ODP

I just returned from New Jersey from the Region I Olympic Development Program Tournament.  I was pleased (and to be honest, pleasantly surprised) at the progress and play shown by our boys (PA West, 1998).  However, I have to say, watching and ODP tournament, it is easily seen why, in spite of our massive participation numbers, we fail to develop players to the highest levels.

While individual skill was shown, watching 1997 and 1998 players, the level of understanding of the shape of the game -- that is, basic application of principles of play, was fair at best.  The understanding of width was generally limited to the weakside wide midfielder going high and wide.  As central midfielders were rarely mobile off the ball, nor did they look two passes in advance, even that rudimentary width was never exploited.  Instead, the most common method of buildup was one pass into the midfield, and then a ball launched over the top or into the corner.  Although many players possessed the skill to possess and penetrate, the default setting of most squads appeared to rely on big balls, and the athleticism of the forwards to catch up.

I always tell my players I cannot make them better -- I can only give them the tools to improve, but they are responsible for their own game.  Watching the ODP tournament, theoretically the second tier of our player development in the US (the first being the players in the Developmental Academy system) and comparing them to the tactical understanding of same age players in England, I wonder if we, as a coaching fraternity, are giving those kids the tools.  We have little time with the ODP squads (due to weather, I believe we had a grand total of five outdoor training sessions in PAWest) and I´m not sure we are really making a positive impact.

That said, I have to say I was pleased with the performance and improvement of our lads.  After the first day, we tasked them to think of something they did well, and something they could improve upon for the second day.  I could tell in the way they approached the game on Sunday morning, they certainly did.  We played with intelligence and a bit of a cutting edge.

I don´t have any Earth-shattering insights on our next step of improvement, either the 1998 PAWest boys squad or the Olympic Development Program as a whole.  However, I will be thinking about the details of what I can do to be a little better, give the lads a few more tools, a little better learning environment next year.  If I´m not improving, I don´t deserve to work in youth soccer. 

There Are No Days Off

As excited as I was about yesterday, I am drained and tired today.  Andy Burgess has stepped down as manager a Preston North End WFC.  It´s not surprising, as we had talked about the time commitment of working at both Corby and PNEWFC this season, but more importantly the investment of heart and soul.  Coaching at two clubs is like living two lives, having two hearts.  It´s not just time and focus.  A football man lives and breathes the game, and Andy is a true football man.

I had a tough session last night and a disagreeable conversation about player development that I don´t care to go into at the moment.  I would really like a day off today.  Of course, I have no training commitments tonight, only a few administrative and research items that can be put off, but there really aren´t any days off in soccer.  I don´t know if other sports are like this, but it consumes you and you live with football in every minute.  Sometimes it´s a little much.

But I am tired -- Mondays are always tough -- and six or seven hours of sleep will do me some good. 

Then it will be up, a cup of coffee, and digging in to research on patterns of play or perhaps construction of tryout sessions and evaluation criteria.  You don´t get a day off, but even Bill Shankley or Alex Ferguson had to sleep sometime.

Monday Morning, Mind Spinning

I´ve worked as a temp on an overnight shift at a furniture warehouse since I´ve returned from England to keep some semblance of cash flow.  Monday is tough because I usually get home about 700am (a little earlier this morning -- work is slow) and have to be up before 300pm to get ready for ODP and make the drive across town.  It´s tough to get to sleep, because I usually have a head full of ideas on Monday, thinking through the sessions for the week and getting excited about working with the players.

Today is especially tough, but I´ve got to drink a glass of juice and go to bed.  We will be working on set pieces with the ODP boys tonight, and I will introduce them to briefing charts so the substitutes can see exactly what their tasks are so when there is a set-piece there is no confusion about who takes what role.  I´ll also be talking with the Gaffer, Andy Burgess, this afternoon.  We are going to talk about the upcoming season with PNE, working with Corby Town (Andy is player/coach at Corby this season), and a couple of ideas for business projects that we have.  And then there is the managerial vacancy at Torquay to talk about, and Andy and family have a new dog. 

To add to all of that, Century starts academy evaluations and team tryouts next week.  As I have in the past tryouts, I will be using a couple of exercises from the FA Soccer Star Challenge Program to generate objective assessment numbers for the evaluations.  Beyond that, though, I need to plan out the tryouts and give an outline to the evaluators of what qualities I want them to consider in their evaluations. 

Right now I don´t want to sleep -- all of these things on the agenda, and I want to jump in.  But I can´t do it all at once -- no one can.  So it´s to bed for a few hours of rest and hard at it this afternoon.

Player Development Models as a Moral Issue

Unfortunately, while American coaches espouse a formative player development model: respecting the individual and encouraging creative engagement with the game, most clubs and most associations still employ a exploitative model: recruiting players to produce strong teams to win the most competitions at every age. To be sure, there are counter-examples, and our coaching curricula, best practices, and pedagogical research all point to the formative model. However, there are strong cultural forces supporting the exploitative model, such as the push in educational policy towards standardized testing, as exemplified in the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly universally hated among educators, as it pushes them to train kids to take tests, rather than educate them. Of course, not least of the obstacles facing best practices for development of players is the belief of many (probably a minority, but vocal and significant minority) that the best thing for their child is to be on a winning team, and increasingly this means winning more, winning earlier.

In Western Pennsylvania, the win earlier, win more culture has produced the phenomenon of cup tryouts for U9 players, and formation of teams at that age. (This is counter to what is happening to much of American soccer with the example of Georgia´s academy program now meaning teams and leagues are not formed until U13, though organized, state scheduled friendlies begin at U9.) I´m not convinced there is a good metric to measure a seven year old in May and accurately judge how well the child will play as an eight year old the following June, but even if there is, those metrics are not always applied when selecting teams.

I spoke last week with a father of a very talented eight year old who was just cut from a U10 tryout, though she was offered a non-roster spot. He said he knows he is biased, but his daughter was clearly one of the four or five best at the tryout, but the club was trying to keep a group of kids together from one community, for fear of breaking up a carpool. His child was at a disadvantage being a July birthday, competing against kids 10 and 11 months older, which at that age is a huge difference: over 10% of their lives to date. He wants his daughter to improve and resented being told she isn´t good enough. His concern was that she would see that roadblock and, well, take her ball and go home: just quit the game and go somewhere else she is appreciated. He was relieved she is still wanting to train, and is interested in moving on to another club rather than another sport.

The club with which I work, Century United, is not going to form fixed roster teams at U9 and U10, but rather register player pools, and form ad hoc game rosters. I know that doesn´t seem revolutionary to everyone reading outside of the US, but here a player is registered to a team, not a club, thus there is no roster selection after the tryouts – you select your 16 or 18 for the year in June. When the academy director was describing what we will be doing, one of the fathers, who is also a coach, laughed and said, ¨Sounds great, but there is no way you´ll do it because you have to market to the Pittsburgh mentality of win all, win now.¨

I thought about what he said for a bit, and I disagree -- as coaches we should be marketing our expertise, and frankly, we should know better than the average parent.  It would be hubris to think we care more (and I would hope that parents care more about their kids than we do) but we should know more about development and sport.  It´s what we are paid to do.  Parents are paying good money  and should reasonably expect us to do our best for their kids.  If we aren´t because we are trying to conform to a marketing model in lieu of the child´s best interest, our values are skewed.

The player certainly has a fundamental right to be treated with respect by the adults in their life.  If we, as coaches, believe it is in the best interest of the child to have an open roster pool that recognizes the varying rates of development through a season year of each individual, but we instead choose a different path so we can market to a perceived wider audience, we are choosing money over the welfare of the children placed in our care.  And that is just wrong.  Full stop.

There are certainly legitimate differences of opinion about best practices for player development, but we need to recognize these discussions, disagreements, and decisions, are not mere marketing exercises.  It´s much more important than that.  

Player development, appropriate competition, depth of training, are all moral issues, not marketing.

For further discussion of academy training models, see the Spring, 2011 issue of Insight magazine for an article ¨An 'Elite' Academy: A Discussion¨ by José Portoles, former Academy Director at Valencia CF.

I Want More

A couple of months ago, I was living in Preston, England and coaching for Preston North End Women´s Football Club in the Northern Premier League.  About a week before I was to return to the States, I was walking home from Preston to Bamber Bridge, about two and a half miles of walking path built on a disused tram-way.  It was about one in the morning on a clear cold night and I paused to watch the train on the tracks about a mile west of me, cross the River Ribble and slow into Preston Station, making one its last stops before Scotland.

I felt the damp cold on me, thought about the good fortune of working with a great manager, a talented squad, and to be surrounded by people who love and respect me.  I said out loud, ¨If this is my high water mark, I can live with that.¨

But now as I write this at my desk, hearing the train pull into the Greensburg, Pennsylvania station on its first stop of the morning on its daily journey to New York, I want more.  I want to take what I´ve learned coaching first team, senior football, in one of the top women´s league in the world, and apply those lessons to help make the youth players I work with better.  I want to achieve more, put a player on a national team again, make it to the professional level, win more.

So this blog is about applying the lessons from the top of the game to a youth setting.  This spring, I´ve worked with three different soccer centers in four locations, with players from U8 to U14.  This summer, we will try and assemble a U14 girls team to compete at the Classic/Cup level and see what we can accomplish.  I am still on the books as Development Consultant at Preston North End WFC, and we will look to overcome the technical issues for me to contribute video analysis to the squad.  And finally, I am working to establish a relationship with Corby Town FC with match and video analysis, and try to help them push on from Conference North to the Blue Square Premier.

Now that I have had a taste of the game coached, managed, played, done properly, I want more.  I have a lot more to give, and I think there is much more for me to acheive.