How to tell if a player is developing? Coaches please

[Unregistered]

Why is what we are doing not working? If you look at soccer and its level of interest in the USA it seems to me anyway that we compete pretty well.
Our women are usually ranked #1, and you can count on them to be in the final game of most major championships.
Our men almost always make the tournament in world cup.
Not bad for a country that doesnt count soccer as one of its marquee sports. As soccer grows our expectations for the men and the results will get better.

hmm.. good points.

it seems to me like this board is filled all of the things we are not doing. if oregon soccer or youth soccer were doing a fine job, then i would expect an american messi, the best league in the world, and more than one world cup championship. it's a lot to ask, but it's no more than what the rest of y'all want.

at the very least i would expect none of the parents to complain about how the state of soccer sucks, and all the coaches suck, and all the refs suck, and all the players suck except my player and their one friend, but not their other friend.

[Unregistered]

Messi didn't have other options

hmm.. good points.

it seems to me like this board is filled all of the things we are not doing. if oregon soccer or youth soccer were doing a fine job, then i would expect an american messi, the best league in the world, and more than one world cup championship. it's a lot to ask, but it's no more than what the rest of y'all want.

at the very least i would expect none of the parents to complain about how the state of soccer sucks, and all the coaches suck, and all the refs suck, and all the players suck except my player and their one friend, but not their other friend.

Could it be that our "Messi's" are distracted by all of the other more LUCRATIVE sports?

The day that the MSL pays a player $27 million to play soccer is the day that our best athletes take soccer seriously. Right now the system that guides that level of athlete is not guiding them to soccer because there is very little money.

Parents, Agents and College Coaches are not saying to that talented boy athlete "Son y'all going play soccer and have a shoe named after you some day"!

[Unregistered]

Agree on not forcing a kid to play. I think one big barrier is not knowing how to measure development. Paying for a trainer is not bad. If your kid was struggling in school or attended a poor school district then most parents would seek out extra support or try to get them into a stronger school. A trainer is extra support to help. If a kid desires to get better then why not support that?

Question to the coaches- can you tell at U12/13 who the good players will be at U18?

Any decent coach will be measuring individual development and would be able to give you feedback and a road-map of where the player is now and where they are headed. Many coaches would need you to ask them first, because most parents don't give a crap. If their kid is on a team that wins a lot of games they are happy and if they aren't, they will go find a new team.

If your coach can't give you any worthwhile assessment of player development when you ask, then you have the wrong coach, no matter how much they win, or how much you are paying.

The second question, you absolutely cannot tell who ALL the good players will be when they are U12/U13, but there are some that you absolutely know will be dynamite early on. If the kid loves the game at U12/U13 then they have a chance, because 70% of their peers won't be playing in a few years.

[Unregistered]

more things. thank you.

Could it be that our "Messi's" are distracted by all of the other more LUCRATIVE sports?

The day that the MSL pays a player $27 million to play soccer is the day that our best athletes take soccer seriously. Right now the system that guides that level of athlete is not guiding them to soccer because there is very little money.

Parents, Agents and College Coaches are not saying to that talented boy athlete "Son y'all going play soccer and have a shoe named after you some day"!

there's another thing to add to the list.

[Unregistered]

You are right and you are wrong. The kids want to compete, no doubt about it and it should be encouraged.

We need to be MORE competitive and we are in fact less competitive than our European counterparts, that you want to deride as socialists and communists.

We need to be far more competitive about individual player development and a lot less competitive about teams, which is really at the heart of this thread.

Our clubs and teams at a premier level should be a constant competition of the INDIVIDUALS to get better and improve and compete against one another to be better. The team results should be less important.

In fact I would say all the team mentality BS is the socialist perspective and is not the American way. The America I know and love and the concept of capitalism that I espouse is about individualism and free will and personal responsibility for your actions and reward for your endeavors.

The individual players at clubs and on teams should be being graded and trained and nurtured to improve on an individual basis and if we did that we would have much more competitive teams later on when they are older and it matters.

I love that idea - and I agree...but how can you make that happen when soccer is a "team" sport. My DD is 11 and the "team" is everything to her. She is definitely one of the best individual players, but she could care less about that. She loves to compete with her teammates and honestly I think that is what keeps her loving the game the most.

[Unregistered]

I love that idea - and I agree...but how can you make that happen when soccer is a "team" sport. My DD is 11 and the "team" is everything to her. She is definitely one of the best individual players, but she could care less about that. She loves to compete with her teammates and honestly I think that is what keeps her loving the game the most.

What is the most important thing for development at young ages? When should playes start to specialize in a position?

[Unregistered]

What is the most important thing for development at young ages? When should playes start to specialize in a position?

Focusing on technical skill development relentlessly, attacking and defending 1 v 1 and hours and hours of small sided games, where they are exposed to soccer problems constantly and engaged in the game, as well as being forced to develop close control and accelerated decision making, due to the tighter boundaries.

Players should not be assigned to specific positions until U14 at the earliest.

http://soccerthought.com/player-deve...pecialization/

[Unregistered]

Focusing on technical skill development relentlessly, attacking and defending 1 v 1 and hours and hours of small sided games, where they are exposed to soccer problems constantly and engaged in the game, as well as being forced to develop close control and accelerated decision making, due to the tighter boundaries.

Players should not be assigned to specific positions until U14 at the earliest.

http://soccerthought.com/player-deve...pecialization/

Great article. When you see top teams at young ages winning but, no rotation of players especially girls in goalie all game at u11 or u12 you wonder how this impacts development. Being on winning teams at young ages may just be harmful to players if no rotation in positions.

[Unregistered]

I love that idea - and I agree...but how can you make that happen when soccer is a "team" sport. My DD is 11 and the "team" is everything to her. She is definitely one of the best individual players, but she could care less about that. She loves to compete with her teammates and honestly I think that is what keeps her loving the game the most.

My experience is that my kids love playing, whether it is in the backyard against each other and their parents, with their team during "the season", futsal, or practice. They love to test themselves and compete in that moment.

I don't think my kids would know or care about standings, leagues and winning outside of a game by game basis, if adults were not constantly talking about it.

[Unregistered]

The second question, you absolutely cannot tell who ALL the good players will be when they are U12/U13, but there are some that you absolutely know will be dynamite early on. If the kid loves the game at U12/U13 then they have a chance, because 70% of their peers won't be playing in a few years.

This is true. Having 2 older kids now, I can say with absolute certainty, it is a marathon, not a sprint. So many players from my kids early teams and super intense parents are no longer playing at all.

[Unregistered]

This is true. Having 2 older kids now, I can say with absolute certainty, it is a marathon, not a sprint. So many players from my kids early teams and super intense parents are no longer playing at all.

Poor argument. So many kids from my oldest daughter's team quit and their parents were not "super intense". They either realized they were not good enough to compete at the highest level or they realized they just want to do something else. It is called growing up. I don't expect my youngest to know what they want to be in life at 11, let alone whether they want to play soccer at 15. Dumb, dumb argument.

[Unregistered]

Poor argument. So many kids from my oldest daughter's team quit and their parents were not "super intense". They either realized they were not good enough to compete at the highest level or they realized they just want to do something else. It is called growing up. I don't expect my youngest to know what they want to be in life at 11, let alone whether they want to play soccer at 15. Dumb, dumb argument.

I wasn't attempting to draw a correlation between intensity and quitting. More pointing out that even many of those players that were really good and whose parents were very invested ALSO quit, right along with the not so intense daisy pickers.

The overarching point is a good one and had nothing to do with your tirade and you did not really address it in any way.

[Unregistered]

I wasn't attempting to draw a correlation between intensity and quitting. More pointing out that even many of those players that were really good and whose parents were very invested ALSO quit, right along with the not so intense daisy pickers.

The overarching point is a good one and had nothing to do with your tirade and you did not really address it in any way.

Tirade? Lol. Your overarching point sucked. Just admit it. Why don't you throw some other lame ***** cliche out there? "It's a marathon, not a sprint"...come up with something original for once.

[Unregistered]

I wasn't attempting to draw a correlation between intensity and quitting. More pointing out that even many of those players that were really good and whose parents were very invested ALSO quit, right along with the not so intense daisy pickers.

The overarching point is a good one and had nothing to do with your tirade and you did not really address it in any way.

Uhh....actually you did draw that correlation. I read the other post as a contradiction to your opinion. Why did you become so personally hurt by it?

"This is true. Having 2 older kids now, I can say with absolute certainty, it is a marathon, not a sprint. So many players from my kids early teams and super intense parents are no longer playing at all."

[Unregistered]

Agree. Many of the great players with those super intense parents from my kids teams ended up quitting - more so than the ones with "mellow" parents. They push their kids to be the superstar best player on the team and if the intense parents see that that their kid isn't going to be one of the very very best they quit soccer and move on to another sport or some other college resume building activity that they think the kid has a better chance at being one of the very best. These kinds of parents can't handle their kid being the 4th best kid on a team. On the other hand, I've seen those kids that quit go on to be even more successful at other endeavors so maybe it's not a bad idea. Soccer isn't the only path in life.