US Youth Soccer’s development has adopted a new way of thinking about player development.  This information is based on our conviction that practiced activities and planned practice objectives over time produce better fundamentally skilled players, thus more fun for every player.

(a baseball player who can't hit the ball and strikes out at every at bat rarely fosters a long term enjoyment for playing the game) 

Youth development in three stages:

• Stage One: Ages 5, 6, 7 and 8.
• Stage Two: Ages 9, 10, 11 and 12.
• Stage Three: Ages 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Of course, every child is different. What is true for one ten year old may not be true for another, and there is a big difference between six year olds and eight year olds. But in this situation, we are content to speak in generalities.

Development stages:

Stage One (5-8)

Stage One is the introductory, exploratory stage for kids. They are meeting the ball and the game and the practice environment, literally “feeling their way” into soccer. The most important considerations for practice and games are freedom to move, positive encouragement, trial and error and fantasy. This is best accomplished by well organized, task specific practices and by small sided non-competitive games. Games at this stage are not necessarily typical soccer games but "games" of soccer that creates many many many ball touches that   incorporates in a fun way the specific targeted task.  

Stage one is where most of the basic fundamentals of soccer are gradually introduced. Practices should always be fun: stimulating, low-key, child-like, dynamic events. The central elements of every practice should be the natural curiosity and eagerness of the child... and the ball. The emphasis at practice: touching the ball, becoming “friends with the ball”, understanding how it moves and acts.  Developing the  fundamental skills will come latter on in stage two. 

There should be virtually no talk about tactics positions and no fitness work. No laps, or running without a ball, or calisthenics, etc.  There may be goalkeepers (if really necessary), but no goalkeeper training!

Stage Two (9-12)

For Stage Two, the primary emphasis, as always, is on fun and dynamic movement.  This is the time when players begin to develop the skills introduced at stage One.  Teaching technical development - mastery of the ball and the acquisition of skill - is vital at this age level. Repetition of “soccer movements,” small sided games, trial and error, and a patient, coherent introduction of basic tactical ideas should form the basis of practices.

Refining skills, absorbing soccer’s truths and solving soccer’s innumerable little problems are most important now. Still, at this stage, we should not be concerned with strength training and isolated fitness work, nor with elaborate tactical planning.

Towards the end of this stage, 11-a-side play comes in, as do heading and goalkeeper practice. It’s all about repetition and patient advancement as the player seeks to become all-round “soccer athlete.”

Stage Three (13-16)

In Stage Three, technical progress is still most important. But now, increasingly, the players have to learn to apply their skills, under pressure and quickly. Everything is still “with the ball,” but now soccer begins to become a little more abstract. There are more tactical lessons and more concentration on the organization of players on the field.

But even now, the critical elements are fun, dynamic movements and freedom of expression. The players are investigating all the positions, the different “climates” around the field and the endless tactical options of this free-flowing game.