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[Der Kaiser]

I recently was in Texas and got to witness firtshand some of the FC Dallas youth training. I was shocked at the level of intensity and technical training at this club, compared to what I see here at the various RCL clubs in WA State. We must do a better job of identifying youth coaches who will provide better and more technical development instead of the "must win" attitude. There should be a minimum of 3 to 4 training days to every game and there are more and more leagues and games being conducted in WA State.

I estimate that at least 50% of the RCL Premier youth players locally are deficient in their techincal training as follows:  first touch, dribbling/footwork, passing, finishing, using weak foot.

Youth soccer at the Premier level has gotten too expensive for most families. I believe if it is going to cost a lot of money, than player and family should be getting more reward in the Youth Technical Development side. The coaches and families that understand this, will be way ahead of the curve to succeed.

[anyudes]

FC Dallas is an Academy / ECNL Club. More training to match ratio the the model of both. If you watch a Sounders, Crossfire Academy or WPFC ECNL training session, you will be equally impressed, I'm sure of it.


http://www.eliteclubsnationalleague.com/overview/About/index_E.html

http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Development-Academy/Academy-Overview.aspx

[Der Kaiser]

I am still not impressed. I watched the Sounder U-16 versus LA Galaxy and thought the players from Galaxy had much better technical control of the ball and were good at passing and keeping possession. The U.S. still has a long way to go towards youth development, espcially in the PNW. The kid's are simply playing too many games and not getting enough creative training and repetition. If you like the MLS style of play (kick ball forward with bad passing/touch) we are on a different page. The only player for the Sounders who is above and beyond his team-mates is from Argentina.

[aberger]

I agree. At a young age, coaches should be teaching the game rather then concentrating on winning.  A child can learn more about themselves when they loss rather then when they win.  As a coach it should be finding new ways for the players to understand what they are trying to teach.

[pullback]

Commenting on the video: why even pass? He has absolutely no pressure and no one stepping to him. Continue to dribble force one of the defenders to commit then play.  There is a 2v1 option with the left winger.

[Big Youth]

I am still not impressed. I watched the Sounder U-16 versus LA Galaxy and thought the players from Galaxy had much better technical control of the ball and were good at passing and keeping possession. The U.S. still has a long way to go towards youth development, espcially in the PNW. The kid's are simply playing too many games and not getting enough creative training and repetition. If you like the MLS style of play (kick ball forward with bad passing/touch) we are on a different page. The only player for the Sounders who is above and beyond his team-mates is from Argentina.

Assuming you are correct, you may or may not be placing the blame in the right place.  You are comparing the development of PNW players to players in more populous areas where it would be expected that academy teams would have a higher percentage of talented players available to them.  In an age group in which Washington has one or two potentially national class players, Dallas might have four or five and LA six or seven.  It is a function of numbers, among other factors.

And it is quite likely that all of the players for FC Dallas and the Galaxy previously played in premier systems that had a similar focus on winning and playing games to what we have here.  My kids learned to play in Dallas, and the older one played in the top Dallas league before we moved here. Coaches there teach skills, but they teach and emphasize winning and losing.  Players have many options in the Dallas region, and the competition for slots is hot. Players are quite willing to move to a new team just because that team has a few more wins every season.  It was a far more cutthroat and win win win atmosphere than I've encountered here.

One doesn't need to choose between winning and development--players can be very well trained technically and still play a full schedule of league games. Learning to compete is part of development.

[Mossback]

I have to agree with the Big Youth. These areas have a much larger populations and yield more quality players. But they also have the geographical soccer advantage of being close to Mexico and both cities have large Mexican populations that could care less about American NFL football or NBA basketball. For the most part they have the same outlook as Europe or South America. Soccer is THE number one sport period. And they emulate the training that you speak of here. Add this influence to the foundation of the youth programs there and you have better skills being achived at an earlier age. And the programs you mention are the benificiaries.  Many more young players consentrating on just socser skills from a very young age.
A quick glance at the USYSA Western regional championship histories will confirm this from the Cal South perspective.

That said I feel we are slowly heading in the right direction here. My DS team has cut down on the amount of early tournament play and added many more training days.