I received this today from a friend on the east coast and thought it would generate some dialog. This was written prior to the Olympic Final. It does seem that in this country the trend is to try and emulate other countries styles of play and youth development schemes. That never works. The best coaching seminar I ever attended was around 1989 when then US Soccer Director of Coaching, the late Walt Chyzowych brought to Colorado Springs the staff of the US Men’s national volleyball team. They were presently both Olympic and World Champions. In the year prior to this group taking over the best we ever were ranked worldwide was 16th. Basically they sat down and reinvented the way the game was played, taught and developed new measures that proved to take us to the top over a three year time frame. Now countries were emulating us. I remember the head coach saying that “as long as they are copying us, they will never beat us”! Prolific! What can we do to breath fresh air into our coaching methods and ideals? The ball is in your court! Enjoy!
*Written after the defeat at the hands of Norway in the Olympics by Ashley of Soccer Domain:
A decade ahead of everyone, liberal attitudes, equality and title nine to protect it and help it, more women playing soccer than the entire population of some of the countries that now compete with the us and bright new shiny uniforms every year! But we are still left to ask the question where did it all go wrong?
In 1882 the English Cricket “lords” took the wickets (stumps) and bails from the field of play at the end of the test match between England and Australia and burned them placing the “Ashes” in a small urn proclaiming to the world that this was the day that English cricket died. Feel free to Google “Ashes” for the full version of this dreadful day in English sporting history but remember this; one hundred years from now a young lady in California will be “googling” “the death of women’s soccer in the US” and the answer will clearly be 8/6/08.
Although the US women lost only one game to Norway August 6th 2008 I do hope that the powers that be, in charge of the mighty USSF (United States Soccer Federation) take a bright shiny ball and a pair of size 7 brand new Nike cleats and burn them, then they should place the Ashes in a nice new shiny Adidas bag and bury it deep beneath the great wall of China with each member of the “committee” proclaiming at the top of their lungs (hopefully not at the expense of waking the local panda population) that “this is the day that women’s soccer died in the US”
Victories against New Zealand and Japan will allow for a shaky public to regain some hope and some pride but when we run into the mighty Germany or Brazil we will once again see the depth to which women’s soccer has sunk. As a “professional trainer” of 20 years in the US I feel terribly guilty as I am clearly a contributor to the current problem. I do however at least acknowledge this unlike the leaders that I so willingly follow as I annually send my players to the vaunted State Cup and ODP program!
Yes EVERYONE is to blame not just me! The players, parents, coaches, clubs, states and YES the FEDERATION!!!! In the movie Star Wars the “Federation” was a dark powerful operation that was in no way democratic and if you spoke out of line you were summarily executed… sounds a lot like Zimbabwe and many other African and middle eastern countries today but it also sounds a lot like today’s United States Soccer Federation and if not them then it certainly sounds like the New Jeersey State Youth Soccer office! In truth the NJSYA office is bright airy and sometimes people actually smile but the fact that Pteranadons can be seen roosting in the gables outside should be a clear indication of how far we have come in the last 20 years while every other country has leapt through a time portal and caught up nay passed the US!!Some more hope comes if you talk with the “leader” of Region 1, he has vision, business acumen and a plan. This is all well and good but he works with three other Regions that are clearly on different planets to his both financially and otherwise.
Joking aside we do face some serious issues and they will need to be addressed from the top down if we are ever to return to the glory days of Mia and Brandy.
1. The ODP system (our primary talent recognition program) is corrupt and broken. Nobody at the top will admit this and until they do we will not see change
2. High school soccer is awful and players MUST play club ball as their primary soccer experience
3. Professionalism at the youth level has created a “must” win attitude and serves greatly to STOP coaches coaching what is right rather what wins
4. Referees in the US continue to make up their own rules contrary to the “way” that the game is refereed and subsequently played in other countries
5. College coaches are GUILTY of the same crime as professional youth coaches… winning gets you promoted, losing gets you fired, therefore winning regardless of quality is the goal
6. Size strength and speed is coveted and skill (unless combined with the afore mentioned) is discarded oh I am sorry how did our big fast strong girls do versus the tiny skillful Brazilians in the last world cup?
7. Coach training is available but when was the last time that anyone from the Federation actually did an evaluation of its coaches other than their win loss record and more importantly when was the last time that anyone from the federation evaluated a sampling of “training sessions” from U8 to the college level?
The real solution? EVERYONE must buy the skills training philosophy… she who has the best touch invariably wins at the highest level!
How does this happen.. firstly we must look at “how players learn” not how we teach!!! Those two issues are not always congruent yet most coaches teach how they were taught, regardless of how his or her players are going to learn! In my vocabulary we call this ramming it down someone’s throat or more appropriately “banging our heads against a wall” We must look at our coach training! In the USSF “F” license where we train the most tender and important coaches (the new ones) we teach 3 hours of how to avoid litigation in our training programs and 2 hours on how to listen to the coach talk.. which we refer to as a “Disney” practice. Coaches that talk too much should be thanked by any parent that takes a kid to Disney. Standing around on a line waiting for a turn or listening to a coach is common in soccer practice, it is also common in other places in the US including, football, soccer and baseball practices, getting medical attention and DISNEY!!! The Clintons would have fixed the second one but they ran out of time, Walt would turn over in his grave if he only knew about the third one and nobody in the “Federation, NFL or MLB” has a clue that the last one is even a problem or that it exists!
We will probably win the Olympics this year now that I am writing this! but the underlying issues remain very obvious to anyone that knows soccer. A lack of emphasis on skills training has produced a national program with players who lack skills. The basic control radius of the Brazilian players is far tighter than that of the US women and will remain that way so long as the standard Disney practice is in play at the youth level. The amount of games that we play versus training remains disproportionately high and the emphasis on winning early remains disproportionately important. The trickle-down theory DOES NOT WORK ask our favorite republican government. It requires real investment at the youth coach and player level and more importantly the ability of those in the trenches (us) to not fear putting their heads above the proverbial parapet and live in fear of having their head shot off or stuck with a bayonet.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
*As a post script the US women as predicted obviously did go on and win the Olympics playing some decent football in the final… the differential in skill however continues to widen although it was good to see the “guts” and “spirit” shown by the girls… If you listen to post game interviews given by Arsene Wenger he ALWAYS talks about the technique, skill and the mentality of his players. The coaches who play against him always talk about “guts”, “spirit” and the need to work harder on the practice field and what a great bunch of lads they are… did anyone hear the post game interviews of the US players and coaches? How about working harder on the practice field at being more skillful? Otherwise like our first world war compatriots the term “over the top” will continue to be heard on and off the battlefield…
