Make sure your data is from the real world when deciding on an offensive address
I attended a “youth soccer” session at a coaching clinic in the last 3 months that still worries me. We won’t go into where the clinic was or who the speaker was, that’s not important, what’s important is the issue of how we as coaches interpret the data presented to us. In this clinic, the data was totally false and flawed, leading the speakers to assume that “ALL” youth soccer teams could run their system incorrectly.
There are many very talented youth soccer coaches who know what they are doing. They may have been coaching youth baseball for decades and have a clear understanding of what average kids can and can’t do. They understand that even with the best training on the planet and even 4-5 days of practice a week, there are certain things that most average skilled kids just can’t do.
Decisions decisions
On the other hand, there are also many parents who are forced to coach youth soccer who aren’t sure what they should be able to get out of the typical pool of undrafted soccer players. Some of this group sell their kids down and don’t advance as far as they should, but many others think their kids are mini NFL players and put them into schemes and techniques that the average player has very little chance of success with. . Good coaches with all the experience usually sit right in the middle of these two extremes and place their children in a system that is “right.”
clinic sales job
Returning now to the coaching clinic, the speaker seemed to be a very eloquent, well-educated and well-intentioned person who knew the game well. The Division played soccer I and had a fairly well organized presentation, it had credibility. His theme was the extended passing game for youth soccer. His premise was that anyone could run an extended passing game up to age 9 and be successful with it, all it took was commitment and a lot of practice. He was preaching it and the first time the 9 year old head coach sitting across from me was nodding his “amen” and buying the hook line and sinker.
The host demonstrated some thoughtful fundamentals for youth quarterbacks and even had a good movie of an impressive 10-year-old quarterback. The coach admitted that he had coached this player since he was 7 years old, including extensive one-on-one training off-site in the off-season. I don’t know about his teams, but I just don’t have access to my players year-round or the time to individually coach my sons aggressively year-round.
This is where it gets tricky
The presenter also showed extensive video clips of the team showing not only some very well executed open passing plays, but also some very nice zone block runs. What was unusual about these clips was that each player was wearing a different colored helmet.
not a fair comparison
When I politely asked why the helmets were different colors, he said that this was an all-star team and each player wore their own team’s helmet. They were also 13-14 year old clips. Come find out, the players of this all-star team had been chosen from a cast of thousands.
He had no minimum game players to find playing time, he had the best player out of 40+ teams. Imagine what you could do if YOU had the best player from every team in your area. Or imagine if you could clone your best player and make 40 more of him. What could you run then? What 13-14 year olds can do is also a bit different from what 9 year old novices can do.
The real world, not fantasy Lan
Not only does the average youth coach have to find playing time for every player on our teams, but we probably have to start with multiple kids on our offensive line who would be better described as minimal-play players. In zone blocking, one of the key premises is for offensive linemen to get movement on a double team, get out of the double team and block the close linebacker in space.
Now, I don’t know about your league, but in the 6 I’ve coached on the other teams, the best, fastest, most athletic kids are playing linebacker. In zone blocking, my minimum game player (the least athletic player on the team) is the offensive lineman going to block the best player on the other team, in space, on the move after getting movement on a double team? Really, in real life, not in some well-meaning imaginary parallel universe? Not in your typical unselected youth soccer team on planet earth. Do we have kids that can make that block? Sure, but not many who can do it consistently and none of my minimal game players, even the most aggressively trained ones.
Be careful
Be careful what data you use to determine the dos and don’ts of running in youth soccer. Don’t fall for clips of some football plays being well directed by a group of handpicked “studs”. All-star teams selected from thousands are not the example most youth coaches can learn from. I only coached “select” soccer one year, in 2003, it’s a different animal, but we still only have about 150 kids, not thousands.
Almost anyone can put together a number of highlights if they train long enough. That’s why we sell full season DVDs of my teams. Undrafted kids, every snapshot of every game of the season so you can see for yourself what average kids (and minimal game players) can do with average amounts of practice time over the course of a full season.
Let me just say that I don’t think this trainer is evil or intentionally mislead trainers into doing something that had little chance of success, he just doesn’t clearly understand the boat most of us are in. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in passing, my teams have often led the league in touchdown passes. Heck, my 7-9 year old team threw for 11 touchdowns last season in just 9 games. What I’m saying is that it’s extremely rare for unselected youth teams to consistently move the ball using zone blocking and split passes without a group of “rare” players.
