Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The biggest thing I noticed going to these training sessions is how much standing around the kids do, with coach lecturing. My kids current club has kids moving the full 90 min. There is no waiting in lines ...touches, touches and tactical sense drills. Now I’m giving the U13 coaches a break because they have inherited a bunch of kids that never learned how to play and have to now teach them from scratch. But it’s been eye-opening and confirms we did the right thing with our kids in not focusing on leagues/status in the younger years.

That poor coach has to fix all of the technical deficiencies of the players he inherited first. You can’t play the way he wants them to play without shoring that up. If a club focused on size/speed and American coaching style in the pre-puberty years—the players will be woefully behind in technical ability and tactical sense.

It's like there are 2 separate Clubs. The teams below the 'elite' teams are trained completely differently and the size matters. This is not a feeder system. A club should have kids on the same developmental plan to succeed in the later years. I don't know why the Clubs get the big name, good coaches for the later years without investing in the critical early developmental years. There shouldn't be that big of a gulf in playing style. Why aren't there uniform training plans at these big Clubs that the Coaching staff follows across the board and are adjusted at each subsequent level? It would require a lot of coaching education, a plan implementation and reviews. There seems to be plenty of revenue coming in---is it a financial reason or just a 'we don't care' reason? I suppose it's a win at all costs in the young years reason.

Anonymous wrote:Is is this just an advertisement for MLS next versus ECNL? Judge the team and coach, not the league.

Just a humblebrag about DC

Anonymous wrote:The biggest thing I noticed going to these training sessions is how much standing around the kids do, with coach lecturing. My kids current club has kids moving the full 90 min. There is no waiting in lines ...touches, touches and tactical sense drills. Now I’m giving the U13 coaches a break because they have inherited a bunch of kids that never learned how to play and have to now teach them from scratch. But it’s been eye-opening and confirms we did the right thing with our kids in not focusing on leagues/status in the younger years.

That poor coach has to fix all of the technical deficiencies of the players he inherited first. You can’t play the way he wants them to play without shoring that up. If a club focused on size/speed and American coaching style in the pre-puberty years—the players will be woefully behind in technical ability and tactical sense.

The biggest thing I noticed going to these training sessions is how much standing around the kids do, with coach lecturing. My kids current club has kids moving the full 90 min. There is no waiting in lines ...touches, touches and tactical sense drills. Now I’m giving the U13 coaches a break because they have inherited a bunch of kids that never learned how to play and have to now teach them from scratch. But it’s been eye-opening and confirms we did the right thing with our kids in not focusing on leagues/status in the younger years.

At this stage there is a huge difference in how kids were trained U9-U13. We went the developmental route and left some big name Clubs, did a lot of individual training from a variety of different styles and a club that was big on tactical sense and touches, drills with numerical superiority, etc. I can tell you at both clubs we noticed the current trans to be lacking and below level. We did see how the older teams play u16+ and that’s what we are basing our decision on, but I can’t say I’m not worried playing and training at a much tactically/technically lower level will set my kid back. I watched a 3v2 drill that consisted of not a single pass but kid coming out and blasting it to goal—-play over, next. It was insane at U13 level. We are coming from a place the kids easily string together 9-10 passes and still can finish.

+1, except I do think there is space for technical training at U14 and U15, as the boys are getting used to how their bodies move during/post growth spurts. Having the competition of teammates to perform cleaner/quicker technical skills can be a big motivator. There is space in practice warm ups, etc for it.

I think that the training emphasis should depend heavily on which age group the kids are in. If you have U14s or up (okay, maybe U15s) dribbling in circles working on "technique" at training sessions, that is a waste of time. It looks intense and makes it easy for poor coaches to pretend to be good coaches, but the ECNL coach is spot on--technique should be developed on their own. But your kid can't do possession drills or work on positioning and movement on his own.

If these are younger kids, then it probably would be a good idea for the ECNL coach to re-emphasize shoring up their technical skills and spend a few minutes at each practice checking their progress. If they're older, then he should look for better, more motivated players .

Regarding the "seriousness" of the practice, that's not really dependent on league or what is being covered during the training session. That's down to the tone the coach sets.

because the coach doesn't know what they are doing, otherwise they would establish a stronger technique base before moving on to tactical training

I agree with judging a team and a coach, not a league. I have seen a lot of different coaching styles across teams in the same league. That's what makes it a creative sport. Just join the team that is the better fit for your kid and stop trying to make broad generalizations about leagues.

Anonymous wrote:Is is this just an advertisement for MLS next versus ECNL? Judge the team and coach, not the league.

OP here. Was just noting that there was a difference. It's possible other MLS Next clubs may not focus on technical skills and other ECNL clubs do focus on technical stuff.

Judging the team and coach in this scenario the MLS Team would come out on top.

Is is this just an advertisement for MLS next versus ECNL? Judge the team and coach, not the league.

Anonymous wrote:That's because your ecnl coach is lazy and doesn't know how to teach technique

I have no idea, but that's what a lot of the player's on the team are lacking so don't know why the coach wouldn't do more training technical training.

That's because your ecnl coach is lazy and doesn't know how to teach technique

Rondo drill and other such stuff. Lots of touches during practice. My DD club does a six yard circle, two in the center and 4-5 on the circle. It’s one or two touches, maybe a fake thrown in and you have to know where you are going before the ball gets there. Many times the ball does not hit the ground for a 5-6 touches. Very fast ball movement.

My DS is currently on ECNL Team and with it being tryout season had my DS practice with some other club's top teams. Noticed a huge difference in training curriculum and found my DS enjoyed the MLS Next practices over the ECNL practices. Found that the MLS Next practice focused on technical skills and making the player an all around stronger/better player. The kids even seem to take the training more seriously at the MLS Next practice. The ECNL practice is mainly small side games, but hardly any focus on technical skills. No heading, first-touch drills, defending, etc aren't taught during ECNL practices. Mainly just passing games where the team is divided into thirds and they do these round robin games. The ECNL coach has told the kids that they should be working on technical skills on non-practice days on their own.

Based on the feedback from the MLS Next coach, my DS needs to work on playing quicker under pressure and protecting the ball more. Do you have any training techniques or professional trainer recommendations?