There was a great segment about Tom Byer on a recent episode of Real Sports (HBO). They also interviewed Kyle Martino who was a big proponent of Byer's methodologies. To be successful Byer believes that "soccer starts at home" (also the name of his book) at a very young age which happens in the dominate World Cup countries but doesn't happen in the US. This is another cultural aspect of soccer that the US doesn't have. His ideas have worked in other countries...will it work in the US? IDK but I think US Soccer should give it a shot, because what they are doing now clearly isn't working.
Byer is responsible for the Coerver revolution in Japan, and the spread of Coerver methods in Japan is the reason why there are so many highly technical, skilled Japanese soccer players, both men and women. What worked in Japan could work in America, but I have my doubts because 1) I think American kids and Japanese kids are different in their attitudes towards training, 2) you need huge batches of kids, not just an isolated few, to really get the benefits of Coerver training, and 3) Coerver training benefits the women’s game IMO more than the men’s game.
The drills Byer advocates are great and they will improve in tight ball control, but they are boring for most kids to do and very few kids, like practically none, want to spend a lot of time doing them. I solved this problem with my own kid by just forcing him to do the drills, but I’m pretty hard assed when it comes to training and technique, and it was a pain in the ass to make the kid do it. The kids are more willing to do it if they are doing it with other kids, but no matter how many kids I tried to get to do these drills with my son, none of them would do it beyond a session or two, and several told me they hated doing those drills even though it was making them better.
I think the Japanese people have a great attitude in terms of being willing to put in time and sacrifice to be great or perfect (who else would devote 20 year’s of training to learn how to craft a samurai sword), so if you can convince the Japanese, yea these drills are hard and boring as hell, but if you do them every day for 5 years your kid will be awesome, Japanese parents will make their kids do those drills for 5 years. I think it will be MUCH, MUCH harder to get American kids to do these type of drills as much as you need to do them to get the full benefits.
I also think the Coerver drills are most useful in futsal and the women’s game, not so much the men’s game. Almost all of these Coerver fast footwork drills can’t be done at full speed, and they are easier to do without error when wearing futsal shoes, the studs on cleats make the moves harder. You are not running full speed very much in futsal, and you have to move the ball at crazy angles in tight spaces, so the Coerver moves work really well in futsal. The slower speed of the women’s game also made it easier to do Coerver moves, the slower you run it’s easier to do the move. Plus, unless the female player is built like a slim boy, the women’s change of direction, TBH, is brutally slow. Because these Coerver moves are usually change of direction moves, they are highly effective in tripping up the girls.
My son used to play lot of indoor soccer and he used to look like Ronaldo playing vs high school or even college girls as a 6th or 7th grader. But when he tried the same moves on boys outdoors, he got stripped and abused. The boys were so much harder to beat with the initial move, and even if you beat them, their recovery was so fast most of the moves just didn’t work.
What I’m saying is, Byers approach is better than what we have now and will improve US soccer if we can get kids to do it, but at least for the men’s game, it is not a magic bullet that will solve our problems. It is just one key tool in the toolbox.
On another note, I don't buy in to the premise that the best athletes don't play soccer. Our participation in youth soccer dwarfs that of other World Cup successful countries. We certainly have a large enough talent pool to choose 26 of the world's best athletes. I've never looked at the USMNT and thought they weren't athletic. But I have looked at our teams and thought they lacked touch, creativity and good decision making.
I agree we have enough athletic talent. But the soccer training is so haphazard in this country the best soccer athletes are not always getting the best training. The reality is, especially at younger age groups, the best kids were trained by dads who know what they are doing, but their sons might not necessarily be the best soccer athletes.
Time will tell. Frankly, the men's game is faster but very boring when they constantly loose. My family and friends would rather watch a winning game than a boring one
