A Bunch of Baloney By Karl Dewazien, CYSA State Coaching Director               The California Youth Soccer Association (CYSA) coaching course curriculum has been and will continue to evolve according to the development level of our coaches and players. Suffice it to say that our current ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ curriculum is receiving many compliments from throughout the state, region, country and even other countries. Some kudos for the development of this modern youth training methodology should go to our innovative and creative state teaching staff. But, the major credit for our ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ development must go to the coaches who have attended, applied and evaluated our CYSA certification courses in the past!   Through their comments on the ‘Course Evaluation Sheet’ the CYSA licensed coaches have given us notice of what works and what does not work with our youth players. Dutifully, the course curriculum has, throughout the years, been adjusted and tweaked accordingly. We have experimented with and used training methodologies developed throughout the soccer world. We have discarded many trends that were not applicable to our soccer environment. We have been diligent to find and use only what was relevant to our needs.     And, that brings us to a ‘new trend’ which seems to be developing in the intellectual branches of the youth soccer community. ‘Course Evaluations Sheets’ that we have received recently have followed the same vein of thought and need to be addressed in a public forum. Here is a sample of what they say:   “I waited to fill this out until I actually put what I learned into action with my team. While the clinic was well done, I’ve found that many suggested exercises, activities and techniques require a greater attention span than my U-10 team has. It would have been helpful to learn more age-appropriate games/activities in order to convey the techniques to my team.   In retrospect, that would have been a better use of my time than learning more advanced techniques like using the head, body and legs to stop/block carry and pass the ball. This is not a reflection on the instructor but rather on the focus of the class. Perhaps there should be different clinics for different aged teams?”   The CYSA instructional staff has covered its position on this question through articles, lectures, Q&A sessions, etc. And now we have found another source that echoed our feelings on this subject. In a current issue of ‘Soccer America’ in it’s College Section the following comments were made about age appropriate training:       “The foundation for all of this was laid way back when, Wagner (Aly Wagner picked No. 1 in the ‘03 WUSA Draft) was playing for Central Valley Mercury, the San Jose club team that won three national titles and produced WUSA players Danielle Slaton, Anna Kraus and Brooke O’Hanley and several other Division I college standouts. Philippe Blin, then an assistant to Smith (Jerry Smith, NCAA Division 1 National Champion coach) who coached Mercury with Vicky Wagner, Aly’s mom, took an unorthodox approach to teaching the game to young girls.   He took the exact same training sessions we did with the university team and applied them to the youth team, Smith says, “The thing we learned was the whole idea of age-specific drills and tactics and technique was a bunch of baloney.” Young players were able to do the exact same things as university players do, only more slowly. Their ability to comprehend or learn the skills was no different. In some cases, they were better able to learn, like teaching a young child a foreign language.”   Since we are able to teach them (our players) and they (the players) are able to learn such diversified soccer related games as: Sharks & Minnows; Cats & Mice; World Cupies; Five vs. Two Keep Away, etc. etc. etc. It seems logical that we should be able to teach them a simple game that consists of:  We have ball possession –Attack their goal and score. They have ball possession – Defend our goal and don’t let them to score. Finally, you can only move the ball with all parts of the body except the intentional use of the hands.               The CYSA staff instructors realize that, “It is our job to convince you the youth coach that our ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ will develop soccer players. And since your duty is to improve youth soccer players you will find the ‘Nine Steps’ invaluable in accomplishing this task.   We (staff) are not in the business of providing age-appropriate games/activities. We (staff) are soccer coaches who would be thrilled to have our children ‘love to play’ soccer rather than other games and activities!”   If the readers are interested in the ‘9-Step Practice Routine’ we can provide that in our next issue. Or, you can get all the details of the Routine inside my “FUNdamental Practice of Champions” book…!