By Tim Bradbury, Director of Coaching Instruction, Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association
I was recently asked by Sam Snow, the Technical Director for the United States Youth Soccer Association, to prepare a seminar presentation for the upcoming National Convention on all aspects of the educational concept of “Developmentally Appropriate” teaching. At first glance, it seemed a straightforward and simple enough idea to tackle and present upon. I should have realized that the onion effect would apply and sure enough it has.
The phrase "developmentally appropriate" has become one of the buzz phrases within coaching education courses over the last two years. It is a phrase often thrown around and used in promotional literature to entice players and parents to jump in on the next great opportunity. It is sadly a phrase that few fully understand and one that even less attempt to adhere to and make a corner stone of their coaching programs.
So what is developmentally appropriate coaching and why must all coaches and parents be acutely aware of what it is and why our players must be immersed in sessions that satisfy the basic criteria that make a session truly developmentally appreciate?
The dictionary definition of the phrase reads as follows:
“A simple definition of developmentally appropriate practices would be a setting and curriculum that meets the cognitive, emotional and physical needs of children based upon child development theories and observations of children's individual strengths and weaknesses.”
So at first glance for a training session to be developmentally appropriate it would need to meet the following criteria:
1. Cognitive demands – problems posed and solutions available fit the cognitive development of the child (for example 5-year-old players cannot deal with anything bigger than 3v3 – to many decisions and problems to deal with.
2. Physical demands – the physical loads and duration of activities within the session should be a suited to the physical growth of the players (for example 7 year old players can not physically deal with the 11v11 field).
3. Social demands – part of the game is to cooperate, communicate and work in small groups or as a big unit. Young players of the ages of seven and eight can communicate with one or two people well, yet they struggle with the social skills needed to prosper within a big group.
4. Rhythm of rest and play – periodization. Good sessions take place within the context of a season and the other sports kids play. If a middle school player has just come from a 2-hour middle school game they should not be involved in a session which involves high levels of fitness.
5. Learning styles – a good coach is acutely aware of the learning styles of the players he deals with and therefore tailor-makes all explanations and coaching points in a manner which ensures all players are able to get the point.
6. Mixed Ability tasks – every team has players at different developmental points. Often sessions which just have core regimented drills than cannot be adjusted to challenge all in different ways simply mean that the bottom and top players within the group are either bored or frustrated that they cannot perform the task.
7. Have a coach that is skilled in guided discovery and the art of questioning—developmentally appropriate sessions help players think and evolve their understanding of the game. The use of high and low order questions in helping players think is a vital skill and one that needs practice and a great deal of thought. Sessions must not be full of drills and orders which the players blindly follow while their brain wanders off.
8. Emotional demands – youth players like to compete, be challenged, learn and master new skills and get positive reinforcement of efforts put forth. They do not like hollow praise or being berated. Effective youth coaches manage to ensure that all players leave a practice feeling as though they pushed themselves and that their effort was recognized.
In reading the above what should be abundantly clear is that designing and running developmentally appropriate sessions requires great thought, effort and considerable skill.
It is impossible to write on this topic and not consider game day and apply the same “developmentally appropriate logic” to that scenario. Try this, close your eyes and spend a minute thinking about all the things that you see each week that are making game day completely inappropriate and a negative experience for many.
Good – now compare the list you came up with against the list below:
• Coaches shouting and giving orders so players cannot think.
• Parents shouting and giving orders so players cannot think.
• Field sizes and numbers of players on the field that mean they rarely touch the ball.
• Goals that are so big that the GK could only touch the bar with a ladder.
• Formations and playing styles that mean it is impossible to develop combined with the fact that as soon as they get the ball they are encouraged to launch it forward.
• Emotional needs of the players: How is it possible for players to feel good about game day when all the points above are undeniably true? Their emotional tanks are empty and we continue to pour on the misery.
Please do all you can whether be your parent or coach to ensure that your players get to play in developmentally appropriate sessions – at last a buzz phrase with merit that we all need to understand.