‘Coach told us today that all we’re going to play against XXXXXX is defense’.
Why would you ever tell your players that? It just means you’re trying to lose by less, which gains you… what? I’ve never understood soccer coaches who drop 5-6-7 kids back on defense or directly shadow strikers to try to stem the bleeding. That just gets the attackers closer to your goal. You want to beat a team you believe to be more skilled than you? Put a few of your fastest players and strongest ball handlers in back to beat back the assaults/possess the ball up field and encourage your team to take risks, make runs, build attacks from the back, do the unexpected.
Better you lose 0-10 learning how to attack with flair and intensity against a strong team than relentlessly kick the ball out-of-bounds or upfield (in both cases back to the other team) so they can attack you over and over. It’s like hiding in a castle and routinely collecting all the projectiles, arrows, etc. that missed and bringing them back to your attackers to use again. Drives me crazy as a coach to see my players and my own kids struggle with what they’ve been taught in club against this insane school soccer mindset. You see it over and over. And yet you wonder why more kids are considering playing sports outside of school year round…
So much is written about how NCAA soccer cripples us as a soccer nation because it’s not conducive to the development of elite players. Please. It’s the 4-6 years of playing for teachers who don’t know the game, because the school won’t allow non-teachers to coach or even *help*. Yet the football teams have 15+ assistant coaches. Yes, there are fantastic school coaches out there and horrible club coaches. But on average school soccer is stifling our kid’s creativity and development on the soccer field during some of their most formative years.
(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)
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April 24th, 2012 at 10:22 am
Thankkfully, my girls haven’t had to experience of school soccer…yet. Unfortunately, the schools in my area seem to play a more defensive game than a possesion/attcking game.
With my U10G, we play a 1-1-3-1 which promotes a more even attack and allows us to possess the ball more. They travel as a unit up and down the field with my keeper acting more like a sweeper than a keeper.
Not only are we promoting the girls to attack the goal 1v1, but we are placing numbers in the attacking third for support and attack….which can be overwhelming at this age and level.
Plus, this formation allows for some defensive breakdowns for my team and goals by the other team when we get lazy and lose focus. I live for those teaching moments.
May 4th, 2012 at 2:00 am
With the Developmental Academy set to ban its players from playing high school, and the ECNL probably going to get there as well in the future, you don’t have to worry about the “top” players being corrupted by school soccer.
At the U12 and below level, we have to remember soccer is an individual activity set in a team environment. The focus of the coach should be on developing individual technical skills supplemented by fundamental physical conditioning and basic tactical awareness – with the hope of building a love of the game that the youth player will practice on their own. The match is merely a vehicle to practice under different kinds of pressure what is worked on in training.
Like a child and reading — the first teachers give the skills, but the child really has to read on their own to progress to an “elite” level. When they get to more advanced instruction where reading is complementary to the education, those with the greater foundation will be better equip to handle the demands of different disciplines.
Similarly, at U14 and above, the focus flips — a team activity played by individuals (tactics). Hence, I agree with your points at the U12 and below level. However, at the team level, it doesn’t make sense to compete with a superior opponent’s strength. That doesn’t mean “pack the box” merely to prevent goals, but as the recent Barcelona vs. Chelsea matches showed, playing a “defensive” quick counters strategy against a superior possession-oriented opponent may not be such a bad plan.
As for school soccer, let’s remember that the nominal “good sportsmanship” rhetoric aside, I don’t know of any school programs that state “development” as the primary focus and don’t at some point have wins as the main metric for evaluating success. Perhaps more school boards need to have the fortitude to stand up to teacher unions in contracts about coaching positions at public schools. But clubs need to take a hard look internally as well.
How many clubs take the attitude of “just hope our players don’t get injured or learn bad habits” while playing school soccer? Let’s face it — most youth players aren’t going to end up playing college or higher level soccer and the ones on that higher level track for the most part end up in premier clubs (especially in the south/west where school soccer is not played in the fall) that discourage or make it difficult to do both. The long-term goal is to instill a love of the game so kids will play as adults and stay involved as refs/coaches/administrators. But the short-term goal, at least in the clubs I’ve been with, is to help kids make their school teams.
Yes, I agree the “soccer” in general is not as good from the “beautiful game” perspective. NHFS officiating to me (2 man system) allows for a more physical style. However, my child has played for a state championship in both school and club (state cup and then regionals) — and the school state championship experience won hands-down.
Finally, while I agree some school coaches tend to resist being associated with clubs, there can be the backlash if a school team has kids from multiple clubs that the coach working with one club gives the perception that joining that club somehow gives an advantage to make the school team.
Clubs from an early stage should teach offensive (and how often do clubs stifle goal scoring and ignore finishing at young ages) minded soccer and encourage creativity. When we resist introducing team tactics way too early and don’t lose sight of development over team results, then by the time they get to high school, bad coaching won’t have as much detrimental impact.
June 5th, 2012 at 11:52 pm
Good observation about high school soccer. I was a three year varsity starter that received all district honors in high school. When I returned to my hometown after college, I learned that my former high school hadn’t had a winning record in soccer since I graduated. I joined the coaching staff as a volunteer assistant in hopes of returning my school to its winning ways, but was asked to leave mid-season because I wasn’t a member of the school faculty. The head coach is a Health teacher that never played soccer, not even in his youth. Now I coach U15 teams so they have some experience before moving on to high school, but I worry about their skills reaching a plateau too early because they don’t receive proper instruction in high school.