SoccerOffside: Fixing Canadian Soccer - Coaching the coaches

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Many of you have commented on the suggestions made in my previous blog regarding player development. The regional system that I put forward evolved from the current system of player development, whereby the provincial associations would play a central role in the coaching and training of players at the regional level.

Many of you have also expressed a frustration with the governing bodies in Canada, both provincial and national, citing a lack of faith in their ability to effectively administer such a program. So before I discuss coaching, I'm going to put forward another suggestion for player development.

This plan would involve the following:

1) Scrapping the provincial and regional development programs.
2) Implementing an academy system across the country, whereby player development would be the responsibility of the clubs who meet the academy criteria.

Initiating an academy system from scratch is not without precedent. In the fall of 2007, the United States Soccer Federation, or USSF, implemented an academy system in order to improve their ability to develop elite players. There are currently 79 academies spread out over the United States.

Countries around the world with professional leagues in place rely on their professional clubs' academies to develop players to represent them in international play. Very few countries around the world rely on their governing bodies to develop players, as we do in Canada.

Unfortunately, we only have three professional clubs in Canada. Despite how well the academies appear to be developing in Vancouver and Toronto, clearly it is not enough. If we were to go down the same road as the USSF, we would have to allow youth clubs the opportunity to apply for academy status. This status would have to be granted based on an established set of criteria.

So what sort of criteria would be put in place in order to grant a club academy status? Looking at the USSF academy system would be a good place to start:

1) Train a minimum of three days per week, with at least one rest day per week.
2) Academy teams play only in the academy league. No other tournaments or state (provincial) championships take place.
3) Minimum coaching standards in place for all academy teams, as per the USSF guidelines.

At the moment, the USSF academies currently develop players from the ages of 13-17, and they compete in two age categories, U-16 and U-18. The USSF provides a core curriculum for training that the academies follow, as well as a schedule for the academy league games.

What I like about the academy system is that it places the focus on training, rather than on playing games, with a training-to-game ratio of 3-to-1. Training is where you improve your technical and tactical ability, and games are where you put what you have learned into practice and develop consistency.

The academy league ensures that players are getting meaningful competition. Far too many coaches and parents have told me that their players and children only have a handful of decent games over the course of a season. The current club system favours games over training as well, and this is something that we urgently need to reverse.

The USSF also uses the academy league to scout players for the U.S. national youth teams. Rather than relying on their Olympic Development Program, or ODP, the USSF scouts every academy team game, creating a database of reports on all of the players involved.

Scouting players when they are playing for their academy teams allows the scouts to make a more accurate assessment of a player's ability, because they are playing alongside players with whom they are familiar, rather than alongside strangers in a national team training camp.

The academy system is not without its flaws, however.

There is a considerable financial commitment needed from the players to cover the costs of coaching, training facilities and travelling. Some academies offset those costs through fundraising and corporate sponsorship, but the average academy player in the U.S. still pays around $4000 per year.

There are also question marks around the regional aspect of the academy system. What do you do to ensure that every region of the country has at least one academy? How do you keep travelling costs to a minimum if there aren't numerous academies within a reasonable distance for academy league games? These are all issues that need to be addressed.

Coaching, however, is one of the strengths of the USSF academy system. It isn't enough for the academy coaches to simply have the qualifications to do the job; the academy system also provides them with assessment and evaluation from national team coaches and scouts.

Coaches are no different to players; they need to continually improve and adapt to changes in the game. We can talk about implementing minimum coaching standards, which in Canada has already been done in many provinces, but unless there is an assessment involved, there is no way to have effective control over the standard of coaching.

The community coaching certification, for example, is attendance-based; if you show up for the course, you get your certification. Even if it is mandated that all coaches must have that certification, there is no assessment involved at that level. There is no way to determine whether the coaches being certified are capable of coaching the game effectively.

Volunteer coaches are absolutely essential to the growth of the game in our country. Without those selfless individuals, we would not have organized soccer in Canada. Having said that, it is imperative that we do all we can to educate those coaches and improve their ability to teach our young players the fundamentals of the game.

If we were to adopt an academy system such as the one currently being used by the USSF, where the clubs take on the responsibility of player development, the provincial associations could then focus their energy and resources on coaching development.

Although it is vitally important that we become better at developing talented players, it is equally important that we become better at developing coaching talent as well. Having a coaching badge is a start, but there also needs to be an understanding on the coach's part of how to develop players, and the process that is involved in that at various age levels.

The Canadian Soccer Association and the provincial associations could jointly meet this important responsibility. It would require a unified approach to coaching education and training, led by the CSA and followed by the provinces. If that were to occur and we could improve the standard of coaching across the country, we would certainly be moving in the right direction.

So what do you think? Should we allow the provinces to continue to oversee player development, or should we look to implement an academy system similar to the one south of the border? The academy system has its flaws, but it would allow the provincial associations to focus more of their time on developing better coaches.

As always, your thoughts and suggestions are very much appreciated.

Here is the schedule for upcoming blog topics:
May 11 - Training and Competition
May 18 - Who's in Charge?
May 25 - Getting to the World Cup

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