Soccer Basics

                                                             Building Competitive Habits

Coach McGannon introduction 

We will now apply the same format, model and routines from Basketball and Volleyball to Soccer.

Please take a few minutes and read this excerpt from "Game On: The All American Race to Make Champions of our Children" by Tom Farrey  (ESPN Books)  Our goal with Soccer Basics, as it is with Basketball and Volleyball Basics, is not to make your kids stars.  The Lord makes stars.  (Wooden).  Our goal is to teach your children how to play soccer, to understand the skills, to provide the tools to your kids to play well and to reinforce basic life skills on or off the field.   As I study, listen and learn about the game of soccer, what follows indicates by any measure a wide gap in a player-focused approach to Youth Soccer.  Soccer Basics will be a great choice for skill development and strong mentoring and modeling for your children.

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"What we have in the U.S. are parents trying to get their kids into game environments as soon as possible" says Randy Huffington, coordinator for sports science for USA Track and Field and a consultant to elite athletes.  "We are slotting kids way too early into positions and over-controlling the game and their development.  Soccer is the worst offender."

It's often the first sport that kids sign up to play. Parents figure- What's it take? Running?  Kicking?  Any little kid can do that. They're urged on by the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), which knocked DOWN their starting age from 5 years old to 4 in 2004, for no other reason than to build customer base and keep kids from trying other sports.  Problem is, rarely do volunteer coaches at the lower levels have enough knowledge to create a practice session that hits on both fun and fundamentals.  Often, formal games are scheduled, which inevitably promotes the assigning of positions, tactical play and parents on both sides screaming instructions that kids can not appreciate. 

Sports sociologist Jay Coackley notes that parents and volunteer coaches often plead with their children to "STAY IN POSITION!" or GET BACK WHERE YOU BELONG!" without realizing kids brains are just not formed that way. Understanding the concept of positional play asks that a participant do three things simultaneously:

1. Mentally visualize where his team mates and opponents are on the field at any given moment
2. Assess their relationship to one another and the ball
3. Decide where he or she needs to be.

Most children do not fully develop these skills until age 12.  Adults mistakenly think their children are not concentrating or trying hard.  This frustrates children who are doing the best they can at their level of development. Many of the frustrated kids quit the game.

Bob Jenkins, Director of coaching education and youth development at U.S. Soccer

"A coach of a team of 8 to 10 year olds might have great intentions, but what's the first thing they feel they need to do? Organize and manage.  That's NOT what the kids need at that age. These well meaning adults feel like they have to manage things so the other team doesn't score on them.  They plant a defender 18 yards from their goal and have him kick the ball down field. That may work when kids are young, and his team might even get a trophy. But the players don't learn how to move forward.  After a few years, they may be fast and physical but there's that lack of comfort with the ball."

"Go watch a high school game and count how many times the ball turns over.  These kids have been playing for 10 years but what have they learned? They can't control the ball. Everyone all the way up the line is affected.  The better everyone is with the ball, the tougher it is to stop a team, so the defenders get better, and the game evolves in terms of sophistication.  Everything gets racheted up."

U.S. Soccer is starting to recognize that its grass can only grow so high if the roots are over-watered with adult-style competition.  In 2006, the organization published a paradigm-shifting, 70-page document compiled by Jenkins that essentially BEGS coaches to turn the game over to the fertile minds of children.  Called "Best Practices for Coaching Soccer in the United States.", it attempts to find a place for loosely structured play within the society's need for adult oversight.  "Coaches can often be more helpful to a young player's development by organizing less, saying less, and allowing the players to do more." the document advises.  "Set up a game and let the kids play.  Keep most of your comments for before and after practice and during water breaks. Comments should be kept short and simple. Be comfortable organizing a session that looks like pickup soccer."

No lines, no laps and no discussions about "commitment."  One game a week through 4th grade, no tournaments and rosters small enough to allow for close to 100% participation ALL THE TIME.  No assigning players into specific positions until the teenage years.

If this sounds familiar, it should.    In 2000, Aime Jacquet, manager of the French team that won the 1998 World Cup, was flown in by Adidas to speak with The U.S. Youth Soccer Association.  The esteemed coach laid out the philosophy and architecture of the European system.  He helped give shape and support to notions that had been percolating within the U.S. coaching community for decades.  Those ideas would continue to languish as U.S. Soccer's focus during the Bruce Arena era was on the national teams, the elite of our (MODEST) elite.

Arena resigned after the 2006 World Cup and was replaced by Bob Bradley. The new coach has taken a more direct role in youth development. Clubs must agree to shift the emphasis away from game play and toward effective training- a response to the nation's TOP HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN telling shocked U.S. Soccer coaches that they are already tired of the sport.  The program, called the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, starts at the U-16 level although Jenkins and others hope its philosophy trickles down to those working with younger kids.

Ivan Gazidis, Deputy Commissioner of Major League Soccer

"We have a tendency to over-coach kids in this country, and part of that is the culture. The idea that the game is improvised from moment to moment is alien to most people who grew up on football and baseball, sports that are less chaotic and less player-driven. Maybe the easiet way to win at an early age is to punt the ball downfield, have some big kid cross it, and another big kid head it in. But that doesn't develop a player. When I coach my kids' teams, people look at me like I'm crazy because they know I'm involved in pro soccer and yet I'm not trying to impose structure on the kids.  I don't insist on positional play.  I want them to work it out."