Anonymous
02/09/2020 10:20
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, speed and size work like this. It allows you to make many mistakes and recover. So you have a bad touch. You receive a ball and it goes 10 feet away from you. If the closest defender is 20 feet away, you have just created a 50/50 ball. The player who is the fastest, strongest and most aggressive will win the ball. Select for those type of players.
A player with a good touch, vision and technical skills will pass the ball to the open player. Passing the ball is seen as non aggressive. An aggressive player will put their head down and dribble.
A player(specially early on) with good touch and vision really gets you nothing. You need two or three to have an impact. So most coaches will select a fast aggressive player over a fast player with touch and vision.
At the u littles, very few players have a good touch, vision and technical skills. The ones who do are odds balls. These players do not fit in.
In the older age groups within a range, top teams are fairly equal in size and straight line speed. Now touch, vision and technical skills matter(because this allows faster speed of play) but you have been selecting for 5-6 years for speed and aggression. This selection happens in middle school before puberty.
Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not. It is very important for the later year(lol 16 years old ...later years), but not used as selected criteria in the younger years.
This is a very true and insightful post. Unfortunately, my 2008 DD has good first touch, technical skills and vision but doesn’t have blazing speed. You’re right about having at least 2-3 other players with good skills for it to be effective. Players that are not in position, don’t get open and/or doesn’t have a good first touch impacts the rest of the team. But the most frustrating thing is when a player just aimlessly kicks the ball as hard as they can and then some parents (and her parents) would yell out “good kick”. LOL.
Passing a ball to an extremely aggressive player is like passing to a black hole though. This type of player typically put their heads down and just dribble the ball and eventually looses it. This is frustrating for the rest of the team and sometimes causes resentment.
I don’t necessarily agree with “Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not.” I think this can be learn with practice while pure speed is hereditary. I also think a player with good skills & vision sometimes don’t use their speed as much due to them constantly looking for an open player to pass instead of putting their heads down and just dribble the ball away.
We see this a lot in older girls. The ones with no speed focus excessively on foot skills etc. They are usually midfielders. They receive the ball run around the field laterally making moves and trying to look "skilled" and then lose the ball. One move is enough, get rid of the ball.
Anonymous
02/09/2020 10:18
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:On the girls' side, speed is the top bias they select for, from top of the pyramid on down. I see fast girls with a touch like they have rocks in their shoes make DA, D1, ECNL, whatever big time level you like. As long as they are exceptionally fast.
Those super fast kids are the top scorers for the team. Points win games. You have to be able to beat defenders. Look at the body types of the positions. Defenders and center mids = heavy and slow but tough. Top scoring forwards = lean, sleek, muscular and FAST!
Ah. No. In real soccer a defender or wing back must be very fast. Who is going to catch those fast forwards? Most Americans think of defense only like lineman.
Exactly my point - who is going to catch the top scoring super fast? No one
Anonymous
02/09/2020 07:06
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:On the girls side, speed and size work like this. It allows you to make many mistakes and recover. So you have a bad touch. You receive a ball and it goes 10 feet away from you. If the closest defender is 20 feet away, you have just created a 50/50 ball. The player who is the fastest, strongest and most aggressive will win the ball. Select for those type of players.
A player with a good touch, vision and technical skills will pass the ball to the open player. Passing the ball is seen as non aggressive. An aggressive player will put their head down and dribble.
A player(specially early on) with good touch and vision really gets you nothing. You need two or three to have an impact. So most coaches will select a fast aggressive player over a fast player with touch and vision.
At the u littles, very few players have a good touch, vision and technical skills. The ones who do are odds balls. These players do not fit in.
In the older age groups within a range, top teams are fairly equal in size and straight line speed. Now touch, vision and technical skills matter(because this allows faster speed of play) but you have been selecting for 5-6 years for speed and aggression. This selection happens in middle school before puberty.
Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not. It is very important for the later year(lol 16 years old ...later years), but not used as selected criteria in the younger years.
This is a very true and insightful post. Unfortunately, my 2008 DD has good first touch, technical skills and vision but doesn’t have blazing speed. You’re right about having at least 2-3 other players with good skills for it to be effective. Players that are not in position, don’t get open and/or doesn’t have a good first touch impacts the rest of the team. But the most frustrating thing is when a player just aimlessly kicks the ball as hard as they can and then some parents (and her parents) would yell out “good kick”. LOL.
Passing a ball to an extremely aggressive player is like passing to a black hole though. This type of player typically put their heads down and just dribble the ball and eventually looses it. This is frustrating for the rest of the team and sometimes causes resentment.
I don’t necessarily agree with “Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not.” I think this can be learn with practice while pure speed is hereditary. I also think a player with good skills & vision sometimes don’t use their speed as much due to them constantly looking for an open player to pass instead of putting their heads down and just dribble the ball away.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 21:15
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:On the girls' side, speed is the top bias they select for, from top of the pyramid on down. I see fast girls with a touch like they have rocks in their shoes make DA, D1, ECNL, whatever big time level you like. As long as they are exceptionally fast.
Those super fast kids are the top scorers for the team. Points win games. You have to be able to beat defenders. Look at the body types of the positions. Defenders and center mids = heavy and slow but tough. Top scoring forwards = lean, sleek, muscular and FAST!
Umm, how do you score if you have no touch or technique? There is a definite BIAS for speed, but not because it is truly the most important skill. LaRoux was fast and against a team like Mexico, she was dangerous. Once she went against a more skillful backline, she disappeared.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 20:59
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:On the girls' side, speed is the top bias they select for, from top of the pyramid on down. I see fast girls with a touch like they have rocks in their shoes make DA, D1, ECNL, whatever big time level you like. As long as they are exceptionally fast.
Those super fast kids are the top scorers for the team. Points win games. You have to be able to beat defenders. Look at the body types of the positions. Defenders and center mids = heavy and slow but tough. Top scoring forwards = lean, sleek, muscular and FAST!
Ah. No. In real soccer a defender or wing back must be very fast. Who is going to catch those fast forwards? Most Americans think of defense only like lineman.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 20:48
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:On the girls' side, speed is the top bias they select for, from top of the pyramid on down. I see fast girls with a touch like they have rocks in their shoes make DA, D1, ECNL, whatever big time level you like. As long as they are exceptionally fast.
Those super fast kids are the top scorers for the team. Points win games. You have to be able to beat defenders. Look at the body types of the positions. Defenders and center mids = heavy and slow but tough. Top scoring forwards = lean, sleek, muscular and FAST!
Anonymous
02/08/2020 12:56
Subject: Re:Most important skills for soccer?
Vision of the field, first touch, speed, aggression.
If your kid is a wimp and doesn’t fight for 50/50 balls, they won’t make a top team.
For vision of the game and touch, watch epl and international games all the time. Not our men’s teams they suck.
If your kid is a wimp and doesn’t fight for 50/50 balls, they won’t make a top team.
For vision of the game and touch, watch epl and international games all the time. Not our men’s teams they suck.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 12:22
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
On the girls' side, speed is the top bias they select for, from top of the pyramid on down. I see fast girls with a touch like they have rocks in their shoes make DA, D1, ECNL, whatever big time level you like. As long as they are exceptionally fast.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 12:09
Subject: Re:Most important skills for soccer?
^+100
And by 16 most kids have given up the sport they started at 5/6.
So that technique/vision was worthless.
And by 16 most kids have given up the sport they started at 5/6.
So that technique/vision was worthless.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 10:33
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
On the girls side, speed and size work like this. It allows you to make many mistakes and recover. So you have a bad touch. You receive a ball and it goes 10 feet away from you. If the closest defender is 20 feet away, you have just created a 50/50 ball. The player who is the fastest, strongest and most aggressive will win the ball. Select for those type of players.
A player with a good touch, vision and technical skills will pass the ball to the open player. Passing the ball is seen as non aggressive. An aggressive player will put their head down and dribble.
A player(specially early on) with good touch and vision really gets you nothing. You need two or three to have an impact. So most coaches will select a fast aggressive player over a fast player with touch and vision.
At the u littles, very few players have a good touch, vision and technical skills. The ones who do are odds balls. These players do not fit in.
In the older age groups within a range, top teams are fairly equal in size and straight line speed. Now touch, vision and technical skills matter(because this allows faster speed of play) but you have been selecting for 5-6 years for speed and aggression. This selection happens in middle school before puberty.
Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not. It is very important for the later year(lol 16 years old ...later years), but not used as selected criteria in the younger years.
A player with a good touch, vision and technical skills will pass the ball to the open player. Passing the ball is seen as non aggressive. An aggressive player will put their head down and dribble.
A player(specially early on) with good touch and vision really gets you nothing. You need two or three to have an impact. So most coaches will select a fast aggressive player over a fast player with touch and vision.
At the u littles, very few players have a good touch, vision and technical skills. The ones who do are odds balls. These players do not fit in.
In the older age groups within a range, top teams are fairly equal in size and straight line speed. Now touch, vision and technical skills matter(because this allows faster speed of play) but you have been selecting for 5-6 years for speed and aggression. This selection happens in middle school before puberty.
Touch and vision is like speed. You either have it or you do not. It is very important for the later year(lol 16 years old ...later years), but not used as selected criteria in the younger years.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 09:58
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:What's the most important skills you think for an athletically gifted player that will separate him/her from average good players? And how to obtain such skills?
have the parents become friends with the coach (babysitting, parties, volunteering to sponsor a kid from his country) = NATIONAL TEAM !!
Anonymous
02/08/2020 08:20
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
The ability to read the field and self awareness.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 08:18
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So USMNT should blame their lack of speed for their poor performance?
Amen. Though I have to say some of their lineups have been slow relative to competition, but part of that is poor tactical awareness. In any event, speed is not really a skill unless you are running track and training properly. The question is what skills you can improve to beat people of comparable athleticism.
Speed of play is different than speed from point A to point B. Speed of play includes physical speed, but also speed of thinking/decisions and speed of playing the ball which requires impeccable first touch. The ball is played quicker. You look faster if you are thinking 2 steps ahead as well and arrive in the right place at the right team.
Speed in the sense Americans think of it (end line to end line) is pointless without the other things.
Good to see you know what all Americans think.
Yes, the ability to over-generalize and exercise presumptuous are invaluable to lecturers the world over. See, I just did the same thing. But if he or she means most Americans (and you can throw a lot of others into that mix), he or she is probably right.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 08:17
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Speed.
Amen. And it can be taught (I.e. improved) thru technique and explosion drills. There is a top end for everyone but you can get faster and quicker both laterally and straight line. Also, quickness with ball and decisions can be improved and are very important. So “speed of play” is very important. Less touches, quicker decisions, quicker and purposeful first touches, etc.
Anonymous
02/08/2020 08:14
Subject: Most important skills for soccer?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So USMNT should blame their lack of speed for their poor performance?
Amen. Though I have to say some of their lineups have been slow relative to competition, but part of that is poor tactical awareness. In any event, speed is not really a skill unless you are running track and training properly. The question is what skills you can improve to beat people of comparable athleticism.
Speed of play is different than speed from point A to point B. Speed of play includes physical speed, but also speed of thinking/decisions and speed of playing the ball which requires impeccable first touch. The ball is played quicker. You look faster if you are thinking 2 steps ahead as well and arrive in the right place at the right team.
Speed in the sense Americans think of it (end line to end line) is pointless without the other things.
Good to see you know what all Americans think.