Youth soccer player trends

With soccer fields, indoor centers, and leagues popping up all around the United States it is hard to not see why the National teams shouldn’t be consistently winning.

The reality is very different. Burnout at young ages, Winning at all cost mentality, parent endorsed social status, too many governing bodies, and much more.

So why include individual learning plans?

For the love of the game

It does seem that American youth players have so many options as kids. There can be arguments made for and against that talented athletes may not be in soccer. Parents who played basketball, football, and Baseball as their primary sport no doubt point their children in those directions.

The lure of money in the main American sports pulling talented youth to those major league sports.

There are more kids now wanting to play soccer. With the attraction of non-stop action compared to the stop and start of baseball and football.

But are these kids developing in the correct way? Can they navigate the national pathways or to a competency that allows players to enjoy soccer past school or college?

Along with modern electronics, gaming, other sports, homework, and school requirements. Kids in America have many distractions that place soccer into a calendar item per week.

Read More: Developing better soccer players with ILPs
Read More: Navigating Player Roadmaps

Rest of the world

Culture is an important factor in the context of countries’ sport and traditions. Growing up in a country where the culture was to play as much sport as possible. Playing wasn’t limited to our youth, soccer is played long into adult life, making up social circles.

Soccer powerhouse nations have cultures where kids play a variety of non-coached free play soccer games. If it isn’t a 18v18 street game, then it would be made-up games using a ball.

America has a coach-driven model. It is apparent that kids need to have coaches to provide team coaching and individual coaching.

Parents are often heard asking what to do at home with their children. Kids tell their parents they don’t know what to practice and how when at home.

The truth is in other soccer cultures, no one tells the kids what to do or how to practice. Youth players connect in school breaks for impromptu games. Meet up after getting home from school to play games. Makeup games off the cuff with a ball and the number of neighbors or friends they have at that time.

Goals aren’t an important factor in those cultures. Clothing as goals, walls, or garage doors is just as good to use. Complaints at soccer clubs that there aren’t correct goals to play on can be heard regularly.

Read More: World best players born 2003

How much is enough?

So what would be required by young players to improve the game? A love for the game! creating a culture where kids want to have a ball at their feet all the time.

Having more free, creative, organic playing with a soccer ball. Limit the need for over coaching, skills coaches can be an important factor for honing positional requirements. But nothing can improve more than increasing time with the ball without structure and correcting.

Everyone learns differently. What works for one may not be the best for another. Skills coaches telling their students the way they wish the player to perform skills just creates robotic players.

Ask any soccer-loving adult what made them a good player. You will no doubt hear the same replies. “Just had a ball at my feet all the time”. In the era of no social media, kids would record games then copy moves and skills until competence.

Even now the ability to have on-demand videos of professional players makes it easier to copy moves and skills.

Increasing contact time on the ball

Culture, modern trends for youth, and life all are factors for the ultimate question. How much soccer is enough for a youth player to realistically have a chance of playing at the highest level?

Ten thousand hours is the goto number that scholars have expressed is the minimum needed to become the best.

Most players will practice twice a week in a team setting. Each practice lasting one and a half hours with a realistic contact time with the ball of under an hour. At best that gives players with no other contact time other than team practice of 96 hours a year.

A fraction of what is considered necessary to become a top player.

Some players will never be able to reach the echelons of high-performance soccer. This can be due to body types, information processing speeds, and coordination skills.

Players with ambitions of playing professionally should reconsider that goal. If twice a week is the only contact time with a ball, they fall far short of what is suggested.

We don’t spend two hours a week at school expecting to graduate. Nor would a Doctor only put in two hours a week to become a surgeon.

Read More: Is the Pay for Play model really that bad?

How to increase ball contact time

That leads us to the ultimate question, how can we increase ball contact time? what should that contact time look like? and how can parents help?

Most families have calendars already bursting at the seams. Both parents working, kids are involved in different after-school activities. Adding extra training can be challenging at best for these families.

Ball contact time needs to be as organic as possible. We are still in a generation where many parents didn’t play soccer themselves. Because of this many parents look for help.

Rather than encourage creativity by exploring with a ball in the park or yard, parents will seek out trainers or ask for suggestions on how to coach at home.

Players just need to have a ball at their feet. Develop a love of the game by playing with a ball. This starts at home, not by suggesting practice. But to just go outside and make up games.

Any games with a ball will improve technical ability. Repetition creates situational maps and more comfort on the ball.

Individual Learning plans

Team training is, well, just that. A group of players with a coach that has a team common theme for each practice.

Most team training is scheduled twice a week and will either consist of a team topic or be a one fit all skills session. Not that coaches are wrong in doing that. Coaches have two sessions a week to work with the team. But all players have different needs.

So why include individual learning plans? All players learn differently. Need differing skill sets. Defenders are not needing the same qualities as a striker, and vice versa.

So how do we effectively support and develop each player in an individual setting?

Create individualized training plans that have both inputs from the coach and the player. Can be evaluated, adjusted, and form the base of a long-term training plan.

What should an ILP look like?

Keep it simple! Too much information and the player feels overwhelmed. Too broad information and the player wouldn’t have direction in how to improve.

All too often coaches can lead players in the wrong direction. Suggesting players should work on their weaknesses is certainly true. But wouldn’t continual training on their strengths be just as important? make your best even better, make it world-class, best in your team, or best in the league.

Coaches can be accused of making cookie-cutter players by not allowing freedom to improve their strengths further. That doesn’t mean we are neglecting weaknesses but reminding players not to neglect their strengths but to build upon them.

Coaches and players that include Individual learning plans should keep it simple and be easily monitored.

Here are some pointers in creating an ILP:

• Players create short, medium and long term goals
• Ask the players how will they hit those goals
• Create a diary of trainings
• Record key metrics and milestones
• Evaluate progress regularly
• Adjust the timline of goals or even the goals themselves
• Monitor ball contact time
• Suggest as a coach other means to get more organic play
• Players to review game moments both for themselves and team moments
• Evaluate those moments and create ways to improve the good parts and suggest areas for development. Create short term plans on improving those development moments.
• Identify roles and resposabilities according to current positional and system play. Devise a plan to improve.
• Watch more soccer on TV and/or live. be crictical on the position you play with the games you are watching.

What can clubs do to improve contact time and support ILPs?

• Create a time when players can come and have “free-play” without fear of being told not to do something or being told they performed something wrong. Allow self discovery. This will aid decsision making, and creativity.
• Identify tools that encourage more touches with a ball.
• Implement small group trainings, such as position specific session for a small number of players.
• Create resources that are easily and readily available for player to access or attend.
• Rather than evaluate, have continual reviews of ILP componants.
• Provide game video tools. Allow players the opportunity to review their performances.
• Understand that each player learns differently. Allow for this and support
• Include parents in the process
• Develop coaches! provide continual education. Make them the best they can be.
• Believe in every player, and every ability. Coach them to get better and love the game.
• Recognize players that have surpassed benchmarks, had superior moments in games or for better training standards.

Conclude

It’s easy as coaches to plan for our two practices week and the weekend’s games. It’s a lot less if the team is currently winning the majority or all of their games.

Can clubs and coaches challenge their players to play with a ball more outside of regular practice?

Families are stretched thin. Especially if they have more than one child. Clubs need more responsibility to provide additional resources for players to access and utilize.

There’s been a good question lately, are the best athletes playing soccer? possibly not. Money in USA professional soccer isn’t the same as other Major League sports.

Can clubs, and soccer organizations come together to provide meaningful competitions for all abilities?

To conclude. It will take a concerted amount of effort, time, and resources for any type of ILP or increased ball contact time to pay dividends.

Will organizations want or have that time to put into this? Would the cost of investment be a hindrance?

Those that do will reap the benefits and possibly become a club that would attract more players.

Have a player-centered approach and place every player at the center of the coaching environment.