Coaching Youth Soccer

It is important to understand the reason youth players choose to participate in any sport. Sometimes players do not come to sport by their own choice, but rather by the choice of the parent’s. As a result, instructors need to give youth players something to get excited about.

We need to keep in mind that at a very young age learning to play soccer is secondary to most other things in their lives.

Let’s look at some things that we can do to energize youth players and hopefully get them to the point where they will learn enthusiastically.

Sessions should be geared around touching the ball as many times as possible. Involve the ball in each activity. Movements such as running, skipping, hopping, jumping, rolling, etc. must be emphasized to build coordination and athleticism. Players must develop the physical capacity to perform technical skills.

Training sessions should not last for more than 60-90 minutes. Physical fatigue is a factor and attention span is a consideration. Train once or twice a week.

FUN is the emphasis while working with the young age groups. Always remember the players’ physical and mental maturity. Each activity should accommodate the players’ level of understanding.

Team play and passing is a psychological threat for younger players. The player feels that if they pass the ball, they may never get it back.

Sometimes you will notice that teammates will steal the ball from each other. Frustrating to the coach for sure but normal behavior and logical if you understand things from the child/player’s perspective. The coach must understand and accommodate this perspective.

This article was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine

Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed to improve youth players from the age of 5 and up. Every activity will be specifically targeted to the appropriate age group.

Don Fabio, What To Expect England!

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Monday he starts his new job. I doubt the English people are very clear on what the next four years of national football will bring them. The media sure don`t.

They don`t seem to have a clue, as usual. After all the cries for only an Englishman can manage England they got McClaren and that silenced those cries. (For now).

Fabio Capello will be the highest paid national coach, quite possibly the highest paid coach period. Which means there is no reason to moan about his pay. A major newspaper issue with Sven Göran Eriksson. Even if Capello too is forced away the severance pay will ensure that Wembley will be leased out to just about anything thinkable so that the FA will make the dough.

Don`t expect attractive, creative, attacking football a la Nike`s joga bonito. Capello will not, as Grant, even pretend to offer that. If you thought José Mourinho had a set system of how football is to be played, then you will not be able to imagine how Capello does it. Capello will literally run over the Queen to get England to play his football. Whatever the press says. Capello has never ever failed in proving that his way is the right way. If you want to win.

The media will hate him (love him for the abuse they can throw at him). As he will in no way bow down to them as the last couple of managers have. Capello will not listen to the media, nor will he let the media pick the players. He will not offer up any nice scandals by being caught with his zipper down as Eriksson (especially not with that infamous Ulrika). He will infuriate the press I think.

Don Fabio has an idea about what football is. That idea is; it is all about winning. I repeat; It is all about winning! That is the beauty, the meaning and the purpose of playing football. Fabio Capello is the guy you turn to if you want to win. It can be beautiful and it can be ugly, but it will be winning. It will be effective, it will utilise the talent of the players whether that pleases or not pleases the audience. He will enjoy the feared England boo-boys. If he plays Lampard no audience in the world can make him change his mind.

Something I think England desperately needs!

The English media is used to running the national team and with Capello they wont. (Absolutely everything I write is however dependant on the guts and courage of the FA, and around that serious doubt can be raised. So for the sake of argument let us pretend they will stand firmly behind Capello! Not that that is all that likely, we all know how the media can turn coach and management on each other, Chelsea is just another example.)..............read more!

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How Important Is Winning In Youth Soccer

The question is “how important is winning in youth soccer?”

The answer to the above question it will vary and it also depends from who is answering it. For the youth players the answer evidently is, “not really, we like to have fun”. When youth players, between the age of 9 to 13 were asked if “winning” was important to them the response was “Not Really”. The same players were asked the simple questions of “what would they change about playing soccer”, the answer was “less emphasis on winning” and “make it more FUN”.

Of course the importance of winning changes with the players ages: Younger players are more interested in the "fun of the game”, while older players become easily more concerned about winning. But even then, many players say that they would rather play on a losing team than "sit the bench" on a winning team.

If coaches or parents were asked the same question “how important winning is” to the success of team, many of them clearly would respond, "VERY IMPORTANT!"

Even when some coaches do not keep scores or win-lost records, the other adults involved, “parents” know exactly what the results are. For them, winning games is more important therefore "Winning isn¹t everything, it's the only thing," attitude develops.

Some parents along with some coaches believe that winning is essential to success in youth soccer, they place emphasis on which division they play in or which travel level they play. Some may count the trophies they bring back from tournaments, keep track of the scores, check standings to see who has to win and who has to lose for the team to move up. They try to recruit players to their teams rather than support the development of players from within the team. Coaches and parents who focus on winning in these terms are viewing youth soccer as they likely would view adult endeavors.

This thinking often results in loosing players at a younger age. Players are pressured in a negative way instead of a positive way. This may be one of the reason why at the age of 14 we see a decrease of children playing soccer.

Concentrating exclusively on the final score of a soccer game as the important outcome causes negative feeling between youth soccer players, let alone parents! The attitude to have from coaches towards parents or the other coaches who want to win at all cost is simple: Winning should not be everything but trying to win is ok. Determination to win is the essence of soccer. By placing the emphasis on the players and their effort, winning is redefined in such a way that it comes within the reach of all. But here is a good question: how is effort defined and measured?

The answer lies in observing the youth players while they play. It is relatively easy to see whether they are taking the game seriously or are simply "playing the game."

If they are taking the game seriously then we will notice a “great effort”. If they are “playing the game” we will notice “some lack of enthusiasm and effort”. Each of those performances must be evaluated within each game.

The challenge is not for the players but for the parents and coaches to redefine winning in terms of effort and to restructure the soccer development. Some potential changes lie in:

• Creating balanced competitions so that outcomes are not in doubt.
• Helping players set achievable and individual goals.
• Teaching players to measure their success in terms of attaining such Goals.
• Celebrating with and rewarding players who reach their goals.

Most of the time youth players look forward to competitions to be fair and for the outcome to be balanced. If these conditions are met, they will make and give a maximum effort, otherwise, they are likely to spend their time complaining about how unbalanced the teams are or how unfair the game was. It is coaches who do not see the player development concept as an important aspect of the soccer game that "stack" teams and want to win at all cost. Statistics show that youth players look for fairness in the games they play.

Meaningful and attainable goals are essential to success in any activity, but never more so than in youth soccer. Young players should have defined clear goals to work for and learn, and they should be involved in establishing these goals. Individual goals are much more effective than group or team goals in a younger age group. Team goals allow each player to know exactly what needs to be accomplished as a team. Individual goals give players an idea of what should be done to have their efforts measured against each other. Reaching the goals can only be accomplished through learning and executing the basic fundamentals, the goals become the means of measuring effort:

• Did the players give the effort in practice
• Did the players give the effort in the game
• How was the performance
• What should we do to improve the above

Finally, when the goals are reached, the players achievement should be recognized and respected. This will motivate the players and acknowledge the importance of striving to meet the goals and to be competitive.
Giving effort is within the reach of any players and is appropriate for all players. Consequently, it constitutes a definition of winning that can be applied to all situations.

The proper questions for parents to ask to their children are not "Did you win?" or "How many goals did you score?" Rather it should be "Did you give your best effort?" or "Did you learn from the game?"
Youth players often can answer "Yes" to these questions, even when the results were negative.

The result of defining "winning" in terms of effort and development rather than outcome is to make youth soccer more interesting, meaningful, satisfying and enjoyable. Striving to win and giving the best effort are objectives that every coach, player, parent or adult can and should support.

About The Author

Antonio Saviano is the founder of Soccerkix, Scuola Calcio, Italian Premier Soccer School and Soccerkix Academy, a clearing house for the Italian Soccer experience. He has been the North America Director for many Italian professional soccer clubs, including Ascoli Soccer Academy, AC Parma Scuola Calcio and AC Perugia Scuola Calcio. In that capacity he has been helping, leading and developing coaching and player development programs for over 100 affiliated soccer schools across North America and Europe. He is also a freelance writer for Soccer Coaching Magazine.

Antonio has written several books on youth development, among them, “U-6 – U-12 Development Theory”, “U-8 – U-10 Soccer School Development Manual”. He co-authored “Playing to Learn to Play, Didactic Progression for the Development of the Technical-Tactical Fundamentals in the Soccer Schools” and has produced a training video.

For more information you can visit: www.soccerkix.com and http://soccerkix.blogspot.com/

Small Sided Games - Is it Better?

The activities in the youth sector, 10 - 12 years of age, have as the main objectives the teaching of all individual abilities that represent the fundamental base of the game of soccer. The individual abilities are what we call, the technical fundamentals, the individual tactical fundamentals and the techniques of the players.

Unfortunately the instructors that work with these delicate age groups do not always incorporate the objectives mentioned above, but instead they turn their attention towards activities related to the adult soccer players. The reasons for these "deviations" may be are because of the desire to reach the "winning" results, which, in many cases can be an easy objective to reach with the young age groups.

They insist by working on the collective tactics instead of the individual tactics, and ignore the development of the individual techniques, as it is an important aspect of the player development growth and require much patience from the instructors as it does not show or bring fast results.
It is in fact important that the young players will use their own individual abilities during the game.

The game in fact represents the moment more important for a self-evaluation of the players and an individual player evaluation for the instructors. It does not make sense for example that a player will work and learn all week to dribble but in the game they will not have the chance to dribble and take the opponent's player on. Therefore playing 11 vs. 11 on a regular size field will not satisfy the technical needs of these age groups.

Moreover, the regular size field would not guarantee the involvement of all players, especially the ones with less skills, and since the possibility to keep possession of the ball is very slim, it would not allow the constant application of the individual technical and tactical fundamentals.

About Soccer Coaching Magazine

Initial success is not what soccer coaching magazines are all about. We understand that initial success may not necessarily translate into long term success. It is distributed through out North America and is already enjoying international distribution. It provides some of the best soccer information in the world. There are several good soccer magazines that are a wealth of information for soccer players, instructors, and parents. They are committed to share the most effectively youth player methods.

Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed to improve youth players from the age of 5 and up. Every activity will be specifically targeted to the appropriate age group.

For more information visit: http://www.soccercoachingmagazine.com

Defensive Aspects of a Player

In the modern game of soccer, the defender is not only the player who covers all the roles on the defensive side. The player or the players who are not in possession of the ball should also be considered defenders. One of the simple rule to make young players understand who is the defender on the field at any given time is to explain that the player that is the "closest" to the ball is a defender. He is the one who needs to pressure the ball first.

Let's try to examine the player who finds him self in the front of an opponent with a 1v1 defensive aspect situation.

Almost every aspect of a soccer game is a 1v1 situation. Every situation of play between a forward and a defender decides the possession of the ball, switches the game from the offensive mode to the defensive mode or vice versa and can determine the final outcome. The simple saying of a coach is: "Win in the 1v1 situation and most likely win the game". The teaching of the 1v1 is crucial, either for the individual success of the player that the one for the entire team.
The various tactical defensive systems of plays from various teams such as, man defense, four in the back, three in the back with a stopper, defensive mid fielders, etc., have one final result; whatever is the system of play, each player has precise defensive responsibilities.. These can be reduced by the 1v1 situations. There is a good reason why the 1v1 is described as a base of the game of soccer.

The individual defensive play is the base for the team's tactical defensive play. The 1v1 play, either in the attacking or in the defensive, should be the base of the tactical exercises and knowledge. The results in the 1v1, either in attack or defense, is determined, not only from the player's capacities but also by the opponent's capacities and also by the situation of play.

About Soccer Coaching Magazine

Initial success is not what soccer coaching magazines are all about. We understand that initial success may not necessarily translate into long term success. It is distributed through out North America and is already enjoying international distribution. It provides some of the best soccer information in the world. There are several good soccer magazines that are a wealth of information for soccer players, instructors, and parents. They are committed to share the most effectively youth player methods.

Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed to improve youth players from the age of 5 and up. Every activity will be specifically targeted to the appropriate age group.

For more information visit http://www.soccercoachingmagazine.com