Soccer should be about goals, skills and above all, FUN. How can we help youngsters develop positive attitudes to this great sport? How can we help them gain personal skills, game awareness and a PASSION to learn and play. For young players in their pre-teen years, there is a general consensus to nurturing these “soccer seeds.” They are:
(1) BALL CONTACT
The more a child touches a ball the better that youngster will become. “Touch time” is critical. Many experts suggest touching a ball at least 1,000 times a day. Yes, 1,000 times! Without this harmony between body and ball they will never develop into an “educated player.”
Thing in terms of learning a language, you need to learn the alphabet first, then words, then sentences and so on……..Without learning the alphabet and basics you get your just rewards – an unintelligent child! Learning a sport, to a great extent, is no different.
In soccer terms, the key is for youngsters to become clever with any type of small ball, beit a tennis ball to a soccer ball. This cleverness breeds a special confidence that is difficult to acquire in later teen years. The relationship has to become a love affair between player and ball. You know when this act is consummated – the ball follows the youngster wherever they go! The friendship is that close.
Touching that ball through dibbling, ball juggling, running with it to shooting are foundation techniques to becoming “soccer literate.”
(2) MOVEMENT SKILLS
“If you can’t control your body, you can’t control the ball. If you can’t control the ball, you can’t control the game.” Therefore the ability to dodge, twist, turn, jump run and hop are just some of the movement skills needed to be in concert with that devious ball.
Children wrote the book on dodging games as they know how important they are to getting “savvy” with different moves, e.g. stop-starts, fake one-way, fly in another direction, etc.
(3) FAILURE FREE ENVIRONMENTS
Allowing children a chance to experiment and try out ideas over and over again is a vital learning block. Parent/coaches need to know when to instruct and when to leave alone. Youngsters need places to dream with the ball. They can only dream the “greatest goal” if adults are somewhere else. Michael Jordan, Romario and such company found this haven on the playground or street. Here is where sports alchemy ferments into action. Some call it the “witch’s kitchen” due to the potency between player’s imagination and the freedom to experiment. This is the real cutting edge of sports skill. It’s where fantasy and reality are fused.
Think of how many times a Jordan
(4) B.Y.O.R. (Beat Your Own Record) GAMES
Self motivated solo games such as ball juggling, dribbling slaloms, act. Are a great way to hone techniques. Plus it develops the habit of perseverance, of never giving up until you’ve beaten your record.
B.Y.O.R. games also breed a serenity to focus and promote a self coaching attitude. This can only be acquired by the player in their own time. A coach must encourage this habit, but only a player can do it. Often it is the difference between a recreational player and a real one.
(5) THE GAME TO FIT CHILDREN
Fitting the game to fit youngster’s physical and maturational boundaries. This means smaller pitches, fewer players, smaller ball fewer laws and sometimes smaller/fewer parents!
How do you measure the general quality of your program? May I suggest you look at the oldest age group to assess the effectiveness of what they have learned? If, for example, the average passing move has fewer than 3 successful passes to it, you need to look and learn again. If, on the other hand, each possession contains, on average, 3 or more consecutive passes then you are on the right road.
If priorities are winning first and development a distant second, the results are often short term success and enduring failure…..in both games won and creating skillful players and teams. Conversely, if skill and fun are the foundation stones, then such programs will feed long term success. Better players, better teams and stronger soccer root are the reward for caring and nurturing the sport.
Finally, be aware of the two major cancers of pre-teen soccer ----- too much structure and the “worship of winning.” Too organized means youngsters lose. They are straight-jacketed into positions and become human muppets. They react after a couple of years by “dropping out.” The same applies to the glorification of winning. At this age a coach can have a winning record without knowing how he/she won half their games. It is a lottery where power will win the day. The end product is “drop out.”
Winning should be re-defined in youth soccer by winning youngsters to stay in the sport. That’s real winning!
Courtesy to Graham Ramsay www.ramsaysoccer.com.
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