Most important skills for soccer?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Speed and size are attributes that cannot be trained. That is why they are valued. If you are a slow or undersized player, there is a ceiling. That is true in any sport. It is a bitter pill to swallow if your kid is slow or small but that is the reality.

I agree that slow and undersized are problems. That is also why playing up too many years is such a problem. It makes that player slow in comparison (assuming they are fast when appropriately played). It also makes them tiny in comparison.


BUT, so is a lack of technique. I never see those fast players improve their technique. They just continue on thinking they are doing a good enough job because they keep making teams. An average speed player is more effective if they have excellent technique because they can control the ball. Those fast players as juniors and seniors continue to turn balls over becuase it bounces several feet from their heavy touch.

And the slow midfielders (with many many touches as they try to impress the crowd with their amazing repeated pull backs) lose the ball every single time. It's a one or two touch game people.

Forget about slow anything, and let's not focus on positions. Average speed with great technique versus extremely fast with little technique and poor touch.

By the time the kids get to high school the extremely fast girls have great touches and fabulous technique. They are highly sought after by colleges.

I have never seen a kid with a bad touch develop a great touch and technique. Just not seen it. The highly sought after kids with great touch and technique have always had it. Touch, speed, size, vision, quickness, strength, endurance are things you are born with. You can improve some of these with training but you are starting from a baseline and you have a max line.

lolz, yeah sure they were just born with it. ha ha ha ha
Or maybe they've always had it because their family has a football culture and they started dribbling a ball as soon as they could walk

Yep all those soccer players with a bad touch just do not work at it. It they worked at it they would have a touch like Messi. Hell everyone should have a touch like Messi. Touch is something that can be taught. Every time you see a player with bad touch remember they are just lazy and do not work at it. It’s like shooting in basketball or hitting a baseball. Anyone can do it.

Well you should have told those players earlier to give up since they will NEVER get it.

Yes tell that slow kid he/she can run fast if he/she trains. Tell that fast player with a bad touch he/she can have a great touch if only he/she work at it. It’s not going to happen.

How do you explain kids with great touch when they were young but getting worse when older?

frustration. That get frustrated from not moving up and being eclipsed by the physical kids and the passion dies along with aggression and will to play. Ask me how I know?

I have one kid that has always been big and one that has always been tiny. The tiny is fast/quick and coaches fawned over him for his great ball/skill touch, but as the years have marched on the teams are becoming bigger and bigger and as they head to full field most of the top teams, if they haven't already, are getting bigger in size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed and size are attributes that cannot be trained. That is why they are valued. If you are a slow or undersized player, there is a ceiling. That is true in any sport. It is a bitter pill to swallow if your kid is slow or small but that is the reality.

I agree that slow and undersized are problems. That is also why playing up too many years is such a problem. It makes that player slow in comparison (assuming they are fast when appropriately played). It also makes them tiny in comparison.


BUT, so is a lack of technique. I never see those fast players improve their technique. They just continue on thinking they are doing a good enough job because they keep making teams. An average speed player is more effective if they have excellent technique because they can control the ball. Those fast players as juniors and seniors continue to turn balls over becuase it bounces several feet from their heavy touch.

And the slow midfielders (with many many touches as they try to impress the crowd with their amazing repeated pull backs) lose the ball every single time. It's a one or two touch game people.

Forget about slow anything, and let's not focus on positions. Average speed with great technique versus extremely fast with little technique and poor touch.

By the time the kids get to high school the extremely fast girls have great touches and fabulous technique. They are highly sought after by colleges.

I have never seen a kid with a bad touch develop a great touch and technique. Just not seen it. The highly sought after kids with great touch and technique have always had it. Touch, speed, size, vision, quickness, strength, endurance are things you are born with. You can improve some of these with training but you are starting from a baseline and you have a max line.

lolz, yeah sure they were just born with it. ha ha ha ha
Or maybe they've always had it because their family has a football culture and they started dribbling a ball as soon as they could walk

Yep all those soccer players with a bad touch just do not work at it. It they worked at it they would have a touch like Messi. Hell everyone should have a touch like Messi. Touch is something that can be taught. Every time you see a player with bad touch remember they are just lazy and do not work at it. It’s like shooting in basketball or hitting a baseball. Anyone can do it.

Well you should have told those players earlier to give up since they will NEVER get it.

Yes tell that slow kid he/she can run fast if he/she trains. Tell that fast player with a bad touch he/she can have a great touch if only he/she work at it. It’s not going to happen.

How do you explain kids with great touch when they were young but getting worse when older?

I don't think kids ever really lose their touch but they may not gain the ability to process under pressure. When playing under pressure it is no longer enough to just have great touch your touch has to be either a pass or put in a direction away from pressure. Just settling the ball isn't enough when a defender is collapsing on your right and you need to touch the ball to the left away from pressure. That is the Tactical IQ that is reinforced by excellent technical ability. And that can only improve in increasingly faster and faster environments.

+100

[Anonymous]

Choosing to go away from pressure is not always the best choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Speed and size are attributes that cannot be trained. That is why they are valued. If you are a slow or undersized player, there is a ceiling. That is true in any sport. It is a bitter pill to swallow if your kid is slow or small but that is the reality.

I agree that slow and undersized are problems. That is also why playing up too many years is such a problem. It makes that player slow in comparison (assuming they are fast when appropriately played). It also makes them tiny in comparison.


BUT, so is a lack of technique. I never see those fast players improve their technique. They just continue on thinking they are doing a good enough job because they keep making teams. An average speed player is more effective if they have excellent technique because they can control the ball. Those fast players as juniors and seniors continue to turn balls over becuase it bounces several feet from their heavy touch.

And the slow midfielders (with many many touches as they try to impress the crowd with their amazing repeated pull backs) lose the ball every single time. It's a one or two touch game people.

Forget about slow anything, and let's not focus on positions. Average speed with great technique versus extremely fast with little technique and poor touch.

By the time the kids get to high school the extremely fast girls have great touches and fabulous technique. They are highly sought after by colleges.

I have never seen a kid with a bad touch develop a great touch and technique. Just not seen it. The highly sought after kids with great touch and technique have always had it. Touch, speed, size, vision, quickness, strength, endurance are things you are born with. You can improve some of these with training but you are starting from a baseline and you have a max line.

lolz, yeah sure they were just born with it. ha ha ha ha
Or maybe they've always had it because their family has a football culture and they started dribbling a ball as soon as they could walk

Yep all those soccer players with a bad touch just do not work at it. It they worked at it they would have a touch like Messi. Hell everyone should have a touch like Messi. Touch is something that can be taught. Every time you see a player with bad touch remember they are just lazy and do not work at it. It’s like shooting in basketball or hitting a baseball. Anyone can do it.

Well you should have told those players earlier to give up since they will NEVER get it.

Yes tell that slow kid he/she can run fast if he/she trains. Tell that fast player with a bad touch he/she can have a great touch if only he/she work at it. It’s not going to happen.

How do you explain kids with great touch when they were young but getting worse when older?

frustration. That get frustrated from not moving up and being eclipsed by the physical kids and the passion dies along with aggression and will to play. Ask me how I know?

I have one kid that has always been big and one that has always been tiny. The tiny is fast/quick and coaches fawned over him for his great ball/skill touch, but as the years have marched on the teams are becoming bigger and bigger and as they head to full field most of the top teams, if they haven't already, are getting bigger in size.

I have one of those kids too. His experience has been soul crushing. He used to live for soccer and stuck it out for such a long time, despite his size. He doesn't necessary need to work harder, he needed an opportunity to play during the formative years and he wasn't getting that. B & C teams aren't a good fit. If you are a great touch/great vision player who is small, you wind up playing with no touch, no understanding of the game players and it isn't fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Choosing to go away from pressure is not always the best choice.

This is a great point.

Knowing when to cut against the grain and having the confidence to do so against an attacking defenders momentum is a part of it too. Again, the creativity, Tactical IQ and instinct all coming together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the top levels you have the good athletes who work hard to improve their skills -- it is not really that hard to figure out.
If you are a great athlete but do not work to improve your skills you will top out. People will give you a look -- think back to the time when pretty much every NBA team had some 7 footer sitting on the end of the bench on the theory that maybe with lots of coaching they could become good. And, Major League baseball teams used to get sprinters to be base stealing specialists. But those days are gone. Simply put there is no one making an EPL first team who does not have very good skills and is a great athlete. At that point, what you are looking at is comparing between folks who are great at everything, but when put with others who are great at everything their athletic ability and skill set gives them different advantages.

Now -- if you have the physical ability then yes you can improvce your skill set and take particular advantage of particular physical assets. I tell this story all the time. One of our good friends' oldest kid was, and still is, the best friend of a guy who he went to school with, and played a variety of sports with growing up. As my daughter was best friends with their daughter, we would see their son and his friend a few times a year at backyard BBQ or walking through the house, and as polite kids do under threat of parental punishment, they always would stop to say hi to the parents' friends. The kid was always nice, polite and obviously an athlete as he played sports with our friend's son who was a good athlete. But, he was nothing special physically. Not big, not small, not super muscular, just a normal sized athletic kid. But, what he did do was work pretty much every single day that he did not have a baseball game, on his baseball skills. Even when playing other sports. Batting cage in the basement. He and his dad basically spent an hour or so every day on something. Every day. For years.

He and his family turned downed being a 3rd round pick out of high school and he went to a very good baseball college. Two years later he could be a low second round pick so he left school. Two more years in the minors where he did well but not -- hey he's a future superstar -- got him onto a major league roster as a utility player. Side story -- after his first major league hit Mark McGuire was playing first base for the opposing team and told him that he could tell it was a just a start -- nice thing to say to a rookie. But, as it turned out, it really was just a start. He's now one of the top players in the major leagues. He's a mid 7 figure a year guy now. His next contract likely will be one of those multi-year 9 figure deals and there's not a team that would kill to have him.

Obviously a guy who has the physical attributes but then he and his dad, for years and years, worked on developing his skills. And, that work ethic continued into college and the pros. And paid off. Yet, if you saw him in high school, as we did, you would not have thought -- hey there's a kid who is headed to be a star player in the major leagues.

Nice story. One thing soccer is different from baseball though is some skills for soccer cannot be learned by just practicing alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the top levels you have the good athletes who work hard to improve their skills -- it is not really that hard to figure out.
If you are a great athlete but do not work to improve your skills you will top out. People will give you a look -- think back to the time when pretty much every NBA team had some 7 footer sitting on the end of the bench on the theory that maybe with lots of coaching they could become good. And, Major League baseball teams used to get sprinters to be base stealing specialists. But those days are gone. Simply put there is no one making an EPL first team who does not have very good skills and is a great athlete. At that point, what you are looking at is comparing between folks who are great at everything, but when put with others who are great at everything their athletic ability and skill set gives them different advantages.

Now -- if you have the physical ability then yes you can improvce your skill set and take particular advantage of particular physical assets. I tell this story all the time. One of our good friends' oldest kid was, and still is, the best friend of a guy who he went to school with, and played a variety of sports with growing up. As my daughter was best friends with their daughter, we would see their son and his friend a few times a year at backyard BBQ or walking through the house, and as polite kids do under threat of parental punishment, they always would stop to say hi to the parents' friends. The kid was always nice, polite and obviously an athlete as he played sports with our friend's son who was a good athlete. But, he was nothing special physically. Not big, not small, not super muscular, just a normal sized athletic kid. But, what he did do was work pretty much every single day that he did not have a baseball game, on his baseball skills. Even when playing other sports. Batting cage in the basement. He and his dad basically spent an hour or so every day on something. Every day. For years.

He and his family turned downed being a 3rd round pick out of high school and he went to a very good baseball college. Two years later he could be a low second round pick so he left school. Two more years in the minors where he did well but not -- hey he's a future superstar -- got him onto a major league roster as a utility player. Side story -- after his first major league hit Mark McGuire was playing first base for the opposing team and told him that he could tell it was a just a start -- nice thing to say to a rookie. But, as it turned out, it really was just a start. He's now one of the top players in the major leagues. He's a mid 7 figure a year guy now. His next contract likely will be one of those multi-year 9 figure deals and there's not a team that would kill to have him.

Obviously a guy who has the physical attributes but then he and his dad, for years and years, worked on developing his skills. And, that work ethic continued into college and the pros. And paid off. Yet, if you saw him in high school, as we did, you would not have thought -- hey there's a kid who is headed to be a star player in the major leagues.

Nice story. One thing soccer is different from baseball though is some skills for soccer cannot be learned by just practicing alone.

Not relevant.