In the Youth Development Phase (YDP), we see kids who are going through the biggest period of ‘change’ that they will experience. Physical, cognitive, and emotional maturity plays a huge part in terms of soccer development. It’s our role in the YDP to help players navigate this. 

In a soccer sense, players at U13 move to the full format of the game, creating new challenges and opportunities for players. As a club, we focus on long term player development. Within sports training, there is a specific model that applies. 

With a focus on training to understand the game for our 13-15-year-old players, here’s how we go about that in the YDP:

It is expected that the players coming into the YDP from our FP are already capable of executing the basic techniques necessary to play the game. The main difference between the training at the FP and the YDP is at U8-U12, the focus is mostly on the “what” (dribbling, passing, shooting, etc.), then once they’re in the YDP we delve more into the “why,” “where,” and “when” of these skills.

Regardless of what the focus of the training session is each week, we always try to structure training activities so that it looks as much like the actual game as possible. This means adding pressure whenever possible and utilizing a variety of small-sided games and rondos. 

Small-sided games can be any game played with less than 11 players on each team. The incorporation of these small-sided games into our training environment allows us to recreate moments within the game that will help us to improve our players tactical understanding, decision making, and overall development, while also keeping them constantly engaged by giving them more opportunities to get touches on the ball and to be involved in the play. 

Rondos are a training game in which the team in possession has numerical superiority over the team out of possession. The objective is for the attacking team to maintain possession of the ball, while the defenders try to win the ball back.

Utilizing rondos gives our players the chance to work on their technique, decision making, problem-solving, tactical knowledge (rondos happen all over the field during games!), and creativity, all within a competitive setting. Rondos are incredibly versatile training tools and can be manipulated in an infinite number of ways based on the level of the players, what the training topic is, and what we’re trying to achieve with the activity.

Player-Coach Relationship

Olentangy United is a player-centric club, meaning that all of the decisions we make are to benefit each individual player and their development. Over time, this will develop great players, teammates, and teams. 

One way we help empower our players to take responsibility for their training and their development is by creating an environment that has the right balance of fun and discipline, with the understanding that we must cultivate a love for the game above all else.

The greatest players in the world are the best decision-makers. Soccer is a fluid game where players are constantly experiencing new situations and facing new problems that need to be solved. With this in mind, our coaching style is predominantly a mixture of guided discovery and questions and answers. This means instead of always giving players the answer or telling them what to do (autocratic), we are encouraging them, as well as providing varying levels of guidance, so that they can work out the answer for themselves. This coaching style develops a deeper understanding of the game and creates more well-rounded players.

We are believers that there’s no “right” way to play the game. There are loads of different styles of play, all of which can be effective if coached properly. However, having a set style of play that our whole club utilizes allows us to keep the focus on the long term development of our players.  This consistency enables our coaching staff to layer on new ideas each year, and throughout each phase, relative to the players’ age and learning ability. Our goal is for all of our players to reach whatever they want their highest level to be. 

Our style of play promotes creativity, decision making, discipline and creates game savvy players. This helps our players to be more versatile (we try to develop all players in a primary and at least one secondary position as well) and allows them to adapt to different styles that as they enter high school, go through our Senior Prep Phase (SPP), and onto college, they’ll continue to be successful in the game they love. 

The Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model is a framework based on the Japanese concept of ‘Kaizen’ meaning ‘improvement’ or ‘change for the better.’ National governing bodies around the world, covering multiple sports lean towards this model when considering the way an athlete should approach their sporting journey. The framework provides scientifically proven guidelines as to how we should train athletes based on their age and stage of development, taking advantage of ‘windows of trainability’.