NCAA Tourn/ Youth Soccer in US

Yes- don't get me wrong... I don't like that club soccer is so structured, but I don't have a problem with it beyond the flawed pay to play problems - and my kids will play club soccer for the club that is near us, but they will not travel to he'll and back to play in some tournament because someone claims that is what they must do to play in college because that is BS...
If you are good enough, pick where you want to go to school and walk on. If you have talent you will play. If you are average it isn't worth your time anyway because you will never get enough money to pay for the time you put in. If you are desperate to play because you love it so much and money isn't the issue, there are a ton of playing opportunities out there. Anyone that says there is not is simply not good enough- period.

But this is not the issue that started all this. The question is why we don't have more creative or natural goal scorers.

My answer is because things are too structured at in the club level and the fact that you have players playing inside of themselves because of the culture and training in our youth systems. Also - these priviledged kids may play a lot, but it is almost always organized, and what we need is less structure for creativity to flourish. Also- we must remove the restrictions for children whithout means to have access to the dream of rising out of their situation thru the game of soccer. Right now football and basketball make that possible - soccer must do this too if we are to tap into all of the available talent that is out there.

The problem is that solution for these issues- if you keep the system like it is- are years off.

I think we can fix many of these problems now by building partnerships and bringing School and club programs together and not apart, but that takes money out of the cash cow that is the current system that preys on parents and leads them to believe little Johnny (who has very little talent) can be the next Pele. He is not- nor will he ever be, and they are going to 'invest' a lot of time and money when - in the off chance that their kid gets a college scholarship- it is far less than the money they 'invested' - to find that out.

That is- if they are still playing at age 16-17 since the vast majority of kids quit the game by that time.

 

I don't know what the answers are but I don't feel badly about that because it seems a very big question to try and answer alone. It would be easy for me to tell you the problems that I see with club soccer and the advantages I see with club soccer. It would be easy for me to to tell you about the strong tradition of high school soccer in Evansville and the rising overall level of play I have seen over the last decade. That however is my part of the elephant.

I asked my 10 year old what her favorite soccer activity lately has been and she named an activity that is neither offered by her club nor is it a school activity. I asked her why it was her favorite activity and to quote her the reason it is her favorite activity is "Because we get to just play". The activity actually consists of one day of skills training a week and one day of playing. When Katie comes home from skills training and we ask her what she did she tells us that they "played" games. When they actually do play on the weekend there are no teams, no uniforms, no scores, no awards and very little technical training during their hour of play time. Just girls put on a floor pointed at a goal and told to play. The biggest piece of instruction I have seen in the few times I have been to watch them play was the "instructor" telling them they were playing to slowly and walking into his office to put on some high tempo music and walking back out of his office to tell them to keep up with the music. It was so simple it was brilliant.

You want better players IMHO we need to put kids in positions where they can play, be challanged and have FUN. I'll be honest and tell you I did not expect the level of play I see in what looks like an old run down service building on the corner of a street I would have probably never driven by. This was supposed to be for fun and because Katie wanted to go with friend and play but the kids that enter that building PLAY when they get there. They are competitive without a scoreboard and they don't cut each other any slack. They are so competitive and so focused that they barely talk. I have never been around that many happy 10 and 11 year old girls playing anything and heard that much silence.

Alone and by themselves clubs, high schools, outdoor, indoor or futsal is not the answer because there is no one answer. To be honest the answer to getting them to play is not the same for the two kids in my house. Josh, my 14 year old, does well in a structured environment. Katie gets bored placed in the same situations. Josh wants to be part of a team and participate in the team activities. Katie needs a ball, a friend, something to shoot for and for everyone that does not want to play to get out of the way.

I pay what I consider to be a lot of money each year for two of my kids to play club soccer. I am not doing it because I expect it to "pay-off" in a college scholarship or a professional contract. I am doing it because they love playing soccer and I LOVE watching them play soccer. If one day one of them plays somewhere beyond the club level then it will because they fell in love with the game and I will take a little credit for opening the door for them to do so.

All of this rambling of course only deals with the part of the elephant I am touching and does nothing to answer the question of how we open doors for more kids to fall in love with the game. For my part I run a youth league concession stand, coach a rec team each year and try and share a little of the joys of the game with as many kids as I can. To be perfectly honest I don't know what else I can do.

 

I do agree that the predominant youth club structure in this country is bad for developing good players. The ratio of practice to games is poor and the "liberal" substitution policy, combined with playing multiple games a day is not conducive to developing the mental attributes necessary. Add to this that, for most clubs, winning is more important than developing players and you have a system which promotes athletic ability over skill.

The US Development Academy system is taking steps to change this. Clubs in that system are required to have at least a 3:1 ratio of practices to games. If that trend continues, we WILL develop the creative players as there'll be enough traning time to not only develop those skills but to built them into the playing style of the team. I think that latter issue is what is impeding creative players today - the teams don't have the time to incorporate that creativity into their play; it's far less work to define the roles the players need to fit than to work with the talent you have and create a system that uses their strengths.

 

Yep. December is "Training Month" for us. No Matches, just Training, and usually twice a week for a total of 4 hours. Then starting in January, we'll do 4 hours of training a week to every match (or possibly two matches) on a Saturday (but they won't be every Saturday).

While covering basic fitness, dribbling, passing, and shooting, one consistent is teaching them how to use the inside AND outside of their feet, and moves that include scissors, step-over, stop turn, etc.
THEN, I implore then to BE CREATIVE during scrimmages and try not only what we are teaching them, but to use their imagination.

"Creativity", "Dance", "Rhythm", "Feeling the Flow of the Game" are all characteristics of soccer that I want them to grasp.

It is an overly broad statement to say that kids cannot learn how to be more creative players in club/academy ball, and also not true. One of the missing attributes of many a club/academy program and its administrators and coaches is that they don't have a very knowledgeable understanding of the world game. They don't have a professional club or clubs that they follow, and don't particularly care about the big competitions. Not only must a young player immerse himself or herself in the game to better understand it, but those who are teaching it need to even more so. No incredible insight here, but start with understanding the history of the game and that's a considerable foundation for understanding how to play the game.

 

Right on. My feelings exactly.

I don't know shit about soccer. I never played. I never watched a single game until my kids started playing. That's why (except for this thread), I am primarily a lurker round here. I'm a student of the game. But I know my boys love playing, and I love watching them play. And I feel good about the fact that their desire to play soccer comes from within THEM, and is not something I've projected upon them.

 

My son likes, but probably does not love the game, and I think his favorite part is having his Mom be the coach. Even though he is a very good player for his age (he was 5 years old this past Fall Season, played in U-8, and scored 7 goals in 8 matches), when the season is over, he does not particularly care to play even in the back yard, and we would never make him.

 

Good point - I read and article about this several years ago when the academy concept was being kicked around.

Agreed - the same as it is a narrow view to only play one sport all year, for only one club, and believe that because a club/school (At the Youth Level - 15 and younger) has a winning team that is what is best for your child.

I played basketball, kicked for the football team, was a diver, played tennis, golf, and even did some mens rec league softball - all while playing outdoor club, indoor, and HS soccer year round. I played D2 Soccer because that was the only scholarship option that my church affiliated universities offered. I never went on long travels or expensive tournaments as a teen because I worked - and also I had all the other stuff going on... Not to mention extra-curricular activities.

To point I am making is that I am not sure what we are trying to accomplish in this country as far as Soccer goes... I think it is to create great players - I guess I am in the camp that great players are born... Not made, and more often than not we (I include myself as a coach) seem to screw them up. Providing the kids with enough structure to develop, while also allowing them the freedom and athletic diversity to be well rounded and see and do things that may come from some experience not related to soccer. These all seem important to me - and not just for GKers... Which - BTW - is the only thing we are great at producing.

 

As another BTW - the other day I was watching a "Skill School" video on Sky and they were at Newcastle's youth academy. In the background I was surprised to see a half a dozen moveable basketball standards.

Also - there is an old Nike video about kids getting ready to play in a 3v3 tournament and this one player took the advice to join a mexican league and that is what he attributes to his skill on the ball - I thought it was interesting:

I guess I am just a big tease... I cant find it at work - I will try again when I get home.

 

Yeah, I can't really adopt that view.

Great athletes can be born, with good genetics, but great soccer players,.....I don't think so.