? My guess is something like 65% club, 35% non-club.
Good point. I think my son was around 12 when we first had him go for one-on-one training. He also would start going with my wife and I for personal weight training around 13 or 14.
It's been said, here and elsewhere, regardless of how much the parents are spending/how many letters are in your league name, if the player is only touching the ball at practice, they're playing recreational soccer...
At younger ages (U12 and below), when soccer isn't so all encompassing yet, training outside of practice is even more essential. They need touches all the time. They do not need to be with a personal trainer. Backyard, park, or street, set up a mini goal or two and dribble back and forth, practice shooting, kick the ball off a wall, whatever. If you are a dad or mom, play keeper or defender. You don't need to be a great soccer player to figure out how to get in the way of your child with the ball. Make them work for it.
One thing that worked well for my kid for years was a backyard trampoline with the net all around. He'd play with a friend or just kick it around inside that space for hours. The other thing is he'd always have a ball at his feet, even when standing around with his friends he'd have it there and be moving it around. That's something of course they have to want to do on their own.
70% or more on their own at home. For my two that played at elite/top level and everyone else we knew, they were in the yard at minimum 2 hours a night with a ball, and most nights it was 4 hours. Come home, do homework, kick ball until bed except for dinner. Every weekend at siblings games they had a ball on their feet behind the parents sideline. If your kid wants it, they will have that ball all the time. We broke multiple windows in the house playing futsal in the living room all winter. All that being said, as I have said over and over, we never pushed, this was on their own. You cannot make them do this, they have to want it. A big part of wanting it was that we always made it fun, never any yelling in the car, never putting on pressure, if they wanted to quit they could (at end of season/commitment).
December 2019, I final repair and/or replace all the damage to the drywall in our garage from 15+ yrs of soccer ball abuse. Juggling, soccer tennis, or just knocking the ball off the walls, hours on end by both my boys. It started early and often. Spring of 2020, my youngest is home due to the pandemic, college spring season cancelled, stuck at home, frustrations abound. More drywall damage, I am letting the damage stay awhile.
This is horrible and probably why US is still struggling in developing youth players at a greater rate. Most youth training is 1.5-3 hours a week. That is 65% of possible development? That means the individual player MAY put in about 45 minutes to maximum 1.5 hours a week by themselves — that breaks down to less than 7 minutes a day (if 45 minutes) to 13 minutes a day (if 1.5 hours). No one will truly get better if that’s what it is.
With his club my 7 yr old does two 2 hour practices, so 4 hours per week. And plays anywhere from 1 to 4 games on the weekends. In addition they do futsal once a week. That's another 1.5 hours. On our own we go to a pickup game once a week, which is 1.5-2 hrs. And then we do some random bits of training or 1v1 when time permits. I think that is a fair amount for his age. He also plays soccer at school recess. Combine it all and maybe he averages 10+ hours per week. Approx 6-7.5 hours with the club, but it varies week to week. Sure, if there were lots of neighbor kids playing soccer everyday I would love that. But it's not the case. Not much soccer in our neighborhood. But in other countries (from Brazil, France, etc) that is the case so yeah they will get more on their own and many cannot afford a club. As they say in the US it's pay-to-play unfortunately.
I think there was a famous movie that was built around this…”if you build it, they will come.” It’s a lot easier to just pay for it and drive all over than to just start something. I get it.
I should have included this in the first reply. Who does this for a 7 year old, and why? Even pro academies around the world don’t do this. A 7 year old for 2 hours. Ha. I’m sure there’s great soccer being taught there. Four games in a weekend? Excellent development platform there…not. Borderline insanity really.
I mean... what do you think 7 yr olds are doing in other countries? They are playing outside at local courts or parks on on the street for 3-4 hours a day with their friends, siblings, etc. First you complain that kids aren't playing enough, then you say it's too much. Something tells me you are not an expert on this topic. These clubs are run by coaches who have decades of experience and US Soccer licenses. For the most part they follow US Soccer guidelines, though I'll admit for U8 they don't exactly since they do 7v7 which US Soccer says to not start till U9. But all the comp clubs, this is how they are doing it. Pro academies generally don't even start taking in 7 yr olds. Depends on the country. But not in the US, most start around U13. So your point is moot
I didn’t say they were playing too much. If you’re going to attribute something, at least do it right. Kids need to be playing, most of it unorganized and definitely outside of the pay-to-play and even 1-on-1 coaching system. They need to learn creativity on their own. They need to experiment. 4 games in a weekend is pathetic. Especially in the tournament setup. Parents suck at them. Coaching typically sucks at them. Players are gone by game 2 and 3. It’s such a poor system to claim “development” in. Kids on their own is much different AND better than with a coach for multiple hours a day. That’s a fact. There’s nothing productive after 45 minutes with a coach with U8 players. But, go watch a bunch of U8 play on their own, it’s magnificent because they can be kids. They can be creative. They can fight. They can irritate others. It’s all beneficial. And, thanks for proving the point and you walked right into it. Pro academies don’t do U8 because it’s worthless to do what we have instituted in the US. Clubs roped dumb US parents into the system thinking it’s good. Take the money and run.
It's the system we have. Like it or not. Create a better one, go ahead. For some 7 yr olds it might be too much. For an energetic, social kid like mine it's not. He has a lot of fun, laughing and playing with peers. It's great physically and socially. You really don't know what you're talking about and you're painting with a broad brush. These kids would be bored and fall behind in rec. These kids are gifted and need some good guidance and they are doing quite well. It's like any other subject, be it academics or music, if a kid is ready for a faster path then great if they can be given that. But whatever, it's not life or death, it's soccer practice and soccer games. I think you're over thinking it. I'd be just fine with more free play but as I said it is hard to come by. And how is 4 games in a weekend "pathetic"? Do you mean it's too many games? It seems to be the norm for weekend tournaments.
The options for us now are U8 rec or U8 comp. Those are the options. Rec would be silly and a waste of time. He would score 10 goals a game and not be challenged. At the club he is around his peers with appropriate levels of challenge. ... also... it's not like they are running these kids into the ground. They do know they are just kids. The physical training part is fairly mild. The emphasis is on technical development and they of course want the kids to actually love the game.
Plenty of clubs can get you fit but few - if any, clubs can properly do it in order to avoid injuries. They simply do not operate like that for the most part.
True. At the gym that we workout at (a crossfit type of place), the owner used to rent out parts of the gym to teams during the winter. He would always cringe when the teams would do "conditioning" work, because nearly all the time, the coaches would have their players doing lifting exercises that were either completely wrong for their sport or was done with the worst possible technique. He now does team trainings, but only when they're run by him or one of the other trainers - no more simply renting out the space for teams to do their own thing.
Yes for sure - and girls a certain ages need specific conditioning that addresses their bodies. There also is no correction going on in terms of muscle movement and so on. Hard to jam clubs because no one is doing this right - it's really not part of the "package". But it would be nice to have some education on the matter so at least parents can look outside of soccer for age and gender-based conditioning that could help mitigate injuries.
This is wrong, 2 hours sessions for 7 year old kids is not helpful in any way at all. The 4 games a weekend is far more harmful than helpful. I know you are very enthusiastic about the game and your child, but you are on the road to a player who quits by 12.
My own experience with a similar situation doesn't bear this out. If the kids are having fun at practice--if practice is more scrimmaging and moving around and less standing around with a ball waiting for their chance to run a drill--2 hours is nothing for that age. And for what it's worth--at that age, kid's social circles are heavily centered on what activities their parents sign them up for. My son would later make his MS and HS teammates and friends the center of his social life, but when he was 7 and 8, his club team largely WAS his social circle. And weekend tournaments don't really take much out of U-Littles. That needs to be cut back when they get a bit older, but at that age it's really nothing. My son at that age once did five or six 3v3 and 4v4 weekend tournaments in a row--over the Summer during the "off season." That would have been a very bad idea by the time he hit his tweens, but for a group of better-than-average U8s it's not a terrible way to compress a lot of team time and bonding into a short space of time. If he's still pushing his kid to play that much when he's 10 or 11, maybe then it 's a problem. Right now? Let them run until they drop.
We all can throw around our own anecdotal "evidence." But, the fact does remain that most kids (75% of them) drop out of sports by the age of 12. Why? It's not fun Pressure to perform Lack of competence Time demands In my opinion, 1 and 3 go together. Fun is often tied to how good one is. I digress, time demands are incredibly frustrating for kids and families. Coaches and families are the ones to blame for all of the top four reasons why kids drop out of sports. Here's the other facts: youth soccer players leave the sport at higher rates than other sports AND they are less likely to return to the sport than others. Even USSF and USYS say the best practices for youth at this age would be training 45-60 minutes long. Even up to U10 it isn't encouraged to go much over 60 minutes. Tons of successful college programs don't even train for 2 hours.