Tournaments and Trophies
One of the hot topics which I have been very passionate about for many seasons. The USA are the only soccer nation that has tournaments where kids are playing 4 – 6 games over a 2-3 day period.
‘Youth players in America are regularly required to play as many as six competitive games in three days during weekend tournaments’ USC Soccer Journal, Dr. Jozsef Fabian
You will never see a full professional playing two games in two days, let alone playing two games in one day. The effect of this is an increase in the incidence and severity of injury, along with a significant drop in the playing ability and skill level of the player. In an education weekend on fitness and performance presented by Raymond Verheijen, he was disturbed at what youth players are put through, and made coaches complicit in allowing this to happen and ending playing careers of youth players due to ligament injuries, largely serious knee injuries. The education, research, and knowledge is there for all of us, yet we ignore this and still continue to make tournaments longer and more intense while knowing the incidence of serious injury increases. Showcase Tournaments being the biggest culprit, using ‘exposure’ as a selling point to playing 6 matches, even though a players skill level will be diminished by the final game of the 3 days.
‘The ability of soccer players to sprint, jump, and perform repeated intense exercises is impaired when they have to play two competitive matches a week’ Ian Rollo, Loughborough University
‘Players who play two matches per week have a six times higher injury rate, including a five times higher rate in the incidence of severe injuries, than those who play once a week’ Gregory Dupont, Lille 2 University
Tournaments serve a purpose for generating an income stream for clubs and organizations, and an opportunity to splash trophies across their web-page and social media outlets. We are just as guilty, hosting 3 tournaments throughout a season, for the purpose of generating funds to keep training fees low. However, we have been very consistent in not entering teams in to tournaments outside of Fremont. Additionally tournament play goes against the development model, development and winning cannot co-exist, when winning becomes the focus the coaches decisions are no longer based on the welfare of the player, but on what will get them the win. Players are put in to dangerous situations of getting injured as they are the ‘best’ player so will not be subbed off. Lower level players get far less play time if any. A style of play and focus on comfort on the ball, the proper mechanics being performed, and the enjoyment of the game go out of the window; but in come the fear and pressure on players of making mistakes.
Attending tournaments then becomes the advertising machine for clubs, as they will travel out of state and over hundreds of miles to play in a tournament, adding to the perception that they must be a high level team due to the needed travel. This only serves the purpose of putting families under a financial burden for travel, difficult decisions on missing family events, youth players under pressure to win over developing their game, and strokes the ego of the coach lacking in education and knowledge. This has lead to a downward spiral getting out of control with teams going to even more tournaments and traveling even further.
This bleeds in to the Fear of Missing Out, no longer making youth sport the player-centric environment it should be.
Local teams will always be a challenge for any team, and if a team is that much more developed, then the coach should have the skill set to be able to add targets and competitions within the game to further develop and challenge the player.
Some Interesting Articles
http://time.com/4757448/youth-sports-pay/
https://devzone.positivecoach.org//resource/video/reasons-rise-acl-injuries
http://changingthegameproject.com/will-know-change/
http://changingthegameproject.com/the-adultification-of-youth-sports/