U11,u12,u13 playing time

[Unregistered]

If a European parent were reading this comment he would know that it will be a long time before the US Mens National team will be a threat. Nuuuuuhting holds the development of US soccer back more than the focus on games and winning games at these ages.

Read any book on the subject of development soccer, even ones written my prominent US coaches, and they all say that merit playing time at these ages only rewards the early developers and discourages the late bloomers who in many instances become superior athletes.

So the answer to the OP's question is if kids U10-12 are not getting substantial time and movement between positions you have the wrong coach. The key at this age is to find the right coach who has a track record of managing parents as well as players.

We have all seen players make great strides over the course of a season and at this age playing is games is crucial to making that improvement. So a coaches who relegate players to the bench early in the season are not only are doing a disservice to that player but their whole team as when the winner take all tourney's arrive at the end of the season he might only have 11 developed players vs. 15.

So true. It is so funny to watch parents club hop looking for wins.

[Unregistered]

All true but please name a club that truly does this at U12 & U13? Ours simply doesn't. Is there really anywhere a player can go to get this?

My son's team, at U12, does this. There isn't equal playing time for everyone, but the lower players all get at least 10 minutes per half. Usually 25 total a game, which isn't bad. And if that isn't enough, then they need to earn more time. Now State Cup or games with implications, then all bets are off.

[Unregistered]

Our boy's coach was great at this. He explained that during the course of the season he would move boys around and play them differently, but would strive for pretty equal time, however, if we are in a tournament or a situation where advancement is based on winning he might make a decision not to sub as much. This makes sense because winning means more games that can be split around. Even in those games I don't believe we ever had anyone ride the bench the whole game. Between 2 teams we won 8 state championships, one time regional finalist, one semi-finalist, and one quarter finalist.

In over 20 years of being involved in youth soccer in mumerous capacities as well as being a youth player myself, it's clear that there's a very strong correlation between how coaches handle playing time and playing positions and the quality of the coach and his or her ability to develop players and teams. The ones similar to the coach above are generally of the highest quality, who understand the long term objectives and how to get there. The ones who limit playing time for short term gratification are usually the poorest coaches with little knowledge and talent as a coach (although they tend to think of themselseves as good coaches). and homestly, that short term strategy is usually an illusion, because limiting playing time to your top 11 is usually a poor substitute for poor coaching.

[Unregistered]

If a European parent were reading this comment he would know that it will be a long time before the US Mens National team will be a threat. Nuuuuuhting holds the development of US soccer back more than the focus on games and winning games at these ages.

Read any book on the subject of development soccer, even ones written my prominent US coaches, and they all say that merit playing time at these ages only rewards the early developers and discourages the late bloomers who in many instances become superior athletes.

So the answer to the OP's question is if kids U10-12 are not getting substantial time and movement between positions you have the wrong coach. The key at this age is to find the right coach who has a track record of managing parents as well as players.

We have all seen players make great strides over the course of a season and at this age playing is games is crucial to making that improvement. So a coaches who relegate players to the bench early in the season are not only are doing a disservice to that player but their whole team as when the winner take all tourney's arrive at the end of the season he might only have 11 developed players vs. 15.

By U12 or U13, the Europeans are already sending their top players to real soccer academies.

The improvement is going to be more in training then minutes played in a game where they may touch the ball a total of 5 minutes.

The Europeans and other culture simply train more then in the US.

You point out books. Any books will tell you that we play too many games here and not enough training.

[Unregistered]

By U12 or U13, the Europeans are already sending their top players to real soccer academies.

The improvement is going to be more in training then minutes played in a game where they may touch the ball a total of 5 minutes.

The Europeans and other culture simply train more then in the US.

You point out books. Any books will tell you that we play too many games here and not enough training.

But if there isn't any wins, there can't be any medals. No medals and nothing for the ranking services to base their silly rankings on. No rankings, then no bragging or smack talk on T/S. That would give me as a parent, way too much extra time. Now excuse me while I make up something on a thread about the split leagues, ECNL or about some U11 girls team.

[Unregistered]

I. agree

By U12 or U13, the Europeans are already sending their top players to real soccer academies.

The improvement is going to be more in training then minutes played in a game where they may touch the ball a total of 5 minutes.

The Europeans and other culture simply train more then in the US.

You point out books. Any books will tell you that we play too many games here and not enough training.

However since we don't train 4 days a week lime our competitors the game has to substitute for that extra session. If parents would just understand that the ability of their DK to pass,
receive and move with and without the ball is more important than wins and losses at this age US soccer would make that jump we have been waiting 40 years for.

[Unregistered]

However since we don't train 4 days a week lime our competitors the game has to substitute for that extra session. If parents would just understand that the ability of their DK to pass,
receive and move with and without the ball is more important than wins and losses at this age US soccer would make that jump we have been waiting 40 years for.

What if we don't care about US soccer? What if we realize that little Johnny or Suzy will likely quit the game before HS anyway, and that they might as well win as much as they can before they move on to some other sport?

[Unregistered]

All true but please name a club that truly does this at U12 & U13? Ours simply doesn't. Is there really anywhere a player can go to get this?

Well I can only talk for our team from Washington Timbers. Last year everyone got at least 50% each game (which he said was his goal before the season) and that was in everything except state cup. He held to that, except there were still some parents who were unhappy with playing time even though he did exactly what he said, but that happens all the time.

[Unregistered]

However since we don't train 4 days a week lime our competitors the game has to substitute for that extra session. If parents would just understand that the ability of their DK to pass,
receive and move with and without the ball is more important than wins and losses at this age US soccer would make that jump we have been waiting 40 years for.

Train on your own. Plenty of kids around the world practice on their own.

Train and get better rather than just come on here and complain about lack of playing time.

If you only care about playing time then move your kid to a weaker team.

[Unregistered]

Wrong person.

Train on your own. Plenty of kids around the world practice on their own.

Train and get better rather than just come on here and complain about lack of playing time.

If you only care about playing time then move your kid to a weaker team.

Really you need to follow the conversation closer. The initial question and the responses that you are replying to have to do with playing time and development. Nobody said NOT to train on your own.

[Unregistered]

Really you need to follow the conversation closer. The initial question and the responses that you are replying to have to do with playing time and development. Nobody said NOT to train on your own.

You need to read all of the threads. The last one was since we don't train four times a week then we should substitute games in for training.

Also there was about a previous thread about development. Training is more important to development then simply playing games.

Really you need to follow the conversations closer.

[Unregistered]

What if we don't care about US soccer? What if we realize that little Johnny or Suzy will likely quit the game before HS anyway, and that they might as well win as much as they can before they move on to some other sport?

Those Johnny's and Suzies should be playing on lower level teams, that is what rec is for.

A major difficulty with supposedly "elite, premier, competitive, soccer" is well to do parents using it as a substitute for rec. This creates all kinds of problems, as the prices become inflated, the coaches rely on those parents to pay their bills and it scatters the real players who can afford it around too many teams, so that they are not really training with and playing against each other.

There should be an academy team at younger ages that is 100% free, where parents have no leverage, that starts at the younger ages. That is the real difference in Europe.

[Unregistered]

No try again

You need to read all of the threads. The last one was since we don't train four times a week then we should substitute games in for training.

Also there was about a previous thread about development. Training is more important to development then simply playing games.

Really you need to follow the conversations closer.

Really how closely do you read a sentence? What the post you were replying to said is that since we don't train 4 times a week the games are the SUBSTITUE for the extra session. Additionally, I the original poster who pointed out the flawed American system, said that we put too much emphasis on games and not enough on development & training.

We agree on the goal of more training and less emphasis on games and winning at the early ages..

[Unregistered]

Really ?

However since we don't train 4 days a week lime our competitors the game has to substitute for that extra session. If parents would just understand that the ability of their DK to pass,
receive and move with and without the ball is more important than wins and losses at this age US soccer would make that jump we have been waiting 40 years for.

At this age if the players would learn to pass and move they would be winning games. Have you never thought of this? Every club, coach and parent that says we are developing the basics for later on is just lying. Truth is, the teams that are winning already know these skills.

[Unregistered]

????

In over 20 years of being involved in youth soccer in mumerous capacities as well as being a youth player myself, it's clear that there's a very strong correlation between how coaches handle playing time and playing positions and the quality of the coach and his or her ability to develop players and teams. The ones similar to the coach above are generally of the highest quality, who understand the long term objectives and how to get there. The ones who limit playing time for short term gratification are usually the poorest coaches with little knowledge and talent as a coach (although they tend to think of themselseves as good coaches). and homestly, that short term strategy is usually an illusion, because limiting playing time to your top 11 is usually a poor substitute for poor coaching.

Actual coaches limit playing time for a variety of reasons. Foremost among them are missing practices, bad attitude, not paying attention, not working hard in practice, etc. Kids that try hard with good attitudes get playing time. Not every coach is as stupid as many here make them out to be.