How to play soccer...

Understand this first...

Youth soccer players in the US are at a disadvantage. They don't live in a soccer culture.  They get exposed to the game only when playing. For a great example....

What if I were to tell you to go play CRICKET....

Don't worry about learning the game or the skills, just go out and play. You would get your butt handed to you on a silver platter. However, if I told you to go play football, you would have a feel for the game even if you never played it, just because we live in a football culture.

US youth players MUST learn the skills first and we must teach them skills over and over until they become second nature.  They will learn the GAME by playing it. Skills are learned in training sessions, the game is learned by playing.

Here is a great example:

"In England, it is said that by the time a player reaches the age of 16, he must have fully mastered the skills, since from that time on, the game becomes increasingly tactical. In Argentina, many players reach this age of skill mastery at the age of 12. Here in the US, it may not be until the age of 20.

Nothing is more common than a player who is dominant at 10 but mediocre at 17. This is because at 10, kickball, speed, and muscle is king. So this dominant youth player and his coach thinks he does not need to work on skills. Next door, a little, scrawny kid, who gets outran and out-jumped every Saturday, is out in the back yard touching the ball. At 17, this player turns out to be far superior because he is a better player. The moral is, if you have good speed, strength, and size, you are a good athlete. But you are not a good player until you have skill."