Bearspaw FC - Development Philosophy
I'm quite often asked about what our development philosophy is for our players, so I thought I'd take some time to best explain why we do what we do and how we hope it works for our players!
A Development Philosophy for a whole club is hard to define in just a few short words. We have players from 2 years old to 12 years old, with a broad range of experience and skill levels. What may be the target for a certain age, isn't necessarily the focus of another!
With the recent success of the Canadian Women's Team at the 2012 Olympics as well as the Canadian Men's National Team's failure to advance in World Cup Qualifying, there has been a lot of talk of the Canadian Soccer Long Term Development Plan and whether or not it's working. The plan was introduced a few years ago and having coached at different levels in that time, I have seen certain coaches try to implement the plan, whereas others have no interest in it. While not a perfect plan (in my opinion), it definitely does start to address some of the shortcomings in the Canadian game.
Here's how we at Bearspaw FC see our role in developing players:
1. Developing a love for the game - In the hyper-competitive world of Calgary soccer, most times winning trumps all else. Player development is gauged by results and the enjoyment of playing is replaced with the pressure to win. Results=Development. The problem is that this ignores why we all started in the game in the first place. I coach soccer for a living and feel extremely lucky to do so. When I started playing at 3 years old, it wasn't with any dreams of playing professionally, winning trophies or making a career out of it. It was for fun! This is something we're trying to emphasize at the youngest levels of our program. Have fun and you'll keep coming back! If you keep coming back, you'll spend more time playing soccer, and naturally you'll get better at it!
2. Individual Development - We want to see our players developing skill all the time! Being a team game, it's often easy for a player to get a little lost in the shuffle during a game. Practices and Training are where we develop skills, games are to display them!
3. Proper Coaching - With our program, we utilize coaches who have played the game and who having coaching certificates and licenses to teach the game. We also encourage any people who are interested in coaching to volunteer and we'll assist them through these certification programs!
4. Winning isn't everything - Do we like to win? Of course we do. Is it the most important thing? No!!!! You'll hear us emphasize the 'E' word over anything else when we are coaching. Effort. Did you put in your best effort? I know that many times coaching and playing, I've learned a lot more from a loss and felt more pride from a hard fought defeat than I have from a win!
5. Commitment - There's no magic formula for success. Our mantra is that if players put in the time and effort, we will help them become better players. There isn't a program out there that can transform a beginner to an expert in a few weeks, but with hard work and time, we feel that we will help all players improve and more importantly have fun!
6. Goal Setting - We do establish goals for our players on an individual level, but those goals are tailored towards the individual. There isn't a set baseline for 7 year olds or 10 year olds. Kids develop at different ages and at different speeds. Some have natural ability, some have to work harder at it. Our ultimate gauge of success will be if we see our 6 year olds playing in 10 years time and if they love the game!
Hopefully all the above made sense! As a new club (but with plenty of past experience!) we're trying to forge a new road for ourselves. One where we combine fun, development and a love of the game into our players' lives. If we can do that, the success will follow!
If you have any questions or comments, please reach me at bearspawsoccer@gmail.com
-Andy
