outside training

[Anonymous]

I understand that if you really want your child to progress and advance their travel team practice and games won't be enough--they need to love the ball and the game so much they play and train on their own outside of team activities. That is true regardless of club.

Multiple questions:

Should the outside training be individual, group or small group? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
How much should be with professional trainer and how much just player or player and friends/family?
What are some good local sources for outside training for players U9-U11 who really do want a little more than their travel team practices?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I understand that if you really want your child to progress and advance their travel team practice and games won't be enough--they need to love the ball and the game so much they play and train on their own outside of team activities. That is true regardless of club.

Multiple questions:

Should the outside training be individual, group or small group? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
How much should be with professional trainer and how much just player or player and friends/family?
What are some good local sources for outside training for players U9-U11 who really do want a little more than their travel team practices?

A mix of group and individual. It really depends on the kid and their needs. There is no right or wrong here. The one thing is to find some things the player can do on their own without much space or equipment requirement.

[Anonymous]

We've done both individual and small group and by far the small group sessions were far more valuable. A group of say 4 kids, equal in ability and if possible, friends makes the training far more valuable. A group of four kids from one of our teams trained together with a private coach and you could see the changes in a season in that their chemistry with one another really improved, not to mention food skills and shot power.

But this was in another city. Don't know anyone doing same here just yet as we just moved here.

[Anonymous]

We got most improvement from working at home - more touches in less time.

The benefits of working with a trainer outside is to get another option, which is important too.

Just like studying: you learn at school, and you can hire a tutor, but you can not skip your homework.