University of San Francisco coach Erik Visser has been involved in just about every facet of the game both here and abroad. A native of Holland and a player in the vaunted Ajax youth developmental system, Visser has played and coached college soccer and coached with youth national teams and in club soccer. He's currently part of the scouting setup for the USSF Developmental Academy.
Visser recently spoke with TopDrawerSoccer.com about the broad topic of youth player development.
What are our biggest challenges:
Head coach of USF, Erik Visser. Photo courtesy USF Athletics.
"When I read a lot of articles, I read a lot of clichés. People say the right things but whether the right things happen is another question. Everybody knows we have some unique situations in this country and some unique obstacles. It's difficult to get everyone on the same page. We now have the US Soccer Development Academy trying to steer things in the right direction. That's the first necessary step, to bring continuity and to take us in a new direction and the right direction. There is obviously at the youngest ages a major overemphasis, based on parental involvement and paying club coaches, an overemphasis on winning. We all agree this is a big problem."
What we can learn from the Dutch system:
"The Dutch system – continues to develop creative players like (Wesley) Sneijder, (Ruud) Van Nistelrooy, Robin Van Persie and (Arjen) Robben. So you have to say something is being done right. When we look at development we don't necessarily want to look at the results of the national team to decide if they are doing it right. France is not always making the World Cup. Argentina doesn't always do well, but nobody can tell me they are not developing world class players.
For me, I learned by trial on the streets in the 60s. There was a pecking order and when you were 6 you'd be playing against 12 and 13-year olds. You learned to be smart and keen. You learned intricacies and how to be street smart. And you did this on the street because you weren't allowed to join a club until you were age 12, because the philosophy was that coaches would ruin you before that age. So we learned by trial and error and it was the golden age of players being comfortable on the ball. Dribbling, shooting, passing and trapping, those should be the major area of development. I think it was a victory for soccer that Spain won the European Cup, because it's long been known that they produce players who are terrific on the ball."
On the quality of coaching and training in this country
"As I say, until the age of 12 or 13, there has to be a major emphasis on comfort on the ball, and not just by training players in isolated drills. I don't see enough training sessions at the youngest ages where the coaches the knowledge, passion and quality of training. Players need to be in a a real learning environment for 90 minutes. Too many sessions are like what we call occupational therapy. The players are kept busy through a series of drills and it looks fine and dandy, but did you really go out there to make that player a better player. People like the Academy but they have to and start getting the clubs to help the U11, U12 and U13 players, because to be honest, if the player is 16 or 18 and can't trap and they don't have the speed of play, they are already behind the 8-ball compared to the rest of the world. That's a pet peeve with me, and again it's because the coaches and parents are worried about the end results when they are 11 or 12. In Holland we would look at whether the players have improved, not how many trophies they won."
What are the chief obstacles to changing that perception?
Our parents look too much to wins and losses. For many coaches this is a livelihood and that doesn't have to be in a bad way. You can coach two or three youth teams and can make a living out of a game of soccer, but too many coaches compromise and appease parents. That has to stop."
How do you stop this?
"The MLS youth teams are changing the marketplace. The majority of these are U16 and U18 where the players and parents don't have to pay. That in itself is changing the dynamic of youth soccer culture. I visit a lot of places as an Academy scout, and I sense that many of the club coaches think there is an evolution of youth soccer and that unless they redefine the markets it could be trouble. Many clubs and directors are redefining how to do business."
What other changes do we need?
"We have it a little upside down, where are so-called top coaches with academy teams are at ages 16 to 19. We need those top coaches to work with U11s and U12s. That's where education is a huge part. There are quite a few good coaches in youth soccer who have credibility who, if they are able to get good coaches at younger ages and are able to educate the parent group and the board and administrators, we can get this turned around. We need to project where a 12-year old kid will be at 16 and 17, not look whether they got a trophy and won something. We need to look at where does he need to be at age 12 or 13 to be on track. If top coaches can get in the trenches and articulate that, that will be important.
"We also need to regionalize things. If the Federation is able to come in and get the Academy clubs in an area to get on the same page in terms of philosophy it would help. We understand they are competitors but by the same token we are supposedly working for the same thing in the long run. The Academy and the Fed need to get into the trenches and make sure the competitors are on the same page.
Erik Visser. Photo courtesy of USF Athletics.
"There's no doubt we could do a lot more in coaching education. One thing we need to is provide continuity. In my field of education, somebody may come in and have great ideas, but if they are gone in two years there's no chance to implement it because someone else comes in an has other ideas. We need to get in the trenches with people who have credible experience and have a lot to offer other coaches. If we can get those people in they can be role models of players and coaches, and that's a good thing."
Should we bring in people from overseas?
"Overseas coaches and directors have something to offer, but reality reveals that unless you bring people in who have understanding of obstacles of this country, and the various elements like NCAA, AYSO and all the others, and unless they have an open mind about things, no matter how good those foreign coaches are, they are not going to succeed.
"Obviously we get people here from all over the world. It's a melting pot. Everyone has an idea of what makes a good player and a bad player, but there are definite universal principles that nobody argues with, simple things like keeping the ball moving, and players moving, like every pass has a message, like good spacing – there are 8 or 9 universal principles that if it's Argentina or Holland or American or Germany, nobody is going to argue with. I mean things like having a good first touch or being able to play with both feet, nobody will argue that that is a bad thing to teach. We need to get to the same page and simplify. Sometimes we make it too difficult."
