re: Youth coaching... Sorry if too long.

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stick him on the better team if there is one that also has an opening

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Older players will use their physicality when he starts embarrassing them. He's already a 9 year old playing with 11-12 year olds, anything more would be borderline dangerous.

All I know is, when someone at that age starts making you look foolish, you get to hacking at their legs.

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The boy needs to play pick up soccer every day. He doesn't need 'more coaching'. He needs to get with other kids and play so the game teaches him while away from training.

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Whoa, since when does jurgen post on this board? Seriously though, all he's talked about is our youth getting more hours on the ball.

the problem with playing pick-up every day is that it usually turns into an unsupervised game of kick ball which is part of the problem with US soccer at the youth level. We have always focused on team wins over player development. At the youth level, and even into high school age, team wins often amount to nothing more than putting your fastest player up top and kicking the ball to him to let him run on to it. The traditional practice I grew up with involved some warm up, a brief session of passing drills and an extended scrimmage. There was rarely any concentrated focus on ball skills. As long as parents and coaches continue to focus on and demand wins at the youth level, individual skill development will suffer. If the focus is first placed on skill development, the entire team improves. As the players get older, it becomes increasingly less likely that a team with a couple of superior athletes will be able to dominate teams that may be a little less athletic but are more skilled with the ball.

I am intimately familiar with the Fire program in New Orleans and know most of the coaches. I would completely disagree with the characterization that it is dominated by English. There is a predomination of hispanic and American born coaches on the staff. (It was actually a merger of Lafreniere, Lakeview and Carrolton when it started. NOSA declined to join at first but came in later). I have two children who have been part of the program for years. I don't know who the coach is for that team and not sure why the first practice was strictly a scrimmage. The official philosophy of the club is to focus on technical skills over tactics at the younger age groups. The majority of the practices I have seen with the staff coaches focus on skills drills and small sided games with very little full scrimmaging involved. If you get the name of the coach, I'll be happy to share anything I know about him.

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very little full scrimmaging involved

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My thoughts about scrimmaging the first practice is the coaches were trying to assess athleticism and desire. I am sure that the other practices will be more along the lines of what the Fire project wants to do.

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unsupervised game of kick ball

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Not if you got your buddies and had a serious small sided game. Definitely wouldn't have happened when my friends and I used to play. If you were garbage, you never got the ball. Pass and move.

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Thanks for the vote of confidence!

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Do you coach this kid or something?

The point is that the kids always know. They know if someone doesn't have credibility as a coach, they know if a teammate is not good and doesn't work harder to get better, they know when they are playing a superior opponent. In my opinion, the kids always know.

If we want our kids to become better for the future of US soccer they have to play, unsupervised. Why is the US so dominant at basketball? Why is Brasil so good at soccer? More than anything else it's kids playing the game, on their own, developing a passion that can't be taught.

Agreed, welcome aboard GKleiban.