External Articles of Interest:

• https://www.socceramerica.com/youth-soccers-alphabet-soup-is-running-out-of-let/
  • Excellent views within the comment section outlining the issues.
• https://www.soccertoday.com/youth-soccer-news-alphabet-soup-youth-soccer-us-youth-soccer/?cn-reloaded=1

It is very confusing for parents in today’s youth soccer culture, as a focus has come onto the league and bracket. Sadly, youth soccer is now seen as a marketplace, and the US is the only country in the world which sees it this way, and it’s having a detrimental effect on youth development.

NPL, ECNL, EA, GA, MLS Next, and many more, are all name of leagues. They are all business opportunities competing against each other to say they have the best players. It’s all built on an opportunity for an adult somewhere to make a lot of money from FOMO and clubs within them to market. They all sell the structure of ‘merit-based competition’, i.e. winning. All of this goes against the science which supports development as a process, the psychology of open mindset and nurturing confidence, and the social support of belonging (players are used as they see fit to continue the winning). When youth soccer becomes a ‘merit-based’ structure, you prioritize outcome from younger ages, negatively affect individuals’ confidence through their perception of worth against outcome they cannot control, and burnout from the pressure and ‘performance’ coaching through their younger years.

A players learning is dependent on the learning experience the club creates within training, the psychosocial support of creating an open mindset to taking risk, and social support of belonging. All of this is in contrast to what is now expected in youth soccer, which has become a business before sport culture. Sport pedagogy relies upon 4 components of coaches, players, task, environment, meaning coaches as lifelong learners, players as committed learners, tasks to challenge players, and an athlete centered environment. Unfortunately, this is not a consideration in US youth soccer, with no objective measure for clubs’ effectiveness.

Throughout the world, clubs/academies, are measured on their structure and organization, and the athlete centered environment that’s created. We are very proud that we stick to these principles and continue to support the players deep learning and not be led by external outcome gratification.

We are hurtling towards the time of the year where we subject kids to being judged against each other, told from young ages if they are ‘elite’ or ‘not good enough’, and encourage parents to chase the many acronyms and furthest distances to travel. Teams as young as U6 being called ‘Pre-Acronym’, when all the science shows we cannot accurately predict a players adult performance until post puberty, the ‘Pre’ being the selling point to get numbers in the door, a total fabrication of expectations for the parents and unnecessary pressure on the child.

What we’ll see first is the social media and messaging, or teams that have won this and that, are the next best thing, and storming towards championships across the country. None of this is relevant in a players development in youth sports, and a great article about how we’ve now become fixated on the wrong factors – https://changingthegameproject.com/winning-vs-fulfillment-how-society-teaches-us-to-focus-on-the-wrong-things-in-youth-sports/

Common questions we receive this time of year is about what bracket a team will be in, what tournaments will we be going to, what’s the teams win record, etc. These are all outcome based questions on teams, and none of these are in reference to the individual player, nor the learning environment the player will be in. Tournaments are a great way for clubs to drive revenue or for private entities to make a profit, but these are at the detriment of the players welfare.

Youth Soccer is not Adult Soccer, these have very different objectives, and therefore are almost completely different sports.

Another great article pulled from the above link – https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39740282/caitlin-clark-iowa-2024-ncaa-women-basketball-tournament-ready-march

No one is saying that players shouldn’t go out to try and win, but the priority in youth sports is the process, of self growth and overcoming challenges to support life skills such as resilience and commitment. The challenge and competition within youth sports coming form the individuals drive and desire to improve intrinsically, and not for what is expected from extrinsic sources. Youth soccer is process driven, and not outcome dependent.

Ask your club, or prospective club the following…

• What is your player development pathway (and not a list of league names!)?
• What are your learning methods (pedagogy)?
• What methodologies do you use for training (activity types)?
• How do you support the person and not just the player?
• What education do you provide for the coaches?

Continuing our relationships with adidas, and partnership with Tri-City Volunteers to bring awareness and support of their great mission to provide for the local community.

Sign up to attend the 24/25 Season Evaluations – https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/424930

Movement, learning, and progression, through our Play philosophy.

• Modern coaching methodologies for long term deep learning, as opposed to short term recital of information.
• Play philosophy for realism and understanding of time and space, as opposed to isolated repetitive movements.
• Holistic development of the person, as opposed to concentrated focus on just the player.

Join us on our development pathway of process over outcome to support the players enthusiasm and love for the game.