Careful what we wish for

My position is this: street soccer is the most natural educational system that can be found."
--Rinus Michels, FIFA Coach of the Century

Watch any 6 year old dribble a ball. They will keep it under their knee, they generally keep it close, and they love it. By the time they are 13 they can't run with the ball without it jumping three steps ahead of them. Why? I think that as coaches we train that ability out of them.

Watching kids develop in free play I am seeing different skills cultivated, sometimes in direct opposition with the accepted teaching principles. Here is one example of a technical/tactical elements that certainly questions what and how we coach young kids.

1st defender. Kids at the Joy of The People center when first introduced to free play last year would stand flat footed on the floor, as an attacker moved near (they rarely even moved to the ball!) the youngsters (mostly u9 and u10's) would take a big, no, HUGE swipe at the ball, as if they were going to break the leg of the attacker. Generally the attacker saw it coming and would skip by leaving the kid with a big whiff.

I desperately wanted to correct the situation, but it was free play and therefore it was not my role and I left it. This continued throughout the winter.

Then a funny thing happened. They made it work for them.

Toward the end of winter we put together a team of those free play kids for a futsal tournament in Prior Lake. Seemingly recognizing the situation in front of them as if it was just another of a thousand games they have played at the center, the JOTP kids played with absolutely no fear, enjoying themselves as they moved through the tournament winning there group. They played with a lightness, and calmness, and they took lots of risks. They qualified for the final against a a team from a club that generally dominates tournaments like this. Lining up for the final the other team sported matching bags, warm ups, and uniforms. The JOTP kids showed up in spray painted t shirts they made the night before--and they could not have been prouder. But there was a bigger difference between the two teams then their kits and gear. It was their defending skill.

In the final the opposition played impeccable first defender. They got low, they moved their feet, they shut down penetration, shots and crosses. They were well coached.

Here is where it got interesting. Somewhere along the winter, in those hundreds of hours of unstructured play, those frozen, lazy feet, those crazy swipes at the ball, had transformed into smart, darting feet of pickpockets. The big swipes at the ball were still there. But, now
sometimes they were getting beat, sometimes there was a foul, but most of the time the JOTP kids were stealing the ball, tapping it behind the surprised dispossessed attacker and moving deftly around to pick it up and attack as if they had done it thousands of times before. Well, they had. The kids had spent the winter wanting the ball and going after it, and somehow they figured out a way--and luckily the did it before it was coached out of them. Those many hours of free play had not developed classic first defenders, it created ball thief's.

Like the street basketball player that can strip you of the ball when you dive for the basket, the JOTP kids, nurtured like the street basketball players, had the correct accumulation of practice of stripping the ball off of dribbles. When that basketball player is at college, the college coach can spend five minutes explaining how to play first defender in basket ball (stay low, shuffle feet, belly button toward attacker, etc) It takes 5 minutes to learn first defender. But, it It takes a lifetime to learn how to steal the ball.

And, perhaps more importantly, the reverse is true: if you are not playing against defenders who get in close, very, very close, then that player will not have a chance to train against realistic and mature defenses. Attacking skills will work against athletic, and fast, but not against the resourceful and unpredictable skills cultured on the street.

This has implications at the highest levels. When the USMNT U20's were swept and held scoreless last year by what was essentially a U16 Brazil team, US Coach, Wilfred Cabrerra, lamented the lack of comfort on the ball against the Brazilian defenses. "It's not great news, he said, "but we must get more comfortable with the ball against that type of close proximity pressure."

During the Futsal final The BIG CLUB kids had this perplexed look of hey, where is their first defender? Can they come that close? They had never seen kids come for the ball like that. They looked like they had never practiced against anything but first defenders who stayed low and did not dive in. They lost the ball as they tried to penetrate, and became more tentative. Meanwhile the JOTP kids were not swayed, they attacked whether they had the ball or not. The JOTP kids won the game.

Free play allows skills to grow that otherwise may whither at the hands of well meaning coaches, first defender is just one example. Of course we want our kids to be smart defenders, but maybe with kids there is no smart and no dumb, just a learning process that sometimes can be hard to watch but given time and care can produce amazing results.

Get your kids to explore and expand on play, build more and more of it into every practice. Recognize something new. Try to celebrate each new idea and encourage kids to expand on it. Set up times and spaces where the kids can go on their own. Let them learn like the last generation learned baseball, football, and hockey, at the neighborhood parks in a free play setting. If we do that we give each and every kid a better chance to grow, learn and love the game.

TK

All Play and no work

All Play and No work: The Free Play--Deliberate Practice Continuum

As we look at youth development, building hours take thought and balance. Work and play are both part of a continuum of practice that players need to build smartly. Both are important. Here in the US we value the principles of deliberate practice, discipline, hard work, teamwork, and we tend to lay it on thick. We ignore the loose, seemingly mindless, unstructured, qualities of player driven FREE PLAY.

We know it’s important. We can’t find time for it. We are developing only half the player.

Young players, especially those in their “Golden Years,” of 9-13, should put in as many hours as possible in FREE PLAY situations, self driven, unstructured, safe and invigorating, free play is acknowledged as the greatest developer and it’s importance to the development of a player is without question.

Our players, players raised in the organized, competitive based US youth system, understand hard work, but don’t get the play part. They understand the “work,” but may not be able to express themselves in a situation that calls for “play.”

Perhaps this idea is best illustrated by giving an example of the opposite.

Because the opposite can be true. Players may play a lot and not understand hard work and discipline of attaining goals.

As DOC for a big club I once sent a very talented U13 player to participate in a U16 practice. This was a player who was raised in a refugee camp in Kenya, he had build thousands of hours of play. His ball skills were world class for a U13 (he was soon to join the US MNT at the U15 level). I was hoping this skillful player and the team would bond. The Team began by playing small sided in very tight space. The player scored 7 goals in 30 minutes, some of which were quite spectacular. At the end of Practice the coach asked the players to run eight 200 yard repeats. The player made it through one. The other players had no trouble giving effort to the sprints.

The coach called me that night saying that the player would not make his team. He did not complete his sprints. He lamented a Bad attitude, a low capcity for work.

Because he could not make himself run those sprints he would not be on the team.But what about scoring goals under the pressure of three defenders in front of the goal? Doesn’t matter.

My question to the coach was would you tell a player he could not be on the team because he could not finish in front of the net under the pressure of three defenders? No. Would you demand that that player finish those chances “or else?” 

That player has no more capacity to complete the task in front of the goal as the other player has to complete the 200m runs.

While the one set of kids understood “PLAY” while the others understood “WORK.” One kid had been brought up playing with no rules, or objectives, the other had been brought up under strict supervision and organization--this player understands work.

That’s because we put too much emphasis on work. We can control the work. We can't control the Play. In fact, if we try to control it it does not work. It is built up over time spent with only Fun as the objective.

These hours of mindless fun are an invisible learning tool used by every great player ever to inspire us.  

Pele: One the Street to 16 then deliberately practiced at Santos. 3 World Cups.

Zagalo: Free play till 16. Then DP. 5 world Cups. Rivelino, played at the Park, Zidane, at his courtyard, Maradonna, neighborhood waste field…the list goes on and on.  

It takes a balance of deliberate practice and unstructured creative play to develop, and that means everyone, not just the next Messi, but all kids.

Our players, players raised in the organized, competitive based US youth system, understand hard work, but don’t get the play part. They understand the “work,” but may not be able to express themselves in a situation that calls for “play.”

Never too late.  Set up a cool field in your neighborhood.  Find and old tennis court. Build the environment.  Don't worry about the hard work, that comes later and there is plenty of time for that.

Foundation of Joy

Jurgen Klinsmann should have been the next US coach. Too bad. He get's it. He recently said that the US system is failing, and we are on the wrong road toward healthy player development.

Look at soccer in the US. Imagine a pyramid with competition being the highest level of soccer and team practices being the second level, generally this is the limit to kid's experience today.

But there is a third layer, a "lost foundation," of free play and individual skills mastery (deliberate practice). This foundation, is what kids are best at. It is the the learning and socializing on the neighborhood parks in free play. And, is also perfecting that free throw all by yourself until you get it right. If you play sports, this time spent is the best of your lives. Time and time again great players site these foundational hours as their favorite, and the key to their creative development. I like to call this the "Foundation of Joy."

This foundation should be the first priority. Without this foundation of joy, kids miss out on the most important hours of skill development, creative skills, enjoyment and learning. Yet in the US this foundation is given almost no attention.

Free play alone does not develop players, recent studies on expertise point to deliberate practice, a vastly different thing then you are likely to find at your typical soccer club. It's sometimes fun, sometimes hard work, all the time challenging and improving performance.

So development must be carefully balanced, U10's spend much greater time at free play as they build social and technical strengths, they participate in very little DP, while a U18 may have the balance of their training focused in Deliberate Practice and performance improvement.

Recent studies using hockey have shown that those who participated in the most free play (pond hockey) as kids were able to handle the increasing amounts of Deliberate Practice as they became young adults. These players were least likely to burnout, more likely to continue playing and enjoy the game for life.

So Play, that relaxed, just for the fun of it time, turn out to be hours that once established, give us the power to charge through that hard work that comes later. Free play inoculates us from burn out.

In the mean time it would be easy for me as a coach to prop up a group of U12's with tough deliberate practice, and they would likely do well--for a while.

Thisis what is happening here. Our best players train hard and early under expensive coaching. And this is how the Pyramid in the US is upside down: because the competition is ramped up early, deliberate practice is ramped up early. The fun goes out the window at U12 were winning and performance is the goal, little time spent in play, worse, it is often by coaches held to be mindless.

However by the time they are 16 they have little left to give. There is not that foundation of play to draw on and the burnout begins.

So when that kid says "it's just not fun anymore," what they are really saying is that in order to find their way through to the next level they have to put in more ours where soccer is fun, they can build their creativity and find their game again.

Write the book

I was playing pick up hockey the other day. We call it pick up, pay $5 bucks and there we have it. There was a guy flying around the ice smooth as silk. The puck made no sound against his stick as he cupped and dragged it all the time spinning and shifting always toward the goal. As he approached defenders he shifted down lower and seemed to get even smoother as he hit another gear.

One of the guys next to me said, "that guy plays like a ranger, don't he?" Meaning he plays like someone from the Iron Range where he grew up on pick up rather than instructional style youth hockey, his skating, puck handling was his own, smoother, cleaner more efficient, more skillful, and somehow suited just for him. A player like that would bedevil anyone, he was not playing hockey taught from the book, he was writing the book. I thought the comment nailed him, and what better compliment can we give to someone.

How does pick up and free play develop exactly? How does it teach the highest skill levels? How do we replicate it so that kids in soccer, hockey and all sports experience that joy?

Is instruction and drills even worth it at all? How exactly did this guy get to skate so well?

In the next few weeks I want to look closely at the learning behind pick up. How does it work, what are the essential and non essential ingredients? Is it relevant today? Can kids today find that joy? How do we get kids to write their own book? Let's see...

the myth of talent

"Talent is what gets you beat."
--Herb Brooks



"The ability to work hard is the greatest talent of all"
--John McEnroe


How often we label kids talented without really understanding what it is. Because we don't understand it, we tend to mishandle it.

Correct accumulated Practice.
I was at a late night white castle (don't ask). The burger maker was unfolding, flipping and stuffing hamburgers into boxes at the speed of light, her hands were a blur. She was smiling the whole time--man, she was good and she knew it. "Wow you are fast!" i said. She smiled and glanced up but a coworker spoke for her: "Oh yeah, she's really talented."

Wait a second, talented? How did she get this good? Was she born to do this? Or was it the repitition? Is our special talent out there waiting for us? If so how do we find it? Or do we work at it?

Putting burgers in a box or kicking a soccer ball, they both begin and live in the brain. by sending the neural signals out to her hands those signals flow through a pathway to her hands at a faster speed than you or I, at least for this specific task. Those patterned movements are flowing from her brains to her hands so much they create a high speed super highway made strong through the correct pattern movements, signals and feedback fly back and forth to the brain. She gets to a point where the signals are faster than her recognition skills. She now puts burger in boxes "without thinking."

In soccer terms a technique grooved correctly over time becomes a skill used in the game and done quickly. Ask a great player how he did something, chances are he will tell you he doesn't know. Those impulses that go to the brain on you and me are basically skipping the brain. They are doing it without thinking.

"When you start thinking, you hurt the ball club."
-- my dad

Technique should focus the early years on perfection, not speed. Younger talented kids tend to dominate with aggressiveness and speed. They want to go fast. These kids often have difficulty slowing down to perfect something. Shooting, receiving and ball handling need to be grooved as perfectly like a Federer forehand. Once grooved then pressure should be introduced. First space, then time, then defender. Finally, using correct accumulated practice Perceptual and cognitive skills such as cue recognition, pattern recognition and knowledge of situational probabilities are acquired through baby steps of small sided practice, 1v0 to 2v2 to 3v3 and futsal.

Over and over they make correct responses. This is correct practice being accumulated. This is hard work --what we see is what we call talent. Kids, even young ones who seem like they can step on a field and do their thing naturally, should be credited with the work that got them there. It's not something magical, they played at it, they worked at it, they loved it, they repeated it, that's why they are good at it. They are in control of their talent through correct accumulated practice. As coaches and parents we should always understand and give credit where credit is due.

Let kids play, work and try, always let them know they are the ones in control. Where they require mentoring is in fixing little technical issues, slowing things down, giving them more challenging tasks to perfect when ready.

Then repeat a little faster.
Sometimes I tell the white castle story to 12 year olds who are working Brazilian tech training. I want them to accomplish it perfect, and faster. "Get those burgers in the box!" I say. (meaning do it faster). When I do that I do accomplish the final objective, they are doing it perfect, faster and now with a smile on their face. Kids like to be good at it. They like to be fast. They like to accumulate practice and will smile and enjoy it. They like to see what they can do.

Our special talent is what we love. Or, looking at it another way, talent is loving what we do. By loving it we work and play at it. We enjoy getting better and seeing what we can do.

If we understand, nurture and reward the work and play involved in creating what we call talent, then someday we will all put balls in the net as easily as burgers in a box!

Best soccer is closest to home

I was invited once to serve on a panel for MYSA winter symposium. The topic was recruiting and the the question put to the panel was is recruiting best for the kids? Does it assure development? The three other panelist all agreed that given the correct environment the best players get better when playing together. Yes, was the general answer.

"No" is said.

"Recruiting the best kids create the best teams RIGHT NOW, but they do not assure those players, currently the best of the best, will develop to their fullest potential, in fact, it's likely that they will not. "

The best soccer is played closest to home, I said.

Soccer in the basement is better than soccer in the backyard. Soccer in the backyard is better than soccer at the neighborhood park. Soccer at the neighborhood park is better than that at your local club, and your local club is better than the elite team across town.

By moving across town to play for the elite teams, especially at the younger ages, players are taking a huge risk with their development. Here's why:


1. Time
Zidane, De Stefano, Puskas, Cruyff, Maradonna, they all played at their local street as much as they could. They were not in their cars driving to White Bear Lake, they were out their doors and on the street. The closer to home the more time to invent, and create. By the time kids are eight we are loading them into cars. Remember those pesky 10,000 hours.

2. Honest, correct feedback
I warn coaches that coach to kid feedback is like a long range walkie talkie, lots of static with only some of the words get through. Kid to Kid feedback is like a broadband connection, it's immediate, fast, clear, and brutally honest. Feedback, as they say, is the breakfast of champions. Closer to home are the people you trust and understand and respect--giving feedback even more power. Far from home, playing with a person who is good but doesn't know you too well--that person will hold back feedback--good and bad, tempering the time spent learning.

3. Locus of control
Playing close to home kids will likely feel in control. They decided to play, they put in the effort, their organization, effort, leadership and play improves the game--they are in control of their development. By taking the kid across town that locus become about the new environment. The control is passed to the coach or other outside agent. Kids start to believe that only this new environment--be it the elite club across town, or the great coach with the powerful team is the next step to get to the highest level. But with the player feeling in less control the hope of getting to the next level is left to chance as much as anything else.


4. Friends
Baby bears wrestle with each other to prepare themselves for the fighting skills required as they grow. Play, especially in a team sport setting similarly allows kids to experiment on the skills required to be successful in life: Respect of others, giving your best effort, balancing hard competition with play, experimenting and acceptance. If you have friends that are near by you are more likely to bring out the best in each other.

5. Fun Environment
By playing with friends and family close to home you create an environment that sets the example and consistently produces excellent learning and growing experiences. Most of all this is fun, and fun is now associated with learning and getting better. These experiences are what we drive our kids all over town for--learning a how to Cruyff spin effectively is likely to have many more repetitions outside your house as at the game in White bear. Because they want it to continue kids learn to care for and shape that precious environment, they understand innately that without that perfect balance their learning (and fun) stops--it can really become a living thing. Kids today are not that different and if given the chance would love the opportunity to try it.

Elite kids
Kids playing elite leagues suffer this more than anyone. Imagine what your local neighborhood game would be like if the best two players were sent across town? Chances are those players were the organizers, leaders, holding up the tradition, without them the local game dies out. And the elite players themselves are missing touches, honest feedback, and the chance to experiment with friends and family. I have seen many, many kids recruited away to join elite teams, I have rarely seen continued growth--it's more common to see their development flatline. This will always hold the US back.

Advice?
Play with your kids, don't try to teach them. Play to win, that's important, winning is not. Enjoy yourself, experiment with what you can do with a ball, keep learning, as a kid or an adult show inquisitiveness. Play pick up yourself and enjoy it. Keep kids where they are. Be confident they can learn where they are. Don't buy into the calls of the elite club--did Tony Sanneh move across town to play? Did Victor Kasanezky? No they played with friends, a lot.

Of course they need good skills and solid coaching, especially early should be found, but it should only be technical. Don't push, let the kids drive it, until they are 16 or 17, they don't need to go anywhere--just play and play a lot.

Look out for your club. Are they about teams or about people? Do they develop? Or do they go through the motions? Is there leadership on board? Is it about the kids? Or is it about their kids? If all the clubs (and a lot of work needs to be done here) are strong, there is no need for moving across town.

One of the panelists stopped me afterward, he currently runs a large elite club, and in no way do I begrudge him. This is what he believes is best for kids, interestingly, he turned to me after the discussion "Ted, I always enjoy your thoughts, but I don't get half of what you say."

Oh well, can't win 'em all. Just keep trying.

Building the player from the inside out

"67, Chevy Impala convertible. Vintage beauty, must see. Ready to roll!"


Old Blue was not quite this nice, but I always told everyone it's what's on the inside that counts...


Winnipeg
Once a group of us wanted to play in a prize money tournament in Winnipeg. It included the best club teams from Winnipeg, Ontario proper and Thunder bay. Anyone want to go? We enlisted 11 committed players, a keeper and 10 field players.

How do we get there?
The guys from the suburbs guys were going up together in one car. It was Thursday. We needed a ride for the other 6 by Friday afternoon.

My Brother Glenn, and I lived on Lake and Knox, famously right on the corner of Lake Calhoun in Uptown. It was August 1 and hot! they were rolling out the tents for the Uptown Art fair, it would be a good time to escape the city. So, Thursday night, still no plan for how we were getting to Winnepeg when we rented a movie called "Something Wild." In the movie, Melanie Griffith takes Jeff Daniels on a road trip to a high school reunion in a series of beater convertibles.

The next day Glenn called. "I have an idea, I saw a nice convertible for sale"

Nice?

I was at "Ron and Arnie's Used cars,"on east lake street, looking at the 67 baby blue chevy impala convertable, amble rust around the wheel wells, the sales man flashing his hand at me, "from the inside out baby! From the inside out!" He open the hood to show me the engine I knew nothing about, "and that's a rare z series electro-glide 2000 (or something like that) transmission. It's what's on the inside that counts!"

I handed over 9 one hundred dollar bills and rolled out of the lot.

It was 5 PM. At 6 PM six of us climbed in, three in the front, three in the back with room to spare, top down, to drive the 500 miles through the august night to Winnipeg.

"old Blue," was a good car. It got us there and back and served us well. Never quite the internal fortitude Arne sold me on, but that saying "from the inside out," stayed with me.

Just because Arne was stretching the truth dosen't mean he wasn't on to something...

What we CAN see is not important
So often the first thing we worry about is what we CAN see, uniforms, warm ups, equipment, marketing, elite team level, or whatever. The message we send is get the outside right and it proves the inside is solid. But what is really important? It's what's on the inside. Even skill and athleticism pail to the power of will, as Jose Mourinho says, you only need two things to be a player: you need to be able TO do it, and you need to WANT to do it.

The 11 of us who made that trip all wanted to do it. We were all were strong on the inside. We filled up Old blue with leaded gas, and each of us filled up our emotional fuel tank. And with a powerful inside engine, a little fuel goes a long way.

With kids, building that love of the game is our first and most important task. Much effort should be paid to balancing appropriate challenge and ability levels to help them find success. As they find success, however small, fill up that emotional fuel tank then set them off on a trip. Add the support and belief of others and they will get there.


How did we do?
Of 64 teams we ended up losing in the semi finals. Everyone of those players loved the game, they were solid people. Several of those players became the spine of the first Thunder team. To this day when we meet we chuckle over that weekend, the effort so beautifully pictured by our bench: 11 bags and no coach.

Keep working at it
The tournament director was at the podium, he was holding up 6 beautiful blue Adidas bags and 6 ugly brown bowling bags. He was announcing the sportsmanship award... "this goes to the best sports... eh, the ones who show us what soccer is all aboot!"

The beauty of Canadian tournaments is the sense of community and history, they always hold these big social Banquets. The DJ had stopped playing Madonna's "Holiday," the basement room of the Winnepeg Ritz was quiet with anticipation as the Director paused dramatically. The 11 of us watched and hoped.

"The award goes to the St. Paul Internationals!"

We rushed the stage, and in front of the entire tournament, wrestled between us over the 6 blue bags. So much for sportsmanship.

We do our best, but we all have things to work on. But with the inside set right we will do OK.