Reply to Just how good would US nat'l soccer team be if our best athletes played soccer?

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[quote=asksoccernova]Would we develop more elite golfers if all of the greatest US athletes chose golf?

Not necessarily. They would still have to become a great golfer in addition to becoming a great athlete. You still have to become a great golfer to be a great golfer.

There are only so many hours in the day - how many hours do you devote to improving pure athleticism and how many to improving your skills?

Bottom line is if you have average skills, no amount of athleticism can make up for that.

Same with soccer - you can be incredibly athletic, but you still have to develop the skills of a great soccer player to be a great soccer player. And you cannot do this without spending more time with the ball (not in the weight room or on the track)

In soccer, the reason for this is that the ball moves faster than the players - the greatest sprinter cannot outrun a soccer ball on a sprint. The greatest endurance athlete cannot outrun a soccer ball over 90 minutes. The greatest high jumper cannot jump higher than a ball can be kicked. Athleticism will help with some types of game situations, but your skill on the ball will have more of an effect on the outcome. There are 22 players on the field and only 1 ball, so a lot of the game is about timing, team shape, principles of play such as width, support, coordinated movements, and transitions. These elements of team play have very little to do with individual athleticism. In fact, one strategy when playing against athletic players that want to pressure is to wear them out by passing the ball around the field and make them chase it all over the place.

Most of the game is played without you having the ball at your foot - and when you do get it, you only play with 1-2 touches most of the time. The thousands of hours working on your touch determine how good those 1-2 touches are. NO amount of time training athletic qualities without a soccer ball at your feet will improve the quality of those touches. You need to train with a ball. [/quote]

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