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Out with the Old, In with the New: Academy Philosophy: A Step in the Right Direction

Out with the Old, In with the New

Academy Philosophy: A Step in the Right Direction

By Victor Satei – Technical Director, Power Soccer

As the number of children playing soccer in continues to grow, one might feel it is only a matter of time before we start gaining success internationally, or not.  With the current system of youth development in this country, it seems unlikely.  As proven over and over again on various occasions, our system is failing to produce players at the highest level.  Most recent proof comes in this year’s Under 20 World Cup.  The Canadian national team, in front of a home crowd, not only failed to win a game, but also failed to score a single goal!  We had a perfect opportunity to put ourselves on the map and display ourselves as a booming soccer nation, instead (population 32,999,636) loses to (population 3,800,610) (population 8,199,783) and (population 16,284,741).  Not to mention that the last time, and only time, our senior men’s team actually qualified for the World Cup was back in 1986.

            How many times do we need to fail at the highest level before we realize that what our Country needs is change?  And the change needs to be made at the root of the problem; development of our youth players.

            For years now, the scenario has been some or all of the following……….various leagues form competitive rep teams, which can begin as young as age 7 and having players compete in leagues and weekend tournaments for the ever so glorious plastic trophy.  Parents and coaches yelling on the sideline for the child to kick the ball up the field.  The children chasing the ball from end to end until the referee blows the final whistle, the winning team runs onto the field to celebrate, while the losing team walks off, heads in their hands, while their parents continue to yell, some at the referee, some at the coach for his poor use of substitutes and some at their own child for “missing the golden chance”.

            Youth players are training once or possibly twice per week with volunteer coaches who, in some cases, have never experienced or played the game themselves.  Game time overrides training time and instead of focusing on development, players are encouraged to focus on winning the game at hand.  When recruiting or conducting try-outs, coaches look to select only the strongest, fastest and biggest kids in order to achieve the goal of winning.  Some coaches attempt to coach three or four teams during a season, spreading themselves out so thin that they do not have the time needed to properly develop a team. When game time arrives, the coaches proceed to yell out instructions on the sidelines due to the fact that his players are unable to do what he wants them to. 

Let us look at Ontario as our prime example, Ontario represents 45% of ’s soccer playing population. In Ontario , at the age of twelve and thirteen there is the ‘selection process’ where players are selected for the regional program.  These regional teams face off against each other one weekend in September in front of the provincial staff where the twenty-five players are selected for the under 14 provincial squad.  Twenty-five players!  What happens to the players with potential that are perhaps late bloomers?  The players who weren’t on their game that weekend?  How about the players who perhaps have the potential but have not received proper coaching?  The rest are back to their clubs, demoralized and now must continue to train with a coach who is many times unable to take them to the next level.  The twenty-five that do get selected then train for approximately seven months out of the year with the provincial program.  The other five months they are back with their club, where again, winning becomes the focus and bad habits are often picked up.  As a former provincial team player, I have had first hand experience of this myself.  The amount of talent that is left out of the selection for these teams is inexcusable, and the lack of consistent high quality training does not prepare these players properly for the international level.  Then we wonder why that player with tons of potential ends up dropping out of the game?

It must be noted that countries with a fraction of ’s population and half the resources are qualifying for World Cups and producing international stars. Perhaps it’s time to take a step back and look at what some of these successful countries are doing.    By emulating top soccer countries and informing ourselves on how they develop youth players, we can learn something ourselves.  We should not be afraid to change, especially when the current system has failed on so many occasions. 

Two years ago, the Soccer Academy Alliance of Canada (SAAC) was established in order to take an initial step into transforming our country’s concept of youth player development into one that is modern.  SAAC has put many standards in place that mirror those of top World Academies.  Below are some of the standards that SAAC has put forward and many of the newly formed Academies have already found early success by enforcing them:    

• Every Academy must have a Technical Director with a minimum National B License.  The TD is responsible to oversee the Academy while at the same time making sure the Academy is following SAAC guidelines.
• All team coaches must have a minimum Provincial B License. 
• Under 10 players play seven-a-side soccer and Under 12 play nine-a-side soccer, this enables players at the early ages to be more involved in the game.
• Standings begin to be kept at the Under 16 level.  No standings are kept for any age groups below that.  Of course teams want to win but this is not the main focus.  The game itself is used as a learning tool and players are not afraid to make mistakes and are free of feeling the consequences of ‘pressure’.  In many Academy games you will see teams trying to maintain possession using short passes, goalkeepers being encouraged to roll the ball out rather than kicking long and players not afraid to take opponents on one on one.  You will not see teams at the young ages stacked with big players who use the kick and run tactic to win at all costs.  However, you will see players of various strength, speed and size with great skill and vision.
• Academy reviews are done throughout the season.  The SAAC board of directors sits and reviews the programs that various Academies are offering.  Any Academies that are not up to SAAC standards are not permitted to reenter the Academy league the following season.
• Rules and Regulations are in place that prevent spectators from yelling criticism at officials or from instructing players.  Spectators are welcome to cheer.  This allows for a great atmosphere that enables officials, coaches and players to work and play comfortably.

Academy coaches are paid professionals with varying degrees of qualifications.  Each Academy has it’s own philosophy that it follows.  Most Academies set short and long-term goals for their teams that allow them to monitor their progress. The established goals are performance driven as opposed to results driven.  SAAC has implemented a 3:1 training to game ratio, which means a team should train at least three times for every game it plays.  This 3:1 ratio helps keep a healthy perspective on player development.  Some Academies train more than three times per week with the older age groups.  In contrast, for example, Barcelona’s youth academy in Spain, players aged 8-9 train twice per week, players 10-12 train three times per week, 13-16 train four times per week and 17-21 train five to six times per week.

Many of the Academies that are associated with SAAC train eleven months of the year, allowing one month for rest and recovery.  Academy teams do not participate in indoor leagues, but rather continue their usual training schedule, using the indoor season as post season and pre season training.  Nearly all training is done on turf fields indoor, gyms are used for futsal.

In many top World Academies coaches meet with players two or three times per year in order to give them individual feedback, both verbal and written.   It is very important that coaches give feedback to the players in order to let them know what aspects of the game they excel in and where improvement is required. Social events and time away from the pitch is also important and implemented.  This allows players to develop not only their soccer skills but their socio/psychological skills as well.  As many top World Academies feel, the game should be used to help develop today’s youth into socially responsible adults of tomorrow.

Taking a quote from Rinus Michels (FIFA coach of the Century) “A player should move up immediately when he is ready.” And this, it seems, is where the focus is missing.  The next step is to bring these players that will eventually graduate from these Academies to the next level, professional soccer.  Some Academies in Ontario have already been exposed to European clubs and as the new Academy system grows and develops they will gain even more exposure.  Not only that, but hopefully the Provincial programs and National programs will realize a change is what we need, and they will welcome the new Academy system rather than refuse to sanction them.  It is only a matter of time before these Academies will be producing players that are at the international level.

We cannot change our history in the game, but we can look towards a brighter future.  The first step is to change the attitude of individuals in the current system who are involved at the highest level.  They must realize that the focus must be on long-term development rather than short-term goals such as winning a game.  The youth soccer players in our Country are no different than those in any other; it is a matter of nurturing their talent and allowing them to develop with a modern philosophy that has been proven to work.