Player Development and Competitive Play

Player Development and Competitive Play

A Review of U10-U13 in the South Region Soccer League2009

Peel Halton Technical Directors & Head Coaches

A working committee of Club Head Coaches, Technical Directors and Club Executives in the District have been reviewing the balance of player development and competitive play in the South Region Soccer League with respect to the U10 to U13 age groups.

The popular view of the competitions place in the player development mix is changing. More governing organizations and leagues are recognizing the current competition model is failing to meet the needs of young players, shifting the focus of learning to winning.

The US Soccer Federation in their 2007 Player development outline said

The current environment places too much emphasis on winning v. developing a passion for the game and the fundamentals of the game.

-Assessment Summary

Need more free play, less structure

Encourage passion and experimentation

Encourage technical training and the most basic building blocks of the game (1v1, 2v1, 2v2 etc)

This document and the related study identified that the existing league structures both state and local where retarding elite player development with the focus on winning which is inherent in the promotion and relegation divisions.

Ed Kelly, a former US National Team member, Head Coach of the New England Eagles FC is quoted in a recent American Soccer News article as saying “players, coaches and parents are so paranoid about getting promoted or relegated that they forget about playing soccer”.

Paul Luchowski, US Youth Soccer Region II,Midwest Regional League, Commissioner has joined the majority of State and regional leagues which has renounced promotion and relegation until U14 as it is contrary to player development.

Many State Soccer Associations have moved to restrict competitive play until U14 and this hasendorsed by US Youth Soccer.

"There are already a multitude of articles saying that winning and losing are not the correct measures of success in youth soccer, instead we should measure the development of the players."

Cary McCormick, Arlington, Va.

U.S. youth sports advocate Bob Bigelow says “ stop streaming kids into elite levels professional style leagues at least until grade 7”.

Even the Wellness to World Cup LTPD publication from this past summer points to change needed in our player development focus. The document urges the re-alignment of competition structures nationally, provincially and locally to address proper ratios of training.Istvan Balyi, Ph.D. who’s work has been the base for the CSA LTDP, the Irish, Welsh and English LTPD and is widely quoted in the US and Europe has been critical of our current models as we are putting too much emphasis on winning and games and not enough focus on training the basic skills and love of the game to our players.

In review of the current league operation operated by the South Region Soccer League and other regional leagues;we conclude that this league is not structured in the best interests of player development especially in the younger ages.

We are focusing the players and parents on winning rather than development
We are conditioning people to hop from Club to Club, team to team to be seen for an L1 team
Lack of real player development structure
Travel times and distances contribute to added player and parent stress
Coaches who develop players and teams are punished with relegation
Coaches and teams are conditioned to recruit rather than develop players
Team schedules not allow for proper training to game ratios
Teams are forced to play too many games in a short period

Therefore with the goal of helping to build a better player development model the committee has created a series of Operational Recommendations with the aim of transforming the current system and building on the strengths of the SRSL to help clubs develop players to their potential.

Operation Recommendations

Clubs should be establishing tiers in their recreational league to group the better players together.

The Club should be collecting as many players who are interested into a development stream who would train together.

An Inter-Club exhibition series should be established where clubs can match players from the development academy against each other.

There should be no rosters or limits to the number of players in the stream.

There would be no standings.

There should be ‘festival’ style tournaments only at this age, no standings. A player would be allowed to play in a maximum of 3 games in a day and game duration should be no more than 30 minutes.

A transition should be done to phase in the development academy format to this age group.

Clubs should be establishing tiers in their recreational league to group the better players together.

The Club should be collecting as many players who are interested into a development stream who would train together.

An Inter-Club exhibition series should be established where clubs can match players from the development academy against each other.

There should be no rosters or limits to the number of players in the stream.

There should be no standings.

Tournaments for players under 11 should be free of standings, trophies and player should be restricted to a maximum of 2 games per day.

U10

Teams should be entered into divisions based on the Clubs rankings.

The Club’s would suggest that their team be placed into Group 1, the most competitive division or Group 2 etc. Second teams from the same Club would not be placed into the same division without the Club’s written approval.

There would be no standings maintained at the age level.

Games that require a team to travel more than 40 kms one way must be scheduled on a weekend.

Teams should have a flexible roster allowing more players to be in the development stream. The Club and team coaches would be free to move players to a team for a competition based on Club and player criteria.

Teams cannot be required to play more than 1 match in a 5 day period.

Tournaments for players under 11 should be free of standings, trophies and playe should be restricted to a maximum of 2 games per day.

U11 & U12

Teams should be entered into divisions based on the Clubs rankings.

The Club’s would suggest that their team be placed into Group 1, the most competitive division or Group 2 etc. No 2 teams from the same Club would be placed into the same division without the Club’s written approval.

U 11 should be playing mini-soccer.

There would be no standings maintained at the age level.

Games that require a team to travel more than 40 kms one way must be scheduled on a weekend.

Team cannot be required to play more than 1 match in a 72 hour period.

There should no Ontario Cup or League Cup competitions at these ages.

No promotion of relegation

Club will be free to move a team for the next season based on the Club’s evaluation of the team’s performance.

Once your team roster is established, prior to the start of the season, there would be no cuts or transfers during the season.

Tournaments for players under 11 should be free of standings, trophies and playe should be restricted to a maximum of 2 games per day.

U13

Teams should be entered into divisions based on the Clubs rankings.

The teams would play a UEFA Cup style format throughout the season which would determine their placement for the U14 age group. The teams would be seeded into a 8 Group cup with 4 teams (approximately) in each group. The winners of the pool round robin would be moved to a division (Elite) for the balance of the season. The 2nd place teams would be placed in a division (Premier), 3rd place in the next division (1st) the remaining to the 2nd division.

The top four teams would be promoted to the L1 or L2 league that is in place for the U14 age group. The next four teams would be placed into U14 Elite L3 in SRSL. The top 4 teams in the U13 Premier would be advanced to U14 Elite etc.

Games that require a team to travel more than 40 kms one way must be scheduled on a weekend.

Team cannot be required to play more than 1 match in a 72 hour period. This includes Ontario Cup and League Cup matches.

Once the team roster is established, prior to the start of games, no cuts or player transfers will be permitted.