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The Denver
Kickers
Sports Club
est. 1962 |
Coerver Coaching & Positive Coaching Alliance
Program for Under 11-14
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U11-14 Program
A DOUBLE GOAL MODELThe best youth sports programs pursue twin goals. The first is to put winning teams on the field. The second is to recognize the importance of Life Lessons, which will be learned through sport. For almost every young athlete, the Life Lessons will be a more enduring legacy of their participation in sports than anything they learn about soccer. The Positive Coaching Alliance provides such a model and it is a major philosophical underpinning of this program. That model is based on three principles. The first is to define winning not so much in terms of the scoreboard as in terms of "Mastery" - being the best you can be. In that definition, "Winners make the maximum effort, continue to learn and improve, don't let mistakes - or the fear of mistakes - stop them." The next principle is to maintain a relentlessly positive approach that "Fills the Emotional Tanks" of the athletes. Finally, all participants are taught to "Honor the Game." This is a proactive view of sportsmanship - based on what you will do, not what you won't - where participants demonstrate respect for the Rules, Opponents, Officials, Teammates, and Self. THE SOCCER COMPONENT - "SKILLFUL PLAYERS FIRST" This idea is the second underpinning of the program. With the Kickers, the path to our goal of "winning teams" will be a different one than is commonly found in youth soccer. Here the development, skills and habits of the individual player comes first. Particularly in the U9-14 age groups. Until that is done, attention to team play is limited to basic offensive and defensive organization. Many programs talk about the importance of individual player development. Too often, though, the commitment to that principle disappears under pressures tied to wins and losses. The development of creative and skillful individual players can be at some initial cost to team "success," especially if measured just by the scoreboard. We know, though, that teams developed using the "Players First" philosophy quickly becomes surprisingly "successful." Not because they are better teams, but because of the superior skills of the players. And those skills form a rock solid foundation for the development of creative, attractive, and effective team play that is successful by any definition. There is particular emphasis on promoting from U11-14:
BEYOND SOCCER - "GREAT ATHLETES" Our approach to the second goal, learning positive Life Lessons and Life Skills, begins by recognizing that strong team chemistry develops when members are recognized as people, more for their character than their athletic ability. People first, players second. In sports, certain character traits are particularly helpful, and we will seek to nurture in our players these personal qualities of lifelong value. They are: confidence based on their preparation, having a teachable spirit, developing a pride that comes from collective accomplishment, self-discipline, competitive perseverance, accountability and taking responsibility, and having a "team first" attitude. The common element in those seven qualities is that are choices made by the athlete, completely under his or her control. Not everyone can be the next Landon Donovan or Mia Hamm. But that player can pursue individual greatness as an athlete that has nothing to do with his or her athleticism. Not every team can be the North Carolina women or Real Madrid. But every team can achieve the greatness of becoming the best that it can be. Our program has an unwavering commitment to those ideals. At the same time, membership on a team revolves around the opportunity to be part of something bigger than you. In the words of World Champion player and coach Tracey Bates Leone, "You owe it to yourself and your teammates to do everything you can and give everything you have toward your goal of Being the Best." Athletes in the Kickers Youth Academy will be asked to live up to that standard at all times. We want each player to acquire the ability to find satisfaction in making strong efforts, developing new skills, challenging self and teammates, finding pride and "fun" in their accomplishments as well as one's own. This requires being open to learning lots of new things and a willingness to work hard to eliminate weaknesses. But it will also involve developing one's strengths, the things that make a player special and sets him or her apart, that define what coaches call a "soccer personality." Training will take place under "a fundamental philosophy that if you chase perfection doggedly enough you'll catch a healthy dose of excellence in the process." This learning environment sets standards above the norm and constantly challenges the players "comfort zone". Yet it accepts, even welcomes, the mistakes that happen as athletes learn "to train at the edge of their game in order to play at the edge of their game." We will seek a high level of intensity in our training and games, but we will nurture an intensity that comes from within the player, not one that is driven by the coaches. In this setting, ownership in teams is increasingly vested in their players. By the end of that U14 year, we expect that "we play for each other" is not a slogan but a reality. STRUCTURE The program is designed for teams of no more than 50 players in an age group. Each team will play in three "groups" (four when Colorado adopts the US Youth Soccer guidelines concerning small-sided games U11 and U12), organized by the abilities players show in the tryout process. The groups will usually train side by side and often train together; with an emphasis at first that promotes membership in the program as much as membership on a particular squad. Teams of fifty players, if you will, that just plays three (or four) different games on Saturdays. This is an "academy" style applied to teaching the game. With the age group following a single curriculum under direction of an Age Group Head Coach, each player will receive essentially the same program of instruction and opportunity for competition, yet within a structure that is as challenging for the most talented athlete as it is for the less gifted one simply pursuing a love of the games. Clubs can be less than attentive to teams beyond their first. That's wrong on its face but also ignores research showing the difficulty of predicting athletic success at younger ages. Relegation of 10 year olds to "B" and "C" teams in those settings becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Kickers Youth Academy will very different in this respect, committed to providing all the players and teams with that same solid soccer background as well as the full range of collateral benefits associated with participation on first rate teams. This "academy" approach has also been tested the past four years, and has been found to be a particularly good method for developing skillful players, strong teams and individuals who will bring greater strength, responsibility and confidence from athletics to all areas of their lives. AN UNCOMMON APPROACH TO YOUTH SPORTS More and more the focus on youth sports is on collecting, sometimes at any cost, national rankings, championship teams, elite athletes and college scholarships. In some instances, the "soccer industry" that has evolved around the pursuit of those things has become something of an arms race. It should be clear that this is not what we're about. But there's a paradox here in that experience shows that such achievements are more likely to follow as a logical consequence of an environment which keeps the focus just on “being the best you can be." Even greater achievements are found when a Mastery approach is combined with an emphasis on solid character traits. That's the environment we will provide. You will find this program different in other ways:
This is a soccer program, not brain surgery. That said, the program should still be done thoughtfully, carefully and professionally, with clear goals and the paths to achieve them in mind. It should be based on high standards and integrity, and feature the best levels of sportsmanship and fair play. It should function at the "cutting edge" of thinking about the development of soccer players and teams. It should expect to the held accountable for doing what it says it will do. It should promote a high level of soccer but recognize that, in the end, it's the impact on the personal growth of the athletes that counts. And above all, it should be immensely enjoyable and rewarding for the players. |