Technology has exploded in the last 15 years and for youth & young adult soccer it can be both a positive and negative. Parents, coaches and players can all take advantage of the resources, but what if you are learning the wrong things? Not too many players spend time on their own to work on the right stuff. There are many who spend hours on juggling or doing skills like ‘Brazilian toe taps’. Doing the wrong things will waste your time and talent. Doing the right things will take you to a whole new level. Note: This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Are you wasting your time?
Due to technology, in just a few seconds you can find out who the top players and teams in the world are as well as how-to videos on YouTube.
If you are searching for the right things it can help, but there’s also a chance you get some tech guru who has millions of views, but not be a true expert.
Don’t be deceived…
Good thing: players who don’t live in a big soccer town have ways to improve. Therefore, it raises the overall level & gives opportunity to those who want it.
Bad thing: what if most of the players learning are spending too much time on the WRONG stuff?
Competitive players should practice these things
Soccer beginner training material
Technology & the 1%
A while back I was talking on the phone with a friend of mine, Davy Arnaud, who played 14 years in Major League Soccer (MLS).
Here’s a great guest post Mr. Arnaud wrote on 5 traits of great character.
We ended up talking about youth development because we both have 2 kids of our own…
With me teaching youth soccer players for a living & him coaching a MLS pro team, the topic is important to us.
Technology was brought up, as we both see how many kids are being taught the wrong things via media.
It’s important to get the fundamentals down first.
Never stop working on the basics.
Youth players should not train like the pros
We [Davy and I] ended up talking about the YouTube people who have exploded…
There are a few who teach these tricks, that a real coach would hate for their players to do.
Many of these people on social media never played pro soccer, but they are good with technology & marketing.
Even more important they don’t teach soccer to many players, instead they sit behind a computer and make videos to fool people.
They title their videos “how to play like a pro” or “how to dribble like Messi”…
Listen, how does an amateur player who was never good enough to play pro say they know drills that can make you good like a Pro?
Pros don’t even do the things on those videos. In addition, youths and amateurs shouldn’t train like pros.
The top 50 pro soccer players in the world are special people who were going to be good no matter what.Click To TweetWorld class stars are both hard workers and gifted
A big problem in America & around the world is kids & young adults are wasting their time doing fancy skills.
The Top 50 Pro’s in the world can’t even do some of these trick, because they never wasted their time on them.
Yes, they practiced on their own and trained hard with their teams but they worked on fundamental trapping and passing.
One thing I get tired of people sparking up conversation about how can we make the next Messi or Ronaldo.
It’s impossible for just anyone to become a top 50 player in the world.
These players were born to be stars! They grew up without technology, therefore didn’t spend time on corny training like many kids do today.
I will say that thousands of people can become good college players.
If you want to become better, or you want your kids to be better, you have to know what to work on and how long to work on each element to improve the right way.
Soccer coaches who excel
Make sure you are open to learning more yourself & note that the game has changed a bit in 10 years.
Today’s youth players are able to watch more pro games & see how the best players in the world train.
So a youth coach might tell a player it’s wrong to trap a ball a certain way but on TV the day before the youth players were watching Brazil vs Argentina where that’s all they saw.
The fundamentals (so important) don’t change much but the game has become more of a skill game and there are so many methods that improve players at a young age.
The kids who are Under 16 right now are amazing!
One reason is because they were only 7 years old when the game started to change and players like Ronaldinho, Brazilian Ronaldo & Zidane passed the torch to C. Ronaldo, Ibrahimović, Neymar.
Plus 10 years ago you would only see a few pro players doing crazy skills and now you see defenders pulling it off.
The reason is because of technology; people from all over the world can now watch these players.
Neymar was probably 6 years old watching the Brazilian Ronaldo and Neymar’s generation just took it to another level.
Relate better with soccer coaches, players and parents
With technology you have to learn who the best players & teams are in the world.
This way players, coaches and parents can all relate better.
Here’s a list of arguably the best current players.
It’s impossible to rate the top 5, but here’s what a lot of blogs say are the best currently.
- Top 5 Male Attacking Players: Messi (Argentina), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium), C Ronaldo (Portugal), Mo Salah (Egypt), Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
- Top 5 Male Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Spain), Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands), Thiago Silva (Brazil), Raphael Varane (France), Pique (Spain)
- Best 5 Female Players: Sinclair (Canada), Marta (Brazil), Alex Morgan (USA), Magdalena Eriksson (Sweden), Wendie Renard (France)
- 5 of the Top Players in History: Pele (Brazil), Diego Maradona (Argentina), Johan Cruyff (Netherlands), Zinedine Zidane (France), Messi (Argentina)
Youth soccer players who improve at every stage
Instead of watching silly tricks/skills on YouTube. Watch how the US National Teams & even MLS teams are trying to mimic what the top pro clubs and coaches in Europe or South America are doing.
They admit that they are not the best in the world like players playing in England, Germany or Spain, which is what you want.
People who are honest with where they are and want to go!
[Tweet ” They admit that they are not the best in the world, which is what you want: honesty!”]
Former US Men’s head coach & former German World Cup player (Jurgen Klinsmann) is interviewed many times saying that the best soccer players in America are not on the same level as the German and Spanish sides.
This is because the way they train in Europe is more intense and proper training.
Watch the video here of Klinsmann explaining the difference of American & German Training
2 stages of soccer player mastery
What we practice on our own matters! Every minute and hour counts.
We live in a society that is go go go, so we don’t have much time to manage.
There are 2 main things soccer players should let become habits.
1) ‘Solo training’ (training on your own)
2) ‘partner training’ (2+ participants):
Private trainer, parent, sibling or friend/teammate.
Once players master these, or at least almost become perfect in the light situational skill drills, they need to perform under pressure in game settings.
What college & pro coaches do & don’t want
Most Team Coaches, especially the higher level coaches, hate fancy skills.
In most cases if a player goes on a tryout and is performing fancy skills it’s a major turnoff to coaches.
There are coaches who would not choose Ronaldo or Neymar on their team just because they are flashy. They would admit that they are top players in the world, but would prefer different styles.
Coaches want players who can defend, possess the ball and work together.
So if you are going to be that player who likes to do crazy skill moves, you better make sure you are getting stuck in on tackles.
You had better not lose the ball when you do these moves.
I love fancy skills but you have to know when to use them and a tryout is probably not the best time.
3 Homework Elements to work on your own:
- Juggling different ways not just the same way (Meaning – instead of taking every touch small below the knees, try also doing touches that go up high around your chest or face)
- Ball Striking against a wall or rebounder like this using both feet. It’s important to learn the weak foot because this will make you stand out in coaches eyes.
- Dribbling, Turning, Ball Mastery, Foot Work
People who have an advantage
Players who take advantage of their situation will have a higher chance to improve.
If ‘The Player’ has a sibling, parent, neighbor, a good private trainer, teammate or friend to practice with, they can improve on the 2nd stage of soccer training.
The 2nd Stage is Dealing with Crosses, Turning to Receive, 1st touch volley drills.
Yes, you can use walls, but they can’t give the same service. Therefore, novice players can get frustrated.
I highly recommend this method, just be patient and know the growth will come over the weeks and months.
Wall Drills like these are great to choose from.
Technology is great as long as you’re getting the right stuff.
A Partner can almost tailor it just the way you need at that moment to improve on that day.
Soccer players who work on finishing skills
Most soccer players don’t master the finishing skills!
This is because you can’t work on all of what comes with this on your own.
Teams can’t give their players enough reps and situational training.
You need to do private lessons or group of 2 or 3 to be able to get the right amount of reps – like this.
You could spend hours on this and not come close to working on all the different techniques and scoring areas.
- Volley’s: Full, half, side, bending – different parts of the feet.
- Crossing & Finishing
- Passing & Receiving/Trapping
Best age to start small group or private lessons?
It takes 3+ years for players to really become fundamentally sound for most players.
That’s training 2-4 times a week and doing things on your own at home.
What is fundamentally sound?
Where a player can perform great.
Skills including:
- short passes with both feet
- accurate volley’s
- ball control / 1st touch on the ground and air
- dribbling
- tutorial on striking with laces – video – watch 5 in a row from distance
Technically sound doesn’t mean it’s time to stop skills…
You have to keep it up if you want to continue to improve and stay sharp.
All the best pros will tell you they need to improve, so you should have the same attitude.
You hear me often say the ‘7-11’ time frame of being the best age to invest money & time into 1-on-1/small group training.
To narrow it down further I would say the best time to start this process is between AGES 8-10.
Start you’re heavy dose of the 3 Year Plan of 1-on-1/Small Group Training.
This doesn’t have to be 1-on-1 though; try to get a few in each season if you can & the rest of the time do SMALL GROUPS.
Ages 13-18 who continue to want to improve no matter how old or good they are will continue to reach new levels.
Use technology to find a professional skills trainer near you… Although, please do your research because most are not good.
Freedom… Right method or no?
People talk about giving the kids “Freedom” to do what they want on the pitch or practice field so that they are not like robots, doing only what the coach says.
I think we have to give them both methods where they do have freedom & are being taught exact certain ways but not being over coached.
The players also need to be trained to do specific drills that force them to be good at things they would not have ever done on their own.
If not, they will continue to only do what they are comfortable with, which limits them.
Check out this video below Of Klinsmann teaching how to communicate to players [over coaching].
Be honest with yourself and build good habits
Overall we want our players to learn to work hard & have fun!
Communication is vital for players, parents and coaches.
The reason is because you don’t want a player who can’t be pushed too hard.
Travel/Academy/Select soccer players need to be serious and learn discipline.
Technology can either hurt or help player development… Focus on the fundamentals!
The players and coaches have to be on the same page for the fun and the development to continue.
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