request for advice

[Unregistered]

A couple of weeks should be ok, but no more. It's very easy for a coach to get into a rut/routine.

[Unregistered]

Makes sense.

What do the coaching courses recommend for player positions at this age?

That's part of the problem with the coaching courses. They really don't address this kind of stuff. It's as if they don't want to step on anybody's toes and guaranteeed if they did dictate some of this stuff, there certainly would be coaches with their noses out of joint. But the problem is, it's about time that this stuff does get addressed. US Soccer has made an attempt with their Best Policies document, but it doesn't really go far enough.

[Unregistered]

My son joined a new U10 MAPLE team this fall. The problem is that the coach has him playing a position (almost exclusively) that he is not interested in playing. I believe it is important, especially at this age, for the kids to get experience at all positions, so that is not issue. But....I think if this keeps up my son is going to rapidly lose interest. Should I say something to the coach?

Thanks

As parents, naturally we are mainly concerned with the welfare and development of our child. When your child goes to school, you are really only interested in how he or she is progressing in school. Do you really care how the class is doing as a whole? As long as your child is doing well and the teacher is keeping pace with the required academic standards for his or her age, you are happy. You don't go around boasting that your child's class average was higher than the class next door. The class concept in school is seen as a logistical convenience where children of like-age are grouped together to learn academics and social skills within the dynamics of a group. Nothing more, nothing less.

The same concept should be applied to soccer. Just like a classroom, soccer should be seen as a convenient way to group players of similar age and ability together, to learn how to play soccer, as well as develop social skills. Nothing more, nothing less.

But parents and coaches seem to have a hard time accepting this notion. They let the team concept take over and become the focus of the soccer activity. It's no longer "my daughter is going to play today". Instead, it becomes "Stars TEAM playing Scorpions Team today".

People want to be part of a team. They feel safe and comfortable with a team. There are many positives in a team environment, such as building lifelong friendships, sharing common goals, and learning to trust and depend on others. But when the team assumes too much importance or consumes your life, it can lead to tension and conflicts. Games become more stressful. The mood of the family unit for the rest of the day hinges on the game's result and if the coach yells at my daughter.

"What is best for the team" overrides what is best for the individual players. The negative aspects of the team concept manifest themselves in many ways: the amount of playing time players get, rivalry between teams spilling over into arguments and even hostility, coaches fighting over players, referee abuse, back stabbing parents, etc.

As parents, you should only be concerned with one thing: is your child having fun? Put another way, is he or she being given the opportunity to play a lot and learn the game? How the team is doing has absolutely no impact on the future well being of your child. Mia Hamm and Landon Donovan did not get to play for the National Team because their U-10 Stars Academy team won the Ben Brewester Tournament. They made the national team because they developed into skillful and athletic players.

Your child might develop into a high level player, but he or she might not. A lot of this depends on the genes and is pre-determined before your child was even born. As long as he or she is having fun and developing a lifetime habit of healthy participation in sport, that's all you can ask for. Remember: the team is there to serve your CHILD'S needs. Your child is not there to serve the team's needs.

If the team's performance produces strong emotions in you, you need to step back and take a deep breath and suppress these emotions. The team is just a logistical expediency to engage a bunch of kids in play. Nothing more, nothing less. Tomorrow, your child will be part of another team.

Finally, parents must be wary of coaches who seem intent in building a " Mass soccer dynasty" at these young ages. If a coach approaches you with the intent to recruit your child into his team because "he wants to build a strong team", you should question his agenda. The chances are great that he will emphasize the wrong type of development and training, and that he will replace your child down the road when he thinks a better player turns up.

[HS Harry]

The above post is a very good one, and certainly the classroom analogy works when it comes to young soccer players. However, there is a crucial difference. Math or english are not team sports. Development and progress within a scholastic cirriculum is ultimatley independent of the class progress and what is all imprtant is what each individual student learns. Eventually you take your important tests alone!! Soccer on the other hand is a team sport and eventually a player will need to show their worth in that team/ game environment. In soccer you take your ultimate tests on the pitch - as a team. So I do not think it wise for players to be completely unconcerned about "team issues" at even the younger ages, its just that fitting into a role will become more important as the player ages. No doubt that we often pay too much attention on games and game results (at the younger ages) and not enough emphasis on hammering in the necessary individual skills during training. At 10, games should only be about providing an environment to incorporate those developing skills into real play. But we also cannot lose sight that soccer, like all sports, is going to be about about results - winning and losing. Every player will need to fill a role on their older teams. There is a basic set of skills and abilities that are necessary for all roles. At the younger ages the emphasis should be on perfecting those skills - before moving on to greater specialization. But skill devlopment for the sake of skill development is of little value too. We must be just as careful to avoid developing players devoid of the ability to help their teams win. The point? It is a balancing act. At 10, the pendulum should be swung way, way over to the individual side, by 16 or 17, it is much more about the team.

[Unregistered]

The above post is a very good one, and certainly the classroom analogy works when it comes to young soccer players. However, there is a crucial difference. Math or english are not team sports. Development and progress within a scholastic cirriculum is ultimatley independent of the class progress and what is all imprtant is what each individual student learns. Eventually you take your important tests alone!! Soccer on the other hand is a team sport and eventually a player will need to show their worth in that team/ game environment. In soccer you take your ultimate tests on the pitch - as a team. So I do not think it wise for players to be completely unconcerned about "team issues" at even the younger ages, its just that fitting into a role will become more important as the player ages. No doubt that we often pay too much attention on games and game results (at the younger ages) and not enough emphasis on hammering in the necessary individual skills during training. At 10, games should only be about providing an environment to incorporate those developing skills into real play. But we also cannot lose sight that soccer, like all sports, is going to be about about results - winning and losing. Every player will need to fill a role on their older teams. There is a basic set of skills and abilities that are necessary for all roles. At the younger ages the emphasis should be on perfecting those skills - before moving on to greater specialization. But skill devlopment for the sake of skill development is of little value too. We must be just as careful to avoid developing players devoid of the ability to help their teams win. The point? It is a balancing act. At 10, the pendulum should be swung way, way over to the individual side, by 16 or 17, it is much more about the team.

So glad to read this calm, intelligent response.

The prior post had a few good points that managed to end up way, way off the mark. A team sport is a TEAM sport. That is the beauty of it. You learn to work as a group to achieve a goal. You learn to stop thinking only or yourself (something humans are naturally born doing) and find the joy in a shared achievement.

If your child wants to have the relationship with a sport that this poster describes, then go for tennis, track, skiing, or any of the other sports in which the participant has only to worry about their own development as an athlete. If your kid is just like you, and you love fly fishing, than competitive team sports are probably a bad idea. If he is not like you and loves group activities, then stand back, see where he is happiest, and then do NOT approach his experience as if he is in a science classroom!

All my kids love team sports. Both their parents did individual sports. If I can get it, you can get it. The life lessons from the team experience are beautiful. Yes, youplaytowinthegame, but we've had good coaches, starting at U10, who have balanced the importance of development with the joy of winning. I have Div. 1 and varsity players now. They are strong individuals and great team players. I am proud of them. The kids with the parents like the "classroom" poster left soccer long ago. They are out there fly fishing somewhere.

[Unregistered]

So glad to read this calm, intelligent response.

The prior post had a few good points that managed to end up way, way off the mark. A team sport is a TEAM sport. That is the beauty of it. You learn to work as a group to achieve a goal. You learn to stop thinking only or yourself (something humans are naturally born doing) and find the joy in a shared achievement.

If your child wants to have the relationship with a sport that this poster describes, then go for tennis, track, skiing, or any of the other sports in which the participant has only to worry about their own development as an athlete. If your kid is just like you, and you love fly fishing, than competitive team sports are probably a bad idea. If he is not like you and loves group activities, then stand back, see where he is happiest, and then do NOT approach his experience as if he is in a science classroom!

All my kids love team sports. Both their parents did individual sports. If I can get it, you can get it. The life lessons from the team experience are beautiful. Yes, youplaytowinthegame, but we've had good coaches, starting at U10, who have balanced the importance of development with the joy of winning. I have Div. 1 and varsity players now. They are strong individuals and great team players. I am proud of them. The kids with the parents like the "classroom" poster left soccer long ago. They are out there fly fishing somewhere.

Completely different poster than the previous ones. What you are missing is the fact that children have to learn how to play the sport as an individual before they can learn to play the sport as part of a team. This is where the school room analogy comes in and that is why there is a certain progression for coaching soccer that moves from individual technique to individual tactics to small group tactics to advanced technique to team tactics. In learning to play the game, you have to match the mental and physical abilities of the children to what is being taught just like teachers do in the classroom. The last part of that progression doesn't occurs around U14/U15/U16 or to continue the analogy, at high school age.

What you are actually referencing is the psychological part of team sports. This is the only part of learning the sport that starts with the team and works backward to the individual as the athlete ages. Your confusion reflects the confusion of many adults who have no real experience teaching/coaching children, but are applying their own experiences having played team sports. Their experience usually relates to their participation in high school or college sports, none of which applies to pre-adolescent athletes.

[dd2]

The school analogy is an intriguing one. I wonder if the best educational analogy isn't "regular" school involving math or history, but specialized education such as drama or music. In that context, there is no question that a school owes each of its students an obligation to develop individual skills, yet at other times (e.g. during performance of a play) where individual development will be tempered by group goals. Not everyone who is ready to handle the lead role is going to get the role, and all who participate are expected to do their best for the production as a whole even if they don't get the lead.

If anything, the school analogy suggests how clubs often fail their players. An arts school may want to put out an award-winning theater production, and it will recruit top talent for its student body. But, once a student has been accepted, a good school gives that student individual attention (i.e. individual acting lessons, or at least classes where 1 on 1 instruction is possible) and structures its program around an appropriate mix of individual and group opportunities. I don't think soccer clubs do this well, and I think kids would benefit if clubs did.

Let me also say that I don't think the school analogy is perfect. The original poster of the idea appeared to suggest that parents have a simple, appropriate attitude towards how their children do in school. I think it's much more complicated than that. Parents are as pushy about getting their kids advantages in school as they are in soccer. There are plenty of parents knocking on principals' doors to have their kids moved into advanced placement classes because it looks good for college admissions, even if their kids haven't passed the tests or received the earlier grades necessary. And of course, parents demand a great deal from schools in terms of quality of classroom experience.

I'm not necessarily criticizing parents who do these things. But, to the extent that the original poster suggests that things would be better in sports if parents treated sports like school, I'm not sure that parents behave differently in the two areas. In either case, they're doing what they think will help their kids most, and that can create friction - especially when there is competition for scarce opportunities. And, in either case, parents sometimes need to know when to leave well enough alone.

[Unregistered]

Looking for talented players who could play as a team was one of our main reasons for bringing our players to club at U10. Ten years later, I am now watching my third player play beautiful possession soccer in practice and games -- at U11. If his coach was totally focused on individual skills, he wouldn't show up. The scrimmages at the end of practice are the reward for the skill work. The games on Sunday are the reward for the practices. This isn't school -- it's the opposite. You get to totally work together and win or loose as a team.

Focusing on soccer as an individual training exercise until U14 would be like teaching a kid piano by working on technique until age 14 on a soundless keyboard. Why show up?

[Unregistered]

Looking for talented players who could play as a team was one of our main reasons for bringing our players to club at U10. Ten years later, I am now watching my third player play beautiful possession soccer in practice and games -- at U11. If his coach was totally focused on individual skills, he wouldn't show up. The scrimmages at the end of practice are the reward for the skill work. The games on Sunday are the reward for the practices. This isn't school -- it's the opposite. You get to totally work together and win or loose as a team.

Focusing on soccer as an individual training exercise until U14 would be like teaching a kid piano by working on technique until age 14 on a soundless keyboard. Why show up?

There you go again. Another poster that hasn't got a clue.

[Unregistered]

Grownups. UGH. They think the fun right out of everything.

[Unregistered]

beautiful possession soccer in practice and games -- at U11.

what r u smoking?

[Unregistered]

what r u smoking?

Nothing. Try wading your through the 100's of mediocre teams in Maple to some of the top teams at the top clubs. You'd be amazed at the talent of the kids and the coaches who are developing them these days. MA soccer has come a long way in the past ten years.