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://www.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.

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.

A great discussion between Dan Abrahams, Ben Freakley, and Larissa Mills; about the issues around phone usage and social media in sport, it’s effects on youth.

To begin with, it’s important we realize this is a societal issue, but like almost all issues we find in society, youth sports reflects these problems in it’s microclimate.

Research has found some alarming statistics where by 16, kids are hitting huge overall hours of usage, even as young as 4 years old the hours of usage is alarming.

• Kids are brains are under developed, effecting ability to learn, where they cannot focus, are tired, and lack attention.
• 71% have negative self-talk.
• Social media platforms are a significant influence over youths.
• 98% of kids 12 years and older have phones
• Phones and technology have negatively effected movement and communication.

Phones have been identified as having a block on performance, this due to it’s effects on routine, and social medias comments and stories about performance being constructed by opinions. Children are now learning and developing cognitively at a slower rate than previous generations.

While an easy solution, but hard to accomplish, it is recommended that youth athletes post and leave – publish messages of positivity, leave, and do not engage.

Longer times on the phone have been shown to increase depression and anxiety.

There is potential for positivity, there are opportunities for learning through open lines of communication. To do this though, ‘look sideways’, look for inspiration and not comparison.

There are solutions to how we can support youth athletes, and the youth in general with the effects of phones and social media on the individuals growth and development, and mental well-being.

• Create routines  around training (phones in backpacks, etc.).
• Create daily routines (no phones in bedrooms, at the dinner table, etc.).
• Setting boundaries on content (pictures, when pictures are taken, etc.).
• Create protocols (inclusivity of all within groups, when is the phone used).

Habits reduces phone addiction and social media addiction

When discussing the use of phones and social media, use open ended questions for deep engagement on the reasons ‘why’ it’s better to be off the phone; bringing awareness of which voices are being involved with the youth athlete, i.e., self awareness of whose voice really matters. This will better support the buy in to banning phones at important times, this being those times spent at sports with team mates, and family events.

• Interventions at sporting events (training and games) are key to engaging conversation, utilizing pre, during, and post activity breaks, to break down psychology into attention, intensity, and intent.
• Squash ANTS (automatic negative thoughts)
  • Incorporate this mental skill into practice
  • Use social governance to support each other
• Establish values early on, providing purpose to social media use and avoiding the clustered approach to scrolling through social media. Think big picture to refrain from phone and social media usage, framing and reviewing the day around:
  • What actions today will/did align with my values, behaviors, and goals?

Key Takeaways:

The brain takes 20 minutes to refocus after phone usage (smart watches are a real problem!).

• Are you in a state to engage in learning if you are not focused from the start?
• Without attention, intensity, and intent, learning is greatly compromised.

Support children/athletes to be their own person.

• Move away from comparison as a context in both online and in-person identity models.

Congratulations to Ezekiel Grundler on his commitment to Chester University, UK.

Ezekiel will be traveling to England to play and study at University of Chester at their Football Academy.

Ezekiel had been with the 2006 age group throughout his Foundation Phase years, and into his later Development Phase years, moving to Texas in 2021 with his family. Ezekiel has been featured throughout his time at the club on our website and social media for his commitment to training and practicing outside of club events.

Ezekiel’s dedication to training, his intrinsic motivation to be the best he can be while enjoying his love for the game, has seen him excel with his football, and a great example of how much influence the psychosocial pillar has on later year performance.

We are very proud of Ezekiel’s achievements, and enjoy hearing from the family on his development and the families adventures in Texas. We now look forward to hearing all about Ezekiel’s adventures at the University of Chester.

Practicing at Home, Commitment and Dedication – Ezekiel Grundler

Training at Home