The Golden Age of Learning: NorCal Introduces New Coaching Clinics to Drive Development

According to various academic studies on the matter, including those cited by US Soccer and several other national federations, the most important time for kids to refine their athletic skills comes from the ages of 8-11, a time when many are just starting to participate in club soccer activities.

Because this developmental age comes so early, NorCal believes it’s paramount for coaches at the youngest age groups to be able to give their players the best possible opportunities to improve their touch and ability on the ball, all while developing motor skills.

This is why the NorCal PDP staff, led by PDP Director Benjamin Ziemer, Assistant Director Justin Selander, NorCal Technical Programs Coordinator Jovan Yamagishi, and NorCal Technical Programs Manager David Robertson have begun hosting a new series of coaching education opportunities titled, “U9-U12 Regional Coaching Clinics: The Golden Ages of Learning.”

So far, the four have led six clinics, covering each of NorCal’s regions in the process. During the sessions, Selander and Yamagishi have led example exercises featuring that particular age group, while dozens of coaches have watched and been able to discuss the rationale, objectives, and outcomes of each session with NorCal PDP staff.

“We started these clinics because our membership told us that while it’s great to bring in high caliber international clinicians via the NorCal Coaching Symposium, that we still needed to focus more on grassroots development, something that caters towards the U9-U12 coaches,” Yamagishi said. “That got the PDP staff thinking about how we could bounce around different regions to provide different exercises and sessions covering best practices of coaching at that level.”

These first few sessions have focused on developing ball skills by having each player work on their abilities with an individual ball to improve juggling, dribbling and coordination.

Much of the curriculum has drawn inspiration from the exercises featured at some of the top youth academies in the world such as ACF Fiorentina, as well as the practical knowledge learned from years of education and implantation by the PDP staff.

“While a lot of what we’re teaching is basics, we want to shed light on the execution of how to engage kids at this age to really nurture their love of the ball,” Yamagishi said. “We often think about the game as the whole, but first it’s all about the ball, we want them to love the ball.”

Added Selander: “We have a lot of good ideas about how to train coordinative abilities and attach them to technical skills in soccer. We want to help coaches identify the nine technical skills of the game and then connect the nine ways that kids learn how to build coordination, through those nine abilities like balance, rhythm, anticipation, reaction, ect..”

Additionally, because many kids are now deciding to specialize in soccer at younger and younger ages, they are missing out on developing some of the motor and coordination skills that they would have gotten by participating in multiple sports.

“A lot of it is based on our experience with the Fiorentina method and (Former Fiorentina Technical Director and Current AC Milan Technical Director) Professor Vincenzo Vergine,” Selander said. “This is the base of how you can structure the foundation of building players. How to give examples of how to train the optical nerve and proprioceptors–specialized sensory in the muscles and joints and tendons that provide the brain with subconscious information about your body’s movement. Stimulating those are important pieces to developing the brain and how it’s connected to movement.”

According to Yamagishi, many of the players are comfortable with the ball when it’s played on the ground, but struggle in other circumstances.

“When they look and see the ball in the air, their eyes are full of fear,” he said.

So far the feedback regarding the clinics has been positive, leading NorCal to schedule six further sessions over the course of the next three months, with potentially more coming after March should the demand dictate it. Preliminary discussions are also being held to expand the program to include older age groups as well.

But for now, the goal is to help improve the technique and coordination of the youngest age group players so that the best arrive at their first regional PDP camps prepared.

“Our kids are missing out on the fundamentals like dribbling with their head up, passing and receiving while scanning,” Yamagishi said. “We want to correct that, but also invite coaches to be detailed in their coaching from an early age so that the kids develop good habits when they make their way up to regional PDP.”

Added Selander: “We’re trying to encourage coaches to have a better idea of how to teach their players certain things in the game, structure, coaching interactions and point, how to progress an exercise, and certain ways of layering those on top of each other to add more numbers and pressure. We also want to help the coaches improve their energy, organization, and their ability to know when and how to interact with the players. We want to have an engaging conversation where they’re asking a lot of questions. If they want to see certain things, we can show them how we do it.”

For more information, including a list of upcoming courses, click here. Coaches who want to request that NorCal host another clinic in their area can fill out that request here.