Now that I have your attention, let me explain further. I think too much emphasis is placed on winning games at young ages as opposed to focusing on developing all of the players to reach their maximum potential. When the emphasis is on development, the players are allowed to develop their skills and make mistakes, which helps lead to confident, intelligent players. Even in leagues and teams where the thought exists that winning should take a back seat to player development though, I still observe behaviors that reinforce our society’s obsession with victory. One such scenario: In a U-10 boys recreation league game, a team that has been in relative ‘control’ of the game gives up a late goal. Near the end of the game the coach of this team calls the players together (the league was using quarters due to heat) and tells them that he can do one of two things. Continue to sub the players at regular intervals (which provides equal opportunity for all players to play the game and develop) or play the ‘best’ players for the last quarter so the team has a chance at winning. Asking this in front of the entire team, it’s pretty obvious that the ‘best’ players are going to clamor loudest for option B. They did and the coach made few or no subs for the last quarter of the game. And these are ten year olds in a recreation league!

My main complaint with the status quo is that below the competitive U-14 level, it doesn’t really accomplish anything to win at the sake of player development, besides providing the coach and players with a falsely inflated sense of self worth. That’s not to say that I think teams below U-14 should aim to lose all of their games by any means necessary. On the contrary, I’m happy for teams to be successful, if their goal is player development and victories come as a result of this focus. But what do I mean exactly when I talk about ‘player development?’

What I mean is that the point of every practice and every game should be to help all of the team’s players become individually better. If the focus isn’t on improving the players, then it’s on making the ‘team’ better so the ‘team’ wins more games, or, possibly worse, there’s no focus at all. When practices are geared towards player development, correct activities are chosen that emphasize improving the players’ basic skills first and applying them in game like situations second. When this philosophy is applied in game situations, the players are given the freedom to make their own decisions and express themselves. The coach may give some directions, but he isn’t constantly spouting information from the sideline. The players are allowed to make mistakes, even ones that may result in conceding goals or ‘losing the game.’ The mistakes are recognized as golden learning opportunities by the coach, who then uses them as tools to help the players improve their insight (knowledge of the game). Allowing the players to express themselves may result in attempts to dribble out of pressure in front of the defending goal, but may also result in a brilliant run to score or create a goal scoring chance. Most importantly, the players will develop the confidence to attempt a unique solution to a soccer problem. While the players WILL make mistakes that result in conceding goals and losing games, proper coaching and continued adherence to a player development philosophy will yield major benefits around the age of fourteen, when winning rightfully becomes more important. At this point, the players all should have highly developed basic skills and should have some idea of basic team tactics; a very solid soccer platform to build upon. The players will then be suitably equipped to test themselves against high level regional or national competition. The very best will then be able to decide for themselves how far they want to go in the game, rather than already having this decision partly made for them by win obsessed coaches.

Win-centric coaches and teams hurt the players in the end because they don’t allow the players to properly develop. Often times these teams place a strong emphasis on positioning and counter attacking. Typically the players stay rooted in ‘their position’ (by which I mean defenders will stay back and simply look to defend, rather than helping to attack when appropriate) and generally look to attack through one or two players who have physical advantages over most other teams (usually speed). These players don’t learn the principles of the game or their position, but learn to play very conservatively so as not to make mistakes that lead to goals and learn to rely on one teammate to carry the team. They don’t learn how to be good teammates who work hard making runs to support the player in possession. They don’t develop a good soccer knowledge base because they only know how to play one position. While these teams may be successful at the young age groups, by the time the players hit maturity, they get absolutely blown away. I’ve seen it happen. The players can’t compete with those who are the product of player development focused models and usually drop out of the game by the time they’re in their mid teens. While they may love the game, they’ll find something else that they can be moderately successful at. They may have even had a lot of potential, but believe they ‘just weren’t ever going to be good enough’ because of the poor coaching they received when they were young. While it can be disheartening to lose some games at a young age, the future pay off of developing players capable of going as far as they want in the game is well worth the wait. Would you rather have coached a couple of successful high school players or several college players? Would you prefer a U-10 local league trophy or a national championship with your U-18 team? The choice is yours.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.