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    Beautiful Soccer: Creating Passion and Confidence in Young Players
    Beautiful Soccer: Creating Passion and Confidence in Young Players
    Beautiful Soccer: Creating Passion and Confidence in Young Players
    Ebook208 pages1 hour

    Beautiful Soccer: Creating Passion and Confidence in Young Players

    By Ryan Marquez and Doug Werner

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    About this ebook

    Exploring the role of coaches and parents, this book emphasizes the importance of team identity and a team mindset and presents the necessary foot skills and tactics to help young soccer players both perform better and have more fun. As youth soccer becomes increasingly popular, coaches often gloss over individual improvement in order to win, relying on rigid systems and a few elite players to carry a team. This impairs player development and kills the joy of the game—so how can adults make competitive soccer better for kids? Addressing that very problem, this book outlines basic patterns of play that young players can use to advance the ball and illustrates innovative techniques that will help improve any team. Moreover, this book advocates a soccer culture free from the fear of failure; instead, players, coaches, and parents are encouraged to foster confidence, passion, creativity, and the desire to try and keep trying.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisherchristine+tracks
    Release dateJul 17, 2012
    ISBN9781935937531
    Beautiful Soccer: Creating Passion and Confidence in Young Players

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      Book preview

      Beautiful Soccer - Ryan Marquez

      Index

      Skill,

      Courage,

      Artistry

      It’s so important to teach the kids HOW TO PLAY.

      When little Billy or Suzi is 7 or 8 it’s more important they learn how to dribble and kick and collect than it is for their tiny tots team to win this Saturday. In fact, it’s more important that they continue to hone their skills for the next several years than it is to score more goals than the other guys.

      That’s a very hard thing to get across because we all want to win all the time at any age. Just learning stuff sounds like a cop out. OK we lost, but boy we sure moved the ball well! I mean, who cares about that! We all should. That’s who. If the kids are not learning skills, if they cannot confidently manipulate the ball, they will play with fear. Teams will rely on a few athletic players to make plays and score goals while everyone else plays some sort of supporting role. That usually means kickball. No skill means fear means kickball.

      You hear it all the time from the sidelines. Get the ball outta there! Kick it out! Kick it down-field! Coaches and parents scared out of their minds when players make mistakes and lose the ball. So what happens? Kids don’t feel encouraged to expand their talents. They become afraid to try. If the ball comes to them, they just want to kick it away. That’s no fun for anybody.

      Let the kids learn how to play. Encourage them ALL to work hard and get better so they can derive real satisfaction from the game. From skill comes courage. We want to develop fearless artists on the ball who can play anywhere when they grow to be high school and college players.

      That’s worth shooting for.

      Ryan Marquez

      Talking to Coach Ryan

      Over the course of about six months Ryan Marquez and I conducted six interviews regarding the state of competitive youth soccer. They are somewhat rambling, but there were some very good points made and even a couple controversial ones.

      Ryan is a good source for comment because he is a head high school coach and a director for a soccer club with a number of years playing and coaching behind him. He is young, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and does not yell at his players — the latter a singular coaching trait. He commands respect through his pure love of the game and by teaching it so very well to young people.

      I think what Ryan has to say is very important, and I should know because I have been a Soccer Dad for a number of years and have seen my share of teams and coaches. Most programs have been flawed for reasons we get into later. I am sure my experiences are not unique. But I didn’t want to publish a bash piece so I left out (most of) the rants. We present a way of thinking that should make soccer better for our kids, for parents and for coaches.

      Doug Werner

      The

      Problem

      We don’t realize that the more our kids are skilled, the more they can benefit from systems and the more we can bring out of a system. We need to fully commit to skill sets even though there may be a price to pay.

      We develop kids that show immediate talent and everyone else is sort of filling space.

      We are not preparing kids for the long term — five to ten years. We are preparing kids for this Saturday.

      Is there a problem with competitive youth soccer in the United States? The main thing is the structure. In the U.S., coaches are judged by how many wins they get this season.

      Success is based on immediate results? Yes, immediate results. By contrast, European coaches are judged by how many players they groom for the professional levels. For us, it’s winning right away. We are not preparing kids for the long term — five to ten years. We are preparing kids for this Saturday.

      When you say kids, what ages? In Europe and South America, development can start very young. Like 7, 8. The very serious stuff is probably 14 and up, but the younger kids are already getting base skills.

      You have one or two kids learning a lot and all the other kids learning how to play it safe.

      Development lags here in America because our professional league is not yet established. Our leagues are starting to grow, but it’s going to take time. Our professional league has been around 18 years or so, but it’s taken time for them to grow youth leagues, to create academy teams.

      Why aren’t most clubs developing to the next level? The biggest problem is that coaches and the club are judged by the next game.

      Are coaches looking for kids with the natural talent and then just getting them the ball? Often there are kids that have a little more talent. And on some teams, players are asked to feed those talented kids the ball while everyone else plays a little safer. You have one or two kids learning a lot and all the other kids learning how to play it safe.

      It’s sort of have a star system, a kiddie star system. To an extent.

      We develop kids that show immediate talent and everyone else is sort of filling space. Because Saturday is such a big deal. That’s why a lot of coaches put organization first and skill second. You can organize players and make it work for the time being, but teaching a skill takes repetition over a long period of time. It might be years before a kid performs skill sets well. Right now, coaches think they don’t have years. If he doesn’t keep winning, his team is going to explode. Parents and players are going to leave. So a coach organizes.

      So the number one thing lacking in youth soccer in the United States has been a lack of skills? Yes, a lack of skills. Let’s look at our highest levels. Look at the national team — the best we have. When they play physical teams, like Ghana, there are big problems. Ghana has big guys and they are just as athletic, if not more athletic than us. We cannot use our skill to play around them. You can see our guys panic just like the little kid on Saturday who kicks it out of bounds or forces a bad pass or makes a bad collection.

      Even at the higher levels there’s a lack of skills? I would say so. Big, strong and speedy are not the only answers. Barcelona is one of the best teams right now and have players well under six feet, but they have this smooth technical ability where they can play big, strong guys. They are able to compensate with their skills and savvy.

      Skill and savvy can compete with fast and big? Yes. To be sure, if you are small, you still have to be able to move fast. I mean, it’s just the reality. But fast with no skill won’t work. You must have the technical ability to keep the ball close. Otherwise they are going to bump you off the ball.

      Skill is something that no one can take away from you. It’s an asset a player can learn — that skill, that coordination with the ball. And I think that’s where we’re missing out. You take tennis lessons but do not learn the tactical side at first. It’s just how to do the basic things like how to hit forehands and backhands.

      But so much of our soccer training doesn’t emphasize skills.

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