US Soccer is making changes to help the beautiful game, soccer, keep up with the rest of the world and hope to compete with other countries in producing top level soccer players. One of the things most needed in American soccer is more free play. In every top player producing country kids have a lot more free play opportunities and are encourage more to just go out and play. No structure, no coaching, no adult supervision. Just play.

U.S. Soccer has launched Grassroots initiatives to come online through the launch of the in-person and online Grassroots coaching courses, a critical concept that all Grassroots coaches will learn about is Play-Practice-Play. Researched and developed by technical leaders across the domestic Grassroots landscape, Play-Practice-Play is the optimal manner to structure a practice session for youth players, as it utilizes best practices for the learning and application of game-like scenarios.

WHAT IS PLAY-PRACTICE-PLAY?
Play-Practice-Play is a Grassroots developed philosophy designed around a player-centered approach to coaching. Taking a player centered approach places the needs and motivations of the player at the forefront of a coach’s approach to coaching his or her players. The concept of Play-Practice-Play is to allow young players to experience the game and game-like situations as much as possible. This approach differs from traditional practices that may have children standing in lines, running laps and participating in drills that don’t resemble the game of soccer. We as coaches here have always implemented a curriculum that started training sessions with rondos or small sided games followed by technical or tactical training and finishing with games. This is not being rolled out by US Soccer and mandated in their grassroots training for coaches.

Free play can be implemented and conducted in many other ways, not just during training. America must get away from so much structured, organized coach based training and have more player based free play. Parents must understand and accept the fact that if they have played soccer when they were younger things have changed. Our culture has changed. The evolution of technology has seriously changed the way kids play today. Kids do not go out on their own search for their friends and just play. The dangers of our society have made parents be more weary of their kids going out playing unsupervised. Most parents grew up going to parks or school yards with a ball and a bunch of their friends and just play. That concept is not seen as much any more. We need to recreate the school yard, no adult supervision scenario. Parents should not expect just drills and coaching from training sessions. In fact they should look for more free play from their kids' coaches. Be flexible and willing to accept new training methods. For those that do not know the sport do not allow your perception to overtake what is right or what is recommended by experts. 

​Encourage more free play

Inspiration in sports and life come from practically anywhere and anyone. The one thing about sports is that it can provide life lessons that will be treasured forever.  Being inspired helps all humans achieve things that may not have been possible without that inspiration. SOCCERKILLZ has always prided itself with providing not just soccer training but also character building training. As the owner of SOCCERSKILLZ SPORTS I always find inspirations from many different things and situations and I continually try to learn and grow from them. As everyone,  sometimes  life may get in the way of keeping up with those inspiration lessons but I try to get on track as soon as possible. Players can inspire a coach just as much as a coach can inspire players. Below is video about being inspired.

​As the sponsor of Central Jersey Futsal, SOCCERSKILLZ has teams playing in the Central Jersey Futsal based league, that train in a futsal environment. Recently one of those SOCCERSKILLZ trained teams played an outdoor game and the referee was an academy coach who from time to time referees this SOCCERSKILLZ trained team. After the game was over the referee asked what type of activities does the team train with as he said the team's passing not only has improved drastically but they can possess the ball at will. He went on to comment that if his academy team, same age as the SOCCERSKILLZ trained team, could pass the ball and possess the ball the same way the SOCCERSKILLZ trained team could, they would be unstoppable. By the way, his academy team is a highly ranked team in the state of New Jersey. He said although they win plenty of games and get positive results they are like robots. They do not possess much creativity and they rely mostly on their physicality to win 1v1 battles, possess the ball and create scoring opportunities.
 
Well, now you may ask...
What is wrong with that? They are winning battles possess the ball and create scoring opportunities. Isn't that the object of the game? To non-soccer people yes... To people who know and understand the sport probably not. First of all, if the academy team plays against another team that has the same physicality, player for player and skill set, and if the other team can pass the ball better is more creative and can understands how to move off the ball create space with passing to exploit lanes chances are they will win the game. The physical game only wins if a team is superior to another team, and we see a lot of this in youth soccer. But if the physicality is a non-factor, the skill set is equal, now other things come to play, like player thinking, ball movement, on and off the ball, creativity, creating lanes, exploiting space, taking advantage of miss matches and so many other variables. Physicality only wins games if the other team is less physical and does not have any other qualities as mentioned previously. At the youth level physical teams can get away with just that. As the players get older and play for better teams mostly all players have physicality and skills, or if they do not have all the other qualities discussed earlier. Therefore, teaching the game from just a physical aspect does not serve players in the long term.
 
So, my answer to the ref./academy coach was: What you see is a product of many years of teaching them passing and moving, playing in a small sided environment, learning to develop not only individual skills but team skills. Learning how to be creative and allowing them to be creative. We do not sit on the sidelines constantly barking directions. We are not developing robots but free-thinking soccer players. Futsal has a lot to do with this kind of development. It's a fast pace game which does not allow physicality. A player must be sound with their individual skills, be able to think fast and always move. It's a 5v5 game that all players must move, no real set positions other than the keeper who can also play as a field player. Creativity is at an all-time high in futsal. Coaching from the sideline is very difficult as the game is so fast, by the time a coach blurs an instruction the play is already over, therefore a player must think for themselves and must think fast. Futsal is also played on hard surfaces as opposed that of slower turf surfaces making the game even faster.
 
Being able to play a "Barcelona" style of game as we teach at SOCCERSKILLZ futsal and soccer training is a long-term development method, but it provides solid results as opposed to quick physicality methods that although provide immediate results fail in the long run.
 
To get a firsthand idea of how the SOCCERSKILLZ futsal training in New Jersey works check out our programs and come for a free training session.

Do the players know the difference and if so, can they read the game to be able to make quick adjustments and decisions?

As a player, student and coach of the game I have been taught to appreciate ball control and possession. I am a product of being able to read the game at all times, make adjustments and quick decisions. Having and maintaining possession is a key element to the game. Without possession of the ball a team cannot apply the principles of attack. They cannot penetrate a defense and eventually score.

How much possession is enough, what makes an effective possession from an ineffective one and how can we make sure our players understand the difference?

We all know Barcelona are the masters of the possession game but we can't all play like Barcelona because we may not have the skill set to do so.

If Barcelona are the masters of possession why has the team conceded loses to Milan, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and the unforgettable disaster to Borussia Dortmund in 2013 Champions League semis? Is it because they have fallen so in love with their own style of possession game that they do not make proper adjustments when needed?

Let’s take a step back and first analyze what do we need to maintain possession. In my experience before we even attempt to teach possession a team needs to have sound fundaments. Players need to be able to trap the ball, control the ball and pass the ball. If players cannot do those things, there is no way they will be able to maintain possession. At SoccerSkillz FUNdamentals are part of every day training. When a player trains in our system foot skills have to become second nature, so that a player develops the confidence to be able to receive, control, pass or take on another player 1v1.  

So once we have developed the individual player’s skill set then we need to move forward and work on the concept of possession, passing the ball, moving without the ball and offering support to the player with the ball. This is something that takes time and patience; as players now need to read the game, make adjustments and decisions.  As they get better at it the possession touches and time of possession increase to the point a team can move up and down the field with ease. As the team reaches that goal of mastering possession now it faces a new problem. POSSESSION OVERKILL. That is what happens when the team passes for the sake of passing but really is not moving towards the other goal, remember the reason why we want to keep possession is so at the right time we can penetrate the defense and possibly score a goal. Yes, the goal was to teach our team how to keep possession but once that is mastered the team must be able to read the game and know when to pass, where to pass, how much to pass. If a player has the right opportunity to take on a defender one v one and thinks he can beat that defender then by all means he should do that. If the ball is passed to a player and the player has read the game quick enough and accurately and can make a one touch through pass to penetrate through the defense instead of just passing the ball back to a teammate that is great adjustment and decision. If the ball comes to a player and he is in a good position, has the right angle, and sees an opening to take a shot instead of passing the ball again that is a great adjustment and decision. How about the fact that slow passing, predictable passing or just too much passing helps the other team set up defensively and takes the element of surprise away from your side. The space where a team passes is another consideration. With TIMELY passing we want our team to spread out the other team so it can make it easier for our team to penetrate. A lot of times teams fall victims of small untimely passes which although it gives the illusion that our team is doing great, in reality it helps the other team set up defensively and crowd the middle of the field or their penalty box making it difficult for our team to penetrate. As our team may push all players up to try and break this massive crowd up we leave ourselves vulnerable to counter attacks and quick goals.

All these things happened to Barcelona, as they fell in love with their possession style of play and over passed at times, did not take shots when it was the best option, let the other teams counter attack them with quick through passes and timely finishing.

Being able to balance the passing possession game with quick proper read of the game and appropriate correct decisions is the magic of the game in my opinion. Teams that can master a blend of proper passing possessions, quick 1v1s, through passes, long balls and timely shooting are teams that will be able to see positive results.

 

Most parents and coaches think players come to the pitch simply because they want to win. In reality, this is the furthest thing in a player’s mind. Players want to play more often regardless of the result. For less able players, if this means playing in a losing

side, then many would rather do that than not play at all. Players play, coaches coach fans cheer! Simple isn’t it?

As a coach my philosophy is to give all players in the development years as close to equal playing time as possible. Off course there may be situations or instances that may not be possible but overall the playing time should be divided equally. Think about it; would you just show up in every game knowing you will be sitting on the bench? And please do not tell me that some players know their role and have accepted that they are support role players or are on a team for development purposes. At the youth development level there is also a social element to being part of a team. Players build bonds and relationships and feel like they are part of a group.

Research shows the focus should not be on whether you lose or win, but on positives.

Introducing a procedure that reduces the emphasis on losing or winning and focuses on activities to create more developmental fun activities while creating a learning environment for the players is essential and the positive results will follow.

I had a parent recently tell me after a training session that he liked the fact that I trained, build and developed for the future rather than the now. He meant that he liked the fact that the training sessions were designed for developing the player/goalkeeper skill set, awareness of game, solving situations and most of all having fun. He said that his son always looks forward to coming to training because number one he is always curious to see what the coach has planned for the training session, (keeping a session always fresh by doing different things keeps the player’s retention and focus), and likes the fact that the players play.

That is what the “street games” philosophy is all about that SoccerSkillz Training and Just4Keepers are implementing in their indoor training sessions. Players/keepers come together and after a topic specific warm up and technical period the players play 3v3 and build to 5v5. However the players make their own line ups, substitutions and run their teams as they see fit, without the coaches’ input. Coaches make coaching points during brakes. As coaches we like to watch players/keepers find their own solutions in the game. Just like kids do on the school playground without any grown-ups around. It is beautiful to watch games start at a chaotic state and eventually settle down with a well organized group helping each other and working together.

This article has been perceived as too controversial.

We apologize to anyone who was offended by its nature. Furthermore, although no names or teams were disclosed, we apologize for the comment of a particular player lacking effort or otherwise perceived as "lazy." Our intent was not to publicly criticize, embarrass or label any one player, but we see how this may have been taken that way. Many teams face situations where its players are on different levels, whether it be talent, aggressiveness or effort. The beautiful thing about youth soccer is that, as players continue to develop, these levels can change and you can have a totally different player a few seasons down the road. Coaches and parents both must be careful not to label players at a young age.

Again, our intent was to give an opinion, and only as to who do we think should pay for an academy program, when to pay for an academy program and how to choose an academy program.

If you wish to read this entire article please email us at info.soccerskilz@gmail.com.

 We do not see anything wrong with academies charging fees and offering a higher level of coaching and developing programs than the free clubs do. In fact the academy programs were created to do just that and be selective about which players they accept. They were supposed to accept players of an advance playing level and skills and were supposed to be the stepping-stone to a college showcase program or even the professional levels. It used to be impressive that a player played for an academy team. In General I do not think that applies any longer. There are still academy programs throughout the country that have high standards and offer a higher level of training and do not compromise their standards for the old mighty dollar.

So how does a parent know if they should pay for an academy program, and if so which academy program should they choose? In my opinion it’s simple. If your child is not playing at a premier level free club team and is not excelling at that team you will be wasting your money. As far as which academy program to choose from, do your research. Do not get impressed my fancy training gear, training grounds or coaches with accents. Look for the academy’s record on that particular age group as well as the coach’s record. Meet with that particular coach and speak with him. Just because he is a great coach with a proven record it does not mean he will be a good fit for your child. Great coaches do not always mesh with players and that is why you see changes at the professional levels. You have every right to interview the academy just like they try to interview you and make it look like you are so privileged to be accepted by them. Remember, it is your money you are spending. 


View more photos and videos of non academy training with futworks here