I’ll begin with this: If you are a board member, administrator, director, or even a coach at a youth soccer club, you might not like the remainder of this post. Particularly if your club or organization hosts a tournament. What I’m about to say might sound like I’m calling you out. I’m not. But I do hope to bring some things to your attention that you might not have realized or thought about. Almost every single weekend of the year, somewhere in the United States there is a

Many coaches have experienced bias throughout their coaching careers – either in their favor or against them. Often times, certain coaches will jump straight up to the top of the ranks within their organization, become coaches at higher levels, or avoid questioning of their methods by others strictly based on their playing experience. Especially if someone has played professionally. It happens all the time at the grassroots level. And even professionally – Zinedine Zidane is

Much has been said about the trophy situation in youth soccer. There are many organizations out there that provide trophies or medals for every single participant. Sometimes it’s only up to a certain age, other times it’s every age group. Then there are those who have openly spoken against trophies for participation and only want awards for kids who have actually won a competition. But here’s something almost no one is saying: trophies are irrelevant. They don’t matter, win

We’ve now reached Part 3, the culmination of this series. The aspect that brings the other two together. The true starting point in player development. The part that, without it, the others are meaningless. Many people have heard about it. Some people think they do it. But most don’t. If you have not already, check out Part 1: session planning, and Part 2: seasonal planning. Then continue on with this piece, which is about long-term planning, A.K.A curriculum development.

Part 1 of this series focused on planning a lesson plan for each individual session. For anyone who has taken a coaching course before, it may have seemed a bit obvious, as that is one of the first things we learn at courses. Here’s something that might not seem so obvious, but is arguably much more important than planning for each session: creating development plans. Development plans – both seasonal and yearly - are the backbone to player development. Development plans se