“Beyond the Cones: Revitalizing U.S. Youth Soccer Technical Training"

[Luis Andres]

Remember "everyone" laughed at me because I mocked circus jugglers in 2018-2019? They said my dd better learn how to juggle from one end of the field to the other without a mistake if she wants to make Big U team. Plus, that beep test BS. I was also told she better be a Unicorn or no entry to Big U. Anyway, let the kids roam the fields without the cones and robo coach screaming out his demands. Kids need to come up with their own tricks. How on earth did "The Maradona" get invented? We have no clue in the US how to train top players. Our system worked in the old days because most girls in other countries were not allowed to ball because the men wouldn't let them. Euro has caught us with cones in our heads, coach barking out orders and even worse things behind closed doors. FYI rainbow unicorn, I'm not saying juggling is a waste, but to force kids to go from one end of the filed to the other or else is stupid, MOO

All the structure and joy stick robotic direction is damaging to kids. We should strive to create soccer players that can think for themselves and solve problems. It’s not going to happen with choreography and joy sticking. You want to work solely on ball mastery then go work for the circus. We need players that can solve problems and that requires unstructured training vs real pressure. Let kids dribble free and use skills free and use real defenders instead of cones. Put them against each other not in lines dribbling around cones. 1v1, 2v1, 3v2

 

[crush]

All the structure and joy stick robotic direction is damaging to kids. We should strive to create soccer players that can think for themselves and solve problems. It’s not going to happen with choreography and joy sticking. You want to work solely on ball mastery then go work for the circus. We need players that can solve problems and that requires unstructured training vs real pressure.

I think we should Co-Author a book for the parents from the parents. Luis & Crush: Parents Youth Soccer Guide For Dummies.

 

[Luis Andres]

One last thing. You want kids to work on ball mastery then make this the homework to do at home. Simple stuff & juggling too no choreographed cone drills though. We shouldn’t have to pay trainers for this stuff that you can do at home plenty of examples on YouTube too. And if you do then you simply buying the Kool-Aid that’s it. There is nothing to pay here since you find it free online.

 

[Grace T.]

There are some young kids that are waking up and realizing this as well. This kid makes a good argument about the purpose of structured and unstructured training. If you are young it’s fine to start with some sort of structure but you need to evolve master and graduate as you get older. If you didn’t pick up your technical skills by age 13/14 it’s going to be tough to become technical. Maybe the only exception to do some cone drills considering the level you play at.

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I agree with this. The cone drills are especially vital in learning first touch. The balance shifts as you go from the younger ages to the older. The problem though is kids should be doing juggling, coever and touching drills on their own up through college. They also should be doing conditioning on their own. But a large portion don’t. So coaches are left with hard choices about what to do with the limited time they have. It happens less once you get into the high school non-academy mls level, but even then I’ve seen coaches need to drop things to deal with an issue. The great thing about the academies is they have more time and an overall training program for what to focus on year over year

I disagree though the issue is structured practice v unstructured practice. to create those tactical scenarios you need some level of structure. And 1v1s aren’t at the high school level going to get you very far: the exercises need to be far more situational and players dribble too much anyways. The problem with learning in games is that it doesn’t give room for immediate feedback. What really should be happening are training friendlies where the coach can interrupt with instruction instead of having the running clock. When these happen however because of the limited amount of teams in a club, the teams will either be different levels or ages (which is less useful) or if it’s small sided the team may already know each other so it isn’t much of a surprise or challenge plus you have the issue below the mls next level that you may only have 1 keeper or 1 goal. But until you get on the larger goal and the larger field, I really wouldn’t worry that much.

Which is the last great obstacle: space. To do this justice you need at least a small field, and not just a half. I’ve seen the practices of 3 mls next high school teams: two had half sided small fields and one had a grass field in the park! My kids old npl team got assigned regularly (to the anger of both parents and coaches) 1/6 or 1/4 of a high school field without a goal (and this was a club that went on to get mls next). Field space really is the true obstacle which is why what we really need are scrimmages with like teams that coaches can pause.

 

[Luis Andres]

I agree with this. The cone drills are especially vital in learning first touch. The balance shifts as you go from the younger ages to the older. The problem though is kids should be doing juggling, coever and touching drills on their own up through college. They also should be doing conditioning on their own. But a large portion don’t. So coaches are left with hard choices about what to do with the limited time they have. It happens less once you get into the high school non-academy mls level, but even then I’ve seen coaches need to drop things to deal with an issue. The great thing about the academies is they have more time and an overall training program for what to focus on year over year

I disagree though the issue is structured practice v unstructured practice. to create those tactical scenarios you need some level of structure. And 1v1s aren’t at the high school level going to get you very far: the exercises need to be far more situational and players dribble too much anyways. The problem with learning in games is that it doesn’t give room for immediate feedback. What really should be happening are training friendlies where the coach can interrupt with instruction instead of having the running clock. When these happen however because of the limited amount of teams in a club, the teams will either be different levels or ages (which is less useful) or if it’s small sided the team may already know each other so it isn’t much of a surprise or challenge plus you have the issue below the mls next level that you may only have 1 keeper or 1 goal. But until you get on the larger goal and the larger field, I really wouldn’t worry that much.

Which is the last great obstacle: space. To do this justice you need at least a small field, and not just a half. I’ve seen the practices of 3 mls next high school teams: two had half sided small fields and one had a grass field in the park! My kids old npl team got assigned regularly (to the anger of both parents and coaches) 1/6 or 1/4 of a high school field without a goal (and this was a club that went on to get mls next). Field space really is the true obstacle which is why what we really need are scrimmages with like teams that coaches can pause.

Exactly but this is for team training not private training which I’m referring to. All those tactical scenarios is for team training and all the ball mastery stuff should be done on their own or given as homework for the little ones.

 

[focomoso]

"Character is the most important trait for any gr8t soccer player. I don't care about your skilz" Coach Pep

I don't know who coach Pep is or whether you're posting this sarcastically, but it's flat wrong.

 

[crush]

I don't know who coach Pep is or whether you're posting this sarcastically, but it's flat wrong.

I've been wrong before in life foco. I'm not wrong on Coach Pep and I wasn't being sarcastic either. I'm not surprised either you have no clue who one of the great coaches are.

Coach Pep. "Pep" Guardiola i Sala is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who is currently managing Premier League club Manchester City and was head coach at Barcelona.

 

[crush]

I don't know who coach Pep is or whether you're posting this sarcastically, but it's flat wrong.

Coach Pep giving instructions to one of his players. Trust me, character comes first then the skilz. I plyed basketball bro and also played with some of the most talented players in OC and the great ones had great characters. True stroy. One guy I won't mention had the best skilz but he also was an asshole, smoked crack and never made it.

 

[ToonArmy]

View attachment 19283
Coach Pep giving instructions to one of his players. Trust me, character comes first then the skilz. I plyed basketball bro and also played with some of the most talented players in OC and the great ones had great characters. True stroy. One guy I won't mention had the best skilz but he also was an asshole, smoked crack and never made it.

Bobby Joyce?

 

[SurfSupDude]

I've been wrong before in life foco. I'm not wrong on Coach Pep and I wasn't being sarcastic either. I'm not surprised either you have no clue who one of the great coaches are.

Coach Pep. "Pep" Guardiola i Sala is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who is currently managing Premier League club Manchester City and was head coach at Barcelona.

View attachment 19282

I can’t seem to find Manchester City or Barcelona. Are they ECNL or GA? Or Flight 1?

 

[crush]

Bobby Joyce?

Nice guess but try again. I will give you two more guesses to win a prize

 

[dad4]

I've been wrong before in life foco. I'm not wrong on Coach Pep and I wasn't being sarcastic either. I'm not surprised either you have no clue who one of the great coaches are.

Coach Pep. "Pep" Guardiola i Sala is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who is currently managing Premier League club Manchester City and was head coach at Barcelona.

View attachment 19282

Low skill players get filtered out long before Pep would see them, even if they have strong personal character.

The same can’t necessarily be said for players of poor character but high skill.

What he’s really saying is you need both to succeed. No sense in betting on a drunk with a golden foot. Absolutely true.

 

[focomoso]

I've been wrong before in life foco. I'm not wrong on Coach Pep and I wasn't being sarcastic either.

Ha. Sure, if you're talking about that Pep, then maybe. But what about the thousands of kids with great character and mediocre skills the get cut from the Barca academy every year? Skills are the baseline prerequisite. You don't even get a look without skills. Character is a luxury only coaches like Pep can afford.

 

[focomoso]

Trust me, character comes first then the skilz.

Nonsense. My son was at a "high-academic" id camp over the break. A hundred impressive, smart kids with great communicatuon skills and stellar character... and almost none of them are going to be considered by the D1 coaches because their skills weren't up to par.

 

[crush]

Nonsense. My son was at a "high-academic" id camp over the break. A hundred impressive, smart kids with great communicatuon skills and stellar character... and almost none of them are going to be considered by the D1 coaches because their skills weren't up to par.

Nonsense? You didn't even know who Coach Pep was and now you say, "Oh that Pep" lol!!! There is only one Coach Pep in futbol. Relax, I'm just being sarcastic brother

 

[Luis Andres]

This discussion is pretty good worth hearing. They touch on the topics discussed here and more focused on the men's program and academies which is probably the direction the women's program will go in the future. One thing to note is how one of the guy's thinks that from ages 14 and above we are good with the development while the other guy disagrees. I agree with the second guy as well. We do great up until 13/14 and that's where we start to fall behind. U15 we can pretty much compete with anyone and then we start to drop.

 

[crush]

This discussion is pretty good worth hearing. They touch on the topics discussed here and more focused on the men's program and academies which is probably the direction the women's program will go in the future. One thing to note is how one of the guy's thinks that from ages 14 and above we are good with the development while the other guy disagrees. I agree with the second guy as well. We do great up until 13/14 and that's where we start to fall behind. U15 we can pretty much compete with anyone and then we start to drop.

This is from one of the great local Artist version of crush at Main Beach in Laguna in the 80s, New Wave Dave without his shirt on brah

Coach Pep say's for the youth, "Play, play, play some more and play some more. Play" Luis, this is where I balled against some of the greats in the 80s. Reggie Miller, Kevin McGee, Cherly Miller, Tom Lewis, the Decasas brothers, the Call brothers, Scottie Brooks and even Cedric Ceballos would come down to work on his half-court game. I was smart but small and had skills to boot. I played with Danny something, who was drafted in the NBA but cut, coach, another stud and then little ole me. We would own the court when the Millers stayed in Riverside. Main beach was where I played pick-up games as a youth. I was JC or NAIA talent level because. I also had a good character, worked my ass off on defense and had some of the best summers in my life. I took the trolly from South Laguna and balled from 10-3 almost every day for two years. It's where I learned to be tough.

 

[Grace T.]

This discussion is pretty good worth hearing. They touch on the topics discussed here and more focused on the men's program and academies which is probably the direction the women's program will go in the future. One thing to note is how one of the guy's thinks that from ages 14 and above we are good with the development while the other guy disagrees. I agree with the second guy as well. We do great up until 13/14 and that's where we start to fall behind. U15 we can pretty much compete with anyone and then we start to drop.

Disagree with this. The reason we do great up until 13/14 and why say for example TFA was able to defeat Manchester United at U12 at Mic a couple years back is because the US is playing a full field game very directly early on, while all the academies are rigidly focused on possession. That gave TFA an advantaged because even though Manchester possessed the ball the vast majority of the time, they'd eventually lose it and make a mistake and TFA just pounced. In the early ages, up until very recently, the academies of pretty much all the European and South American Teams were focused rigidly on possession at the early ages which means mistakes. They also don't care about the results as much as we do at those ages.

Our U20 team has actually done pretty good recently. IIRC I think they've reached the quarter finals for the youth world cup all the last series except the COVID one and maybe one other. They demonstrate a good ability to implement the MLS Academy style of play which combines possession, press and opportunistic direct play. That's not where the issue is. The academies have done a great job of producing U20 players that are able to compete and which I think lost out one year to Argentina by a goal and to Germany by a goal. The bigger issue is after U20 because the US has a very hard time developing pro athletes. The MLS sucks (it just does) so to get great players we have to send them to Europe but when first of all there are immigration issues and secondly when some get there (even GKs who dominated in the past, but now like Steffen and Turner struggle) they flop against the level of competition. And not too many of our players want to make the leap to MLS given the $60K+ base pay...teachers' in LA make more. that's a lot of money so we are developing pro athletes from Trinidad and Costa Rice, but here it's nothing so it's Europe or bust, or more often than not players will just take the safer route of college. We don't have a very robust secondary league either where 21 and 22 year old players can cut their teeth and maybe earn selection by transfer fee to Europe. And college soccer as others have pointed out here from a pro point of view is garbage and a waste of player development without much competition, style, skills or hours of practice. Our biggest problem right now is after U20.

 

[Luis Andres]

Disagree with this. The reason we do great up until 13/14 and why say for example TFA was able to defeat Manchester United at U12 at Mic a couple years back is because the US is playing a full field game very directly early on, while all the academies are rigidly focused on possession. That gave TFA an advantaged because even though Manchester possessed the ball the vast majority of the time, they'd eventually lose it and make a mistake and TFA just pounced. In the early ages, up until very recently, the academies of pretty much all the European and South American Teams were focused rigidly on possession at the early ages which means mistakes. They also don't care about the results as much as we do at those ages.

Our U20 team has actually done pretty good recently. IIRC I think they've reached the quarter finals for the youth world cup all the last series except the COVID one and maybe one other. They demonstrate a good ability to implement the MLS Academy style of play which combines possession, press and opportunistic direct play. That's not where the issue is. The academies have done a great job of producing U20 players that are able to compete and which I think lost out one year to Argentina by a goal and to Germany by a goal. The bigger issue is after U20 because the US has a very hard time developing pro athletes. The MLS sucks (it just does) so to get great players we have to send them to Europe but when first of all there are immigration issues and secondly when some get there (even GKs who dominated in the past, but now like Steffen and Turner struggle) they flop against the level of competition. And not too many of our players want to make the leap to MLS given the $60K+ base pay...teachers' in LA make more. that's a lot of money so we are developing pro athletes from Trinidad and Costa Rice, but here it's nothing so it's Europe or bust, or more often than not players will just take the safer route of college. We don't have a very robust secondary league either where 21 and 22 year old players can cut their teeth and maybe earn selection by transfer fee to Europe. And college soccer as others have pointed out here from a pro point of view is garbage and a waste of player development without much competition, style, skills or hours of practice. Our biggest problem right now is after U20.

TFA playing direct hmm? Maybe that one game and I wouldn't say direct maybe they countered. They play possesion 99% of the time. What they are saying on the video is the fact we don't have a pickup culture makes for a lot of robotic players. There is a reason why we don't develop super star players. US has made a great improvement in the last 20 years but there is still more work to do. Culture needs to change. We have a pickup basketball culture and that's why US is on Top.

 

[crush]

TFA playing direct hmm? Maybe that one game and I wouldn't say direct maybe they countered. They play possesion 99% of the time. What they are saying on the video is the fact we don't have a pickup culture makes for a lot of robotic players. There is a reason why we don't develop super star players. US has made a great improvement in the last 20 years but there is still more work to do. Culture needs to change. We have a pickup basketball culture and that's why US is on Top.

He Had Magic in His Game

Of all his memories of Wilt Chamberlain, the one that stood out for Larry Brown happened long after Chamberlain's professional career had ended.

www.latimes.com

I never was invited to play pickup games in the summer at UCLA. Those were the days. Ced tried to get me in, but Magic said, "no!"

 

[Fieldsofgold]

You know what the worst part of youth soccer today is? The insane parents and the parents who think they all have if figured it out when their kid is only 13 years old. the insane parents who think their kid is the most amazing soccer player they have ever seen. The same insane parents who create high light reels and instagram accounts for 9 year olds when they haven’t even gotten to 11v11 soccer the insane parents who create soccer instagrams for 14 year olds and then its dads commenting on their daughters account acting as their daughters. Some of the weirdest and most damaging things I’ve ever seen in youth sports.

I do agree to let kids figure it out some on the field and learn to be more creative. Not a fan of these coaches who joy stick the game

If you live in so cal there are a ton of amazing players