'English football is going backwards'

'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

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 ...

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

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

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?

-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

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

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

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

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.