Why training with a ball has multiple benefits to our players?

Soccer has seen a huge growth in the United States in the last 30 years, and is now the fast growing youth sport in the US today.  Apart from the US, soccer or as the rest of the world knows it, ‘football' is the world's most popular sport.  With Professional players earning up to a staggering $100 million a year and college Scholarships hard to come by, it is good reason that we should stand up and take note at why it is so popular. 

Its endurance alone stands amongst one of the most physically demanding sports, with some of the top athletes running up to 9 miles per game.  The passion, intensity and friendships you get from the game only secure its title as, ‘the beautiful game'.

The game is so multi dimensional that in truth there is no right or wrong way to play.  It is only passions and principles that make the game taught in different methods and styles.  The Italians, known for their meticulous defending and creativity going forward, the Germans zonal defending and strong midfield ethics stamp there authority as one of the best footballing nations, and of course the English with its notorious 4-4-2 style plays, allowing wide attacking play, lends to a variety of types of styles.  It is these systems and formation that as a coach I try to adapt from all over the world and use in methods of training within the club. 

As an Englishman I have always been brought up around the ‘beautiful game' and still religiously watch soccer on a daily basis, getting new ideas and continuing my education in the game.  During my 9 years in the US, the one model that I have always stuck with is becoming the ‘master of the ball'.  The Master of the ball, what exactly does that mean?  In the US, sports are very organized and structured, I question this structure, but don't  see that as a bad thing, it's just different to the spontaneous play of the shanty towns in South America, or using ‘jumpers as goal post' in Europe, the thing that I do see that effect  the American development in comparison to the rest of the world is that it is not habitual, the structured sessions allow on average only 3 hours of organized coaching per week, and unfortunately that tends to be the only time players spend with the ball.  It is my job to capture that moment and offer as much as my expertise to that session, to influence players with the passion of the game I have, to allow all players at all times to either have a ball at their feet or to share a ball in a small sided group play.  The question that I generate to Parents who believe that their child isn't running enough, or comments such as, ‘make him do a lap, or wind sprints' is, surely they can do that easier in their spare time, that learning the complex skill of passing a ball with pace, or curve, needs to be the technical basis of all sessions!  If players are to do extracurricular activity, i.e, practicing outside the organized times, surely it's easier to run than to teach themselves the technical complexities, forming bad habits. I certainly encourage touching the ball in their spare time, but to chose ‘running' in an organized practice with a ‘$paid$' trainer or to learn from someone with experience of the game, surely the later has experiential benefits?

When you watch any of our training sessions, our emphasis is maximum participation, in a fun safe learning environment through innovative coaching.  You will rarely see laps, lines and coaching lecturing players, however, as you know with most youth soccer players, some forms of discipline maybe in this manor, but I truly believe that if you get your players passionate about attending practices, and giving you 100% effort, then you can maximize conditioning as well as having them develop their skills as a player, which within our club is an essential part of learning and developing.

With all that being said, next time you drop your child off, or you drive by another clubs training, take note at the different styles, and ask yourself what you think the best method is; running without a ball, with no player development, or a combination of, high intensity training and becoming the master of the ball.

As always, I happy for discussion regarding any soccer matter, please look for more articles and philosophies in the section.  Anyone who has a particular question or thoughts on a matter please let me know and I will try my best to offer you my thoughts and ideas.

Below is something that is copied directly from www.coerver.com, with emphasis on ‘Ball Mastery'.

This new curriculum is represented by the Pyramid of Player Development which consists of 6 building blocks.

Yours in soccer,

Michael Cockroft