Player Development IV

Number Of Touches
Data Comparing Training To Match Play

Part IV in the Player Development series.  Read: Part I, Part II, Part III.

After the quick study on time of possession in Part I of the series, we followed up at a training session tracking the number of touches one player took in training.  While games are exciting, and kids love to play, they might be best viewed by the adults involved as recesses...or electives a student will be more eager to take than core curricula.  I doubt any thinking person would advise students to be given the option carte blanche to study whatever they like, most would take recess as often as they choose!  There are some subjects that a functioning citizen simply must master to a degree.  But, that is also presuming that the aim is to make each player achieve his or her potential to the fullest.  It might also be worth submitting that teaching young people to enjoy any endeavor in a meaningful way, advancing their understanding and fundamental mastery of the topic is the best route to doing so.

College Season Wrap

Haverford College 

Wins On PKs; Advance In NCAA Tourney

Stevens Institute of Technology Halts Fords Season In Round Of 32

The celebration as the Fords hit their fifth PK to win the competition after junior GK Adriy Mshanetskyy (Miss-Shan-ets-ski) saved two of the Wesleyan University kicks (guessed correctly on the other two, touching one) giving the squad a chance at the sweet 16.

Amherst College Women's Soccer

NCAA Hijinks

A slightly lighter subject than the usual stuff...While the Amherst player's behavior is pretty lousy, one does have to ask how the Colby kid could take her eye off the ball a second time!  Fool me once....

Player Development III

Fear And Loathing In US Soccer

USSF Establishes New Development Academy Demands: 
No High School Sports, 10 Month Season Highlight Changes

Part III in the 192 Square Feet Player Development series.  Read: Part I & Part II

Seems everyone is talking about it (*see bottom of post for article links), and where Philly seems to be all afire about the changes perhaps some further discussion here would be of use to a few folks.  Every paradigm shift comes with lots of outcry and discomfort (see: Affordable Care Act; Social Security/OASDI Program).  With all due acknowledgement to the difficulty of knowing the right path to take, I'm fairly sanguine about the changes.  But it's worth acknowledging that having worked for 12 years on both the youth and college sides of the recruiting process, I'm much more comfortable with the realities than a parent who lacks the insider knowledge.  At any rate, just as a student who attends a school like Carleton won't suffer in life for having not gone to Harvard, most kids will do just fine without ever playing for a Development Academy program.

The other side of this argument is that the soccer community is too wrapped up in the changes with the Development Academy; regular clubs ought to be taking the hint and following the approach taken by the USSF to the degree the stakeholders feel is suitable.  If we made our clubs better, not being a part of the DA would be far less of a concern to the close-but-not-quite set of players.  Doesn't it seem odd that the USSF, and the experts they consulted with came up with the approach they did, and so few of the clubs (run by part-timers, volunteers, and generally non-soccer-professionals) see fit to replicate that effort?

The change is a good one, and the tempest will pass.  No one need be worried about being shut out of senior level opportunities.

Here's why.

1V1 Skill

"Take Ons" Take Practice
OPTA Stats Zone Analysis

In discussing a topic covered at 192 Square Feet this August (read it here) with one of the LMSC boys at training this week, I thought it might be of interest to look at the pros' numbers and again consider the need for high-volume repetition training environments.  To diffuse the cynicism of those who trust the status quo of youth soccer, and to provide a data-based foundation on which to build a smarter youth soccer model, the ten screen grabs below come from OPTA's "Stats Zone" app, and show the players who dribbled at opponents the most from the 10 EPL games over the weekend of 10/27-28.