Anonymous wrote:Being a parent of a U12 and U10, it would be great to hear if any parent feels agility training before U13 made a difference in their child's athletic development. At the younger ages, my experience has been that this has minimal impact vs natural ability. I could see it making a bigger difference for U13 and above.

Here is why all the top academies in the world does Speed & Agility.
Coordination, Balance are key components to the entire player package.
Improving reaction time and change of direction as well.

Whatever coordination, balance, mechanics and agility issues your kid has without the ball, they sure have it worse with the ball and under pressure.

You don't see many gymnasts begin those movements at 13, 14

Re: juggling, I think it's as much about demonstrating the player's willingness to work on their own as much as the skill itself.

If you do that, you're likely putting other work in.

Being a parent of a U12 and U10, it would be great to hear if any parent feels agility training before U13 made a difference in their child's athletic development. At the younger ages, my experience has been that this has minimal impact vs natural ability. I could see it making a bigger difference for U13 and above.

Juggling is one of those foundational things - all good soccer players can juggle, but juggling won't itself make you good.

Seconding the technical skills - for my kid I wish we had emphasized 1v1 earlier, he's a great passer but that's not always the best option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juggling was a repeated advice we didn't take seriously enough

Juggling is not something that sets you apart. Many kids can juggle, but if you don't make quick good decisions, then it doesn't matter. Also, you can get a good touch with other technical work.

Would love to task you with finding a professional player who can't juggle.
As with all other skills, being good at one thing is not enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Juggling was a repeated advice we didn't take seriously enough

My DD is a great juggler. She can pretty much go until she gets bored. If she had used even half of the time she spent learning juggling tricks on agility drills, she'd probably still be playing

Everyone seems to think in extremes.
If you can't juggle, then you lack touch, control and balance (probably lack discipline to stick with something)

Doesn't mean the next option is juggling to 5,000
Once you can do 500, you're good.
If you can't do 15, you're screwed.

Anonymous wrote:Juggling was a repeated advice we didn't take seriously enough

Juggling is not something that sets you apart. Many kids can juggle, but if you don't make quick good decisions, then it doesn't matter. Also, you can get a good touch with other technical work.

Anonymous wrote:Juggling was a repeated advice we didn't take seriously enough

My DD is a great juggler. She can pretty much go until she gets bored. If she had used even half of the time she spent learning juggling tricks on agility drills, she'd probably still be playing

Juggling was a repeated advice we didn't take seriously enough

Heard many times my son should work on using both feet.
He was pretty good, for a while, just going with his dominant right foot.
When he got older and tried to compete for spots against other midfielders who used both feet, he had slim chance.

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is U13 or older, what pieces of advice did you hear more than once when they were younger, regarding skills etc development that you wish you had taken?

I have worked with a lot of college players. They to a person all say they wish they were more technical- first touch, equal with both foot, ball control, comfort in tight spaces, passing accuracy and being able to do this under pressure. All of this equaling a higher speed of play.

Unfortunately the current system does not place enough emphasis on technical training and apply it under pressure nor does it value the technical player. Technical skills should be the main focus till u13-u14. Too much time is wasted on fitness and drills not under full pressure. You can really see the difference in players by u16 who are in a technical program(that has consistent pressure) and those that spend a good chunk of time in Europe vs typical travel players.

This type of training has a side benefit of increasing your defensive skills, getting one in to game shape and having a higher speed of play.

I'd put it this way: with my son, I always did what I had failed to do when playing. I made sure he alternated or split shots, passes and touches evenly between left and right foot. Most good players can play with both feet, but not at a very high level. Being able to pass and even shoot well with both feet is a significant advantage.

As a coach, I would imagine most parents of young players are going to get the general "focus on technical" speech. For most players, this holds true, and it's much harder to catch up on skill deficit then it is on fitness.

SAQ training is certainly an important aspect of being a good athlete, I imagine in most sports. It's certainly an area worth some specialized training if your child has the time/can afford it. Ideally you can get enough conditioning during your regular training, but... well to put it nicely, some kids need more than others.

If there was one thing I could tell you with regards to development, would be to instill the desire/habit of them doing their own additional work with the ball, exercise, etc. They spend way more time without their coach than they do with them.

Most of the advice that her coaches was about first touch and ball control. When DD finally quit soccer, she had great technical skills. I wish that coaches would have emphasized speed and conditioning because both of those carry to other sports and are more important in soccer than youth coaches pretend. It took getting into cross country to get her conditioning where it should have been for soccer.

If your kid is U13 or older, what pieces of advice did you hear more than once when they were younger, regarding skills etc development that you wish you had taken?