We have the best uniforms, $250 shoes, special turf fields, 1000’s of tournaments and soccer camps, coaching manuals, professional coaches for youth players, and tons of soccer gimmicks.

When you go to a skate park do you see a UEFA or USSF A License skate board coach coaching the kids. NO WAY, because the kids would hang them from tree. Then who is showing the kids the moves and the creativity. Yes, the kids themselves.

The Troubled World of England's Youth Academies

By Paul Gardner

Those of you who are bewildered by the proliferation of soccer academies might want to take a look at a book published recently in England -- "Every Boy's Dream" by Chris Green (A&C Black, London). There is a great deal of intriguing material in its pages as Green wends his journalistic way through the successes and failures, the joys and despairs of the youth development system in England.

System, you will feel after reading the book, is quite the wrong word. This is now surely a full-blown industry. And it has spread its wings far beyond mere soccer. Development of young players must now pay serious attention to education, and even to lifestyle.

Most people see this as a step in the right direction. Until fairly recently, soccer in England -- and elsewhere -- showed little interest in the non-soccer education of their young players. If the players failed to make it, they were cast out to fend for themselves, with no qualifications whatever to prepare them for the job market.

The man largely responsible for the change of attitude in England is Howard Wilkinson, a former pro player and first division coach, who also carries a B.Ed qualification as a teacher. In 1997 he took over as the head of the Technical Department at the English Football Association in 1997, and quickly issued a remarkable document called "A Charter For Quality." Remarkable for the breadth of its vision, but also remarkable for the massive confidence with which it called upon England's pro clubs to set up top-class training facilities for youngsters, and to ensure that the boys also received serious academic training.

This was the birth of the academy system in England. By now, all Premier League clubs have well-financed academies (each spends on average $3 million a year running them) while most of the other pro clubs (there are 72 of them in three divisions below the EPL) have Centers of Excellence.

Wilkinson's charter was a direct response to a widespread feeling in England that the country was nowhere near pulling its weight when it came to producing world-class players. Youth development in England was seen as a haphazard affair, lagging behind the solidly and professionally organized programs in other European countries.

Wilkinson took up the call for reform -- and he did so by giving the pro clubs what they had long demanded: that they be given an almost total monopoly in the youth development area. Until the charter, pro clubs had not been permitted to train players below the age of 14. Because of this, schools soccer (run by the English Schools Football Association) had been the arena in which most young players started their development. Wilkinson drastically changed that, saying that clubs would now be allowed to take in players as young as 9. But this was not just permission -- this was a demand from the FA that all clubs that ran an academy must operate at every age level between 9 and 21.

The requirement meant a great reduction in the importance of schools soccer, of course; it was already under attack by new educational theories that disapproved of competitive sports, anyway. Green's book tells the tale of the growth of the academy system -- which faced, right from the start, an insoluble problem that everyone knew about -- a problem that everyone involved in youth soccer in this country, and anywhere else, is familiar with.

Namely: that failure is by far the most common result of training young boys to be soccer players. Green says that of the boys who sign contracts at age 18, only 1 in 6 remains in the pro sport longer than three years. It is the staggeringly high rate of failure among the estimated 10,000 boys who attend the academies and the centers of excellence that causes so many headaches. Not that England is an exception -- there is no reason to doubt that figures are similar everywhere.

So many rejects, of course, accounts for the sport's newfound interest in education, in the importance of providing the young hopefuls with "something to fall back on." This is an age when the callous attitude of yesteryear is no longer acceptable.

The academies now work on elaborate "exit strategies" -- designed to let the kids down lightly when they have to be told they're no longer considered good enough. Yearly "exit trials" are staged for rejected boys, in the hope that other clubs will pick them up (or that U.S. colleges will come forward with a scholarship).

Whether soccer academies are really qualified to oversee, or even provide, academic education is another matter. But they already do it to the extent that parents seem to be choosing an academy for their son on the basis of education, as much as on soccer prospects.

With so much failure built into the system, how on earth does one judge whether it's working or not? No one in Green's book -- and he has spoken with a great many people involved in youth soccer, including players and parents -- can answer the question. Of course, where there are spectacular failures, then the kids or the parents have horror stories to tell. But each of these 10,000 boys is surely entitled to believe that he has been selected -- maybe as young as age 9 -- to be one of the elite players in the English game. Very, very few of them will ever come anywhere near that dream. Only about 1 per cent will make it. Just 100 boys.

There is much talk in Green's book of "quality coaching," or simply "better coaching." No one -- none of the many coaches interviewed, nor Green himself, attempts to define what the terms mean. With the coming of the academies, pro clubs in England were granted their demands to gain full control of youth development. Are they doing a good job?

Many coaches profess themselves satisfied; Huw Jennings, who runs Fulham's academy, believes that "the skill levels, the ball mastery, balance reception and flexibility of our young players is better that it has ever been."

Yet Trevor Brooking, head of football development at the FA states "for a country of some 60 million people we are not producing ... players at the top level with the necessary skills . . ."

Even Wilkinson, the architect of the now dominant academy system, admits "I am starting to lose hope ..." because of the way in which internal soccer politics -- mainly, three-way tug-of-wars between the FA, the EPL and the football league, have repeatedly sabotaged attempts at continuing reform.

[Howard Wilkinson will be a featured clinician at next year's NSCAA Convention in Philadelphia, January 13-17]
 Rant #1

  Coaching is totally over rated. What the English, Americans and other developed nations need to do in soccer is not offer more coaching but more time spent on just playing. Just recently all of the USYSA State Directors of Coaching had a meeting with US SOCCER. US SOCCER told the DOCS that for several years the US has spent millions of dollars on players from age 14 and up and feel that they have made a little mistake and should be spending money developing kids from 6- 12 years old. That’s very interesting but how are they going to develop the 6-12 year olds. That is the billion $$$ question. I know with more coaching. NO MORE COACHING!!!! US SOCCER or someone with deep pockets and the conviction must create sandlot/playground soccer environments for kids to play in is one of the ways to help revolutionize soccer in the US. The rest of the developed nations should do the same if they want magical players to come out of their countries. Coaching is not the way. Playing everyday is the way. Just ask Pele, Maradona, Redondo, or any player who became a very good player. Coaching comes later. Playing comes first. When you go to a skate park do you see a UEFA or USSF A License skate board coach coaching the kids. NO WAY, because the kids would hang them from tree. Then who is showing the kids the moves and the creativity. Yes, the kids themselves. This is a no brainer. Build them and they will come. Convert tennis courts that are hardly being used into futsal courts this could be a possibility of creating a sandlot/playground experience. It is time that the US start thinking out of the box. US soccer has peaked. We have the best uniforms, $250 shoes, special turf fields, 1000’s of tournaments and soccer camps, coaching manuals, professional coaches for youth players, and tons of soccer gimmicks. It is time for a soccer revolution in the US and the revolution must begin in the inner cities of America. I am sorry but Suburbia soccer is too tainted with a great deal of insanity and money hungry soccer(Ski) bums. Hopefully later when future soccer stars start to come out of the inner cities then suburbia soccer might be ready to make a change. Meanwhile US SOCCER needs to spend their money in the inner cities of America before every kid in suburbia switches from soccer to lacrosse. 

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Lost in Translation

By Susan Boyd

Watching my grandson's soccer game last week, I was reminded that even when we think kids aren't listening, they really are, it's just that they don't understand us. But they try, because they want to please us. The following results come from some of the most confusing and therefore entertaining vignettes of my journey through youth soccer.

* A U6 coach attempted to exhort his tiny players to get more energy into the game. "Come on. Pick it up you guys." With some confusion the team paused to consider this instruction. "What are you stopping for? I said pick it up." With a shrug of his shoulders, one player ran over to the ball rolling across the field, and picked it up.

* At an indoor game the teams were 3v3 using the smaller Pugg goals. When the players came out for the second half, we noticed that the team on the near side only had two players on the field. The coach started to laugh, walked over to the goal and pulled the third player out of the far back edges of the Pugg. "But you told me to get in goal," the frustrated 5-year-old shouted.
* During a particularly combative U10 game, the coach of one team was continually barking instructions to his players. One girl seemed frozen unable to respond to the increasingly strident orders from her coach. Finally, on the verge of tears she turned to him, "What do you mean goal-side? Which side of the goal?"

* In a post game dissection, the coach, trying to explain passing, asked if anyone could do a cross. A player popped up his hand. "I can do that. We do it before we pray."

* Once when Robbie was playing in a 3v3 tournament he got the ball and began to dribble down the field. I cheered, or so I thought, "Go Robbie go!" He stopped immediately. Stomping his foot, he yelled right at me "I'm running as fast as I can."

* When Bryce was 8 he used to run behind the goal during defensive plays. It took us a couple weeks to piece it all together. The coach told him to defend the far post.

* Innovation saved the day when a U8 girl was admonished several times during the game to "mark her man." First of all it was a girls game and second of all she had nothing to write with. After the fourth or fifth insistence a light bulb went on. She picked up some dirt, ran over to the sidelines, rubbed it on her father, and then looked proudly to her coach.

* Another coach explaining defensive midfield to his young player was telling him that he needed to move up during offense and then run back during defense. Unfortunately he said "I need you to straddle both lanes." A bowling reference in a soccer pep talk just doesn't cut it.

We parents all too often forget that what we know about the world we learned through decades of experience. What seems abundantly clear to us comes across as confusing and occasionally ridiculous to our half-pint players. Bless them for wanting to do the right thing, so we need to just enjoy the ride.

It may be a cliché, but it's true: they are young for such a short time. Let them invent their world. What they discover can be more fun to experience with them than what we try so hard to teach them. Their fresh minds can translate life into adventure.

(Susan Boyd blogs each Monday on USYouthSoccer.org, you can read her blogs as well as others at www.USYouthSoccer.org .)

Rant #2

Just let the Chlidren Play. They will figure it out on their own. Coaches need to sit down and drink their coffee, while keeping silent. The kids will just fine if you leave them alone to manage themselves. Soccer in America needs a revolution but please leave the adults home. Our kids need a sandlot/playground environment. Build futsal courts in the inner cities first. Then the hopefully the suburbia people will catch on and then soccer will finally be saved in America. Meanwhile coaching is totally over rated so just let the Children Play.