US Soccer Player Development Initiatives

[Unregistered]

DD finished playing PAC-12 women's soccer way down south last Fall. Over and over again I heard players and sometimes coaches remark about a player or group of players being knocked off a ball due to size. The larger girls knew they could do this to the smaller player without fear of a referee's whistle. Size does matter and one only need to look at the best PAC-12 women's players to confirm this. There are also exceptions, but not many. By the way, nowadays the large players have just as much speed and quickness as almost all of the smaller players. It's pretty amazing. Go watch in person and see for yourself.

If smaller kids are not selected earlier and mixed in with bigger kids they simply don't learn the necessary techniques to compete against size.

A smaller player can get lower and take a larger player out of their center of gravity and compete, but they need to be placed with larger kids early on to develop those techniques. Just plain knocking a kid off the ball is not skill, but keeping a larger kid at bay is a skill AND technique that can be learned.

[Unregistered]

Do you hear this on FOX? What a load of nonsense!!

Get in touch with reality, dufus. Coaches selecting players based on their size is nonsense to you? You need a reality check. This is what happens a lot, particularly in Oregon. Our experience in California was drastically different. They actually have coaches that are technical and could actually demonstrate technique , so they appreciate players based on technical skills rather than size.