Emphasis on Developing Soccer Skills - Article 1

A coach of a new team has many skills to teach, but which ones come first? As a general statement, self-control of each player should be the objective. But where does one begin? It begins with a league charter that states that the number one objective of the league is to develop skillful players. If there is no charter in place, there should be one.

Each coach and manager of youth soccer, like any other teacher, must understand that the overall objective of their job is not to win championships, but to develop players with a strong sense of skill. Winning should be secondary. This is not an easy task to accomplish by any league.

Foremost, an excellent soccer player can be described as having emotional self-control, ball-self-control, trapping self-control, kicking self-control, positioning self-control and defense self control. For a coach of a new team, whether it is a very young team or an older team, self-control of the above items should be emphasized and reinforced. Now, with consideration of the above which one should be first?

In order for any player to become skillful, trapping self-control should be the first objective. This aspect of play will become evident after a brief discussion about restrictions and requirements that need to be met for all coaches and managers.

In order to achieve any or all of the above "self-controls", one must start with standards for the coaches and managers. All coaches and managers in a team, town or city league must be given instruction by the organization as just what is to be expected of them. If this is not done, each individual will be coaching and managing in a similar manner to a music band playing "together" without a band leader. There is another analogy that may further bring home the point. Towns that disallow shabby new structures to be put in place can be compared to those towns that have and enforce building standards and codes. Houses on sale in towns that enforce higher standards cost more than in towns that have little or no standards. Why? They simply look better and attract those that appreciate higher quality. It is no different then with standards for sports.

The normal excuse given for allowing each coach to coach/teach soccer their own way is that "we are short of coaches and have to make do with what we have". With this excuse, no matter how legitimate reasoning may be, it is short sited. In time, when a league has high standards, coaches and managers will eventually come into abundance as people naturally gravitate towards something of quality.

Many coaches have no coaching experience, just playing experience. They often do not know what it is that they are supposed to do except to orchestrate game play to win at games. They instruct various skills during practice, but disregard them during tough games. The two most common areas that confuse or embarrass young players are in trapping and formation changes. With trapping, it is not uncommon to hear a coach yell out in a demeaning way, after a trapping error is made, "pass the ball" meaning "one touch of the ball". After that incident, the player is usually taken out of the game-demonstrating that it is not a good idea for any player to make mistakes while endeavoring to put into practice those skills taught in practice. The second situation occurs when a coach switches formations or swaps around certain players at a time when the game is getting tough to win. This new positioning usually was not taught in practice and so it can only confuse players and further reduce their respect for the coach.

Now back to trapping. Any reasonably skillful player can trap a ball in practice or in a game when there is no opponent pressure. Basic foot traps are generally taught in practice. These basic traps are almost universally taught and are all that is necessary for entry-level players. However, they are not always useful in games as opponent pressure often causes a lack of concentration making trapping difficult to say the least. But it can be relatively easy to make traps if another tactic is employed nearly simultaneously. That tactic is shielding. Shielding is performed just after the trap is nearly completed. The player while making the trap begins to shield the ball with his (or her) body just as it is being settled. Note, to be a fair tactic, the player must have some control of the ball first or the shielding could be considered as obstructing an opponent. Once the player has shielded the ball, he or she must maintain this shielding even when turning 180 degrees as he or she heads in the direction of the opponent's defending goal. There are certain shielding soccer drills that are employed in practice to drive home the methodology. And as with any skill, its use must be reinforced from this point in time forward by all coaches in the future.

Note: When two or more players are kicking the ball back and forth, the trapping of fast passes to each other must become habitual. "Once-on" return passes to each other, as is commonly done, must be discouraged if trapping is to become routine.

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