Here in the Midwest, there's snow on the ground. Temperatures are below freezing and it's just downright unpleasant.
We're used to it mind you. No reason for those of you dwelling in California or Florida or even Hawaii to feel sorry. We can handle it.
Now, that doesn't mean there's any soccer being played outside. It's definitely not suitable for that, and don't tell me about how they play through the winter in England and Scotland. I've seen some of those games both in person and on TV and when the conditions are like they are here now, the soccer tends to be pretty poor.
Are our youth players training too much?
Of course a suitable indoor training facility is like gold for a youth club. There's no weather situation that four walls, a roof and field turf can't overcome. Certainly the convenience of an indoor field is considerable.
Nothing wrong with that either, it's a good use of architecture and technology to help maintain a consistent training schedule.
What it does begin to touch on however, is the issue of overtraining.
When I first started following and thinking about elite youth soccer and player development, I kind of automatically adopted the more is better approach. "Since major soccer nations around the world are training more, we should do it too. If we want to win a World Cup, we have to get serious and starting training more often and all the time."
I might have written those very words, but now I'm not so sure.
Understand, I do think more FREQUENT training is the right idea. Four or five training sessions a week along with a weekly match is a good setup during the season. The rules for USSF Development Academy are thinking along the correct lines. Some top girls clubs are doing this sort of thing on their own and I applaud that.
However, the concept of year-round training the way it is practiced by many clubs and teams here may be misguided. First of all, you might be surprised, as I was, to learn that the professional clubs who train the best players overseas don't compete year-round. Every country is unique, but typically the approach is to have a pair of six-week breaks, one in summer and one in winter, for young players. Along with that combined 3 months off, some shorter breaks are built into the seasons. Even in England and Scotland, home of the aforementioned winter play, the youngsters get a good month off around the holidays.
The main reason for this is just a basic acknowledgment that you need to let players regenerate physically, mentally and emotionally. Coaches can stand the break from training as well.
It may be that the argument for doing it our way is more financially-driven, since these top teams in our country are all paying to play. This is not the only drawback of our business-first approach to youth development, but it's a big one. My position on this continues to be that we need to properly take care of those who are teaching players how to play, without requiring them to push participants to unnatural levels of participation for financial reasons.
The other side of this is the whole specialization issue. People my age will remember star athletes in high school playing two or even three sports. The idea that our children today cannot do that seems unfair somehow. But that issue is much bigger than club soccer. It has more to do with our society and the way we approach sports now, with casual or recreational involvement being almost a thing of the past. Everything, even at the youngest ages, is hyper-organized by adults, and if you miss a season well, look out, because your child may have really fallen behind on the road to stardom and the scholarship.
To that I say, relax everybody. All of this pushing is mainly leading us to burnout, injuries and a complete loss of the joy that any athlete should get from participating in his or her sport. You can still pursue excellence and have quality training and player development, but let's remember the whole and the big pictures, so that our players can excel at the game in the short AND long terms.
Let's not overdo it.
The line between dedication and overdoing it can sometimes be remarkably thin. In our elite soccer circles there's an undercurrent of thinking that more is better and the facts tell us this is not always true.
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