In a competitive training environment, each age group should have its own coaching philosophy and specific goals. These are the goals that we have laid out for our competitive program.
1) I have been coaching and evaluating players for a long time. During this time, I see too many individual players who do not know how to play the game when pressure is applied to them by a defender. They are not composed when the ball is at their feet and look to get rid of it. They basically panic under pressure or lack the confidence to 'keep the ball.' When players are young we must help them develop that composure with the ball at their feet. We want to develop an understanding that when they possess the ball at their feet, as pressure is being applied by the defense, they can beat that player with A) a move; B) a change of speed dribbling; C) hold the ball, take a 1st touch away from pressure and an use their body to hold off the defender, D) beat that player with a quick give and go with a teammate. In most, if not all, of these cases we want the player using 2, 3, 4 or more touches to breakdown their opponent. Our younger players are sponges and we want them to develop the concept of composure and confidence with the ball at their feet as early as possible. The older they get the harder it is to instill this concept. So we want players learning moves, playing small-sided games to get lots of touches in training, and using the dribbling, passing and decision making skills they learn in the training environment and applying them to the upcoming games that they play.
2) We want the parent coach and trainer to be collaborating together on the development of the players and team with the parent coach taking the lead from the Trainer and providing insight from the game the prior weekend. To do this, the parent coach must be at most, if not all, the trainings to see what is being worked on. The elements of that week or weeks work of training should be the main focus of any upcoming games. Whether they are working on a move, give and go's, crossing and finishing, or taking players on, they should be encouraged and asked to implement in the game(s) 1-2 functions/elements of their training sessions that they have been working on. Every individual should be rewarded verbally when you see them attempt to apply what has been worked on in training, in the game environment. All players want encouragement and when they hear the coach praising others they too will try to implement the same skills.
3) As we see success in the skills being developed in training, and then put into the game environment, we build upon those skills with new skill sets. Most of what we are encouraging is from the individual player. We spend around 80-85% of our energy on technical development with 15-20% spent on tactical themes. As these players become older we adjust our technical/tactical percentages so that we are working 80-85% tactical and 15-20% technical when they are in upper stages of their playing years. To move into the tactical stages though, we have to have completed or close to complete individual players who can handle the ball at their feet. If this is not being encouraged at the young ages, it is very hard to focus on tactical aspects of soccer at the older ages. Players get smarter as they get older on how to defend individually and as a team. As a player with the ball at your feet, you need to be able to beat that defender with either the dribble or with a pass. If you do not have the skill sets to dribble, you become predictable and easy to defend. When players are young we need to get them confident with the ball at their feet first before we move on to 'big picture' parts of the game.
4) Development vs. Winning. We never want to discount winning, but at the same time we never want to sacrifice development for winning. Learning to win and compete is a skill to develop just like the foot skills we are talking about above. But if we develop the complete individual player, the other elements of the game become easier to attain and the ability to breakdown and beat your opponent becomes easier. With this can and will come the wins as well. What these kids do at U9-10 with regards to winning doesn't mean anything vs. what it will mean at U14-18. For that reason, we want to encourage and stress the proper skills sets at a young age.
5) Coaching: We want our coaches to sit and watch the game, encourage/praise the use of skills sets worked on in practice, and make coaching corrections when you see a player make the same mistake in a repeated pattern. We do not want to 'joystick' coach our players. We are also trying to develop their decision making skills which cannot be developed when a coach is telling the player what to do when they have the ball at their feet. The coach should assess and look to understand why that player made that decision (taking a player on, passing...) and was it the right decision in that circumstance. Again, if you see a pattern to a players game that needs correcting, then you look to make that assessment with the player.
6) Playing time: With the U8/11 players we have rosters of 12 and play 8v8. At U12, we are expanding to rosters of 16 with the player environment being 11v11. For this reason, we need to be developing our full roster of 12 players with everyone getting the opportunity to start a good number of games, with everyone getting the opportunity to play a good number of minutes, and with everyone getting the opportunity to play every position. At 8 and 9 years old we do not know who will be best at which position so no one should be locked into any single spot on the field. Players blossom at different times, and we have to remember this as we look to develop all 12 players throughout the season.
As a club, as the Director of Coaching, and in working with our Youth Training Coordinator we have a belief in how we are developing our players and teams. We have long term success in mind and are confident in what we are doing to promote the best in the game of soccer to our players, parents, coaches and teams. I am excited to see where our club is in the next 3-5 years.