The Iowa Soccer Club: ISC Academy

ISC Academy

What type of games do the kids play at practice?

We have structured most of our activities at the Academy to adhere closely to the "games/activities" approach to soccer development. This unique approach to soccer development was designed by the United States Soccer Federation in an attempt to encourage players to learn how to manage the ball effectively under pressure, to give players opportunities to think on their own, to give players the opportunity to be creative, and to keep all of the players involved in each activity through participation in fun and challenging soccer related games.

The "games/activities" approach presents the players with fun soccer related games that everyone can find enjoyment in. It is through participation in these games that your son our daughter will learn new technical skills and thinking skills. Your kids will be learning both new skills with the ball and learning how to make decisions in the context of the game without having to participate in strict, regimented exercises. Although it may seem to the untrained eye that your child is not learning specific skills such as passing, dribbling, and shooting, that could not be further from the truth. The basic challenges of the games can be "self-teaching" and players are learning through simply playing. ^{[ 1 ]}

One of the goals of our program is to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate and be involved in all activities. Therefore, we have structured our games so that we try to stay away from elimination games. In a recreational sports program like the ISC Academy, the ability levels of players vary greatly. Recognizing this fact, the ISC's professional staff are careful to structure each practice activity in such a way that the activities can be challenging for all participants without excluding any of the participants, especially those who might be further behind in their athletic development. Therefore, we will do our very best to make sure that none of our games exclude players or eliminate children before the end of the game. At the same time, we want to ensure that the games are challenging for those that might be the furthest along in their athletic development. ^{[ 2 ]}

This may seem like a very difficult task, but all players who enroll in the Academy should learn the game of soccer in an environment that is both challenging and motivating. While many players decide to join a competitive ISC team after they graduate from the Academy, the Academy Program was established to meet the needs of all levels of young children and we are guided by that purpose.

Why 4v4 Games?

Why don't the kids play 11 on a team just like the Pros do?

We often have parents ask why the Academy games are not structured to look like the adult game of soccer which is played with 11 players on the field with large goals and goalkeepers. The effect of playing 22 young players on one field at this age is often called "beehive soccer" where all 22 players are bunched around one ball. For players ages 5-6 and even for many at 7-8, the "beehive phenomena" is perfectly natural. One of the United States's most preeminent researchers in the area of youth development as it applies to soccer is Dr. Tom Fleck. Dr. Fleck has attempted to look at what educational psychologists have learned from their research and he has applied that wealth of knowledge to the study of how to make soccer more enjoyable and more suitable for the young soccer player. As educational psychologists have learned, young children at 5 and 6 are still very egocentric in their thinking and understanding of the world around them. Therefore their understanding of the game of soccer or any game involving only one ball, is much different than that of a mature adult. A game with two teams of 4 competing for one ball means that there will likely be 8 different agendas on the field. Each player who has the ball is likely to view the other 7 players on the field, including their own teammates, as opponents who are competing to take away the ball from themselves. Therefore, it stands to reason that a beehive concept is perfectly natural for the 7 year old. Furthermore, if the "beehive" is natural, why would one structure a game that included 11 or even 8 players on one team at this age? Wouldn't the beehive concept be even worse? In other words, for the soccer player aged 5-8, the "beehive" will always be prevalent on the field.

Those who feel that they should spend time trying to coach players to avoid the beehive are simply asking young children to do more than they are cognitively capable of handling. Therefore, by placing only 4 players on the field, the beehive is smaller than with 11 players on the field. Very few professional soccer educators in the United States dispute the benefit of the small-sided game for the youth player.

Finally, it should make infinite sense to any parent that the fewer players that are on the field at any one time, the more involved your son or daughter will be throughout the game. Think back to your own sports experiences as a young child. Would you want to play a game that only allowed minimal participation? Playing soccer games at the 5-8 year old level that incorporate games bigger than 4v4 mean only one thing: Players spend a majority of the time watching others play, or when they get tired of watching, they will try to steal the ball from their teammate so they can get involved.

Why so Many Dribbling Games?

A lot of parents ask why we have the kids dribbling a ball in most of our games. Technical skills are essential to success in soccer. At this age we try to provide games that enhance technical skill without drilling the kids with difficult exercises more suited for the competitive and older player. The kids develop coordination and agility with the ball while having fun competing in fun games that enhance technical skill. Hopefully the kids will be having so much fun running, changing direction, and stopping the ball during these fun exercises that they will become more proficient with the ball without having to be put through a lot of regimented exercises that aren't usually that much fun to the new soccer player.

Why aren't the kids kept on the same team throughout the season?

The structure of the Academy is very simple. On Fridays we spend the first half hour playing dribbling, running, and other soccer skill games. For the last half hour of each Friday, we divide the players into teams and have them scrimmage in small-sided games. Our version of the small-sided game, and the game recommended by the United States Soccer Federation for kids from 5-9, is a 4v4 scrimmage with no goalkeepers. Finally, on Sundays, the kids play 4v4 games for the entire hour.

Each time the kids scrimmage on Fridays or on Sundays we try to mix the teams up evenly. We also try to have your child play with different kids throughout the program. Our purpose for this is simple: we want to keep as many of these young soccer players involved in soccer for as long as we can.

Significant research shows that children's motivation to participate in sports can be negatively affected by certain aspects of competition if it is introduced in the wrong way or not managed effectively by well-trained coaches and educators. We want to make sure that the aspects of competition that might turn a young child away from soccer do not prevail in the Academy. Therefore, giving kids the opportunity to play with different players during each Academy session means that each child will have some days when they win a lot of games, some days win their team may lose games, and some days win they win half of the games and lose half of the games.

By mixing players up for each Academy game day we ensure a balance of outcomes. By offering a balance of outcomes, player motivation will remain high. Conversely, if we tried to do our best to divide the teams as evenly as possible and then keep the kids on the same team for the entire 8 week program, invariably there will be one team that will lose most of their games and one team that will rise to the top and win most of their games. That outcome in and of itself is not necessarily bad for older players, but when coaching players in their first few years of soccer, our goal is to keep them excited about soccer. Research shows that players who lose their first few games will start to "predict future losses." Such expectations negatively affect their performance. Therefore, by providing each Academy player with a multitude of experiences with different players each day and different outcomes, we hope to keep more kids excited about soccer and just as important, we hope to keep them excited about physical activity. ^{[ 3 ]}

Summary

We hope the above information gives you a better idea of the rationale behind how conduct the Academy. Sometimes the best knowledge that a youth coach must possess is to know what not to coach. Over coaching can seriously dampen the enthusiasm of the young player. All of our professional coaches are trained to know what these young players are capable of comprehending given their age and developmental needs. We trust you will find our Academy to be an excellent experience for your son or daughter.

References:

¹ Dr. Thomas Fleck, Dr. Ronald Quinn, and Dr. David Carr, US Youth Soccer: The Official US Youth Soccer Coaching Manual (2002). Rainer Martens, Successful Coaching (2004).

² In designing our recreational program we were influenced by Dr. Muska Mosston's research with young athletes. According to Dr. Ronald Quinn, Mosston believed that "Children will not continue activities in which they are continually eliminated or wait to take turns." It is our belief that this theory is very wise and informative. Our goal is to keep everyone interested in the game of soccer and our staff is committed to studying as many aspects of childhood development as we can in order to make the Academy a quality program for your child. Ronald W. Quinn, The Peak Performance: Soccer Games for Player Development (Cincinnati, 1990).

³ Katherine T. Thomas, Amela M. Lee, Jerry R. Thomas, Physical Education Methods for Elementary Teachers (Champaign, 2003).

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