Author: Fernando Solis
In my travels around the soccer grounds of Melbourne I see lots of great players running around enjoying their soccer. As a personal trainer and soccer skills and conditioning coach I can’t help but identify areas where these players can improve and refine their playing skills and/or conditioning and consequently become better players. It’s amazing the difference some 1 on 1 specialized coaching can make to the progress of a player of any age.
I frequently speak to many players and parents and some see the value in putting a personal training and soccer coaching program into place and others are happy continue with the status quo. After all, the game is there to be enjoyed and not every player aspires to be a professional soccer player.
Fitness Goal Personal Training specializes in personalized soccer coaching for junior and youth soccer players in the Melbourne area for those looking to improve their game and excel in the game of soccer.
Soccer player development
To become a successful and complete soccer player you need to strongly develop 3 major components of the game:
• Skill and technique.
• Physical conditioning – Must be age appropriate and focus on players from the age of 12+
• Understanding of the psychological demands that come with high level competition.
These 3 facets of the game are related to the individual development of a young player which must be correctly introduced and taught between the ages of 7-15 years of age. Only basic game play concepts should be taught during this stage.
Specific team play and tactical concepts are secondary to refining each individual player and should be introduced around the ages of 14-15.
It’s important to understand that a player with limited technical ability will be of little use in any coaches’ tactical structure.
Where are we at in Australia?
In the Melbourne soccer club coaching scene the majority of clubs will train twice per week and play one match over the weekend. This means each player will have only 3-4 hours of supervised coaching sessions and 1 hour of game play per week. Some players will also be involved in school teams – usually with unqualified teachers as coaches. That is simply not frequent enough for the proper and correct progression of a player. Let me also add that the quality of the majority of this coaching is lamentable and will further slow the development of a player.
Deficiencies in Melbourne soccer coaching
• Lack of quality coaches that don’t understand how to properly teach and that implement age inappropriate soccer concepts and progressions.
• Not enough weekly coaching under quality supervision.
• Lack of attention to the needs of each individual within a team.
• Lack of identification of physical weaknesses that can cause future injury.
• Application of incorrect conditioning methods and training structures.
• Inadequate knowledge on correct nutrition and injury management.
How do we compare with the rest of the world?
Let’s consider 2 of the world’s most successful producers of exceptionally talented soccer players – Brazil and Argentina. I have had the opportunity in my coaching education to travel to Argentina and see junior club player development first hand.
In both these countries clubs are structured to develop players with the basic structure I’ve outlined above.
The 2 main differences between them and us are:
• Players will have 1-3 hours of structured daily practice sessions under expert supervision.
• Their players are developed in small sided competitions and outdoor pitches of reduced size.
With the thousands of extra hours of quality coaching time these players get compared to Australian kids over the 7-8 year maturation period of a junior player, its clear to see why Brazil, Argentina and the other leading world soccer super powers are so far ahead of us.
The cultural importance soccer has in these 2 countries needs to be taken into consideration as does the sacrifice entire families are prepared to endure for a young boy to become a professional player.
But with Australia’s proud history of producing so many international sporting champions, I firmly believe we are underachieving and failing in our production of quality international standard soccer players.
How can personalized soccer coaching improve development?
If we take into account the key points mentioned above, there are several fundamental areas which a personal soccer coach can address, therefore fast tracking and improving the progression of any soccer player.
Fitness Goal Personal Training soccer coaches can help by:
• Identifying skill deficiencies and refining technical execution.
• Give 1 on 1 coaching specific to the needs of each player and increase weekly hours of supervised soccer coaching.
• Assess and correct player movement patterns to maximize speed and efficiency.
• Introduce players to soccer specific resistance training to improve strength and conditioning for improved fitness and performance.
Fernando Solis and Gustavo Moschensky are both available for personalized soccer skills coaching and soccer specific strength and conditioning programs. They are both qualified personal trainers and FFA soccer coaches available for soccer coaching in Melbourne.
Contact us for more details.