Why American soccer is stagnant.

Soccer was in its infancy when I arrived from the UK in the eighties. I was trying out for a professional team alongside 170 other hopefuls. A goalkeeper and I were selected. However, due to work visa requirements it did not work out for me. Not long after that, I got married and began to coach. I remember getting paid $2.00 a player, going to tournaments and sleeping on the floors, sharing hotel rooms with the manager. Dads who coached their children would often comment that they would never pay somebody to coach soccer. However, after the successes of my teams, that sentiment changed, and parents started to realize that paying the expenses of someone well qualified might be a better path. Fast forward to today, and what you have is a soccer industry designed to create income. You could argue that FIFA is the same thing; there was no reason to charge such huge prices for tickets. Excluding the working poor from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, money has taken over the game in many aspects. By this, I mean that soccer is no longer a sport for the working class and the low-income. I remember watching a well-known soccer player on television who told of when he was coming up through the professional ranks, he was hated because his family was rich. He had to work twice as hard to prove he belonged. Now it's the opposite, clubs are charging families thousands of dollars per season, and some of these programs are bringing in over twenty players per team to generate as much income as possible. Pay not to play I call it. Through the 90s, I would have conversations with coaches on how America could win a World Cup within 20 years because I saw the enthusiasm, the number of players, and the facilities. Nowhere in the world of soccer is there so much opportunity for young players as in America. Unfortunately, the game became hijacked and the need for income has superseded the need for development. Now the first order of business for many soccer clubs is to generate income, not player development. The game has become an industry for generating income, not a sport designed to develop players on and off the field. Teams are focused on winning because of the competitive American mentality. There is an assumption that winning in the younger age groups means success in the older age groups. Under these conditions, American soccer development has become stagnant. Games from the earliest of age are battles to win in the moment. No time for mistakes, no time for development, just win. In an honest assessment of the American National team, the players performed as well as they were trained to do within their environment. The national team coach cannot retrain his players to perform at a level they were never trained for. Each new coach will have the same problems. The American players are trained as what I call single-option thinkers. This means when a player gets the ball, they only see single options, and that is to pass, run or kick because that's what they've been taught. Responding in the moment with single intent. Top-level professional players are combination thinkers, which means when they get the ball, they have already calculated multiple combination options. Also the player not receiving the ball has calculated multiple options for their next move and how they are still involved with the play even though they don’t have the ball. Just like a chess game, the beginner thinks one move in the moment, the experts think 5 or 6 moves ahead. This skill of understanding the game and options cannot be taught in a youth soccer game, where going to battle in order to win a game is the only purpose. These youth programs create warriors, not soccer players. A friend of mine, who was a very good player, watched his son playing for a top college. He commented to me that it was so physical it was almost like watching an organized fight. These players are the end result of youth soccer programs that only play to win, using the best athletes and brute force. So, with all the analysis, it is a simple reality known by many. American youth soccer programs do not produce skillful thinking soccer players. They produce athletic soccer-playing robotic machines.  So, what are the options you ask? I say the first step is to start from the ground up and educate parents on what youth soccer can offer both on and off the field. The next step is to start development programs for under-10s that are purely based on skill development, no competitive games. I understand there are lots of academies with fancy names attached. However, how you are educated in the early years will determine your success in later years. Not what label you associate with. Early skill development has rules if followed, a player will be prepared for the next level. If not prepared, a player becomes stagnant. Youth soccer needs to rebuild from the ground up and offer an alternative to pay-to -play and make soccer affordable to all.  The problem for parents in the current youth soccer system is that if they stay in recreational soccer for too long, they risk not receiving higher-level coaching, and if they go to competitive soccer too early, they risk wasting a lot of money and their child has a high chance of burning out. I say the best path for youth soccer is not to burn down the system, but to rebuild a better system from the ground up. So, I have completed the first step in my mission. I have written a book for parents and coaches to understand what soccer development works and what does not. This book covers my experiences of over fifty years as a player, coach and parent. This is not a skills drill book; this is a soccer player, parent and coach development book. Educate yourself. If there is no change in youth soccer development, there will be no change in the outcome. Youth Soccer handbook a platform for success the 10 Most Important Youth Soccer Lessons. By David Novis. This book covers the highs and the lows, the types of training for different age groups. Relationships between players, parents, coaches and a lot more. Acquire knowledge, give yourself the best chance of success, educate yourself, and don't let your child be one of those used as a vehicle to create wealth for a soccer club that only cares about winning. Next time you are travelling, put on the audiobook version and learn through my experiences. After education, the next step is to build under 10 programs designed solely for skill development. A player from a small country was just interviewed and was asked about their success in the World Cup. He replied that under 10, we don’t even keep score; it's all about individual development. So I ask, how is it that a country with the largest youth soccer participation and best facilities became so stagnant in youth development? I answer my own question. It’s the void in affordable quality youth development. It is a truism that many countries, including my own, seem not to understand. The game has changed; athletic ability and effort are not enough. A complete player must possess soccer knowledge, competent skills, and athletic ability. When these three skills are maximized at maturity, you have the best version of that player. Focusing on winning in the early ages of development suppresses a young player's progress. No academy or high-profile program can reverse this truth. Proven successful development is the only path. If you are a soccer Club interested in building an under 10 program that builds a platform to offer high-quality training at an affordable price for all. Which will be the foundation for your under-12 program and so on. Please contact me through novissoccer.com. Under these conditions, programs can be built that maximize the abilities of all soccer players. They can offer top-quality training at an affordable price. Coaches of all levels can be trained to coach in these programs because development in the early years is the same for all young players. Only under these conditions can the true joy of the world’s most popular sport be experienced by all. Contact me through novissoccer.com. It’s a conversation well worth having. Thank you.

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