One of my pet peeves is young players that run around the pitch with floppy arms and a coach does nothing to correct it. It's a myth that you can't teach speed. Your not going to teach a slug to be Usain Bolt, but you can teach a slug to improve by a step, or maybe two, which makes a huge difference on the pitch.
That's mostly not true. Stopping and change of direction/lateral movements, yes. Driving forward (particulary from a stop) and covering ground (aka most running activities), no.
I was specifically told when I got my d and e that we shouldn’t teach such things to Younger’s. The expectation was that parents or trainers would show such things and that coaches should instead focus on team exercises and tactics. I’ll share the story again. I put together for my d a crossing scenario for u9s (then beginning club players) to show them how to lift the ball properly and where to put it when doing a side line run. The English head coach went into me, yelling at me in front of the others it wasn’t “game realistic” and coaches were not supposed to focus on individual players technical skills. The instructor also went into me because I dared correct the goalkeeper on a technical mistake he was making (that’s not your exercise don’t coach the goalkeeper…then when does the goalkeeper get coached because last I checked there weren’t many teams focusing on doing drills just for the goalkeeper?….thats the gk coaches job….well what club have you seen that the gk coaches regularly show up to team practices????)
IMO we introduce tactics far too early in US soccer and U9 is too early. I'd say the coach/instructor was an idiot, but that's probably how he was taught by US Soccer. I also believe team tactics are grossly overrated for even older youth. Individual decision making and field vision are far more important. Soccer is game of individual or "small-sided" battles, you have to win those before you can even think about employing team tactics.
Good point, I guess it depends what position you are playing as well and the style of play of the team. Players like Ronaldo and Mbappe have unconventional styles of sprinting. They run with explosive speed like sprinters, but they also need to change direction quickly, slow down, and speed up during a game. Unlike sprinters who run in a straight line, they adjust constantly based on the ball and other players. They’re incredibly fast, but their running is about more than just top speed…it’s about agility, control, and quick bursts to beat defenders and make plays. Balance is key
and that’s probably why they run as such.True story Orca: My buddy had a really good female daughter soccer player. Her only weakness was lack of speed. Her daddy bought her a part time "speed training" coach ($$$$$) to improve her speed. Well, here are the facts with speed. First off, it's God given not man made. Man cannot make speed. If 10 is the fastest and 1 is the slowest, my pal's kid was a 6. Speed coach helped her get to 6.5 with learning how to run track. No coach can make you fast just like no coach can make you Elite. You can pay the coach to tell others your kid is elite but the child is not really, only Elite with money. Big difference.
I don't think you necessarily need a lot of speed training, but it should definitely supplement your soccer training. Even just simple technique/form corrections can add a step.
we are going to need to agree to disagree on this one. . I've seen training like in the video make a difference so I think its an important piece to your childs athletic toolbox. It not going to hurt anyone to understand how to move your body in the most efficient manner possible to maximize your speed as a soccer player but this guy wasn't teaching any form but a good trainer would. I'm also hoping these kids are not only playing soccer as that's also a mistake. They should be playing multiple sports as its just going to make you a better athlete which will translate to the soccer field. You could for example play softball and learn defensive footwork and sliding to get grounders from your softball coach and then apply that to playing defense in soccer by being able to stay in front and contain the attacker. The stabbing being done at even the highest level instead of just containing is astonishing to me. I would love for forwards and midfielders to learn to contain instead of just stabbing at the ball and letting their attacker run by them but that's another post!!
100% agree. If players learned how to properly contain and jockey attackers they'd win more challenges. Most youth players don't have the best touch and end up giving away the ball with a poor touch.
Conversation re school year change over runs from 3:20 to 10:00.
Its funny to me that they would go back to a system that will be easily manipulated but honestly I'm not surprised by how youth soccer or really US soccer at any level is run anymore.
They will just move the cut-off from 1/1 to 7/1, so you still need to be no older than 2007/1/1 in order to join the 08/07 team.
I guess i don't get it. I thought its switching to what year your graduating high school is the team you would play on? My kids only been in birth year based.
I wouldn’t be surprised if USYS and USSF want to go with a 2026 start and US Club and ECNL get after it and go 2025. Everything said in the podcast goes with what I’ve been told and that’s ECNL and US Club are ready to pull the trigger just waiting for everyone to get on board.
