So you want to be a skillful player?
So you want to be a skillful player?
At a recent youth game at a nearby indoor soccer park, I watched a skillful midfielder dribble his way past two opponents, then lose the ball. A specator (turns out he is a youth coach) yelled, "Pass the ball!" A few minutes later the same player again lost the ball while dribbling. The spectator/coach turned to a parent and said, "He doesn't learn, I would sub him."
For the past 25 years I have often heard this, both as a player and coach. The player's sin was to give the ball away. Yet I didn't hear this coach complaining about the team's defenders, who constantly hit long, aimless balls upfield, usally straight to an opponent. That's simply another way of giving the ball away. But one that is, from a youth coaching point of view, apparently acceptable.
The attitude of that youth coach is profoundly disturbing and, unfortunately, widespread.
How many youngsters in our area are put off by their coaches discouraging insistence that they shouldn't try anything risky, but should always be looking to pass the ball?
What is the point of a youngster spending hours and hours practicing his ball skills, his dribbling, his feints, if all the coach wants is someone who can run, who plays one-touch soccer only, forwards who are requred to develop defensive skills, and defenders who are required to come forward and score goals?
If you are thinking about doing some research on why we in the USA are not producing skillful players and great goal-scorers, you could do worse than start with that thought.
If we can see WINNING soccer as attacking soccer played by skillful players, maybe then our youngsters can play with that same flair we see in Brazilian and Serbian players.
For me, personally, it was always the ball that made me happy, and I can only imagine the feeling so many of our young players get as the ball is coming to them fully knowing that they don't have the skill or freedom to do things with the ball.
We all tell the players to practice their skills. What about letting them try those skills during a game?
You might lose a youth game (all youth teams lose games) but you just might develop a skillful player. What a choice!