England has strengths and weaknesses that are influenced by their youth coaching system and surroundings after they reach the elite level.

STRENGTHS
England produces quality athletes and players with a good level of tactical awareness. This shows through when England perform. Youth soccer in England is results oriented, teams play in competitive games and structured leagues from ages as young as nine. A youth team will turn up and play with a referee and a coach on the sidelines heavily invested in the result. It is not uncommon for a coach to be pursuing a career in coaching and starting with a youth team, the team then becomes a step on the ladder and winning things is seen as relevant.

Such an atmosphere can bond teams together and instill a desire to win in receptive players. “Getting stuck in,” and being a ball winner are rewarded in the culture, and as such players of limited technical ability but with the ability to do the hard work can ascend.

A youth player in England will also watch a lot of the game. Team field trips to watch the local pro team are common, and blanket television coverage allows young players to watch games and learn about the game without realizing it. The added role model element helps motivation and enjoyment, players in school yards across the country pretend they are Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard after they score a goal. Powerful childhood memories come from this.

A youth soccer player who excels in England will be given the facilities to succeed. The country has 92 professional teams in an area smaller that the state of New Jersey, and each team has youth academy and community coaching. Players will be given technical coaching in a structured environment as well as advice on diet. As a player gets older, academies will introduce lessons on lifestyle and succeeding in the professional game.

WEAKNESSES
The strength of competition at such an early age is also a weakness. This environment being created at such a young age has an impact on the players. Immediately a sense of success and failure is installed, and poor performance is punished with excessive time on the bench. For this reason, players who cannot impact results find themselves in a negative cycle very early. They need time on the field to improve, they do not get it because they are not improving.

Youth coaching in England has been traditionally team based. Teaching group concepts and teaching a player how to excel in a team environment. This leaves England behind some of the major countries in terms of individual ability in possession of the ball. A player like Joe Cole has tremendous technical ability on a par with any country, however the likes of Cole are few and far between. Often a player such as him is encouraged to play safety first, or sacrificed in favor of a player who puts more work in, and wins more tackles.

Check back next week for the conclusion of this interesting article.

Anyone who watches the World Cup enjoys seeing the obvious contrast on style. Some nations play pretty, technical soccer whereas some nations seem hell bent on defending and organizing. The question is, why?
 
In this series we cut through the cliché’s and generalizations. Fans often say “they wanted it more,” or like to blame one personnel decision as the defining factor in a result. The answer is a lot deeper than that. A professional soccer player you watch on television is at the end of a life long journey. Years of practice, diet, coaching and living a positive lifestyle results in a player reaching the elite levels of the game.

The environment we are in as people shapes us, at work you will find behaving a certain way will get you the results you want. It is no different for a soccer player, the coaching philosophy and what behaviors are sought will develop the psychology and ability of a player. In each nation throughout the world, this will differ, that is what makes soccer truly the world’s game.

Here we look at England, the 2010 World Cup saw an England team draw criticism from all corners. The so called “arrogant mentality” reporting to have hurt them glory, this attitude is simplistic and off base. England has strengths and weaknesses that are influenced by their youth coaching system and surroundings after they reach the elite level.

Check back next week for Strenghs and Weaknesses of this English system.

Dr. Dev K. Mishra, who has served as team doctor at the professional, national team, college and high school level, is the founder of SidelineSportsDoc.com. We asked Dr. Mishra about injury trends he has observed in youth soccer; whether there are different injury patterns between boys and girls; and what coaches can do to help keep their players healthy …

SOCCER AMERICA: What trends have you seen in the past years in youth soccer injuries?

DR. DEV MISHRA: There’s two things that we’ve seen that have really risen dramatically.

One is that it seems that for whatever reason we’re seeing a much larger number of overuse injuries than we used to see even 10 years ago.  These would be things like tendonitis, stress fractures, things that result from repetitive usage of an extremity. That’s No. 1.

No. 2. We’re seeing a rise in certain traumatic injuries at a much earlier age than we used to. For soccer players it’s principally ACL tears.  

There seem to be many factors involved in that. Whether it’s more kids playing, different style of play, different surface, or mechanical issues like muscle weakness.  But we’re seeing ACL tears in children as young as 12 and 13 years old – which used to be really quite rare 15 years ago. 

SA: Are there different injury patterns for boys and girls?

DR. MISHRA: Girls tend to become physically mature earlier than boys do and certain injuries such as ACL tears happen at a younger age in girls than they do in boys.  We see adult-type injuries a little earlier for girls than we do for boys. There’s also growing, very solid evidence that shows that girls respond differently to a concussion than a boy does. Girls tend to have symptoms that last longer and perhaps are a little more severe than one would see in a boy. There’s some strong scientific evidence of that coming out of the University of Pittsburgh.

SA: For years there have been reports of higher rates of ACL injuries in females. What should coaches do with this in mind?

DR. MISHRA: There’s a lot of effort in trying to improve training for girls to reduce ACL injuries.

Dr. Bert Mandelbaum’s group has been key in developing some of those methods. He and physiotherapist Holly Silvers have done a great job of identifying a simple warm-up that helps to improve the landing characteristics when you’re landing from a jump, and improving the mechanical ability to cut and pivot.  And they’ve shown that they do have reductions in ACL injury rates for teams that follow these protocols.

SA: What else can coaches do to help prevent injuries?

DR. MISHRA: Good training courses should include in their training age-specific methods that help coaches recognize and provide basic management for injuries.As the kids get older and into adolescence there’s more of an emphasis on proper warm-up, flexibility, jump training, and other preventive measures. Early on, the game should really be about fun and less about tactical awareness. It’s amazing that when we take tactical awareness and that type of thing out of the game — and it becomes more play than game — we see far fewer injuries than we do otherwise in a structured environment.

SA: How can coaches prepare to respond when injuries do happen?

DR. MISHRA: Coaches should use whatever resources are available to educate themselves about injury management .  Our premise, with SidelineSportsDoc.com, is to teach people a method they can use every time. Learn how to take care of the six to eight key injuries that happen. They’re going to be a little different for soccer than they are for baseball and hockey. If you have resources available in your local community, take advantage of them. Perhaps your club has an injury management curriculum as part of your coaching certification course. Make yourself aware of a method and make yourself aware of the most common injuries, how to look for the red flags and manage that properly on the sidelines. Knowing those basic things will allow a coach to respond with confidence when an injury occurs.

(Dev K. Mishra, the founder of SidelineSportsDoc.com, is an orthopedic surgeon in private practice, Burlingame, Calif. He is a member of the team physician pool with the U.S. Soccer Federation and has served as team physician at the University of California, Berkeley.)

Please check back next week for another great coaching article.

As an active grandfather, one of my greatest joys is participating in sports with my grandchildren. The girls have played soccer and softball, the boys football and baseball. I was lucky enough to coach my grandson's little league team of 8 year olds in suburban Philadelphia not too long ago. I know discipline. I participated in high school and collegiate swimming and track, and had some great coaches. I also served through two wars in the United States Navy, they had some discipline there too! After active duty I served as a Naval Reserve boot camp drill instructor, where it my my job to scream at, I mean motivate the recruits, just as you see Army drill sergeants in the movies. Its a lot different coaching 8 year boys to play baseball than it is coaching 18 year old Naval recruits on how to march in formation. But there are a lot of similarities too.

When coaching little kids, you are coaching more for fun and teaching general life lessons than you are competing to win. You always need to remember that. The lessons and experiences these kids walk away from are far more important the the victories themselves. Here are some tips from this little league coach on coaching small children:

Communicate With Parents
Meet with the parents and be clear about your goals. You are not pushing these kids to win at all cost, yet you will not take loss or failure lightly. Communicate and always seek input and assistance from the parents.

Set Goals
Establish a reasonable goal, maybe take the season game by game. The goal is to win the next game. That's all to think about, the next game, and what can you as a player do to be your best to make that a reality.

Set Rules and Consequences
Be clear on what time practice is what the procedure is for missing it or being late. Set rules, print them out, go over them with the kids and send them home to the parents. Always ask for input throughout the process.

Address Failure Directly
When you lose, go over the game with the team, identify the problems and address them. Remember too, sometimes you can play great and the other team is just better. Even when you win games, identify problem areas and address them, teaching the kids to always be analyzing and improving their activities and themselves.

Concentrate on the Individuals
Pay attention to each kid on the team. Are they developing skills, are they contributing to the team? Are they happy about playing? Again, the goal is for each player to have a rewarding, satisfying experience to remember for a lifetime, its your job as a coach to make that a reality

Check back next week for another great coaching article.

Soccer programs offer the best exercise of all organized sport programs, according to recent national report.  Soccer practice provides more vigorous physical activity and offers a longer period of physical activity. Soccer out ranks baseball/softball for exercise.
How much exercise do our children get in organized sports? National guidelines tell us that children and adolescents should accumulate 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) each day.  It is amazing that, based on these standards; fewer than 50% of children and 10% of adolescents meet these national guidelines.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends youth sports as a means of obtaining physical activity as well as social benefits.  But do they deliver what we parents expect?  The answer is most sports programs do not measure up…except for soccer.
In the United States, an estimated 44 million youth participate in organized sports.  But how much exercise do our children really get in these practices?
The recent findings of a report on this issue raise significant concerns on whether or not youth sports programs provide our kids with a real dose of physical activity.
When a parent drops a child off at practice, one imagines that their child will get enough exercise that would at least be considered meaningful from a public health perspective.   Most of us would think our kids would receive more than this bare minimum standard.
Just in case you were unfamiliar with the standards, as I was before reading the long report… moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is a basic standard that kids need to reach to be considered physically active.
On average, 66% of boys and 34% of girl play in an organized sport program.  It is now becoming clear that with all the instructions and waiting for turns, our kids are not getting a lot of physical activity in a lot of practices.

While sports programs have many goals from teaching technical skills to demonstrating the value of team work, one definite goal is providing physical activity.   The programs are called ‘sports’, yes?  Here are some of the facts: The number of kids participating in organized sports is astounding.  The National Council of Youth Sports has estimated that 44 million American youth participate annually in structured sports programs.
At the high school level, more than 7 million students participate in school sports programs each year. The Centers for Disease Control has shown that nearly 60% of US high school students report engaging in sports programs.  Obviously American kids are involved in a lot of sports. And it is big business in America. As parents, we all know how much time we spend signing our kids up and dropping them off at these programs.  We never, ever stop to think ‘Are our kids getting enough exercise?’

What the study studied:  Soccer and baseball/softball were chosen because they are popular with children of both sexes over a wide age range but they vary in activity levels. Soccer players spent about 17 more minutes per practice in vigorous physical activity than baseball/softball players.  What the study discovered:  “It is expected that one benefit of organized youth sports participation is substantial amounts of physical activity, but less than one-fourth of youth in the present study obtained the recommended 60 minutes of MVPA during practice.”  In simple English, the study found that during soccer practices, “youth obtained a substantial amount of physical activity; 55 minutes of physical activity (MVPA), which was more than baseball/softball practices (41 minutes).
Further, soccer practices offered significantly vigorous physical activity than baseball/softball practices.

Soccer practices are an important source of physical activity for youth, and it is important to let parents know not all youth sports programs are created equal when it comes to providing real exercise.
The study concludes that "Providing young people with the physical activity they need is one of the major public health challenges of the 21st century."  All of us soccer parents know that soccer is the game, and the game is amazing.  Now, we can all know that it is documented that soccer is the best organized sport of our kids, in terms of getting physical activity.
 
________________________________________
The Study: Physical Activity During Youth Sports Practices
 
Desiree Leek, BS; Jordan A. Carlson, MA; Kelli L. Cain, MA; Sara Henrichon; Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH, MS; Kevin Patrick, MD, MS; James F. Sallis, PhD. 
The details on the study for those curious and wanting more information. 
Objective: To document physical activity (PA) during organized youth soccer and baseball/softball practices.  Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Community sports leagues in San Diego County, California.
Participants: Two hundred youth aged 7 to 14 years were recruited from 29 teams in 2 youth sports in middle-income cities with an approximately equal distribution across sports, sex, and age groups.
Main Exposure: Youth sports practices.
Outcome Measures: A sample of players wore accelerometers during practices. Minutes of PA at multiple intensity levels were calculated using established cutoff points. Participants were categorized as meeting or not meeting guidelines of at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) during practice.
Results: The overall mean for MVPA was 45.1 minutes and 46.1% of practice time. Participants on soccer teams and those aged 7 to 10 years had significantly more MVPA than their counterparts. Participants on soccer teams spent an average of 17.0 more minutes and 15.9% more of practice time in vigorous- intensity PA than those on baseball/softball teams. Overall, 24% of participants met the 60-minute PA guideline during practice, but fewer than 10% of 11-to 14-year- olds and 2% of girl softball players met the guideline.
Conclusions: Participation in organized sports does not ensure that youth meet PA recommendations on practice days. The health effects of youth sports could be improved by adopting policies that ensure participants obtain PA during practices.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. Published online December 6, 2010.

Demonstrating Performance
As the economy continues to sputter we are seeing youth sports budgets cut or eliminated in the school and community setting.  This is the third in a series on making the case for youth sports funding.

In Part 1 we recommended describing the value of youth sports in terms of positive youth development and community benefit.  In Part 2 we recommended stating the specific life skill sets we aim to teach our athletes. In this article we suggest a simple framework for demonstrating the actual performance of our youth sports programs. This is important for justifying youth sports funding in the face of so many other competing priorities.

If you were asked to demonstrate that your program teaches positive life skills, could you do it?

This is an important question for all of us involved in youth sports.  Many middle school, high school, and competitive club programs have a mission statement expressing an intent to teach sportsmanship, values, character, etc.  This is good.  But let us be candid: Very few programs could provide solid evidence that they are actually delivering on their mission. Most of us could relate authentic anecdotes about the good things we try to teach.  But very few of us could quickly demonstrate that we pro-actively and systematically promote positive youth development through our programs.

We need an efficient strategy for demonstrating the value of our programs. We suggest that any youth sports program can reasonably demonstrate its performance by documenting seven indicators of its commitment and action.

1.  Mission.  The program has a mission statement which includes positive youth development and which is distributed to all athletes, parents, and coaches. 

2.  Learning Objectives.  The program has a set of specific life skill learning objectives for participating athletes.

3. Proactive Coaching. The coaches proactively teach positive life skills to participating athletes in meetings, in practice, and in competition.

4. Coach Support.  The program provides policy support, education, and materials to help coaches instruct their athletes in positive life skills.

5. Parent Engagement.  The program proactively engages parents as partners in promoting positive youth development by distributing educational materials and presenting opportunities for parent education.

6. Community Engagement.  The program proactively engages its community of spectators in promoting positive youth development by setting and enforcing rules for sportsmanship before, during, and after competition.

7. Athlete Evaluation.  The coaches evaluate the athletes on their achievement of selected life skill objectives.  The athletes also evaluate their own attainment of life skill objectives and their experience in receiving life skill instruction through the program.

Of the seven indicators, #7 (Athlete Evaluation) may appear to be the most daunting.  This need not be so.  Keep in mind that most coaches do informally evaluate their athletes on key life skill dimensions such as positive character, self direction, teamwork, and leadership.  This need only be formalized with a simple rating tool and a mid-season or end-of-season conversation with each athlete. Likewise, middle- and high-school age athletes are quite capable of completing self-assessments and delivering honest feedback on the life skill instruction they received.

The deeper challenge is likely to be persuading coaches to invest in defining the positive life skills they aim to teach - and in being accountable for teaching them.  There is always going to be some resistance to the prospect of actually demonstrating performance.  But his is where we find out who we are as youth sports leaders.  Will we give in to the fear of being accountable to our own mission?  Or will we be as courageous as our athletes and push ourselves to the next level of performance?   If you are ready to begin demonstrating the performance of your program, we developed The Positive Youth Sports Model and its seven life skill sets as one option for getting started.  But every program can certainly develop its own mission and objectives, and we encourage you to do what makes good sense for your athletes. Thank you for promoting positive youth development through sports!

Check back next week for another great Coaching Article.

As the economy continues to sputter we are seeing youth sports budgets cut or eliminated in the school and community setting.  This is the second in a series on making the case for youth sports funding. In Part 1 we suggested that we can be stronger advocates for youth sports funding in terms of positive youth development and community benefit. The next step is to define and state the life skills we aim to teach in youth sports.

Positive Life Skills- Positive life skills are those skills everyone needs to develop into healthy, ethical, caring, and responsible people.  In the context of youth sports, we have the opportunity to help young athletes learn many different kinds of positive life skills.  In the Positive Youth Sports Model we identify seven life skill sets which we can help young athletes develop through sports.  These are not the only life skills worth teaching to young athletes, but they are a start.  The list includes:  School Engagement, Healthy Living, Positive Character, Self Direction, Teamwork, Leadership, Community Engagement

Stating the What We Teach - Defining and stating the life skills we teach puts us in better position to make our case for youth sports funding.  For example, we should be able to say: Our sports program is worth funding because we deliver a high return on investment in terms of positive youth development and community benefit.

School Engagement. We teach our student athletes the importance of making the grade in school by setting academic goals, showing consistent attendance, demonstrating respect, fulfilling all of their assignments, and graduating on time.
Healthy Living.  We teach our student athletes to practice healthy habits of nutrition, training, rest, risk avoidance, and stress management.
Positive Character.  We teach our student athletes the importance of positive character including honor, spirit, courage, perseverance, and resilience.
Self Direction.  We teach our student athletes the importance of self direction including self-motivation, self-initiative, self-discipline, emotional self-restraint, and self-directed learning.
Teamwork. We teach our student athletes positive teamwork including commitment, responsibility, contribution, collaboration, and flexibility.
Leadership.  We teach our student athletes how to become positive leaders leaders by modeling the way, working with others to get things done, inspiring each other when things get tough, promoting team unity, and reaching out to help a teammate in need.
Community Engagement. We teach our student-athletes the importance of giving back to their community by becoming involved in community service as individuals and as a team.

If we do not feel comfortable or authentic in describing our program in these terms (or similar terms), we are not alone.  It is in the nature of all organizations, not just youth sports programs, that we do not always live up to our aspirations.  You can get started by writing down your own vision of the life skills you aim to teach as a coach or program director.  Then engage your colleagues in a discussion about what you aim to teach as a program.

Check back next week for more great information on this topic.

As the economy continues to sputter we are seeing youth sports budgets cut or eliminated in the school and community setting.  We are also seeing youth sports advocates struggle to make the case for sustaining or restoring sports program funding. 

Making the case for youth sports funding in our schools and communities takes more than a passionate belief in the power of sports.  There are scores of other advocates who bring the same passion to their own advocacy for their particular cause.  We have to make the case for sports in terms of the value society receives in return for its investment in sports.  Our case needs to be authentic and not just wishful thinking.

In this ongoing series we present a practical framework for making the case for youth sports funding.  We recommend that every youth sports program can make the case for funding by explicitly:•Defining the Value of Youth Sports •Stating What We Teach in Youth Sports •Demonstrating Performance
These are the topics of the first three articles in the series.

Everyone involved in youth sports thinks the athletic experience is valuable.  But if you ask ten different people to describe that value, you are likely to get ten different answers.  This makes it hard to advocate for youth sports funding in a systematic way.  In this article we suggest a three terms for describing the value of youth sports: Return on Investment, Positive Youth Development, and Community Benefit.

Return on Investment
As a society we invest billions of dollars in interscholastic and community youth sports.  We do this because we expect some value in return for our investment.  What in your opinion is the 'return on investment' society receives in return for its investment in youth sports?  Be ready to state your viewpoint in terms of 'return on investment in sports' when you are advocating for funding.
It is also important to remember that every dollar spent on youth sports is a dollar not spent on something else.  This is the 'opportunity cost' of investing in youth sports versus some other alternative use of funds.  When you are advocating for funding, remember that if the decision maker in front of you is going to say "yes' to youth sports funding, she is probably going to have to say 'no' to something else.  You need to arm that person with enough information to make that choice in favor of youth sports.

Positive Youth Development
AIf we were to ask a room full of youth sports advocates why we should invest in youth sports, we would get a variety of answers including 'character building,' 'health promotion,' and many more.  When advocating for youth sports funding, it is important to be able to describe the value of youth sports in clear and concise terms.  At PositiveSports.net we say that sports done well promote positive youth development in terms of school engagement, healthy living, positive character, self direction, teamwork, leadership, and community engagement.  When youth sports programs teach, enforce, affirm, and model these positive life skills, the entire community benefits. 

Community Benefit
AAThe community benefit of youth sports is hard to measure at the individual program level.  But we do know from research that young people engaged in positive sports are more likely to be positively engaged in school, and more likely to resist many (but not all) risk behaviors. There is some research evidence that former athletes are more likely to engage in things like voluntarism and voting when they reach adulthood.  There is also practical evidence that sports bring communities together as people convene to watch sporting events and do the myriad things it takes to support youth sports programs.  Taken together, all of these factors argue for the community benefit of youth sports.

Summary

We can be stronger advocates to the extent we use clear and compelling language in making our case for youth sports funding.  The terms introduced in this article - return on investment, positive youth development, and community benefit - are tested terms which should resonate with those making decisions about youth sports budgets. When you can authentically say that 'Our sports program is worth funding because we deliver a high return on investment in terms of positive youth development and community benefit,' you will not have won the game yet, but you will be taking your best shot.

Thank you for promoting positive youth development through sports! Check back next week for the continuation of this series.

Coaching youth sports is a challenge. Most of our kids are really happy to have us step up to the plate and coach and, despite the time we give up, most parents find the experience equally rewarding. However, there are some major things that every coach needs to do and understand before they start the season: 1) coach with the proper attitude; 2) coach with the proper fundamentals; and, 3) learn and teach the difference between the 'Dad Hat' and the 'Coach Hat'.

The 'Dad Hat' and the 'Coach Hat'

There is a huge difference between being a 'Dad' and being a 'Coach'. Each has different responsibilities and relationships with the kids. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of overlap between the two roles. I literally have two hats: one says 'Dad' and the other says 'Coach'. Over the years, my kids and I have learned to separate the two so I don't wear the hats too often, but it does make the distinction more literal. Coaching your own children is one of the real challenges of youth sports because sometimes, you child wants or expects to have a dad when you're the team's coach. If you can separate these roles, and both of your expectations, you and your child will have a much better youth sports experience.

Ken coaches youth football, basketball and baseball. He also serves on the local little league board of directors as well as the Park Advisory Board.

Check back next week for another great artiching that will help your coaching abilitiy.

Coaching the Right Fundamentals - The Youth Sports Coach

Kids of any age can learn to do things properly. They may not have the motor skills developed yet, but they can at least try to do it right. One of my favorite misconceptions is that 'practice makes perfect'. That's totally wrong; practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes PERMANENT. What I try to teach is: 'Perfect Practice Makes Permanently Perfect'. That's a pretty big difference!

Of course, this really changes things for a youth coach because we need to teach the correct fundamentals or we'll simply be reinforcing the bad habits kids develop. The hardest thing to do as a coach is to try and correct a flaw that a kid has developed over years of 'practice'. This is even harder when the kid is good, because correcting the fundamental flaw generally means that getting worse before getting better. That means the kid is going to be reluctant to try this 'new' way and may not stick it out. In the long run, the difference could be huge. While we've already acknowledged that that we're not developing professional athletes, there is no reason to limit the ceiling on how well each child may develop.

The solution is simple: we need to learn the right fundamentals before we start coaching. It's a responsibility that we accept when we volunteer to coach. Now, up front, I want to make sure to state that most of us think we know much more about sports than we really do. We think that because we played and we were pretty good that we clearly know how to teach a kid to play baseball or basketball. That's simply not true. Much of what we learned was wrong. We may also not know the right way to communicate what we know to kids. Or, we may not know anything about the sport if we're stepping in and coaching soccer or another sport that wasn't 'big' when we were young.

Fortunately, there is help. Many leagues do a good job teaching their coaches the fundamentals of the game. Some leagues even offer mandatory coaching clinics for their coaches. These are really good starts, but generally not enough ' especially as the kids you coach get older and better. Before every season that I coach, I'll watch several instructional tapes to review the fundamentals and also learn new material. I re-watch tapes, often with my kids that we've seen before and buy a couple of new ones to add some wrinkles. Of course, at SportsKids.com, we do offer 1,000's of instructional books and videos, but the point of this section is to simply say to use whatever method you choose to make sure that you teach correct fundamentals. Every kid, even young kids, can learn with good coaching and remember: 'Practice makes Permanent'.

Check back next week for the final part of this great coaching article.