USL News Release
Thursday, May 5, 2011
TAMPA, Fla. – United Soccer Leagues, the largest organization of elite-level soccer leagues in North America, is recommending to all of its Super Y-League clubs, technical directors, DOCs and coaches that they follow the new U.S. Soccer youth player development curriculum unveiled at the U.S. Soccer Player Development Summit last month in Oregon. U.S. Soccer Coaching Curriculum
USL National Technical Director Peter Mellor was invited by U.S. Soccer to participate in the summit, which was hosted by Nike in Beaverton, Oregon on April 19-21.
After spending much time traveling and studying youth player development in many soccer nations, U.S. Soccer Federation Technical Director Claudio Reyna has developed, written and released the comprehensive curriculum for youth player development. Reyna has been supported in the development of the curriculum by Dr. Javier Perez, who has worked at all levels of the game in Spain, England, Germany and France, as well as the U.S.
During the Summit Reyna continuously stressed the four main areas of the curriculum that coaches should concentrate on every day in their training and planning. He refers to these areas as the “four pillars.” They are (1) Development over winning; (2) Quality training sessions; (3) Age-appropriate training; (4) Have fun and inspire your players.
“USL would like to support the U.S. Soccer curriculum and strongly recommends that our USL club technical directors, DOCs and coaches implement as much of the curriculum as possible into their club development structure,” Mellor said. “I will always make the statement that ‘soccer is a game of opinions,’ however, this curriculum can offer a structure which can be complemented by a coach’s own coaching style and flavor!
“I also recommend that each club, when ready, share the curriculum with its parents so they can also see the structure and player development direction that our governing body, U.S. Soccer, has adopted and implemented. Sharing the curriculum with parents should help with parent education and understanding the player development process at all youth ages, from 6 to 18.”