Elite Junior Athletes : There is No Such Thing.

newsportfuture.com/elite-junior-athletes/

I thought this was an interesting article, particularly applicable to soccer. I tend to agree with much of the article, although I prefer the word "passion" over "fun". I don't think fun gives you enough drive to become a great athlete. Whereas, passion gets you through those days when training is hard work and the drive to outwork your competitors.

One sentence stood out to me, "But time and time again all over the world we see evidence of young kids who are pushed, promoted and prodded down the increasingly discredited “pathway” system failing to realize their potential or even remaining involved with the sport much past their mid teens."


I cringe when I hear anyone sell, or even call, something a pathway. The DA is a perfect example of this and is Exhibit A of the failure of the so-called "pathway" system.
 
Problem continues to be parents think because they pay the big bucks to these clubs their kids good.

Delusional parents have always loved to buy into snake oil for their kids and club soccer does a great job of taking advantage of those special individuals.
 
Problem continues to be parents think because they pay the big bucks to these clubs their kids good.

Delusional parents have always loved to buy into snake oil for their kids and club soccer does a great job of taking advantage of those special individuals.

Fortunately there are fully funded DA clubs!
 
Fortunately there are fully funded DA clubs!

Who just prey on the parents' ego, not both their pocketbook and ego. I'll admit I'm guilty as my son has started DA, but I have no delusions that it is a pathway to anything other than playing with other talented kids. He loves the intensity of the practices and having two coaches. That's good enough for me.

This article goes into a little more detail about why the pathway system doesn't work and recommends alternatives.
http://newsportfuture.com/junior-sport-rep-teams/

Granted the author is trying to sell his services but he does raise some valid points.
 
Who just prey on the parents' ego, not both their pocketbook and ego. I'll admit I'm guilty as my son has started DA, but I have no delusions that it is a pathway to anything other than playing with other talented kids. He loves the intensity of the practices and having two coaches. That's good enough for me.

This article goes into a little more detail about why the pathway system doesn't work and recommends alternatives.
http://newsportfuture.com/junior-sport-rep-teams/

Granted the author is trying to sell his services but he does raise some valid points.
Thanks for sharing this.

Very interesting viewpoint, and one that our clubs, coaches and especially parents could benefit from. The video on "talent/dedication" that was embedded in the story was very good. There's quite a few threads on this website where people argue over the importance of physical talent at young ages, and I tend to side with the author on this point.
 
Thanks for sharing this.

Very interesting viewpoint, and one that our clubs, coaches and especially parents could benefit from. The video on "talent/dedication" that was embedded in the story was very good. There's quite a few threads on this website where people argue over the importance of physical talent at young ages, and I tend to side with the author on this point.

I would bet on the skilled and committed player over a physically talented player to succeed long term any day of the week. Once puberty hits, mommy's little super star who was 2ft taller then all the kids tends to fade away like back ground noise. I still have a hard time believing parents still buy into their kids going to be good since they are "big" at 8 years old.
 
Is the DA pathway a failure for the dozens of 03s that made verbal commitments this season, much of that the product of exposure in the showcases?

Or is it a failure for the 20 girls called up from DA to the wnt training?
 
This article goes into a little more detail about why the pathway system doesn't work and recommends alternatives.
http://newsportfuture.com/junior-sport-rep-teams/

Granted the author is trying to sell his services but he does raise some valid points.
I'm not so sure how valid his points are at all. First, he's talking about under 12-year-olds but the "pathway", at least in US soccer, doesn't start until U12.

Second, his grasp of statistics isn't strong: "There is a mountain of data around the world – and in all sports – that the kids who are selected in junior sport rep teams rarely – if ever – make it to the top as senior athletes."

This is true because... almost no one makes it to the top of professional sports at all. It's purely a numbers game. If 15 million people play soccer in the US and only a few hundred are professionals - much less "top" professionals - of course most of the pathway kids don't make it. No one makes it.
 
I'm not so sure how valid his points are at all. First, he's talking about under 12-year-olds but the "pathway", at least in US soccer, doesn't start until U12.

Second, his grasp of statistics isn't strong: "There is a mountain of data around the world – and in all sports – that the kids who are selected in junior sport rep teams rarely – if ever – make it to the top as senior athletes."

This is true because... almost no one makes it to the top of professional sports at all. It's purely a numbers game. If 15 million people play soccer in the US and only a few hundred are professionals - much less "top" professionals - of course most of the pathway kids don't make it. No one makes it.

The Pathway if any needs to start after puberty especially for girls. 12 is too soon because you still don't know how a developed skill set will fit with a certain body type. Boys. I've seen boys turn into men at 18 years old for football who rode the pine for 3 years before their senior year and move on to have professional careers. Mike Anderson (former NFL Running Back) is a perfect example. The kid played zero high school ball. Instead played the tuba in the marching band. Girls.It doesn't take scientific research to know that wide hips and a big chest is the equivalent of running through quick sand for girls sports.

Reality is how the gene pools delt to our off spring. All we can do until those cards are delt is to prepare them mentally and physically but even in the end it takes all three -skill, body type, drive commitment to even have a shot at life beyond youth sports.

1% is truth
 
Is the DA pathway a failure for the dozens of 03s that made verbal commitments this season, much of that the product of exposure in the showcases?

Or is it a failure for the 20 girls called up from DA to the wnt training?

No, but that's a self-serving statistic. If you insert yourself as the top league in the US it stands to reason that you will have a lot of college players and YNT players that come out of that league. If the DA didn't exist the odds are still very high that those kids still would have had the same results. Now I will give you the exposure argument to a certain extent. There were plenty of showcases prior to DA, but granted DA probably does a better job of consolidating the top talent at those showcases. I actually believe that that is really the primary purpose of DA, not to make it easier for kids to be identified, but to make it easier for US Soccer to identify top talent. It saves the USSF some of the cost and effort to travel the US tracking down talent.

The above is actually irrelevant because the goal of the DA is not to produce college or NT players. Its sole mission is to develop world-class players. USDA's mission statement, "The U.S. Soccer Development Academy impacts everyday club environments to develop world-class players." It has failed in its mission. It hasn't shown the ability to produce world-class players at a rate greater than pre-DA times, if at all. I don't believe there has been any incremental improvement in our YNTeams, and while the DA isn't to blame for the failure of the USMNT, there are plenty of 18-22 (the age of players that have gone through a full DA cycle) non-Americans playing in the first divisions of the top European leagues that would have been more than qualified to make an impact on the USMNT. We just didn't have those 18-22 world class players on our USMNT (save for Pulisic, but don't try to argue he is primarily a product of the DA).

I know there are DA apologists on here that claim that DA is not a failure; however, no one has produced any evidence yet (I'm all ears), that DA has been successful at producing world-class players. The best argument, but still weak, is that DA hasn't had enough time to prove its success.
 
I also think part of what the guy in the video is saying is that "pathways" don't create those one-percenters that become national team or olympic competitors. It seems that his philosophy is that no matter what pathway is created by the governing bodies of sport, Michael Phelps is still going to be amazing and the dedicated, but less talented kid is still not going to be Michael Phelps. So from that standpoint, the pathways are actually fairly useless in terms of getting an athlete to a particular "level" of competition. Of course, one has to build on a foundation of skills and there is a progression to learning any skill, but the general idea that there is a structured path which takes you from one level to another level is a myth that is being used to exploit the goals and dreams of athletes and their parents. You know it is being exploited by the very name: "DEVELOPMENT Academy." But they would be better served calling it "Recruitment Academy." I had a current DA DoC tell me, "Give me the biggest, strongest, fastest athletes, and I can train them to be an elite player." Right. That's what they mean by "development." Recruit a kid who is already in the genetically gifted 1% and try to turn them into soccer players. I guarantee this strategy will fail at producing "world class" players. I would say this sort of hubris is uniquely American, but that DoC was a Brit.

The DA is a loose formation of clubs which follow certain guidelines that USSF thinks will align with international standards and get to play in an exclusive league. This structure was created to entice the "best" players to get in one bin for easy evaluation. It has nothing more or less to do with "development" than any other already existing training structure pre-DA. It's the exact same process as what existed before, but with a different name and slightly different rules. Imagining that clubs who earned "DA" status suddenly had new training techniques which can "develop" players in ways they didn't the year before is ridiculous. They're the same people running the show as before making basically the same decisions as before. Athletes that succeed within the DA structure would also have succeeded in ECNL, and before that, SCDSL flight 1 and CSL Premier, and (blasphemy) even AYSO back in the day. While the club soccer scene has absolutely exploded in the US since 1990, the dial hasn't moved much in terms of USSF's results with their teams. I would argue that any real, tangible improvements in the US youth talent pool since 1990 comes from the increase of the sheer popularity of the sport, thus the numbers of kids playing. It has nothing to do with club soccer training, pathways, and "development." The club scene can probably take credit for producing a more educated, knowledgeable soccer parent and player which does grow the sport and help increase the numbers of people who care about soccer. I would guess that there is more access to good coaching now than 30 years ago, but it is telling that such exposure hasn't produced any real results at the top level, isn't it?
 
It has nothing more or less to do with "development" than any other already existing training structure pre-DA. It's the exact same process as what existed before, but with a different name and slightly different rules. Imagining that clubs who earned "DA" status suddenly had new training techniques which can "develop" players in ways they didn't the year before is ridiculous. They're the same people running the show as before making basically the same decisions as before.

This is not in line with my experience. I have two examples from two different clubs:

Club A is a smaller club that's trying to get DA status. The DoC just got his C licence and is working on his B. He's going to all the US Soccer seminars he can and he is absolutely changing his training techniques. Not just adding some new drills, but drastically changing what he's doing on the field with the boys. Emphasizing different principals. Trying to play (much) better soccer. We'll see if he's able to continue to do this as his team plays another year in CSL where winning and standings become so important.

Club B is a large, well established club that got DA status last year and brought in a coach from an out-of-state MLS academy. His training techniques are very different form any I've seen around (more like what club A is trying to do) and he really is focused on development over winning and losing. (A lot of coaches say this, but it's clear that he's actually doing it.)

Athletes that succeed within the DA structure would also have succeeded in ECNL, and before that, SCDSL flight 1 and CSL Premier, and (blasphemy) even AYSO back in the day.

I can't argue with this for the top, top players - great athletes are great athletes no matter what the sport - but I do think that different types of players are able to succeed in the DA environment that I'm seeing than used to in the other top leagues. I'm seeing intelligent players who can pass confidently getting more out of the DA than pure run and gunners.

Anyway, I've drunk the DA kool aid, so maybe I won't think this way in a few years, but right now, I don't see any better coaching or soccer environment in our area than the DAs.
 
This is not in line with my experience. I have two examples from two different clubs:

Club A is a smaller club that's trying to get DA status. The DoC just got his C licence and is working on his B. He's going to all the US Soccer seminars he can and he is absolutely changing his training techniques. Not just adding some new drills, but drastically changing what he's doing on the field with the boys. Emphasizing different principals. Trying to play (much) better soccer. We'll see if he's able to continue to do this as his team plays another year in CSL where winning and standings become so important.

Club B is a large, well established club that got DA status last year and brought in a coach from an out-of-state MLS academy. His training techniques are very different form any I've seen around (more like what club A is trying to do) and he really is focused on development over winning and losing. (A lot of coaches say this, but it's clear that he's actually doing it.)



I can't argue with this for the top, top players - great athletes are great athletes no matter what the sport - but I do think that different types of players are able to succeed in the DA environment that I'm seeing than used to in the other top leagues. I'm seeing intelligent players who can pass confidently getting more out of the DA than pure run and gunners.

Anyway, I've drunk the DA kool aid, so maybe I won't think this way in a few years, but right now, I don't see any better coaching or soccer environment in our area than the DAs.
I can respect all of that.

And, despite my default to cynicism on almost all things club soccer related, I really do believe that the majority of club coaches, directors and USSF staff really, really WANT to do the right things to improve the training and the players and skills at all levels. But I do believe that much of it is wasted motion when it comes to trying to change the outcomes of the very tip top of US players (USMNT & USWNT). Those results won't improve until soccer's popularity stretches beyond the mostly white suburbs. Quite simply, we're not finding transcendent talent because we're looking in too small of a sphere. And that won't happen as long as it costs $3000-4000 year just to play with the best players and coaches. So I'm kind of in line with the guy in the video, who thinks all the early age stuff (the leagues, the clubs, tournaments, etc.) ought to be blown up. Of course, that won't happen, but a guy can dream...
 
I can respect all of that.

And, despite my default to cynicism on almost all things club soccer related, I really do believe that the majority of club coaches, directors and USSF staff really, really WANT to do the right things to improve the training and the players and skills at all levels. But I do believe that much of it is wasted motion when it comes to trying to change the outcomes of the very tip top of US players (USMNT & USWNT). Those results won't improve until soccer's popularity stretches beyond the mostly white suburbs. Quite simply, we're not finding transcendent talent because we're looking in too small of a sphere. And that won't happen as long as it costs $3000-4000 year just to play with the best players and coaches. So I'm kind of in line with the guy in the video, who thinks all the early age stuff (the leagues, the clubs, tournaments, etc.) ought to be blown up. Of course, that won't happen, but a guy can dream...
Oh - I agree with blowing up the pay-for-play early clubs. Anyone paying $3k a year for the privilege of having their eight-year-old play on the C or D team and travel hours each way every weekend to play in front of nasty parents, terrible refs and abusive coaches is doing it wrong.
 
“Pathway” is the new buzzword that mega clubs use to entice smaller clubs to become an affiliate.
Will “pathway” start to replace “development” in all of the marketing material?
Will a new league form “Soccer League Orange Pathway”? (SLOP)
 
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