Hello everyone,

This weekend is the main first week of the season, with most teams having their first games of the season. The following information will support your understanding of the development pathway for the players, and a useful resource to guide you in both the short- and long-term development.

Sadly, for many players, the games are a stress inducing outcome event, with the adults influencing the players in relying on the outcome (result) as an indicator of rate of development. At Fremont YSC our focus is development, where definition of success is not game outcome or league position, but the development of players in reference to a development pathway, and the nurturing of the whole player. A player’s development is non-linear and will be influenced by the four pillars of development (technical, tactical, physical, and psychosocial). These are not independent structures, they are all connected, influenced by each other, and individual to the athlete.

Psychosocial Pillar (Behaviors and Values)

This drives our culture; all club members, representatives, staff, and players, are responsible for upholding the values and behaviors, and must behave how they expect others to behave. While periodized into learning phases, the values and behaviors should be present in each phase, but with specific reference to their age appropriateness. See the following link on our behavior and values, and to make sure you are upholding the culture of Fremont YSC https://fremontyouthsoccer.com/mission-statement-and-philosophy/

Technical / Tactical Pillar

Each development phase has its own separate objective, to provide guidance along the development pathway of the individual player, with performance indicators as benchmarks through the phases. These performance indicators are what informs the player evaluations. These provide short term goals within a long-term framework.

Foundation Phase (U9 to U12): the objective here is to optimize the individual playing elements to provide a foundation for later advanced techniques, and to be able to execute the football actions in reference to the game model. Coaching objectives here are the individual footwork foundations, and individual player elements. Assimilating this to the game scenarios of weekend games, we frame the game as an opportunity to perform the foundation performance indicators, in 7 v 7 this is through playing centrally in the 1-2-1-2-1, this provides a high number of individual duals which are critical for player development. 9 v 9 we continue to focus on the individual foundations and player elements, but now introducing width from FB’s getting forward, and introducing the sub-principles (playing elements). The player must feel freedom to make mistakes and learn from experiences, with joy-sticking and negative comments from sidelines being detrimental to the players experience (joy-sticking is autocratic demands for players to perform actions you desire, making the decision for the player).

Development Phase (U13 to U16): in line with the players cognitive development to be able to take dynamic and complex situations and find solutions, we now start to introduce more tactical understanding. This being the introduction of the game principles (playing concepts and objectives). In full 11 v 11 and using the 1-4-3-3, we play in multiple lines and offering passing channels at angles. The system supports the concepts and objectives. The ability to perform the foundation phase performance indicators supports the performance of game principles. Within the constructivist learning theory, the game acts as opportunities to experience moments, and learn from those experiences. As coaches we are there to guide and question, offering the level of support needed for the level of challenge (scaffolded learning).

Performance Phase (U19): With a game model that is a top-down vision, with a bottom-up framework, the constructivist nature of learning, empowering of players to be decision makers, and a scaffolded approach to levels of support to accept failure as a learning opportunity, players are in a position to perform within an identity. The earlier short term development pathway gives us the direction to destination of long-term development in reference to a game model. The game model is our IDENTITY.

We firmly believe in the need for early age sampling of multiple sports, and soccer is not an early specialization sport as many players will drop and not develop a well-rounded skill set and motor competence (see presentation on Early Specialization). However, there must be a direction towards a long-term outcome, with short term objectives, with players being supported to become individuals within a team framework. As mentioned, this is not linear, and players will experience many challenges, from early and late maturation, effects of peak height velocity, and the environment they are in. No two individuals are the same. Player’s jersey numbers represent when in the year they are born, and this is to draw attention to the relative age effect (a combination of above factors), and players must be viewed upon individually at the youth level, and not identified or critiqued based on the team outcome.

What is Success?

The success of Fremont YSC is the interconnected relationship between the culture and playing identity, in coaching towards high performance at U19. This only achieved through the development at age-appropriate stages in the four pillars of psychosocial, physiological, and technical, and tactical structures.

Success is not the win/loss ratio in foundation and development phases, it’s not the cups and league brackets being played in; it’s the optimizing of the pillars of development in short term objectives, to reach a high-performance long-term goal, and supporting the individual holistically in being a good human being.

If any of this does not make sense, you have questions, or challenge the philosophy, make sure you reach out to me. It is my role to help support you in understanding and offer deep learning around the coaching process and player development. We should all be lifelong learners, don’t be afraid to not know something, seek the knowledge you need.

We are deeply saddened and devastated by the passing of Jesus. On Friday February 18th, Jesus passed away at home, leaving us shocked and in great sadness.

Jesus was the kindest person you could meet. A club coach, and former Fremont YSC player, Jesus was dedicated to his passion of soccer, compassionate and caring to the players he coached. An exceptional player, but more importantly a great human being.

Our thoughts are with his family, we cannot begin to understand the pain his family will be feeling, taken away from us far too young at only 25.

Jesus had a positive influence on us all, and he will be sorely missed.

Wishing everyone at Fremont YSC, and throughout the greater soccer community, a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We at Fremont YSC are thankful for having you as part of the club, and look forward to many more holidays with you.

Great to see Fremont YSC players attending the game of their local USL team, Oakland Roots.

Nothing beats watching a live game. You see the movements way from the ball, an more clear understanding of the small spaces the game is played in while on a larger playing area, but also the passion of a crowd.

Couldn’t recommend watch live games in person when possible enough, it will foster a love for the game, a passion to play, help support greater understanding from viewing.

Brilliant picture of Varchasv with Hailai Arghandiwal

Join our team of excellent staff coaches. Dedication to holistic development is a must, a desire to further their coach development, and work to the Fremont YSC Framework. A good communicator with an appreciation of the relationships needed with players and parents, and a coach committed to the process.

Please send us your resume, and a completed coach application – Coach Application

Send applications to [email protected]

New Officials

With a huge shortage of officials throughout the nation, and worryingly here in the Bay Area on our doorstep, we are looking to put together another referee course. Leave your information at the following link, and with enough interest we will host our third course of the summer – https://forms.gle/kvYQC35t48oSVqs8A

Youth sports needs officials to help provide the positive learning experience the youth athlete craves. Join our excellent group of officials, giving back to the youth of the local community. Officials are compensated, adding the already rewarding experience of being actively involved in the community and being a positive role model for the youth players.

Visit our referee page at the following link.

Referees

This weekend we approach the first game for most of the players for nearly two years. Above anything else, we are so excited just to see kids back on the field again. With that said, we must look beyond emotions of returning to the field and operate within our structure. The following information will provide insight and depth to the soccer operations around a game day.

We are proactive and focus on what we can do. This is opposed to a reactive approach where we prioritize a response to opposition. Our priority is the Fremont YSC individual player, and therefore process orientated and not outcome. The following video is great at grounding us as adults in the game:

Jersey Numbers and Team Composition

2013 and 2012 teams are created through having players of similar birth age. Players born early in the year are FN I, and players born later in the year are FN II. This is completely different to other teams who look to either load by playing ability, or balance through a mix. Our is purely based on age, and for reason. Research shows that youth performance has no positive correlation to future performance and ability, with ‘better’ players largely dominant due to early maturation, or genetics in their size, speed, and power. The research shows that early identification is detrimental to long term participation, and most elite level players are not identified until 16 – 19 years old, with many early identified players dropping out. Our method of assigning players treats the players as an age group rather than a team (utilized by Icelandic FA, one of the most successful countries based on population size), and addresses Relative Age Effect where there is no bias towards players based on size due to being chronologically older (utilized by Tottenham Hotspur).

2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010

Jersey numbers are assigned to players based on their birth date. This is so coaches and parents have a visual aid in recognizing the Relative Age Effect, but also grounding us when we stray away from the process and slip into the temptation of comparing players against other. Players wearing a higher number will be the youngest in the age group, and therefore potentially almost a full year younger than other players. We must focus our attention on the individual, and not teammates, nor opponents.

2011 and Older are assigned to a team based on their rate of development in reference to our player pathway, and not ‘good’ or ‘bad’. We would prefer to do this at a much older age, but we are still working against a culture that doesn’t support this. What we must do though is understand that players are in an environment to support ‘flow’, where the challenge presented can be matched by skill level of the individual. Finding this state of flow provides an appropriate challenge, and a focus on the process, which has a positive knock-on effect for the psychosocial pillar in confidence and motivation. As soon as we switch to focusing on outcome, we undo all these great positives from a process driven approach. Players in youth development are in current rates of development, and are not ‘elite’ or ‘poor’, we need to move away from this perception.

Field Size and Dimensions

2009 and 2008 (2008 missing the move up due to Covid) will be playing 11 v 11 for the first time, and on full size fields. This is a huge jump from the 9 v 9, and for the 2009 having only played a few months in 9 v 9 from the 7 v 7 this is a massive jump (something US Soccer should have considered for this season). Players will struggle to perform all the actions needed, and therefore recognizing the game insight of a player is important. A player can make the correct decision, but still be developing their physiological pillar and therefore the pass they pick out cannot be performed as they do not yet have the strength in kick to pass over a longer distance. A great video to see how this effects players:

Maturation

Players over a large range could be going through maturation. An early developer could be up to 3 years ahead in maturation, while a late developer could be up to 3 years late. Even within one team that’s a 6-year swing, based on the two extremes, but another reason why we need to focus on the individual. While going through maturation the physiological challenges are great with a temporary loss of agility and co-ordination, which will affect skill performance and athletic ability. These are temporary, and during this time we need to be patient with players and showing empathy to what they are going through.