By Christian Lavers The choice
of where to have your child play youth soccer can be
very difficult. Multiple clubs, “select teams,” or
leagues will tout their services or programs, often with
promises of glory down the road. There is no shortage of
choices for where your child can spend the next year of
development – and in the United States, parents have
more choice than in any other country.
The
number of choices can be overwhelming -- especially to
parents without a soccer background. When there are
different people selling different services, often in
different leagues, and all emphasizing the importance of
choosing their club, it is no surprise that people make
choices that they will regret in the future. This raises
a key question:
How do I choose a soccer club
for my child? While there is no easy answer to this
question, there is one key principle that should guide
your decision: the single most important external factor
in any player’s development is the quality of the coach
working with the player on a regular basis. The impact
of this individual, especially at U8-U14, far outweighs
the league the team plays in, the success of the team,
or any other factor. Quite simply, great coaches at
these ages help motivated players maximize their
ability. Because of this huge impact and influence,
consider the following in trying to evaluate your
options:
* Being a great soccer
player does not automatically translate into being a
great teacher of soccer players.
*
Beware of any coach who takes credit for the
success of his or her past players; the best coaches
understand that players earn their own achievements.
* Beware of any coach advertising
the number of college scholarships their players have
received, (and run the other way if they promise one to
you).
* Though earning coaching
licenses doesn’t guarantee a great coach, it does show
effort on the part of the coach. (That said, a license
does not certify honesty or integrity.)
* Be sure the “name” attached to the team will
be the coach attached to the team; bait-and-switch is
not uncommon.
* Is the coach
offering a training-based program with appropriate
training-to-game ratios (at least 3-1), or is the coach
promoting a program overly emphasizing competition?
While these guidelines help narrow your choices, you
may still have several options. If that happens,
consider having your child attend a training session
with the potential coach, and evaluate the session on
the following criteria:
* Did
your child enjoy the session, and does he or she want to
go back?
* Is your child
receiving coaching points that are detailed,
personalized, and technical, or are they general, vague,
and primarily focused on hustle and attitude?
* Are the players consistently engaged
and active, with frequent contact with the ball?
* Does your child leave the
training feeling that he or she has learned something
new, or excited to try something new?
While the
quality of the opposition in games and training
gradually becomes more important as players age, (and is
very important at U14 and above), these factors are far
less significant when the player should primarily be
learning individual technique and decision-making.
Unfortunately, no matter how much you research your
decision, you may make a mistake -- the world is full of
great salesmen. To minimize the impact of a bad
decision, you must be able to recognize when the
coaching your child is receiving is slowing their
development. Without being a “helicopter parent,” be
mindful when watching your child’s team play:
*
Are players encouraged to solve problems and think, or
are they simply running around and kicking?
*
Does the team try to possess the ball (good sign), or do
they seem in a rush to go to goal immediately every time
they get the ball (bad sign)?
* Is coaching in
the game given to players away from the ball (good
sign), or is the coach joysticking the player with the
ball (bad sign)?
* Is most of the coaching
concerned with “working harder”? (What do you do when
“working harder” is no longer sufficient because of a
lack of knowledge or skill?)
* Does the team
rely primarily on serving the ball forward to a fast
player up front to score, and on a fast player in the
back to cover for mistakes? (Very bad sign)
*
Does the team play differently at the end of the season
than it does at the beginning? Is your child a
noticeably different (and improved) player?
While the focus of this article has been primarily on
coaching, it is important to realize that if parents do
not encourage self-directed play in the hours their
child is not with their coach, to some extent the
selection of a club, team, or coach is a moot point --
the player’s ceiling is already established.
(Christian Lavers is the Executive
Vice President at
US Club Soccer. He holds the highest coaching
licenses in the United States -- the USSF "A" License,
the USSF "Y" License, and the NSCAA Premier Diploma.)
