Is This the Right Development Approach?

Hm i disagree with the freddy adu example. He's great at feints and body swerves - those are his bread and butter when he's on the run...not the useless stepovers that c.ronaldo does, he only moves his legs. However, with a player like robben or ronaldinho, who feints with his body even as he's doing a stepover, it is much more effective. I think freddy is more similar to them as the kid definitely knows how to use body feints and changes of direction together to great effect.

 

I'm talking about kids who are already U14, U15, U16 -if they're not dominating games now when are they going to start?

 

My son has gone through the ODP process, what you will find is that it appears that they are picking technical players in the beginning. But in the beginning there are alot of kids that don't belong out there. ALso alot of the kids that do get picked don't even return the next year because many kids don't like going to ODP or its camps. By the time 2 or 3 summers have passed, the amatuers have left the process. What they are left with are 40 - 50 skilled players. At that point size comes into play. I believe everyone is shopping for size with technique these days. Look at the Magic u-14 team that will be at nationals....Several boys over 6ft tall ! ODP will pick size and tecnique over technique everytime once the ODP age group hits the "ODP tourney" age group. All I am saying is look at the ODP group of U12s, and in 3-4 years look at it again. Maybe 8 kids will be the same...but you will have gone through many changes.

 

I would have to disagree with the ODP picking size over technique. The IL 89 group that won the National Championship probably has only 2 field players over 6 ft tall (Duran and Aikenhead). Both the goalies are huge but most of the players are 5'8"-5'9".

 

I am not saying they are picking size over technique what I am saying is that "small and technical" vs "tall and technical" the tall kids will win. By the time they have been doing ODP for 3-4 years the pool is pretty darn technical. But the smaller kids are at a disadvantage. I can't blame ODP for doing that, it is a smart move. I'm just putting my 2 cents in that teams are looking for size these days whether it is at the ODP level or the club level. Sometimes you need a big kid to clog things up a bit...we have a boy on our club team that lacks technical ability yet he is very good at moving agressively toward the ball. The smaller boys fall off of him and the defenders are drawn to him, and he can pass the ball to someone who can make the goal. He rarely shoots the ball, but is he valuable yes...size can make a difference

 

John starting the thread regarding 92/93s - all 11 and 12 years old right now.

 

Not really. Size makes more of a difference with children. But with adults, it is more a matter of the specific players and roles you need them to fill.

Physically speaking, there is no general advantage in being a good big athlete vs. being a good smaller athlete. As far as physical traits go quickness/strength/balance/agility/height etc. tend to balance each other. The better player then is determined by other factors entirely.

 

I agree with your point about small sided games leading to bad evaluations. Small sided games are for DEVELOPING skills, NOT revealing them. Unless you're playing indoor, the small sided dominators get left behind. As do the slick guys. The slicksters, here they're almost all Latino, THEY get left behind. That stuff just doesn't hold up by the time you get to Premier level play. The same move that used to work 90% of the time for a 3 yard gain on a defender (I mean, you're 3 yards past him by the time he's back up to speed chasing you), now works 50% of the time for a 3 foot gain, that the defender makes up for in about 5 yards. IOW, tricks can still help you get a shot off, but the old, U12 days of leaving a defender in the dust are over by the time you're U15. I've seen it for the last years. I've seen first hand, on my team and on long-time opponents, how the tricky Latino guys who seem so amazing at U12 now hurt their team more than help, because they don't pass enough, they turn the ball over too much, they can't out run anyone, and they don't have the temperament (maybe from having been so sought after as youngers) to get up and down the field.

The Mexican guy (I'm half-Mexican myself, btw, though I clearly don't fit Mexican cultural soccer style) I used to sub for, now subs for me. I still don't have great moves, but that means I shoot or pass, for the most part, only carrying the ball into real space, whereas Latinos still DRIBBLE, shoot or pass, and that dribble-first mentality means they really struggle with the idea of one-touch passing (I'm talking about Mexican Americans, who have a different soccer culture than Mexicans themselves).

And here's another thing: here, anyway, the top teams are almost all big teams. There is a real size difference between Premier teams and lower divisions, especially among the youngers. Now, that's good and bad. Good because I think you need to get past the idea of just winning early with bigger kids, and bad because you need to have size to win in modern soccer.

And I should add that here anyway, the Mexican American kids have a different soccer culture than Mexicans in Mexico because the Mexican American kids play against white kids, who, early anyway, fall for moves, so the Mexican kids here kind of get seduced into emphasizing moves, which is bad for them in the long run. I've played against Mexican teams, and they do have great team passing skills.

 

Agree totally with your point, however I'm not sure it's a cultural difference. Around here at least, with not many hispanic players, the kids who dominate at U9-U11 because of slick moves do tend to get left behind as the field gets bigger and the other players catch up to them. And after years of being the star, they often don't have the attitude necessary to learn to play a different way (ie, pass, move without the ball, etc...).
Unfortunately, I don't think many coaches share the view that small sided is for developing, not evaluating skill. How many tryouts do you see with full sided matches -from club to ODP? A real detriment to ODP in truly identifying game players.

 

I have a better idea:

Let's not even do it. Especially at these young ages.

 

Having just watched my kid go through the Region 1 camp, I can tell you it wasn't like I am reading about your experiences.

In the 92's, the players were all shapes and sizes, and from everywhere. Small sided games and 11 v 11 games were played, and evaluations were done on the performances of both.

I will say that it appeared that much advanced scouting was done at a Region 1 tournament at the same venue as the camp in June. So while it may have appeared that evaluations and decisions were made over the course of a couple of days, it was actually done over two weekends worth of play. Once the best players were culled onto two adjoining fields where the coaches could get a good look at them, it became a lot easier to see them in action and make the choices.

 

There were close to 400 kids at the camp. And advanced scouting must have played a huge part as it seems many of the obviously better players started out on the better fields, which is where the most important coaches were. The ODP tourmnent a few weeks prior at the same venue really seemed to count for a lot. That at least gave evaluators two seperate occasions in differing environments to watch the players.

How do you know the goalscorers were in the discard pool? In Region!, players were chosen from among two different fields.

 

Fascinating. We may have to get some of these coaches drunk before we get them to explain exactly what the hell they are looking for.

 

Report from Region 1 90's

Most evaluations were in 11v11 situations. Not many small sided games. All Regional selectees and National pool players in attendance were super fast. If you didn't have speed, forget about a spot. National pool players in attendance were not required to participate in many of the games.

So it does look like different ages get different evaluation techniques and I withdraw my previous comments on this thread.

Regional selectees were - what's the best way to say this - overwhelmingly diverse. Size was "average".

The low point of the camp for my son was in one of the lectures when somebody said "If you want to succeed in soccer you've got to suck up to the people in charge". While this is true in most fields of life, 15-year-olds are (and should be) still innocent, so it came as a shock to hear those exact words.

 

Aren't the ID Camp costs included in your state ODP fees? How would check cashing become an evaluation technique?

 

Better than Adu... .Do not expect any foreign national to admit that USA have soccer ...I hear that every weekend when I visit my friends from different countries (central, and south america) even the portugese where saying the same right after USA WHOOP them in Korea 2002