#439 – What Does It Actually Take to Develop a Soccer Player? (Part One)

When people talk about player development, the conversation usually centers around four areas: technical, tactical, physical, and psychological.

But what actually develops those qualities?

That question leads us to five major components of player development: the structured club training environment, the household and family, playing on your own, pickup soccer, and personal training.

In Part 1, we focus primarily on the first three.

We start with the structured club environment and one of the most difficult questions for any soccer parent to answer: How do you know if your kid actually has a good coach?

Licenses, playing experience, professional credentials, and even winning records can all be misleading. We discuss why the quality of the coach matters so much, why possession football can be an important signal, and why evaluating the coach, teammates, and individual player together is necessary when deciding whether an environment is good enough.

That naturally leads into club hopping. When should a player stay and fight through a difficult situation? When is leaving justified? And what happens when a parent continually moves their kid in search of better teammates, more playing time, or a winning team?

From there, we move into an influence that receives far less attention: the household.

Parents have tremendous influence over the trajectory of a player. Discipline, commitment, resilience, accountability, the advice a kid receives, and even something as simple as having football constantly playing in the home can all contribute to development.

We also get into the multi-sport debate and put it in a specific context: if the objective is becoming a professional soccer player, how should a young player allocate their time?

Finally, we break down playing on your own.

Juggling, wall work, repetition, experimentation, and simply spending time alone with the ball provide opportunities that don’t exist in the team environment. But being able to juggle a ball 1,000 times doesn’t make someone a great soccer player either. The important question is understanding what these activities actually develop and where they fit into the larger picture.

There is no magic formula for developing a great player. The weight of each component will vary, but neglecting any one of them can put a player at a significant disadvantage.

00:00 Intro
03:13 The Five Components of Player Development
10:01 Do the Five Components Cover All Areas of a Complete Player?
11:40 The Structured Club Training Influence
12:14 Why the Quality of the Coach Matters Most
14:19 How Do You Know If Your Coach Is Good?
20:25 Good Coach or Good Players: Which Is More Important?
22:59 What Age Should Coaches Start Teaching Possession?
26:13 Club Hopping: Is It Bad?
34:28 The Household Influence
36:13 Advice for Parents: Stop Making Excuses for Your Kids
38:53 Where Do You Draw the Line?
39:35 Sergio Agüero’s Dad
41:01 Demis Hassabis
44:27 Instilling Discipline
46:26 The Importance of Watching Soccer With Your Kid at Home
49:06 Is There a Benefit to Playing Multiple Sports?
53:53 The Playing on Your Own Component
55:51 What Is the Value of Juggling?
01:03:50 Which Is the Most Important Component of Player Development?

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