Avoiding the Drop

He's going to start by getting his kids to play.

“How do we give more of our millions of kids playing a better experience and a better path to becoming better players?” - US Soccer President Sunil Gulati, April 7th 2010

What should a prospective youth player know how to do by the time they’re twelve years old?

Right now, across the country, youth associations are asking themselves that question. They’re asking the same question about every age below 12 and every age above it. They’re asking themselves that because they want to produce good players.

The problem is, each one of those youth soccer associations is coming up with a different answer to the question. They’re not all created equal, and they’re not all operating under the same set of guidelines. Former U.S. national team captain and current USSF Youth Technical Director Claudio Reyna is hoping that he can use his experience as a product of the system to change that.

Reyna explains the problem like this:

“I went to an international tournament with an American team playing and you just see the difference of where we are behind, on the field and off the field. There’s a big difference between what kids are learning over there compared to here.”

Note that he’s not talking about a lack of athletes or about a lack of interest, two common arguments that are thrown up when talking about American player development. The issue isn’t simply that our best athletes are playing basketball or that not enough kids are involved; rather, it’s the methodology of the coaches that are training the kids that needs to be addressed.

Reyna’s solution, really, isn’t particularly groundbreaking. His ultimate goal is to get coaches all over the country utilizing a curriculum (to be released by the USSF later this summer) that’s age appropriate and broken into three “zones”: Zone 1 (U-6 through U-12), Zone 2 (12-18), and Zone 3 (elite and college players). Each curriculum will include tactics, fitness, and technique goals that are age appropriate, and it will all be available from an online library so coaches can easily access it. The cost wasn’t announced, but Sunil Gulati – with all the tact and aplomb you’d expect – doesn’t seem to be worried about releasing any American secrets: “It’s not the formula for Coca-Cola.”

And, really, that’s kind of the point. This isn’t a secret; the general structure of youth development abroad has been pretty well documented. For example, this is how a PSV youth coach explained their system to Four Four Two a few years ago:

“With our seven to 12-year-olds the first thing we work on is individual skill, playing on theirown. Then we move them into one-on-one situations. Then into two attackers against one defender. After that it’s an eight-versus-eight game situation where winning is not important and the emphasis is on taking risks and playing attacking football. You can see with players like Arjen Robben [a PSV youth product] that this is the way he learnt to play the game.”

The general concepts are the same; slowly introduce the game and it’s concepts, gradually increasing the difficulty and the scope as they get older. Scaffold what you learned in 3v3 or 5v5 matches into a full blown 11v11 game.

While the approach may not be revolutionary, if this curriculum comes out (Reyna envisions youth coaches being able to download sessions and listen to them on the way to practice) it’ll at least be a step towards unifying the shotgun approach to youth development in the U.S. Reyna’s not looking to impose formations, or to dictate tactics; rather, his aim is to make everyone involved aware of the concepts. Like he says:

“The leading nations, in whatever way they got to their level, they do have a way of doing things. We’re going to create our own way. Our potential is huge. We’ve just started.”