Technical Footwork Training: Good or Bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the whole technical training thing good or bad for youth soccer? I see or hear about a new trainer seemingly everyday.

Feels like it’s creating more bad players than good.

Technical skills is bad

Boot Ball is good

Or maybe pass the ball to the next open player?

Your company wants to hire the person who can solve problems or the person who hands off everything to coworkers?

How about a person who doesn’t just create problems? Pass the ball.

The world's top academies will prefer and take a kid who dribbles through everyone the wrong way and scores and own goal, than the passer who can't and treats the ball like a hot potato

A handful can dribble through a few defenders. The majority can’t, but that doesn’t stop them from trying over and over and over and step over and step over and losing the ball.

And they should keep trying over and over again and not listen to people trying to stifle their creativity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the whole technical training thing good or bad for youth soccer? I see or hear about a new trainer seemingly everyday.

Feels like it’s creating more bad players than good.

Technical skills is bad

Boot Ball is good

Or maybe pass the ball to the next open player?

Your company wants to hire the person who can solve problems or the person who hands off everything to coworkers?

How about a person who doesn’t just create problems? Pass the ball.

The world's top academies will prefer and take a kid who dribbles through everyone the wrong way and scores and own goal, than the passer who can't and treats the ball like a hot potato

A handful can dribble through a few defenders. The majority can’t, but that doesn’t stop them from trying over and over and over and step over and step over and losing the ball.

And they should keep trying over and over again and not listen to people trying to stifle their creativity

Save for a few exceptions, they are still one of the worst players on the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the whole technical training thing good or bad for youth soccer? I see or hear about a new trainer seemingly everyday.

Feels like it’s creating more bad players than good.

By and large technical training is very good for player development. Some travel clubs focus very little on it and a lot of travel coaches have a difficult time breaking down and coaching the technical skill sets in the game. If your player wants to go far, they will need a technical footwork base by U13 to get onto higher level teams. Sure, amazing athletes land on high level teams, but when they can't use their left foot or do simple moves the protect the ball -the lack of technical development shows.

Now, the previous posted did point out some pitfalls for doing too much technical training and I agree with all 3 of those issues too. Head down, lack of explosiveness, over dribbling...are all bad traits on the field.

So, a good player needs technical training, but they also need well rounded training and coaching. Some trainers are great at breaking down and coaching some technical skills -whereas a lot of travel coaches either don't have time to coach those items or can't break the skills down and teach them; so you have to seek out clinics, coaches, drills to help you develop them properly.

My kid learned a step-over at U9 from her travel coach, but when she feinted left, she moved left and the defender took the ball every time. It took some proper technical training to get her to do a step-one the correct way. Also, her travel coach never worked on weak foot passing. We have to work on that at home.

While those are technical skills, they are essential for her to well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they bad? No. But they suffer heavily from diminishing returns.

The problem is that "Technical Training" usually just means "Ball Mastery." While cone drills look great on Instagram and build initial confidence, they rarely translate to the game.

If you stay in these programs too long, they teach bad habits:
• Heads-down dribbling (no scanning).
• Holding the ball too long.
• Zero explosiveness over distance.

Think of it this way, freestyle jugglers aren’t footballers, and cup stackers aren’t boxers.
Top academies like Ajax or Barca don't train in a vacuum. They teach technique within the context of the pitch (e.g., practicing a specific pass from the actual touchline).

Use these trainers to build base comfort, but realize that eventually, your player will graduate. At a certain point, isolated cone drills stop making you a better soccer player.

Your exposure to Technical 1v1 coaching is limited and low-level

Since you think it's all head down dribbling around cones

🤣 ok dad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are they bad? No. But they suffer heavily from diminishing returns.

The problem is that "Technical Training" usually just means "Ball Mastery." While cone drills look great on Instagram and build initial confidence, they rarely translate to the game.

If you stay in these programs too long, they teach bad habits:
• Heads-down dribbling (no scanning).
• Holding the ball too long.
• Zero explosiveness over distance.

Think of it this way, freestyle jugglers aren’t footballers, and cup stackers aren’t boxers.
Top academies like Ajax or Barca don't train in a vacuum. They teach technique within the context of the pitch (e.g., practicing a specific pass from the actual touchline).

Use these trainers to build base comfort, but realize that eventually, your player will graduate. At a certain point, isolated cone drills stop making you a better soccer player.

Sounds like you are with the wrong trainer

Nope. But 90%+ of kids are.

[Anonymous]

The world's top academies will prefer and take a kid who dribbles through everyone the wrong way and scores and own goal, than the passer who can't and treats the ball like a hot potato

False. The top academies will take team players who can move the ball quickly, exploit other teams when they are out of shape, and create goal scoring opportunities as a team…because soccer is a team sport…

[Anonymous]

The responses in this post is why you have to simply keep your head down in America.

Technical training is almost exclusively what a kid should be focused on until U14/U15. It is akin to learning a 2nd language as a toddler. You can layer on physicality and tactics later. You train technically and then games are tests of the training to see how good you are under pressure. You will have to put your head down and endure possibly losing, possibly not being on a first team or dealing with parents and coaches who want the ball to leave your feet every single solitary moment because they just don’t know enough about football development. The most technical players I have seen state-side know when the pass and dribble but that is a result of coaching and allowing a kid to fail at dribbling through a team. Development involves failure. The US culture of winning hurts development.

Ideally, most technical training should be at home or small informal groups. If you don’t know what you are doing, it is okay to attend those training sessions and learn but over the long term, you are losing hours to the quiet silent types who can get in 2k touches just during a typical I-495 commute. Typically, all of the U10-U13 IG All-Stars are going to quietly fade away as the kids who spend an hour a day on a wall, juggling and ball mastery without posting to IG will surpass them at U15-U18.

It’s been documented. Not sure why we keep doing the same things wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The responses in this post is why you have to simply keep your head down in America.

Technical training is almost exclusively what a kid should be focused on until U14/U15. It is akin to learning a 2nd language as a toddler. You can layer on physicality and tactics later. You train technically and then games are tests of the training to see how good you are under pressure. You will have to put your head down and endure possibly losing, possibly not being on a first team or dealing with parents and coaches who want the ball to leave your feet every single solitary moment because they just don’t know enough about football development. The most technical players I have seen state-side know when the pass and dribble but that is a result of coaching and allowing a kid to fail at dribbling through a team. Development involves failure. The US culture of winning hurts development.

Ideally, most technical training should be at home or small informal groups. If you don’t know what you are doing, it is okay to attend those training sessions and learn but over the long term, you are losing hours to the quiet silent types who can get in 2k touches just during a typical I-495 commute. Typically, all of the U10-U13 IG All-Stars are going to quietly fade away as the kids who spend an hour a day on a wall, juggling and ball mastery without posting to IG will surpass them at U15-U18.

It’s been documented. Not sure why we keep doing the same things wrong.

Exactly. But I think you’re missing OP’s question and talking more about how it SHOULD be. You’re talking about real technical grounding, the Ajax or Man City methodologies. That’s a world apart from the US 'technical footwork' industry of private trainers and drop-in classes.

Globally, the progression is clear. Technical first, then layering in the tactical, social, and emotional aspects as they mature. But there is a major misconception regarding 'age.' We need to distinguish between biological age and 'Soccer Age.' When we say 'technical focus until 14,' we’re really talking about a developmental stage, not just a birthday.

[Anonymous]

People who say you have a bad trainer could you please explain what a good trainer does differently, what drills, how avoid those 3 issues, etc. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who say you have a bad trainer could you please explain what a good trainer does differently, what drills, how avoid those 3 issues, etc. Thanks

Any trainer where first touch is not heavily incorporated into every single drill is doing things wrong and is ultimately pointless as they get older. Everything should be first-touch focused. Anything else is just secondary learning to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The world's top academies will prefer and take a kid who dribbles through everyone the wrong way and scores and own goal, than the passer who can't and treats the ball like a hot potato

False. The top academies will take team players who can move the ball quickly, exploit other teams when they are out of shape, and create goal scoring opportunities as a team…because soccer is a team sport…

How much time have you or your kid spent in or around a world top level academy?

Academies are focused in developing individuals so they can turn them either into a Senior team player or sell them for good revenue
They aren't focused on building teams

Stop speaking loudly in public of which you don't know

[Anonymous]

Imagine people saying focus on developing technical skills for a youth player is a bad thing 😳

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine people saying focus on developing technical skills for a youth player is a bad thing 😳

Think of it more like - bad practice is bad. The complaints aren't on the technical training itself, rather what the trainers are actually teaching.

[Anonymous]

You have 2:26 to spare? Listen to some wisdom from one of the legendary coaches of the 90s-00s

“You build a player like you build a house. You start by technical foundation. If you don’t have the touch by age 14, forget it, you’ll never be a football player”

https://youtu.be/8vA0uBgzLYU?si=Mcu2gT3jAx0bT49N

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have 2:26 to spare? Listen to some wisdom from one of the legendary coaches of the 90s-00s

“You build a player like you build a house. You start by technical foundation. If you don’t have the touch by age 14, forget it, you’ll never be a football player”

https://youtu.be/8vA0uBgzLYU?si=Mcu2gT3jAx0bT49N

Every kid from u7-u17 is a football player.

40 kids head to the local superstar trainer.

5 leave with a little more skill than when they showed up and were talented before going.

35 others just head back and do maradonas all over the field and are objectively worse. they were always going to be bad to mediocre but could be contributing players, but now they are ballhogs and literally costing games.

yes, in a perfect world technical training at a young age is important for developing players. its just not getting done right.