Get the Edge in Developing Your Future Soccer Star

To develop a youth soccer player, you either have to rely on luck/talent or actually develop the player.

Developing an athlete is exactly the same as developing a chess player.

To become a chess master, you need to practice and dedicate yourself to the game. Some say that starting young can be an advantage, and others recommend dividing your study time between the opening, middlegame, and endgame. Here are some other tips that might help:

* Learn the basics: Familiarize yourself with basic opening principles and learn as many tactical patterns as possible.

* Analyze your games: Get good at analyzing your games.

* Find a coach: Consider getting a good coach.

* Study chess materials: Read chess materials and build a knowledge base of grandmaster games.

So let’s look at soccer. What’s the current process:

If a young player comes from a family with soccer pedigree, meaning they were born and the family was watching soccer, and parents understand the game at a decent level, this player would have an advantage over those with no soccer background. Why? Because the players with soccer pedigree get to watch matches at home with parents or siblings, there are soccer discussions, and when you watch a match, you will pick things up and start to emulate. Sometimes this happens consciously through practicing and sometimes it happens sub-consciously or subliminally.

But, this is not enough. Soccer development is a marathon. So there is more to soccer development.

So what do parents do? If they are in the know, they will sign their son or daughter in a competitive club, and hopefully the player competes in the first teams. As the level goes down, so does the desire, focus, and abilities of the coaches. Then the parents hire a private trainer to focus on dribbling, shooting and finishing and/or speed and agility without the ball.

At the youth level, the focus should be on technique and dribbling, and if possible and the player is ready, then situational training so the player learns to create certain situations for themselves in their matches.

Then the parents would sign their player up for “camps”! The biggest waste of money and time. Camps are all about “babysitting” and players do not learn anything! That’s a fact.

What is the learning process? You would have to show and then have players understand and repeat over and over again what they need to learn. Each topic or habit that is focused on should be repeated over and over again, based on a methodology to build on top of one another. Most techniques and habits get formed within 30-90 days. So how can any form of habit form in 2-7 days?

Now, if your goal is to place your son or daughter somewhere for the summer so they can run around and be active, then that’s perfect. But to have expectations of “player development”, well, that’s an exercise in futility!

There are 5 Development Stages in Soccer:

Stage 1 – Controlling body and ball

This is when players start playing, and you see if they have the coordination and relationship with the ball. This is the recreational phase mixed in with private lessons to allow players to learn the proper techniques and continue building their habits and technique on the right foundation.

Stage 2 – Learning to protect the ball and to get free with the ball

During this phase, the game understanding is important as well as an introduction to competitive soccer and player development. Private lessons based on Speed of Play and Technical training and an intro to situational training are critical to set players up for success. During this phase, Mental Mastery and Leadership must be introduced to help players understand how to train, how to grow through adversity, and learn to be fearless.

Players must at this point start to watch their own matches and have them analyzed by a top-level analyst who does this for a living.

Players must be introduced to tactical aspects of the game, and they must understand the tactical details of each position.

Stage 3 – Learning to outplay opponents and dive into the spaces

During this phase, Mental Mastery and Leadership must be focused on more. Players are focused on Speed of Play Mastery and learn when and where to perform their actions and learn the Individual Tactical Habits and Principles of the game to help them understand what to look for and what their basic objectives are on the pitch.

At this level, players must focus on 1 or 2 positions to master. These positions must be based on their Individual Profiles now and how they grow in the future rather than what the coach or team needs. Players must Master the Positional Specific Tactical Game Understanding, they have every match analyzed, and are learning and training deliberately.

Stage 4 – Learning to find the goal by shooting, heading, volleying

In this phase, the player focuses on specific techniques for the specific positions they play. They have mastered their mind and now are working on becoming a solid mental powerhouse. They are focused on Speed of Play and have mastered all 82 habits by now.

They have every match and every training analyzed by an analyst. They live and train on purpose. All work is deliberate, and they have a specific direction and goal that they are working toward.

Players have mastered their Positional Tactical Understanding by now and have mastered Game Tactical Understanding. A player can perform and adjust to any formation and would be able to understand how to play their position both offensively, defensively, or in transition in any type of formation.

During this phase, the player goes to international trials and tournaments to gain European experience and evaluate where they stand in comparison to their counterparts.

Stage 5 – Initiative

At this phase, they have incorporated all of the above together. The player and parents are on the same page, and now they are focused on setting the player up for success, be it a collegiate scholarship or a first-team professional contract.

During this phase, the agents and scouts must be calling you and going out to trials and receiving invitations to visit clubs and colleges.

This is the ultimate recipe for player development, and without it, players and parents would just follow the same old routine of signing up for a club hoping their son or daughter gets on the first team, and have to deal with coaches and clubs that have no vested interest in helping your player reach any decent level. Should your son or daughter leave to a professional club, your club would mean that they lose a great player. That’s bad for them so, therefore, they would want to keep you. And if you don’t develop, it’s okay because they still get their check from you.

To give a chance to your son or daughter to have the opportunity to reach their highest level possible, you must do things differently than what is being done. We know because we have placed collectively over 100 players in Pro Academies, D1 College scholarships, and Pro team contracts over the past 3 years, working with only a small number of players. We know what works and what does not work. The point is not to play the numbers game. Our goal was always to help every player and parent that has the desire to excel and wants to become the best they can. This is the secret sauce that top academies in Europe have kept secret to themselves, and never until now had anyone shared this info with the general public.

Let us know if you need help with setting your son or daughter up for success by scheduling a 30-minute call so we can help you create a roadmap for their success using our soccer development success blueprint.