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4/26/2015
5 Keys to Building an Early Engagement Model in the U.S. — CAN'T PASS, CAN'T PLAY
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5 Keys to Building an Early Engagement Model in the U.S. — CAN'T PASS, CAN'T PLAY
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5 Keys to Building an Early Engagement Model in
the U.S.
April 26, 2015
by John O'Sullivan
1) We must get away from “elite” teams, travel and long-distance inter-club play prior to age 12.
Cutting kids, forming elite travel teams, and then requiring excessive commitments of those kids at very
young ages (some states start at U-7) creates massive barriers to entry and participation. We basically
force kids out of the game and put up a “Not Welcome” sign for so many potential young players who are
sampling sports and cannot afford the time and financial commitment.
Now for those who say “we are teaching them to be competitive,” that is a load of BS. High
player fees, expensive out-of-town trips, and $300 uniform packages do not make
players more competitive; they make adults more competitive! Save yourselves a lot of
money and time by playing close to home in an inexpensive uniform, with less high-intensity,
win-or-go-home games, add more practices and free play, and players will engage with the
game.
2) Replace these travel teams with more in-house, academy-style training and play, with perhaps
a few festival-type weekends of soccer fun, futsal, 3v3, etc., and put your best coaches with these
kids.This will enable your best coaches to have contact with larger pools of players, exposing them to
good coaching and speeding the development of many players, instead of a select few.
Instead of selecting year-round teams, offer four sessions a year (winter, spring,
summer, fall) and let kids could come and go as they please after each session. There
would be no need to keep teams together year round (allowing for ample player movement),
but a strong incentive to create a playing environment where players wanted to come back. It
would be an environment where kids could sample many sports, and would be less likely to
be injured or burned out.
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They would become better athletes, and
then still have the opportunity to pick elite
level soccer when they re ready to choose.
Compare this to our current system, where
we tell them at U-9, “it’s now or never, time
to commit for a year,” and as a result we
lose many of the top athletes who are not
ready to choose yet. This model creates a place in our game for the late bloomers and the
multi-sport samplers.
It is OK to tier players and have different levels of training and even playing groups in
this format, as long as there is constant player movement allowed . Anyone who has
coached young players has seen how quickly an engaged player can improve, yet our current
system relegates that child to the “B” team for an entire year for no reason at all.
Imagine having 60-100 quality players to choose from at a U-13 tryout, all of whom
have been coached well for four to six years by your club, instead of selecting from an
increasingly dwindling pool of players from three years of travel teams and cuts (or
having to poach from other clubs to form your team)?
3) Make game days all-inclusive! One of the top
reasons kids quit sports is because of a lack of
playing time, yet we fill rosters to their max and
have players sitting out, and are hamstrung by our
competitive league rules that do not allow us to
adapt and increase participation. I believe the
number of players sitting on the bench at any
one time on game days is the most overlooked
destructive force in youth soccer today. I am
not talking about playing full-sided games here,
but being flexible based upon numbers on game
day.
For example, instead of playing 8v8 with 14
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player rosters and 12 kids sitting out at any
one time – so we can keep standings and play “real games” at U-9 – imagine we did
something different. Would it not be better if those same two groups played two 6v6 crossfield games and had 12 of the 14 players participating at any given moment? Show up one
week and play 6v6, and then the next week play 3v3.
The kids would love it because they are playing instead of sitting. They would play more, get
more touches, and become better players. Parents might chill out a bit because their coach is
the ref, the games are small-sided, and there are no standings. As for coaches, well, no more
worrying about managing playing time and playing for the win. You can just let them play,
create, fail, and do it all again.
4) Start focusing on and investing in coaching development at the grassroots level. We lose
millions of players between the ages of 6 and 12! At the ages where our best coaches can have the
biggest impact, the best coaches are absent! We hand that responsibility to volunteer moms and dads
with great intentions but quite often no playing or coaching experience. And then we email or hand them
a PDF at the preseason coaching meeting and call it good. We lose kids before they every have access to
a trained, experienced coach.
Throughout the world, I see a much greater value placed on coaching education, as
well as a focus on placing highly talented and experienced coaches with the
introductory players. In Iceland, for example, over 50 percent of coaches have a UEFA B
License or better, and many of these coaches are working with 5- and 6-year-olds. A premium
is placed upon quality coaching for all ages. That is why Iceland, a country of 350,000
people, was recently able to defeat mighty Holland in a competitive international match.
5) Invest in continuing parent education for your club. If you want your team to play out of the back,
you don’t simply work on it once; you go over it again and again. This makes total sense, yet somehow we
think that parents will know how to act on the sidelines and how to help their kids and coaches if we go
over it once, or make them sign a silly code of conduct at the beginning of the year. How’s that working
for you?
We must teach parents how to help during
these formative years, at a time when they
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are not so focused on results. Education will
help them to let go and let the experience
belong to the kids. Teach them to let their
kids fail, teach them what to say on the
sideline, and create a child-centered culture in your club that tells the over-the-top,
win-at-all-costs parents, “shape up or ship out, because that is not how we do things
here.” Today we just hope it will happen, that it will come naturally, but where is that getting
us?
These five actions can help us build an early engagement path for our players that will
grow their love of the game by letting players develop on their own pace, and commit
on their own schedule. They will build intrinsic motivation and enjoyment. This model will
prove less costly in terms of money and time for families trying to balance multiple kids and
multiple activities.
Most importantly, these five steps will give us a much larger pool of trained athletes to choose
from at ages where players are prepared to take on the training and commitment level necessary
to go to the next level. It is a far better path.
We need some clubs and some leagues to be brave and become early adopters. We must
overcome the fear that we will lose our players to the club next door that is picking the “elite”
team, and travelling thousands of miles to put kids in environments that take away their love
of the game. Yes, we will lose some kids to those clubs, but in the long run, you will gain
many more players, and serve them well.
My hope here is not to have the last word, but start a proper discussion on what is the correct
path in this country for producing not only elite players, but growing the game and the fan
base for the future, for only through the growth of the game will we ever be a world power. If you want your child to have the best chance to stay free of injury, motivated to play, and fall
in love with the game, find a club that offers a path of early engagement. Step back and
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encourage more free play, greater child ownership, and space for other activities and sports.
Have the patience to let your children find the sport that is best physical, social and
psychological fit for them.
I love the game of soccer, and I know that when it is set up right, it is a sport that children will
gravitate to because it is a players game, and it values both individualism and teamwork, both
creativity and industry.
It has all the ingredients to become the most popular game in our land, if we just get out of the
way.
0 Likes  Erik Imler /  3 Comments
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Preview Jim Hart
7 hours ago http://www.cantpasscantplay.com/blog/2015/4/26/5keystobuildinganearlyengagementmodelintheus
POST COMMENT…
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5 Keys to Building an Early Engagement Model in the U.S. — CAN'T PASS, CAN'T PLAY
Great stuff Erik. We need you back on the Year Zero podcast to talk about this.
Great article my friend.
Cheers Jim.
sonLOVESthegame
16 hours ago Erik,
Well said on so many levels. I speak from the parents point of view, and I am
playing my child at the academy level not so that he can wear matching uniforms
and various practice shirts, but so that he can get quality coaching and guidance
in a game that he loves. He is U10 and this season has been filled with
discouraging words from the coach both during practice and after a game. The
coach puts his face in his hands during a losing game, and offers no coaching from
the sidelines at all. I wonder why he is coaching at all if the WIN is the only
important thing. If only all coaches could see from your prospective. Thank you for
putting your thoughts out there!! Keep doing what your doing, and lets hope THEY
listen!
Erik Imler
16 hours ago It's so sad that youth soccer has what we could label as "theives" and
"crooks" coaching our youngsters. The win at all costs mentality punctures
so many different age groups all across the country. Unfortunately, it's the
players who always get the short end of the stick.
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