Soccer With Coach Jeff Ginn

Strike The Ball Like Clint Dempsey

2012-01-24T12:15:00.009-07:00

By Ricky Clarke.

Clint Dempsey has become the first American player to score a hat-trick in the English Premier League. Dempsey produced an outstanding display of technical ability (watch how David Beckham strikes the ball almost the exact same way), movement and game awareness. Scoring three goals against Newcastle United in a rout this Saturday.

Below, I’ve outlined his key movements and decision-making process during his second goal.

Dempsey - Movement Pattern #1

Dempsey makes a great run across the defender, anticipating a pass from Zamora.

Dempsey – Movement Pattern #2

Dempsey recognizes the space created by Johnson, Zamora finds him with a pass.

Dempsey – Technical Adjustments #3

Dempsey arrived balanced. Non-kicking foot placed next to the ball and with his eyes on the ball.

Dempsey – Movement Pattern #4

Dempsey gets his body in-between the ball and the defender, and then strikes across the goal keeper scoring his second goal of the game.

Client Dempsey – Technical Striking Session

Ricky Clarke is a USSF ‘A’ License, USSF Youth License and NSCAA Master Diploma coach. Ricky is the DOC of Mission Valley United, leading several teams to state championships. Ricky also coaches for the Northern California ODP programs and is a state course instructor and NSCAA associate staff coach. Visit his Blog here.

This article was found on the World Class Coaching Blog.

Your connection is what they will remember.

2011-11-08T16:34:00.002-07:00

Take one second and think about the best teacher, coach, or mentor you ever had.

Now come up with one memory of them, fast.

(Got it?)

What’s your memory? Is it something your coach/teacher/mentor said? Something they did?

Perhaps what you remembered wasn’t anything particular they said or did, but just their face — specifically their eyes, and how those eyes looked at you — or, rather, looked into you. Which is to say: the lasting impact of our teachers might not be contained in their words, but in the connections they form with us.

When you look around today, a lot of coaches and teachers and bosses seem to be doing everything but connecting. Go to a soccer game, for instance, and you tend to see coaches on the sideline doing a lot of talking (shouting out mid-game advice, orchestrating the action), but not a lot of connecting. Certain CEOs and managers are similar, though perform do their sideline orchestrating via email. But is this wise? Is it useful?

I recently met a terrific soccer coach by the name of Iain Munro, who coaches at YSC Sports Academy in Philadelphia (a burgeoning soccer hotbed in its own right). Munro, who’s in his sixties, played and coached at the top level in England and his native Scotland (working with, among others, Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein). I put the question to Munro this way: if the average coach says 100 words to his players, how many words should a master coach say?

Munro looked into my eyes; he let me know he really heard the question and was giving it due consideration. He placed a friendly hand on my shoulder, and I got an ineffable feeling that I was about to hear something important. Then I did.

“Ten words,” he said. “Fewer, if possible.”

The truth is, great coaches and teachers don’t spend their time talking. They spend most of their time watching and listening. And when they communicate, they don’t just start talking. First they connect on an emotional level, to one individual at a time. They deliver concise, useful information, and they make that information stick. Kind of like Munro did when he communicated with me.

So with that in mind I’d like to offer the following checklist; a filter to use before you start talking.

· 1. Are you connected? Do you have the person’s complete and undivided attention?

· 2. Do you know — deeply understand — where that person is in their development right now, and what the next step is?

· 3. Can you, in five seconds or less, deliver a clear, memorable piece of useful information to help them take that step?

Watch Munro work with his soccer teams and you’ll see him sidle up to a player during a drill, without interrupting the larger flow. He puts the hand on their shoulder, connects to them, and delivers a nugget of helpful information. Then he steps away, allowing the player to take that nugget and start applying it.

Munro’s players, of course, will remember him for the rest of their lives. Not because he makes them better (which he does) or because he’s so entertaining (which he is, too) but for the same reason you remember your greatest coach: because he’s not about himself, he’s really about the people he’s trying to help.

Why Winning Isn't a Priority in Youth Soccer

2011-10-27T12:12:00.011-06:00

By Coach V
BlastTheBall.com
View original posting by clicking here.

"Winning is not everything? What a bunch of junk."

I remember uttering those words in my mind many years ago after listening to the usual coaches' meeting before the season started. I thought to myself, "If winning isn't everything, then why do they keep score and why does this youth league have tournaments at the end of the season?" When I walked out of the meeting I knew that EVERY coach had the same thing on his mind. They were already planning their "killer tactical plans" for their Under-12 soccer team.

Think of this mistake as a process, kind of a life cycle that many good coaches go through. Remember most of us start out as bad coaches. We don't really know what we're doing, we just know we are trying to get to a certain point. Along the way and through the years we just kind of figure it out. We go through coaching education, certification, watch videos, read books, watch other coaches, and rely on what we learned as soccer players. Eventually we become pretty good at what we do.

The problem that evolves in this pattern is the natural cycle of the parent/coach. We generally start out with our children at a young age. We teach them basic technical skills and focus on the simple things. We expose young players to the game by having fun, but at the same time teaching the basic skills that make them a skilled individual player.

Now the little ones start to mature, the season rolls on, and here is where the poison starts to trickle in to our coaching: Our human nature.

Resisting the Urge to Win

Human nature is the one thing that is very hard to change. However, to be a truly great youth soccer coach we must learn how to overcome our desire to win, or at least win at all costs, which really is a natural behavior.

Our job as youth soccer coaches is to teach young players individual skills and make sure that these skills are not only taught, but also repeated to the point that they become instinctive. We should make sure the young soccer experience is fun and well rounded.

Moving a weak offensive player to the forward position is easy to do when you are up 6-0. However, making this move when you're losing 3-2 is seen as suicide by many. But if you are not allowing rotations on your young teams, you are doing the kids a disservice.

Spending a great deal of time on technical skills is easy at first. However, when we start to lose games we feel we are weak on tactical strategy and we have a tendency to make practices all about tactical work. The much needed "technical training" just seems to disappear.

Here are a few things that add to this difficulty.

*Parents, a HUGE contributing factor, want their child to be on a winning team. If a team is losing all their games, it's not their child's weak technical skills that are the problem. It is the coach and his game plan that is causing us to lose.

*We as coaches/humans want to win or be successful in the eyes of others. Unfortunately this is often based on what people see as the public grading--the win/loss record.

*We often don't sit down with all the people involved and communicate what our goals are for the season. If only a few parents understand that we are not there to win but to learn, then it simply will not work.

A truly great youth soccer coach understands his job is to teach his young players individual technical skills. Our job is not to teach a 10-year old extended tactical vision for the game, but instead give him the mastery of the tools that it takes to play the game.The creativity and vision for the game will only truly come once this process has ended and they can focus on the GAME as a whole. It's hard to be creative when you keep tripping over the ball while dribbling.

Yes, we do give them some basic vision points for the tactical side of the game. However, it does no good to try and teach them a play that has one player feeding in a ball 30 yards, while another player receives it and finishes, if neither can complete the basic skills to make this play happen.

Many of our technical foundations are thrown out the window when the season starts. We start focusing on scrimmages, set up, positioning and plays. We start lecturing 9-year olds about the "thirds of the field", forgetting that all they are looking at is the ball at their feet.

Coaches have a natural human nature to win. That does not make them bad people, just bad youth coaches. Most of us want to succeed at what we do, we just often define the "definition of success" incorrectly.

Until we can break this cycle of winning at all costs and pressured competition, our kids will continue to suffer. Until the definition of "success" in youth soccer is redefined, there will be kids that are being set up for failure at the expense of adult winning.

Why Can't We Do It?

In order to make this work, everyone has to buy in. There needs to be a strong message--preferably in writing--that explains this trend and how every person contributes to this problem.

Everyone from the program director, to the coaches, the parents and the players need to understand the definition of a successful youth soccer program. A simple parents meeting at the beginning of the season is not enough. Often many miss it and many players will only have one of the parents attending. There needs to be a strong written summary of your goals and all should read, sign and return.

Everyone should realize that while some tactical education will be covered, it will be age appropriate and more on a general, basic and visual understanding level. It should be understood that younger player development will be largely technical-based and competitive games are simply a place to try our newly learn technical skills, not a measure of results.

I will warn you that this is easier said than done. It often takes years of coaching before we realize what we are doing wrong. We when finally realize this mistake we now face the daunting task of selling this theory to inexperienced parents and coaches. (A job no one really wants.)

A Step in the Right Direction

Youth soccer has finally been facing up to these problems around the world. Many international development programs and U.S. Youth Soccer programs are slowly getting this message out to clubs, leagues and coaches. However, this powerful message seems to fall short when it comes to reaching the parents. Coaches must humbly face this reality and focus on moving this message to the parents. Without the parents buying in 100 percent this movement will fail.

I have had the pleasure of working with many soccer programs and players from around the world. It always amazes me at what a poor job the leagues do at communicating these critical points to parents, and coaches as well. A short parent meeting or a 10 line code of conduct will never get this point delivered. Developing a full and thorough plan and getting 100 percent on board is the only way it will work.

You will always find some youth coaches that somehow justify themselves around this basic youth soccer principle. They will still wear their "badge of victories" proudly and debunk this essential and critical understanding. Remember they are not bad people, just bad for youth soccer. They can't help it, it's their nature.

Sadly we as soccer coaches must come to grips with the fact that we are not training a winning team for our sake. Our job is to help young players by teaching them individual technical skills. We then graciously turn them over to another coach hoping they are better with what they have learned.

Young players will remember a good soccer coach for the rest of their lives. That is what we as coaches call our reward. Not winning.

As the Soccer Improves, So Must the Club

2011-10-12T12:24:00.018-06:00

Our players are improving with every touch. We have embraced the Player Development Revolution, now it is time to set benchmarks.

In soccer communities around the country, there is a lingering question, “how to measure success?” There are theories and philosophies and studies, but the reality is that we won’t truly know until a child reaches their teens. However, I believe that there can be benchmarks or goals to achieve that will better the chances of an individual’s reaching their potential to play at their highest level.

Recently, in a coaching committee meeting I unveiled the next step to improving the club. The concept puts a measuring and benchmarking system in use. The intentions is to help coaches, parents and players better evaluate their current level of play and set goals that help them reach their potential.

One of the most recent tools that we have added is iSoccer. This program does a number of wonderful things if fully taken advantage of by a player. However, the part that I want to focus on is the ability to quantifiably test and measure an individual in 16 core areas, these areas reflect the very foundation of every successful soccer player. The emphasis on “raising the level” of each player through training and testing is simply amazing, as it will transform a player from being decent to good, good to great, and excellent to elite. This is how we have decided to measure our players’ individual development. We believe strongly that if players train at home, are frequently tested and can see themselves reach their individual goals on iSoccer, it will allow the coach to focus on training the “thinking” part of the game and fine tune team style of play and tactics. -More on iSoccer in an interview with iSoccer CEO, Scott Leben-

Players must be accountable for their own skill development, by training at home before a coach can be criticized for not teaching the players how to play the game. The document “Champions are Grown in their Backyard” is a must read, as it puts an emphasis on what will truly make your child great at soccer!

As mentioned above, this winter our Coaches Committee plans to unveil a benchmarking document. Our job, now that our club philosophy is established and we are developing quality players, is to help teams/coaches measure their success as well as map out the road to achieving a team’s potential.

As the club and culture of our community evolves, so must our aspirations. The benchmarking system will provide a list of expected outcomes at certain ages and levels of soccer. It will allow coaches and parents (the adults) to see where each player is during their development. A combination of iSoccer evaluating and benchmarking (i.e. making the Infinity SC premier team of your age, attending tournaments of interest, competition in state cup, making the Olympic Development Program team for their age, making the High School team, gaining exposure from college coaches, earning a soccer scholarship and so on) will allow everyone to know what to expect as well as know what is expected to get there. This type of road map will allow adults involved to keep things in perspective. They can be confident that the system is working because their player is meeting goals set by themselves as well as by the club.

Having accurate expectations will also allow parents to prepare for the demands of future (time, travel and money) endeavors. Many clubs promise college scholarships or high school soccer relevancy. Infinity does not promise. However, we are developing, through research and experience, a road map for achievement. We must also empower each player to work for these types of rewards. The club must provide a vehicle (teams) that makes the players desired destinations accessible.

To help the players (and their parents) that have aspirations of playing college soccer we are establishing a college liaison committee. This committee will start generating contacts with college coaches as well as assist college bound players with the recruiting process. The committee will also be in charge of empowering a person to be the Infinity SC college liaison representative of the club.

Emphasizing player development and focus on Long-Term Development has been our focus for the last three years. It will continue to be the emphasis as we move forward as well. But now that our players are maturing (51 Infinity SC girls playing High School Soccer for their respected schools) it is time to provide a higher level of expectation and a road map on how to get there. Infinity SC is committed to evolving as our players develop.

Any adult with interest, experience, expertise in college recruiting who would like to help with this project are encouraged to email coachjginn@gmail.com so they can be invited to join a College Liaison Committee.

“The future has been written…

…forever futbol!”

-Ginn

"Some youth academies worry about winning, we worry about education."

2011-09-20T15:25:00.001-06:00

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Barcelona and Spain icon Xavi exposes his romanticism of the game and shares his thoughts on Player Development. Here are some highlights from our fellow revolutionary:

“It's good that the reference point for world football right now is Barcelona, that it's Spain. Not because it's ours but because of what it is. Because it's an attacking football, it's not speculative, we don't wait. You pressure, you want possession, you want to attack. Some teams can't or don't pass the ball. What are you playing for? What's the point? That's not football. Combine, pass, play. That's football – for me, at least.”

“Some youth academies worry about winning, [Barcelona] worry about education. You see a kid who lifts his head up, who plays the pass first time, pum, and you think, 'Yep, he'll do.' Bring him in, coach him. Our model was imposed by [Johan] Cruyff; it's an Ajax model. It's all about rondos [piggy in the middle]. Rondo, rondo, rondo. Every. Single. Day. It's the best exercise there is. You learn responsibility and not to lose the ball. If you lose the ball, you go in the middle. Pum-pum-pum-pum, always one touch. If you go in the middle, it's humiliating, the rest applaud and laugh at you.”

“If you go two years without winning, everything has to change. But you change names, not identity. The philosophy can't be lost. Our fans wouldn't understand a team that sat back and played on the break. Sadly, people only look at teams through success. Now, success has validated our approach. I'm happy because, from a selfish point of view, six years ago I was extinct; footballers like me were in danger of dying out. It was all: two metres tall, powerful, in the middle, knockdowns, second balls, rebounds … but now I see Arsenal and Villarreal and they play like us.”

“I'm a romantic. I like the fact that talent, technical ability, is valued above physical condition now. I'm glad that's the priority; if it wasn't, there wouldn't be the same spectacle. Football is played to win but our satisfaction is double. Other teams win and they're happy, but it's not the same. The identity is lacking. The result is an impostor in football. You can do things really, really well – last year we were better than Inter Milan – but did not win. There's something greater than the result, more lasting. A legacy.”

“Education is the key. Players have had 10 or 12 years here. When you arrive at Barça the first thing they teach you is: think. Think, think, think. Quickly.”

READ THE INTERVIEW in full and JOIN THE REVOLUTION.

FA head of elite development Gareth Southgate has his work cut out trying to change the future for football

2011-07-08T22:36:00.004-06:00

Original article can be viewed on The TELEGRAPH NEWSPAPER web site.

A couple of years ago, the junior football club with which I was associated took an idea to our local youth league. It was that instead of seven-year-olds playing in seven-a-side matches with referees, baying parents on the touchline and results collated into league position, clubs should organise weekly friendlies at four-a-side.

The philosophy behind it was that without the pressure of parentally-imposed competitive structures, children might more enjoy their football, and, with many more touches of the ball available with fewer players on the pitch, develop their skills. There was nothing non-competitive about it: every child would want to win every game they played.

It would be immodest to claim it as our idea. That’s what they do in Holland, in Spain, in Germany, countries that seem to have a reasonable idea how to produce footballers. But when the proposal was raised, the wannabe Fergusons who made up the committee, those managing their little league sides in neatly pressed tracksuits with their initials on the chest, snorted derision.

“Kids want to see their name at the top of the league in the paper,” one said, to much agreement. In fact, most of the committee members thought it would be a better idea to institute competitive leagues for even younger age groups: “How else will they learn how to win?” When it came to a vote, ours was the only one cast in favour. We lost 23-1.

That, in microcosm, was English football : a latticework of self-interest. Never mind the wider good, what about my medals? And I thought of the episode when I heard that Gareth Southgate, the Football Association’s newly-appointed head of elite development, is touring the country, trying to persuade leagues to adopt a policy of small-sided games for young children. Good luck with that, I suggested when I met up with him earlier this week at the launch of the FA’s coaching licence scheme. There are oil tanker captains with easier jobs turning around their ships.

“Actually, there are signs of encouragement,” he said. “I meet lots of young coaches out there who are forward thinking. Yes, there are others set in their ways, but there’s an acknowledgment we have to catch up with the rest of the world. And to do that, one thing is for sure: we can’t carry on with what we’ve been doing.”

Southgate’s task is not a minor one: it is to create a system which nurtures skill. Presently, among Englishmen aged 18 to 25, only a handful demonstrate ball-playing ability to match their European contemporaries. Actually, it is probably only Jack Wilshere who can hold his head up in international company. It is not much better below that: England’s Under-17s were this week evicted from the World Cup by – who else? – Germany.

Partly the issue lies with the Premier League academies, whose processes are under review. But in many ways the problems have been entrenched before young players arrive at elite clubs.

“The under-17s are at the end of the cycle,” Southgate said. “We need to concentrate right at the start of the process. There are so many steps along the way, there’s no scientific path. But I know this: if we don’t give them the right skill base from five until 10 [years of age] it won’t be there whatever you do thereafter.”

In order to do that, Southgate needs to do nothing less than effect an entire change of culture. Through a programme of coach education, he needs to persuade the self-interested parents and junior officials, vicariously living through their offspring, that they are not serving the best interest of the child. He needs to make things fun, with the emphasis on the development of skill. He needs, in short, to reverse the adultification of junior football.

“Parents and coaches have to understand that their child’s enjoyment, what they can learn from the game as people, in terms of team work, defeat and victory, is more important than anything,” he said.

“I do think we have a major cultural issue. We need to end the way in which the little kid is berated for losing the ball on the edge of the area, or the kid is applauded for hoofing it off the pitch.

“Until we alter that mindset then we’ve got a tough task if we want to produce skilful players. None of this will guarantee us a World Cup-winning team. But I’m dead certain that if we don’t change we’ll never have one.”

And as to the critique that the methodology he endorses promotes non-competitiveness, Southgate has a pertinent rebuttal.

“Look at the Williams sisters, they were brought up in an environment of positive reinforcement of hugs and love, they weren’t allowed to play in tournaments until they were 14. And no one could say they lack the will to win,” he said.

“We are trying to put in place ways to create an environment in which every kid – elite or not – can realise their potential within the game. To make football better for every child who plays it. If we don’t achieve anything else, that’s a worthwhile thing to do.”

Listening to Southgate it occurs to me that the FA seems to have done something unusual: made the right appointment. Only time will tell if anyone is prepared to listen to him.

THE PLAYER DEVELOPMENT REVOLUTION: In the fi rst of a series of articles, David Newbery and Tony DiCicco, from USA coaching organisation SoccerPlus,

2011-06-30T11:40:00.007-06:00

THE AUTHORS:

DAVID NEWBERY
For over 20 years David has studied and worked in youth education, soccer development and coaching. A former University Professor and CEO of a Youth Sports Company, he is the Director of Player & Coach Development of SoccerPlus.

TONY DICICCO
Tony is the most successful coach in USA Soccer history, most notably leading the USA Women’s national team to 1996 Olympic, plus 1999 and 2008 World Cup success. He is the Head Coach of the Boston Breakers professional women’s team.

The word ‘revolution’ can be synonymous with such terms as anarchy, chaos and confusion, yet our revolution is encouraging a new approach where players have the opportunity to succeed, and where equal opportunity is not an objective but a reality.

We aim to raise standards and expectations, we challenge the way things have always been done and offer an approach where every player and coach has the opportunity to succeed, continuing to play and love the game by becoming serious about player and coach development.

Player Development is now common in soccer vernacular, yet our research has revealed that only 5% of youth soccer clubs are providing a programme built on firm player development foundations – in short, the phenomenal growth in soccer participation is not being supported by a more sophisticated approach.

The application of a ‘town’ soccer model is prevalent, where the primary objective is having fun. These programs are mainly coached by parent volunteers who have a limited understanding of child development and education, with little or no oversight by a coaching authority.

But parent involvement is the bedrock of youth football, and it cannot be understated the critical influence early youth sport experiences have on a participant’s enjoyment and adoption of physical activity. Simply, we need to get serious about player development.

Every coach and every organisation is unique and the aims, objectives and availability of resources (finance, volunteers, facilities etc) are different. A ‘one size fits all’ solution is clearly not the way forward.

“Soccer needs to get serious about player development.”

However, there are some recommendationswe offer to address common issues:

1. Adopt a Philosophy - The philosophy is critical to the long-term approach and it should guide decision making. For example, if the philosophy includes a ‘competency based approach’ to coaching and player development (something we strongly advocate), regular assessment for all players would need to be a significant part of the learning process. We would encourage coaches to develop and redefine the approach annually. Buy-in is critical, as important for parents and players as it is coaches.

2. Create a long-term strategic plan – Teams lacking long-term direction are set to repeat the same year - every year. Making time to ‘think’ will offer insight to a number of critical questions, including coach education and planning for player development. Creating a three- to five-year strategic plan, which involves parents, coaches and players, will provide the framework to make essential decisions and offer a roadmap for success.

3. Adopt or create a Player Development
Curriculum - In general terms a curriculum consists of everything that promotes intellectual, personal, social and physical development of the participants. And as well as session plans, it includes approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, objectives and program values. A detailed development model will create tremendous value and help in raising standards, performance, and expectations, as well as removing the guesswork.

4. Create an in-house Coaching Education
programme – Without great coaching it is unreasonable to expect meaningful player development. A formal education program for coaches is vital to develop expertise and knowledge. A combination of workshops, presentations, online resources, licensing courses, mentoring, practical coaching and demonstrations are needed to raise the standard of coaching and playing.

5. Provide coaches with access to
coaching resources – There are obvious benefits players will receive from a planned approach to development. Having all coaches accessing developmentally appropriate activities and sessions will create a degree of consistency that sometimes does not exist in volunteer organisations.

6. Provide oversight – a coaching authority – It is essential for bigger teams and organisations to clearly identify a ‘Coaching Authority’. This does not need to be a professional, but should be someone able to dedicate significant time during the season to assist coaches and players during practice sessions and games.

We believe firmly in parent volunteer coaches and non-profit organisations, but local coaching needs to start applying more appropriate strategies that are
relatively simple and cost-effective to implement.

Crucially, if we hope to raise standards and expectations, fun and educational attainment must be mutually inclusive outcomes of participation.

www.soccerplus.org/services

Soccer America: Youth Insider

2011-06-22T22:51:00.000-06:00

Former U-17 coach Roy Rees: USA should be further along
article can be viewed at www.SoccerAmerica.com

By Mike Woitalla

How many players on the U.S. team currently competing at the U-17 World Cup will make a significant impact on the full national team?

Judging from the average of the previous 13 U.S. teams that have competed at each of the biennial world championships since 1985, the answer would be one.

Roy Rees coached the USA at four U-17 World Cups, from 1987 through 1993. He guided the young Americans to historic victories over Brazil in 1989 and Italy in 1991. After the USA, led by Claudio Reyna, beat Brazil, 1-0, in 1989, Brazil’s coach Homero Cavalheiro said, “The United States deserved to win today. They were better as a team; they were better individually.”

Asked how he imagined the future of American soccer two decades ago, Rees says, “I would have expected it to be further along than it is now. They've done well but could have done much better.

"They have developed a whole bunch of very average players but not the great players you need to get that little bit extra. There's a lack of creative players."

Mike Burns and John O'Brien, who played for Rees in the 1987 and 1993 tournaments, were also among the U-17 alums who had the most success with the full national team.

Rees was succeeded by Glenn Myernick (1995), Jay Miller (1997), John Ellinger (1999, 2001, 2003), John Hackworth (2005, 2007) and Wilmer Cabrera (2009, 2011).

Ellinger's 1999 team, which was the first that went into full-time residency in Bradenton, Fla., finished fourth and remains the only squad to win a knockout stage game. It included Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Oguchi Onyewu and Bobby Convey. That class proved to be an aberration.

Miller’s 1997 squad included Taylor Twellman and Danny Califf, who went on to long pro careers but had limited success with the full national team. Ellinger’s 2001 and 2003 squads included Eddie Johnson and Jonathan Spector, respectively.

Hackworth’s 2005 team included Jozy Altidore and Neven Subotic, now one of the top defenders in the German Bundesliga, but he plays his national team ball for Serbia.

Rees, a Welshman who served as an English FA staff coach and worked for FIFA as an international coaching instructor before taking over the U.S. U-17s, cites many reasons why the USA hasn't made more profound progress in producing exceptional players. Topping the list is an emphasis on athleticism rather than on skill and understanding the game.

"America had the reputation of being better athletically than everyone else, because at the Olympics they ran faster, were stronger, and threw things farther,” he says. “Those are things that have nothing to do with soccer. At the youth level, big, strong and physical may win games. But the smaller players develop skills to combat the big and the physical, and when they get the growth they’re the ones who get the results."

He also warns of the perils of advocating an orthodox approach to player development:

"It was, 'Coach this way, or get out.' There are different ways of developing players, which is obvious when you see how great players have emerged from different countries."

He says that the insight into the game that great players acquire is something that they develop naturally when they're young, not from being told how to play, but by being given the freedom figure the game out.

“What matters is being able to perceive the game, to predict what happens next," says Rees. "They need to be placed in a situation where they can see it for themselves rather than having it laid out for them. That needs to happen at the youngest levels. They need to be allowed to express themselves and not be tied to the coach’s instructions, or they’ll play like robots.”

Now retired and living in Southern California, Rees is watching this U.S. U-17 team on TV. Not judging it by the scorelines, but whether there are within the group some players with that little bit extra that hints of greatness.

* * * *
The USA opened its U-17 World Cup campaign with a 3-0 win over the Czech Republic on Sunday with goals by Alejandro Guido and Esteban Rodriguez and late sub Alfred Koroma. In their second Group D game, the Americans face Uzbekistan on Wednesday (4 pm ET, Galavision, ESPN3.com).

Uzbekistan lost its opener, 4-1, to New Zealand, which got a hat trick by Stephen Carmichael. Carmichael, making his first start for the Kiwis, hadn’t been part of the squad during qualifying nor for a pre-tournament tour to Qatar.

Go HERE for U-17 World Cup results and schedule.

(Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, coaches youth soccer for East Bay United in Oakland, Calif. His youth soccer articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com.)

Club, a focus on players

2011-05-04T15:21:00.000-06:00

Generating individual players is a top priority in our club. It is what sets us apart from other soccer teams/groups in our community. Even though team success is very important, what’s truly significant is what is happening with each individual in the club that truly makes Infinity SC special.

The ongoing process of developing people over a long period of time is something that the ordinary person understands. We are used to having a curriculum in our education program, piano lessons, scouting programs, skiing and snowboarding programs. If a student is excelling in the second grade, he/she is likely going to be tested to see if they can perform at another level. If an alto sax player is performing poorly at the start and is sitting third chair and suddenly improves they will move up to second and possibly first chair. If child moves from an orange belt to a green belt in Tae Kwon Do, we acknowledge the accomplishment without making his/her peers move up prematurely. In all of these examples, the focus is on the individual, not their group, and each individual is rewarded for their abilities within a curriculum. Why don’t we embrace the same patient scheme with youth sports?

The beauty of our club philosophy, enabled by having multiple teams, a technical director and licensed/experienced coaches, is that we have been through the bumps and bruises of forming teams, enjoying success, only to dissolve (in quality and/or quantity) as the teams mature in age. We understand that players may find themselves jealous of the teammate that moves up a team because they are excelling faster, questioning what their team is going to do without them. Or that also that parents may find their child moving up to be challenged more because all of the sudden they are no longer the star of the team. However, our club is focused on placing each player in the most ideal environment for their development as a soccer player. This, for some reason, is very difficult to grasp and it is our mission to educate and change the culture in our community. We want a club that focuses on player development first, and team success second. I say this openly, knowing very well that winning is important, and that we should be striving to win every time we are placed on the field, but not at the cost of our players development. Winning is secondary to each player’s skill development and decision making abilities. I will not go in to detail about this, but feel free to check my blog for articles that support the philosophy (www.coachginn.blogspot.com).

On Tuesday, March 12th I received a phone call from one of the u11 girl’s parents around 12:45pm. They were stumbling around the District 7 web site and recognized that we had a game in less than five hours. Due to the chaos the weather had brought, we had a game rescheduled without any notice at all. The next six hours were insane, but the commitment to the players that coaches and parents showed was more than just synergetic. We acted like a club determined to make things work, not just for this newly scheduled game, but for each player throughout the club that was affected by this added match.

The scenario was this: two of the u11 girls were already committed to play with the u10 boy’s team at the same time as their new game because the u10 boy’s team had a couple of injured players and a couple of absent players. They needed players, so as a club we provided two u10 girls that were “playing up” at u11 to play with the boys. These two girls helped the boys to a 9-2 win and contributed by scoring two goals and 2 assists. The comment from the u10 coach was that it was nice to be able to plug two players, regardless of gender, and be confident that they will be able to contribute due to similar training and playing styles. The girls train often enough with the boys that the boys are comfortable playing with the two girls while the girls were confident that they could play with the boys as well.

As the u10 boys kicked off so did the girl’s teammates (the u11 girls). They are playing in the u11 boys league this season to be challenged more after running the table in the girl’s league. The beauty of this game was that although they were missing two stronger players (the players that were playing with the u10 boys,) two players from the 2nd u11 team (u11 select girls) were invited. Even though the girls were down 2-0 at the half, the two select girls started over two of the premier girls, they fit in, contributed, and there was no drop in play. The two select girls contributed in an eventual 3-2 win over a very fast and physical independent u11 boy’s team. They train with each other, they compete with each other and they plan to play with each other when they move to 11v11 next year when they are u12 players. It is fun to be involved with these players, teams and coaches. Although the circumstances may not always be ideal, and that the team may suffer on game day at the younger ages, we are seeing individuals nurtured to become quality players that are comfortable playing in every position, on any team, under any circumstance and team players who openly accept the guest players and work with them.

The other amazing part in the chaos of that day was that every player made it to the game with only three hours notice. The parents and coaches among the three teams were great at tracking down player passes, doing the online paperwork to allow the players to use the developmental pass and simply making things happen. When we place the needs of the kids above our own needs, we find out that little miracles happen. Raising a soccer player these days requires players, coaches and parents (especially) to make some major sacrifices. It is not convenient at all to have kids running around. But if anyone saw the girls smiling at half time while they were down 2-0 they will admit that it is all worth it. The girls knew that they had out possessed and out played their opposition. They wanted to be winning, but they knew what they were accomplishing as individuals and as a group. This highly competitive group of players was smiling ear to ear, happy with the way they were playing. They regrouped at half time, were guided in a conversation on how to improve their attack and before we knew it, the opposing side was stunned with a 3-2 loss being handed to them.

On the very same day, another shining moment occurred. I had a training session planned for three other teams at the exact time of these games, but due to the field closures, I had to change it to a street soccer session. I asked a coach that I have been mentoring to help out. He gladly accepted and made it happen. The club unity and synergy was amazing. During this time the u12 Premier boys were training with the u12 Select boys, and the u9 boy’s team impressed everyone watching with their skills and decision making in a loss to a much more physical team.

We often hear the phrase, “it takes an entire village to raise a child,” and in similar fashion it takes a club to create a culture that will develop a player. Over the last three years we have overcome many hurdles in an effort to build a quality premier club for our community. We have changed the culture of youth soccer and continue to be constantly on the cutting edge of U.S. Youth Soccer Association philosophy and curriculum. In an effort to improve our coaches, players and educate the soccer parents we have followed and will continue to follow U.S. Youth Soccer’s BEST PRACTICES manuel while improving our services to our community. We have taken the approach of thinking and researching globally while serving locally. Our community is unique in that we can rally together and build something together if we understand what the potential outcome can be.

We believe that as we all work together, like in the examples above, and help our kids get the appropriate training, our coaches will receive opportunities to continue their coaching education and the club members find ways to volunteer (even in the smallest of ways) that we will continue to lead the charge within our community.

Understanding the many sacrifices it takes from everyone in the club, I am very grateful for the board members that serve diligently to represent the parental and administrative side of our club. They are priceless, and sacrifice countless hours to improve the experience of the players and their families. The coaches are the lifeline of our club; the sacrifices that they make to be on a field with your child are amazing and frequently taken for granted. As parents of the players, you have been outstanding with adapting to the many schedule changes due to weather this spring, and in general our parents make many sacrifices for their children and I applaud them for pulling it off. I can’t even imagine how strenuous it is to get your children everywhere. Last, but not least, the players- all of you work hard, play hard and train hard. I enjoy being part of your development on the soccer field.

As mentioned at the start of this letter, it is Infinity’s goal, as well as mine, to help you fall in love with the game while learning the game. However, I hope that you are learning important life lessons during your experience with Infinity SC that will help you be quality citizens now and forever.

Forever Futbol,

Coach Jeff Ginn, Technical Director

Beckham Slow Motion Shot as requested in a reply to previous post

2011-04-13T10:39:00.005-06:00

Beckham

Youth Players trying their best to imitate Beckham

Finishing/Shooting - Technical break down on the SKILLS SCHOOL DVD by US Youth Soccer

For Real in Salt Lake, Barca style is the model

2011-03-18T15:21:00.004-06:00

By Simon Evans

MIAMI, March 17 (Reuters) - Most of the money and attention in the growth of soccer in the United States has been focused on Los Angeles and New York but the unlikely setting of Utah is where the game has developed in the most attractive way.

Real Salt Lake, founded just seven years ago, coached by a 38-year-old from Nebraska and playing in the suburb of Sandy, made their mark by winning the MLS Cup in 2009.

This year they have reached the last four of the CONCACAF Champions League which is the premier club competition for North, Central America and the Caribbean.

They are winning admirers, such as ex-France striker Thierry Henry, as much for the way they play as for their results. Real have adopted the Barcelona style of aesthetically-pleasing football based on a short passing game and swift movement.

“I believe in soccer being played that way, it’s the way I like to watch it, it’s what attracts me about the game when teams play a possession-orientated style, ” head coach Jason Kreis told Reuters in an interview.

“It is something that I wanted to do but it is something also where you need the right tools to be able to do it.

“It has taken some time for us to get a critical mass—the right number of players that are technically gifted enough and smart enough to play the way that we are trying to,” he said.

While Kreis has never played or coached outside the U.S., his influence is drawn mainly from Spain and, despite his club’s name reflecting a cooperation deal with Real Madrid it is their Catalan rivals’ way of playing that has made its mark in Utah.

TOTAL FOOTBALL

“Barcelona have probably been playing that way since (Johan) Cruyff,” he said, referring to the Spanish club’s former Dutch forward and manager who brought ‘Total Football’ to the Catalan side from his days with the national team.

“I think we try in a lot of ways emulate that style, I think it would be very fair to say that we have Latin American players on our team who like to play that style and it is more a natural fit,” added Kreis.

It is an approach which stands in contrast to the perhaps rather dated view of MLS as a physical league with teams who prefer to play a direct form of the game.

“I hope it continues to change in that direction,” said Kreis. “I always think it is going to be a physical league because we have very good athletes, we have strong, big guys that can get the job done and can stretch their bodies maybe a bit further than in other places.

“But I would also say that some of the physical side of our game is because we haven’t raised our technical ability as high as it probably should be—the average player in our league is definitely not as technically gifted as the average player in the Premier League or La Liga or the Bundesliga.

“Because of that we have had a lot of poor first touches and poor tactical decisions on the ball which means that defenders can really jump into things,” he said.

Salt Lake’s approach is based around the cool play of deep lying midfielder Kyle Beckerman whose astute positional sense, vision and composed passing ensure that Real start moves on the floor from the back.

Kreis acknowledged that a direct approach can bring results but would like to see more teams in MLS play a short pass and move style. He believes that would require a major change in the way young players are developed in North America.

“There are lots of ways to look at soccer (it’s) just that (the direct style) isn’t particularly mine. If all soccer was to be the way I like to see it I think it would have to start well before college soccer. We need to start implementing that in our youth teams and our youth national teams,” he said.

How a Soccer Star Is Made

2011-03-10T13:57:00.002-07:00

By MICHAEL SOKOLOVE
Published in The New York Times

The youth academy of the famed dutch soccer club Ajax is grandiosely called De Toekomst — The Future. Set down beside a highway in an unprepossessing district of Amsterdam, it consists of eight well-kept playing fields and a two-story building that houses locker rooms, classrooms, workout facilities and offices for coaches and sports scientists. In an airy cafe and bar, players are served meals and visitors can have a glass of beer or a cappuccino while looking out over the training grounds. Everything about the academy, from the amenities to the pedigree of the coaches — several of them former players for the powerful Dutch national team — signifies quality. Ajax once fielded one of the top professional teams in Europe. With the increasing globalization of the sport, which has driven the best players to richer leagues in England, Germany, Italy and Spain, the club has become a different kind of enterprise — a talent factory. It manufactures players and then sells them, often for immense fees, on the world market. “All modern ideas on how to develop youngsters begin with Ajax,” Huw Jennings, an architect of the English youth-development system, told me. “They are the founding fathers.”

In America, with its wide-open spaces and wide-open possibilities, we celebrate the “self-made athlete,” honor effort and luck and let children seek their own course for as long as they can — even when that means living with dreams that are unattainable and always were. The Dutch live in a cramped, soggy nation made possible only because they mastered the art of redirecting water. They are engineers with creative souls, experts at systems, infrastructure and putting scant resources to their best use. The construction of soccer players is another problem to be solved, and it’s one they undertake with a characteristic lack of sentiment or illusion.

The first time I visited De Toekomst happened to coincide with the arrival of 21 new players — 7- and 8-year-olds, mainly, all from Amsterdam and its vicinity — who were spotted by scouts and identified as possible future professionals. As I came upon them, they were competing in a series of four-on-four games on a small, artificial-turf field with a wall around it, like a hockey rink, so that balls heading out of bounds bounced right back into play. It was late November and cold, with a biting wind howling off the North Sea, but the boys skittered about in only their lightweight jerseys and baggy shorts. Their shots on goal were taken with surprising force, which kept the coaches who were serving as goalkeepers flinching and shielding themselves in self-defense. The whole scene had a speeded-up, almost cartoonish feel to it, but I certainly didn’t see anyone laughing.

After a series of these auditions, some players would be formally enrolled in the Ajax (pronounced EYE-ox) academy. A group of men standing near me looked on intently, clutching rosters that matched the players with their numbers. One man, Ronald de Jong, said: “I am never looking for a result — for example, which boy is scoring the most goals or even who is running the fastest. That may be because of their size and stage of development. I want to notice how a boy runs. Is he on his forefeet, running lightly? Does he have creativity with the ball? Does he seem that he is really loving the game? I think these things are good at predicting how he’ll be when he is older.”

Like other professional clubs in Europe and around the world, Ajax operates something similar to a big-league baseball team’s minor-league system — but one that reaches into early childhood. De Jong, a solidly built former amateur player, is one of some 60 volunteer scouts who fan out on weekends to watch games involving local amateur clubs. (He works during the week as a prison warden.) His territory includes the area between The Hague and Haarlem — “the flower district, which is also a very good hunting ground for players” is how he described it. He’ll observe a prospect for months or even years, and players he recommends will also be watched by one of the club’s paid scouts, a coach and sometimes the director of the Ajax youth academy. But for some families, the first time they realize their boys are under serious consideration is when a letter arrives from Ajax requesting that they bring their sons in for a closer look, an invitation that is almost never declined. To comprehend the impact of a summons from Ajax, imagine a baseball-crazed kid from, say, North Jersey arriving home from school one day to learn that he has been asked to come to Yankee Stadium to perform for the team brass.

One player there was de Jong’s discovery, an 8-year-old who, he said, had “talent that is off the charts.” But if this boy were to be accepted into the academy, it would mean he had completed just the first of a succession of relentless challenges. Ajax puts young players into a competitive caldron, a culture of constant improvement in which they either survive and advance or are discarded. It is not what most would regard as a child-friendly environment, but it is one that sorts out the real prodigies — those capable of playing at an elite international level — from the merely gifted.

The rest of the article can be viewed by page on the following page links: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for the magazine, is the author of “Warrior Girls,” about the injury epidemic among young female athletes.

Advice to Soccer kids from Landon Donovan (have fun)

2011-02-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Changing the [Soccer] Education Paradigm

2011-02-09T12:58:00.004-07:00

With just a little bit of extrapolation on your part you can make the connections between the youth academic environment and the youth soccer environment. As I viewed the clip many dots connected for me. But I would like for you to post a reply on the blog before (comment below) I share the things I found. Please take the time to have some dialogue about this topic as a group. I would really like us to share some ideas.

No Guarantee

2011-01-27T15:53:00.002-07:00

The development of a soccer player is a long process in which players progress gradually from a simple to a more complex involvement in the game. This progression requires proper guidance and direction from quality, knowledgeable, licensed coaches. This process cannot be rushed, but players should always compete at a level that is both challenging and demanding. I believe that there are eight elements that are essential for proper player development.

1) Competitive Training Environment that is demanding, challenging, varied, motivating and stimulating on a regular consistent basis.

2) Quality Coaching to help, guide, direct and assist players through their youth careers. Coaches must continue with their on going education.

3) Competitive Matches against teams that will push the players to their maximum capabilities.

4) Quality Referees who understand and can interpret the laws of the game.

5) Facilities that are numerous and of a high quality.

6) Proper Equipment - Boots, Shin Guards, Balls, Proper Dress, Inflated Soccer Ball.

7) Political Pipeline of Administrators, Politicians, Coaches and Referees that when making decisions and policies consider if it enhances the development of the player.

8) Player Identification System that can find the top players and place them in the appropriate level and program.

There is no guarantee that a player will reach his or her potential, but at least we must give him or her the opportunity to become "The Best They Can Be".

In the words of Bobby Howe, US Soccer National Director of Coaching Education, "soccer is an art not a science and the game should be played attractively as well as effectively. Soccer is a game of skill, imagination, creativity and decision-making. Coaching should not stifle, but enhance those elements".

"There is no magic formula or short cut to successful development, coaching at youth levels is all about working with players to improve performance, not about recruiting players to build teams to win championships. Soccer is a player's game and the players should be considered first when political, administrative and coaching decisions are made".

The Beginnings of Barcelona's Superstars

2011-01-27T13:56:00.002-07:00

By Mike Woitalla

The world's three greatest players have a few things in common.

Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi all stand barely 5-foot-7 tall. They're teammates at Barcelona and they all came out of the club's youth program.

The trio finished tops in voting for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or, the world player of the year award won by Messi.

VIDEO OF INIESTA IN HIS YOUTH

2010 World Cup champs Iniesta (age 26) and Xavi (31) joined Barcelona at age 11 and 12, respectively. Messi (23) arrived from Argentina at age 13.

One person who had a close eye on all three of them during their youth days is Albert Benaiges, the coordinator of Barcelona's youth teams, which spawned seven players who played for Spain in its World Cup final win.

After the Ballon d’Or honors, Benaiges recalled his impressions of the trio in their early years.

“No one back then knew they would be world-class players,” he told Germany’s Kicker Magazine. “For sure, Messi’s great talent was already apparent. Also in Iniesta and Xavi one saw early on that they offered something special -- or else we wouldn’t have brought them in.

“But anyone who says that when he saw those three players at age 11, 12 and 13 he knew they were future superstars is a liar.”

Benaiges says that it’s at age 16 when they can predict if a boy might mature into a very good player.

“Before that age it’s nearly impossible,” he said.

Benaiges does recall that Messi was incredibly fast with the ball. That even at 11, Xavi almost never lost the ball. And that Iniesta was a sensitive, considerate boy – shy but always willing to help others.

Messi, during one year, played for teams at five different levels within the club – and never complained whether it was with the A team or C team – always giving his best.

Regarding the type of training Barcelona youth players receive:

“Technical skills we can improve up till the age of 13,” Benaiges says. “But every pro was born a soccer player. Instinct and game intelligence we can’t create. Both of those come within.”

Asked what is trained, Benaiges responded: “Only technique and tactics, not fitness, which they can catch up on later.”

The ball is the focus:

"The most important aspect of our program is always ball work. In all the exercises they do, whether it's physical preparation or any other kind of training, the ball is always there."

(Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, coaches youth soccer for East Bay United in Oakland, Calif. His youth soccer articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com.)

Barcelona's secret: Let the kids play

2010-12-22T22:33:00.012-07:00

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The key to the success of Barcelona's youth academy is giving the young players a chance to play, according to coach Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola said Tuesday the youth setup in Barcelona is no better than at many other clubs, but the "difference is that here we give them playing time."

Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta, the three nominees for the 2011 "Ballon d'Or" award for the world player of the year, are all graduates of Barca's La Masia academy.

Guardiola dedicated his team's 5-0 win over Real Madrid earlier this season to "15 to 20 years" of work dedicated to building "a style of play."

"It's due to the good fortune of having Xavi and Iniesta here from a very young age," he said.

Of Barcelona's three summer signings, David Villa, and Adriano, only the first is a regular starter, while the latter two, once key members of their former clubs, are mainly used as substitutes.

Adriano, who joined the club from Sevilla during the off season, said Barca's successful youth system makes it harder for new players arriving from other clubs to break into the team.

"Of course (it's tougher), there is always competition since there are people looking to raise their level," the Brazilian defender said.

Barcelona has always had homegrown players in its starting 11, but their numbers have increased since Guardiola, himself a product of the club's academy, took over as head coach at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season.

Guardiola had spent the previous season coaching , and he brought youngsters Sergio Busquets and Pedro Rodriguez with him when he took over the first team.

Now, both have won the World Cup with , as well as the Champions League and Spanish league titles with Barcelona.

Guardiola called Pedro "the best sidekick" to accompany Messi and Villa in Barcelona's attack.

The 23-year-old forward scored two goals in last weekend's 5-1 rout of and has 11 goals in all competitions this season.

"(Pedro) is perfect. He has all the virtues to complement the players that carry the weight of the game," his coach said.

VIDEOS OF Inietsa - XAVI - Messi

Article was taken from ctpost.com at the following link: http://www.ctpost.com/sports/article/Barcelona-s-secret-Let-the-kids-play-913236.php

Grooming talent the Ajax way

2010-12-14T23:27:00.002-07:00

(FIFA.com) Friday 2 November 2007

Ajax have struggled to find their feet this term after academy graduates Ryan Babel and Wesley Sneijder (see video of Sneijder below the article) both moved on in the summer. But one of the few certainties in football is that the Amsterdam club will soon uncover exciting young gems to replace them with. Forever associated with the Johan Cruyff generation, Ajax's youth program is the stuff of folklore, basking in a mythic aura. It also remains highly effective, as FIFA.com discovered in this exclusive journey into the heart of 'total football'.

The first thing that stands out is the Amsterdam Arena itself, looming large in the distance. An elegant, modern stadium, it is above all imposing, bringing to mind the Greek ships mythological hero Ajax the Great leapt between during the Trojan War. And it does an excellent job of inspiring the young hopefuls at the academy to dream of reaching the top. Without exception, they all share fantasies of breaking into the first XI and following in the footsteps of those responsible for forging the Ajax academy legend over the last 30 years. Football is not just about personal success here: it is a question of philosophy, shared heritage and culture.

The photographs adorning the walls of the academy convey that approach extremely well. Decorating the offices, the bar, the corridors and the games room are images of the club's glorious past and the players who helped shape it: Cruyff, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Marc Overmars, Danny Blind and Edwin van der Sar. All scaled the heights at Ajax and all began their careers there, making them the best possible advertisement for the club's youth system. Advertisement is the perfect word too, because the Ajax academy has become a brand name without equal in Europe.

Louis van Gaal's 1995 UEFA Champions League winners were particularly instrumental in that respect. With nine starters having graduated from the club's own ranks, they quickly had rival teams clamouring to study the Dutch outfit's methods. But, as academy director since summer 2007, Jan Olde Riekerink denies that Ajax are capable of working miracles. "[The academy] is not a passport to success," he says. "Individual talent is the key."

Whatever forces are at work, Netherlands coach Marco van Basten travelled to last year's FIFA World Cup™ with no fewer than nine players who learned the ropes at Ajax. Among them figured rising stars Sneijder, Babel and Hedwiges Maduro, with Maduro the only one still plying his trade on Arena Boulevard. "Our aim is to bring two players from the academy through to the first team each year," adds Riekerink, who also served as assistant coach at FC Porto and enjoyed a previous eight-year stint with Ajax between 1993 and 2001.

It is a little after 9am on an overcast September morning and the academy's seven training pitches - two of which are artificial - are completely deserted. The only sign of life comes from the grey metallic bunker in front of the entrance gate that serves as both an office and a changing room, where five lads are playing pool on the first floor as they wait to put on their boots. By mid-afternoon, however, the pitches become a real beehive of activity. Thanks to a budget of 4.5 million euros, Ajax have an impressive 240 youth players divided up into 14 different age-groups from seven to 19 years old. They can also boast no fewer than seven youth teams competing in national leagues, and the promising youngsters gain vital insights into the 'house style' from former club luminaries. "There are a lot of old players still involved with the club and that's a good thing," says Riekerink.

A philosophy in four letters
It is an especially good thing at Ajax, where the same philosophy has held sway since the mid-1960s. In formation terms, that translates into the attacking 4-3-3 system they evolved into 'total football', but the Ajax approach is much broader than that. It is a footballing ideology that can be summed up in four letters: T.I.P.S., an acronym for Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed that serves as the guiding principle for the academy's recruitment process. "Our scouting network is made up of 40 volunteers and four part-time employees," explains Riekerink. "We don't travel more than 60km outside of Amsterdam. We believe in our own culture and it's not in our way of thinking to go and find youngsters abroad." That said, the club have none the less spread their net to South Africa and the United States by founding the Ajax Cape Town and Ajax America satellite clubs. Steven Pienaar and Aaron Mokoena both made their way to the Dutch capital after showing up on the radar at these outposts.

"We have a creative football philosophy based on speed and technique. Sometimes we mix the age groups together in training. Individual quality is more important than any system. All the teams under the age of 12 play in a 3-4-3 formation and then they play 4-3-3, but it's flexible. If we have two outstanding strikers we can play in 4-4-2," continues Riekerink, illustrating his point by shifting magnetic figures around the whiteboard in his office.

"We have creative players in every position here and everything comes down to using the ball. There are lots of details that make us unique, such as closing opponents down, being able to play in various positions and moving with the ball. It's how we go about those things that makes the difference." With 22 trainers at his disposal, the former coach of Belgian side KAA Gent is not resting on his laurels either. Keen to take the club forward, he has another area of focus lined up for the near future: anticipation and reading the game, which will mean working on defensive and attacking moves. "It's going to take two years to put this program into place because all the coaches need to be talking the same language," he adds.

In the wake of the Bosman ruling, Ajax's academy has lost its role as the foremost provider of first-team players. The last ten years have also seen other Dutch clubs begin to catch up, but the capital outfit's methods remain unique and are still highly sought-after.

As proof, almost 2,000 young aspirants a year try their luck at the club's three 'talent days'. Only two or three ever make it to the top, with Edgar Davids a notable example, but the desire to receive instruction in the Ajax way is strong. "We don't want to produce robots," says Riederink. "We believe the family environment is important. Here, they eat, study and play, but their homes remain their homes. The youngest players train three times a week and the U-19s six times."

With that, he glances out of his window at the eldest trainees being put through their paces, as the Ajax factory line carries on preparing the next batch of champions.

Wesley Sneijder Highligh Video

The Golden Years of Youth Soccer Technical Training

2010-12-09T09:38:00.004-07:00

Technical training should be the core of youth soccer development.

Unfortunately, especially in the US, we start “playing for the team” or trying to “achieve results” too early. Nothing like the coach of a 10 year old team pacing on the sidelines screaming at his players that they “stink and are playing like a bunch of losers”. (Yes, an actual quote I heard last year.) This coach had one problem. He wanted to win like we all do, but he placed that trait of human nature above the needs of his players.

These kids desperately needed general ball handling, dribbling and passing skills work, but you just know that the coach was spending all the practice time on conditioning, set plays and tactical work. I guess his next intended step was to coach with the “premiere leagues”.

Understanding that we are developing “future competitors” is the first step in youth development. The best training development clubs in the world strictly limit competitive matches and focus on the player’s overall development. It is pretty widely accepted that once a player hits the age of 16, it is hard to return and teach the skills.

There are two key factors in developing youth players.

First, is a love for the game. Street soccer, pick up games and non-adult structured soccer games help kids be creative and develop a love for the game. This environment unfortunately no longer exists in the US. We have to keep in mind that ending all “work sessions” with fun small sided games is critical to kids walking away from all practices thinking, “I want to come back next week.”

This also applies to older players. Just because a player is “advanced” you have to remember that they really are still just a “kid at heart”. 17 year olds love to “play” and have fun too.

Second, is constantly returning to repetitive exposure of all the core skills. Instead of running laps and conditioning for 20 minutes to begin our practices, we should have players touching the ball with basic skills. Dribbling, passing, moves, chesting, heading and all the skills they actually use in a game.

I can’t tell you the number of advancing soccer players I see that struggle to perform basic moves such as pull backs, cuts and feints. They learned them a long time ago, but never practice them. Start EVERY practice the same way. Core movement drills, repeating the basic and essential ball control skills. End every practice the same way; fun, small sided games where the coach is not controlling every move.

Our teachers (coaches) are often not players.

One critical point to training young soccer players is first making sure the “teacher” understands how to teach. When you combine recreational soccer in with the academy programs the number of coaches that never really played competitive soccer is very high. Some of our surveys had the number at 70%. (Dad got involved because his son decided to play and the club or program needed “volunteers”.) However, I will tell you that some of the best youth coaches I have met were not “great players”. They became great coaches because they focused on youth development and core technical training. Their focus was on “what is best for my players” and not “how do I become winning and successful coach”. It is critical that coaches not only learn how to be a better coach, but also how to teach each individual technical skill the RIGHT way. Forget about the “winning” and focus on the “development”.

Understand the difference between Immediate and Residual training.

Immediate training includes things that we can control rather quickly but often do not last a long time. For example, at any time a soccer player can get in condition. Working out for about 4 – 6 weeks will get us into playing shape. However, once that stops or the season ends, the conditioning level goes away and we have to return to build it back up.

Technical skills however, are slowly built and refined over several years. Once they are learned, they will continue to stay with us.

A great quote from former U.S. Men’s National Team captain Claudio Reyna, “It’s possible at any time during a player’s career to get into top physical shape or to try to win every game! But you can’t teach skills to an old player. Youth coaches should keep in mind that individual skills need to be nurtured at an early age. Players who haven’t mastered the fundamental skills become frustrated because the game gets too difficult for them as they move into higher levels.”
The golden years of soccer development (ages 8-14) only happen once. Focus these years on development and make sure your player(s) are being trained for the long term with skills, not conditioned for the short term to win.

Video below: Infinity Soccer players playing pick up soccer.

See full article here: http://www.socceru.com/winning_soccer.htm

Necessities for Being “in it” For the Long Term

2010-12-01T23:01:00.007-07:00

by Dave Simeone
Soccer Development Strategies
National Staff Instructor – U.S. Soccer

Philosophy

The development of soccer talent is an on going process; it truly is
longitudinal. It is a process in which individuals’ progress gradually
from simple to the more complex experiences that the game provides.
The process of player development requires planning that has clarity
and based upon a modern technical development ideas. This plan and
direction needs to come from the technical people; coaches who are
educated, experienced and knowledgeable. Anything less than a
comprehensive and coordinated effort only means that player development
is left to chance rather than being maximized as a result of coaching,
programming, competition and well thought out planning.

This process can not be rushed. It is not positively affected by “if
this much is good then more must be better.” The process of player
development can be influenced by elements that are essential for
effective player development.

The Necessities

Training: The development of HABITS and a TRAINING MENTALITY.

To stimulate players to raise the level of response training needs to
balance demanding and challenging with motivating and interesting. Much
of a training mentality has to do with the development of concentration
and the responsibility within the players to coach themselves. While we
often hit the peak we’d like to in training --- the attitude and
intensity, we lack the ability to pick up in the next session where we
left off in the previous one. Transferring what’s been retained from
one session to the next is one indicator of learning. Even the simplest
aspects that are associated with mentality – punctuality, correct
equipment and attentiveness are huge in the whole process.

The additional aspect of training is to balance it with games. The
accepted ratio at U12 and older between competitive games and training
is 2:1 training to games. At U16 the ideal ratio is 3:1 training to
games. Too many games results in a poor mentality and attitude; “it’s
just another game”. The lack of training also creates the added
difficulty of fixing problems from competitive games. It is the basic
issue of QUALITY versus QUANTITY. There needs to be balance!

- Competitive Matches: Games of varying difficulty. Games that suffice for different priorities or purpose; Games that are player development opportunities (PDO) versus games that are result driven. Competition is important but games differ in importance of achieving a result versus player and team development. Ultimately competitive players must earn playing time in result oriented games. There’s also a necessary element of “fear free” playing time in games that are oriented towards player development versus a result. While the result is not the be all, end all, it allows for the necessary experience of “winning” or “losing” in games other those that are the most coveted to win in order to be successful in. There are those coaches who also believe that losing a “big game” while disappointing in the short run is beneficial in the long term of winning more important matches in the future.

- The “Political Pipeline” of administrators, politicians, coaches,referees and parents.

Parents are tremendous assets and necessary pieces of the youth sport
mosaic here in the United States. Parents can be tremendous during the
entire player development process or detractors. Parents can, and do
have, operated in what they believe to be the “best interests” of their
children. While parents can lend all the necessary financial support
and assistance they can’t do it for their youngsters. They can only
assume an ancillary role which is best described as supportive.
Sometimes the best and most realistic thing parents can allow
youngsters and teenagers to do is to learn to fail in order to decide
how important soccer, and learning to be an accomplished player is to
them. In the case of board members (club, league, state) they must
operate with the technical professionals in the mutual interest of the
players and the game. They must avoid being inclined to carry out the
aims of their own “technical plan” based on their presumptions and not
expertise. The coaches owe those in the positions of being “trustees”
explanations and the rationale for planning out technical and
competitive issues. The organization of recreational and competitive
playing environments need to come in line with the mainstream and
accepted rationale based upon what is tested , tried and definitely in
the best interest of players.

- Coaching: it is the one thing that interfaces MOST with the one product in the game; the players.
Coaching is responsible for more than 90 minutes of training or 90 minutes of game management.
In the youth game coaches are instrumental in communicating with parents;
articulating information in order to educate them. The club in concert
with the coaches is collectively responsible for the long term of
preparing players for collegiate opportunities. This includes working
towards academic requirements, matching players with institutions,
ensuring that players are working with guidance counselors at school
and networking with college coaches. In coaching older teams and
players this is an absolute necessity in the United States. There are
some older boys who are now by-passing college and transferring
directly into MLS. Dealing with this is also an important facet for the
coach and the club.

Coaching younger players under 12 years of age has become its own art
and science. Coaching these players involves putting experiences into
them that contribute to their development while investing in them for
the future.

There is no guarantee that every player will reach his or her potential.
Much happens outside of training and the club to distract
and deter individual players and their progress. But at least we must
give all of them the opportunity to “Become The Best They Can Be”.

Bobby Howe, former U.S. Soccer Director of Coaching remarked “Soccer is
as much art as science. The game should be played attractively as well
as effectively. Soccer is a game of skill, imagination, creativity, and
decision making. Coaching should not stifle, but enhance those
elements. Neither should politics or alternative interests.”

“There is no magic formula or short cut to successful player
development,” added Howe. “Coaching at youth levels is all about
working with players to improve performance, not about recruiting
players to build teams to win championships. Soccer is a player’s game
and players should be considered first when political, administrative,
and coaching decisions are being made”.

Good principles of business or enterprise are mainstays no matter what
continent or country. Good principles of player development are no
different. It’s a long term proposition in either case. Business and
enterprise is not a seasonal activity neither is soccer and player
development. It’s not a matter of convenience or chance in terms of
doing what will be best for achieving goals in the long term. It is a
matter of priorities, planning and design.

Final Thoughts by Instructors at the conclusion of the Youth National License held in Frisco, TX Oct 27-31 2010

2010-11-05T00:25:00.002-06:00

u10, u11 & u13 boys from Infinity Soccer playing street Soccer

2010-11-05T00:22:00.001-06:00

Out with the Old, In with the New: Academy Philosophy: A Step in the Right Direction

2010-08-10T13:29:00.000-06:00

Out with the Old, In with the New

Academy Philosophy: A Step in the Right Direction
By Victor Satei – Technical Director, Power Soccer

Published in Inside Soccer Magazine 2007

As the number of children playing soccer in continues to grow, one might feel it is only a matter of time before we start gaining success internationally, or not. With the current system of youth development in this country, it seems unlikely. As proven over and over again on various occasions, our system is failing to produce players at the highest level. Most recent proof comes in this year’s Under 20 World Cup. The Canadian national team, in front of a home crowd, not only failed to win a game, but also failed to score a single goal! We had a perfect opportunity to put ourselves on the map and display ourselves as a booming soccer nation, instead (population 32,999,636) loses to (population 3,800,610) (population 8,199,783) and (population 16,284,741). Not to mention that the last time, and only time, our senior men’s team actually qualified for the World Cup was back in 1986.

How many times do we need to fail at the highest level before we realize that what our Country needs is change? And the change needs to be made at the root of the problem; development of our youth players.

For years now, the scenario has been some or all of the following……….various leagues form competitive rep teams, which can begin as young as age 7 and having players compete in leagues and weekend tournaments for the ever so glorious plastic trophy. Parents and coaches yelling on the sideline for the child to kick the ball up the field. The children chasing the ball from end to end until the referee blows the final whistle, the winning team runs onto the field to celebrate, while the losing team walks off, heads in their hands, while their parents continue to yell, some at the referee, some at the coach for his poor use of substitutes and some at their own child for “missing the golden chance”.

Youth players are training once or possibly twice per week with volunteer coaches who, in some cases, have never experienced or played the game themselves. Game time overrides training time and instead of focusing on development, players are encouraged to focus on winning the game at hand. When recruiting or conducting try-outs, coaches look to select only the strongest, fastest and biggest kids in order to achieve the goal of winning. Some coaches attempt to coach three or four teams during a season, spreading themselves out so thin that they do not have the time needed to properly develop a team. When game time arrives, the coaches proceed to yell out instructions on the sidelines due to the fact that his players are unable to do what he wants them to.

Let us look at Ontario as our prime example, Ontario represents 45% of ’s soccer playing population. In Ontario , at the age of twelve and thirteen there is the ‘selection process’ where players are selected for the regional program. These regional teams face off against each other one weekend in September in front of the provincial staff where the twenty-five players are selected for the under 14 provincial squad. Twenty-five players! What happens to the players with potential that are perhaps late bloomers? The players who weren’t on their game that weekend? How about the players who perhaps have the potential but have not received proper coaching? The rest are back to their clubs, demoralized and now must continue to train with a coach who is many times unable to take them to the next level. The twenty-five that do get selected then train for approximately seven months out of the year with the provincial program. The other five months they are back with their club, where again, winning becomes the focus and bad habits are often picked up. As a former provincial team player, I have had first hand experience of this myself. The amount of talent that is left out of the selection for these teams is inexcusable, and the lack of consistent high quality training does not prepare these players properly for the international level. Then we wonder why that player with tons of potential ends up dropping out of the game?

It must be noted that countries with a fraction of ’s population and half the resources are qualifying for World Cups and producing international stars. Perhaps it’s time to take a step back and look at what some of these successful countries are doing. By emulating top soccer countries and informing ourselves on how they develop youth players, we can learn something ourselves. We should not be afraid to change, especially when the current system has failed on so many occasions.

Two years ago, the Soccer Academy Alliance of Canada (SAAC) was established in order to take an initial step into transforming our country’s concept of youth player development into one that is modern. SAAC has put many standards in place that mirror those of top World Academies. Below are some of the standards that SAAC has put forward and many of the newly formed Academies have already found early success by enforcing them:

* Every Academy must have a Technical Director with a minimum National B License. The TD is responsible to oversee the Academy while at the same time making sure the Academy is following SAAC guidelines.
* All team coaches must have a minimum Provincial B License.
* Under 10 players play seven-a-side soccer and Under 12 play nine-a-side soccer, this enables players at the early ages to be more involved in the game.
* Standings begin to be kept at the Under 16 level. No standings are kept for any age groups below that. Of course teams want to win but this is not the main focus. The game itself is used as a learning tool and players are not afraid to make mistakes and are free of feeling the consequences of ‘pressure’. In many Academy games you will see teams trying to maintain possession using short passes, goalkeepers being encouraged to roll the ball out rather than kicking long and players not afraid to take opponents on one on one. You will not see teams at the young ages stacked with big players who use the kick and run tactic to win at all costs. However, you will see players of various strength, speed and size with great skill and vision.
* Academy reviews are done throughout the season. The SAAC board of directors sits and reviews the programs that various Academies are offering. Any Academies that are not up to SAAC standards are not permitted to reenter the Academy league the following season.
* Rules and Regulations are in place that prevent spectators from yelling criticism at officials or from instructing players. Spectators are welcome to cheer. This allows for a great atmosphere that enables officials, coaches and players to work and play comfortably.

Academy coaches are paid professionals with varying degrees of qualifications. Each Academy has it’s own philosophy that it follows. Most Academies set short and long-term goals for their teams that allow them to monitor their progress. The established goals are performance driven as opposed to results driven. SAAC has implemented a 3:1 training to game ratio, which means a team should train at least three times for every game it plays. This 3:1 ratio helps keep a healthy perspective on player development. Some Academies train more than three times per week with the older age groups. In contrast, for example, Barcelona’s youth academy in Spain, players aged 8-9 train twice per week, players 10-12 train three times per week, 13-16 train four times per week and 17-21 train five to six times per week.

Many of the Academies that are associated with SAAC train eleven months of the year, allowing one month for rest and recovery. Academy teams do not participate in indoor leagues, but rather continue their usual training schedule, using the indoor season as post season and pre season training. Nearly all training is done on turf fields indoor, gyms are used for futsal.

In many top World Academies coaches meet with players two or three times per year in order to give them individual feedback, both verbal and written. It is very important that coaches give feedback to the players in order to let them know what aspects of the game they excel in and where improvement is required. Social events and time away from the pitch is also important and implemented. This allows players to develop not only their soccer skills but their socio/psychological skills as well. As many top World Academies feel, the game should be used to help develop today’s youth into socially responsible adults of tomorrow.

Taking a quote from Rinus Michels (FIFA coach of the Century) “A player should move up immediately when he is ready.” And this, it seems, is where the focus is missing. The next step is to bring these players that will eventually graduate from these Academies to the next level, professional soccer. Some Academies in Ontario have already been exposed to European clubs and as the new Academy system grows and develops they will gain even more exposure. Not only that, but hopefully the Provincial programs and National programs will realize a change is what we need, and they will welcome the new Academy system rather than refuse to sanction them. It is only a matter of time before these Academies will be producing players that are at the international level.

We cannot change our history in the game, but we can look towards a brighter future. The first step is to change the attitude of individuals in the current system who are involved at the highest level. They must realize that the focus must be on long-term development rather than short-term goals such as winning a game. The youth soccer players in our Country are no different than those in any other; it is a matter of nurturing their talent and allowing them to develop with a modern philosophy that has been proven to work.

Ten Tips for Soccer Parents

2010-08-10T13:18:00.000-06:00

By Liam Power, President Power Soccer
Published in Durham This Week, July 2004

Your child should be playing, not sitting on the bench, regardless of the level they participate in. Coaches who pick players should play them.

Avoid placing your child with youth coaches whose main objective is to win games above all else. Youth soccer is not professional soccer.

Up to the age of 15/16, players need to develop their skills, body strength and experience. They need to play and gain experience doing so. At ages 15-16, young adults have a better understanding, appreciation and desire to win. Up to that point they need to have had the opportunity to develop.

Soccer should build self esteem in your child, not the opposite

Listen to the coach, is she praising in public and doing the critique in private?

If you cannot say something positive to your child after the game, then say nothing.

Soccer is more than learning technical skills, it is about life skills: team building, communication, participation, discipline and commitment. Look for coaches who see the whole picture. Ask coaches about their philosophy but remember than actions speak louder than words.

Don’t criticize the coach, offer to help. Communicate your positive comments or concerns with him or her. She/he is likely a volunteer.

Be realistic about your child’s’ ability. Do not push your child into a level that is too advanced for her.

Encourage your son or daughter to stay in soccer. The social, physical and emotional benefits are life lasing. Soccer is a great game!

Football Federation of Australia... concerns might sound familiar.

2010-08-04T12:30:00.006-06:00

A strategy for youth soccer player development

The article below makes interesting reading.

It suggests that the problems facing junior soccer player development in Australia are the result of "a poor football philosophy inherited from England, which values fast play over good".

In the article, Craig details a simple eight point strategy for improving the quality of youth soccer coaching.

For example, point 5 of the strategy is that we should....."discourage young keepers in kicking the ball long unless there is no other option (and even here one can almost always be manufactured) and at all times have the keeper roll the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back".

A little further on in the article, Craig suggests that "at youth levels, the only suitable training sessions should be completely with the ball, with every player....learning the game principally by playing in small games of 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5 and overload practices such as 4 v 2, 4 v 3, 5 v 2."

This is excellent, easy to follow advice that if implemented in a consistent and wholehearted way would improve player development immeasurably.

There is also a link to a video that, in the words of a contributor to the footy4kids forums is "brilliant.....and so, so true!!! Every youth coach from u6 to u14 should be required to view this."

Enough said!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possess the ball - a new philosophy
by Craig Foster

One of the challenges facing this country, and particularly the FFA in their quest to make improvements in the long term to Australian football, is to develop a culture of football, which is almost the complete opposite to where we are at this point in time.

A culture, which values the ball over the athlete, skill over strength, and football intelligence over graft and effort.

We will need to develop intuitive players who are adaptable during a game by instinct not input, and the natural precursor to this of course is first to develop intelligent coaches.

As Johan Cruyff once said, how can the student be better than the teacher?

So, to produce outstanding players we need excellent coaches who have an understanding at the highest technical level.

This is indeed a long-term project requiring tremendous improvement in our licences and methodology, but in the meantime one area that can be addressed is to continue to advance the understanding of the football community, particularly at the grass roots level, of what represents ‘good football’, and of the importance of a philosophy of play based on possessing the ball.

Yet when we talk about a culture of the game and particularly a philosophy of play, all those reading this with a good understanding of the game will know that all around us are signs that at present our national philosophy is deficient.

For instance, visit any junior club around the country and you will see more running than playing, and most players being encouraged to play the ball forward as soon as possible, regardless of the quality of the pass or any evaluation of the option chosen.

In other words, there is a predominance of lumping the ball forward for big, quick and usually strong kids to chase, to the detriment of players who prefer to hold the ball and build up play in a slower and more intelligent manner.

This is a by product of a poor football philosophy inherited from England, which values fast play over good, and which manifests itself in poor youth coaching.

But this is a short sighted strategy which is anti player development since, whilst this may win games for now, this style of play produces technically deficient players who will be learning nothing about how to play the game which is precisely, and only, what junior football is for!

And not only is it boring for the players, enforces results over fun and enjoyment and therefore arguably produces a larger drop out rate of youngsters in the early teens, it is in fact also ineffective once the players mature and their physical strengths converge as adults.

Every junior club in the country should be teaching their coaches to appreciate that until the very late teens, the total focus must be on producing players who understand and can play the game, that is to say they can control and manipulate the ball with great skill, maintain possession both individually and collectively, intelligently construct an attack and respond well in defense, and that teaching these principles of play fundamentally must take total precedence over results.

And we will only be starting to improve when every youth coach is judged on the quality of players he produces, not on the amount of trophies he wins.

We must all recognize that effort and running alone don’t win football matches, technique, skill, and intelligent players do. That is why Brazil and Italy have nine World Cups between them, Germany three and Argentina two. Because their football cultures, and their philosophy of play, are based on these characteristics.

If you want absolute confirmation of the need for change, this year take a look at the Under 14 or 15 National championships where tour best juniors come together, and you will see that I am right.

These championships are shockingly low on teams that are both technically (that is the individuals are capable), and tactically (the team works together, demonstrates good cohesion, and can solve problems collectively), competent at keeping the football for long periods.

Or, better still, take a look at our national teams.

Both the Joeys and Young Socceroos who failed at even the earliest Asian pre-qualifying stage could not keep the ball, clearly neither could the 17 girls. In fact the only team that played with any reasonable tactical skill was the Under 20 Young Matildas, as yet our only youth age team to qualify though Asia, who were intensely trained to do so and proved, as did the Socceroos, that when our teams are well coached they are capable of adaptation.

This inability to play to a high level is a factor of both culture and philosophy.

And it remains a fundamental problem even at the highest senior levels of our game.

In the last few weeks you might have noticed Sydney FC struggle for long periods to keep the ball against pressure, likewise Adelaide United against the Vietnamese, and the best sign of what our poor philosophy of football and no insistence on playing from defense at junior levels produces, is to see Australia struggle to play under defensive pressure against China in the second half of the recent international.

So, enough of where we are, let’s explore some key elements of a good philosophy of football.

Here is a start for any youth coaches and parents interested to know where they now stand, and in what direction they should be heading:

1. To play the ball on the ground at all times, which requires both supporting play and good technique;

2. To play short passes, which requires players to support each other in attack and defense, and is harder to defend and anticipate;

3. To play only longer balls in response to a movement by a team-mate not in the hope of one - to move and ask for the ball after which the pass is delivered;

4. To play longer passes, and particularly those in the air, predominantly only when there is no closer option and always into the feet of an attacker, never just into space for them to chase;

5. To discourage young keepers in kicking the ball long unless there is no other option (and even here one can almost always be manufactured) and at all times have the keeper roll the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back;

6. If, at any time, a youngster has no option to find a team-mate, they should be encouraged always to keep the ball. This may mean shielding it, keeping it moving to wait for a pass, or to dribble forward to attack an opponent. At no time should they be told to kick it away regardless of the position they play or where they are on the field, and if the child loses the ball they should be encouraged to try again;

7. To encourage players to express themselves through their football and recognize that everyone is not the same, and shouldn’t play so. Some play fast, others slow, some play simple, others read situations and find more complex solutions, and some have enough skill to individually dominate a game, while others can only dream of doing so, but all should be allowed to find their own game not forced to conform to a uniform way of playing;

8. And, to SLOW DOWN, or more specifically, vary the speed of play during a game, which requires a team to hold the ball. After working to recover possession, every young team should break forward only if they have an advantage in attack, otherwise they should slow the play down and possess the ball, back and across the field, resting and starting to position themselves in attack to take advantage of overloads in numbers, or weaknesses in defense. Youth coaches need to understand that the object of football is to keep the ball and to score goals through breaking down a defense with passing and skill, not by booting the ball forward hoping for a defensive mistake.

And of course a change in philosophy has ramifications for youth training.

It means that at youth levels, the only suitable training sessions should be completely with the ball, with every player touching the ball between 500 and 1000 times, refining technique and 1 v 1 skills, learning the game principally by playing in small games of 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5 and overload practices such as 4 v 2, 4 v 3, 5 v 2.

In this way good coaches can coach the key moments when in possession, the opponent in possession or the changeover, build awareness in the players to aid understanding and decision making, and allow the players to develop a fee for the game that comes only from thousands of hours playing it.

But at the same time the uneducated coach - such as the voluntary parent supervisor - can, by playing these games, give the players a structure, which aids their learning process without having to coach specific points of play.

All fairly straightforward, but a long, long way from where the bulk of our young teams are at right now.

So, how do you know where your club or coach stands from a philosophical point of view? One of the best ways is by their instructions to the players.

If the coach encourages players to slow down and relax on the ball, to take their time, to possess the ball, to support each other, to play together, to take opponents on, to take up positions at angles to each other, to circulate the ball quickly around the team, to play one and two touch football, to create triangles and diamonds in their play, to pass backwards when no forward option is rational, to use the goalkeeper to maintain possession, to read game situations and play away from pressure not into it, and to recognize and create numerical overloads, they are on the right track.

If you hear a coach telling players to ‘get rid of it’, ‘clear their lines’, ‘get it in the box’, ‘get stuck in’, ‘don’t play at the back’, ‘don’t take risks’, telling a keeper to kick the ball long or players to ‘hit the channels’, run a million miles.

Your child is in danger of becoming a boring and uninventive player, and is most unlikely either truly to discover the joy of playing the ball, or to even excel in the game against other players who have spent a decade or more possessing the ball.

And as to the physical aspect and all those coaches who want to make their young players run instead of learning to manipulate the ball and the game itself, yes, at the elite level players are very strong and often gifted physically like Thierry Henry and Kaka, but just like these two the best are footballers before athletes, and value technique over physique, because they recognize that runners don’t make it to the top any more in football.

And don’t forget that Australia has always been physically strong, but we only started to improve when Guus Hiddink finally told the players to keep the ball, to play out from the back (or in his words, ‘to start the attack from defense’), to use space more intelligently through better positional awareness, to stop hitting the ball forward in hope or desperation, to understand how to utilize the team’s spare man to keep possession, to support the ball possessor in attack, and to be patient and play in all directions in the build up phase until in a position to strike at the opponent.

These are the principles, which underline the correct philosophy of football, and the very ones every junior club and coach should be required to teach.

Where there's a Wall, there's a Teammate

2010-06-30T15:49:00.002-06:00

By Claudio Reyna

A player can always improve his fitness by working out hard. He can comprehend certain tactics by studying the game. But how far he goes will be determined mainly by how well he has mastered ball skills. Those are acquired by playing, day after day, year after year.

A player who really wants to excel will spend as much time as possible playing small-sided games when he has playmates, and juggling and kicking against the wall when he's on his own.

I spent a lot of time hitting the ball against the side of the house when I was a growing up. If my mother complained about the noise, I'd hop down the retaining wall at the end of our property to the office-building parking lot.

I'd use that wall -- hitting the ball with both feet, seeing how long I could return the wall's passes without losing control. I found out later that so many pros spent lots of their childhood doing that.

Dennis Bergkamp, the great Dutch striker who scored and set up hundreds of goals for Ajax Amsterdam, Arsenal, and the Dutch national team, said that when he was a youth player at Ajax, they had little three-foot-high walls. He would knock the ball against the walls for hours. Every time he hit the ball, he'd know whether it was a good touch or a bad touch. He'd do it over and over, trying to establish a rhythm.

Whenever I saw Bergkamp slotting a perfectly placed ball past a goalkeeper or making a precise pass, I thought of him practicing against the wall.

Kicking against the wall is an excellent way to work on improving your weaker foot. You can back up and practice shots on goal, or move close to the wall and work on passing, because where there's a wall, there's a teammate.

You can practice trapping and work on your first touch by controlling the ball before you kick it, or hit it back first time.

Passing the ball against a wall from close distance takes timing and coordination. Hit the ball faster, and you've got to react faster and get a rhythm going. It almost feels like you're dancing.

Practicing the correct striking of the ball over and over helps it become second nature. It has to be, because in a game a player doesn't have time to think about his form or approach. Under pressure, everything is more difficult. Mastering technique while playing on your own is the first step to being able to do it right in a game.

(Excerpted from "More Than Goals: The Journey from Backyard Games to World Cup Competition" by Claudio Reyna, courtesy of Human Kinetics.)

(Claudio Reyna was named the U.S. Soccer Federations's Youth Technical Director in April 2010. Reyna played nearly 13 years in the top-tier leagues of Germany (Bayer Leverkusen, VfL Wolfsburg), Scotland (Glasgow Rangers) and England (Sunderland, Manchester City). He represented the USA in four World Cups, and captained the Americans to a quarterfinal run at the 2002 World Cup, where he became the first American selected to the FIFA World Cup all-star team.)

Infinity's u12 & u13 Select Girls Playing Beach Soccer

2010-06-26T10:03:00.002-06:00

Infinity Soccer in The Herald Journal

2010-05-27T07:17:00.001-06:00

Infinity has taken Cache Valley by storm
By Jason Turner

It's only been two years, but the Infinity Soccer Club has taken Cache Valley by storm.

The non-profit organization is already one of the largest soccer clubs in the Beehive State as 29 teams, consisting of athletes from approximately 300 families, compete under the Infinity name. Those 29 teams consist of boys and girls ranging from the ages of 4-19.

There are currently 20 coaches - all are licensed or are working on their licensing through the United States Soccer Federations (USSF) - associated with Infinity, four paid professional coaching directors and a seven-person board, which meets once a month and deals with the financial and business side of the club.

Because it was still green compared to other clubs around the state, Infinity is still evolving, but its primary objective will never change.

"Our real goal is to instill a passion for the game and a love for the game that (the youth will) want to continue to play and compete and represent their high schools and represent this community through their high schools, as well as reach the potential of possibly getting college scholarships if that's something they aspire to," said Jeff Ginn, the club's technical director.

Because Infinity - which basically originated when Soccer Academy and Valencia combined resources - has become the valley's biggest club so quickly, there have been concerns expressed by others in the community. Ginn is quick to stress he understands why people would be skeptical, but wants to dispel those misconceptions.

"There are people out there who look at us as a bad thing, and I can understand because there are a lot of clubs throughout this country that give club soccer a real bad name," he said. "We are not heavily into recruiting players and going and picking up players and doing those things that usually give clubs a bad name.

"... We want our product to speak for itself. We want people to understand who we are and what we're about."

The other big notion Ginn hopes to dispel is Infinity is an "exclusive club," and one that just cares about winning.

All youth from the valley are welcome to try out for one of the teams, and those tryouts, which happen every spring and fall, are currently taking place and will continue through June 4. As far as being obsessed with winning, Ginn said this is simply not true, particularly at the younger ages, where player development is by far the most important thing.

In fact, Infinity's Mission Statement reads: (Infinity's goal is) to facilitate individual player development through high quality training, coaching, teammate and competition.

"The beauty of the club is that we no longer care so much or focus so much on winning at all costs, which is quite frequently a big concern at the youth levels," Ginn said. "And our goal from the ages 8 to about 13 years old is to develop elite players that love the game, so when they get to 14, 15, 16, 17 and older, they're elite players that can play and dominate in the high school level, and if they so desire, earn a college scholarship."

Infinity is essentially broken down into three age groups/tiers, starting at the Academy Soccer level (ages 4-9). The primary focus with this age group is to teach the kids the fundamentals and skills of the sport and develop a love for the game.

The other two age groups, the Infinity Elite (ages 10-12) and Infinity Soccer Club (ages 12-19), are more geared for those who have the aspirations and skills needed to compete at district and state levels. Those in the oldest groups are involved in Utah State Cup competition, where they play in a league featuring the top club teams in the state - premier being the highest division.

Teams that are successful at that level earn the right to compete in regional and, in some cases, national tournaments.

As is the case with other clubs, Infinity players pay monthly dues, the cost of which is determined by age and the level of play. Club fees are always a dicey subject, and Ginn insists Infinity does its best to cut costs "without damaging the product."

In years past, many of the top players from the valley traveled to the Ogden, Salt Lake and Provo metropolitan areas to play on long-established club teams like La Roca, Sparta, Rangers and Storm. With the formation of Infinity, Ginn is confident similarly-skilled players can now stay in the valley and receive the same training and opportunities.

"Our ultimate goal is to provide the service so (the elite players) don't have to travel down there," Ginn said.

Over the past two years, Infinity has proven it can compete with those bigger metro clubs. In the spring of 2009, Infinity had a pair of teams (a U11 and U12 girls squad) advance to the finals of State Cup competition.

Three Infinity teams - a U11, U12 and U13 girls squad - are currently alive in spring State Cup competition and have advanced to the quarterfinals.

Some other Infinity teams have recently enjoyed a great deal of success outside the valley, including a Travis Baxter-coached U15-16 girls squad (champions of the Las Vegas Mayors Cup), the Caleb Cowley-coached U13 girls squad (runners-up at Presidents Cup in St. George) and a Jeff Woods-coached U13 team that ended up winning the Presidents Cup.

Infinity also helps give elite local players the opportunity to be a part of the prestigious Olympic Development Program (ODP). The ODP program is the starting point for the U.S. Soccer Federation in determining the national team pool, and who represents the country in the Olympics and World Cup, should they qualify.

There are currently 14 Infinity players who represent the Utah ODP team at their respective age group, and they are Stacy Bair, Jordan Houston, Jessica Brooksby, Kaitlyn McKuskey, Rebecca Jenson, Madilyn Klein, Taylee Halverson, Kylie Griffin, Kyler Erickson, Anna Davidson, Breanna Sims, Lexi Sims, Demi Lopez and Brynnlee Welch.

Bair and Brooksby are currently in the Region III - the country is divided into four regions, and each region has about 60 kids in its pool - pool, and Bair recently became the first valley player to receive an invitation to the National Development Camp. Bair, a sophomore at Sky View, was one of 80 kids in her age group selected for the national pool. Approximately 18-22 players are selected to the ODP state team at each age group.

Simply put, Infinity has helped local players earn respect and recognition from the rest of the state. Ginn recalled talking to an aunt who recently moved from New Jersey to Draper. That aunt has a son who expressed interest in playing club soccer, and when she told the coaches in the Draper area who her nephew was, she received some positive feedback.

"And he pretty much just (told her), ‘Infinity has given Logan an identity at the state level,'" Ginn said. "... We've been watching the athletes of Logan come in and do really well, but it seems like they finally have a focus and a large-term aspect to their community.' But it was a big compliment when ... the state soccer teams and clubs acknowledge Logan and Cache Valley and that the first thing they think of is Infinity soccer."

Another one of Infinity's primary focuses is teaching parents proper soccer etiquette and helping them become better "adult learners," which is a phrase coined by the USSF. Ginn described "adult learners" as parents who have a desire to learn the game and adapt to USSF guidelines and suggestions.

"At all sports, you see coaches and parents telling the kids what to do all the time, where to go, how to get there," Ginn said. "You here the words, ‘send it, shoot it,' so many times that the kids stop thinking on their own and they don't know how to make decisions for themselves.

"... (Our goal) is to teach them that the kids are smart, they'll figure it out."

Something else Ginn and Infinity hopes to accomplish is to unify the soccer community. When Ginn, a native of Orange County, Calif., moved to the valley a few years ago, he felt there was a bit of a division among those from the north and south ends of the community. The former Iowa Western Community College assistant coach - Ginn helped lead the Lady Reivers to a gaudy 70-9-6 record in his four seasons at the school - endeavors for players and coaches from all around the valley to "be working on the same page, have some synergy."

On the flip side, Ginn also feels club soccer has fewer issues here than the bigger metro areas in the state.

"One of the reasons why a choose to come to Logan or to accept this position was because I knew if we got in here and got organized that we could change the culture without a lot of conflict, because there was no major club in here winning all the time and preaching something other than developmental soccer," he said.

Another thing that appealed to Ginn about Cache Valley was its enthusiasm for the sport. Recent studies have suggested the valley has the nation's highest per capita rate of soccer players under the age of 13. Ginn went on to praise District 7 for doing "an amazing job of facilitating soccer for our rec programs," and for trying to adapt to USSF's policies and suggestions.

Perhaps more than anything, though, Ginn wants people to realize that Infinity's end game is to promote soccer as a life sport.

"Soccer is a life sport," Ginn said. "You go throughout this world and you see 60, 70-year-old men and women playing soccer still, and it's because they love the game. They may not have the mobility, but they can still play it.

"... It promotes healthy living, it promotes activity lifestyles. And with the obesity and everything that's going on with our culture, soccer can make such a difference."

Other directors for the club are Sherri Dever (Director of Coaching), Marla Nelson (Director of Goalkeeping) and Lisa Godfrey (Director of Operations). For more information about Infinity, go to www.infinitysc.com.

The original article can be found at: http://news.hjnews.com/sports/article_0688f02e-695d-11df-a7e9-001cc4c03286.html

Soccer Champions Grow In Your Backyard

2010-05-05T10:52:00.002-06:00

Have you ever watched youth soccer games and noticed a few players who really stood out as talented? Did you watch with amazement as they dribbled through the crowd of defenders and then finished with that perfect shot? The fact is that all sports, not just soccer, have certain athletes that just seem to amaze us. We as parents want out kids to develop as well, but how do we start? How do we get them to improve? The answer may be right outside your window in your backyard.

The common thread among great soccer players…

First, let’s take a look at Tiger Woods. Wait a minute, why a golf player? Because his name is known world wide and we can all relate to his story. For most of his developing life who was his coach and trainer? Who was his only putting coach as he progressed into the Pro years? The answer to both was his dad, Earl.
Was Earl Woods a professional golfer? Not at all, he was a career Army man that had a passion for the sport. He loved golf and he loved his son. He was able to blend time spent together and building a passion for the game, with learning and improving. Much of this time was right in their backyard “messing around”, having fun and exposing a child to new skills and thoughts. There were hours and hours of performing repetitive skills in the form of games and challenges. The same applies for so many great soccer players of our time and we as parents can learn from this example.

Parents are the key...

Ask any great soccer player who played a major role in their soccer growth and 90% of the time the answer will be “Mom or Dad”. When we developed the SoccerU series we specifically had this in mind. Whether it was the level of support or the time at night and weekends spent in the back yard just “messing around”, parents are often the engine behind developing talent, not the coach.

Each night I drive by our local public fields and sure enough there is a parent and child on the field working on skills or just “messing around” together. These small little sessions play such a major role in a youth player’s development, I can’t stress them enough. Last year I worked with several former Division One college players and the same was true. Their “parents” were the reason they were able to achieve such success. None of these parents were “pro soccer players” so how did they help that struggling child? I will explain.

Watch your next few soccer practices…

Let’s say that a young soccer player, over their development cycle, needs to learn and master 75 core skills. These will include everything from learning the difference between an offensive header and defensive header to receiving a pass under pressure and proper first touch. Whether the skill is basic like dribbling or advanced like performing a volley kick, each of these individual skills must be shown, taught and practiced repeatedly. However, you’ll notice that over the course of a soccer season players may only learn one to four new skills. Often after learning them, they seldom return to practice them in a repetitive session. At that pace they will hit the “competitive level” without ever really refining all the core skills.

Now, don’t go blaming the coach…

The first thing you realize when you become a soccer coach is that you are missing one thing, TIME. Working in the “group” means that all the players must be trained together. All their levels of skills, behavior and learning must be viewed as a whole, and one on one / individual training is almost never done. One to three hours a week for few weeks in the spring and fall is simply not enough time. You are also supposed to get this “motley crew” to play together as a team and hopefully win at least one game.

You will quickly see how many youth soccer players can hit the middle school and even high school level with very few refined technical skills. As players get older the focus switches to “competing”. We often see less and less time spent on core technical training which is a huge mistake.

1000’s of touches and hours of repetition…

Charlie Cook, the director of Coerver Training US, emailed me last year. He was reflecting on watching the national team and a player that received a long air pass. The player, with out any effort, gently touched the ball once and killed it into his path. “An amazing sight to see.” However he quickly pointed out that this was not a god given talent. This player was not born with this touch nor did he learn it by just “playing the game”. He learned it by practicing it over and over. Thousands of touches and repetition until this skill was a part of his nature, “instinctive”. His point was clearly made. To have a skill become “natural or instinctive” it must be repeated over and over until we no longer have to “think about it”. It becomes a habit that the player performs without thought.

This is where the back yard begins…

We, as parents must become teachers. We must be able to identify skills in their raw form and learn how to perform them correctly ourselves. We then must be able to tell and show a child visually how to properly perform the skill. After many short repetitive sessions it will eventually allow them to feel it and let it become part of their nature. Until we do this, it will never become an instinctive habit.

Parents however, sometimes feel “lost” and don’t know where to begin, how to progress or even how to teach these skills. You do not have to become a “professional soccer player”. You simply must learn to teach what your child will not be taught during the “normal development cycle” of their soccer career. Hence the 10 hours of skills breakdown on SoccerU.

Watch out for the frustration…

A simple warning for parents is to be aware that younger players often become frustrated easily. Our goal is to keep it fun and make sure the child feels like these are THEIR sessions and not forced on them. Keep them short and mix them in with what the child wants to do. Maybe they want to be goal keeper, maybe they want to take penalty shots on mom or dad. Whatever it is, keep the training divided in half. Half learning and repetition and half fun and games. Create challenges and even have fun goals to achieve. There is nothing better than a challenge between the child and parent.

There always is a parent…

In the US pickup games and free play soccer has almost become extinct. The extra hours of needed play and skill work now has to come from the parent. Parents often search for the “perfect soccer camp” spending hundreds even thousands of dollars on camps that might only last 2 – 5 days. These are great for social development but offer little improvement in what the players need.

When I meet a talented young soccer player I always ask them, “Who taught you how to play?” Every single player over the past two years has responded the same way, “My Mom / Dad.”
Make sure you realize the importance of “off program” training and make sure you understand the importance of the backyard. Cherish this time as not only soccer training, but bonding as well. Always remember that they are KIDS first, not soccer players, and nothing says “good work” like a stop for ice cream on the way home.

This article was originally found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV4C6oi_j2g&feature=player_embedded#!

Don't be a 'Joystick' Coach

2010-04-20T09:00:00.004-06:00

By Alex Kos

I first heard the term "Joystick Coaching" a few years back. What a wonderfully descriptive term. As with video games, joystick coaches want to dictate and control the movement of all players on the field. Hence the term "joystick."

However, there is very little joy to be had by players when they are coached in this manner.

Joystick coaching has reached epidemic proportions (and parents are just as guilty). Why is this happening?

* Look at other popular youth sports such as football, baseball and basketball. Football and baseball coaches are joystick experts. Even in basketball where the game is more fluid (like soccer) and, therefore, more difficult to control and manipulate, coaches still try their best to dictate the action. Since many soccer coaches come from these backgrounds, it is only natural that joystick coaching carries over into soccer.

* We are a sports nation hung up on X’s and O’s. Joysticking is a natural by-product of this fascination. How many times do you see defenders standing in one spot because that is where the defenders were positioned on the dry-erase board?

* Soccer is not an easy sport to learn. No matter how many times coaches tell young players to spread out and not play bunch-ball, they still do. As such, coaches feel compelled to ‘help’ position and move their players about.

Besides early player retirements, there are other consequences of this "helping" behavior.

* In a sport that is very fluid where the action happens so quickly, players must be able to think on their feet and solve or address problems immediately. However, the more players are told what to do, the less they will be able to think for themselves.

* Players lose their sense of purpose. They are out there to play a game and try their best yet are constantly being told how to play.

* Once one adult starts maneuvering players on the field, other adults feel empowered to do the same. Soon, players are being told how to play and where to stand by coaches, parents, and complete strangers. And often, the three groups are giving three completely different instructions. What is a player to do?

These are some simple tips that will help coaches curb the joystick epidemic and truly help players.

* Lead by example. Limited joystick coaching during games as much as possible.

* Set ground rules for your assistant coaches and parents. Explain the drawback of joystick coaching and having multiple adults "help" players with conflicting instructions.

* Rather than telling players what to do and where to play, ask them how and where they should be playing. Let them think of the answer and assist only if they don’t know the answer.

Coaches (and parents), leave your joysticks hooked up to your game consoles at home for use with FIFA 10. If you don’t, you’ll be using the actual joystick much more since Saturday mornings will soon be free.

(Alex Kos' experiences as a player, coach, referee, parent and fan are shared in his blog, Improving Soccer in the United States, where this article first appeared.)

Sharing the Vision of the U.S. Youth Soccer Association (Part 1 of 2)

2010-03-30T19:21:00.007-06:00

Fun: The Focus of Recreation Soccer

Recreation soccer years are some of the most important years of a kid’s life in sports. In two weeks the beehive state will have five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten year olds outside playing soccer and what we will see is a swarm of kids fighting over the ball… hopefully having fun! Some will kick it the wrong way, some will fall down, some will chase butterflies and some will be more interested in what mom and dad are doing on the sideline. It is inspiring to view soccer through the mind of a youngster as they view it so much differently than we do. Kids love to play! Hopefully, we as adults can let them enjoy their “play time.” The true success at the younger ages is determined by how much they enjoy their time on the park. Below is an excerpt from the U.S. Youth Soccer Association’s “Vision Document” that should help remind us that we need to let kids be kids.

There are already a multitude of articles saying that winning and losing are not the correct measures of success in youth soccer, instead we should measure the development of the players. OK, perfect. The next obvious follow-up question then is, “How do we measure the development of a single player?” If US Youth Soccer can answer this question in a way that is helpful to committed coaches and understandable to parents with limited playing experience (and paying the money to have their kids involved), they may be able to turn this overly organized youth soccer system of ours into a much more effective development program.

-Cary McCormick
Arlington, VA

“TRUTHS” about children and sports

-Fun is pivotal - if it’s not “fun,” young people won’t play a sport

-Skill development is a crucial aspect of fun - it is more important than winning even among the best athletes

-The most rewarding challenges of sports are those that lead to self knowledge

-Intrinsic rewards (self-knowledge that grows out of self-competition) are more important in creating lifetime athletes than are extrinsic rewards (victory or attention from others).

During childhood allow the kids to have a good time playing the game while instilling the passion to love playing soccer on their own. Only a passion for the game can lead to success. “Success is something players take ownership of and in time it becomes personally meaningful. Success is a process, not a product. The process of doing one’s best is the key to success. The determining criterion of success is whether a player gave his or her best that day. Doing one’s best is the most important statement a player can make about the importance of an activity and the meaning it has. With years of experience comes self-knowledge and self-awareness. So players learn over time what it means to do your best, to give 100%.”

Winning isn’t everything, but trying to is!

–Rainer Martens, sports psychologist

Motives for Participation in Youth Sport

Reasons for Participating in Non-school Sports
(study of 3,900 7th to 12th graders)

Boys
1. To have fun
2. To do something I’m good at
3. To improve my skills
4. For the excitement of competition
5. To stay in shape
6. For the challenge of competition
7. To get exercise
8. To learn new skills
9. To play as part of a team
10. To go to a higher level of competition

Girls
1. To have fun
2. To stay in shape
3. To get exercise
4. To improve my skills
5. To do something I am good at
6. To learn new skills
7. For the excitement of competition
8. To play as part of a team
9. To make new friends
10. For the challenge of competition

Truths & Motives for Participation
1. The motive to have fun and to enjoy participating in sport.
2. The motive to learn new skills and to improve on existing sports skills.
3. The motive to become physically fit and to enjoy good health
4. The motive to enjoy the challenge and excitement of sports participation and competition.
5. The motive to enjoy a team atmosphere and to be with friends.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PARENTS

-Remember the “truths” and talk to your children with them in mind. After a game, ask questions about “fun,” “skill improvement,” “learning experiences” and “having a good time with friends.”

-See yourself as part of the team and supportive of the coach; avoid setting up a conflict in your child’s mind between his or her parents and coaches. If you want to affect the coaching, volunteer to help.

-Develop perspective: remember what you could do at your children’s ages; don’t judge them by what you can do now. Kids will not become great players overnight. Develop an understanding of what your children want from sports—not all children want the same things. Determine if they want to be involved at all.

Basic Urges of Children

-Movement
-Success and Approval
-Peer Acceptance & Social Competence
-Cooperation & Competition
-Physical Fitness & Attractiveness
-Adventure
-Creative Satisfaction
-Rhythmic Expression
-To Know

Note: winning alone is not a motive for participation by boys and girls.

We are asking our players to compete before they have learned how to play.

-Jay Miller, U17 Men’s National Team coach 2001

In general the benefits of youth sports for children include character building, dealing with obstacles, dealing with losing, humility in winning, dealing with competition, leadership growth opportunities, cooperative skills, social skills and so on. We employ soccer to develop well adjusted, good citizens.

Coaches, thank you so much for helping our young kids develop in to great citizens. The sport is beautiful because it teaches us so much about life. I hope that we can take advantage of this time and allow the kids in our district learn great life principles as they improve their skills and develop a passion for the “beautiful game” that is soccer.

US Soccer's 12 Year Plan... how do we contribute?

2010-03-12T09:56:00.011-07:00

The video above provides some significant information of how the US Soccer Federation has planned to find success during the 2010 World Cup. I want to note the time frame of the 5:35-6 Minute mark where they say, "The idea is to create an environment that emphasizes training and development rather than wins and losses. And it's got one goal in mind and that is to produce the next generation of National team players ready to compete against the best players in the world." It continues on, "Bradenton (youth academy) would hopefully grow itself out of existence and we wouldn't need it. We wouldn't need a dream team for 17 year olds if a couple of thousand 17 year olds were in a better environment."

So the question I pose is that if the US Soccer Federation's map to success is not focused on winning at age u17, and is instead focused on providing an environment geared towards training and player development then why do we not follow suit at the youth levels?

I suggest that tradition in youth sports is that adults drive the expectation of winning so high that the youth feel that they are not accepted unless they produce results on game day. Do not get me wrong, I am all for competition and wanting players to want to do what it takes to win. I am an American, I LOVE winning! But in so many circumstances we fail our kids by putting them in environments where they will win the majority of the time and emphasize the need to win. I would like to argue that a healthy balance of wins and losses helps our young players develop faster than if they are winning all of the time.

I will also argue forever that until our country embraces the idea that if we emphasize developing the players on our team to be technically sound and comfortable on the ball that the wins will come when the games are actually relevant.

Int he 2008 publication of Soccer America Magazine there is an article that recognizes a report from the US Soccer Technical Committee:

"Our players are not good enough at the highest levels -- we need to get better," reads the introduction to the Technical Committee's Player Development Report.

The report outlined changes the committee believed are needed at different age groups. Notably, for ages 6-12, the assessment summary included "Need more free play, less structure ... Encourage passion and experimentation." At ages 13-17 (the development stages): "Need to eliminate clutter in the environment -- elite players are stretched too thin."

The article later reads,

To counter the "growing trend of clubs playing an excessive quantity of games in lieu of consistent training patterns," academy teams will not play in any other leagues or State Cup competitions. Players will be allowed to play high school ball, for U.S. national teams and in a few other situations.

"It was never more clear to me that things in our youth soccer structure needed to change than at our first U-15 camp last summer," says U.S. U-15 boys national team coach Jim Barlow, "when about half of the players, on the very first day of national team camp, told their coaches that they were tired of soccer. Too many games, too many leagues, too many tournaments and camps, too much structured soccer had already taken its toll on this group of talented young players."

Bob Jenkins, U.S. Soccer Director of Youth Development, found that the club coaches whose teams participate in an excessive amount of competitions -- placing an emphasis on results over player development -- often agreed that their players were asked to play too many games. But they go along with it because the parents who pay them judge them on their teams' trophy-collecting ability and believe that if the children miss a showcase event they may miss a chance to be discovered by college or national team coaches.

My next question is why does US Youth Soccer promote National Championships at such young ages and at what age does Brazil first host a national championship tournament?

The video is a sobering display of the difference in culture. In the video it mentions that TEAMS are not formed/emphasized until the age of 13. If that is so, how are their players so good?

May I suggest, as Georgia Youth Soccer suggests, that it because of the multiple environments (and culture) that kids PLAY in develop them far more than the structured environments that we put them in. The video shows the different environments that kids grow up PLAYING in.

So we investigate Brazil. Of any country they arguably produce the most professional players in the world AND have five stars above their crest (each representing Wordl Cup Championships). So what does Brazil do different than the U.S.A.?

I would argue that the secret to their success is an emphasis on the ability for players to be confident and comfortable on the ball so they can perform when they make quality tactical decisions and that the ability to make good decisions comes from a less controlled and more free environment for them to express themselves when the ball is at their feet. The Brazilians emphasize the word "relax" or "calme" in Portuguese (watch video below).

There are a ton of things that we need to do to improve the development of the players in our country. But the one thing that will start a cultural swing in our country is the emphasis on players instead of teams. It should be our goal to make soccer enjoyable for all players, however we should not sacrifice the development of any player for any reason, especially to get a result on game day.

I raise the questions; What is our 12 year plan in our community? And how do we go about implementing a 12 year plan that reflects a combination of the US soccer academy structure and the insight of the Brazilian culture?

I am hoping for some replies that can generate some dialogue. I hope that you will assist in the process by expressing/sharing some of your own ideas, questions and concerns so please feel free to respond by clicking the COMMENTS link below. Also, if you want to view the entire Goergia Youth Soccer "Player Development " video it is below.

Infinity welcomes MLS Cup to Riverwoods

2010-02-25T15:43:00.002-07:00

By Jason Turner
sports writer

When the MLS Cup Tour makes its way through Cache Valley on Friday, representatives of Real Salt Lake - the reigning champions of Major League Soccer - will be there to make the experience extra special for several local youngsters.

Not only will the MLS Cup be displayed at five different elementary schools in the valley, it will exhibited for an extended period of time at an auction and dinner hosted by Wasatch Property Management and the Infinity Soccer Club.

The Cup can be seen by the public starting around 3:30 p.m., and the silent auction is scheduled from 4:30-6 at the Riverwoods Conference Center. Following the auction, Infinity SC - a non-profit organization home to 29 teams from the valley - will host a dinner from 6-8:30 p.m. Cost for the dinner is $20 and is open to the general public.

Jeff Ginn, technical director of Infinity, developed a friendship with RSL employee Scott Reynolds several years ago when Ginn was the head soccer head at Iowa Western Community College. Reynolds, RSL's sales manager, and Ginn were reunited when Ginn moved to Utah, and the professional soccer club and Infinity have formed quite the partnership ever since.

"When I moved back to Utah, we ran into each other again and reunited those ties, and so we've had a good relationship," Ginn said. "Scott Reynolds and I have had a really good relationship over the few years.

"... They've just really bent over backwards to be part of Infinity and reach out to our club. They've been very accommodating for us."

Those who attend the dinner will receive a Real Nation T-shirt, a ticket voucher for RSL's homer opener against the Seattle Sounders on April 10, and will have their picture taken with RSL's mascot, Leo the Lion, and the club's three trophies.

The other two trophies are the Eastern Conference Championship Cup and the Rocky Mountain Cup. RSL captured the Rocky Mountain Cup by winning the 2009 season series with the rival Colorado Rapids.

All proceeds from the auction - select items will also be auctioned off at the dinner - will go to Infinity. The club will use a lot of the money it raises to help parents with monthly dues, Ginn said, and Infinity plans on donating a portion of it to District 7 of the Utah Youth Soccer Association. Infinity also plans on using a portion of it to improve soccer fields and equipment in the valley.

Real Salt Lake has aided Infinity in its fundraising efforts before, and plans on contributing at least $10,000 to the cause, according to Infinity's Web site, www.infinitysc.com.

"Each team has the liberty of doing their own fundraising activities, from cleaning the Spectrum, from selling items like Fat Boy Ice Cream, so a lot of different individual team things happen," Ginn said. "We did one other thing with Real Salt Lake last summer. We had an Infinity Day, where we got a percentage of the tickets that we sold and our kids got to go play on the field during halftime and we got to walk out with the (RSL) players holding their hands in the pre-game, so there's a really neat tie with Real Salt Lake and Infinity Soccer already."

The fact that Bill Manning, president of RSL, will be a guest speaker at the dinner would attest to this. Ginn praised Manning, saying hearing him speak makes the cost of the event more than worthwhile.

In addition to honoring RSL's breakthrough 2009 season, the event will focus on the recent achievements of Infinity players. Each team will recognize an offensive and defensive MVP, plus give out a "Forever Futbol Award" and name a most improved player.

Infinity enjoyed a lot of success in 2009 as several of its teams did well in State Cup competition and 14 of its players were selected to the Olympic Development Program (ODP) pool at the state level. All of those players, plus coaches and board members will be honored Friday.

In addition to Manning, Sky View sophomore Stacy Bair will speak at the dinner. Bair, a mainstay in the regional ODP pool, recently returned from Coral Springs, Fla., where she was invited to attend the prestigious National ODP Development Camp.

Those interested in the event, Infinity members or not, can purchase tickets by calling Celeste at 750-5151or by visiting the Elements Restaurant.

Ginn made it a point to thank Wasatch Property Management, the Riverwoods Conference Center and the Elements Restaurant for making this event a reality.

SV’s (and Infinity's) Bair invited to a prestigious national camp

2010-02-16T17:00:00.002-07:00

Stacy Bair has dreams of playing soccer at a very high level, including aspirations of one day suiting up for the U.S. National team.

As lofty as that might appear, the Sky View sophomore certainly appears to be on the right track.

Bair received some big news recently when she was invited to represent Region IV at the National Development Camp Feb. 16-20 in Coral Springs, Fla. Bair left Cache Valley at 3 a.m. today for the Sunshine State.

Only 17 players from Region IV — which consists of 12 western states — were invited to attend this development camp for the U16 National team, and Bair is believed to be the first one ever from Cache Valley, according to Bair’s mother, Janet, and local club soccer coach Robson Chaves.

Needless to say, Bair is ecstatic for the opportunity to join such a select group of players. Bair caught word of the invitation when Janet Bair received an e-mail from Joyce Bordley, the girls administrator for Region IV’s Olympic Development Program (ODP).

“I was really excited,” Stacy Bair said. “I was a little nervous because I didn’t know if anybody that I knew would be going ... but then I found out that there were a couple people that I know who are going to the same camp, so I would be fine.”

Bair caught the attention of scouts for the camp by showcasing her ability at the Region IV ODP Championships, Jan. 16-19 in Phoenix. The striker played for the Utah 94 team and was a big reason the squad from the Beehive State advanced to the championship match.

During Utah’s five matches, Bair scored three goals and assisted on two others. Utah battled perennial power California South tooth and nail twice in the tournament, losing 1-0 in group play and in the finals.

Fellow Sky View forward Jessica Brooksby was also on the team, which notched victories over New Mexico (2-1) and Washington (5-0) after a tough 2-1 setback to Arizona.

Brooksby, a freshman, also played well in Phoenix, scoring a goal en route to being named to the 94 all-tournament first team.

Bair also played on the 94 squad a year ago, helping it advance to the championship match, as well. That team was handily beaten by California South 4-1 for the title, but Utah was a lot more competitive this time around.

The Richmond native credited better team cohesion and new head coach Heather Cairns and her staff for Utah 94’s improvement.

“I think that we just had better organization than we did last year, and the coaching was better this year, I thought,” Bair said. “And we played more as a team because we got to know each other better than last year.

“Because it was all kind of just put together (last year) and we didn’t know each other that well, but this year was a lot better, I felt.”

Joining Bair at the national camp is fellow Utah 94 teammate Maris Hamblin (Lone Peak), and Juan Diego products Monique Morrison and Victoria Shimkus. Morrison and Shimkus both played for Utah 93 at the recent ODP tournament, and all four players are in the Region IV ODP pool for their respective age groups.

As a sophomore for Sky View, Bair was one of the 4A’s most dangerous strikers. Bair led the Bobcats in goals and assists with 11 and seven, respectively.

Bair’s success has led to opportunities to attend several camps throughout the country, in addition to the national camp. The costs involved with Bair’s soccer endeavors are starting to take their toll, however. As a result, the Bair family is looking for local businesses to help sponsor the camps.

“You want to give them every opportunity to succeed,” said Janet Bair, who made it a point to thank all of those who have helped fund Stacy’s trips.

The original article can be found by clicking here.

En Route: MLS Academies Look To Set The Standard

2010-02-09T21:45:00.004-07:00

Youth soccer in America finding an identity.
By JR Eskilson
Feb 9, 2010 2:36:00 PM
(GINN HIGHLIGHTS ARE BOLDED)

Three years ago, U.S. Soccer began an initiative called the Development Academy. At the forefront of the progressive youth soccer adjustment was the introduction of MLS academies to the scene.

Currently, there are only two American MLS teams without academies in the Development Academy, and both of those clubs have plans to join the system soon. So with the introduction of professional clubs to a youth structure that had been around for years, would there be backlash? How would the professional teams do against established clubs?

Goal.com asked youth directors around MLS their thoughts on the project and on the future.

After discussing the Development Academy with various directors around the league, the message was clear: MLS teams want to develop players. “We are different in that player development is paramount and winning will be a by product of development, not the opposite.” Brian Crookham, Colorado Rapids’ Director of Youth Soccer, told Goal.com on Monday. A not so subtle jab at youth clubs that still polish their trophy case more than help their players advance.
(HEY, INFINITY SC IS WORKING ON IT)

John Maessener, D.C. United’s Director of Youth Soccer agreed, saying, “We are serious about player development and have shown that our system, even as it is relatively new, is a very good environment for top level players to develop.” Oscar Pareja, FC Dallas’ Director of Player Development, chimed in with, “The professional clubs should set the highest standards in soccer here in USA.”

The general consensus among the teams is that MLS clubs want their players to know the purpose of the academy is to help them reach their full potential. The emphasis that may have been stressed in the past on results is no longer an issue.

An important change to the previous system, that most of the clubs singled out as one of the best parts of the Development Academy, is the professional training environment that MLS clubs could offer. While it hasn’t always been that way, Crookham stated, “the bottom line is that the daily environment must be better if we want to produce better players and I think there has been some movement in that direction.”

Maessener was very upbeat about the potential of developing players in professional training: “In order to be able to produce world class players, you have to have world class training programs for players to develop.” He went on to say, “This country is used to being the best, I’m confident if we do the things that we all know need to be done, we will be a world power in the next 10-20 years.”

Pareja stated that FC Dallas gives a player a chance “to develop in a professional way, offering all our resources to reach their potential.” Development Academy offers Sparq training, as well as statistical analysis to their teams. Pareja singled out Sparq training saying, “Identifying areas where we can work on is crucial for the coaches.”

One of the major challenges that MLS academies have faced is dealing with local clubs that have been in the area for a long time. Youth clubs are a business, and they are not fans of competing businesses so when MLS academies were developed, there was a backlash. (WE SHOULD BE FINDING A WAY TO JOIN ODP WITH MLS DEVELOPMENTAL ACADEMIES)

Rapids’ experience with the local teams seems to be the status quo, Crookham explained, “We had clubs that jumped up at the beginning wanting to be partners, and we had clubs that circled the wagons and protected what they feel are their territories.” Obviously, the lack of support is not ideal for clubs that should handle the top youth players. However, as Maessener noted, some of these clubs have been doing this for a very long time, but they are beginning to understand that the MLS teams are “serious about player development.”

This is not an idea that is going to change over night, the process of MLS clubs winning a territorial battle might never be over. However, they have begun the process to stake some claim in the local areas.

Possibly the most promising future of the Development Academy is the chance at an all-MLS youth league. Maessener said that clubs are “always talking about ways to separate MLS Academies from the rest to set the standard in this country as it is around the world and as it should be.” Crookham added that MLS clubs are not necessarily in the best interest of the Development Academy.
Instead he offered, “Oversight that is good for a traditional youth club doesn't fit with our goals or philosophies.” For these clubs, the goal is player development and getting players ready for the professional level. There are obviously certain clubs in the Development Academy that don’t have the same beliefs, which does make the competition between these clubs vastly different in terms of goals and success.

Maessener pointed out that the MLS teams have begun to distinguish their clubs by introducing the MLS Youth Cup. (D.C. United won the event in 2009.) Another element unique to MLS clubs is the ability to transition to a professional contract from the academy teams. Maessener talked about the benefit of in-house player development for MLS clubs, “the Home Grown Player rule helps to bring the best, most serious players into our systems and makes it possible for the very best young players to sign professional contracts directly from their Academy teams.”

While it all sounds great on paper, there is still a ton of work to be done by the clubs and the Development Academy. In an ideal world, a hierarchy would be established with the MLS Youth Academies taking the lion’s share of talented players in this country. Maybe it is time for USSF to step up to the plate and help guide the clubs in the right direction. However, there are far too many clubs too uneasy about letting go of control in youth soccer. So the question remains; can the academies be successful with half the teams concerned about results and the others stuck on development?

J.R. Eskilson is the youth soccer editor.

For more youth soccer news visit Goal.com's dedicated page.

Kids understand it is just a game

2010-02-08T10:29:00.002-07:00

By Paul Nelson

WEST VALLEY CITY, UT -- You'll find many loud and supportive parents at the Acord Ice Center in West Valley City during their hockey season, cheering on their children. Why did these parents really sign their kids up to play? What is their main reason? Many parents are looking at the big picture.

One father said he signed up his daughter up for hockey "just to get some experience" for high school and college hockey. One mom had high hopes for her son. She said, "Hopefully he'll excel and be the next NHL superstar."

As for the kids, a few might be focusing on their long term sports dreams. One girl who plays goalie said, "I'm trying to do it just to go to college because I think I'm really good at it."

But for most kids, their main reason to play is very different. While they do have dreams of playing sports in the future, having fun is the main motivator.

One player said, "I just thought it was really fun, so I tried it."

The New York Times reports a recent survey was taken by a sophomore at Fairfield College Prep School in Connecticut. Out of more than 700 kids surveyed, 95 percent of boys and 98 percent of girls said having fun was the main reason for playing sports.

Infinity '00 Girls met The Lady Aggies

2010-02-03T16:41:00.003-07:00

On Tuesday, January 26th the U10 Girls were invited to come 20 minutes early, to their scheduled training session, to watch the Utah State University Aggies Women's Soccer team finish up training. The young Infinity Girls were captivated by the speed and intensity that the Lady Aggies were demonstrating right in front of them. The lady Aggies were intense, focused and skilled. It was fun for coaches, players and some parents to see what the college level of training is like.

The opportunity to meet someone that you admire, or find a new hero is priceless. As the Lady Aggies completed their training, the Infinity girls waited patiently to receive autographs from the finest soccer players in our community.

Not only do the Lady Aggies get to feel like rock stars to ten your old girls that admire them for 15 minutes, they get the recognition that they deserve. It is our hope as the premier soccer club in Cache Valley to continue to build a strong relationship with the USU Soccer program.

Much thanks to the Lady Aggies, Coach, Heather Cairns, Coach Josh Walters, Coach Marla Nelson and the USU staff that has made it possible for us to use the Stan Laub Center.

Making it Fun and Competitive

2010-01-28T12:57:00.003-07:00

The original location of this article is on soccerbible.net
There are two types of fun; running around and goofing around type of fun and the competitive “I’m going to kick your ass” type of fun. These are two radically different types of fun and the coach and team must make the decision early in the season what type of team they are to be as this dictates what type of training and ultimately what type of play the team will have.

Certainly, there is a place for going out to just kick a ball around with very little instruction. This environment will have a lot of laughing and joking. This is certainly more of a recreational environment. That is not to say that this is not an acceptable environment, it is simply not one that will lead to competitive, aggressive dominant teams.

Within the competitive training environment, it must be understood that there is a great deal of fun to be had, however it is fun in a different manner than fun is commonly thought of. When players learn that hard work is fun, that becoming an excellent technical player is fun and when they learn that winning a game while possessing the entire game is fun, then the team is on their way. This is not easy at first and demands high expectations from the coach.

A team training to be competitive should be focused in this manner. The players will arrive at practice, it will begin on time, they will warm up on their own early and ninety minutes of the session will be productive, competitive and lead to true development. The players will have fun as they learn the importance of dedication, hard work and discipline. As they learn this and the session shifts to game play they be having fun playing competitively and will leave practice with a sense of accomplishment.

The interesting thing however, is that once this training environment is set it is far easier and more acceptable to have a part of the training session where the games are ridiculous, the rules are ludicrous, and the players are laughing hysterically. The trainer can often be involved in some way, working and playing; being part of the insanity. This shift if often great for the players as they see a more relaxed side of the coach/trainer rather than the focused demanding side which often is shown. Sometimes this is needed, maybe for an entire session depending on what a team is going through at a given moment. It must be understood however that this is to be exception to the rule rather than the general mood of training.

Final Thoughts on Training

A training session must then be focused and detailed with a set purpose. It is to be clear and concise to the players. It must be organized and within the session must exist a competitive desire which builds in the players the winning mentality. The session should focus on building the players skill and not on winning; that is secondary and will come with player development. Set up training sessions properly and teams will begin to succeed.

'English football is going backwards'

2010-01-27T09:17:00.003-07:00

'English football is going backwards' warns Sir Trevor Brooking

Sir Trevor Brooking last night admitted he feared English football will only go backwards if we cannot abandon the long-ball culture.

While Fabio Capello’s squad will travel to South Africa in buoyant mood in the summer, Brooking, the FA’s Director of Football Development, suggested the cupboard may be bare in a matter of years.

Brooking, speaking at the launch of the £100million National Football Centrer at Burton, said: “We’ve not got the depth of talent for a country of 60 million-plus people.

“If you look beyond the 'Golden Generation' of Lampard and Gerrard, what is there? We all ask if they can do it at the World Cup this summer? We’ll wait and see. But after them there isn’t the depth.”

Brooking added: “We’ve not got enough players who are comfortable on the ball, can step into midfield from the back or drop off into the hole."

“We have to get youngsters playing the way Brazil and Spain are playing. That’s the way football is going, with more intricate passing, and for the FA not to prepare our youngsters for that in the future would be stupid."

“If we are honest, we are not developing technical youngsters. The first thing you have to do is make it clear that you do not play long ball at any stage. You have to resist the temptation to do it at 12 or 14 just to win matches at that age."

“It is about building the right principles. We are trying to embarrass the dads who just want their kids to win at any costs. We have to get the message home that they have to play football. That means good quality coaches who can spread the philosophy.”

THE OFFSEASON: Recommended Backyard Games

2009-12-30T13:02:00.003-07:00

By Mike Singleton

The offseason is near, so here are ways players can work on their skills on their own. …

1. Juggling
a) Juggle the ball with all parts of your body (left and right sides). Try not to have more than five consecutive juggles with the same body part (i.e., feet, head, etc.).
b) Juggle with a friend or friends in a similar fashion to the basketball game “HORSE” — the player who drops the ball gets a letter.
c) Play one-touch or two-touch juggling with your friends, earning letters for drops.

How to Juggle video:

2. One-vs-One
a) Only use one foot — the ball cannot touch your other foot.
b) Have a goal (or a cone) which you can score upon from all sides.
c) Same as b, but have the same goal for both players.
d) Have two goals for each player, one on an end line and one on a sideline.
e) Have three goals for each player, one on an end line and one on each sideline.

3. Wall Soccer
Just kick a ball against a wall using both your left foot and right foot. Place hard shots against the wall (with accuracy and force). Try doing this three-touch, then two-touch, then one-touch. This game helps with trapping/receiving, positioning, striking of a ball with both feet, foot speed, being on toes, and concentration.

It also will improve your passing/shooting accuracy because of the high number of touches you will have on the ball and the high number of balls you play against the wall.

Vary your shots - high, low, left, right, inside foot, outside foot, instep, etc., and make yourself work at a high pace to get your body behind the ball before it rolls past you. Get closer to the wall to improve foot quickness and move further away to increase lateral quickness.

Video on using the wall:

4. Own the Ball!
Just you competing for possession of one ball (through shielding) with one other person. If you lose possession, do whatever you have to do get the ball back as quickly as possible. Correct shielding technique — body sideways, arm providing protection, ball on outside foot, knees bent, turning as defender attacks, using feel to understand where defender is going.

5. 2v2 or 2v1 Games
Any 2v2 and 2v1 drills or games will be extremely useful. The entire game can be broken down into 2v2 or 2v1 situations. The more skilled you are at these, the more success you will have in the larger game. Playing combination passes is key!

6. Paired Tag
Pair players up, giving each pair two balls. One player starts and is given a two-second lead to break away from his/her partner. The chaser (”it”) dribbles after the first player and tries to tag him/her with his/her hand. If tagged, the roles reverse and the player who was previously “it” has two seconds to break away before their partner tries to tag them. Players must always dribble their soccer ball during this activity.

7. Marbles
Players are in pairs, each with a ball. One player plays out his ball and the partner passes his own ball in an attempt to strike the ball his partner played out. Players should keep track of how many times they hit their partner’s ball. This game should be fast-paced, because players take turns at trying to hit each other’s ball without ever stopping.

If Players 2 misses Player 1’s ball, then Player 1 immediately runs to her own ball and tries to hit Player 2’s ball (Player 2 does not get to touch his ball after missing Player 1’s ball). After Player 1 has a chance, then Player 2 immediately tries to hit player 1’s ball right back. etc.

This game is continuous and players should keep score.

(Hint: If two balls are lose to each other, a player should kick his/her ball hard at the other ball so that when they hit it, it is more difficult for the other to hit their ball back).

A video demonstrating soccer Marbles:

8. Soccer Tennis
With a partner, set up two 10×10 grids that are separated by a net (or a line, couple of bags, string tied to bags - something serving as a net). Just as in tennis, players play the ball (though with their feet) into the other’s grid and the ball must bounce once in that grid. If the receiving player(s) allows the ball to drop twice, the server earns a point. Receiving players can play volleys. Limit your touch count to two- or three-touch.

Soccer Tennis Video:

9. SLAM
Get a partner or partners and play against a wall (or turn over a bench). Use one-touch to kick the ball against the wall.

Turns alternate between partners. Players earn a letter if the ball goes over the bench or goes wide of the bench/wall until they spell “SLAM.” Once they spell “SLAM” they are out of the game.

A video demonstrating SLAM:

(Mike Singleton is the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association’s Head State Coach and Director of Coaching. He is a Region I ODP Senior Staff Coach and a U.S. Soccer and US Youth Soccer National Staff Coach. This article first appeared in Mass Youth e-News.)

Other articles focused on improving skills outside of practice include:

Getting Kids To Play On Their Own

Practicing Solo: The 720 Challenge

Improving skills on your own: wall play

Getting players to juggle

Before you scream at a ref ...

2009-12-17T13:10:00.002-07:00

By Donna Olmstead

Sometimes as I slouch down in my lawn chair watching my grandchildren's soccer games, I indulge in wishful thinking. Only skillful, focused players on the field. Only knowledgeable, supportive parents on the sidelines. Only coaches who remember the bottom line is character development and not just winning games. Only top-notch officials running the lines and the field. Never going to happen. Like I said - wishful thinking.

Not that I'm an expert on the soccer subject. But I have spent 32 years immersed in youth soccer. As the chauffer. As the team mom. As the team grandmother. And any other position that needed a warm body. Some knowledge of the game is bound to rub off after awhile.

Now my daughter and granddaughters are referees as well as players. And I'm seeing games from a whole new angle.

Sitting on the bleachers watching my 14-year-old granddaughter play at a Disney tournament recently, I got annoyed at our parents for criticizing the assistant referee's seeming inability to be in position to make good calls.

When the parents grew vocal enough for the AR to hear, I decided to muffle the criticism. Duct tape would have done the job, but I used something more personal - an incident that happened to my 16-year-old granddaughter Emily at a different game the day before.

Emily was running the line on the parents' side and they gave her a bad time about her offside calls. The coach even went to the center ref after the game and complained about her. Fortunately, the center ref had been paying attention and said Emily's calls had been correct. This is a tough situation for a young referee to handle, and probably why the attrition rate is so high.

When I told our parents about Emily's experience, they were indignant about anyone's criticizing Emily. After all, she's one of ours. We know her. We know she's conscientious and unbiased. She knows the game both as a player and a certified official. How dare those parents and coach give her a rough time?!

Then I pointed at the AR running our line and said, "She's somebody's Emily."

I know that, in the heat of competition, everyone forgets that the officials are somebody's Emily or Tom or Dave. Parents demand superhero officials. Which, in most cases, means officials that make only calls the parents agree with. And when most of the parents don't even know the difference between being offside or being in an offside position, that would be an impossible demand.

You couldn't pay me enough to take the abuse that soccer officials take. I'd probably take the field armed with a whistle and a small caliber handgun. And because I know that about myself, I stay on the sidelines. And try to encourage parents to send positive energy toward the field. And to try to help them remember that the every official is somebody's Emily.

(Florida resident Donna Olmstead has been involved in soccer through both her children and her grandchildren, as well as housing professional players and owning and running an indoor soccer facility. She is a freelance writer and spends weekends trying to remember which tournament she's supposed to be cheering at.)

Skill Priorities - The four letter word of soccer: KICK

2009-12-15T17:41:00.004-07:00

Skill Priorities
Everyone knows that the game of soccer has a number of basic skills, or techniques, that players have to learn, such as dribbling, receiving passes, making passes, shooting and heading. Players also have to learn to make good decisions during the game, such as when to dribble, when to pass, and to whom to pass. These players’ decisions are referred to as tactical decisions.

Skill Factor Video containing break down of skills and live footage of the best soccer players in the world. (this is a long video in high definition, to watch it without if having to buffer freuently press play now, once it gets going press pause. The finish reading the article and watching the video below and come back to it. I highly recommend this video as a stocking stuffer or as a gift this holiday season.)

The first principle of soccer development is that players should master the basic techniques before they can learn the tactical side of the game. Technique before tactics! Think of techniques as vocabulary, and tactics as the grammar rules for forming sentences and paragraphs. Now, imagine a young immigrant who arrives in America without a word of English. It’s pretty obvious that before we can teach this immigrant about the rules for joining nouns, verbs, and adverbs to form a sentence, we have to give him a chance to accumulate enough vocabulary. The bigger his vocabulary, the better will he be able to use grammar to articulate his thoughts.

In terms of soccer development, your child is just beginning his/her ‘schooling’. We use the word ‘schooling’ here because there are many similarities between a regular school and a youth club, which can be considered as essentially a soccer school. In fact, as you might have already noticed, throughout this letter we will be using many analogies from real life schooling and the principles of growing up to explain the rationale behind the program.

As far as techniques are concerned, some techniques should be taught before others. The first technique that children should learn is dribbling. The ability to dribble is absolutely critical since dribbling is the foundation skill and preparation for all the other fundamental techniques of soccer, such as receiving, passing and shooting. When players are receiving the ball and making preparation touches prior to passing or shooting, they are essentially engaged in a mini-dribble. Young players need to learn to dribble within a variety of playing situations, such as dribbling forward unopposed, changing speed and direction with the ball, shielding the ball from opponents, dribbling past an opponent, and dribbling to get away from pressure. A limited ability to dribble leads to a limited range of passing or shooting. There are also times in the game, when the player with the ball has no passing options and the only way out of tight pressure is to dribble.

Aside from the fact that dribbling forms the foundation for all the other skills, there are many other reasons why we need to focus on dribbling at U-6/U-8. First of all, it takes years to become a comfortable and confident dribbler. Players have to learn to combine body control, agility, coordination and balance with the mechanics of dribbling and the sooner they start, the better. Just like any complex bio-mechanical skill such as skating or gymnastics, the later you start, the harder it is to achieve perfect form. Secondly, the process of learning to dribble involves trial and error. At first, the players’ rudimentary attempts at dribbling will often result in failure as they discover the contrast between a soft touch and a hard touch on the ball. The players will slowly develop a ‘feel’ for the ball as they experiment at controlling and propelling it. Young players don’t get discouraged easily if they don’t succeed. Players of this age do not possess the analytical thought process to look back or think ahead. They live for the moment, inSome of you might ask “but what about passing?” Isn’t soccer a team game and passing a fundamental team skill? Passing implies an intention by a player to direct the ball accurately towards a teammate. It implies decision making. Do not confuse passing with kicking. Kicking means using the feet to propel the ball in a certain direction. You will not see any passing in a U-6 game, and very little in a U-8 game. Passing is simply beyond the ability of U-6 the here and now, and the fact that the last time they tried to dribble it didn’t work will not even enter their minds. But if we wait for the players to mature before we emphasize dribbling, many of them will lose their confidence if they do not succeed and will become reluctant to dribble. Thirdly, In 3v3 and 4v4 play, the fields are so small that dribbling is always an option since the ball is always just a few yards away from shooting range. Once the game moves to the larger sized fields, dribbling becomes less effective on it’s own and must be combined with passing to get the ball from point A to point B. And lastly, it’s better to go through the process of trial and error when game results are not important and standings are not kept. At the U-10 and older ages, game results assume more importance, making it hard for the parents and coaches to show patience and tolerance for mistakes, and putting added pressure on players to ‘get rid of the ball’ rather than risk losing it. Once games become competitive, the resultant environment is not ideal to start learning how to dribble.

Kicking is NOT a Soccer Skill!!!
Most coaches and parents of beginner players unknowingly emphasize the wrong skills. In a typical U-6/U-8 club play, the players are encouraged by both the parents on the sidelines and the coaches to ‘boot’ the ball up the field. Shouts of “get rid of it!” and “kick it!” are all too common. The further forward a player kicks, they louder the cheers. Players are so indoctrinated to ‘kick it forward’ that very few of them dare to get out of pressure by dribbling. The fact is that the players are asked to execute a skill (kicking) that they would automatically learn anyway as they grow up, even if they didn’t play soccer. If you don’t believe it, just go outside to your back yard, place a ball on the ground, take a few steps back, run up to the ball and kick it forward. I am willing to bet you that, even if you never played soccer in your life, you would still succeed in kicking the ball forward. Your kick might look awkward and your movement lack grace, but you still would manage to kick it forward.

The reality is that players are controlled like puppets by the adults to such an extent that they are not thinking for themselves and are afraid to do anything but kick the ball. Even throw-ins are routinely thrown straight to the other team by confused players who are conditioned to play the ball forward, no matter what. The kick-offs are no better, with players kicking the ball straight to the other team, American football style. Players who clearly have plenty of time on the ball with no pressure anywhere near, are still kicking it forward without any thought or skill. And this type of mindless play is usually not corrected by the coaches and is allowed to occur time and again. The end result is that we are ‘coaching’ the skill of dribbling OUT of the players. We take away the natural ‘comfort’ with the ball - forever!

Let’s be frank here. The underlying issue has to do with how you, the adults, look at the game and analyze it. It’s fair to say that you all accept that results at U-6 and U-8 do not matter and that there is no need to keep standings. But you also instinctively know that the easiest way to get the ball from point A to point B is to kick it in that direction. It’s hard for you to watch your child lose the ball in front of his own goal and for the other team to score. So, the next time your child has the ball in his/her half, you can’t help it and shout “kick it!”. But every time they kick it, they lose another opportunity to learn to dribble. The buzz word of our program is: ‘Soft first Touch’. Every time your player goes to the ball, his/her first touch on the ball should be a soft one, meaning, NO KICKING!

Some of you might ask “but what about passing?” Isn’t soccer a team game and passing a fundamental team skill? Passing implies an intention by a player to direct the ball accurately towards a teammate. It implies decision making. Do not confuse passing with kicking. Kicking means using the feet to propel the ball in a certain direction. You will not see any passing in a U-6 game, and very little in a U-8 game. Passing is simply beyond the ability of U-6 and most U-8 players. In terms of the level of difficulty, kicking is the easiest to learn, dribbling is next, and passing is the hardest to master for young players. Think of dribbling as ‘passing to oneself’. If players cannot pass to themselves, how can they be expected to pass to a teammate 15 yards away? What young players do is actually kick, not pass, and the cheers they hear from you when they kick only serve to reinforce this bad habit. For this reason, we ask you to stop shouting to your players to Kick the ball. If game results truly don’t matter, no one should be overly concerned if a player tries to dribble and loses the ball. First touch must be a SOFT TOUCH.

SOFT TOUCH VIDEO:

MLS CUP Photo Album

2009-12-15T12:22:00.005-07:00

REAL SALT LAKE - 2009 MLS CUP CHAMPIONS!

SLIDESHOW

ALBUM

MLS CUP

Honestly one of the most memorable and fantastic weekends of my life! Thank you Bobby Ginn, Brandon Haug, Brett Payne and Dell Loy Hansen (and his family) for sharing the experience with me.

DID YOU KNOW?

2009-12-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

-No one is destined to be unskilled.

-Understanding the keys to the mechanics of sport and play can greatly increase; at the same time it can reduce the time normally required to improve your skills.

-All individuals can improve their balance. By increasing your balance not only your agility but also your power and accuracy will improve.

-Knowledge of spins can increase your score in many sports, including basketball, golf and soccer.

-Understanding some of the basic mechanics of movement could help you begin to become an outstanding coach or player.

(Torbert, Secrets to Success in Sport & Play, Prentice Hall 1982.)

US Youth Soccer

Competition and Children

2009-12-12T11:18:00.001-07:00

Is competition good for children in activities and sports? Children engage in competitive endeavors on a daily basis, whether we call attention to it or not. How many times have we seen a group of kids chasing one another on the playground playing tag? During these games children are competing against one another in order to get, or not get, tagged. How many times have we seen a child on the monkey bars trying to get past the third bar in a series of eight bars leading to the other side? The child gets to the third bar and falls, then tries repeatedly to get past that bar. He competes over and over again against himself and his personal best until he reaches further, or decides he does not want to try anymore. In sports children compete all the time, whether coaches stress it or not. For example, consider a child playing a soccer game against another team. Each participant is competing in order to attain some reward; whether it is a goal, a joyful feeling of playing the game, pleasing mom or dad, or winning.

In each of these examples children are competing. While the soccer example makes it easy to spot competition, the first two examples show children competing spontaneously against someone or against themselves. Moreover, in each example the competition yields successes and failures; from the child on the monkey bars making it to the fourth bar then quitting, to the youth soccer player losing the game or feeling great having just played soccer for 50 minutes. It is our role as coaches and parents to teach kids that there is a healthy way to approach competition. An appropriate and healthy way to approach competition is to help kids see that it is more about getting better and improving than winning at all costs.

Achievement Goal Theory is commonly used by sports researchers to investigate and explain children’s competitive approaches in sport. The theory basically states that coaches create climates that either suggest that you are successful when you are winning or beating others, or that you are successful when you are improving or getting better. These are extremes as most of us involved with children likely stress both. However, the research would suggest that there are a whole host of benefits for stressing one over another in a competitive situation.

The basic idea is that a coach who stresses things such as trying hard, attempting skills or getting up after being knocked down during competition will be developing players that believe their success is due to effort (as opposed to innate ability that can’t be changed), players that persist (as opposed to those that quit), and players that ultimately will enjoy the game more (as opposed to those that say this “stinks”). Whereas a coach that stresses winning (with words or those pesky nonverbal gestures like a head shrug or hands thrown up in the air) will be developing kids that get anxious, may cheat to win, get frustrated and will not enjoy it if they do not win. Of course, striving for a win and discussing winning isn’t inherently bad, but think about it. Oftentimes winning is not in your control, especially in soccer. Let’s play out a scenario.

Team A has five great games in a row and loses all of them 1-0. The coach, thinking he was doing a service to the kids, says, “Why did you do that? That’s not going to help you win,” or “Get out there and win,” or “If you don’t win don’t even come over here at the end of the game.” Then the kids lose. Instead of telling the kids, “Hey, great job working hard we’ll get them next time,” the coach shrugs his shoulders and says, “You didn’t care enough to win.” Or, he says “You didn’t work hard enough to win.” Or the extreme says nothing and gestures for them to get out of here (don’t say you haven’t seen something like that).

The truth is very few kids will have the wherewithal to deal with that type of pressure. Those kids are likely the ones with high ability (very good players who, let’s be honest, at the younger ages are bigger stronger and faster and as a result have high confidence and more success in many cases anyway) or have parental support that suggests, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get ‘em next time.” A more likely occurrence, is that the coaches’ behavior, if it persists, will drive many kids away from the game. The reason is that by placing emphasis on the win it takes a lot of control away from the player. This leads to higher anxiety, less confidence because he or she is not pleasing the coach and, at the end of the day, more questions in the child’s mind like, “Why would I subject myself to this when I can be doing other things.”

So what does all this mean to people who work with children in sports? While some will sit out there and condemn youth sports for being too competitive too early, or all about winning and losing, the truth is it can be a real opportunity to teach children valuable ways to approach competition; namely with the goal of working hard, focusing on getting better and having fun while doing both. Winning is always going to be in the equation, and I say good. When children lose and are upset about it, which they might be, it can be explained that it is ok to want to win but winning is sometimes out of their control and that in order to be successful they can try to work hard on the skills that it takes to win games. If you have ultra competitive kids, for example my son who hurls Candyland figurines across the room after a loss, it takes time. But ultimately youth sports can be the ideal place to teach and mold these behaviors as life is a series of wins and losses, and if we can promote the attitude to keep on chugging it is a good thing.

Dr. Lee Hancock is a USSF A licensed coach, professor in the Kinesiology Department at CSUDH in California, and sport psychology consultant for youth, college and professional athletes, teams and coaches. If you would like to contact Lee e-mail him at Lchancock@gmail.com or visit his Web site at www.developmentalsolutions.net .

Bumper Cars

2009-11-26T13:41:00.002-07:00

Generally I just post things about soccer. Well, here it comes, me on the boys trip to Seattle. We laughed so much simply because... who rides bumper cars any more? We were at the space needle, saw it and couldn't pass it up. Enjoy the sillyness. featured: Bobby Ginn and Brandon Haug

Q & A with Chelsea FC Academy Director

2009-11-13T17:17:00.002-07:00

In a recent article found in Success In Soccer Magazine they asked the Youth Academy of Chelsea FC a multitude of questions regarding the academy and its welfare...

One of the questions was this:

What are some improvements that could be made here (in reference to the England based academy, not the Florida based academy) in England?

Neil Bath Replied:

Any problems we have are not with the Charter itself, but with those entrusted to execute its philosophies. There are more, but two elements that should be addressed are hypocrisy and the overemphasis on athleticism.

In regard to hypocrisy, there are those who forsake the development of a player in order to achieve results on match day. Too many times I have seen other academies play it safe during a youth match by sending the ball forward and not giving their players an opportunity to build out of the back or challenge their technical skills in their own half. These players will ultimately suffer because of this. This actually feeds into the other issue I see, which is the selection of a young player for his athletic potential versus his ability to play football (soccer). A common approach should apply here. I'm an admirer of Spanish football, and when I see their better players I know I'm witnessing the game as we preach in the charter: a group that moves effectively, with and without the ball, and glides along the pitch. Of course a better athlete can make a better soccer player, but to have the physical characteristics be the final determinan tis risky and ultimately ineffective. Here at Cobham we seek balance and build it whenever the situation allows.

Recent Article in Success in Soccer Magazine

2009-11-12T16:08:00.006-07:00

I read the following article in Success in Magazine. It is always nice to know that even the most well funded, and most experienced clubs/programs have similar ongoing issues that Infinity SC and other clubs in Utah have. I have highlighted things that seem to be issues in nearly every club I've ever encountered.

The evolution of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy

Part 3: The road ahead: Combating threats to youth development
by Pat Johnston, Success in Soccer contributing writer

The U.S. Soccer Development Academy can only be labeled a success to date. In trading its originally passive role for a much more proactive one, U.S. Soccer has done a excellent job of getting its objectives across. One of its biggest accomplishments has been to rein in the over scheduling rampant in American youth soccer, making each game meaningful and providing elite players with true challenges. Another advance has been to create greater player movement within dubs, which has made it possible for club directors to control player development with much greater precision.

These are just the highlights of what the Academy's curriculum has achieved for U.S. players and their coaches and clubs. Other benefits that are a direct by product of its involvement in the scene include more routine scouting by college and professional coaches, training regimens prescribed and monitored by the best U.S. coaches, enhanced instruction and assessment provided by corporate sponsors, and the list goes on. Meanwhile, despite high Iy selective criteria for entry, the Academy has undergone impressive growth, adding 16 new clubs to its initial roster of 63 clubs plus the U.S. Residency Program. (For more details on the Academy's creation and evolution, see SIS 4/09 and 5/09.)

Future Challenges

In the previous issue, we discussed some of the obstacles the Academy now faces, such as the costs associated with registration, professional coaching, travel, etc., and the geographical challenges posed by running a nationwide league in a nation as large as the U.S. While these issues have not yet been totally resolved, the progress that has been made on them so far has been extremely encouraging. However, these are all comparatively straight forward problems based on controllable factors, making it relatively easy for Academy personnel to conceive and execute a plan to remedy them.

U.S. Soccer's efforts have given elite youth players the opportunity to play in more meaningful matches.

The human element, on the other hand, is a complex issue that will require exceptional patience and attention on an ongoing basis. In the history of soccer there have already been many clubs and organizations that have put development-based curriculums in place, and all too often these curriculums have gone by the wayside to satisfy people who lacked an understanding of the bigger picture: parents, coaches and/or board members who valued the result above all else, even though they professed to be proponents of player development. Not surprisingly, this type of hypocritical behavior is just as much a problem for the Academy as it is for every other soccer organization. The Academy has already revoked the membership of one club to date, and several others are under review for failing to adhere to the philosophies and practices that were outlined to them as requirements when they were accepted as participants. To realize the Academy's ambition of player development, all those responsible for executing its philosophies and principles must adhere to the spirit of the charter. While it is always necessary to play to win from the standpoint of attitude, tactics may not necessarily be what is best for the result. Truly embracing player development means setting aside ego and doing what is best for the players in the long run.

No one is immune

The failure to follow through on player development is not limited to anyone club, league or even country-for example, Neil Bath of Chelsea's Academy says that he has witnessed it within his league, and I can confirm his statement from personal experience. Having witnessed one of England's "big four" academies from the inside and in competition, I can unequivocally say that coaches, even at the elite level, do not always practice what they preach. On a crisp Sunday morning in April, I watched a match between a pair of U9 academy teams from the English Premier League, and what I saw was extremely disappointing. These youngsters-some of England's best simply hoofed the ball every time it came to their feet. And to make matters worse, there was no instruction from the sidelines to do otherwise.

Winning a championship is always a great accomplishment, but youth coaches, players and parents need to remember that development comes first!

Why was this happening? The answer is simple: The safe and direct path to the opponent's net was the easiest way to extract the desired match result from the day's competition. I had visited the same academy in February and heard the directors describe their ambition of making these players "artisans," but now it seemed that everything I had heard was mere lip service. When I moved to the next field, I was able to watch the U11s doing exactly the same thing. Ironically enough, at the conclusion of that match I overheard the losing coach tell his comrades that his side had lost because the winning side had "forsaken all semblance of development"! I couldn't help laughing, because as I watched the game, his side was matching the opposition hoof for hoof. But of course, it was convenient for him to blame the result on his opponents' deviation from the guiding philosophical principle of player development. Why was he discussing the result and apologizing for it, anyway? Why not talk about what his team did right and what they needed to improve on? So much for Howard Wilkinson's Charter of Quality and its influence on the development of the young English player. Here were two of England's foremost representatives of what player development should be, and they were being compromised before my very eyes.

Of course, that was just one day on the pitch, and I have no real way of knowing whether it was a typical one. My experience of hypocrisy in U.5. youth soccer, on the other hand, is much more extensive. Having spent five years coaching at a club that was recently accepted into the Academy, I have seen firsthand some of the insidious practices affecting youth soccer and the reasons behind them. One reason is that ego-driven coaches and parents are running clubs and compromising player development. They portray themselves as dedicated to the improvement of the player-all players-but in fact they are primarily concerned with results. And often their directors of coaching do not have the courage or the wherewithal to right the ship: Because their livelihoods are at stake, they have little choice but to acquiesce to a self-serving board of directors whose only interest is the success of their children's team.

Too many coaches are too dependent on the income they earn from coaching at the youth soccer level. And the perception of failure is too often associated with wins and losses. So when faced with the decision to either play it safe and kick it down the field or take the risk of putting players under pressure in their own half, a coach who's worried about the result will be inclined to take the safer path. Unfortunately, I have never seen a player improve by watching the ball sail over his head and into the opposition's half of the field. Another tactic often employed is to "soften" the schedule, skewing the results in a way that improves the ratio of wins to losses. Naturally, not having to compete game in and game out will result in a better record, but it won't facilitate an environment in which players are required to excel. These are just some examples from my personal experience as a coach. Of course the Academy is aware of this problem and has taken significant steps to remedy it, but its reach only extends so far. Will it be far enough? Only those personnel directly involved in the handling of the Academy's teams can truly say.

In conclusion

The U.5. Development Academy has made a significant impact on the elite of American youth soccer in a very brief period of time. In two years they have established the Academy as the primary pipeline through which America's best young players will travel to reach the next level.

Though it does not have all the answers, U.5. Soccer has succeeded in creating a vehicle that appeals to the group it is seeking to influence and monitor: emerging talent. It has established a league and a curriculum in which the best U.S. clubs seek to be involved, and it has created a culture that has the potential to directly influence the evolution and well being of the sport across the entire nation. The Academy's founders and current members are now in a position to help capable American players compete in domestic and international leagues at a level undreamed of just a few years ago.

While U.S. Soccer still has many hurdles to overcome in its quest to be among the world's elite, ultimately nothing it does will have any effect if it fails to deliver on its stated intentions. Academy staff need to educate and communicate to all concerned what the final product is supposed to be: not a one-dimensional decorated winner of medals who can only play right back for Soccer Club FC, but a player capable of lacing them up and performing comfortably on any pitch. And then, most importantly of all, the clubs need to actively work toward the realization of this objective- then, and only then, will the efforts of John Hackworth, Tony Lepore and all their colleagues at the Academy be realized.

Freedom

2009-10-26T20:32:00.003-06:00

"It's never been my team, its always been the players team. Thats just how it is, the players are what get it done on the field, I just do what I can to help prepare them. It's a players game, not a coaches game. In soccer the title should be manager and/or trainer. The title of coach makes little sense. Managing a group of talented individuals to be successful, that is the goal. Having the drive to win comes from the confidence the individuals gain from being trained in highly competitive and demanding atmospheres. It is the responsibility of the players to get the win and my job to allow them the creativity to earn the win in a fashion that allows each individual to express themselves on the park. Freedom on the field, freedom in my homeland. Express yourself without consequence. Long live soccer in America."

-Jeff Ginn

Parents Seeing The Big Picture

2009-10-13T11:44:00.002-06:00

By Jim Thompson

I have long been a fan of "The Family Circus" comic strip. Perhaps my favorite strip of all time features the family dog barking up a storm in the middle of the night. Dad, irritated that he's been awakened from a much-needed sleep, clomps down the stairs to yell at Barfy, who dutifully hangs his head. Dad climbs back up the stairs while the cartoonist has a surprise for us. He pans back so we see in the far corner of the yard a burglar retreating.

We who see the "Big Picture" know Barfy has protected his family from a burglary. The dad, seeing only the "Little Picture," is angry at being disturbed.

This comic strip can serve as a metaphor for youth sports. Youth coaches and parents are often overwhelmed by so many Little Pictures filled with barking dogs that they miss the Big Picture entirely. How our children do in any given sporting event is Little Picture. Whether they win or lose, play well or badly, laugh or whine after the game - all Little Picture.

What children take away from youth sports to help them become successful, contributing members of society is the Big Picture. Whether they remain physically active throughout life, learn to bounce back from difficulties with renewed determination, discover how to support other people within a team context - these are the Big Picture.

THE BIG PICTURE AND YOU. This book* describes a model of sports parenting that focuses relentlessly on the Big Picture. We call it the Second-Goal Parent.

There are two broad goals in youth sports: striving to win and building character so kids develop into successful, contributing members of society.

As important as winning is, Second-Goal Parents let coaches and athletes worry about the first goal of scoreboard results. Second-Goal Parents have a much more important role to play: ensuring their children take away from sports lessons that will help them be successful in life. Remember, that is the Big Picture. And attending to this is much more vital than being an extraneous backseat coach.

Now, there is nothing wrong with caring about whether your child's team wins or loses. Go ahead and care about it! Likewise, there's nothing wrong with giving pointers when your child asks for them.

But the lifelong impact you can have - that no one else can in quite the way you can - is on the life lessons your child takes away from the sports experience. No one can be there for your child in this way better than you. No one.

If you embrace your role as a Second-Goal Parent, it will transform the way you see youth sports. It will help you seize the teachable moments that will come your way again and again because you are looking for them.

What might have seemed like a disappointing loss or a failure by your child becomes an opportunity to reinforce resiliency. A tough competition in forbiddingly hot, cold, or nasty weather can prompt a conversation with your child about learning to enjoy challenges. Whether your child succeeds or fails on the playing field, you will be able to use the experiences to reinforce the kind of person you want him or her to be.

*(Excerpted from "Positive Sports Parenting: How 'Second-Goal' Parents Build Winners in Life Through Sports," the fifth book by Jim Thompson. It is available for $8.95 at www.positivecoach.org/store . Thompson is the founder of the Positive Coaching Alliance.)

For Kids Only …

2009-10-06T12:38:00.002-06:00

By Mike Woitalla

This column is for the kids. Adults can stop reading now (but really Infinity parents... read it, but make sure your kids do too :)

Dear Soccer-Playing Children of America,

The fall season is underway and I’m hoping you’re having a great time. I’m hoping that you’re playing soccer more than you have to stand in line and do drills.

I hope you’re falling in love with the soccer ball and keep it with you as much as you can. Juggling it. Kicking it against a wall. Dribbling it around in your backyard.

And I especially hope that your parents aren’t screaming at you during your soccer games.

~view 30 second video ~

I worry that you probably do get yelled at, because that’s what I see at almost all the youth soccer games I go to. Hopefully you just ignore it. But I don’t blame you if it bothers you.

No one enjoys getting screamed at. Sure, if you start crossing the street on a red light or throw a toy at your little sister or brother, your parents are justified in raising their voices. But they shouldn’t scream at you while you’re playing a game.

If they do, it doesn’t mean they’re bad people. But, unfortunately, sports does something to adults that makes them behave in ways they usually wouldn’t.

You may have noticed this if you watch sports on TV. A coach, for example, dresses up in a fancy suit and throws tantrums like a 3-year-old.

Get adults around sports and all of a sudden they forget the same manners they try to teach you. In a way, sports are like driving. A grown-up gets behind the wheel and all of a sudden forgets you’re not supposed to pick your nose in public.

And when grown-ups go watch their children play soccer, they, for some reason, think it’s OK to scream like maniacs. Perhaps they don’t realize what they’re doing. Like the nose-pickers on the freeway who think they’ve suddenly gone invisible.

I hope you’re able to block out all the sideline noise. But maybe you do hear their shouts. Telling you when to shoot the ball, when to pass it. Ignore all that!

You need to dribble the ball. Try to dribble past players. If you’re dribbling too much, your teammates will let you know. And they’ll help you make the decision of when to pass and when to dribble.

You decide when to shoot. When you’re dribbling toward the goal and the goalkeeper is 20 yards away, and the adults are screaming at you to shoot, don’t pay attention. Because if you get closer to the goal, it will be harder for the goalkeeper to stop your shot.

One of the really cool things about my job is that I get to interview the best coaches in America. And you know what the national team coaches tell me? They say young players are far more likely to become great players if they’re allowed to make their own decisions when they play soccer.

They say that coaches should coach at practice, and when it’s game time, it’s time for the children to figure things out on their own. It’s like at school. The teachers help you learn. Your parents help you with homework. But when you get a test, you’re on your own.

That’s just an analogy. I’m not saying soccer is school! Soccer is your playtime.

I hope you have lots of playtime, on the soccer field and elsewhere. But I bet that you don’t have as much time playing without adults around as we did when we were children.

When we were kids we had summer days when we would leave the house in the morning, be only with other children all day, then see our parents when we got back in the late afternoon.

Things have changed. The reasons adults are much more involved in your activities than they were in your parents’ when they were children are complicated, and a result of your parents’ good intentions.

But sometimes we adults forget how important it is for you to play without us interfering. We love watching you play, especially on the soccer field, because it is such a wonderful sport. But we need to be reminded that it’s your playtime.

You should decide. Ignore the shouts if you can. But don’t be afraid to say, “I’m trying my best. Please, don’t scream at me.”

(Mike Woitalla, who coaches youth soccer in Northern California, is the executive editor of Soccer America. His youth articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com.)

~have fun watching this soccer video~

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-10-02T20:08:00.003-06:00

By Emily Cohen

Driving the school or sports carpool always affords the opportunity to eavesdrop on what's really happening in kids' lives. While kids may not tell their parents about an embarrassing or unsettling experience with a teacher, a coach, or another authority figure, they'll almost certainly tell each other, especially if they're in the backseat of a car and they don't think the parent is listening.

It was just this situation in which I found myself, driving my daughter and some friends home from a soccer game. In between surfing radio stations, I heard the girls comparing the coaching styles of various coaches. One girl said to the others about a past coach, "One minute, she yelled, 'Go to the right!' The next minute, she yelled, 'Go to the left!' I was so confused, I didn't do anything. I stopped to figure out what she was telling me to do, and the girl with the ball dribbled right by me."

I laughed to myself and wondered if the coach realized that her yelling was completely counterproductive. In fact, I wonder if most coaches really think about how their bellows and screeches from the sideline, which they think of as helpful instructions, are perceived by their players.

If coaches ever stopped to ask players whether instructions yelled from the sidelines motivate the player to do what the coach wants, the collective response would be a resounding "No!"

All but two of the 15 kids — ages 7 to 17 — with whom I spoke said that their coach's yelled instructions didn't help them at all. In fact, it made it difficult to focus on what they were doing — playing soccer. And the two who did say that shouted instructions or directions by the coach helped them perform better qualified their answers by saying that they thought the coaches were trying to help but, when they thought about it, what the coach was trying to explain to them would have been better communicated off the field, during a substitution or at halftime — or, better yet, at a practice.

But enough of my interpretations. Let's hear it from the kids themselves:

"Getting yelled at by my coach isn't helpful at all because it makes it harder to concentrate. It's more difficult to control the soccer ball when someone's yelling at me."

"When the coach yells at me to mark someone or run somewhere else, I can't focus on the game. I think I make more mistakes because I was listening not playing."

"Both the coaches were screaming instructions. I tried to do what one of the coaches said, but it was hard to figure out, because the coaches were saying different things."

"I hate it when the coach screams at me to 'play better' or 'run harder.' I mean, really, I'm trying my best already and that just makes me feel worse. It doesn't make me play better or run harder."

"Most of the time, when the coach yells something to me, I saw it already and I'm trying to get there. But I can't yell that to them because I'm too busy running!"

And my personal favorite:

"I don't like it when a coach yells at me to do something because I usually figure out what to do on my own."

There it is, in a nutshell. Isn't that really what youth soccer is about? Figuring out how to play the game and gaining a sense of accomplishment from doing just that?

I wonder how many of those screaming coaches could play an hour of soccer (or play a tennis match or a run a 10K race or cycle up a steep grade) with someone yelling at them the entire time to "run harder," "cycle faster" or "play better." Most would likely lose their patience and yell back at the offender.

I just hope the next time one of them coaches a kids' soccer game, he or she thinks twice about yelling at the players and decides to just let them play.

(Emily Cohen is a freelance writer living in Berkeley, Calif. She is the mother of a son, 12, and a daughter, 9, who both play multiple sports. She has been a team manager for her children's soccer, baseball and softball teams.)

"Experiment, Take Risks, and Be Creative"

2009-09-30T11:13:00.002-06:00

What this means and why...

Children that are allowed to experiment, take risks, and be creative with a soccer ball develop the most gifted soccer skills. Unlike other countries, the United States treats youth soccer players as if they are "robots" in the words of Eric Wynalda. Many children in the United States lack the idea of creativity in the game of soccer. They are taught to defend, pass, and shoot. There is a middle game between those three important topics... space and freedom. To pass and shoot a player needs space on the field, weather the space be 6 inches or 30 yards. Creating this space is easiest when a player is extremely comfortable with the ball at his or her feet. Quick touches, tight spins, sharp turns and instantly generated ideas can get players out of tough situations. This also seems to be what is enjoyed the most by the youth soccer players as well as any other player or spectator of the game.

Eric Wynalda is a US Soccer icon. He played for the national team, has the second most goals ever scored by an American male (behind Landon Donovan). Wynalda has been the commentator for most of the national matches until recently he spoke out about a few controversial soccer items. One of those items was about how the current soccer programs in our country are failing our kids.

Eric Wynaldas "robot" statement:

Eric Wynalda has a dream of changing the way soccer is coached and played in the United States. Eric believes, that players need to develop personalities and their own style. Players should not be over-coached, play like robots or move from team to team in search of the “perfect fit”. The perfect fit is found collectively in a group of players who are loyal to each others development and the team’s progress.

Experimenting at its finest...
...here's another fun video for the kids to watch it is of Christiano Rinaldo. FIFA, the governing body of soccer, named Christiano Rinaldo the FIFA player in the year 2008.

Enjoy

An email to the u10 Parents & Players from Coach Jeff Ginn

2009-09-01T14:28:00.002-06:00

U10 Parents, Players & Coaches,

Thursday the u10 Girls had a scrimmage. In that scrimmage the premier team was having their way with the respected younger U9 team that they were training with/against. Travis Clements, a parent coach to the team, reminded the girls to take players on instead of pass around them. Some parents raised their eyebrows and respectfully asked why.

Before I send you his reply to the parents and my contribution let me please say that we, as a coaching staff, love watching our players pass around players and get excited for the ability to play such quality soccer and do not want to discourage success. In contrast, we do not want to encourage our players to be successful NOW in a way that will jeopardize their long term development.

Travis sent this below email...below it I provided more info and a link I would really encourage each of you to read (even though it is lengthy).

Travis wrote:

Hi,

I hope that I wasn't too confusing to the parents yesterday at the scrimmage, particularly with the Premier team. It may have looked like I was unhappy - or trying to fix things that were being very successful. It wasn't that I didn't have an appreciation for the great soccer the girls were playing. Their passing and awareness was incredible and very fun to watch. The thing we were trying to work on was getting the girls to dribble more and to use the moves they've been learning in practice in the scrimmage games.

Here's the logic. Dribbling to beat an opponent is one of the toughest, if not THE toughest skill in soccer to master. It is MUCH easier to pass the ball and to get rid of it before they are under pressure. The reward of the passing game is at this age it translates into wins and goals. (very tempting, but short-sighted) The Risk of promoting that is that it ultimately limits the ability of the player. The kids spend years passing and getting rid of the ball that should be spent mastering their ability and creativity on the ball. They become afraid to keep the ball and panic with the ball when under pressure. Soccer players who can pass are everywhere. Soccer players who can dribble stand out like a full moon on a dark night.

We want every girl to be confident with the ball at their feet and to not feel pressure to pass the ball so they don't lose it. It may mean missing chances to score, or even giving up goals, while they develop. That is an acceptable price to pay at this age for ultimately having a team chuck-full of players who can handle the ball with skill and confidence.

While we will all cheer goals, especially well-worked goals, I would ask that you cheer louder when your player takes on and beats an opponent or exhibits skill on the ball. Even when they are unsuccessful, praise their confidence to try and encourage them to keep at it. The long-term reward for your player will be unbelievable.

Thanks,

Travis Clements

Ginn Reply:

Travis,

Thank you for reminding us of what the focus is. I agree with Travis's email and have some thoughts as to incorporate scoring by way of dribbling to pass on to the coaching staff as well.

Parents and coaches please, please, please read the following information and document. It will help your players out tremendously this fall as we enter competition.

Before I give you the US Soccer governing body's take on this let me put this in American terms...

1) Play basketball without dribbling, just pass.
2) Think about recent basketball players and take them off of their successful teams; derrin williams, john stockton, gary payton, magic johnson etc, these players made things unpredictable and drew defenders to them which in turn created space for teammates to be successful once they passed the ball to them.
3) Take the running game out of American football (or throw ball as us true footballers refer to it as). All you can do is throw and pass. The game becomes predictable and easy to defend.

In soccer everyone plays on all parts of the field in critical times and non critical times. Even goal keepers need to be brilliant with their feet. In the 2008 European Championship tournament goal keepers used their feet seven times more than their hands!

I would like all coaches and parents to read a document published by US Soccer Federation that shares the priorities at this age group. I added this age groups information below, highlighted the parts of emphasis and added the link to the entire document.

USSF Best Practices: Player Development Guidelines
http://www.epysa.org/pdf/USSFBestPractices.pdf

Ball Skill, Creativity and a Gradual Insight into the
Game: 10 - 14 years old

U-10: 3rd and 4th graders
Soccer for this age is a fun activity for the kids that encourages a lot of games to goals and encourages experimentation with the ball. The ratio of balls to players should be small enough that all your players are involved all the time. The focus is on developing a relationship with the ball in a joyful environment. There should be no standings and no awards (Infinity SC thought: this means no paying your child for goals or saves or whatevers, let the game be the reason they PLAY).

CONSIDER THIS: How can the coach help all his or her players to develop to their potential?

First, help your weaker players to develop their confidence with the ball. At the same time, continue to challenge your stronger players to expand their creativity and confidence. Confidence is the key. The more time they spend during practice and games with the ball at their feet, the more comfortable they will become, the more confident they will become, the more they will look to get involved, and the more fun they will have with soccer (the Infinity coaching staff views scrimmages and match play as additional training to prepare them for the future) . Remember that the level of skill and competence that a 9-year-old exhibits is no indication of the skill and competence that he or she will exhibit at 16 or 18 years of age. You cannot predict which 9-year-old will develop into a real player. Therefore, work to encourage all your players to be competent and comfortable with the ball. This will give all your players the same opportunity to reach their potential. Work during practice to move all your players forward at their own pace. Do not be concerned with match results. Be concerned that all your players want the ball at their feet and they want to score. If you can accomplish this, you have successfully allowed your group to grow as soccer players. Unlike practice, you cannot add more balls/goals during games to give kids more chances with the ball. But you can emphasize certain themes for the players to focus on, such as getting involved, attacking the goal, taking chances, and then spend the length of the game reinforcing these points (the infinity coaching staff is working on taking opposing players on 1v1 with a focus on the scissors/stepover move - click here to see what scissors are). This approach will give your players the green light to experiment and be creative - qualities that, unfortunately at the younger ages, are often discouraged on game day, in the name of being safe and winning.

CONSIDER THIS: At the youth level, games are a forum for players to test their ball skills and game awareness, and should be considered an additional means of development, rather than the objective. Results are important as it gives the players a competitive focus in the match. Coaches are encouraged to promote soccer that:
• is free flowing,
• is coach-guided, not coach-directed,
• demands that all players on the field, regardless of their specified position, participate in defending and attacking.

USSF Best Practices: Player Development Guidelines
http://www.epysa.org/pdf/USSFBestPractices.pdf

Thank you for working with your child at home and encouraging them to fall in love with the ball at home. This is truly where they become great individual soccer players!

-Ginn

NSCAA Soccer Journal Series: Player Development

2009-08-26T16:17:00.005-06:00

In the May/June and July/August 2003 issues of Soccer Journal, we offered a special two-part series focusing on player development. As a service to NSCAA members and soccer coaches in general, NSCAA.com has compiled the articles of that series into a special section. Please read the articles below.

"The biggest difference between the Brazilian players and the American players was that the Americans did not demonstrate any understanding of the subtleties of the game. And that affects what coaches do during every training session."

"Subtleties of any game usually are developed “in the sandlot” when the players are young. We all learned how to play sports as we grew up by playing with other kids in the neighborhood. We learned what we had to do to win. If you lost, your team was off the court or field."

Taken from LACKING SUBTLETY an article that can be found below.

* The Craft of Coaching
* Introduction and Phase I of Player Development (U-12)
* Phase II of Player Development (U-14)
* Phase III of Player Development (U-16)
* Phase IV of Player Development (U-19)
* Fitting Practices to Ages
* The Game is the Best Teacher
* Training with an Eye on Detail
* The Progression of a Goalkeeper
* Demands of the Up-Tempo Game
* Making Soccer Drills Work
* From Looking Good to Winning
* Lacking Subtlety
* In France, c'est la Technique
* Trim Down the Training Session

6 year old soccer phenom

2009-08-20T16:13:00.000-06:00

6-Year-Old Soccer Phenom | Sports | SPIKE.com

Guided Discovery

2009-08-20T16:00:00.003-06:00

By Sam Snow, US Youth Soccer Technical Director

The traditional way sports have been taught is with the coach at the center of attention. The coach told the players what to do {command style} and expected them to produce. With the command style, the coach explains a skill, demonstrates the skill and allows the players to practice the skill. In contrast to 'reproduction' of knowledge in the coach-centered approach, the guided discovery approach emphasizes the "production" of new talents. The approach invites the player to think, to go beyond the given information and then discover the correct skills. The essence of this style is a coach-player connection in which your sequence of information and questions causes responses by the player. The combination of information and question by you elicits a correct response, which is discovered by the player. The effect of this process leads the player to discover the sought tactic or technique. Guided discovery simply means that you raise questions and provide options or choices for the players, guiding the players to answer the questions for themselves because they become curious about the answers. The novice player in a command style setting thinks too much about what they are trying to do, a form of paralysis by analysis. Instead if you guide the players in a player-centered training environment then they gradually become capable of holistic thinking in their soccer performance.

Holistic thought is opposed to the analytical type of thinking. Analysis means to divide the whole into parts which can be studied more closely. Holistic thinking considers the thing as a whole. Soccer performances {training sessions and especially matches} are better suited to holistic than analytical treatment because they involve an integrated set of movements which must all happen at the same time. There simply is not enough time during a match to perform each of the movements separately and then string them together. Holistic thinking has been linked anatomically to functions carried out in the right hemisphere of the brain. The brain has both a right and left hemisphere connected by a bundle of nerves called the corpus collosum. The right hemisphere coordinates movements and sensations associated with the left side of the body and the left hemisphere does the same for the right side of the body. In addition, the left hemisphere is known to control analytical thinking, which includes verbal expression, reading, writing and mathematical computation. The functions associated with the right side of the brain are nonintellectual ones or those having to do with sensory interpretation, coordination of movement, intuitive or creative thinking and holistic perception of complex patterns. This hemisphere can grasp a number of patterns simultaneously.[i]

Sports tradition has emphasized left-side brain functions to the exclusion of the other. We acquire pieces of knowledge one at a time. In soccer, the traditional coach teaches separate points of technique, ignoring the 'flow' needed in actual performance. Some coaches use the holistic approach. In soccer we draw upon right-hand brain capabilities of holistic perception, rhythm, spatial relationships, and simultaneous processing of many inputs. Left brain functions are largely uninvolved. Novice players often go wrong in trying to control their movements with a constant, specific internal awareness. They engage the left-brain functions of analysis and sequence to interfere with holistic coordination of physical movement, which is a right-brain function. Obscuring a player's awareness with too many instructions {over-coaching} will make him or her so preoccupied that he or she can't 'chew gum and run at the same time!' It's called 'paralysis through analysis'.

It is often argued that effective coaching is as much an art as it is a science. Guided discovery in coaching soccer is a balance of the two. In a broad sense our coaching style of the American soccer player must move away from the 'sage on the stage' to the 'guide on the side'.

""I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.""
Confucius

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Barcelona's tradition sets it apart from the rest

2009-08-05T15:12:00.002-06:00

The foundation for the club's Champions League triumph was set 307 years ago, in 1702.
By Grahame L. Jones, On Soccer
7:46 PM PDT, August 1, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-jones-soccer2-2009aug02,0,2834168.story?page=2

It's the sort of tale that historians love, the sort that spans centuries and weaves together past, present and future.

It was in Rome on May 27 of this year that FC Barcelona won the European Champions League, but the foundation for the Catalan club's triumph was set 307 years ago, in 1702.

That's when workmen in Barcelona completed a two-story stone farmhouse that still stands today. La Masia, they call it, and it is nothing less than the soul of FC Barcelona.

It was where architects more than half a century ago laid out their plans for the giant Camp Nou, Barcelona's magnificent home stadium which, with a capacity of 98,772, is the largest in Europe and stands nearby.

Thirty years ago, in 1979, La Masia began a new incarnation. It became the primary residence for young players being groomed by Barcelona for future success.

Very young players.

The Barcelona team that defeated Manchester United in the May final in Rome is a virtual blueprint for the way a successful soccer team should be built.

The team's coach, Josep "Pep" Guardiola, and seven of the 11 Barcelona starters that day passed through La Masia on their way to international stardom.

* Defender Carles Puyol, 31, joined in 1995 at age 17. (14 years)

* Midfielder Sergi Busquets, 21, joined in 2005 at age 17. (4 years)

* Goalkeeper Victor Valdes, 27, joined in 1995 at age 13. (14 years)

* Forward Lionel Messi, 22, joined in 2000 at age 13. (9 years)

* Midfielder Andres Iniesta, 25, joined in 1996 at age 12. (13 years)

* Midfielder Xavi, 29, joined in 1991 at age 11. (18 years)

* Defender Gerard Pique, 22, joined in 1997 at age 10. (12 years)

How does Barcelona find such players? What does it look for? Where does it look? How does it persuade their families to allow them to relocate to Barcelona? How is the La Masia magic accomplished?

According to Joan Laporta, the 47-year-old president of FC Barcelona, it all comes down to having a philosophy as a club (Barcelona is owned by its 162,979 members), having a soccer identity as a team, and believing in tradition.

In an interview in Beverly Hills on Friday, Laporta traced the origins of the 109-year-old club's current success to 1973, when Dutch great Johann Cruyff joined the team.

Cruyff, a three-time European player of the year and the ultimate exponent of "total football," changed everything.

As a Barcelona player and later as the team's coach, Cruyff developed "the way that we express our identity," Laporta said, the style that Barca teams employ at every age level.

He created the "dream team" that won the club its first European championship, in 1992. The captain of that team was Guardiola, a gold medal winner for Spain at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and a player who had joined La Masia in 1984 at age 13.

Barcelona's playing style, inherited from Cruyff, is all about possession, short passing, movement off the ball, one- and two-touch attacking soccer, and pressuring the opponent when the ball is lost.

The first team plays that way and so does the youngest of the club's many youth teams.

German national team Coach Joachim "Jordi" Low, in a recent interview with England's World Soccer magazine, recognized the importance of such consistency.

"I was in Barcelona and I saw the under-17 team play a game in training against the first team," Low said. "I didn't see any difference. Seventeen-year-old players from Barcelona with perfect technique, perfect position, perfect speed.

"Of course, maybe they did not have the 100% motivation of the professionals, but I saw something special. They practice in training from the age of 12, 13, 14, so when they go into the first team they know what they have to do."

Most of those who come to La Masia are from Spain, but Laporta said Barcelona employs about 50 scouts worldwide who look for players with something unique.

"In order to express our identity, we have to love football and that means that we understand football in a particular way," he said.

"We are searching for players everywhere, especially in Cataluña, but also in Argentina, Brazil, Africa as well, the countries that are producing players.

"It is important that when they arrive they have a particular talent that would allow them to be a player for Barcelona."

Laporta says he believes Barcelona can repeat its success of last season in years to come.

La Masia virtually guarantees it.

"We think that we can replicate it," he said. "We see that in our youth teams there are players who could be maybe a new Iniesta, a new Xavi, a new Busquets, a new Puyol."

Guardiola concurs.

"There are three, four, five players who are at the top level already," he said.

Those who doubt that assertion should take note of some names. They will be heard from soon.

* Spanish forward Bojan Krkic, 18, who joined La Masia in 1999 at age 9.

* Israeli winger Gai Assulin, 18, who joined La Masia in 2003 at age 12.

* Mexican midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos, 19, who joined La Masia in 2002 at age 12.

The list goes on. The tradition continues.

grahame.jones@latimes.com

Evaluations at Pioneer Cup

2009-07-23T08:35:00.005-06:00

Wednesday, July 22nd 2009
Infinity u11 Girls: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddp5t87f_115kfvjb9g8
Infinity u12 Girls: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddp5t87f_114gcr5wcgj

The Parents' Role

2009-07-15T00:49:00.001-06:00

One of the main problems with parents at games is that they sit too close to the field. Their proximity to the players gives them too much of a presence which, in turn, impacts the players’ behavior, response and performance. It’s very hard for parents to resist shouting instructions to the players because beginner players are visibly unsure of themselves and naturally make a lot of mistakes. Children aged 4 to 8 are naturally dependent on their parents for many of their daily needs. This dependency spills over into youth sports, manifesting as parental coaching from the sidelines. The players themselves will tend to look to their parents for help since they are conditioned to be dependent on them. Therefore, another important objective of the U-6/U-8 programs should be to wean the players out of their dependency on their parents’ help during games. This is so very crucial for the development of soccer players. We all know that soccer is a players’ game, meaning that it’s the players who must make the decisions on the field. In soccer, coaches have a lot less influence and power during games than in some of the other traditional American sports. Soccer players must learn to think for themselves, and the sooner they learn to stand on their own feet, the better. Since results do not matter at these age groups, no one should be overly concerned if players make mistakes that lead to goals. Parents and coaches must resist the urge to tell their players what to do. The following guidelines are recommended for U-6/U-8 game set-up:

1) The fields to be laid out in such a way that keep the parents about 20-30
yards from the sidelines. This can be easily done using special lines or ropes beyond
which parents cannot encroach. We all agree that most players want their parents to be at the games, watching them play, and we realize that having the parents sit by the sidelines seems so nice and cozy. But keeping the parents some distance away from the action will enhance the players’ sense of freedom and ease most of the intimidation any players might feel when the parents are right on top of them. And the parents can still enjoy watching the game. What we lose in coziness we gain in giving the players more independence.

2) The parents should not coach the players. All they should be allowed to do is cheer good plays by their team but they should also be encouraged to politely applaud good play by the other team.

3) Parents must never tell the players to “kick” or “boot” the ball. Kicking the ball needs to be discouraged. The parents will need to be prepared to accept that a lot of the dribbling attempts will be unsuccessful and that, nevertheless, they will have to bite their tongues and let the players try again and again.

4) The coaches should also keep their instruction to a minimum and let the
players understand that they must make their own decisions on the field and that it’s OK to make mistakes. The coaches should stand on the sideline and only enter the field if absolutely necessary. It must be remembered that we are trying to help the players grow out of their dependency on the adults. The coaches should encourage dribbling out of trouble and discourage kicking.

We will likely never get this moment again...BOO HOO FOR SPAIN & HURRAY FOR USA!

2009-06-25T12:54:00.005-06:00

Spain suffered a phenomenal relapse into their old ways by losing to a disciplined US squad in their semi-final match of the Confederations Cup.

Watch highlights here: http://sports.espn.go.com/videohub/video/video?id=4284720

Iker Casillas and Gerard Pique suffer the onslaught of a case of La caraja
Once again in sport, the favourite was defeated by the underdog, and once again in football Spain underachieved in a major tournament. Five factors had an instrumental influence in the outcome of the match when analysed from the Spanish point of view:

1: "La caraja"

The meaning of this word (not to be confused with its masculine, ruder version) is best explained through examples. With no rhyme or reason, some days your mind is elsewhere and you keep doing dumb things, such as locking yourself out of your apartment with your keys inside, putting salt on your coffee, or calling your current girlfriend by the name of the previous one. Spaniards also use empanada or berza to describe this error-prone state of mind.

On Wednesday night, the Spanish squad displayed a sensational caraja from the first minute of the match. We saw excellent players play like mediocre footballers even when their dedicated rivals were not intervening: poor passing, worse positioning, terrible play selection. Even Xavi Hernández looks ordinary in a day of caraja. If your opponent is focused and knows how to play their cards, as it was the case with the US, the match becomes quite challenging.

On top of that, luck will never go your way in a day of caraja: a half-hearted shot parried by your goalkeeper would hit the post and head for the corner flag in a normal day, but in a day of caraja it will go in. ON a normal day the referee would award a penalty if your playmaker is pushed from behind in scoring position, but will wave play on in a day of caraja. Yesterday was a quintessential caraja day, and only extreme dedication can help you to win matches in those days.

2: Lack of respect for the opponent

I spent the hours prior to the match at the national team hotel in Bloemfontein. I have never seen such a relaxed atmosphere before the semi-final of a FIFA tournament. Even though all of Spain's public statements had recognised the US as a worthy opponent, it felt like the Spaniards were preparing a friendly game for a philanthropic cause.

Supporters were taking pictures with Del Bosque and several players among surprisingly lax security measures. I talked with the representative of the main sponsor of the national team. "Isn't this too quiet?", I asked him. "Other than the tactical chat, they haven't spoken about the match more than half an hour in the last three days", he answers. "I'd rather be playing Italy, they wouldn't be this relaxed".

The attitude within the media wasn't different. We had only booked hotels for the final in Johannesburg, and even your usually superstitious correspondent broke several unwritten rules to avoid bad omens: I spoke about the game like a sure win with several friends, created a file with ideas for my article on the final and didn't wear my (still unwashed) lucky jersey from Euro 2008 to the match. I should have known better.

3: The wrong formation

In my previous article, I wrote wonders about Vicente del Bosque's array of tactical options. Our gaffer chose the wrong one for this match, or rather Mr Bradley was ready to exploit its weak points.

When Spain apply a 4-4-2 with Cesc Fábregas on the right, he actually roams towards the middle, leaving the right flank open for Sergio Ramos to go forward. This is very similar to Real Madrid's approach back when del Bosque was the gaffer, with Zidane as a fake left midfielder and Roberto Carlos taking care of the left wing.

This approach requires a very disciplined full back (which Roberto Carlos was only to a limited extent), and a great defensive midfielder (Claude Makelele) to cover whatever gaps when the other team counter attacks and the flank is open.

In the current Spanish squad, Sergio Ramos (see factor #4) clearly can't play the Roberto Carlos role, and Xabi Alonso is still far from being a Marcos Senna in defensive tasks. Bradley understood this and, especially during the first half, his team punished Spain every time Ramos went forward, while del Bosque was slow in adjusting the side (and also unlucky because Santiago Cazorla was simply horrendous when he replaced Cesc).

4: Sergio Ramos

Let the record show that I texted a friend of mine as early as minute 15 of the first half asking him what Ramos was doing on the pitch. As explained earlier, the US gaffer decided to give him plenty of space offensively to exploit his back at the counter attack, and Sergio naively swallowed the bait. The US caught Spain's defence out of place at least four times until Altidore scored, in all cases because Ramos wasn't where he should.

His stellar participation in the US' second goal brought me back (not very fond) memories of Christian Karembeu. The Frenchman will always be remembered by Real Madrid fans for three reasons: his collection of trophies, his spectacular wife, and the Karembina.

In 1999, during a Liga match at the Santiago Bernabéu, Karembeu decided to avoid a corner kick for opponent side Celta by backheeling the ball into the path of a Galician striker, who easily scored. The Karembina, meaning an assist from a defender to a rival striker, was hence born. It had been some time since I last saw one, and now I can thank Sergio for his generosity (and yes, I am really bitter).

5. The silly season

The day before the match, Jorge Valdano stated that Real Madrid had paid Golden Ball money for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká, and that David Villa did not belong to that group. Even if Valdano's statement is accurate, its timing was terrible. Villa played like he had to win the match by himself to prove Valdano and Real Madrid wrong, and was selfish beyond belief.

Fernando Torres was quickly infected by Villa's selfishness virus. We rarely saw collective play between the strikers during the whole game, a strange feat in a side that base all their approach in smart passing.

When you combine all those factors in one give match, it is hard to win. On top of that, if you are facing a team that had nothing to lose after their miraculous qualification for the semi-finals and who clearly knew what to do at every instance of the match, you're in serious trouble.

Del Bosque's words during the press conference point at the right direction: this national team is young and should grow further until the World Cup. This shocking defeat has "overconfidence" written all over it, while the old Armada's failures were a mixture of incompetence, fear to win and bad luck.

Hopefully the players will have learned the lesson for the upcoming World Cup. In any case, they have to go back to Rustenburg to play for the third spot on Sunday, which feels like a harsh enough punishment for them.

ODP Region 4 Camp (1996 Boys)

2009-06-25T07:50:00.005-06:00

I am currently in McMinville, Oregon where Linfield College is hosting U.S. Youth Soccer's '96 Olympic Development Program (ODP) Camp for Region 4. Eight months ago I was invited to be part of Utah's ODP staff and assigned the boys that were born in 1996. The Head coach is Patrick Rennie of Sparta (Sandy, UT) whom I already knew real well and have a lot of respect for.

ODP website Go Here to learn about the purpose of ODP Soccer...long story short it is how we identify our national team(s).

SO we got to the airport at 7am MST, boarded the plane with the top 19 boys of Utah that were born in 1996. (While in the airport I ran in to Will McConnell, my best friend my freshmen year at UVSC, he played with me there). The flight was good, the school bus we drove was straight out of a 70's horror flick but we got here.

When we arrived the Semi- Final match of the Confederations Cup that showcased U.S.A vs Spain was in the 25th minute. Right after all of the boys crunched in to a room, Jozi Altidore scored, the Boys blew up! The likely hood of USA beating Spain (recognized as the best team in the world) was slim to none. An hour or so we celebrated a second goal scored by USA's Clint Dempsey. And a few minutes later celebrated when USA had somehow knocked off the best team in the world.

We do not have transportation so we walked with the boys to the nearest grocery store (we hadn't eaten yet all day. The day from there went as such:

5-6pm Dinner (Cafeteria food)
Training Session 630-730pm
GK Session 730-830pm
TEAM Meeting 830-930
Regional Coaching Staff Introduction Meeting 1015-11

If you want to be realistic and push all of those times back an hour to adjust the MST time we were still feeling, we were going from 6am-midnight.

I was out like a log, but the first one up, showered etc. This is what has allowed me the time to update the blog.
One day down 5 days to go. We return Monday evening.

I will try to do a daily blog if I have the time and energy.

Breakfast in 45 minutes...maybe I will get a little nap in?

Back in the day...

2009-06-10T07:41:00.001-06:00

Remember back in the day when you and your dad would go outside and play catch or shoot some hoops just to spend some time with dad? Well, sometimes we are not sure what we can do with our children that allows us to hang out with them. So what are some activities we can do as parents that will allow us to spend time with our kids and help them with their soccer skills? Here is the first idea for you... The timed test. You could do this every day and see the improvement. Watch the video, the last 30 seconds is dedicated to timing how many touches the player can get on the ball in ten seconds. Have fun with it and use it to help your child learn to set and accomplish goals!

Infinity SC fares well in Utah's State Cup

2009-05-24T14:59:00.001-06:00

By Jason Turner
Published:
Sunday, May 24, 2009 2:33 AM CDT
It wasn’t the ending they were hoping for, but a pair of youth girls soccer teams from Cache Valley took a significant step forward in challenging the best clubs in the state.

Locally-based Infinity Soccer Club had two teams advance to the championship round of a prestigious state tournament. The two-week 2009 Spring State Cup concluded Saturday in Orem, and it’s the first time a local club — girls or boys — has ever played for a State Cup title.

“It’s kind of a neat thing because we kind of made history here in Cache Valley,” said Sherri Dever, Infinity’s director of coaching. “... It’s a great accomplishment.”

Unfortunately for Infinity’s U11 and U12 squads, they struggled a bit against a pair of teams from the renowned Utah Avalanche club in the finals.

The U11 Infinity SC 98 Premier team was defeated by Avalanche 98 Premier, 6-1, while Infinity SC 97 fell to Avalanche 97 Premier Black, 3-0.

However, both teams made plenty of noise at the tournament before bowing out. For starters, both squads were dominant during pool play. The U11 squad outscored the opposition 18-3 over the course of three matches, while their U12 counterparts didn’t allow a goal in three pool games and found the back of the net an eye-popping 19 times.

“The girls worked very, very hard,” said Robson Chaves, who coaches both teams. “They pushed it to the limit, their parents too, and look at the results. It’s very exciting.”

In the quarterfinal round, the U11 squad beat Hobble Creek Storm 98, 5-3, and then edged Sparta 98 Premier, 2-1, for the right to play for all the marbles. There were 14 teams in the U11 bracket.

It should be no surprise the 11-year-olds made it to the finals, considering they won the regular-season title with a record of 8-2 and had two of the top three goal scorers in the league.

Demi Lopez and Takesha Saltern netted a combined 31 goals during the regular season, with Lopez leading the way with 17. Other team leaders for Infinity SC 98 Premier are goalkeeper Samantha Loosli, defenders Brianna Sims and Berkley Hellstern and midfielder Hannah Anhder.

Evidently, the U11 team also displayed good sportsmanship at the Spring State Cup as none of the players were issued yellow or red cards.

As for the U12 squad, it rolled over Avalanche 97 Premier White, 5-2, in the quarterfinals before pulling out a 3-2 overtime victory over LaRoca Premier — one of the state’s most respected clubs — in the round of four.

Unfortunately for Infinity SC 97 Premier, it couldn’t replicate its strong play in the finals against the Avalanche team — a squad the local girls beat at home 4-3 during the regular season. In fact, this Infinity squad is 4-2-1 against Avalanche Black over the past two years, Chaves said.

When talking about the U12 team, Chaves gushed about the play of offensive leaders Erin Richenbach, Alexis Sims, Annalee Davidson and Hayley Oldham, midfielder Madison Siddoway and backline stalwart Katelyn Whipple. Sims also logs in some minutes in the back, while Viridiana Gomez and Rebecca Jenson shared the GK duties.

The U12 squad went 6-2-2 during the regular season and competed against 15 other teams at the Spring State Cup.

And while a chance at capturing that elusive State Cup championship will have to wait a little while longer, the possibility certainly became that much more realistic.

“The teams from smaller places can beat the teams from big places with proper training and proper technique,” Chaves said. “... I think we showed that this season ... and it’s a big thing for Cache Valley.”

For more information about the tournament, go to www.uysa.org and click on the Tournaments State Cup link.

Winning is Great, but it’s Not the Goal!

2009-05-08T12:25:00.001-06:00

By Pam Richmond Champagne, MCC, The Sports Parenting Coach

Recently the parent of an aspiring athlete told me it seemed “almost un-American” to say winning is not the goal. In fact, many would say we compete in a “win-at-all-costs” environment. Is this helping or hurting our kids’ performances and lives? Naturally we all prefer to win, but this is a critical distinction: winning is a byproduct or a consequence, not a goal.

Paradoxically you increase your odds of winning when you place 100% attention, not on
winning, but on the process – the learning and development, the continual movement toward mastery. During competition this means having a moment-to-moment, concentrated focus on executing skills and maintaining a positive attitude.

John Naber, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, exemplifies this vital concept. He shares, “My goal was never to win a race. My goal was to be the best I could be that day.”Disturbing news stories and studies show a focus on winning can produce un-sportsmanlike behavior, outright dishonesty, and unethical use of dangerous drugs.

Focusing on the outcome also decreases performance. It leads the performer away from the power of the present moment and creates performance-lowering tension by putting attention on something not under a player’s direct control.

I vividly recall one of my tennis matches that is a perfect illustration. In a close three-set final, I was just one game away from winning my match when all of my attention went to the outcome – winning the tournament. My strokes fell apart, I made a series of dumb errors, and the championship title slipped away.

As a parent you can help your child stay focused on the process. How? Be interested in
what she’s learning about herself and what skills she’s developing. Find out what he enjoys about his sport. Most importantly, model this process orientation for your child. You certainly don’t have direct control over how well your athlete performs, but you do have control over how calm you are during and after your child’s performance, what you say, and how encouraging you are. Next time you find yourself getting frustrated or annoyed at your child’s performance, ask yourself, what am I trying to control that I don’t have control over? Then zero in on what you do control. And remind yourself the winning focus is on the learning and the fun!

Pam’s Point: There’s a huge gap between loving to win and having to win, between
competing to do our best and competing to be “the best."

Infinity SC '92 Premier Girls Vs. Impact Black

2009-05-01T09:45:00.001-06:00

Tryouts in Youth Soccer

2009-04-28T10:42:00.003-06:00

Recently I received this note from a youth coach.

Mr. Snow,

I have been working with a recreational soccer organization the past two years. We have been focused on player development and getting all of the kids out there involved. Our program is over 60 percent Under-8, with the rest spread out over the U-10, U-12, and U-14 ranks.

After this past season, parents of one team of U-8 boys complained that they didn't think that all three U-8 boys' teams in our organization were balanced amongst each other even though they all had nearly identical records. Long story short, the parents are demanding a tryout scheme be step up before spring soccer starts.

There are three USSF certified coaches in the organization and we keep telling the parents and the organization's Board members that the idea of having tryouts for U-8 in a recreational league is silly, but no one seems to be listening to us. Is there anything that the US Youth Soccer Association may have in writing we can show them that may drive this point to them home? We have been having great success by focusing on Player Development and working with all of the kids on all of the skills. The three of us coaches that have gone through training think that the idea of tryouts on such a young age will hurt the program overall because it implies a win at all cost mentality.

Hello Coach,

The 55 state Technical Directors agree with your stance and have stated so in the Position Statements. Here are the ones pertinent to your situation.

PLAYING NUMBERS – SMALL SIDED GAMES No. 1
The intent is to use small-sided games as the vehicle for match play for players under the age of 12. Further we wish to promote age/ability appropriate training activities for players' nationwide. Clubs should use small-sided games as the primary vehicle for the development of skill and the understanding of simple tactics. Our rationale is that the creation of skill and a passion for the game occurs between the ages of six to 12.

With the correct environment throughout this age period players will both excel and become top players or they will continue to enjoy playing at their own levels and enjoy observing the game at higher levels. A small-sided game in match play for our younger players create more involvement, more touches of the ball, exposure to simple, realistic decisions and ultimately, more enjoyment. Players must be challenged at their own age/ability levels to improve performance. The numbers of players on the field of play will affect levels of competition.

Children come to soccer practice to have fun. They want to run, touch the ball, have the feel of the ball, master it and score. The environment within which we place players during training sessions and matches should promote all of these desires, not frustrate them.

• We believe that players under the age of six should play games of 3 v 3. This will provide a less cluttered and more developmentally appropriate playing environment. No attempt whatsoever should be made at this age to teach a team formation! These playing numbers should be implemented by September 1, 2009.

• We believe that players under the age of eight should play games of 4 v 4. This will provide a less cluttered and more developmentally appropriate playing environment. Players in this age group can be exposed to a team formation at the start of the game, but do not be dismayed when it disappears once the ball is rolling. The intent at this age is to merely plant a seed toward understanding spatial awareness. These playing numbers should be implemented by September 1, 2009.

• We believe that players under the age of ten should play games of 6 v 6. This will provide a less cluttered and more developmentally appropriate playing environment. The coaching of positions to children under the age of ten is considered intellectually challenging and often situates parent-coaches in a knowledge vacuum. Additionally, premature structure of U-10 players into positions is often detrimental to the growth of individual skills and tactical awareness. This problem is particularly acute with players of limited technical ability. We also believe that the quality of coaching has an impact on the playing numbers. We recommend that parent-coaches would best serve their U-10 players by holding a Youth Module certificate. These playing numbers should be implemented by September 1, 2009.

• We believe that players under the age of twelve should play games of 8 v 8. This will provide a less cluttered and more developmentally appropriate environment. The U-12 age group is the dawning of tactical awareness and we feel it is best to teach the players individual and group tactics at this age rather than team tactics. These playing numbers for the U-11 age group should be implemented by September 1, 2011. These playing numbers for the U-12 age group should be implemented by September 1, 2012.

REALIZING PLAYER POTENTIAL No. 3
To maximize player potential, we believe that State Associations and progressive clubs should work to expose their better coaches, who should hold the ""Y"" License, to their youngest players. It is also seen as important that mentoring programs be established for community soccer coaches to improve the quality of youth soccer training.

The developmental approach emphasizes the growth of individual skills and group tactical awareness. We feel too much emphasis is placed on ""team"" play and competition in the preteen years. We believe in an inclusion model for preteen players. From this perspective, the goal of youth soccer programs at all levels is to include players in matches at an age when experience is more important than outcome.

Further options for players in their teen years that are not interested in competing at the highest level, but still have a love for the game should be created. Perhaps older teen coed teams or high school based teams on a recreational basis.

AGE OF COMPETITIVE PLAY No. 4
While it is acknowledged and recognized that preteen players should be allowed to pursue playing opportunities that meet both their interest and ability level, we strongly discourage environments where players below the age of twelve are forced to meet the same ""competitive"" demands as their older counterparts therefore we recommend the following:
1. 50% playing time
2. no league or match results
3. 8 v 8 at U-12

FESTIVALS FOR PLAYERS UNDER-10 No. 9
We believe that Soccer Festivals should replace soccer tournaments for all players under the age of ten. Festivals feature a set number of minutes per event (e.g., 10 games X 10 minutes) with no elimination and no ultimate winner. We also endorse and support the movement to prohibit U-10 teams from traveling to events that promote winning and losing and the awarding of trophies.

I also recommend that you cite the information from the U.S. Soccer document Best Practices to educate your club membership. http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_280734.html I suggest you also contact your state Technical Director who will be able to provide you with further guidance.

Playing Up

2009-04-01T15:42:00.001-06:00

I was recently asked by a few of the parents on younger Infinity teams about players "playing up." I found an article that shares the view of the club and I have used it to educate these inquiring parents in regards to the philosophy of player development. I feel it is important to share this information with each of you as well. The below article is dead on. Please recognize when it says player instead of team or players. I also added some post article thoughts below the article as well.

Playing Up
by Bobby Howe

It has been ten years since I left Washington State Youth Soccer Association. The landscape has changed during that time and undoubtedly, the game is improving. Clubs with professional coaches are emerging.

Therefore, as we develop further, clubs must bear more responsibility for the development of play within the state. Not only must we be responsible directly for the improvement of the most talented players, but we must also play a role in the playing environment of all the players and an important role in coach education for our youngest players.

One of my first observations on joining the Emerald City club last year was that our club and others had a vast number of players playing above their age group - obviously with the intention of gaining an advantage in competition and experience.
The following are my views on this topic.
Soccer development will occur through the improvement of individual players at their levels of challenge. While chronological age is generally the vehicle to monitor progress academically and on the sports field, and while many children fall within that spectrum, there are some that rise above and some that fall below the expectations of the age group. It is the responsibility of every soccer coach to recognize the standard of each individual player within his/her team and place that player where he/she belongs.

I have asked our coaches in the club to observe players carefully and to talk regularly on the topic of player movement within our club. Should a player move up from a "B" team to an "A" team or should a player move up from one age to another?
The criteria always must be to challenge the player at his/her level. The questions the coaches must ask are:
Is the player physically able to play up?
Is the player psychologically able to play up?
If the player moves up the process should be monitored and discussed. If a player is asked to move from an "A" team to a "B" team or back down to his/ her own age group, the player must not feel or be made to feel that the move is a demotion. The decisions always must be in the best interests of the player, not the team.

The greatest enjoyment for any player is to be challenged at his/her level of competency. Anything below may lead to boredom and bad playing habits. Anything above may lead to disenchantment, losing a love for the game and ultimately, leaving the sport.

At the ages of U-11 to U-15 size plays a huge role in a player's effectiveness and often, size plays an important role in player selection. At the younger ages many bigger players are able to compete because of strength and physical presence. As a result, they do not have to try as hard, or work on their skills as much or think about the demands of the game to the same extent as their less physical colleagues.
While some of these players progress to a high standard, most do not. Bigger players can compete regardless of their playing habits at a young age. Unfortunately, if those habits are poor, they will not be able to compete at the age of sixteen at which time size is much less relevant and when total soccer ability and awareness is much more important.

Smaller players that can compete at a young age have a much better chance of being successful at the age of sixteen, because they have had to use their soccer talent and understanding in order to compete with the bigger players.

Most teams that dominate a league at a younger age rely on the abilities of bigger players. If those players are also very talented, they should play up to test their skills. The remainder of the team should stay at their own level to allow those players to improve.

It is important to note that, in most cases, the success of any young team in competition is due to the performance of some players, not the whole team. Therefore, the better players should move up, but the whole team should not.
All of our club decisions must be based upon the enhancement of the playing environment and ultimately, what is best for the player.

In conclusion, in the future at Emerald City Football Club, we shall discuss and allow the movement of players to a higher level, but we shall not permit the upward movement of teams.
More about Bobby's final paragraph in future World of Soccer Newsletters. "Not playing a whole team up? Hogwash!" I can already visualize some coaches beginning to foam at the mouth.

Ginn's after thoughts:
We will soon see players moving from team to team during the the winter break. The trick is to not look at the team aspect so much as the individuals (your child) development. If your team is scrimmaging older/better teams from the club and the rest of the valley they will develop faster. One more quote from the US youth soccer organization is found below. I have also put a link to the full 70 page document that you can download. This is the newest movement in youth soccer across the country.

CONSIDER THIS: At the younger ages (6 to about 10), soccer is not a team sport. On the contrary, it is a time for children to develop their individual relationship with the ball. The fact that younger children are placed into team environments is not their fault. Do not demand that the more confident players share the ball. Encourage them to be creative and go to goal. Do the same with the rest of your players.Work to bring all your players up to that level of confidence and comfort with the ball. Coaches should avoid the impulse to “coach” their players from “play to play” in order to help them win the match. Coaches should not be telling their young players to “pass rather than dribble,” to “hold their positions” or to “never” do something (like pass or dribble in front of the goal).

http://images.ussoccer.com/Documents/cms/ussf/Best_Practices.pdf

Ginn's final contribution:
Below is a video that i am sharing with the Infinity Coaching Staff this month. It is focused on player development philosophies and shares an insight of the contrasts between American philosophy & Brazilian philosophy. It is a very low quality production, but the efficiency of educating parents and coaches is very high. Please find the time to watch the video.

Please enjoy the video

Silos

2009-03-25T08:44:00.001-06:00

A recent blog was posted by Sam Snow (US Youth Soccer Director of Coaching) on the US Youth Soccer web site. The article was titled: SILOS.

Silos
By Sam Snow

I've been traveling consistently since the first of 2009 to a variety of soccer events. I've been to Orlando, Florida; Antalya, Turkey; St. Louis, Missouri; Greensboro, North Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Anchorage, Alaska; Pomona, California; Los Angles, California; Warwick, Rhode Island and now I'm on my way to San Jose, California, for the 2009 US Youth Soccer adidas Workshop.
One of the things I have noticed in these travels is the shared passion for soccer of the many people I meet. They all are committed to the game, but not just the game, instead the people in it. While everyone in soccer across the world has their differences with one another the majority truly care about the people in the game.

I have noticed too that many folks are sure that somehow they and their situation are different when in fact they are all the same. Regularly, I hear soccer folks say to me things such as - Well coach, you have to understand that around here our parents are really competitive and they just don't like the idea of not keeping score for their six-year-old. It is an eye-opener for them to hear that everyone in youth soccer in the USA says the same thing. When I tell them that some get it and others are still convinced they are somehow different. The only difference in American youth soccer circumstances is the size of the state and occasionally the accent. Otherwise we are all in the same youth soccer boat with similar successes and challenges.

We must break down the silos that we have built up around us and build one huge team that is soccer in America. It doesn't matter what your role is in the game you are part of the team. Every team member has something to contribute and every team member should be respected for their contribution. All aspects of the game are interlocked like the Olympic rings. You may be in one of the rings furthest from the opposite end, but you are still interlocked. Soccer in our nation still has many hurdles to overcome and we must not be hurdles to one another or create our own hurdles. So let's begin in 2009 to tear down the silos and build our team.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

I want to add, that Infinity Soccer respects what others do in our community at any and every level. We encourage anything that promotes kids playing soccer. We are huge advocates of District 7 and the Utah Youth Soccer Association. There are many great ideas regarding how to go about developing soccer in our country. Infinity Soccer strives to stay informed and up to date with current trends on U.S. Youth Soccer so OUR kids and families have the best opportunity to play and compete at every level. As we look towards the future, we hope that everyone will acknowledge the impressive past of Cache Valley soccer. But the past is the past and the opportunities are there for us to play catch up with the rest of the state and the rest of the nation by creating a more passionate soccer culture in our own backyard.

We are excited about the development of soccer in the U.S., the region, Utah and most importantly Cache Valley and its surrounding communities. The future is bright and the limits are endless. We hope you will attend the Annual Parent meeting on March 31st and or April 1st to hear more about the direction Infinity is going.

Thank you for supporting soccer at whatever level you contribute to this beautiful game...thank you!

Players or Competitors?

2009-03-15T08:41:00.004-06:00

Has our system created an unintended consequence in player development?

Dr. Jay Martin - Soccer Journal

In early September, a Division I game featured two Top 10 teams, one from the West Coast and one from the East Coast. In this early-season special, two big-time programs went at each other, each hoping to make a statement for the 2008 season. After the first half, it was clear the West Coast team had better soccer players. Pound for pound, they were more technical than the home team. That team lost 3-0... and it could have been more. Good soccer players who played good soccer but didn't compete. They PLAYED the game; they did not COMPETE the game.

In a recent interview discussing the upcoming hockey season, Columbus Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock told reporters the team would make the playoffs if he could find players `who would COMPETE and not just PLAY" The difference? "Players who PLAY bring skill; players who COMPETE bring everything!"

There is too much playing in American soccer and not enough competing. Playing permeates all levels of the game, from U-5 to MLS and the national teams. We are confusing ability for talent. Allen Fox, author of The Winner's Mind, says: "Most people mistake speed and skill for talent. Real talent STARTS with energy, drive, work ethic and the will to win. Without these attributes, a player can never be great."

We have focused so much on playing that we haven't taught players to compete, to fight, to work hard or to have the will to win. As a soccer culture, we've always had an inferiority complex, so we emphasize playing, technical ability and skills. Our youth play a lot of soccer, but few compete. What happened to all the highly regarded U-17s we've had in this country? Where are they now? They are playing somewhere.

It is not always the players' fault. Our "soccer system" or "soccer culture" is dysfunctional. When players are not playing in their club, they simply change clubs. There is no thought about competing for a spot on the team, getting better to fight for a spot... they simply change clubs. The message to players is that striving to get better is not as important as how you play and how you look High school age players don't care much about the outcome of games (whether they are playing in high school or club), but they do care about "showing"...about playing to showcase their skills and ability for college coaches. How many times have you heard a parent tell their son or daughter that they played well or showed well despite losing the game?

Add to this the large number of meaningless games in youth soccer and we have a deadly combination. When young players play in hundreds of meaningless high school and club games, the emphasis slowly changes from the game to the individual. To playing and showing. Competing is lost. By the time the players move to the next level, they haven't learned how to compete. Or, as Allen suggests, they do not have the drive, work ethic or will to win.

Players lose motivation and confidence when the 'Work/play" is no longer easy (i.e. college soccer, or the next level). The rules change at the next level; the emphasis switches back to competing and hard work and the players can't handle it. They think they are playing (and they are) - but they are not competing. We need players who compete and play; players who have the will to win.

Research is clear that constant praising of children's innate ability (athletic or intellectual) can prevent them from living up to their potential. On the other hand, studies show that teaching young people to focus on effort rather than ability helps make them high achievers and competitors in school, on the field and in life.

Why do some players, when confronted with failure, give up while others who are no more skilled continue to compete and learn? Stanford University's Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, suggests that the answer lies in people's beliefs about why they failed. It seems that those who were praised for their ability and intelligence when things are easy have trouble changing gears and working hard when things get tough. Children who are taught to focus on effort and getting better rather than the outcome learn to work hard and solve the problem. Soccer players who change clubs never learn to solve the problems that others face because they never face them. The key, says Dweck, isn't ability: it's whether you look at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or as something that can be developed. She further suggests that many young athletes who are led to believe that talent is more important than effort become uncoachable!

Somehow in the Land of the Puritan Work Ethic, we have separated ability and effort. We are teaching our young soccer players that ability, technique and skill outweigh effort. In fact, our young players believe that having to work hard at soccer is a sign of low ability. Since college coaches are interested in ability, young players don't work hard, they don't compete. When they get to college and things get tough they can't change gears and work hard. They are confused. They played "high-level youth soccer" and made it to a college team playing one way. Now the coach wants the players to change and work hard. Many can't do it.

A high level of ability will inspire confidence in our young players... for a while. As long as things are going well, the players will be confident, but adversity and failure change everything. How our young players react to setbacks depends on their goals. If the goal is to play at the next level by focusing on ability or skill (performance goals), there will be no improvement, but if the goal is to become a better soccer player; to improve ability (learning goals), the young player will work hard, compete and become a better player. Dweck's 2002 study showed that praising children for intelligence (or ability) alone rather than effort actually sapped their motivation.

Culture plays a large role in shaping our beliefs. Our soccer culture perpetuates the belief that talent is the answer. And talent is defined as skill. We focus on talent, we praise those who are talented, we fight for talented players for our teams and, as a result, have created a mindset that talent is the end-all in soccer. The mindset that soccer ability is the only answer is a problem and must be changed. We must return to an emphasis on effort, drive, determination and the will to win in addition to skill and talent.

How do we change from a "fixed mindset" to a "growth mindset" in this soccer culture? How do we change the emphasis from relying totally on skill to relying on using the skill in addition to hard work? One way, says Dweck, is to tell our players about those who were successful through hard work and not only skill. These examples should show that real success needs a combination of ability and hard work. Sports in general and soccer specifically provide many examples of this. Take Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal. He has tremendous skill and soccer ability, but he also is the hardest worker on the field; that combination makes him one the best players in the EPL. The hardworking Claude Makalele is another example. Often overlooked at Real Madrid as only a hard worker, his real contributions were displayed when he moved to Chelsea. Real Madrid struggled and Chelsea became one of the best teams in Europe after his transfer.

Another strategy coaches can use to change the mindset is praise. Instead of praising skill alone, coaches must praise effort, hard work and the will to win. Most people believe they should build up people by telling them how brilliant or talented they are. Dweck's research suggests this is misguided and a mistake.

As coaches, it is time to change our players' mindset. It is time to make work ethic and effort important again. It is time to combine highly skilled players with hard-working players. Our players must stop playing and start competing.

'93 Girls Premier Return From Vegas with Silver

2009-03-13T14:39:00.000-06:00

Las Vegas! The very name conjures up images of neon lights and fun. But for the U-16 Infinity Girls Soccer team, a recent trip to Las Vegas was not about the glamor of the Strip, but for most, their first chance to compete in an out-of state Soccer Tournament: City of Las Vegas Mayor’s Cup.

Many factors were stacked against this team from the very start. Minus assistant coaches Caleb Cowley and Crissy Partridge, Head Coach Jeff Ginn had the sole responsibility of coordinating and coaching 2 girls teams at the same time. Also missing were two key players, Kat Murray, who could not attend and Sam Emmett, who was rostered on the U-17 team. Adding to this that the team was trying out a new formation, expectations of this tourney were more of a “chance to play against other out of state teams” and not a “we can win” attitude-except the girls didn’t seem to realize that the Vegas odds were stacked against them and they seemed to think that they were in it to win!

Game 1 vs. Mustang Boca Extreme. This was probably the warmest game as the 2 at night and other 2 daytime games were pretty cold. This game also was the first experience for most of the girls to be part of the tradition of teams trading “gifts” as the team captains met on the field. It was apparently new to some other teams because although all our opposing teams received Infinity Beanies from team captains JD Larsen and Stacey Bair, this first team was the only one that reciprocated with suckers. This was also the team that was listed on the roster as coming from CAN, which we assumed to be Canada, but later learned that they were from California North, although there were some Canadian teams present. First game jitters were apparent in the first half even though the team was using their familiar formation. The first half score was 0-0. In the second half the girls were more confident and they pulled ahead 1-0 when Juliette McCann stole the ball, took a one touch shot with her left foot and drilled it past the goalie from 25 yards out. Late in the second half, the Mustangs managed to put in a goal, resulting in a 1-1 tie.

Game 2 vs. Colorado United Blue. This game may be referred to as our 3 Yellow Card Game…(some refs are so touchy!) Coach Ginn decided to implement a new 1-2-3-3-2 formation in this game, leaving the girls to wonder if their Coach had finally cracked under all the pressure, but as the game progressed, and the girls got into the rhythm of the new line-up, it was as if a whole new Infinity team had taken the field. The new formation resulted in more controlled passing by the mid-field and a more aggressive attack by the strikers. The team literally took control of the game and it showed in the confident, dominant way they played, completely frustrating the opposing team. The only goal in this game resulted from a beautiful cross-field assist by Striker, Nicky Bennett and a finishing shot by Right Full bakc, Laura Dewald. The 1-0 score didn’t do justice to the quality of teamwork that was executed on the field but even so… the girls had just won their first ever out-of state game!

Game 3 vs. Boise National Blast White. If the new formation looked like it was clicking in the previous game, it was deemed a complete success in this one as the girls completely dominated the entire game. Stacey Bair had a hat trick, contributing 3 goals and Danica Hansen and Juliette McCann had a goal apiece, with many other players assisting. Solid defensive play from JD Larsen, Chelsea Curtis, and Porsha Jones resulted in another shut-out and a 5-0 Infinity win.

Game 4 vs. Neusport FC94 South Nevada. Notwithstanding the excellent record of 1 tie and 2 wins, this was a very important game. Our point standing going into this game was 22 points, while the Mustangs that we had tied with in our first game and now having completed their last game, had 30 points.

We needed a win with 3 goals and a shut out in order to advance to the Championship Game. Despite the pressure of knowing we HAD to win or it was all over or maybe because of it, mid-fielders Marsela Murillo, Jessie Clements, Cassidee Nelson and Kaylee Kendrick took control early and kept the pressure on the entire game. The offense did their part with goals by Danica Hansen, Juliette McCann, Nicky Bennett and the only header goal in this tournament by newest team member Maddie Daines, resulting in a 4-0 win and another shut-out from the defense.

After the game, the U-17 and U-16 Infinity Girls teams presented Coach Ginn with a soccer ball that both teams had signed, and the girls had a team picture taken together. It was now very late and very cold , but the excitement was high because the Infinity U-16 Girls were now advancing to the Championship Game!

Much of the team’s success was due to the structured agenda that Coach Ginn had outlined in a detailed hand-out that each girl was expected to follow, or as JD Larsen called it “my Bible, because it tells me what to do and never steers me wrong.” The girls all stayed together in one hotel, with no parents in their rooms, and although there was a little free time allotted each day, most of the girls used the time to try and catch up on their sleep. They arose early each morning for team stretching, and had a set warm-up to follow before each game. The result was a team that came onto the field energized and ready to play from the very start of the game.

Monday, February 16, 2009. President’s Day.

The rain from the night before had stopped but it was still cool and wet. Seeing college scouts wandering around with clipboards, and noticing the size of the championship trophies waiting to be handed out, gave merit to what a big deal being at this game really was. Our girls seemed calm as they warmed-up but as we glanced at the opposing team, Glenview Elite from Illinois, many parents commented on the size of the girls our team was about to play. As the parents paced nervously, the girls played a solid first half but had few opportunities to score. Early on, Nicky Bennet had a pretty header that she redirected just skimming and going over the top of the bar. At half-time the score was 0-0. That changed early in the second half when Annie Hughes had a breakaway and was able to get one past the goalie, putting Infinity ahead 1-0. Annie doesn’t quite remember how it happened but she says she was “loving it” after the goal. Just a few minutes later as the ball was bobbled by Glenview’s goalie, Danica Hansen managed to get control of the ball and put it in the net. Unfortunately the ref called us with an offside penalty and took the goal away but even so, we were still ahead 1-0. Late in the second half the ball hit off the foot of one of our defensive players and hit her hand and we were called for a hands in the box penalty and they were able to score from the resulting Penalty Kick. At the end of regulation play the score was tied 1-1. On to overtime, starting with five minutes of Golden Goal play: whichever team scores first immediately wins. If no one scores its another five minutes with the same rules. The first over-time ended with no score, as did the second over-time so now it was on to a Shoot-Out. This has to be the most intense, pressure inducing soccer situation ever invented, with girls going one on one with the opposing goalie as they take a shot at the goal. Goalies Laura Rosales and Kjaersty Cook had split playing time throughout the tournament and had both played exceptionally and they split responsibilities in this game as well, with Laura as goalie for most of regulation play and Kjaersty finishing the second half and in for the over-time and shoot-out. After 5 shots from each team it was still tied. On to the second round. After one tie and 3 consecutive wins, a championship tie, 2 overtimes and 2 shoot-out rounds, it all came down to one goal made by their team and a missed shot on ours: the game was over. Glenview Elite would be receiving the first place trophy, while Infinity would receive 2nd place medals. It was heartbreaking to see the girls devastated at the loss, because they truly WERE winners in this tournament. They overcame incredible odds to even win one game and then consistently won against good teams, earning the right to play in the Championship Game. Their dedication and unselfish play exemplifies what teamwork is all about.

In a ranking system where the lower the number the better, Infinity U-16 is now ranked Nationally: 859 in Region 4: 270 and in Utah: 9th and this team will prove in the year to come that those numbers will only become smaller!

CONGRATULATIONS U-16 GIRLS INFINITY SOCCER TEAM!!

Thanks to the U-17 Girls and U-18 Boys Infinity Soccer teams, Coach’s Sherri Dever and Robson Chaves and all parents for their support at our games, and congratulations to MVP Laura Dewald.

Infinity well represented at the NSCAA GK Course

2009-03-03T11:51:00.001-07:00

Eight Infinity coaches attended the seven hour goal keeping course hosted by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) course in Draper, Utah February 27th & 28th. The accumulation of coaches was the largest represented by any club present. The coaching staff has recognized the importance of goal keeping and want to see a drastic change in how we view our goal keepers at training. By having more coaches understand the needs of the goal keeper and by having new ideas presented to us, we hope that the goal keeper begins to feel like he/she is more part of the team in pre-match warm ups and training. The goal is to have consistent and progressive GK training as well as reinforced instruction during match play.

We also have a young group of coaches being mentored for the future. One of which is being mentored specifically as a goal keeper trainer. We hope that as we put more effort in to the goal keeper position that we will begin to raise the bar of expectations with our teams. Without a quality goal keeper you are less likely to compete at the highest of levels.

Infinity Coaches in attendance: Jeff Ginn, Sherri Dever, Toni Doney, Aric Craig, Kasey Erickson, Larry Tolley, KcKenzie Garn, Crissy Partridge

Why 8 A-Side?

2009-02-24T14:33:00.002-07:00

In February Infinity used their online poll to ask the question, "At what age do you think teams should play 11 vs 11 like the pro.'s?"

The correct answer is found in an article titled: WHY 8 A-SIDE

By, Sam Snow
U. S. Soccer National Staff Instructor
US Youth Soccer Director of Coaching Education

Children in the U11 and U12 age groups should play eight versus eight (8 v 8) in
their matches. This includes the goalkeeper, hence seven field players and one
goalkeeper. The playing field should be 70 to 80 yards long and 45 to 55 yards wide.
The goal should be 6 feet high by 18 feet wide. The penalty area should be 14 yards
out from each post and 14 yards forward. The goal area, penalty spot, penalty arc,
corner arc, corner flags and center circle should be per FIFA rules. They should play
two halves of 30 minutes each. Overtime should be two periods of 10 minutes each.
The ball is a size 4, which gives a good indication that these are still children playing the game.

Players in this age group should play 8 v 8 to enhance their soccer abilities. This
is true for all levels of play, recreational or premier. At this point in their physical and psychological development, most ten and eleven year old children can play rather than play at the game of soccer. Coaches must be careful at this juncture and not fall victim to the false assumption that these preadolescent children are now able to play mature soccer.

Yet there is more competence in their individual technical performance. They
now intentionally combine in groups of two to four around the ball. In fact, the word
“team” now becomes more than an abstract concept.Click here to read entire article.

'97 Girls Win Icebreaker Tournament

2009-02-23T15:08:00.001-07:00

The Infinity 97 Premier U12 Girls team attended the Ice Breaker Tournament President’s Day Weekend in St. George and brought home first place medals. They played hard and enjoyed the opportunity to be playing outside again. While it was not as warm as we had hoped, at least we didn’t have the snowy storms that hit home.
It took a little getting used to an outdoor field again. The girls had some challenges along the way and had to fight 2 tough battles against Avalanche to finally earn the title of champions.
Infinity had the first game Saturday morning and had to endure the fresh “red mud” from the night’s rain storm. They played Avalanche 98 and got off to a little bit of a slow start. Guest player Demi Lopez finally put in the first goal. Madie Siddoway followed with two of her own. At half Infinity was up 3. There were several attempts the second half, but only Anna Davidson put one in. The tough defense hardly let Avalanche take a shot, and any they did take, goalie Becca “Boo” Jensen stopped, leaving the score 4 to 0.
The second game was not as competitive of a match. Infinity poured on the teamwork and skills to rack up 10 goals. Rebecca Godfrey (3) , Hailey Oldham, Kanyan Ward, Madie Siddoway (3), Viridianna Gomez, and Demi Lopez all had goals. The other teammates helped with great assissts and superb defending. The final score was 10 to 0.
Infinity lucked out with the first game of the day Monday morning too. They played at 7:00 am and the sun was barely out. Competitor Avalanche 97 came ready to fight and wanted a win. There were a few unsuccessful attempts to score and defense really had to work hard. Avalanche scored just before halftime. The girls tried to kick things up a notch second half, but Avalanche put in two quick back to back goals. Madie Sidoway then got a PK and put it right in. This fired the girls up and prompted them to work harder. Madie later put in a second goal. Things were starting to look up for Infinity. There were other shots taken, but luck wouldn’t have them go in. Infinity faced a tough loss 2 to 3.
Game 4 was against Celtic Storm and actually felt a little warmer. With over a dozen shots on the goal, Infinity only managed to make 4 count, winning 4 to 0. Becca Godfrey, Madie Sidoway, Carly Richins and Kanyan Ward all scored.
Infinity’s record brought them to the championship game to have a rematch against Avalanche 97. Avalanche put in the first goal. Infinity didn’t let it get them down, because they were determined to go home champions. The defenders were tight and didn’t let too much through. Infinity dominated the field and took shot after shot, but couldn‘t manage to make them go in. Two successful shots didn’t count due to off sides and kicking it in the goalie’s hands calls by the refs. Finally, Hailey Oldham put one in just before half. There were lots of shots the second half as well. And when it looked like the game might go into overtime, Becca Godfrey put a goal in to clench the win, 2 to 0.
The girls were excited to win and concluded the tournament with their famous Ole’ Ole’ victory dance on the field before going to the awards presentation.

Check out the tournament website for more information, www.icebrekersoccer.com

CHRISTIAN TAYLOR SEAMONS

2009-02-18T12:39:00.007-07:00

In the fall of 1999 I was battling with Christian Seamons for a goal keeper position on the club soccer team at Utah Valley State College. Little did I know that he and I would become best friends and brothers as time passed.

As I was returning from a tournament in Las Vegas with my Infinity girls this past weekend I received a text to call another close friend, Ryan K. Harris (Skip). I called and he (and Ryan van Dorn (The Godfather)) informed me that Chris had passed away. We first believed it was an overdoes and later found that it was not.

I have since grieved with friends, met with the Seamons family where we laughed in remembrance of Chris. I will act as a paul bearer as I assist Chris's mortal body to it's final resting place. I know Chris is in good hands and that he is already hard at work making people laugh as he vigorously does the Lords work.

I write this on my coaching blog because I want everyone to know that soccer is secondary to relationships. Your friends are truly what makes you happy. Chris, simply made me laugh and made it ok to laugh at anything, anyone, in any situation.

I am so grateful for soccer because without it I would have never met my best friend and brother.

Christian Taylor Seamons, I love you brother and will always remember your sweet spirit and your passion for life. Thank you for always being my brother no matter the circumstance.