Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Sam Snow
Gary Williamson, Technical Director for North Texas State Soccer
sent this article to me. My initial response to Gary: "Nice article…not news to us since we’ve taken this approach since the mid 1990’s. Good to see the rest of the world catching up to soccer in America!" Perhaps a bit patriotic, but we do indeed do some very good things in soccer in our nation.
Never-the-less as I read the article these connections seemed clear to me.
1. This approach is similar to the one espoused by Horst Wein (2005 US Youth Soccer Workshop presenter).
2. Coach Wein’s approach seems to be in the same vein as what is taught in the National Youth License devised by Fleck, Quinn, Carr, Stringfield and Buren.
3. All three approaches have a common root in the Teaching Games for Understanding approach developed by Almond, Bunker and Thorpe. Rod Thorpe was a presenter at the 2005 US Youth Soccer Workshop.
4. I draw the conclusion that we are ahead of the curve. While we should be proud of that fact we have not penetrated this coaching philosophy and methodology deeply into grassroots soccer. We have had success, yes. But we should be further along after 15 years of work. How do we impact on a much, much broader basis the coaches, administrators, parents and referees engaged with players in Zone 1 in the U.S. Soccer Player Development Pyramid?