For the past couple of months I have been coaching a U10
Boys team and although I adhere to most of my personal philosophy regarding
youth soccer development, I feel that I always fail in so many areas. I am never happy as a coach and it is never
about the boys’ performance, but rather the way I carried myself during the
match or training session and how I managed the game. I find that I need to keep studying and
learning and talking to people about it or I fall back into my conditioned ways
of focusing on winning. I’ m far beyond
win at all costs, but I do win at some costs and I desperately want to get past
that.
I believe strongly in the game being the best teacher. I believe in positive coaching and doing my
best to keep kids feeling confident to try creative things on the pitch. I praise my players and give them positive
reinforcement. I rotate my players so
that different players sit at the beginning of each game and my players get
equal playing time. I strongly believe
that up to 13 years of age, this must be the way. Consistently sitting on the bench kills kids’
confidence and does nothing to develop the creative players that our country
lacks today.
I encourage my players to hold the ball and use their skills
rather than just boot it away. I believe
that the game will teach them best, I really do. By holding the ball and trying to dribble
defenders they will learn far more than if they just pass the ball away as quickly
as possible. Kids need to have successes
and failures on the field on their own to learn. Every time a parent or coach yells for a kid
to boot the ball or kick it away or pass, we are removing an opportunity for a
player to potentially do something special and learn something that may stay
with them forever.
Learning when to pass is easy. Stand near any field and you will hear dozens
of parents who never played the game yelling to pass. If mom and dad, who really know little to
nothing about soccer, can get it why can’t we trust that the kids will get it
when they are a bit older? We only have
until a kid is 12 or 13 to develop their skills. After that, teaching passing and tactical
play is a breeze. Developmentally they
are more prepared for it at 13 and we didn’t waste valuable moments that they
could have been developing skills.
I refuse to be a remote control coach who tries to manage
every move my players make. I make
corrections off the ball. I call players
over to give them a bit of guidance…I generally sit and watch my kids play
taking note of things we can work on.
In training sessions I insist that the players are all
involved and I teach through 3v3 and 4v4 games rather than drills where the
kids are lined up. For me, practice time
is so precious and I would hate to waste any time running the kids without the
ball or sitting for 5, 10, or 30 minutes listening to me talk.
I play my kids in all different positions because I think it
helps them to learn more and develop more fully as players. At age nine or ten no one knows what type of
player a child will become so we must play them in different positions. I believe that we effectively kill off
potentially great, magical soccer players every season by forcing them into
positions at an early age and never letting them out.
Despite all of this I still fall short in one area. I really love to win. I suppose it is my competitive nature as a
lifetime athlete. Maybe it is that old
American ‘exceptionalism’. Whatever it
is, I do secretly pride myself on winning.
I don’t win at all costs. I do
adhere to my philosophies, more than most, but I do let my decision making be
driven by my desire to win. I still
think I “get it” more than most people, but I do still fall short in this
regard. I have to get better at this to
become the coach I desire to be.
I believe we (I) must take our focus off of winning and move
it to developing players fully so that they understand the game at their core,
not by us teaching them, but by learning and feeling the game all around them.
Immersion.
I promise you that Lionel Messi, who is by far the most
magical and creative players in the game today was not born that way and wasn’t
trained to be the way he is, but rather he developed. He plays like a child. He doesn’t think – he just plays
instinctively. This is the opposite of
the American way right now. Our soccer
is run by guys who played in college and use lots of catch phrases and run
patterns and can analyze systems of play…blah blah blah.
Many of the most valued coaches and trainers in our country
are the exact opposite of what we need. This
system is so entrenched right now, that it will take one or two generations of
“soccer guys” (and gals) to cycle out before we see any real change. National team boss Jurgen Klinsmann is a
great soccer mind who has the right ideas, but has his work cut out for
him. I hope that if he stays strong and can
have some impact on the entire system, then we might have a chance…
The reality is that to truly develop magical players we need
to move away from this focus on competition.
That may be a lot to ask.
Competition is at the core of the Americans psyche and maybe that is not
a bad thing, but it doesn’t do a lot to develop great players. Soccer is so different than nearly every
other sport in the planet and certainly in our country.
Since the competition is likely here to stay, we need to
work even harder to create ample opportunities for kids to play in an
environment that fosters experimentation and creativity. Whether it is a formal part of our training
schedule or it is on the street, in the parks, at school or at one of the many
indoor places popping up that run pickup sessions, kids must play massive
amounts of unstructured games between 5 and 13 years old if we really want to
be competitive in the world when it really matters at the national team level.
"Street Soccer"
I don’t know that I will ever stop wanting to win, but I
hope that as I continue growing as a coach, that I will do a better job of
trusting my players and allowing them to grow and struggle, and sort things out
for them selves. I am stealing this line
from another article I read about developing players, but…give someone a fish
and they will eat today, but teach them to fish and they will be able to eat
for a lifetime. The same applies to our
players….
