John Napier on The End of 11 v 11?
John Napier is one of the greatest youth coaches in Southern California. A coach for the ODP (Olympic Development Program) and for the San Diego Soccer Club, Napier has been developing soccer players for decades. Here is his latest column on soccer for SoccerNation.
I recently came across this great article from Mirror Football. The great founders of the modern professional game (England) now want to take their youth level in a different direction. My goodness, what a change!
Gareth Southgate, the former English International and Premier manager who is now the Football Association’s head of Elite Development in soccer-crazy England, says if England is going to be able to compete with the rest of the world, dramatic changes need to be made at the youth level. The FA wants to ban 11v11 soccer until the young players are at the U13 level. They base this in part on the fact that Spain (world champions) France and Italy (both former recent world champions) do NOT play 11v11 until U14.
Southgate makes a great comment that this will help the smaller more technical players, who are often bullied off the ball by bigger and stronger and more athletic players on the bigger fields, and on the smaller fields they will be allowed to express themselves more.
I know there are a lot of different opinions on this subject, and there will be a lot of comments, as everybody has a different view. Some will like it, and some won’t.
But when soccer-fanatical countries such as those mentioned above are looking at change, I think we in the U.S. also need to look seriously at how we develop our young players. Is this something U.S. Soccer should be looking at? I believe that our new director of player development Claudia Reyna will certainly be watching these developments in other countries, but then again success is not going to happen over night, is it?
I am totally in agreement with the changes to be made:
•Smaller fields.
•Smaller goals.
•Small numbered teams.
•It all adds up to more touches on the ball.
For years I have asked why we play competitive soccer at U7 through U11. Those learning years should all be about development; those are the sponge years to take it all in and have a worry-free young mind to improve technically. But we all know that success is driven by wins and losses in our great country, and we are probably the most competitive country in the world when it comes to sports in general, not just soccer.
I fully remember my earlier soccer experiences - it certainly was not organized. It was pretty much get a group together and play in the field. My first organized soccer was when I was 13! Even at that age it was pretty flexible with very little coaching involvement.
It is kind of ironic that this article came out today, as just last night at my club (San Diego Soccer Club, SDSC) we held a round table discussion with the coaches who coach ages U8/U14 on how we can help develop those young players at our club, and try to set a curriculum at the different age levels to make their passage into each age group smooth and exciting, Brian Quinn has a great vision for the future, and it all starts at the U8 level. There was tremendous feed back, all very positive. I really think this club has the right ideas with their willingness to really help the very young players.
Pressure to win comes in many different forms:
•From Parents.
•From Coaches.
•From Directors of Coaches.
Wouldn’t it be nice for every coach in every club with those young age groups to be able to concentrate on player development and not have to worry…
•That if you don’t win, your service will no longer be needed
•That if you don’t win, your best players will move 10 miles away to be on the bench of a winning team
•That if you don’t win, you are not a very good coach.
There have been fantastic changes in soccer since way back in the day when you would see twenty young six year olds running around trying to find the ball, which was somewhere in the middle of the pack in an 11v11 game. The progress has been fantastic in the game. Going to small sided games at those young ages has helped, but we still need to take it a step further. We need to find a way where we can develop the next great player - every generation has one.
Let’s hope the next one is here waiting for the chance to be the greatest.
John Napier Girls 95
ODP Head Coach
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