North Kingstown Soccer Association

This appeared on ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/7468594/prominent-us-coaches-discuss-problems-american-soccer-leander-schaerlaeckens

ESPN.com asked seven of the brightest American soccer minds where the assembly line for domestic soccer talent is faltering, where it needs tinkering, and where wholesale changes are necessary.

Bob Bradley: It still comes down to how many good people get with clubs and are working with young kids to make sure things are done right. Over time, you need people with experience who understand youth development. Bob Jenkins compiled a best-practices document, which was good. [U.S. Youth Soccer technical director] Claudio Reyna's [coaching blueprint] is a good starting point, in that it adds consistency. But giving someone a stack of papers doesn't ensure that the quality of work is what it needs to be. That's where we are right now.

John Hackworth: It starts with being a cultural issue with our sport. The key period of development for a young player is at an early age, when their acquisition of technical skills is so important. But in this country that is not emphasized at the appropriate age or time in development. There are so many good people out there right now, a lot of very experienced coaches, but what happens in youth soccer is that the better coaches coach the best teams. When you go down to the lowest age levels, where the coaching is really important, you have fathers and mothers who don't know the game and who know more about basketball or [American] football..... It's the opposite for kids in soccer; they play games and play games and play games and only practice every once in a while. We have it backwards. There is too much structure. What's appropriate for kids is not winning games and tournaments. Soccer is a skill game and you need to practice and practice. Most of that for a young kid is a lot of time on the ball in an environment where an adult really shouldn't be doing much more than cultivating creativity. The ball itself is the best coach there could be."

Caleb Porter (Head coach USA u-23): The priority has to be development over winning. I think you can win and develop players, but in order to do that you have to have a philosophy. A process, an approach, or some kind of a method is the most important thing at younger ages.

Tab Ramos: "... we need to identify the players that are more skilled and have more technique rather than always spotting the biggest players. I think Barcelona has made people think a little bit more about the importance of a technical player and not seeing only the importance of a great athlete. The perception of the player is slowly evolving, but it hasn't completely changed."

Thomas Rodgen: First, we need full-time skills teachers at the youngest levels who can teach in a game context, through repetition, proper technique for both feet that's required at the highest level. In the successful countries, you see the best coaches at the youngest ages... second which is very important, that we're also not doing enough -- you look at the rest of the world, most teams train four or five times as a team, as a group, but also then have two individual trainings, which are really geared towards positions. We still get players that don't know how to play a position within a certain system well. We have too many players without a position."