Before the tournament FoxSoccer posted this Article on their website. I'd advise reading this article first before continuing on into this.
So my teams just participated in the Schwaben Cup and once again I was left disappointed and frustrated with soccer in America. The problem is our soccer culture in this country. There are way too many uneducated parents that do not understand player development. This leads parents being misguided and the people that suffer are the players. There is no accountability for coaches and they are able to lead parents into thinking that what they are doing is right because they are winning games.
I want to highlight a few games from this tourney to help show why in the Article that the US has developed more professional hockey players than it has soccer players.
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| There’s also this damning fact: despite America having tens of millions of kids playing the game at every level, the returns are very slim indeed. Far more top-level athletes are produced in hockey than in soccer in this country, despite hockey having a vastly smaller pool. According to the most recently available numbers, registered youth soccer players outnumber registered youth hockey players by six to one in the USA. This doesn’t count the millions of unaffiliated soccer players. |
Game 1: The other coach makes the comment that she is glad we are playing the ball out the ball because then they can get an easy goal. Meanwhile this team continuously punts the ball down the field when their goalie gets the ball. What does this tell me? She is focused on winning the game and not the bigger picture (Now when I go to a tournament I would like to win it but I won't be distracted by the bigger picture). They were a faster and stronger team that took advantage of our mistakes. Our number one mistake was that we used the goalie too much. The girls made it the first option when the first option should be to play it forward, it didn't help girls weren't moving into open space. I told them that I'd like to see them use the goalie just twice in the game but it turned out to be a lot more. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to discourage it. The main goal is to build comfort in using the goalie and then go from there. These girls we played were good and could become really good, but without proper training and a style of play these girls will fade and not become anything special.
Game 2: During the game my player plays a back pass to the goalie and I hear the other coach say, with an English accent: "What is that crap!" This is also the coach who praised his goalie for a great kick down the field that resulted in two goals. These kind of goals make me absolutely sick! Then when I hear coaches and parents cheering because of it, I get really pissed off! You try doing that in Spain or Germany and you'll be booed. And we cheer, it shows our ignorance. It takes a lot of effort for me not to go off on these people (I did make a comment so the other coach could hear me, but for me it was pretty tame). They cheer because they think the players were successful, but it was actually a fail. It was a failure for player development because the players lose out on the values of playing the ball out the back.
Game 3: This coach wouldn't shut up. Problem is that parents think this is coaching and he is doing a great job because he is telling the players what to do. They don't realize that "Master Coaches" are the complete opposite. A study was done based on John Wooden. The researchers were surprised to find that John spoke very little during a training session. They timed him, and on average he spoke for 4 seconds in length at a time.
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| John Wooden is a Master Coach |
Game 4: This game points to a common problem I see when coaches are winning. They decide then, when winning, to work on possession or anything else. That irritates me because why not do it from the beginning? If they believe it is of value and want it to be part of their style of play, why not do it from the beginning? They want to win the game and they are afraid to have their teams do it because the players could make a mistake and cost a goal(s). Which will happen because it is risky but for the long run it is very valuable to have the confidence. But player development is an after thought and that is sad.
For example, last season the other team was beating us during an indoor game. So the coach decides now is the time to work on a back pass to the goalie. The player failed multiple times and the coach gets very upset and yanks the player out of the game. It was obvious that they never worked on this because if they did she wouldn't have messed it up so badly. But instead of admitting he was making a mistake, he takes it out on the kid. Then you compare it to my girls team and they did it even when we were losing and having some success with it. So who do you think values player development the most?
Now I don't want to be completely negative. I saw quite a few positives for the boys teams we played. The team that I want to highlight is the Schwaben team my U13Bs played. They were about an even team to us and I really liked how they tried to keep possession and try and play through the lines. I could tell this was a coach that valued playing the game right and player development.
We need more coaches like this and a more educated culture on player development if we want this country to be truly successful in developing quality players.
Sincerely,
Derek McMullen
@CoachDerekMc
