It has become standard convention that in order to be considered an expert, one has to perform a task for 10,000 hours. What happens when there are large gaps of time during the journey to 10,000 hours? Well, when kids play competitive soccer, they are just starting their journey. Traditionally, soccer club administrators have given their players time off for Summer vacations, but it is when and how long of time off that can make a huge difference in the development of their fledgling members. I recently watched a girls youth competitive team play in a tournament and I was amazed at how poorly they performed. They were not the team I saw before Summer began. I came to find out that they were given 2 months off for the Summer, and it showed. The passing, sense of urgency, and control was non-existent. I couldn’t believe this was the same team. It seemed that they lost to teams that had less talented players. Also, this tournament was their only tournament in the Summer and their next game will be the start of their season.
Who do you blame? The players for not practicing on their own. The parents for not insisting on more tournaments and practices. The coach for not standing firm and scheduling practices and insisting on tournaments, demanding committment. The club for not setting a standard for all teams to follow and understanding that skills atrophy when not developed.
The ongoing debate of year-round schooling is based on the realization that 2 months off from school potentially leads to the kids forgetting what they have learned and teachers have to go over the same material from the previous year at the beginning of the new school year to serve as a refresher. Competitive soccer follows the same premise: the more time not practicing their skills during the Summer, the more their skills deteriorate. Far too many clubs attempt to schedule games and tournaments during the summer around family vacations, but what happened to Competitive Committment. When you commit money and time to a competitive soccer program, you are agreeing to be available for the entirety of the season. It should be that family vacations are schedules around the soccer season.
Summers can be beneficial to a kid’s soccer development as much as it can be detrimental. A successful Summer should include at least one tournament in June, one in July, and one in August. Practices should be held every week, except for a short two week vacation period that should be communicated to the parents very early in the year so they can plan accordingly. Summers should be seen as pre-season for the Fall Season, when everything counts. When was the last time you saw a professional team take off a large portion of the summer and come back right before their season opener with only a few practices? That never happens because the pros understand that maintaining a player’s skills at a consistent rate keeps them in an optimal performance condition.
For youth soccer to advance in the United States, soccer cannot share focus with family vacations. It must be the main focus. Summers must not be seen as a time of rest, but a time of preparation and anticipation of the coming season and the desire to be the best.
SoccerMist 