Well, we have taken a few shots this past couple of weeks from some poorly informed journalists criticising the LTPD plan and suggesting that we don’t want the players to be competitive and that we wont keep scores etc….I am not going to waste my time or yours by raking the coals. This dialogue does open up a good debate, in my opinion, regarding how we measure success in youth sports. Keeping scores and league tables at the younger ages is no predictor of how a team or a group of players will fare in future. We have all seen the dominant U10 team, bigger and faster than everyone else slowly fall from grace as the rest of the players catch up in size and speed and their superior technique which they worked on instead of shelling the ball down the, field takes over.
So how do we know if we are having success with our younger teams? Before I go any further let me be clear on one thing; I think winning is important…but so is losing. Youth sport is so much more than the outcome of any game. Sport teaches life lessons that are invaluable to us as we mature. We learn how to win and much more importantly, we learn how to lose and how to deal with disappointment. No one gets everything they want all the time and learning to deal with a loss is maybe the greatest life lesson there is: the harsh truth in life is that the vast majority of us have a few more losses than wins!
I have always believed that the goal of the coach of a U6 team is to get the players to come back the following year, and in turn the goal of the U7 coach is to get them to come back as U8 players and so on. Athletes aren’t developed over one year; it’s a long term project, with the emphasis being on the long term.
If we want to try to define success in youth sports we need to look at much more than results and performance.
Our short term goals and ones that we can aim for in every session are pretty straight forward.
Make it enjoyable and keep them active.
Get them engaged in the process and make them feel a part of their team, not yours.
Teach them a new move
If they leave your session with a smile on their face then the chances are you are succeeding with the players and there is a greater chance of them coming back for more. Our game doesn’t have a problem attracting new players but we do have issues when it comes to player retention.
Defining long term success is a little wider in its scope incorporating the short term measures and some ‘bigger picture’ elements.
Teach them fair play and a respect for their opponents, the rules of the game and the officials who enforce the rules
Encourage them to always give their best effort, let them know that their best is always good enough regardless of the result
Make sure that the players are given opportunities to take on leadership roles within the team
From a technical point of view as coaches these elements will lead to success for your players:
Create an environment that allows and encourages the players to make their own decisions on the field
Expose them to the different roles and responsibilities of different positions on the field
Keep them challenged and keep them learning, in my experience we lose players because they stop improving-they aren’t burned out, they are bored
Make the training competitive, the competition will stimulate their development.
Success in youth sports is difficult to measure and so is identifying the future top class athletes, one thing is for sure; when young players leave our game then we don’t get a second chance. I have always believed that we lose a team full of top class athletes in both genders each year before they ever get the soccer bug. If this is the case then the key measureable for defining success in youth soccer has to be retention: are our players coming back and are they playing as adults and staying active for life which is a key element of Long Term Player Development.
In closing…in my next blog I will give you more information on the touches per minute (TPM) project that I started in October. I have had some interesting conversations with Gregor Young from Monday Morning Centreback and we are talking about some projects that we can take on to get some more information on the small sided games.
The next Lower Island Soccer Coaches Association meeting will take place on Friday 18th November at Reynolds Park starting at 6.15pm. The topic for the session will be basic defending in 1v1 and 2v2 situations. I hope to see as many of you there as possible and remember to bring your boots
Good blog Andrew. I agree with all your points about smiling faces, fair play, winning and losing, and leadership.
ReplyDeleteI think how we measure success depends upon what our goals are. If our goal is to keep kids interested in soccer, then measuring retention would be a good measure of success. If our goal is to improve the level of play, then success could be measured by how many kids progress from Bronze to Silver to Gold, and how many kids Clubs send to LISA's HPL Team, and how many players LISA's HPL Teams send to National Teams.
I think too often we get confused about what we think of as success. I like how you have identified success because keeping our players coming back year-after-year as youth and adults should be our overall goal. But at the youth level, I think skills development needs to be a goal too. The game is a lot more enjoyable to play (and watch) when players are skillful. So while we're focusing on retention, leadership and fair play, let's also measure the rate at which we develop these players.