If you REALLY want to
help your developing and growing soccer
players’ long term development, then this article is for
you. If you’re simply trying to win the next game, then
maybe it’s not. In this article I will
address
an issue I have seen and dealt with for years and at ALL
levels of soccer; the failure to return to the core skills
and relearning what we have forgotten.
It’s not just a “rare occurrence”, it happens
everywhere…
All around the U.S.
players are getting worse with age? I know, I know… it
sounds strange, many will disagree about “their player(s)”,
but it’s true and I see it almost everywhere I go. As time
goes on it seems we lose focus on player CORE skill
development and start worrying about that “next game”. We
are concerned about team rankings, championships,
tournaments, and results rather than focusing on the most
important thing we can do. Continually developing skilled
players. I will warn you… it is often hard for the coach
and parent to see this through their “own eyes”.
We spent years
developing the
SoccerU series. Literally hundreds of hours in the field
capturing the essence of soccer skill training, breaking it
down, and then putting it in a form that ALL could use to
improve their players. We worked with ALL levels of
players from young 7 year olds, to college players, and even
professional players from around the world. The funny part
is many people think it is just for “young youth players”.
Nothing could be further from the truth. We have coaches
from all over the country writing us to thank us. Many of
these coaches work with older players including high school
players and even a few college coaches that now use the
series to develop incoming players or returning players from
summer breaks. If there was one message I could get out to
ALL coaches, it would be… return to basics for at
least a portion of EVERY practice.
He’s calling again…
I’ll start by giving you an example of a great player that
has learned this lesson and understands its
importance. Matt, as I’ll call him in this article, is a
great player. Probably one of the “smoothest” players I’ve
ever worked with. When you watch him play or see him with a
ball at his feet, you can’t help but be impressed.
He played top level competitive soccer as a youth, played
ODP, RPL, and the usual top level teams for his age. He was
a star player in high school, played college soccer, and
recently made the reserve team for a processional team.
Once in a while he’ll give me a call and ask me to work with
him. However, most people are kind of shocked when they see
us training. They expect to see some “magical professional”
sessions, however we return to basics. We are doing the
exact same touches, and core skills we work with in the
SoccerU series. Yes, the VERY SAME skills we are
teaching to younger players. You’ll understand WHY, in a
little bit.
Here come the college girls…
I worked with a girl one summer just after she finished high
school and was heading off to play at college on a
scholarship. I called her “little bit” because she seemed
so thin and small in my eyes. A great kid, quiet, and
really fast feet. It’s kind of funny because before I knew
who she was I saw her play in high school during a
tournament. Out of all the players I watched that weekend,
she really stuck out in my mind. She could REALLY
play.
I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years, and then one day I got
a phone call from her dad. He was wondering if I’d be
willing to work with her and a few of her teammates during
the summer. What he didn’t know is that for the first time
in many years, I was kind of taking the summer off. But, he
was persistent. So I agreed
Most of the girls were seniors in college now and had years
and years of playing and training under their belts. We met
each morning early before the heat kicked in too heavy. We
trained for 3 hours each day. Here’s the “shocker” for
you, not me. Most of these girls had trouble performing
core and basic skills. Wait a minute… didn’t I just done
saying these were great players, playing in college on
scholarships, and could REALLY play? Yep… you heard
correctly. It might surprise YOU, but it is VERY common and
I see it all the time, good or even great OLDER players that
lack many core skills and touch.
When we were done with the training sessions I talked to
them in great length about what I did with them. They all
agreed and understood the point I’m making here.
As we get older as players, less
and less time is devoted to core skills, touch control, and
literally dozens and dozens of needed skills on the field.
The focus is shifted to winning games. These core skills,
will often never be revisited again and become distant to
our instinctive playing nature.
They all said the same thing, “I wish our coaches would
do this for an hour of each practice rather than running us
to death or just scrimmaging all the time.” Their words,
not mine.
The coach is there to win, not develop your
child…
A funny thing happens
when “kids” start to turn into young adults. Some of life’s
cruel lessons start to hit them. (As well as their
parents.) This usually happens about the time school
team sports come along. Let’s say about the 8th
grade or 13 / 14 years old. All of a sudden there are
tryouts, and guess what? If you don’t make the team, you go
home, you can’t play. The coach looks at the players that
come out for tryouts and has to pick his 20. All the others
get to go home. (What a monster.)
During the season there is no, “everyone gets to play” rule
either. If you make the “starting team” you play. If not,
you sit. This is starting to sound just HORRIBLE isn’t it?
It sounds horrible because it goes against everything that
we have learned and stated about “youth soccer” in the
growing years. We play ALL players, we shouldn’t care about
winning, and we should focus on player development. Well
guess what? You just had your first job interview and you
didn’t get the job. Sometimes life stinks.
It’s kind of harsh to say, but it is a reality when it comes
to “older” and school sports. The coach, at this level, has
one main job, and that job is to win.
Honestly, most teams at this level have very little time to
prepare for the season and for practice during the season.
The focus will be put on a few specific areas.
Conditioning, positioning, scrimmaging, and learning the
Coach’s game and how he (she) wants it played.
There will be little to no focus on individual development.
The coach is handed a “team” and he must use the skills they
have / bring to the field, not try and teach new ones. There
simply isn’t time.
Do the test…
I go over this issue with many coaches, parents, and
players. Some sort of look at me strange, but also many get
it. For those that don’t get it, I put their players to the
test. It doesn’t take long for them to see the realty. It’s
easy to do and never fails.
Test #1- Dribbling:
Stop laughing… this is a real “advanced” test.
The beginning of my advanced player skill training
starts the same way for all. Every player gets a ball and
they line up on the sideline one after another. The rule is
simple. They jog slowly with high legs around the field.
They must touch the ball with their right foot EVERY step
they take. Not touch the ball or push it forward then take
several steps, but EVERY time their right foot comes
down it must gently touch the back of the ball, moving it
forward just slightly. They do this for 7 steps, then
without stopping of missing a step, they move it over to
their left foot. Same thing. EVERY step they take with their
left foot must be a touch to the ball. They do this
dribbling touch around half the full field. Then come back
and perform 3 – 4 minutes of stretches. Then again, we
dribble around half the field. Come back and stretch.
I call this drill my
Messi drill. If you watch Lionel Messi dribble under
pressure you will see this often. The ability to touch the
ball with EVERY step he takes. He is always in control and
the ball barely moves with each touch.
What will you see with
your players? You will see HIGHLY seasoned soccer
players unable to perform this drill with perfection. In
fact some do it miserably. Many can’t touch the ball every
step, many lose control of the ball, and most have a LOT of
trouble doing this with their weak foot.
Dribbling and passing are 95% of the game, yet you will
NEVER, and I mean NEVER see an upper level team practicing
basic dribbling and control while dribbling like we just
talked about.
100’s and 100’s of
skills and touches…
Now, we just got done
talking about ONE specific skill. One of the first
and most basic skills we learn in soccer when we are just
“babies”. How many skills and touches can you think of?
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of them. So, now
that we are getting a bit older and focusing on
conditioning, positioning, “the game itself” and many other
aspects of soccer, how much time is devoted to these? Quite
often, none.
How can we prevent
this?
In my opinion, and
through our testing and observations, there are only two
ways to prevent this.
1.
The coach must see this,
embrace this, and use it in practice.
In the
SoccerU series we spend one of the first chapters
covering the 1000 touch theory. We try to stress to coaches
that the first 20 – 30 minutes of each practice is often
wasted or not used properly. Often (soccer) teams at
practice look like “track” teams jogging and running. We
show coaches how to immediately(at 6:01 if the practice
starts at 6:00) get their players touching a ball, be
active, get warm, and revisit core skills. Not a
minute is wasted, there are NO LINES, every player
is moving / touching a ball. After 25 minutes or so, the
players have had close to 1000 touches; they are exhausted,
and now warmed up and ready for their “soccer lesson”. Not
to mention that they just revisited over 50 core skills.
2.
The parent can provide
“private” training.
Whether the parent does it, or even hires a young coach to
do this, it often works out very well. This is something I
did with even my own son. If your player has “practice” on
Tuesday and Thursday, then on Monday and Wednesday they can
have a skill and touch session. 2 hours of nothing but
revisiting or learning skills that are desperately needed.
(We left Friday as our down day and rest day.)
Often we would have 4 parents get together and pitch in $15
per session. We would give a younger coach (usually going
to college) the SoccerU series and have them focus on the
core skills. The players would do nothing but work on core
skills. Dribbling, moves, touches, settling balls, etc. The
coach would make some good money, the kids got tons of skill
work, and it worked out fantastic.
My point is pretty
simple, and I really hope you “get it” by
now. Usually around the age of 14 or 15 a player STOPS
adding new skills to their bag of tools, and often
skills that haven’t been revisited fade away. They simply
take the skills they have and try and play the game to the
best of their ability. However, for most players this in
NOT enough to keep progressing in those higher levels or be
one of the very best. Mature players, yes even the great
ones, need to continually work on core skills and relearning
skills or touches that have been forgotten or are not
“natural and instinctive”. If they aren’t, you’ll never see
them in a game.
