# USSDA Practice Requirements etc to Clubs?



## Kante (Jun 18, 2018)

Am new to this board and new this year to academy soccer. Ours is not one of the better performing teams but we have a number of good players and can put together stretches of really solid soccer. 

We've been ahead against some of the best teams in the group only to lose at the end. Have noticed that a number of teams also seemed to have improved over time much more than our team (and improved without those other teams adding significant new players).

Can folks shed light on what US Soccer requires in terms of the clubs working with the boys over the course of the season? Am aware of some of 3x week requirement for u12 and the 4x week requirement for u13 and above. Also, does US Soccer ever exempt teams from the minimum practice days per week requirement?


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## younothat (Jun 19, 2018)

"Development Academy clubs are required to train a minimum of four (4) days per week [three (3) days per week for ages U-14 and below*] and rest one (1) day per week during the Academy season.
_*Although the Academy requires U-14 and below to train a minimum of three days a week, it is strongly recommended that players train a minimum of 4 days per week with their club._
http://www.ussoccerda.com/overview-program-benefits

The 4th day can be a combination of conditioning, training, watching film and whatnot depending on what club your with.

What I always look for on my kids teams is #1 they are improving and #2 team is getting better especially as the season goes along, if not I would have my player discuss with the coaches and directors what else can be done to improve.

That said players still should be working on their own outside normal training if they want to continue to get better.

Good training, coaching, tactics, players working together as a team unit for the greater good is not always easy but normally helps performance a bunch , but its a players game so the players have to go out there and get the results.


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## Kante (Jun 19, 2018)

younothat said:


> "Development Academy clubs are required to train a minimum of four (4) days per week [three (3) days per week for ages U-14 and below*] and rest one (1) day per week during the Academy season.
> _*Although the Academy requires U-14 and below to train a minimum of three days a week, it is strongly recommended that players train a minimum of 4 days per week with their club._
> http://www.ussoccerda.com/overview-program-benefits
> 
> ...


__________________

Got it. Thanks. So, in your opinion (and anybody else's) would practice for three times a week for 90 minutes per practice starting in August be adequate for a u13 or above team to be develop and/or be competitive with other Socal academy teams?


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## justneededaname (Jun 19, 2018)

Kante said:


> Got it. Thanks. So, in your opinion (and anybody else's) would practice for three times a week for 90 minutes per practice starting in August be adequate for a u13 or above team to be develop and/or be competitive with other Socal academy teams?


Short answer, No.  Longer answer, the team can practice together only 3 times a week. That is probably fine. But on the top teams, the players are probably training (soccer or other conditioning) 5 or more days a week, plus a game or two on the weekends.  Sometimes the club is providing for that extra training and often the parents are finding more training outside the club.


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## Kante (Jun 19, 2018)

justneededaname said:


> Short answer, No.  Longer answer, the team can practice together only 3 times a week. That is probably fine. But on the top teams, the players are probably training (soccer or other conditioning) 5 or more days a week, plus a game or two on the weekends.  Sometimes the club is providing for that extra training and often the parents are finding more training outside the club.


Got it. Thx.


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## Atletico (Jun 19, 2018)

this is helpful.   We are new to the DA, as our son has joined a u12 team this year.  Our concern is that he is going to be itching to play more then what our academy has set up.. 3 x week starting in aug / 1 game potentially a weekend. Last few years it seems we were playing a ton more (guest play, etc).  This may end up being just the right amount,,, we will see

Individual private training are mentioned above..  what are some of the other ways that you'll recommend or do outside of the academy? It sounds as though the academy is pretty restrictive on outside teams/leagues.. but what about outside  futsal..etc... ?  Has anyone tried playing in no sanctioned leagues, la liga etc..

Our club isn't a mls club so I think they cant and wont recommend outside play. I also think if they don't know they wont care.. 
Has any veteran DA families seen players kicked off their team for outside play?


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## mirage (Jun 19, 2018)

Kante said:


> Got it. Thx.


Easy there....

Before you jump in head first without knowing how deep the water is, lets put the discussion into a context.

First and foremost, frequency and duration of training do not automatically equate to development. The example you'd cited may have to do with the quality of training more than how often any given player on the team trains.

The 4x week training includes typically a video session and light workout on Monday after the weekend game.  USSDA is supposed to do surprise visits to training session to make sure that the club is following their submitted plan and the guideline set forth by DA.

While the ingredients may be the same for nearly all the clubs, just as some chefs are great chefs and some, no so much, its all in the implementation - in other words coaching during the training sessions.

If your kid is already doing 4x week, adding additional outside training as a regular routine may either do nothing to very little, or worse burn the kid out (just remember that life happens to kids as they go through puberty - what they loved as 12 yrs may not be the same at 15+).

As a parent of graduated DA player, my advise for younger DA players are to put full efforts during EVERY training session and work on becoming tactically smart while enjoying the game.  The time to do strength and endurance training is during the off season (summer) and not necessarily piling on top of 3x~4x week.

Last, if you noticed another team improving much more than your's, perhaps consider change of clubs should enter your mind.  Its lot easier to develop younger players than older players.  Your cannot buyback time and got to make the current count.


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## justneededaname (Jun 20, 2018)

Atletico said:


> Has any veteran DA families seen players kicked off their team for outside play?


I don't have any experience with MLS DA teams. But on our pay-to-play DA team almost every player is doing things outside of the team. That could be:
 - Private training
 - Third-party group training
 - Speed and agility training
 - Friday night/Sunday leagues
 - Middle school sports
 - Futsal training
 - Futsal leagues
 - Baseball
 - Flag football

Shoot, we even had players that were playing in tournaments with a non-DA team in other countries during the short DA breaks (Thanksgiving, Winter).

From parents that I talk to on other DA teams, their experience was pretty much the same.

I think the system is pretty much "Don't ask, don't tell."


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## timbuck (Jun 20, 2018)

Why is your team “losing at the end?”
Giving up a last minute goal?  Happens all the time.  
Is the Coach getting all players good playing time?  Are “stronger” players off during the losing goal?
Are players trying new positions once in a while?

All of the above may lead to a loss. But aren’t necessarily a bad thing for player development. Especially at u12/u13.


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## Kante (Jun 20, 2018)

timbuck said:


> Why is your team “losing at the end?”
> Giving up a last minute goal?  Happens all the time.
> Is the Coach getting all players good playing time?  Are “stronger” players off during the losing goal?
> Are players trying new positions once in a while?
> ...


Fair points. Some of it has to do with lesser players being substituted on and players playing new positions. Our team is generally less technical in its play (almost all our players new to the club and some players know how to play more technically, and some don't), and it seems like we get worn down by possession, then give up a goal. And then once we give up that go ahead goal, the team, with some exceptions, tends to give up altogether.

Feels like we don't have adequate practice space (typically, 1/6 of a field) to teach the boys how to play out of the back (for example), and that the practice frequency (3x week) and practice length (90 minutes) aren't enough to teach the boys we have the more technical aspects of play. Even when we play some of the weaker teams where our boys are better individual soccer players, the other teams have a better idea of what they're supposed to do technically.

It's frustrating. Have asked the club administration about this but received pretty strong push back.


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## timbuck (Jun 20, 2018)

Technically (inidividual skill) or tactically (team work, positional responsibility, situational play, set pieces). 

It’s not easy to find the perfect training blend to work on both.  If your 1st touch sucks, it’s really hard to build out of the back.  If your first touch is great, but teammates aren’t moving as a unit to provide great passing options, it’s really hard to build out of the back.  
A practice that is 100% tactically focused can also be pretty boring for 12 year old boys.  They want to play soccer-   Not freeze play every 30 seconds or walk through shadow play for 90 minutes.


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## Kante (Jun 20, 2018)

timbuck said:


> Technically (inidividual skill) or tactically (team work, positional responsibility, situational play, set pieces).
> 
> It’s not easy to find the perfect training blend to work on both.  If your 1st touch sucks, it’s really hard to build out of the back.  If your first touch is great, but teammates aren’t moving as a unit to provide great passing options, it’s really hard to build out of the back.
> A practice that is 100% tactically focused can also be pretty boring for 12 year old boys.  They want to play soccer-   Not freeze play every 30 seconds or walk through shadow play for 90 minutes.


Tactical then is the better description of the challenges. Most of the teams we play are much better tactically, so that's where the club could improve.


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## younothat (Jun 20, 2018)

Kante said:


> Fair points. Some of it has to do with lesser players being substituted on and players playing new positions. Our team is generally less technical in its play (almost all our players new to the club and some players know how to play more technically, and some don't), and it seems like we get worn down by possession, then give up a goal. And then once we give up that go ahead goal, the team, with some exceptions, tends to give up altogether.
> 
> Feels like we don't have adequate practice space (typically, 1/6 of a field) to teach the boys how to play out of the back (for example), and that the practice frequency (3x week) and practice length (90 minutes) aren't enough to teach the boys we have the more technical aspects of play. Even when we play some of the weaker teams where our boys are better individual soccer players, the other teams have a better idea of what they're supposed to do technically.
> 
> It's frustrating. Have asked the club administration about this but received pretty strong push back.


The practice space and amount of time is not really ideal for academy teams.     Academy teams normally get  1/2 of  field space to  practice  & go about 2 hours each session starting at U14.

More technical training and team work go along way, if the coach is not offering that talk to them or the director about that, some teams have a trainer in addition to a coach who works with the team on those things and conditioning.



Atletico said:


> this is helpful.   We are new to the DA, as our son has joined a u12 team this year.  Our concern is that he is going to be itching to play more then what our academy has set up.. 3 x week starting in aug / 1 game potentially a weekend. Last few years it seems we were playing a ton more (guest play, etc).  This may end up being just the right amount,,, we will see
> 
> Individual private training are mentioned above..  what are some of the other ways that you'll recommend or do outside of the academy? It sounds as though the academy is pretty restrictive on outside teams/leagues.. but what about outside  futsal..etc... ?  Has anyone tried playing in no sanctioned leagues, la liga etc..
> 
> ...


Yes over the year I've seen kids every year get asked to leave when the commitment to the program is lacking.    Outside stuff gets harder and harder to manage as you age up,  once the players gets to high school and academic is real important the time challenges only increase.

In middle school playing another sport like winter basketball or futsal is more manageable but once your player gets to high school, its very difficult with 4 days of training and games on the weekend for 10 months. What tends happens many times is the student athletes start to show sing of fatigue because their trying to do too much and there game day performance will suffer at some point/age  if  for example there playing Friday night and then have a game on Saturday with a high level of play.   Coaches will start to notice that and if you're on a sponsored teams the competition at training to play for that weeks game can get intense.    Pay to Play may be more forgiving in outside stuff.


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## Kante (Dec 7, 2018)

Favor to ask. Have been posting a variety of things. It's all interesting to me and relatively easy to do. But, I don't want to waste people's time and clutter up the forum with information that is not useful. In the poll below, there's a number of ideas for post. If you could vote on what you prefer, that would be helpful. Thanks! Feliz Navidad!

http://www.socalsoccer.com/threads/poll-what-are-the-most-useful-postings-here.16377/


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