All our teams follow a professional soccer development model
Early Touches (Ages 7-10)
"Just as a piano player must master the scales before playing and composing their own tunes, so it is the same with soccer."
Bobby Robson
At an early age, we understand player and ball are the most important relationship in soccer, therefore all our training sessions try and give the players hundreds of touches on the ball, improving balance, co-ordination, balance, touch, confidence and we introduce them to attacking and defending concepts, initially through 1 vs 1's. . As the players become more comfortable with the ball, we increase the intensity and speed of the exercises to develop skill/decision making.
Developing the Player (Ages 11-14)
Evolving technique into skill/decision making
Our coaching philosophy understands the difference between technique and skill and the important relationship and progression between both. Technique is how a player executes a certain aspect of the game, such as passing where skill is the decision to apply the correct technique at a given time, e.g a swerved or lofted pass when faced by a defender.
During this phase we further build on early touches by developing game themed awareness in small sided games and by focusing on key age appropriate development topics in our training sessions :
The areas we emphasise focus on are : 1 vs 1's, 2 vs 2's, 3 vs 3's (knowledge of triangles), high tempo 1/2 touch games to improve movement off the ball and speed of thought, communication verbal and non verbal, patterns of play, range of passing, positional sense and endurance/recovery training.
As the golden age of learning passes for most players around the age of 11, co-ordination becomes more important, therefore all training sessions incorporates speed, agility and quickness, which becomes a priority from the ages of 11-14. Core conditioning, speed endurance and recovery training are also introduced, with our specialized fitness coach.
Developing the competitor/prepare to win (Ages 14-18)
Once the players reach high school age, mental characterstics such as self discipline become more important and we constantly develop and evaluate each player in the six areas of professional development, each of equal importance.
- Technique and natural ability
- Knowledge of the game
- Mental Toughness and Character
- Courage and Bravery
- Speed and Mobility
- Anticipation
Small Sided Games
All our training sessions have learning objectives which are constantly under review and reinforced in the format of small sided games each session.
For more information on our early touches skills clinics, camps, year round coaching contact director of coaching Chris Murray at 949-547-0439 or chrisscunited@gmail.com.
