Soccer Families

Recently, while awaiting the arrival of our clients, my fellow trainer Roy Alfonso and I were watching his favorite soccer team, the Boca Juniors, on ESPN. Roy is an avid soccer fan, player, certified coach with the Illinois Youth Soccer Association, and a certified referee with the United States Soccer Federation.

"Did you know that over 4 million families are involved in soccer?" Roy stated.

Four million families? That is a huge number of families involved in a single sport.

"With that many families, there must be a large number of soccer moms trying to figure out how to help their kids improve playing the game," I stated.

"What can new soccer moms do to help their kids?"

Roy explained that soccer improvement is dependent upon the age of the kids. "Under the age of 10, the kids need to focus on skills, i.e., dribbling, passing, shooting and tackling."

"Over 10, the kids need to focus on learning game strategies, i.e., field divisions, and field placement without the ball" Roy continued.

H'm it seems that after a certain age, strategy becomes more important than skills.

"Why the emphasis on strategy?"

Roy explained that organized teams for older children tend to be very competitive. "Coaches tend to focus on small groups and teams, rather than individuals. Therefore, individual skill development is generally ignored."

"This implies that young players must take responsibility to develop their skills in an outside fitness and training program," I stated aloud.

"Yes," Roy confirmed, "individual training needs to be done in phases that match the seasons."

"Seasons?" I asked, feeling a little uninformed about the seasons of soccer.

"Soccer generally is played outdoors during the fall and spring."

"During the winter, the training should focus on gaining strength. During the pre-season, it should focus on speed and agility training."

"Finally, during the season the workouts should focus on moderate speed and agility." stated Roy.

"I recommend that soccer moms look for a teaching oriented coach if their child is under 10 and a strategy oriented coach for over 10," Roy concluded.

If anyone needs further clarity on this they can contact Roy at roy@mikegeorgeinc.com.