Keys to Youth Player Development

Youth Soccer Development:

Youth soccer development is dependent on the following criteira:

1. 1. Coach

1. 1. Player

1. 1. Parents

1. 1. Training

1. 1. Dedication

1. 1. Perseverance

1. 1. Planning and Executing

1. 1. Putting yourself at the right place at the right time

Let’s take a look at player development process and criteria. The first pillar of player development is Technical Development. What is technique? According to Johan Cruyff, Technique is not about juggling he ball 1000 times, Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate. 

The real technical development starts with understanding the ball, and body. How to coordinate the two and how to control and touch the ball with the appropriate parts of the body. We need to focus on dribbling. But what is dribbling? Dribbling is going around a player, closing the gate behind us so the defender does not appear in front of us again, change pace and change direction fast and at times, going fast to faster. Body feints, moves, scissors, etc are tools that can help us accomplish this but most often we spend too much time developing such skills that are rarely used on the pitch. What’s worse is that many of such moves are only used by specific positions only. Let’s look at it this way. If I am a Centerback. Is there a need for me to learn how to perform scissor moves? Should I not focus on some other moves, such as pull back V or L? Would it not benefit more to work on my body orientation and first touch forward? 

Time is of essence and efficiency is key. Wasting time on unnecessary concepts and parts of the game that are never or rarely used by a player are completely useless and worse, detrimental and destructive to the potentials of a player having any chances of developing and having a chance of making it as a professional or higher college level scholarship. 

So what is the right process? There are certain moves and technical abilities that are global and generally necessary. Is it really necessary for a player to spend hours and hours and spend energy and effort of jumping over the ball or doing pull back V and L or rollbacks over and over and over for hours and hours at home? Maybe if they have nothing else to do and they are 6 years old, sure! But at the age of 12 or 15? 

Perhaps if we focus on the basic “technical familiarities in terms of connection with the ball, and passing and running and controlling techniques. The focus on certain dribbling techniques that are particular or global to certain positions. We can then focus on developing the individual tactical or Speed of Play Development which is game related as opposed to doing a “beast mode” type of drills! 

The next phase of player development goes into positionally specific technical, individual tactical and then this leads to Situational Training. For this, the Match Analyst would help us the most. The Match Analyst can view the match and pick the top 5-10 things that a player must work on. We can then understand where those particular issues arise, when, what part of field, how, etc. We a then recreate that same scenario as a part of the training sessions so we can help the player recreate and work on patterns and develop the individual habits into an instinct. Then when a player is in the same situation, not only would they not make the same mistake, they would also have a go to process that is instinctive which would increase the speed of play process. 

Let’s stop here. How many coaches do you know who will focus on your son or daughter in such a detail fashion? How many coaches do you know who even have a development process? I remember years ago, I took my son to a private coach. He worked with my son for over 2 months and every session was around the movements of the 9, shooting, finishing, turning and shooting, etc. My son was playing an 8 or 10 position. He was 10 years old. These execution development methods, as good as they may be, they are wasting time and focusing on wrong things at the wrong time. When I asked the coach to work on things that are more important for his development, he told me that he used to be a striker himself and he focuses on how he scored his own goals. 

So who should be in charge of your son or daughter’s development? YOU, the parents and THEM, the player. That’s it. The rest of the world is not vested in any way in your son or daughter’s success. 

Now comes the dedication and focus. The Perseverance, the desire to want to work, or actually out work others, to find it day after day to get up and train, to work, even when you are tired, body aching, or have other things that come up, some important such as grades and some are not such as hanging out with friends. 

This is where Mental Mastery comes in. This allows players focus on the right thing and find their Why, Where and What’s in order to make the best decision for themselves. The player would then drive the parent to help to develop them. The player is the one that grabs the ball first, checks their backpack to ensure their boots, water, nutrition is ready to go. The player is the one that focuses on their own the habits or technical things they need to focus on. The player is the one that asks the parent to take them out to help them train. The player is the one that tells the parent, that they want their match analyzed. The player is the one that watches the match analysis multiple times, to prepare themselves for the next match. The player is the one who wants to constantly learn more about their technical abilities and the tactical understanding of the game. The player is the one who watches matches not for entertainment, not as a fan, but as a student of the game. 

If any of the above standards are not met, then you fall more on the DREAMING category vs. Wanting to Make Your Dream Come true. 

For Instance, I am not saying that it is bad to hang out with friends or take a training day off to go to a birthday party or go to an early dinner. It is bad to hang out with friends or any of the above, if you are an average player in an average team in non professional leagues and clubs, and your goal is to be a professional player and you are 14 years old!!! This means you must either change your goal or change your way and values.

We talked about it at Pivot, that being resourceful is the key to success. We also talk about the Interested vs. Committed. The Committed fires a way to do what is uncomfortable and what needs to be done. You can always adjust the timing of when you meet friends or go to a dinner party. If not, those other things are MORE important that your Dream. To make great things happen, one must be obsessed, committed and give able and beyond what others are willing to give in order to make their dreams come true.  

For every decision you make there is a price and a consequence.

As parents, it is your job to create the urgency and help develop the committed attitude. Think about it, would you take your son or daughter out of school if their grades are a solid C because they want to hang out with friends. Would you allow them to go a a Pizza place with their friends if they have a C grade and they have homework to do or if they have a test next week? Would you congratulate your son or daughter if they brought home a B average GPA if their dream is to go to Stanford and get a degree in Plastic Surgery and they are in 11th grade? If your answer is yes to the above, then I’d suggest you do some research on the average GPA accepted to colleges these days. Which are generally over 4.1. And would you want to have an AVERAGE chance of getting in or would you want to increase your chances to Above AVERAGE or higher? 

One of the greatest groups we worked with collectively, was a group of players whose parents were super committed. The energy collectively was far beyond the energy of each of these players or their parents individually. IF parents are committed and teach their kids the same values, then the kids will follow and will hopefully learn to push through with the same level of commitment and dedication and that is IF these values have been instilled and engrained in the player. This is the ONLY way papers in the US would have a chance. In 3rd world countries, the pain of poverty and desire and weight of youth players needing to make it in order to become a provider for their family is the major driving factor. This pain and driving factor does not exist for most parts in the US, therefore the pleasure of creating a dream life must be the driving factor. But the major problem is that the majority would end up just DREAMING and are afraid of PUSHING their kids. If the player is not pushed, they are then going to only move as fast as it is comfortable. Think about how records are broken. The athlete wants to do something extraordinary, more or above and beyond what others have done and once one record is broken then others up their standards. This comes from within as an adult but it is a trait that should be developed through parenting during childhood. 

Saying all that, it is important to understand who your child is, what your and their capactities and goals and values are. For instance, if one parent’s household values are mediocrity in everything but their focus is on always being happy, success, money, and financial gains are not important, then that becomes the focus and what we are discussing is completely irrelevant. That’s a totally different set of values and lifestyle. No right or wrong, simply different and everyone has the right to value what’s important to them. 

But if you are looking for a recipe for success, to help your child achieve their dreams, then it all starts from you, your values and helping them find their values, their why and what’s and create the pain and pleasure to help them push through and go after the GREATNESS they are dreaming to accomplish. 

If you are COMMITTED to taking charge of your player’s development and success, start with Mental Mastery coarse on Pivot. This is a course for parents and players. Next would be to enroll in the Speed of Play Mastery, Match Analysis and Positional Specific Tactical Understanding courses.

As always feel free to reach out to set up a 30 minute customized player development plan for your player below: