#139 The Transition to the Spring Outdoor Season

We had our first outdoor tournament last weekend. I like this tournament because it gives my teams three or four quick games before the season starts. The weather was really cold the week before so we weren’t able to train much. Two of my teams didn’t practice at all. I had all four of my teams in the tournament. Three made the final. That meant that I had 16 games over three days. I’m just now recovering from the long weekend. All talk more about how the weekend went later in the episode. This week’s question comes from Devon. He’s asking about developmental benchmarks Devon says, “I was wondering if you could give me an idea, from your clubs standpoint, what you look for in the development of your players from U10 up until High School. What Level of Technical and Tactical ability do you want them to have when they are done with U10, then where they should be after U11, and so on. ” Thanks for the question Devon! Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for Devon. Our club hasn’t set those benchmarks. Should we, probably because, “What gets measured gets done.” Devon has pointed out a whole in our planning that I don’t think we’re alone in having. How many clubs or individual coaches have sat down and identified what they want their players to be able to do at each stage of their development. My guess is not many. If you’ve done this kind of planning I’d love to hear about how you went about putting it together. In This Episode Today I’m looking at the transition from winter indoor to spring outdoor. I’ll talk about my plan for training, leagues and tournaments and I’ll discuss how this season will be different from our fall season outdoor season and how my different teams are adapting to the change. Remember Be sure to subscribe to the show through Apple Music, Google Play or wherever you listen to podcasts. Then you’ll be able to listen to the latest episode as soon as it’s released. While you’re there, please take a moment to give the show a ranking and review. It helps keep the show at the top of the listings for Soccer and Soccer Coaching podcasts so that it’s easy for coaches to find and I’d really appreciate it. Future Episodes I haven’t settled on a topic for next week’s podcast so you’ll just have to tune in to find out.