This weekend an incredible World Cup came to an end, a fantastic tournament of surprise results and shock performances.

During the tournament England’s Fabian Delph welcomed his child in to his life, and a moment of class from Gareth Southgate insisted that Delph return home during the tournament to be with his wife and new born child.

Southgate said: “The thought process is some things in life are more important than football”. His wife is due to go into labor. This is a big tournament, but family is more important. At times like this, players who are family orientated should be supported by us”.

At the biggest soccer tournament in the World, a key player was released for a family moment. This is something we are now seeing that is missing in youth soccer. Tournaments and travel games being more important than moments in a child’s life, missing family events and childhood experiences.

We are all passionate about soccer, and as a club we will do everything we can to support the soccer development of Fremont players, but there must be balance and an environment for kids to develop as human beings.

We are now at the crucial stage of the World Cup, the Finals. Wales have politely obliged to let the other countries around the world have a chance of winning and chose not to qualify. So now to make our pick –

Belgium

We love their development program for their players all the way from grassroots to senior…

“It was a massive shift but we believed that 4-3-3, at that moment, was the strongest learning environment for our players,” Browaeys says. “We felt that we had to develop dribbling skills, we said at the heart of our vision was 1v1, the duel. We said when a boy or girl wants to start playing football, you must offer first the dribble, let them play freely.” Belgium Blueprint

… and Lukaku is representing Man Utd with some fantastic performances.

Also a shout out for Sweden! and then Croatia!… whoever England play.

Enjoy the remaining few rounds of the Competition, enjoy it as a fan, embrace the skill on display, and become the creative little players of your idols on display.

Registration for Fall 2018 Recreation Soccer is open and take advantage of early registration at only $99.

Recreation, Play

New Course – July 2018

Date and Time (Must attend ALL sessions)

Tue, July 24th  6pm to 9pm
Wed, July 25th  6pm to 9pm
Fri, July 27th  6pm to 9pm

Location

Fremont YSC Office
44100 Old Warm Springs Blvd
Fremont, CA

Registration

https://cnra.gameofficials.net/public/class/classRegister.cfm?classID=25639

We would always recommend picking your college based on the location and academics provided, but we also understand the desire of individuals to be recruited for a college.

To gain this exposure the most efficient way to be spotted is by attending a College ID Camp. 80% of college coaches expressed the College ID Camp as the most efficient way of being scouted.

As explained by iSoccerPath:

The answer simply is that due to the enormous amount of soccer players who all have talent and good grades, it is impossible to get a good evaluation in just one game or in 15 to 20 minutes at a showcase.  Coaches on average see 30-40 games over 2 to 3 days at a showcase and having only 10-15 minutes at each game it has become too hard, as they get 100-200 email requests a day leading up to a showcase to visit players’ games.  High School games are mostly thought of as very low value due to level of talent on field. Not every player can or does the ODP/TC route and club games are still viable but only for coaches in a 30-60 mile radius on a weekend for the most part.

The reasons that coaches now encourage 1 day College ID Camps and small multi coach camps are listed below:

• Have on average 5 to 6 hours to be evaluated in a small setting
• Players are grouped within their grad year to play amongst peers
• NCAA allows one on one communication at camp to learn character (Division 1 excluded)
• Current college team players run drills and can get to know recruits during the day
• Players can get a feel of the campus, staff, food, and dorms to see if a possible fit (Division 1 excluded)
• Costs are usually less than $150 and many camps have multiple D1, D2, D3, NAIA and JC coaches
• Can use camp to set up unofficial visit after September 1stof your junior year in high school
• Can receive an eval from college coach staff afterwards to know immediately if you should continue to pursue that program or not
• Opportunity to work on branding and marketing yourself before and after camp through email and phone communications with coaching staff

To read the full article, click on the following – https://isoccerpath.com/college-id-camps-take-over/

Playing Brackets and Winning

In its purest and honest form, playing brackets are a great way to have even match ups between teams. Unfortunately, playing brackets have been swept up in the youth soccer madness.

One of the advantages of having such a populous region, with multiple clubs within a close geographical area, is that playing brackets can be set up between cities in short traveling distance. The idea of these brackets is so teams of similar ability can play in competitive games. Sadly, the playing brackets have become a false indication of a player/team’s actual ability. Promotion/relegation is the adult’s world where we live by results orientated work (ironically US professional leagues bypass this, but that’s an entirely separate issue). A player’s development is not correlated to wins and losses, but how they are progressing in each of the four pillars of player development.

Firstly, there is no promotion or relegation, and brackets are decided upon by the directors and coaches of clubs. There are a lot of changes that take place not making promotion and relegation feasible, so accurate brackets rely on the integrity of the clubs, and this is where the importance of brackets starts to diminish.

Brackets are now used in two ways.

Brackets to Win

Clubs/Teams will now enter certain level brackets, so they can win, or increase their chance of winning. All too often as coaches we speak to other teams and we hear they chose to enter a ‘lower’ level bracket as they lost one game the previous season, games should be evenly matched for competition, losing a game is not a negative, it’s a chance to learn. To use winning as the barometer of success in youth sports does not correlate with a player’s level of development, this effects the decision making of clubs and teams. Not only does this need to win service the ego of the coach, but it also conflicts directly with those who are trying to develop players appropriately. Youth games should exist where coaches speak before the start of the game, and ask what they would like to work on, where the opposition then plays in a certain way for the period of the game, so coaching can take play, with both teams accommodating each other’s area of development. Ultimately, you then find these teams chasing wins get their 1st place news straight on the website, and spreading through the community, using it to recruit players.

Brackets to Recruit

The flip side is clubs and teams entering brackets to advertise and entering ‘higher’ brackets. The brackets follow the metals, just like in other sports, gold, silver, etc. Teams who rely on winning, who do not provide player development, will apply for and advertise their participation in the ‘higher’ bracket. Immediately this sets off ‘Fear of Missing Out’, and this must mean all the best players are on that team. What this does is draw in players to the program because parents are fed that their kid will get ‘more exposure’, and they need to be in these brackets. Then the importance of winning takes over with new recruited players, and development is again over looked.

We have all been involved in a game where there is a clear mismatch, whether its the whole team, or one individual that dominates a game, and quite often through their physical maturity.

The emphasis placed on winning effects a coach’s decisions on playing time, rotation of players through positions, and prevents players from taking the risks and making decisions on critical problem solving and creative thinking on the field.

Competitive is the worst word that could be used for a youth program. There is always competition when two opposites play against each other, in any activity. It is the focus on must win that derails development. All games should be competitive, but it relies on the integrity of the clubs

Some Interesting Articles

Coaching to Develop Players vs Coaching to Win

http://m.teachlikeachampion.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fteachlikeachampion.com%2Fblog%2Fcoaching-and-practice%2Fcoaching-develop-players-vs-coaching-win-examples%2F&dm_redirected=true#2729

What’s wrong with winning?

http://keepitonthedeck.com/blog/2016/9/20/what-is-wrong-with-league-tables-and-winning

Identify Success When Losing

http://devzone.positivecoach.org/resource/article/identifying-success-one-win-season

Higher Purpose than Winning

http://changingthegameproject.com/a-higher-purpose-than-winning/

Tony Strudwick, Biggest Mistake in Youth Soccer

http://goalnation.com/tony-strudwick-on-the-biggest-mistake-in-youth-soccer/

Cost of winning in youth sports

http://goalnation.com/high-cost-winning-youth-soccer/

Tournaments and Trophies

One of the hot topics which I have been very passionate about for many seasons. The USA are the only soccer nation that has tournaments where kids are playing 4 – 6 games over a 2-3 day period.

‘Youth players in America are regularly required to play as many as six competitive games in three days during weekend tournaments’ USC Soccer Journal, Dr. Jozsef Fabian

You will never see a full professional playing two games in two days, let alone playing two games in one day. The effect of this is an increase in the incidence and severity of injury, along with a significant drop in the playing ability and skill level of the player. In an education weekend on fitness and performance presented by Raymond Verheijen, he was disturbed at what youth players are put through, and made coaches complicit in allowing this to happen and ending playing careers of youth players due to ligament injuries, largely serious knee injuries. The education, research, and knowledge is there for all of us, yet we ignore this and still continue to make tournaments longer and more intense while knowing the incidence of serious injury increases. Showcase Tournaments being the biggest culprit, using ‘exposure’ as a selling point to playing 6 matches, even though a players skill level will be diminished by the final game of the 3 days.

‘The ability of soccer players to sprint, jump, and perform repeated intense exercises is impaired when they have to play two competitive matches a week’ Ian Rollo, Loughborough University 

‘Players who play two matches per week have a six times higher injury rate, including a five times higher rate in the incidence of severe injuries, than those who play once a week’ Gregory Dupont, Lille 2 University

Tournaments serve a purpose for generating an income stream for clubs and organizations, and an opportunity to splash trophies across their web-page and social media outlets. We are just as guilty, hosting 3 tournaments throughout a season, for the purpose of generating funds to keep training fees low. However, we have been very consistent in not entering teams in to tournaments outside of Fremont. Additionally tournament play goes against the development model, development and winning cannot co-exist, when winning becomes the focus the coaches decisions are no longer based on the welfare of the player, but on what will get them the win. Players are put in to dangerous situations of getting injured as they are the ‘best’ player so will not be subbed off. Lower level players get far less play time if any. A style of play and focus on comfort on the ball, the proper mechanics being performed, and the enjoyment of the game go out of the window; but in come the fear and pressure on players of making mistakes.

Attending tournaments then becomes the advertising machine for clubs, as they will travel out of state and over hundreds of miles to play in a tournament, adding to the perception that they must be a high level team due to the needed travel. This only serves the purpose of putting families under a financial burden for travel, difficult decisions on missing family events, youth players under pressure to win over developing their game, and strokes the ego of the coach lacking in education and knowledge. This has lead to a downward spiral getting out of control with teams going to even more tournaments and traveling even further.

This bleeds in to the Fear of Missing Out, no longer making youth sport the player-centric environment it should be.

Local teams will always be a challenge for any team, and if a team is that much more developed, then the coach should have the skill set to be able to add targets and competitions within the game to further develop and challenge the player.

Some Interesting Articles

http://time.com/4757448/youth-sports-pay/

https://devzone.positivecoach.org//resource/video/reasons-rise-acl-injuries

http://changingthegameproject.com/will-know-change/

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-adultification-of-youth-sports/

Great meeting this past Wednesday evening with Jamie from World Strides. We can’t wait to get this UK Tour all finalized and confirmed in the diary, it’s going to be a great experience for the Fremont players. No better way than living and breathing soccer for 10 days at the home of the Premier League.

Everyone at Fremont YSC is wishing McKenna a speedy recovery from her unfortunate injury over the weekend. We look forward to seeing you back on the field.