In today’s club system it seems like every club has a different system or philosophical approach to player development. Some focus on the technical development model in which they create aggressive, attacking players who have great “foot skills and confidence” taking players on 1v1. Other clubs focus on recruiting fast, powerful players that excel in their “kick and run” style. These players seem to take advantage of tactical mistakes, countering with long balls played over the top, in which their players simply out run the opposition for easy finishing opportunities. And some clubs stick to a style based on “possession and ball control”, spreading teams out with fluid, rhythmic movement looking to take advantages of mismatches and seems in the defense.
This post is not meant to question these styles, and at the SoccerFIT Academy we feel that each model has it’s advantages. But from a youth player development perspective, we feel it is important to provide each player with a very broad and stable foundation that can fill in any developmental gaps created by a clubs tactical philosophy.
To provide a clearer picture as to what this might look like, we use our pyramid of soccer mastery model and lump players into 3 general categories:
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