Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: better soccer coaching, Nike kit in 1999, single tackle, Soccer, soccer matches, soccer players, young soccer players
It’s a strange feeling watching my youngest son play for another coach. He’s played in my teams since the under 4s ran out
in their bright yellow Nike kit in 1999, won their first game and never looked back. A lot of the values at Better Soccer Coaching come from watching young players develop and the joy they experience with a ball at their feet.
This Saturday one of my son’s friends had asked him to play for their team in a “friendly” match against another local village team. Straight from kick off our team were attacking the goal and my son got the ball just outside the penalty area beat a player and shot into the goalkeeper’s arms. I was about to shout well played to my son but our coach got there before me. “What did you shoot for?” he bellowed, “Mark was open!” And down the line he marched gesticulating and muttering.
In the second half again my son won the ball in midfield beat a couple of players and was surging towards their goal. Our coach was nearly apoplectic with rage. “Keep it simple” and then “You’re not bloody Ronaldo!” The big number 5 at the back put a stop to my son’s charge and he lost the ball. “Pass, pass, you should have passed!”
One of the other coaches standing next to me expressed his surprise at this shouting. “Why did he shout at your son, who did he have to pass to? He should be shouting at the support players who were just watching instead of running outside him to allow him to pass.”
I guess this is one of the problems of the win-at-all-costs mentality. In general creative players are discouraged in a lot of matches. What you see is plenty of crunching tackles, brave headers and long punts upfield. What the coach wanted my son to do was blast the ball down the pitch and charge after it.
What would happen if the authorities changed the emphasis and we did away with cups, medals and prizes for winning teams? There must be something we could do instead? Better Soccer Coaching wants to see players develop, but when I write about developing players in Better Soccer Coaching a lot of coaches say to me: “ah yes developing players, the excuse for losing.”
But I like developing players. It gives me great pleasure to see, over the seasons, how different players develop, and not just the ones with a big kick and a sliding tackle. This is what Better Soccer Coaching is all about.
Are flair players the future? I think so…
