The game of soccer begins at "foundational" levels of learning skill, socialization, emotional intelligence, physical and mental aptitudes. As the player progresses each of these areas is built upon. And as the player moves through the vertical transitions of the game, WSA's Game Model adds layers through all stages of the development of the whole person's Servant Character, Resolve, Followership, Leadership, and Resilience.
WHY ARE THE GAME FORMATS DIFFERENT FOR VARIOUS AGES?
For Younger Ages Why Is There.....
Smaller Field? Less Participants? Less Rules?
For Younger Ages Why Is There.....
Smaller Field? Less Participants? Less Rules?
WHY ARE THE GAME FORMATS DIFFERENT FOR VARIOUS AGES? For Younger Ages Why Is There.....
Smaller Field? Less Participants? Less Rules?
1. To create a progression towards the full game from introduction of the most fundamental aspects of play: A Ball, An Opponent, Teammates, A Goal, A Boundary. After the most fundamental aspects of the game are learned, then advance to add other elements of play, rules such as "offside", or "proper throw-ins", and "restarts", and eventually tactics such as "lines of confrontation", and eventually consequential outcomes to competition, such as time management.
2. To provide less chaos at younger ages when the capacity to make sense of a lot of information is lower (so therefore provide less information for the player to assimilate).
3. To provide more opportunity for the player to be involved directly with the ball (reduce the space, reduce the participants, and increase the ratio of "direct involvement with the ball").
4. To provide more opportunity for the player to make "ball-related" decisions (again reduced space and participants, and the net result is the player receives more interaction with "ball-related" decisions).
5. To provide more "problem-solving" opportunities for the psycho-social and mental aptitude of the young player (at young ages players do not have mental aptitude to see as much in "advance" and to mentally participate in forecasting problems and fore-solving with decisions, so by reducing space and participants the players are by default more engaged in the game's "next opportunity to decision-make").
6. To provide a physically manageable landscape for the players capable physical components. The player cannot yet run for "extended periods" so the space to cover is less, and the length of the game less.
7. The player cannot yet move the ball by transfer with "long balls" or "lifting the ball in the air" for long driven passes or clearances, so the smaller field accommodates this, ensuring the game does not "stay in one area". This allows the players to experience the key moments of the game: Attacking, Defending, Transition from Attack to Defend, and Transition from Defend to Attack, as well as the key territories of the field, Attacking, Midfield Phase, Defending Territories, in each of the game's phases (build out, consolidation, attacking, counter press defending, coordinated defending).
Smaller Field? Less Participants? Less Rules?
1. To create a progression towards the full game from introduction of the most fundamental aspects of play: A Ball, An Opponent, Teammates, A Goal, A Boundary. After the most fundamental aspects of the game are learned, then advance to add other elements of play, rules such as "offside", or "proper throw-ins", and "restarts", and eventually tactics such as "lines of confrontation", and eventually consequential outcomes to competition, such as time management.
2. To provide less chaos at younger ages when the capacity to make sense of a lot of information is lower (so therefore provide less information for the player to assimilate).
3. To provide more opportunity for the player to be involved directly with the ball (reduce the space, reduce the participants, and increase the ratio of "direct involvement with the ball").
4. To provide more opportunity for the player to make "ball-related" decisions (again reduced space and participants, and the net result is the player receives more interaction with "ball-related" decisions).
5. To provide more "problem-solving" opportunities for the psycho-social and mental aptitude of the young player (at young ages players do not have mental aptitude to see as much in "advance" and to mentally participate in forecasting problems and fore-solving with decisions, so by reducing space and participants the players are by default more engaged in the game's "next opportunity to decision-make").
6. To provide a physically manageable landscape for the players capable physical components. The player cannot yet run for "extended periods" so the space to cover is less, and the length of the game less.
7. The player cannot yet move the ball by transfer with "long balls" or "lifting the ball in the air" for long driven passes or clearances, so the smaller field accommodates this, ensuring the game does not "stay in one area". This allows the players to experience the key moments of the game: Attacking, Defending, Transition from Attack to Defend, and Transition from Defend to Attack, as well as the key territories of the field, Attacking, Midfield Phase, Defending Territories, in each of the game's phases (build out, consolidation, attacking, counter press defending, coordinated defending).
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT ABOUT CHANGES AS THE PLAYER GETS OLDER?
For Older Ages What is New with New Formats....
Larger Field? More Players? More Rules?
For Older Ages What is New with New Formats....
Larger Field? More Players? More Rules?
WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT ABOUT CHANGES AS THE PLAYER GETS OLDER? Larger Field? More Players? More Rules
1. The first change of consequence is the addition of a "protected goal" in 7v7 or 5v5 soccer, after playing 3v3 and 4v4 soccer against an unprotected goal. This is MASSIVELY SIGNIFICANT from both a FORWARDS and BACKWARDS perspective.
FIRST BACKWARDS LOOK AT THE UNPROTECTED GOAL DAYS: When players play against an unprotected goal then goals can "rain down" without much actual skill being used. This is a complicated and convoluted element of the game to coach. Goals happen by ACCIDENT yet are often celebrated by parents as massively consequential. It is important to acknowledge this phenomenon to lead and teach players correctly.
AND LOOKING FORWARDS AT A NEW ERA WITH A PROTECTED GOAL: As players engage against the protected goal, a goalkeeper now challenges the last moment of the attack. This SIGNIFICANTLY alters the outcome, the skill required, and complicates the "final attacking phase". Available space changes, scoring the goal now requires decisions, and choices to "finish" or "shoot" or "dribble" or "texture the ball" and more. The "sight" of the attacker is challenged, and the space to score in becomes shrunk. Less goals will happen by accidents the further along the format moves.
2. Tactics and player mental aptitude are used to help solve the chaos at older ages.
3. Another significant change of moving towards a larger playing surface, and more players, is that the player is now less directly involved in "ball-related" decisions. This is a simple computation of math. When there are 22 players and 2 acres of space and still one soccer ball, there is much LESS "ball-related" action for the player per minute. This means the player must now learn two key mental aptitude skills:
i) Sustained Focus - being attentive when the ball is away
ii) Innovative Forecasting - when the ball is away forecasting threats (defensively) that may arise, or opportunities (attacking) that may arise.
4. The athlete must learn to physically manage a larger landscape with more intelligent opponents, more rules, and more consequences. The athlete's physical stamina, physical and mental speed, and focus stamina are now being tested and developed by the game.
5. The player now begins to develop a new array of techniques and skills that will become advantageous on the larger field, with more players, such as long driven balls, clearances, playing the ball in the air, etc... The application and transference of the the learned skill to game situations becomes a new opportunity to learn and grow.
6. The player is now developing the psychosocial awareness to understand how partnering with a teammate will help solve problems in the game. As the player sheds his/her egocentrism for a more social and teammate oriented approach, new solutions are presented, opportunities to innovate solutions by relying and depending on others begins to develop.
7. The game now has consequences. At the U14 and up level, the wins and losses now certainly matter, and are an objective of the player. The player understands a need to perform and deliver for his/her team, as well as to empower and lead his/her teammates to deliver for the team. The player now realizes others are depending on him/her. The intersection of the major lessons of human interaction, human development, begin to crest within the stage provided for the world's beautiful game.
8. As the game develops upward through the vertical transition to the full game, there are more rules applied. The player must adapt to fit within the scope of advanced rules, creating his/her best within the rules, and knowing the rules enough to use those to his/her competitive advantage. The "offside" rule generates a myriad of tactical and new technical/skill consequences, and now each restart matters since some teams can grow adept to claiming those as goalscoring opportunities. The opponent's formation, style, tendencies, and talents begin to become part of the game-day tactics, raising the level of cognitive processing involved in the game.
1. The first change of consequence is the addition of a "protected goal" in 7v7 or 5v5 soccer, after playing 3v3 and 4v4 soccer against an unprotected goal. This is MASSIVELY SIGNIFICANT from both a FORWARDS and BACKWARDS perspective.
FIRST BACKWARDS LOOK AT THE UNPROTECTED GOAL DAYS: When players play against an unprotected goal then goals can "rain down" without much actual skill being used. This is a complicated and convoluted element of the game to coach. Goals happen by ACCIDENT yet are often celebrated by parents as massively consequential. It is important to acknowledge this phenomenon to lead and teach players correctly.
AND LOOKING FORWARDS AT A NEW ERA WITH A PROTECTED GOAL: As players engage against the protected goal, a goalkeeper now challenges the last moment of the attack. This SIGNIFICANTLY alters the outcome, the skill required, and complicates the "final attacking phase". Available space changes, scoring the goal now requires decisions, and choices to "finish" or "shoot" or "dribble" or "texture the ball" and more. The "sight" of the attacker is challenged, and the space to score in becomes shrunk. Less goals will happen by accidents the further along the format moves.
2. Tactics and player mental aptitude are used to help solve the chaos at older ages.
3. Another significant change of moving towards a larger playing surface, and more players, is that the player is now less directly involved in "ball-related" decisions. This is a simple computation of math. When there are 22 players and 2 acres of space and still one soccer ball, there is much LESS "ball-related" action for the player per minute. This means the player must now learn two key mental aptitude skills:
i) Sustained Focus - being attentive when the ball is away
ii) Innovative Forecasting - when the ball is away forecasting threats (defensively) that may arise, or opportunities (attacking) that may arise.
4. The athlete must learn to physically manage a larger landscape with more intelligent opponents, more rules, and more consequences. The athlete's physical stamina, physical and mental speed, and focus stamina are now being tested and developed by the game.
5. The player now begins to develop a new array of techniques and skills that will become advantageous on the larger field, with more players, such as long driven balls, clearances, playing the ball in the air, etc... The application and transference of the the learned skill to game situations becomes a new opportunity to learn and grow.
6. The player is now developing the psychosocial awareness to understand how partnering with a teammate will help solve problems in the game. As the player sheds his/her egocentrism for a more social and teammate oriented approach, new solutions are presented, opportunities to innovate solutions by relying and depending on others begins to develop.
7. The game now has consequences. At the U14 and up level, the wins and losses now certainly matter, and are an objective of the player. The player understands a need to perform and deliver for his/her team, as well as to empower and lead his/her teammates to deliver for the team. The player now realizes others are depending on him/her. The intersection of the major lessons of human interaction, human development, begin to crest within the stage provided for the world's beautiful game.
8. As the game develops upward through the vertical transition to the full game, there are more rules applied. The player must adapt to fit within the scope of advanced rules, creating his/her best within the rules, and knowing the rules enough to use those to his/her competitive advantage. The "offside" rule generates a myriad of tactical and new technical/skill consequences, and now each restart matters since some teams can grow adept to claiming those as goalscoring opportunities. The opponent's formation, style, tendencies, and talents begin to become part of the game-day tactics, raising the level of cognitive processing involved in the game.
PARENTING THROUGH THE FORMATS
What I should be aware of to help advocate for my child...
Focus? Attention? Physicality? Rules? What is Important at Each Stage?
What I should be aware of to help advocate for my child...
Focus? Attention? Physicality? Rules? What is Important at Each Stage?
BUILD OUT HERE
