Youth Soccer Training in The United States and How it compares to Successful Soccer Countries in Europe 

Jeff Tipping’s presentation on Sept. 28th in Plymouth Meeting was attended by many coaches in EPYSA who thoroughly enjoyed the information given be Jeff, who has tremendous knowledge on the subject. Jeff is the former NSCAA Director of Coaching and Muhlenberg College Head Coach. He was a Hartwick University player and member of the Soccer Hall of Fame.

Here are some ideas I took from the seminar that I’d like to share with York USA coaches.
• World coaches state that players 9-13 need passion during those yrs. To play at a high level, regional and national teams and internationally with a Professional team. Also, coaches need to be passionate and encourage youth coaches to instill passion in their players. American coaches need energized and part of this is coaching education.
• Players need support and motivation from parents as well as the proper training environment to reach the next level. This includes playing at the highest level with better players to continue growth and development. When possible, playing with the club team, and helping others is a good way to give back.
• Players need to be exposed to training and teams where they’re not comfortable and have to adjust to new and stressful situations. Need to find a way to be successful.
• In 1970 Dettmar Cramer introduced the coaching schools to this country from Germany, where he was a very high level coach. In 1983 the NSCAA coaching courses were initiated as a supplement to the USSF licensing that Dettmar introduced. There is a need to continually educate coaches for the good of players and U.S. soccer, particularly, at the U-10 and U-12 levels where we need to have elite coaches working with these age groups. All too often, we have volunteer coaches leading the teams at the formative ages.
• Soccer clubs should coordinate coaches better with meetings so that sound soccer principles are being taught by all of the coaches in a particular club. Unfortunately, meetings are sometimes required to coordinate and dispense quality soccer information.
• Advanced coaches need to be more specific in making corrections. Not we need to play better or we have to create more opportunities, more specifically, how and why to be tactically correct.
Realism in defense as soon as possible with players so attackers have to find ways to be successful in tight spaces and not have too much space to make it