When I first moved to where I currently live, the first job I had at a youth soccer club began in the spring, and after a few months, the club had their annual tryouts. Over the first few months before the tryout period, I had gotten to know most of the coaching staff and had a decent idea of what the coaches believed philosophically as well as their practical ability as coaches. Although I was one of the directors, since I had only started a couple months prior, I delegated

There is a question that I ask every time I work with a team or group of parents at a club. The responses to this question are very telling. When I ask this question, the concept seems so obvious that the parents can’t believe that they didn’t think of it before, yet the vast majority of them haven’t. The question I ask parents is “Have you ever asked your child why they play soccer?” Usually when I ask this question, the room is met with silence. I can see parents looking ba

Many youth soccer clubs don’t have a player development curriculum. And those that claim that they do, have a minimally effective one. These clubs, instead of having a succinct and clear progression of how they will develop their players, have documents that vaguely describe something that they want to teach players. In reality, they don’t have any truly effective player development process at all. To me, a curriculum is a set of competencies and methodologies by which the pl

In my daily interactions with parents of youth soccer players, at all different levels, one main theme that I hear constantly discussed is parents wanting to give their children opportunities that they never had themselves. This is a very natural desire to have as a parent, and I, unquestionably, have that same intrinsic desire for my kids when they grow up. Unfortunately, this desire often causes many parents to focus on the results of an opportunity as opposed to the benefi

When I was in high school, a teammate on my club team – a center back – was garnering a lot of Division I interest from college coaches around the country. He had all the obvious makings of a great defender: superior size, strength, and speed. As you can imagine, he was highly regarded by our coach, teammates, and others who might watch our games. As a fellow defender who was the opposite of physically gifted, I found myself repeatedly frustrated playing alongside this teamma