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With low pay structures there really has to be an element of a team community and commitment to that community. When we first started our team we ran into he commitment issue and it really came down to an agreement by our parents that we would find ways to get the kids to every training that they could possibly attend. Of course we have players who miss for the normal things that cannot be helped. But we eliminated the unnecessary absences for the most part with that. It has also helped having the group chat feature that we have because we are able to call absentees out in the group chat and they then are accountable to the group. But Li you are right, until we got that buy in we were in the same boat as your team. Limited financial commitment equated to limited emotional and physical investment in the team.
<span style=”font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: #fbfbfb;”>Id argue that if the kid family pays he does deserve to play. I think thats the huge problem with our “development program”. Our system of pay to play is stupid. We need academies that kids play for free and take that argument away. I have a buddy at a top program who only will take full paying players for his teams as he wants his $10,000 pay check per team per year. Im a coach and a parent of a player. Im not taking my kid to a club -pay $3000 plus tournaments so he can sit on the bench. Now if an academy wants him and are going to foot the bill, then play him as little or as much as you want.</span>
It sounds like that coach is coaching for a check. $10,000 for youth soccer is a bit ridiculous. To put in perspective our team pays $30 per month after they have paid for their card, uniform and $15 club fee for the year. All told our kids pay less than $500 for the year for Nor Cal Premier division soccer. There are no coaching fees and coaches pay there own way on everything.
<span style=”font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: #fbfbfb;”>If my son is not assured 1/2 of the game he doesnt go to that club. As a consumer that my choice. I also tell the coach if he is not working hard in practice or misses then he can chat with me about limiting his playing time more, but if he is there every day competing and playing at the level of his peers he deserves to play. Im at every practice and game so I know what he is and is not doing. We coaches want our cake and eat it too.</span>
If a player is at practice everyday and working hard they would be developing and therefore would play. But what about the kid who is not working hard or misses practices. They have paid, do they have equal access to playing time? If so, to me that sounds more recreational in nature than competetive.
I think that a better mindset for parents is we paid for the opportunity to play, not paid for playing time. One of my favorite coaching conference memories was the late grate Don Meyer from Northern University. He was talking about how bad parents can be and he said something very close to the following: When Joey’s parents come up and complain about playing time. You ask them who they think Joey should be starting over or getting more playing time than. When they state Joey should be playing more than Johnny, you instruct them to call Johnny’s parents and explain to his parents why Joey should play more than Johnny. If they can come to an agreement then problem resolved (yeah right). Then he said if you get lucky the two parents go at it and you don’t have to deal with either of them anymore. It definitely got a big laugh from the coaches in the building.
Luis it is always interesting to see the amount of pressure that is on players in foreign youth academy’s to perform. One of the issues that I face with my boys is the level of comfort and security they have with their position on the team. The lack of pressure on the kids to improve when we were developing at the lower levels (silver, gold) has hurt them as we have moved up to the higher level (premier). Now those kids who had a basic skill set that allowed them to succeed at the lower levels but refused to push themselves are really struggling at the higher level. I just dealt with a parent who could not comprehend why his sons minutes were dwindling. Fortunately I capture some video during practices and was able to show him what his son was doing during practice. But there is no doubt that in places like Argentina, Brazil, or Europe a player who refused to push himself would be weeded out very quickly. This is the atmosphere that Klinnsman seems to want US players to throw themselves into, rather than the comforts of MLS (There is Steven Gerrard comment this week about this). Yet the vast majority of American media and mainstream soccer public think he is blasphemous for demanding this of his players. I don’t think US Soccer get where we want it to be until our players operating in the environment that you experienced in Argentina is the norm rather than the exception. That is why I think that Brian going to LAG is so significant. It really does create the first club with this atmosphere on the youth level. The real question is will the parents and players embrace the competition or run to other clubs when things don’t break their way.
Our attack has not been very strong this spring season, but we currently have one of the best defenses in the league. I attribute much of this to the fact that teams are not getting as many chances at our goal because we are able to possess the ball more effectively than they are. So in effect a good offense, has been a good defense, even if the attack has been poor (if that makes sense). While it is certainly frustrating to not finish opportunities as we reach the attacking third, it is at least satisfying that we are not being broken down in our defensive third. The chances that we allow seem to be mostly on mistakes out of the back or central midfield, which in my mind are correctable.
As I mentioned in another post we are working heavily on identifying pressure and how to play out of it. I think if we are able to solve that issue the pattern play will click in a game situation better. What I found with the pattern play was that the players were not looking at the whole field to identify where to go with the ball, instead narrowing their choices down by pattern and consistently playing into the pressure. So basically we are now working on the recognition skills and communication skills to make the correct play based on what we see. I think that the patterns will have greater meaning to the players in a game setting once the recognition skills are established
As a teacher in the classroom it is fairly obvious why “let them play” and self discovery in a very pure sense would fail. It is akin to asking students to write essays without giving a prompt other than “just write”. Then following that vague assignment with no rubric of self-assessment so the student could ascertain for themselves what areas were weak in their unguided essay or external feedback on how to improve their work. The assumption is that by writing the student will improve as a writer. While there may be creative elements that evolve, the opposing reality is that the bad habits are further entrenched and harder to break. There is no reason to believe that this process would develop any differently in sports than it does in academic circles. Perhaps the best American sports example would be the failure of street ball players to succeed in formal basketball environments. After all when is the last time a street legend made it big in the NBA?
The link may not work because not everyone has access to that level of material. I cannot see it and I am in the first year of the coaching program. I think 2nd year people have greater access to more activities. (looks like Gary beat me to the punch)
On a separate note we have had a hard time getting our players to understand the concepts of playing away from the pressure and finding the 2 v 1 on the field. We have gone to playing a lot of 4v4v4 (or 5v5v5) depending on numbers to drive home the point of playing away from the defending team. The structure is simple. We take the Rondo grid which we use for S-Drill and all of our Rondo series (a large square with 4-10 step by 10 step rondo squares spaced 10 steps apart, which created three channels to run s drill). After we have finished we pull the middle cones out leaving the a playing area in the middle that we used to play a color possession game. For example we have teams of 5 (blue, red, white) and it is always 2 teams versus 1. Whoever loses possession is the defending team. Once we complete this for possession we play the same game with 4 pop up goals in each corner of the field. The goal is to get the least goals scored against your team. So maintaining possession guarantees you cannot get scored against and in turn allows you to put the other team out. This has been helping our players understand the concept of playing away from pressure in competitive scenarios. They are starting to figure out that they have to try to avoid playing to players with defenders in the area and find players that are the most open which often involves short and long play to get there.
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This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by
Michael Perkins.
This is really good stuff Bret and great feedback Paul. I am going to run this tomorrow with my U11’s. Just picked up a U17 team and they could not handle this yet. What do you think of having the 4 v 0 group that does not complete their 15 passes having to send a defender into the playing area to create a 4 v 1 +1. I was thinking of the next level progression beyond going to goal on a goalie only. It seems that this could build in some field decision making skills. So the way I see it would be a progression of:
4 v 0
4 v 0, 15 passes
4 v 0 + 1, 15 passes
4 v 0 into a 4 v 1 + 1, 15 passes
Then into 4 v 1, 3 v 1, etc
That has been part o my thought process as well. But then I also think that like was mentioned in a previous thread, there is a certain amount of credibility by holding a license. I have advanced my coaching more implementing this curriculum than any of the material USSF courses taught me. Maybe there should be a 3four3 license; you learn more here anyway!
We are running 4 v 0, 4 v 1, and into 3 v 1 every practice. One thing that I have found with these is that you can’t let these drag out. This is full speed in 1 minute bursts. If we drag longer through these they will slow down and not give max effort. If they know the time frame, my U11’s push hard through them.
We then move on to S -Drill and then a modified Double Rondo.
Those are the every practice elements at this point. Though we are progressing into choreography now as well.
I have modified the double rondo a bit. We start 4 v 1 +3, after team a has completed 5 passes, team b can send a second defender into the possession game to make it 4 v 2 +2. The game repeats and if the team a is able to complete 5 more passes then the team b can run another defender in. If there is a turnover then the ball is played to the opposing grid where team b possession game begins 4 v 1. In theory this would progress until a team was able to hold the ball beyond 5 passes 4 v4 in a 10 x 10 box. My U11’s have only made it to 4 v 3 thus far.
I saw this link tweeted out today.
Think it relates to the topic
Hi Brian,
I have been doing a little reading. Some books that I have read or am in the process of reading that are really good on topics of the psychology and philosophy of coaching and playing sport are:
Players First by John Calipari
Toughness by Jay Bilas (Google his 2009 ESPN Article on toughness, it is the basis for the book and most of it translates to soccer well)
Changing the Game by John O’Sullivan (More of a guide to raising a happy, high performing athlete)
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Some of the foundation for Changing the Game) by Carol Dweck
How Good Do You Want to Be? by Nick Saban
Hope this helps in your search for development of a Philosophy that supports elements bigger than the game.
Hi John,
I have been interacting with Gary and a few others for a while now. My twitter account is @teamperkins11
Hi Miguel.
I am just across the hill in Los Banos. I am a believer in basing your formation on the players that you have. We are not in the professional ranks where we can go out and sign a player that fits a system that we want to run. I think that we can develop a style that we want to play, but when it comes to personnel at a youth level, you are a bit at the mercy of the players that you have. Rather than forcing a player who has defensive mid instincts up into an attacking role, why not adjust the formation to accommodate a few defensive mids? You can still promote a similar style and continue to develop players over time to become players that fit the system you want to run.
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This reply was modified 9 years, 6 months ago by
