can you teach a kid to hustle more in travel soccer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Birth month counts for a LOT.

Birth month and athletic success have been studied extensively and it has been shown that the older the player in the pool, the more successful he is. Small differences at first are magnified later, as more attention is given to the best early players.

So your child might end up being the exception, but know that the data is stacked against her.

As in Malcolm Gladwell wrote a pop statistics book about it?

Highly recommended book: David Epstein's The Sports Gene. I can't recall whether it specifically addresses birth month, but it has a lot of info on predicting athletic success. (One thing that sticks in my head: Want to play in the NBA? Have long arms.)

[Anonymous]

OP, I could have written the same thing about my November kid. Coaches tell me all the time what great foot skills, great vision, amazing job finding passing lanes, etc. He can take great corner kicks, tries hard, nice kid, etc. He can run forever (he ran a mile last spring in 6minutes 30 seconds as a 9 year old), but he doesn't have speed and is short. At his school he is one of the best soccer players but on his competitive travel team he is fading. He also almost never wins 50/50 balls and that makes all the difference. He thinks too much instead of reacting aggressively and going all out to get the ball. It breaks my heart that he is no longer getting as much playing time because he loves playing soccer.
In contrast his younger brother doesn't have great foot skills, doesn't kick as hard, doesnt stay in his position,doesn't pay as much attention to what is going on but he is a bulldog who will win almost every 50/50 ball, if he doesn't win the ball he will chase down the player and take out the player by bumping him off the ball or slide tackling. He has a Feb. birthday. To me my younger kid plays ugly soccer but the coaches and other parents love it.
We could tell our older son was getting frustrated so we signed him up for fall baseball and he has done really well. It suits his personality better. We worked with him in the summer and are signing him up with a hitting coach for a few sessions to get ready for the spring. He hasn't played since he played t-ball at age 6. We asked him if he wanted to stay on his travel soccer team in the spring or do baseball and he wants to do baseball because he is having more success playing baseball and it helps he has a better baseball birthday (cut off Sept. 1st).

[Anonymous]

PP again. I didn't explicitly answer your question so here it is: No, I don't think you can teach that hustle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I could have written the same thing about my November kid. Coaches tell me all the time what great foot skills, great vision, amazing job finding passing lanes, etc. He can take great corner kicks, tries hard, nice kid, etc. He can run forever (he ran a mile last spring in 6minutes 30 seconds as a 9 year old), but he doesn't have speed and is short. At his school he is one of the best soccer players but on his competitive travel team he is fading. He also almost never wins 50/50 balls and that makes all the difference. He thinks too much instead of reacting aggressively and going all out to get the ball. It breaks my heart that he is no longer getting as much playing time because he loves playing soccer.
In contrast his younger brother doesn't have great foot skills, doesn't kick as hard, doesnt stay in his position,doesn't pay as much attention to what is going on but he is a bulldog who will win almost every 50/50 ball, if he doesn't win the ball he will chase down the player and take out the player by bumping him off the ball or slide tackling. He has a Feb. birthday. To me my younger kid plays ugly soccer but the coaches and other parents love it.
We could tell our older son was getting frustrated so we signed him up for fall baseball and he has done really well. It suits his personality better. We worked with him in the summer and are signing him up with a hitting coach for a few sessions to get ready for the spring. He hasn't played since he played t-ball at age 6. We asked him if he wanted to stay on his travel soccer team in the spring or do baseball and he wants to do baseball because he is having more success playing baseball and it helps he has a better baseball birthday (cut off Sept. 1st).

Too bad you gave up on your older son just because he wasn't having success right away and are trying to steer him towards baseball. In the long run he was going to be the soccer player, let him struggle. He has technique and thinks the game. Get him to start thinking earlier and learn to anticipate/predict the play before it happens. This alone will avoid 50/50 situations because he would already have the ball at his feet. This mind set of not being patient and wanting instant success from parents is why kids do not develop correctly into the game. The parents getting excited about your younger son obviously don't understand the game and by cheering on his current playing style will only encourage him to continue doing what he is doing vs improving his footskils, positioning and understanding of the game. Please encourage your younger son to pick up the characteristics of your older with what he has now and he may have some potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I could have written the same thing about my November kid. Coaches tell me all the time what great foot skills, great vision, amazing job finding passing lanes, etc. He can take great corner kicks, tries hard, nice kid, etc. He can run forever (he ran a mile last spring in 6minutes 30 seconds as a 9 year old), but he doesn't have speed and is short. At his school he is one of the best soccer players but on his competitive travel team he is fading. He also almost never wins 50/50 balls and that makes all the difference. He thinks too much instead of reacting aggressively and going all out to get the ball. It breaks my heart that he is no longer getting as much playing time because he loves playing soccer.
In contrast his younger brother doesn't have great foot skills, doesn't kick as hard, doesnt stay in his position,doesn't pay as much attention to what is going on but he is a bulldog who will win almost every 50/50 ball, if he doesn't win the ball he will chase down the player and take out the player by bumping him off the ball or slide tackling. He has a Feb. birthday. To me my younger kid plays ugly soccer but the coaches and other parents love it.
We could tell our older son was getting frustrated so we signed him up for fall baseball and he has done really well. It suits his personality better. We worked with him in the summer and are signing him up with a hitting coach for a few sessions to get ready for the spring. He hasn't played since he played t-ball at age 6. We asked him if he wanted to stay on his travel soccer team in the spring or do baseball and he wants to do baseball because he is having more success playing baseball and it helps he has a better baseball birthday (cut off Sept. 1st).

Too bad you gave up on your older son just because he wasn't having success right away and are trying to steer him towards baseball. In the long run he was going to be the soccer player, let him struggle. He has technique and thinks the game. Get him to start thinking earlier and learn to anticipate/predict the play before it happens. This alone will avoid 50/50 situations because he would already have the ball at his feet. This mind set of not being patient and wanting instant success from parents is why kids do not develop correctly into the game. The parents getting excited about your younger son obviously don't understand the game and by cheering on his current playing style will only encourage him to continue doing what he is doing vs improving his footskils, positioning and understanding of the game. Please encourage your younger son to pick up the characteristics of your older with what he has now and he may have some potential.

We haven't given up on our older son, we are just realistic. We moved to Southern California 3 years ago and we found a club soccer u6 team for him to play on. His team played up a year in coast soccer league (competitive league) -so u7 playing u8. So this is his fourth year of competitive soccer. The pace of play is now too fast to rely on predicting or anticipating. It used to work well for him, and still does in rec soccer or when he plays at school. Not getting playing time is killing his love for soccer. There is now literally 12 inches in height and 50 pounds between him and the biggest 06 players. He is not fast enough to make up for the size difference. He can keep playing rec soccer and doing clinics and camps, and I think he will keep playing as an adult in an adult league. As a family we aren't willing to drive 90 minutes round trip to see him play for 5 minutes in a game. Little league baseball we are finding out has a great community feel about it. They are 100% neighborhood kids in the league. The fields are 5 minutes from our house. And most importantly, my son is loving the practices, the games, and gets tons of positive feedback from his coaches who are amazed he hasn't played in three years. I think his soccer foot skills and his ability to anticipate serve him well when he plays shortstop or third base.
And my younger son won't change his ways because that is just how he is. Drives us crazy our older one does great at practice, but not well in the games while the younger one half asses it through practice and doesn't look that great but during scrimmages and games turns it on.

[Anonymous]

To the OP: Not sure if your child is a girl, but I am guessing she is? In any case, if you want to help boost her aggression, have her train with boys. She will have to play more aggressively by default just to keep up. Her confidence levels will spike once she beats a boy player. (Not much feels quite as good as schooling a guy or leaving him in the dust.) My dad put me exclusively on boys teams from age 6-10 and it made all the difference. Once I transitioned to a girls team, I had a major advantage that took me all the way through college D1.

[Anonymous]

12:18 - I'm not sure that would work. When my daughter has played pick-up soccer with boys, they tend to leave the girls out of the equation entirely. They'll pass to the other boys and not to the girls. Several incidents of that and my daughter didn't want to play pick-up anymore. (and she's pretty scrappy when playing with girls on her rec and travel teams.)

[Anonymous]

12:18 - I'm not sure that would work. When my daughter has played pick-up soccer with boys, they tend to leave the girls out of the equation entirely. They'll pass to the other boys and not to the girls. Several incidents of that and my daughter didn't want to play pick-up anymore. (and she's pretty scrappy when playing with girls on her rec and travel teams.)

How old are these boys? My son is 8, almost 9, and he and his friends will definitely play pick up soccer with and pass to female friends who are aggressive and skilled players - no question about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I could have written the same thing about my November kid. Coaches tell me all the time what great foot skills, great vision, amazing job finding passing lanes, etc. He can take great corner kicks, tries hard, nice kid, etc. He can run forever (he ran a mile last spring in 6minutes 30 seconds as a 9 year old), but he doesn't have speed and is short. At his school he is one of the best soccer players but on his competitive travel team he is fading. He also almost never wins 50/50 balls and that makes all the difference. He thinks too much instead of reacting aggressively and going all out to get the ball. It breaks my heart that he is no longer getting as much playing time because he loves playing soccer.
In contrast his younger brother doesn't have great foot skills, doesn't kick as hard, doesnt stay in his position,doesn't pay as much attention to what is going on but he is a bulldog who will win almost every 50/50 ball, if he doesn't win the ball he will chase down the player and take out the player by bumping him off the ball or slide tackling. He has a Feb. birthday. To me my younger kid plays ugly soccer but the coaches and other parents love it.
We could tell our older son was getting frustrated so we signed him up for fall baseball and he has done really well. It suits his personality better. We worked with him in the summer and are signing him up with a hitting coach for a few sessions to get ready for the spring. He hasn't played since he played t-ball at age 6. We asked him if he wanted to stay on his travel soccer team in the spring or do baseball and he wants to do baseball because he is having more success playing baseball and it helps he has a better baseball birthday (cut off Sept. 1st).

Too bad you gave up on your older son just because he wasn't having success right away and are trying to steer him towards baseball. In the long run he was going to be the soccer player, let him struggle. He has technique and thinks the game. Get him to start thinking earlier and learn to anticipate/predict the play before it happens. This alone will avoid 50/50 situations because he would already have the ball at his feet. This mind set of not being patient and wanting instant success from parents is why kids do not develop correctly into the game. The parents getting excited about your younger son obviously don't understand the game and by cheering on his current playing style will only encourage him to continue doing what he is doing vs improving his footskils, positioning and understanding of the game. Please encourage your younger son to pick up the characteristics of your older with what he has now and he may have some potential.

We haven't given up on our older son, we are just realistic. We moved to Southern California 3 years ago and we found a club soccer u6 team for him to play on. His team played up a year in coast soccer league (competitive league) -so u7 playing u8. So this is his fourth year of competitive soccer. The pace of play is now too fast to rely on predicting or anticipating. It used to work well for him, and still does in rec soccer or when he plays at school. Not getting playing time is killing his love for soccer. There is now literally 12 inches in height and 50 pounds between him and the biggest 06 players. He is not fast enough to make up for the size difference. He can keep playing rec soccer and doing clinics and camps, and I think he will keep playing as an adult in an adult league. As a family we aren't willing to drive 90 minutes round trip to see him play for 5 minutes in a game. Little league baseball we are finding out has a great community feel about it. They are 100% neighborhood kids in the league. The fields are 5 minutes from our house. And most importantly, my son is loving the practices, the games, and gets tons of positive feedback from his coaches who are amazed he hasn't played in three years. I think his soccer foot skills and his ability to anticipate serve him well when he plays shortstop or third base.
And my younger son won't change his ways because that is just how he is. Drives us crazy our older one does great at practice, but not well in the games while the younger one half asses it through practice and doesn't look that great but during scrimmages and games turns it on.

nothing wrong with rec and please continue to encourage him to play. He may be struggling now but in a couple of years he may dominate. So California plays competitive at U7 and U8?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:12:18 - I'm not sure that would work. When my daughter has played pick-up soccer with boys, they tend to leave the girls out of the equation entirely. They'll pass to the other boys and not to the girls. Several incidents of that and my daughter didn't want to play pick-up anymore. (and she's pretty scrappy when playing with girls on her rec and travel teams.)

Well, I hate to say this -- but she probably didn't give it enough time. It's not easy being the only girl on a field of boys, but once you show them you are as just as good as they are, they will pass to you. And you will become a stronger, better player for it -- without a doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is 10 and playing U11 in a CCL club. She/he is one of the fall birthdays and has made the transition well. The majority of the team is year older in school and 6-12 months older by age.
My child has excellent ball skills and is a "smart" player. Passes are well placed in anticipation of where the next player will be. However, my child isn't a fast kid and it's becoming increasingly apparent
as the speed of the game has increased between u9 and u11. Basically all the great kids are now running at top speed the entire game. My kid (who plays defense) tackles well and puts down these
beautiful passes (the crowd of parents often says, "wow, amazing pass!") but this kid doesn't charge the ball aggressively. It's becoming apparent in recent games that he/she needs to step up the speed in which he/she attacks the ball and then passes on the ball.
However, this is a kid who is more slow and deliberate in everything in life. It's just who he/she is. I haven't said anything and I'm not sure I can about needing to step it up in soccer. Or can I? The coach seems to like him/her very much but I hear him/her calling out
in the game, "XX, run faster!, faster!".
My child loves, loves soccer and I want him/her to have the option to keep playing if he/she so desires. Has anyone had a similar kid and/or do you have any thoughts?

andrea pirlo never ran a lot. neither did xabi alonso. they are some of the greatest midfielder of the last 20 years.

if your child truly has excellent ball skills and is hyper-intelligent about the game, a real coach won't care and will protect her by surrounding her with 'water carriers'

this is a worthless trainer - certainly an anglo trainer for sure. Definitely not a latin trainer.

Juan Roman Riquelme is another so-called 'lazy player'.

Please read comments by alonso and pirlo about movement in the game. Your player needs a smarter trainer, I am shaking in hatred of your child's trainer by bulling him/her in this fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No way to play defender without speed an aggression. Any chance he/she could transition to striker? Might be a good fit with ball skills and passing talent. Or, any chance you could get your child in some good cross training to increase speed? My kid is OK fast, but his cardiovascular endurance is very strong because of cross training in various sports and has turned him into one of the fastest runners, even though he's not the fastest naturally.

Unless you are looking for a college scholarship or professional play, I wouldn't worry about birth month. My kid has a crappy birth month but plays up two years, will never play in college or as a professional, and still manages to get it done. Playing for fun and fitness. Yeah, there are advantages/disadvantages to birth month but a talented kid will still shine through.

laurent blanc is one of the slowest and least 'aggressive' defenders - he's also one of the greatest to ever play in the modern game.

defending isn't about speed or agression - it is 90% about anticipation and positioning.

You can find a lot of defenders with the first two attributes, but it is hard to find defenders with the latter two

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus Christ, reading a lot of these comments how is American soccer so shitty?

yep all they care about is speed and height.

Wow, how 20 years ago.

Look at the National team today...plenty of smaller, skilled players. A handful of smart, players that aren't the best athletically.
We are so beyond that stupid stereotype.

besides pulisic, name me a smart and skilled player on the national team? Pulisic is the first player in the history of country where you can look at him and he looks like a carbon copy of someone trained in europe or latin america.

the stereotype is true - even taylor twellman remarked that if pulisic didn't move to dortmund at 16/17 and went into a mls academy, he doesn't think he would be at the level with the same opportunities that he has today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age, a child should not BE one position.

I started telling my kid - you're doing good but for you - the next level is x.

For ex.
Like one year, he was a great foot skill and speed, but his positioning was all over the place. Some days great, some days just awful. I was like this year - I want to see you learn positioning - and then we were specific - you need to be within this place of the ball and within the team.

Or another year - we said - on your on days you are fantastic, on your off days you are horrible. the coach doesn't know to depend on you to win the game or just do nothing. this is the year of consistency. We want every game to be at least within your 75% best.

believe it or not, this has totally worked. So I would take this info and give it to him and give him a few months to work on it.

It's sad the coach couldn't relay that information to him---especially positioning!!

You might want to rethink where you are.

At U9/U10? Nah. Not many coaches will do much with positioning beyond "create space." That's the USSF curriculum.

as a u10 coach, it depends on how many training sessions we get with a team. at the premier/academy level, when there are 4x sessions, we can incorporate some positional awareness and understanding of tactical 'triggers' but with teams that train 2x a week where the kids aren't getting enough technical development on their own (i.e. the only time they are touching the ball during the week is practice), I need to maximize technical training.

One can develop positional sense and tactical understanding later in mid-late teens but it is very hard to improve technically after 16 or 17.

If I knew kids I trained played street/pickup all the time and had a very high technical base, I can use my limited time to drill positional awareness.

Otherwise, at that age, I have to maximize their technical development first and foremost because the window for that closes faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At that age, a child should not BE one position.

I started telling my kid - you're doing good but for you - the next level is x.

For ex.
Like one year, he was a great foot skill and speed, but his positioning was all over the place. Some days great, some days just awful. I was like this year - I want to see you learn positioning - and then we were specific - you need to be within this place of the ball and within the team.

Or another year - we said - on your on days you are fantastic, on your off days you are horrible. the coach doesn't know to depend on you to win the game or just do nothing. this is the year of consistency. We want every game to be at least within your 75% best.

believe it or not, this has totally worked. So I would take this info and give it to him and give him a few months to work on it.

It's sad the coach couldn't relay that information to him---especially positioning!!

You might want to rethink where you are.

At U9/U10? Nah. Not many coaches will do much with positioning beyond "create space." That's the USSF curriculum.

At 9/10 they have no idea what 'create space' means--unless a coach tells them. This is why some clubs still have bunch ball going on or players from their own team tackling them. Yes--very specific tactical information can be detrimental ---but knowing where to move and get open and not dragging defenders over to your teammate with the ball is definitely 'positioning lite' that should be communicated.

in my experience bunch-ball at that age isn't so much a function of kids not getting the concept of space but kids not having technical skill to take one two touches to extract themselves into space and hit sharp passes over a medium distance on the ground. teams with low technical ability get frustrated and start bunching.

I coached a u10 team once that struggled with bunching - midway through the season I had two italian brothers come to my team midway through the season (his dad transferred via work and the kid was in torino's youth academy). Bunching markedly dropped when I paired the kids together in midfield in 7 a side.

Why? Because the other kids realized those two could get out of pretty much any pressure and hit passes accurately at will and within about 4 training sessions, the whole teams understanding of space and positioning went up immeasurably.