Long Term Player Development by CSA

[shaku_bert]

Having just received my son's soccer game schedule, I am disappointed to see that my football association has completely disregarded one of the main thrusts of the CSA's LTPD document. My son is U9 and his schedule calls for 2 games every week with some weeks having three games. That's preposterous! When are we going to train?! The LTPD calls for the practice to game ratio to be 2 – 3 training sessions per game and there is no way that can be achieved when there are 2-3 games per week. Some friends and I had been coaching and having our kids play for an adjacent club but had to move back to our home club this year so we have a new group of kids to coach. Our team has several newbies who have zero ball skills and the experienced players have never been taught how to make or take passes correctly. In our first training sessions we were teaching kids to kick with their laces and running the most basic of ball control drills. These kids need training time not game time. On top of league games, the association is firing tournament applications to us. They're mad. Is Soccer Manitoba of the belief that our short playing season means we'll never develop an elite player so just keep soccer as way for parents to get their kids to run around and blow off steam?

Blech. Stupidoos.

[Sam]

This should be moved to the main forum... it's important enough that more people should see it. Having kids play 3 times a week is ridiculous to start with, but for U-9s that's just wrong.

It's debatable whether U-9's should even be playing competitive yet, instead of just competitive training. But if they are playing in a competitive league focus should be on getting quality training sessions each week, not more games. Too many people in the game care more about U-9 trophies than player development.

[Saviola7]

It's debatable whether U-9's should even be playing competitive yet, instead of just competitive training.

It depends what you mean by competitive, but let me tell you that when my son (6 y.o.) has a match, it really is the highlight of his week. Putting on that uniform is certainly a source of pride for him.

But of course I agree in principle. Our trainer continues to emphasise with us that the purpose of the matches are to get the boys familiarised with how the game is played. Currently my son is training an hour a week (although they have just expanded it to an hour and a half), but they had an hour a week indoor training for about 3 months in the winter when there were no matches.

[Sam]

It depends what you mean by competitive, but let me tell you that when my son (6 y.o.) has a match, it really is the highlight of his week. Putting on that uniform is certainly a source of pride for him.

But of course I agree in principle. Our trainer continues to emphasise with us that the purpose of the matches are to get the boys familiarised with how the game is played. Currently my son is training an hour a week (although they have just expanded it to an hour and a half), but they had an hour a week indoor training for about 3 months in the winter when there were no matches.

Ideal world - U-6 to U-10 play house league with the best players identified at 8 or 9 to train weekly with the club's academy coached by a Technical director or someone who knows what they are doing in a paid position. Then the academy streams right into competiive by U-11.