By Mike Woitalla
Part of this I found amusing as I reffed 8-year-old boys whose coach had them wear scrimmage bibs on the sideline like they do in the pros.
When hesubbed, the boys often ran onto the field forgetting they had the pinnies on. For some, taking the bibs off looked more complicated than Rubik’s Cube as they tangled themselves up — whileeveryone else waited for the restart.
But besides the pinnie problem, both teams were subbing about every five minutes. Also happening, and I see this all the time: Team A subs a coupleplayers. A minute later or less — Team B subs. You can end up having 20 to 30 sub breaks in a 50- or 60-minute game.
When the U.S. Soccer Development Academy announced its expansion to U-12s it also revealed its substitution guidelines for that agelevel — and they make a lot of sense. They were borne out of the idea that “less frequent interruptions benefit player development.” They are, for 60-minute games:
• Targetsubstitutions for the 15-minute mark, halftime, and the 45-minute mark.
• Teams sub simultaneously. (Opposing coaches are encouraged to communicate with each other to set up thesubbing.)
Coaches may sub at other times if they really need to, such as for an injury or discipline issue. But the aim is clear: It’s important that children get, “Extended,uninterrupted periods of playing time,” says Tony Lepore, U.S. Soccer’s Director of Scouting.
I’m not at all advocating that strict rules on subbing aremandated for the young age groups, just that coaches keep these guidelines in mind, because soccer for kids is more fun, and they learn more, when adults don’t constantly disrupt the play.
Subbing at the quarter marks during a game provides enough opportunities to make player changes needed to, for example, spread out playing time.
“Many volunteer coaches don’thave experience with soccer and they pull tactics from other American sports,” Lepore says. “They manage and coach the game of soccer like other American sports — hockey, or basketball,or American football — in ways that don’t apply to soccer.
“In fact, [frequent subbing] takes away the opportunity for our youngest players to play real soccer. It contributes tofrantic play. To a straightforward style. On top of it, with constant stoppages, the games have no flow, no pace, and it puts us behind as a nation, especially when it comes to what kind of players wewant to produce — imaginative, creative, technically comfortable.”
One reason coaches say they like to sub frequently is because they want to pull a kid off the field to give advice.I’ve even seen coaches sub young players because they made what the coached perceived to be a mistake.
“We want people to see training as ‘classroom’ and instructiontime, and game day is the time for players to apply what they learned in training. And you need extended periods of playing for that,” says Lepore. “And halftime is a perfect instruction time.Or after a scheduled substitution. … And part of learning is making mistakes — a more guided-discovery approach.”
As far as subbing constantly in hopes of some tactical edge,Lepore says the focus at the early ages should not be on getting the desired result for the team, but on individual player development.
“It’s really simple in the end, isn’tit? In order to get better at playing, you need to play — for extended, uninterrupted periods,” he says.
Nice article. I have been away from youth soccer for quite awhile, but it is hard for me to believe “many volunteer coaches” could be so clueless about U-Littles playing small-sided games.
AYSO rules anticipated the US Soccer guidelines for years, such that one might even infer that US Soccer has learned from the AY experience.
Yes seen that many times, think it’s also coaches that are not orgenized properly, to have set times when to sub players, the general rule is every player play 30 minutes or 50% of a game.If you don’t have that pre planned then it get confusing for coach when and who is getting subbed.I do see this scenario fairly often. If a team have no sub or 1 sub, the other team coach with many subs especially in second half sub all the time to get fresh legs in and wear the other team down.But usually that is in a bit older teams.
I noticed that on especially out side backs get new forwards on them constantly to wear the wing backs down. And it works if the wing backs don’t have any subs to releave them.But on the young teams they should focus on playing time not coaches getting an advantage by subbing.
“They manage and coach the game of soccer like other American sports — hockey, or basketball, or American football — in ways that don’t apply to soccer.” Why? Why does it not apply to soccer? Those sports make frequent substitutions so that players are fresh and capable of performing at their highest level. Are you really arguing that soccer is better when the players are too tired to play at a faster pace? Absurd!!
“In fact, [frequent subbing] takes away the opportunity for our youngest players to play real soccer. It contributes to frantic play. To a straightforward style. On top of it, with constant stoppages, the games have no flow, no pace” And this is proof that this complaint is fed by negative perceptions of American sports. While it is true that world football only allows three subs, and that this rule effects the game, it doesn’t follow from this that this way of playing is somehow better or even “real soccer.” And what is wrong with “frantic” play? Is less attractive then tired players walking up and down the field until the game drags into a draw, or worse, PK’s.
I do agree that subbing kids out every five minutes is not good for player development but I don’t agree that restrictions are the remedy. I sub my U13’s and U14’s at 10-minute intervals (we play 35 minute halves), which works out to three shifts each half (no sub happens immediately so if I put them at the mid-line at the 10 minute mark they may not sub until 13 or 14 minutes). With a roster of 16, this allows me give each player 2/3 of a game. If you do it by quarters with a 16-player roster, half of the team would play one quarter while the other half played the entire period (with a GK). Doing it by quarters is as short-sighted as subbing every 5 minutes.
Faster play does not equal better play. Coaches with little exposure to soccer tend to tactically substitute players (ie near the attacking 3rd, or to slow down play to “win”). These subs only benefit the coach and his winning record, not players and their development. Good coaches train their players AND THEIR PARENTS to learn a skill during the week and demonstrate it at the weekend. Bad coaches scream at their players, the opposing players, the opposing coach and the referee, they know nothing of development and are ruining the sport. And in case anyone was paying attention, they’re multiplying exponentially.
The moment I read that a coach had 8 year olds wearing scrimmage bibs made me realize that that coach is clueless. This is pretty much a non-issue at most levels. AYSO has substitutions by quarters, and I have never seen a club coach do something as silly as this. I wouldn’t worry about this too much.
Soccer is very different. Soccer is a 90 minute game with a 30 minute overtime. No time outs. Used to be no coaching from the sidelines and no substitutions. Now limited coaching and substitutions are allowed, but no repeated in-and-out privileges. In teaching kids how to play it is a mistake in the long term to teach them special tactics that are designed to win youth matches instead of teaching them fundamentals. Youth substitution rules and length of game rules are an accommodation, not the point of the game. While players are supposed to be playing hard to win the matches, the youth coaches objective should be long-term player development rather than winning youth matches. So teach kids how to dribble, strike, and control the ball and teach them the principles of play, but don’t waste their time learning tactics that they will never use when they are older.
Its about tempo and pace. Players figure things out during the game. The game requires a player to get many chances to do well and sometimes be brilliant. But many times it takes minutes on the pitch. If a player is subbed in and out in and out they come in anxious and constantly thinking about when they will be coming out.
On a coach doing the bibs maybe to help him to remember who has not played so far in the game.On players coming on and off the field every 5 minutes dumb. They are off before they can get themselves into the flow of the game. This is not hockey we don’t sub in lines of players.AYSO is rec but subbing every quarter seems ok to me.When I first started to coach a club youth team I was replacing a coach who was dying of cancer.The guy that ran the club chose me because I was a current player on their adult team. Plus I loved being on the practice field even when we were not practicing. He saw me helping the little guys with their game.I really did not know his players. So he told me about him. He told me who were his starters. I asked him how much time did he give his subs. He told me 5 minutes I was shocked by that.Because of that you could not get the subs for practice. Unless I picked them up myself in my car. Terrible situation
This is a perfect example of where trying to apply an adult approach to the game fails the kids you are trying to develop into the game (If the pros do it, it must be good for the kids!). This is a complaint about a U8 game. Generally there are requirements for equal playing time, the game is shortened U8s play 40 minute games (two 20 minute halves), there are fewer kids on the pitch–which are going to trend to timed subs. Probably the best way to deal with this is to allow running subs like in indoor soccer–another is to allow both teams to sub. As they progress in age you can add more subbing requirements. But please back off on the requirements for more structure at the younger ages. There are a lot of question marks on how we develop players–but subbing at U8 is not one of them.
Amen to that. Any kid 8 and under shouldn’t be sitting for 10-15 minutes. They complete lose their attention span as well as cool down physically.
I think it also depends how many are subbed and if it’s done fairly. In a 70-minute game (U13), it’s too disruptive if there are many subs (4-6 at once). But if just 1 is subbed every 7 min., everyone plays longer without interruption than if a player is subbed for 15-18 min; and all 10 field players sub off once. With 2 subs at a time, each player is out briefly for just 7 min. each half. Also, with longer subbing periods, it’s a problem if certain players are regularly sitting out half a game while others stay on all the time. It’s too unbalanced and doesn’t help either teamwork or players’ development (esp. for the ones sitting out).