This Months Newsletter

• Summer Camp Registration: https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/419780
• Grassroots Fall Registration: https://go.teamsnap.com/forms/432474

Sideline Project

The Sideline Project is a movement to improve youth sports sidelines and we are proud to partner with The Sideline Project to make youth sports better.

We want all our club parents, coaches, referees, administrators, and spectators to take The Sideline Project Course and add your name to the virtual pledge wall.  Information about your access to The Sideline Project Course will be emailed to parents.  In the meantime, Take the Sideline Pledge: watch the short video about sideline behavior, read the pledge, and add your name to the virtual pledge wall.

• Broken Pipeline, Youth Soccer Turf War – https://sports.yahoo.com/us-soccer-girls-youth-development-ecnl-000044659.html?guccounter=1
• Race to the Right Finish Line – https://changingthegameproject.com/winning-race-right-finish-line/

The youth soccer landscape has taken a sad turn to the performance and winning culture which is best suited to adult sports. Ironically in the US, this is flipped, with a closed league at men’s and woman’s elite level where there is no promotion or relegation; yet kids as young as 11 put into environment’s where promotion and relegation are the focus… outcome orientated.

There is a plethora of research which supports the need for process in youth learning, where deep learning can be achieved through empowering individuals to become decision makers and creative, requiring risk and freedom to make mistakes. This is robbed from the kids when the outcome is priority.

The challenge is, when you’re against the youth sport business with extensive resources in marketing and prey on the parents FOMO, it’s a difficult message to ask for patience. Some interesting articles below on how this is having such a damaging effect on youth players, and ultimately the national level in the US.

Today is the opening of Copa America 2024, hosted by USA.

The tournament kicks off with Argentina vs Canada, 5pm Pacific Time, the following information will help you navigate the tournament.

• Copa America 2024 website – https://copaamerica.com/en
• Copa America 2024 team guides – https://copaamerica.com/en/teams
• Copa America Predictions – https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5577033/2024/06/20/copa-america-2024-writers-picks/

Where to watch –  FOX networks FOX, FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and FOX Sports 2 (FS2)

Large international competition are a great opportunity for youth players to learn through watching. While nothing beats a live game, seeing the highest level of football on TV will also generate a love and passion for the sport, and an opportunity to find a player that becomes the role model for many years.

Watch as a fan – enjoy the atmosphere, the drama, the entertainment of international football.

Watch to learn – what roles do players take on, how this differs by team. Are there clearly identifiable principles in how a team plays? Watch the individual player, how they scan the field for information before receiving the ball and continuing once the action on the ball is over. The technical actions in being comfortable on the ball and the variety of ways they strike the ball.

Today is the opening of Euro 2024, hosted by Germany.

The tournament kicks off with Germany vs Scotland, 12pm Pacific Time, the following information will help you navigate the tournament.

• Euro 2024 website – https://www.uefa.com/euro2024/
• Euro 2024 team guides, starting with Germany click through all the participating countries to learn more – https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/03/euro-2024-team-guides-part-1-germany
• Football Euro Daily Podcast (a little England heavy, but will report on all news) – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/football-daily/id261291929

Where to watch – FOX, FuboTV, and TelevisaUnivision

Large international competition are a great opportunity for youth players to learn through watching. While nothing beats a live game, seeing the highest level of football on TV will also generate a love nd passion for the sport, and an opportunity to find a player that becomes the role model for many years.

Watch as a fan – enjoy the atmosphere, the drama, the entertainment of international football.

Watch to learn – what roles do players take on, how this differs by team. Are there clearly identifiable principles in how a team plays? Watch the individual player, how they scan the field for information before receiving the ball and continuing once the action on the ball is over. The technical actions in being comfortable on the ball and the variety of ways they strike the ball.

5/13/2024 would have marked the 16th birthday of Arunay Pruthi.

We celebrate today in his memory with announcing the Arunay Foundation Scholarship.

We are incredibly honored and excited to share the news of the new Arunay Foundation Scholarship Award for individuals who have shown academic, or sporting excellence throughout the season, and/or contributed to their community.

The scholarship will be awarded to the individuals who displayed the qualities which Arunay is remembered for.

The awarded scholarship will be donated to Fremont YSC by Arunay Foundation, funded by Arunay’s Mom and Dad, and contributing to the participation fees of the upcoming season beyond the application window.

Application

• Window: June 13th to July 13th
• Application: Click Here to Apply

Further Information – https://fremontyouthsoccer.com/arunay-foundation-scholarship/

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.