Understanding youth soccer.

If wishes were changes, as Nancy Griffith sang, we'd all live in roses.

It's lovely to say that "winning isn't important" when you're a U-11, but there's a coach there who's depending on the checks you write to pay his rent. And nobody much will pay the thousands of dollars a year (two outdoor seasons, two indoor seasons, travel expenses, tournament entries, uniforms, etc.) that it costs to play if the team can't beat anybody.

The coach is under the gun to produce.

The politics, the egos and the bullsh!t all suck, but the bottom line is...well...the bottom line. Win or the kids take their parents' money elsewhere.

Figure out another way for the system to work before you condemn this one. I don't like it either, but I don't see the alternative.

 

Winning

I agree Bill. And actually I think the parents get much more hung up on not worrying about winning and lossing than the kids do. My son is a U13 player and trust me he wants to win every time out...if he didn't he would not be much of a player. As long as he keeps it in perspective I think that it is extremely healthy to be competitive. Isn't that why they call it "competitive" soccer??

Besides the parents and coaches our club gets pressure to win from Nike. We are a Nike sponsered club and they always want to know how many tournaments did we win, how many state cups etc., and they want to know about ALL of our teams U11-U19.

 

When my kid was a U8, I was talking to very experienced coach and said, "Winning isn't all important at these young ages."

His reply?

"It may not be important to me, it may not be important to you, but it's important to THEM."

You know, we underestimate the intelligence and perception of kids. They're no dummies. They know who's good and who's not. They know if their teams sucks. They know if they're working hard or not. They know if they are getting better or getting worse.

Of course, over the long run, wins and losses at, say, U13 and below are meaningless. Yet part of learning to play the game is learning what it MEANS to win, and what it MEANS to lose, and to grasp that there are many ways to do both.

Kids who take the game seriously want to be challenged. That doesn't mean getting their brains beat in every time they step on the field, or crushing every opponent they face. But playing tough competitive games against teams where the guy in the other kit is just as good, and maybe better, than you are.

Some naive parents love the Ws, but a good youth coach lets his team taste the range of possibilities, with always the idea of putting a team out of its comfort zone. Taking that philosophy, kids will soon figure out that winning easy is boring, and that getting crushed is demoralizing. Once that's settled, it's time to get down to real work, which is putting a serious team at the highest competitive level it can handle sot that it is forced to improve as fast as possible. If that means playing up and going 4-4-1, good. They'll understand that the losses stem from playing outside of their comfort zone, and the wins show that they CAN do it, while mollifying the hyper-competitiveness of silly parents.

 

But it's a pretty important example, no? The best youth player in the country by a long shot developed, at least early on, outside the current system. Yes Freddy is loaded with natural ability, but then so are lots of not quite as accomplished players.

I think it's valid to have a look at this so that we can understanding where our shortcomings are in the development process.

 

Parent/Coach Relationship

At what ages? U9? U11?

Let's see ... "I don't know you, you don't know me, but I'm going to hand my kid off and trust that you will do the right thing. I won't supervise, I won't interfere, I won't question, you can do what you like with my 9 year old, that's OK by me. Oh, by the way, thanks for paying my salary."

Nah, I don't think so. Can't solve the parent/coach issue by avoiding the issue. Not in the USA, not in this day and age.

 

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. It is not comaring apples to apples. If you want to compare Micheal Jordan to Charles Barkley and say that Micheal was more successful because he did this or that ok! But what can I teach my son by looking at Freddy? My son is not as big, strong or fast and there is only about 1 1/2 years between them. I submit that Freddy would be great no matter how he trained, as long as he trained. It is much more important for average to above average players to get the "correct" training so that they can become better.

And I don't agree that there are "lots" of 14 year olds with Freddy's ability and that the only reason they are not as good is because of the way that they train. Freddy is 1 in a million and not a fair comparison for the 126,000 youth soccer players in my state that no matter how much they train will never accomplish what Freddy has already accomplished.

 

Of course the kids know about winning and losing. My four and five year old seem to have always known. They size up their oponents before each game, deciding who is good and determining which of them will cover the oponents best.

Because the kids understand doesn't mean that all the adults who should know better ought to give in to a wins and losses mentality. That an adult's livelyhood is on the line over whether or not a U11 team wins is absurd. I'm fortunate that after having played at a high level my kids respect me, knowing that I'm still a better player than them and anyone they play against. I can enforce my attitude that self improvement (not only on the soccer field) is more important than winning, even when coaches, parents and other children involved with my kids have things out of proportion.

My wife and I applaud the positive results in the classroom more enthusiastically than results on the playing field. I train with my kids every morning, but I sit with them while they do their homework every night too. The same kids who understand winning and losing, fully understand the kinds of priorities you set as well.

 

Freddy's Ability

Good point.

Most of the time these youth soccer discussions miss the point of genetics. Life ain't fair. Some kids have it. Some kids don't. The ones who have it tend to stand out pretty early. Clint Mathis making the local newspaper at age 5. Michael Owen scoring 66 goals in 11 games as a 10 year old. Freddy Adu. Etc. Etc. Etc.

We had a kid in my high school, a lazy-ass sprinter who never trained but ran a 9.8 100 yard dash. One day they drafted him for high jump. He hurdled 6' 2", first time he ever tried to high jump.

Doesn't mean that there isn't room in high-level soccer for athletes who aren't naturals. Steve Ralston barely started on his high school team. Several other examples out there, too.

But at the same time I'm willing to bet that Ralston was a very, very good athlete compared to a lot of kids who are struggling in the lower levels of youth soccer. To tell those kids, just work harder, some day you can be Freddy Adu too ... well, it ain't going to happen.

 

But it's a little coincidental, no? The best youth player we've developed, pretty much ever, just so happens to be from somewhere else?

I'm not saying it doesn't take natural ability, but even when we do have kids with the same level of natural ability, they aren't becoming Freddy or anything close.

 

Yup, this is a fair point, too. I would argue that Freddy is 1 in a million. But there are 280 million Americans. What about the other 279 Freddies?

 

The topic of training American youth is worse than Dracula - it gets resurrected on BS almost every week!

The one aspect of training that is way underestimated is exposure to the game. I was the one who wrote in to Marc Connolly last spring about the situation on my son's rep team where he was the only one going to USMNT games or MLS games. A lot of posters who are immigrants or outside the US just do not comprehend that 95% of the kids going into soccer at a young age have NEVER seen a soccer game before. No I don't expect 5, 6, 7, or 8 year olds to sit down and turn on a soccer game on ESPN2. But you can bet they have seen or attended professional baseball, football, or basketball – even if just passing by the TV while their parents watch.

If you've never seen the game as it should be, how do you play a street or backyard match? The fastest and strongest guy boots the ball towards the goal, then outruns everybody else and puts it in. So much for learning ball skills.

Who do young American kids imitate to learn moves, holding the ball, etc.? No one – although the situation improves every year. The latest round of Nike ads is a great step forward in fixing this situation.

Once more kids and parents have seen professional games at any level, then a lot of these training deficiencies will naturally sort themselves out.

 

I agree, good point. My son's coach always asks the kids if they watched the latest match. My son DOES watch the English Premier league on Fox Sports World and we are fortunate to have a friend who's son is an MLS player. My son loves to just watch him play and it has improved his game. He has a better understanding of the game, is able to talk about it intelligently with coaches and imitates his favorite players when practicing.

Unfortunately most of the kid's parents on his team don't even know the rules of soccer, much less watch it!

 

My sons refer to Saturday as American soccer day and Sunday as Mexican soccer day. Of course they imitate the post goal celebrations more than anything else!

 

DoctorD you da man!

I find explaining how to play the game very difficult when the players have never seen the game. It’s like trying to describe the color red to a blind man.

I played soccer as a kid growing up in the sixties. Our exposure to high-level soccer was limited to one game every four years, the World Cup Final on Wild World of Sports. It wasn't until I graduated from college, when I saw some of the greatest players in the world playing for the Cosmos, did I understand how the beautiful game is supposed to be played.

With that in mind, I try to expose my kids to soccer when ever I get a chance. As a matter of fact, I dragged my 8 and 6-year-old girls out of bed at 5 am to take them down to the local pub to watch the US MNT in the last World Cup. Three months later my U-7 daughter made a beautiful through pass to the feet of a teammate for a score. After the game I asked her if she was really trying to pass the ball or was it just a random kick. Her response was “I remember seeing that in the US-Portugal match in the World Cup. I thought I would try it.” As they say in the MasterCard commercial …’priceless’.

My experience has been that most people involved with youth soccer really don’t like the game very much. (I’m not talking about my fellow BS posters) That is why they are willing to pay any bloke with a British accent to coach their kids. The parents are looking for “instant soccer”.

About the Freddy issue: Freddy is relevant because his passion for playing the game is totally self motivated. I can’t speak to his innate soccer abilities, because I don’t know how they are measured. But everything that I have read about him is that he would play soccer any chance he had. All day, every day. My guess is that even with his superior genetic material, he would be just another player waiting for his mom to take him to the ODP tryouts in the minivan if he were born to a typically American soccer family.

 

I can tell you how they are measured, by accomplishments. I don't know any 14 year olds playing on the U17 national team, except Freddy. My son is on the ball more than any kid on his team and more than most in his district (and yes I know a lOT of them personally). However he is not the best player. He is definitely up there but at 12/13 years of age some kids are just bigger, stronger and faster. My guess is that in 2 years this won't matter because he is the more skilled player. My point (yes I am getting there) is that no matter how much my son practices it is exactly that "superior genetics" that sets Freddy and most hard working kids apart.

 

The Great Santini lives!

Does your lack of confidence in your son's potential ever leak out.

If you really think that your kid is a slug, why don't you just break the news to him and tell him to join the chess club.

Unless he is playing soccer from sun-up to sun-down you will never know what his true potential. That sportsfans is the freddy factor.

 

Agreed. Good point.

 

Did you even read my post? I hope not becuase your comments have nothing to do with what I said. Was there some else you were trying to reply to? I realize that these message boards can be a little tricky for some people--you have to pay attention.