Single Player Issue

The following article was written by Antonio Saviano and featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine.

I have been giving some thought about the “single player” issue on a soccer team, which leads me to wonder how many coaches find themselves in the same situation, having one good player on the team?.

I often notice, while I conduct a coaching symposium and when speaking with coaches, that I hear about how most teams have only one good player, or the teams have only one player who tries very hard compared to the other players, or the team has only one player with a good attitude.

One time, just out of curiosity I took this problem and asked a question of the parents. “Are there any ‘special’ players on this team”? The following information was interesting to me and I am sure it will be interesting to all of you also. I could speak with five or six different parents from the same team and in each case there is always one "special" player. And not very surprisingly to me, that “special” player is always the son or daughter of the parent.

While I believe it is a parent’s right to think that their child is special, the fact is that coaches sometimes never stop hearing about how good their child is. This is not all, it can also go on to the next step which now is to hear that there are some players do not play the way they should, but are the coach’s favorites. So I tell my self: “It is just not enough to speak well about their own children but also speak ill of other players”.

Parents have to come to the realization that the team can not be successful unless two golden rules are mandatory on the team:

1. Parents support each other
2. Players support each other

On a related note, players have to participate on a team in which the two rules above are part of the team’s spirit. To be a top soccer player, a player must make all of the other players around him or her feel supported and always give positive feedbacks. And what is true for the players goes for the parents as well as for the coach.

Players can use different ways to help their teammates become better soccer players, and coaches can develop players through a variety of training methods. But one of the first things that must be done by the coach is to educate parents on how important it is to encourage youth players and give them positive feedbacks.

While I agree that it is important to allow parents to approach the coach and ask questions concerning issues such as playing time, I am not so much into an agreement when the conversation turns direction and concerns the quality of different players on the team. Then it becomes unacceptable for me.

This draft was featured in the Scuola Calcio Magazine. To get more information please click here!

Scuola Calcio Coaching Magazine is aimed and dedicated to providing first class soccer information for instructors at all levels throughout the North America and the World.

Cassano Focused on Playing

Antonio Cassano has been grabbing the headlines for all the right reasons.

The Sampdoria striker lit up the Derby of the Laterns against Genoa with a sublime performance.

Hero status in the eyes of the Doria fans was assured when in the dying moments he bamboozled three defenders before delivering a telling cross for Christian Maggio to score the winner.

However, the 25-year-old admitted he was making up for lost time, having failed to prove his worth at Real Madrid over two seasons.

The Bari-born star said: "I became too distracted in Madrid, away from the life of a footballer.

"I wanted to come back to Italy because Madrid wasn't the type of city for me to be a sportsman."

Despite some controversial on-field antics, the former AS Roma star is now thriving in his new-found role as team leader as coach Walter Mazzarri's side chase a UEFA Cup spot.

He added: "I could easily see myself signing a long-term contract here. I have even told the president I will reduce my salary if he can build a title-challenging side."

In the picture, no sitting down on the job for Antonio Cassano after five goals in 13 Serie A appearances this season

This article was featured on SerieA.tv. To visit SerieA.tv click here!

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.

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/