Tag: USSF

While attending United States Soccer Federation (USSF) A license audit I had the pleasure of listening to the U17 National Team coach from Holland. The views of the Dutch indicate clearly that a different soccer culture exists in their country.

The Dutch coach stated that the development of the individual and the team was of the utmost importance. The best players should train together and play against each other, talented players should train between 3 to 6 times weekly and should play 1 or 2 competitive games during the week. The most important thing he said to me was that youth development is a joined responsibility of the countrys governing body of soccer and the clubs.

There is organization and connectivity from top to bottom. The reason for this is that there is a common goalto produce players that can play for the National Team, in the domestic professional leagues, and professionally throughout the other top leagues in Europe.

Let us look at the USA in the same categories. Players fall in love with the sport after they have started playing it. They do not start playing because they are in love with the sport. The most important thing is winning at many youth clubs, because it is seen as a measure of success. Individual and team development takes a back seat. The existence of so many clubs hinders the possibility of the best players playing together. In addition, our best players train 3 times a week at most.

The biggest problem is that there is no common goal or relationship with USSF and the youth clubs in the country. Let us examine first the goals of most clubs. They say player development, but constantly recruit players.

Why?because they want to win a State Cup or league title. This attracts better players to the club. What happened to developing your own? Then we deal with the disconnect between the USSF Academy Programs and the Olympic Development Programs. Players have to choose one, so the best players are never all together.

Then we have the training centers established to identify players with the ability to play for the National Team, who may have been missed. Guess what? USSF Academy players are not allowed to attend. The United States is also the only country where the better you are the more you pay. Some players, therefore, do not have the opportunity to play.

As you can see, there is no defined path. Every man for himself. Despite this, we are still very competitive internationally, but I wonder what our potential would be if the soccer structure resembled that of the Dutch, or any other developed soccer country.

Recently I wrote about the structure of soccer in the USA and the fact that there was no clearly defined path for youth clubs to follow. Another problem is that, as a Director of Coaching, you have no backing unless a board comprised of parents supports you. The problem with this is that most parents are interested in their child and his/her team, so there is almost always an angle.

Parents want their children to have a positive experience, so winning is highly valued. Player development takes a back seat, because if a team is not winning the players leave to find another club with a better team. This is especially true with smaller clubs where the talent pool is shallow.

I think it would be so much easier to keep players, if there was a place to send your special talent on a regular basis to train without cost. The Olympic Development Program (ODP) really only identifies players, who can afford to tryout. If you make the team, then it cost more money to participate. The USSF Academy Programs cost $2500.00 and you first have to tryout to be identified.

The youth club also has a charge attached to it, so we are not much better, but we try to find a place for everyone to play. We try to develop players despite pressures from parents about playing time, winning games, playing in tournaments to showcase their children. What they fail to realize is that it takes time to produce players. There is, therefore, a hindrance to player development with the current structure of youth clubs, because job security at the club level is predicated on parental satisfaction.

Club Directors last an average of 23 months. They are voted out by a board who wish to go in a different direction, or they fold to the unrealistic demands of parents. This is why I say there is no backing. Directors should have to answer to subsidiary of the USSF. We should also be paid by USSF because we are dealing with talent at the grass roots level and this is where the next special player will come from, if developed properly.

The current system is looking for players at the age of 15 and older. By this time it is too late, if players have not been in a training environment conducive to development. More time, respect and funding showed be allocated to the youth system. The national team coaches have all said that we must do a better job developing players, because the national team players are deficient technically and tactically.

This will only happen when the soccer culture changes and the emphasis is placed on developing the youth structure with more diligence. Too many decisions are made at this level by people with little or no soccer background. The end product will, as a result, continue to fall short of the desired standard.

You can get my free 70 page soccer coaching guide “The Ultimate Soccer Coaching Clinic” at my website http://www.ultimatesoccercoaching.com. To learn more about becoming a better soccer coach, visit my soccer coaching blog.