eNewsletter

for Indiana

Soccer Club

Directors of

Coaching

By: Steve Franklin, Director of Coaching Education 2012

October-November

Table of Contents

1. Editorial From the DOCE Desk

2. US Youth Soccer Releases Latest Coaching Manual:

3. Elite Level Soccer and Restricted Substitution

4. DO WE WANT ROBINHOS OR ROBOTS?

5. NSCAA and USYA Convention Coming to Indy in January

6. ELITE Soccer: Neale Cooper: Timing of Runs for Crosses

7. ELITE Extra Time: Paul Mariner: Toronto

8. Photo Gallery from ISL Academy Play

9. Photos of the Month

WANTED: Soccer Articles from You!

The Indiana Soccer Association membership, especially YOU as DOC’s are

encouraged to submit articles/editorials for consideration. Subject matter that is

important to one club is very likely important to several others and can help to initiate

discussion and/or facilitate resolutions. Human interest stories involving individuals,

players or teams are greatly appreciated.

The Heads Up; Ripples; Kid’s Corner Kicks; and What’s Up DOC? eNews

Magazines are statewide publications (circulation = 65,000) full of information and

resources for players, parents, coaches, team managers, club administrators and

referees. All articles will be reviewed for usefulness and relevance and are subject to

available space. The more input you provide us, the better we can make our

publication.

To submit content for future publications, simply email them to me at the Indiana State

Soccer office at: steve@soccerindiana.org .

Editorial from the Director of Coaching Education –

Steve Franklin

An open letter to those on the sidelines:

I recently had the opportunity to take in a few of the younger ISL Academy

games this past weekend in Plainfield. Sporting my new Canon Rebel digital

camera, I set out to take a number of photos in which to update my current photo files of Indiana

youth soccer players in action. While I came away with some awesome pictures, I also left with a

question: Why do all the supporters on the sidelines always yell out loud, telling these young kids

everything they should do?

Isn’t the game for the kids? I mean imagine if everyone in the sideline were to walk in and set

up their folding chairs in your place of work. Every move you initiated was critiqued by those

watching. Most everyone screamed in your direction telling you what to do next. You couldn’t take

pride in figuring things out on your own. You couldn’t hear your friends/teammates – or in your case

co-workers – because the noise was so loud. You had trouble taking time out to laugh with an

opponent because they were the enemy. Taking chances or attempting to be creative, heaven forbid!

You might make a mistake or not conform.

As you can tell by the photos captured on the previous page, I found a ton of positives around

the fields. There were Laughs; creative moves; a few spills; parents and older siblings enjoying

snacks (and unfortunately, even some constant texting by a few). By and large though – what a great

decision to head out to the park and watch the kids play!!

Now my challenge to you: take a lesson from the somewhat recent Nike ad campaign for

LeBron – Witness”. There is nothing wrong with clapping good play or sportsmanship. But can you

imagine how much more enjoyable the game would be if the kids could hear themselves and each

other. How much you, as a supporter, could take delight in the joy the players show by their displays

of creativity; decisions and trying! Witness what they can accomplish on their own. Let them grow as

players. Witness the inspiration they are allowed to provide when you can hear them, rather than you.

While we’re all not guilty of broadcasting our thoughts and opinions to those on the field, just

imagine how pleasurable game day would be without all the yelling. Let them play!!

Parents displaying Indiana Soccer’s green “Sportsmanship

Cards”, honoring displays of good sporting behavior of youth

soccer players.

US Youth Soccer Releases Latest Coaching Manual September 11, 2012 10:25 AM

Download How to Write a Training Session Plan [link] Training Session Template [link]

FRISCO, Texas (Sept. 11, 2012) – The US Youth Soccer Coaching Department has introduced the latest coaching resource with How to Write a Training Session Plan. The manual will help guide coaches in conducting the most efficient and

effective training sessions for their team and compliments previous US Youth Soccer coaching resources such as the Player Development Model, Vision document and Skills School technical manual.

"This resource on how to design a training session plan, coupled with the many other coaching

resources from US Youth Soccer, will help any coach through a soccer season," said US Youth Soccer Director of Coaching, Sam Snow. "The US Youth Soccer Coaching Department resource center,

coaching articles, lesson plans, DVD’s, books and documents such as the Player Development Model offer a wealth of ideas for appropriate soccer experiences. How to Write a Training Session Plan will help coaches organize that information into an effective session and season. This manual is useful to

any coach, but especially those beginning their formal coaching education in the courses given by their US Youth Soccer State Association."

How to Write a Training Session Plan is ideal for coaches of all age groups and abilities. Download How to Write a Training Session Plan below, as well as other useful resources from the US Youth Soccer Coaching Department.

How to Write a Training Session Plan [link]

Training Session Template [link]

Coaches Document Center [link]

Includes the Player Development Model, Vision Document, Skills School and Coaching Manual

Sample Training Sessions [link]

Elite Level Soccer and Restricted Substitution

US Youth Soccer National Coaching Committee

Tom Turner, Chairman

In 2005, US Soccer published their Best Practices document, outlining, for the first time, a

national blueprint for broad player development. In the chapters on youth development, the

professional coaching body found widespread support for their long-term struggle to create a different

environment for young players. Best Practices called for changes to the playing numbers (smaller),

playing formats (more inclusive and less structured), the developmental mindset (less results-

oriented), and coaching methods (more facilitation and less direct instruction).

Similarly, Best Practices called for a more worldly approach to elite player development and, in

particular, the need for more restricted substitution. No re-entry “per half” is the most reasonable

restriction for US Youth Soccer elite-level competitions, including the National Championship Series

and the Regional and National Leagues. The Olympic Development Program has operated under

FIFA-7 no re-entry “per game” for over a decade.

The following information provides the technical rationale for adopting no re-entry “per half” as

the playing norm at the elite levels.

1. The rhythm of soccer in America is universally fast and direct, but not controlled. With

limited subs, players have to learn how to slow down and change the pace of their game from slow to

fast and fast to slow, because it is impossible to run without resting for 80 to 90 minutes. When the

game starts to slow down, there is always more constructive soccer played and that will lead to a

more savvy soccer population.

2. Neither players nor coaches really understand soccer "match-ups," because free subs (and

usually mass subs) do not allow these important tactical situations to emerge over the course of a

game. The substitution rules are the primary obstacle to developing insightful players.

3. Soccer is supposed to be a player’s game, but free substitutions allow coaches to constantly

pull the strings. That reality has not proven to be particularly effective in producing "thinking" players.

When there are limited substitutions, coaches have to think about their "moves" and live with them

until the next break. This helps coaches better understand the game, too.

4. Limiting substitution forces coaches to play their players for "blocks" of time. With 80 to 90-

minute games, this will actually improve the kid's enjoyment, while exposing those coaches who do

not share playing time equitably.

5. Subbing every few minutes disrupts the flow of the game and does not allow players to

develop tactical solutions to their particular small-group situations. As a result, we have lots of

runners who hustle, but very few skillful, creative soccer players.

6. Players who aspire to higher levels of play must learn to play by international rules and

FIFA-3 is the competitive standard. FIFA-7 with no re-entry per half starts to move elite level soccer

towards international norms.

7. There are always soccer players who are either lazy or cerebral, who need time to play their

game without fear of being pulled off the field every few minutes and punished for not running.

Oftentimes, these players are simultaneously the most frustrating and most gifted on a team. Some of

the best goal scorers in history were not particularly mobile or energetic…until they had an

opportunity to find a yard of space and nip in front of a defender to score.

8. The US Youth Soccer National Championship Series finals and the Region II Cup are

played with no re-entry per half. The NCS is the most elite-level competition offered by US Youth

Soccer and it is played with different rules at different levels. This should raise concerns over the

competitive integrity of the event.

9. US Soccer created the Development Academy as a top quality league for elite-level teams,

operating under FIFA-7 substitution rules. There are many, many other top level teams that cannot or

will not play in the DA. These teams also deserve an elite-level environment in US Youth Soccer

competitions.

10. The Midwest Regional League has successfully operated with no re-entry per half since its

inception.

11. Aspiring referees and assistant referees must also gain experience with the pace and

rhythm of international soccer. By reducing the number of substitution opportunities, match officials

become more attuned to the nuances of play and less concerned with the mundane management of

player changes.

12. There are many coaches who use unlimited substitution to callously disrupt the flow of the

game and who use stoppages in play to kill the clock towards the end of a game. Limited substitution

forces the coach to make changes and live with them. It is not possible to negatively impact the game

in ways that border on ethical misconduct.

13. Participants in the NCS and ODP aspire to play in college and most will compete at the D-I

level where restricted substitution is the norm.

14. The United States may be the only country where elite youth players compete in a free

substitution environment.

And the potential negatives.

1. Players get injured and a team may have to play short towards the end of a game. In local

competitions, an injured player can, and should be, replaced; that is, until coaches begin to violate the

spirit of the exception by reinserting their better players in close games. At the elite level, the risk of

having to play short is part and parcel of substitution management within and between games.

2. Heat and humidity issues. Yes, it is hot and humid in many parts of the country in the

summer, but our elite-level players and coaches have shown the ability to adapt. Central and Latin

America currently play under FIFA substitution rules and the quality and rhythm of their play is

something we are aspiring to.

DO WE WANT ROBINHOS OR ROBOTS?

“How over-coaching and the emphasis on winning stifle young American talent” –

by MIKE WOITALLA, SOCCER AMERICA

“The Emphasis on winning is a detriment to young players because it prevents us from developing

technically proficient players. And we are not giving them the ability to make decisions.” – former U.S.

U17 NATIONAL TEAM COACH JOHN HACKWORTH.

THE LITTLE BOY DRIBBLED AND KEPT dribbling. He had taken the ball away from the mid-field pack and

zoomed toward his own goal. This surprised the other children an allowed him to keep to ball to himself for

much longer than any player had managed during this U-8 game.

Having put some 15 yards between himself on the other players, he slowed down and seemed to marvel at all

the territory he now had to himself. He started making a wide U-turn and flashed a big smile.

He moved down the sideline and back into the other team’s half, then put this foot on the ball and stopped.

When a couple of his little opponents approached, he accelerated toward their goal and took a shot that nearly

scored.

What creativity, improvisation and savvy! And in his smile was the joy of soccer.

So how did his coach react?

First with red-faced screams of “You’re going the wrong way! You’re going the wrong way!” Then furious

shouts of “Pass it! Pass it!” – a chant that several parents took up – followed by head-shaking in frustration.

Of course, the coach was shouting instructions to all his players throughout the game. That’s the norm in youth

soccer, in which misguided coaches – and the other adults on the sideline – believe they are helping children

become better soccer players by telling them where to run and when to pass.

But what really irked the coach about the clever boy’s maneuver was it was risky. A misstep and he could have

provided a scoring chance for the other team.

And, absurd as it is, there are adults – lots and lots of them – who place great importance on whether their 7-

year-olds beat another team of youngsters.

Youth coaches who want to rack up wins discourage their players from taking risks, such as dribbling the ball

out of the back, by ordering them to boot it up-field or out of bounds. “Clear it!” they shout.

“The emphasis on winning is a detriment to young players because it prevents us from developing technically

proficient players,” says U.S. U-17 national team coach John Hackworth. “And we are not giving them the

ability to make decisions. You can’t find a youth soccer game where the coaches are not screaming the whole

time, telling kids what they should do and how they should do it.”

If players aren’t allowed to make mistakes and take chances when they are exploring the sport – if they are

constantly being told what to do – how can we expect them to develop the soccer instincts they will need to

make the split-seconds that are so much a part of the game?

“They hear ‘Clear it…Get rid of it…Pass it…Kick it up line’ so often that by the time they are 13 or 14, when

they get the ball and they don’t hear the instructions, they don’t know what to do,” says Tab Ramos, the great

U.S. midfielder who is now a New Jersey youth coach.

Telling young players what to do with the ball, bossing them around to stay in certain positions on the field and

taking strategic advantage of the bigger, stronger kids are ways of increasing a team’s chances of winning.

But, at what cost?

“If you want your 8-year-olds to win tomorrow, you are going to address that group differently thank if you say,

‘I want my 98-year old to win when he’s 18 years old,” says Bob Jenkins, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Coaching

Education.

It’s not just that the coaches are obsessed with winning – there are the parents. A coach of a U-19 team told

me that if his team compiled a 12-1 win-loss record, his parents would want to move their children to the team

that went 13-0.

Ramos encourages his young players, the 9-and 10-year-olds, not to kick the ball out of bounds when they’re

under pressure in their own half. “We want him to find a way out of it,” Ramos says. “Half the time, he’s not

going to come out of it and very often he’s going to make a mistake that’s going to cost a goal. But this is when

players should be allowed to take the risk so they develop their skills.”

Too few coaches are willing to provide such learning experiences because they can lead to losses. “A lot of

parents are living through their children,” Ramos says, “and for them it becomes a matter of them beating the

other coach because that’s the guy who beat them three years ago when their older child played.”

Hackworth, who doesn’t believe in assigning positions to players under age 10, proposes eliminating the “ultra-

competitive premier flight” until at least U-12. And even then coaches should still resist becoming results

oriented.

“We want competition,” he says, “They’ll always be competition and it is not bad. The bad part is the emphasis

on winning.”

That emphasis often results in coaches putting the physically advanced kids in particular spots. For example, a

big guy in back who’s instructed to boot the ball to the speedy guy up front. This denies smaller players

opportunities to play significant roles while bigger players can rely on their athleticism instead of developing

their skills.

Amie Jacquet, who coached France to the 1998 World Cup title and has also been in charge of France’s

renowned youth development program, said he investigates youth teams with winning records and if he

discovers they won by relying on big players, he fires them.

If a coach isn’t obsessed with results, he is more likely, when they are at the age level in which assigning

positions is appropriate, to expose players to different roles. Keeping a player in the same position all the time

won’t help him adjust to new challenges when he moves to higher levels.

“Worrying too much about winning and losing gets in the way of development,” says Manfred Schellscheidt,

head of U.S. Soccer’s U-14 program. “There are always shortcuts that you can find to win the next game. That

doesn’t necessarily mean you will be winning five, six years from now.

“The kids all try to win anyhow, so I don’t think we need to add to this. No kid ever steps on the field and says,

‘Today I am going to lose.’ They are naturally competitive. We should be concerned about the players’

performance, not the final score.”

Coaching soccer really isn’t that complicated. When children first become involved in organized soccer, the

coach’s job is simply to create an environment that gives the children a chance to enjoy the sport. It’s such a

wonderful sport that setting up goals and letting them play usually does the trick. It should also be an

environment that allows them to be creative, to express themselves and to bring their own personalities to the

sport.

No doubt, the USA has produced legions of good players. But how many great players have come out of our

youth ranks?

How many excellent American dribblers are there? How many American players can dazzle fans? How many

defenders do we have who can play their way out of trouble, who can consistently contribute to the attack?

How many American players can dictate the rhythm of a game?

Far, far too few.

And one wonders how many players with the capacity to bring individual brilliance to the field have had that

hammered out of them by their screaming coaches.

NSCAA and USYA Convention Coming to Indy in January

The annual NSCAA Convention is just around the corner, with the added bonus of having the US Youth Soccer Workshop join forces with the NSCAA. Two national organizations – one low price – double the benefits and value – in our capital city.

Indianapolis, for the second time, will host the national convention January 15-20th, 2013. When it comes to soccer events around the world, few can parallel the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Convention. The theme of the 2013 NSCAA Convention is “Innovate to Elevate”. Educational sessions at the Convention will focus on innovative and new techniques, training plans and more meant to help coaches elevate their teams and their career.

The NSCAA is offering special pricing on weekend packages for Indiana Soccer members, as this is not a free event. Indiana Soccer is very excited to offer this opportunity to all Indiana Soccer members; especially those that have never attended this convention before.

Please note the pricing structure below:

Registration for the entire convention is $279 for NSCAA members and $369 for non-members.

Saturday/Sunday only pass for members is $160 and $245 for non-members.

The special Indiana Soccer weekend ticket is $150 for NSCAA members and $235 for non-members. This registration also includes admission to the Vendor Show Friday after 12 noon and a ticket to the Indiana Soccer Awards banquet on Saturday night featuring guest speaker Lauren Cheney (a $40 value).

TO REGISTER for this event please note the following:

Registration for the Special Indiana Soccer Weekend Tickets will be handled by Indiana Soccer through a link on the Indiana Soccer Website www.indianasoccer.org

Registration for the NSCAA Full Convention Ticket will be handled by the NSCAA through a link at www.nscaa.com/convention

Housing is available on the NSCAA website http://www.nscaa.com/convention/registration

You can get full details regarding the convention by going to the 2013 Convention website: http://www.nscaa.com/convention

Photo Gallery from ISL Academy Play

I recently purchased a new toy – a Cannon T3i digital camera. Recently I have been stopping around

different venues to catch our youth players and coaches in ISL action. Below are a few of the photos

I have collected along the way. If by chance they are one of your players – feel free to have the

parents of the youngster email me if they would like a copy.

PHOTOS OF THE MONTH

U-10’s from Carmel receiving their green “Sportsmanship Cards” to pass out to their parents

on the sideline. The effort is to help educate, inspire and recognize sportsmanship acts.