A challenge for many clubs is incorporating new players into an established competitive team to deepen the squad or replace players who have left the team. Although many players enter a club when they are young, say 6 to 8 years old, some players do not find their way to soccer until they are older, say 12 or 13 years old. The player who has been in the club for 6 + years playing with the best players and for the top coaches will be much better than a player just beginning to play soccer as a teenager. The club can bridge this ability gap by providing novice players with progressive soccer programming that targets the essential technical, tactical, and physical aspects of the game to elevate the player’s skills to a competitive level. There are several essential programming elements I incorporated into my club to successfully elevate older, novice players into an established competitive team. The program designed below was for a small, rural club in Maine. Skills Academy (SA) The skills academy met for 90-minute practices two times per week for 8 weeks. We offered two of these 8-week sessions back-to-back each winter in three coed age groupings for children ages 7 to 10, 11 to 13, and high schoolers. These sessions were run by experienced coaches who taught the same individual skills and team tactics utilized by the most competitive teams. The skills academy was essential for new players to learn soccer fundamentals. Experienced players could also join these sessions to make up for missing a team practice or receive additional training. The atmosphere of the skills academy was focused but fun. Players who were unsure if they wanted to play soccer could try a session or two to see if they liked our club before committing to a team. There were no games for these groups, which allowed players to join who were still committed to other activities on the weekends. Players in the transition ages sometimes joined two groups at a time and trained 4 times per week. SoccerFit (SF) The SoccerFit program met two times per week for 8 weeks. Parallel with the skills academy, two 8-week sessions were offered each winter. The SoccerFit sessions focused on soccer skills, speed, and functional fitness training. All levels of players were invited to participate in these groups, which were divided between middle and high school age groups. The fitness portion of SoccerFit utilized kettlebells, box jumps, ladder work, and core training to improve player athleticism, which is specifically required for a competitive soccer game. The philosophy of the fitness program was based on the functional fitness ideas of Frans Bosch. Soccer skills were practiced in small-sided games to ensure a high number of touches and appropriate competitive pressure. In contrast to the soccer academy, SoccerFit drills were focused more on individual skill development than team tactics.
Travel Team (TT) and Premier Team (PT) Our club entered teams in two different leagues in Maine: fall travel and winter premiere. In fall travel, teams come from one town. There were many more fall travel teams than winter-spring premier teams, which were much fewer in number and pulled from a region of the state. We created stronger teams in the winter by placing the best players from two age groups on one team. Fall travel teams, which were based around players from one age group, for example, just 12-year-olds, allowed us to include more players new to the club. The premier and travel teams train two times per week.
In the winter and the fall, players who were not good enough to play on a team were allowed to be alternates. Alternates trained with the team but did not play in games unless the team was short on numbers. This progressive program provides players with several different soccer levels: Skills Academy SoccerFit Alternate fall travel team member Travel team player Alternate winter premier team member Premier-level player
Example
A 12-year-old player wants to participate in the fall program. The new player goes to a tryout but is not skilled or athletic enough to play on the competitive fall travel team without undermining the quality of the team’s play. You know that if you dilute the team too much with novice players, your experienced players could get frustrated and seek out a better team at a different club. The new player is offered a position as an alternate on the fall travel team and trains with the team two times per week for 10 to 12 weeks.
In the first winter, the novice player does the skills academy and SoccerFit programs. This provides the player with 4 trainings per week for 16 weeks without any weekend obligations. In the following fall, the player earns a spot on the fall travel team, typically subbing in during league games. In the second winter, the player is an alternate on the premier team while doing back-to-back SoccerFit sessions. When there is a conflict with the premier team practices, the player joins the soccer academy training to ensure continuity of learning. This programming provides the player with 4 practices per week and possible games on the weekend. In the third fall, the player has a bigger role on the fall travel team. In the third winter, the player now has the skills and athleticism to participate on the premier team while still doing SoccerFit to continue athletic and skill development. Summary
In my experience, it takes two years to elevate a novice player up to a competitive level. The club's investment in novice soccer players is worth the time and effort. It is also empowering to know you can create players from your community and do not need to rely on good players randomly signing up or on the reprehensible act of poaching. The slope of player development is steepest at the beginning of player development before it levels off as players become more advanced. Novice players who receive appropriate training can catch up to their more developed peers. Some of our best players came to our club at the ages of 12 and 13 with little soccer experience. Because of better focus and coordination, older players can also improve their skills quickly compared to younger players. The key to successfully implementing a program to on-ramp novice players is twofold. The club needs a flexible and layered program, such as the one described above, that allows for the systematic and incremental development of players' technical skills and tactical understanding. However, the best program design will not develop players without the use of effective and efficient coaching modalities. It is most evident that “good coaching trumps innate talent” when successfully integrating novice players into an established competitive team. References
Bosch, Frans: Strength Training and Coordination: An Integrative Approach, 2010 Uitgevers
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