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Player Development Guidelines

In order to assure the continued progressive development of our players, we have developed a curriculum and a separate set of player development guidelines to help us deliver inline with our training philosophy.

As players and teams climb up the competitive ladder, a noticeable obstacle for all players and teams is the decrease of “time and space.” Players will have less time on the ball and less space to operate as the competitiveness of the opponent increases. This means that our players will have to execute skills and think faster. This can only be developed through repetitive training in a highly competitive environment.

We encourage our players to remain focused on thinking through problems.

Outline of PTSA's player developmental curriculum:

U7-U10

  •  technical (strong emphasis)
  •  small-sided games
  • Core developmental goals include:
    • Introduction to individual foot skills, 1v1 attacking moves & fundamentals;
    • Enhancement of the player’s love and excitement for soccer.
    • Development of field awareness and problem solving through a variety of fun small sided games.
    • Strong emphasis on 1v1 attacking.

U11-U12

  • technical (strong emphasis)
  • small sided games
  • Core developmental goals include:
    • Improve the proficiency and speed at which players execute individual foot skills, 1v1 attacking moves and fundamentals (passing & receiving, shooting, shielding); concentration on pushing players to the next level of execution (speed and precision);
    • Continued enhancement of player’s love and excitement for soccer;
    • Combination play;
    • Introduction to basic group tactics; and
    • Increased attention to ball striking and 1v1 attacking.

U13-U14

  • technical (abbreviated)
  • small sided games / tactical
  • Core developmental goals include:
    • Increased emphasis on individual dynamics on the ball;
    • Increased attention to the “air game”;
    • Technique, purpose and direction of first touch;
    • Playing with your back to pressure;
    • 3 player combination play;
    • Further development of group tactics and positional play;
    • Introduction to various systems of play;
    • Increased attention to maintaining group possession of the ball and initiating runs “off” of the ball;
    • Checking and getting free of defenders; and
    • Significant attention added to ball striking.

U15-U18

  • technical (abbreviated)
  • tactical
  • Core developmental goals include:
    • Speed and precision of execution of fundamentals;
    • Speed of thought;
    • Efficiency of decision making & choice selection;
    • Enhancement of physical abilities (speed, strength, agility, stamina);
    • Ability to retain ball possession under increased pressure;
    • Ball striking over distances;
    • Take the “air game” to the next level;
    • Increase the intensity and success of defending (individually & team);
    • Players to become more mature in accepting responsibility for performance;
    • Bring out the personalities of the players to influence match results;
    • Exposure to highest levels of play.
    • Improve each player’s ability to “split focus” between multiple tasks);
    • Improve offensive build up play from the goalkeeper, backline through the midfield;
    • Improve offensive play from the midfield forward;
    • Improve team’s ability to bypass the midfield;
    • Improve each player’s ability to read visual cues and communicate;
  • Situational training include all dead ball situations.