Tags:
Categories: TD News
Views: 239
Print

Saskatoon Youth Soccer and the Saskatchewan Soccer Association both say that they are committed to the CSA's long Term Player Development Model, Wellness to World Cup. This is a great stance to take, but it immediately creates a conflict for both organizations.

Under 14 players are defined in Wellness to World Cup as being part of the Training to Train phase. By this definition, these players should be in the training to train phase, and therefor should not be training to win. However, the CSA runs a National Competition for Under 14 players, which is supported by the SSA's PSL League (the winner of which attends club national competitions) and Saskatoon Youth Soccer which provides a qualifying winter competition to provide participant to the PSL.

Consequently, clubs, coaches, parents and players become obsessed with "making it to Nationals", and almost everything they do (including the perceived need to win every game in the indoor season) is directed towards this goal. This ultimately has a negative impact on youth development in Saskatoon.

How will Saskatoon Youth Soccer deal with this. Is it a possibility that we withdraw from PSL competition unless it is altered to match the requirements of the LTPD model? Does the SSA have to send teams to National U14 competitions? Has the SSA expressed concern about this matter to the CSA who are providing a competition that conflicts with its own philosophy?

Another major issue in this respect is that of practice to game ratios. The LTPD model recommends 6-10 hours of practice time for each hour of game time. Currently, there are very few players in the Saskatoon system who have this privilege. Some are saved by the fact that they are able to attend RTC training in addition to their club training, but if you have read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, you will know that the rest will only get left further behind, and we will not in this way increase the number of technically competent players. Furthermore, if  players happen to see the light and decide to spend the winter training rather than playing in a league, they are faced with being banned from participating in Provincial Team and Regional Training Centre programs. Huh?

SYSI has a tough job; parents typically equate registration fees with the number of games played, and give less attention to the need for practice than they do to watching games. I think soccer is the only sport where we set children up to fail by asking them to perform at high levels without preparing them to do so. One of my sons was a boxer. He trained daily throughout the year for only two or three competitions.

I am not sure how SSA and SYSI will overcome this challenge, but is seems to me that a lot of education needs to take place. Who will step up and do it? Or will we just continue to do the same thing over and over and expect that we will get better results? I think I just heard Premier Wall describe such action as the definition of insanity.