Coaching Youth Soccer
"One Million Reasons..."

Here are a million reasons why you (American Youth Coach) need to 'Open your Mind' and change your way of thinking about our '9-Step Practice Routine!'

Gregg Thompson a 1984 U.S. Olympian, 1985-86 U.S. National Team (12 caps), and is now a Placer United Coach. Greg took 4 boys from his club to a soccer camp featuring Pepijn Lijinders from PSV Eindhoven, Pepjin is one of the premier developers of youth talent in the world. After the final day of camp, Gregg discussed with Pepijn why Europeans are so much more comfortable with the ball than Americans? The answer was simple: "Touches on the ball."

Some quick calculations on Greggs' calculator and Pepijn's point really hit home. He approximated the touches the players received at the soccer camp during Pepijn's 90 minute session and compared them to the number of touches players receive at a "typical" 90 minute soccer practice he sees every day of the week. Note: I have taken the liberty to add stats accumulated at typical FUNdamental '9-Step Practice' session.

Assuming 3 training sessions per week and a 9 month season:

Number of touches - Per season

1. Typical American player =    45,900
2. PSV Dutch player         =   226,800
3. FUNdamental player      =   324,000

1. Typical American player =    229,500
2. PSV Dutch player         =  1,134,000
3. FUNdamental player      =  1,620,000

Gregg further states, "Granted most coaches don't have the knowledge of a PSV coach; however, if volunteer coaches at the Rec./Select/Competitive levels just focused on touches on the ball, our players would be way ahead. To take a step back and ask our coaches not to worry about drills and to just play games of 1 vs. 1,2 vs. 2,3 vs. 3 and 5 vs. 5 at practice with little instruction. There would be a tremendous increase in number of touches and a corresponding increase in player development. The small sided competitions unintentionally/naturally teach the game to the players with little input from coaches."

Do the Math and Open your Mind… There are a million reasons for you to apply our FUNdamental '9-Step Practice Routine'. We have been teaching 'how to' focus on 'touches' since 1999. Your players could have had more than a million more touches than the typical American player. And your reviews would read something like this: "Over all the '9-Step Practice Routine' covers great material that is useful on the field and all of it is realistic to use everyday (every practice) like the 'Figure 8 Stretch Routine'. My players are no longer getting bored and they are getting better quicker!