University of San Francisco coach Erik Visser has been involved in just about every facet of the game both here and abroad. A native of Holland and a player in the vaunted Ajax youth developmental system, Visser has played and coached college soccer and coached with youth national teams and in club soccer. He’s currently part of the scouting setup for the USSF Developmental Academy.

Visser recently spoke with TopDrawerSoccer.com about the broad topic of youth player development.

What are our biggest challenges:

Head coach of USF, Erik Visser. Photo courtesy USF Athletics.

“When I read a lot of articles, I read a lot of clichés. People say the right things but whether the right things happen is another question. Everybody knows we have some unique situations in this country and some unique obstacles. It’s difficult to get everyone on the same page. We now have the US Soccer Development Academy trying to steer things in the right direction. That’s the first necessary step, to bring continuity and to take us in a new direction and the right direction. There is obviously at the youngest ages a major overemphasis, based on parental involvement and paying club coaches, an overemphasis on winning. We all agree this is a big problem.”

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