The Administrator
Originally posted at:
http://bluesombrero.typepad.com/the_administrator/2008/02/stop-the-tourna.html
Stop the Tournaments
The Administrator welcomes its newest contributor Dr. Jay Martin. Dr. Martin has been the coach at Ohio Wesleyan
University for 31 years and has a record of 530-102-40 in that time. His teams have played in 28 NCAA Tournaments and
made it to the final four eight times. Martin is a past president of the NSCAA, an NSCAA Honor Award winner and currently
is the editor of the NSCAA magazine Soccer Journal. He can be reached at jamartin@owu.edu.
Too many games, little preparation and no training opportunities
By Jay Martin, Ph.D.
Tournaments, tournaments, tournaments. They are overwhelming youth soccer in this
country. Everyone wants to play in tournaments. Every soccer publication in this country lists pages of
tournaments for our children to attend! Every year the biggest decision a club team makes is "which
tournaments do we attend?" Most clubs have a person or three who do nothing but prepare for
tournaments.
Stop the tournaments, I want to get off.
Tournaments are hurting America's soccer playing youth.
Soccer tournaments started in this country as a way for clubs to raise funds to pay the bills. Great idea.
Clubs would sponsor a tournament early in a playing season or in the summer when league play was
suspended to make some cash. Now these tournaments rule youth soccer. It is now very important to
participate in these types of events. Many clubs recruit players based on the tournaments they attend.
Many coaches entice U-16's, U-17's and U-18's to their club by promising attendance at
tournaments where college coaches will attend. Many players (and their parents) choose a club solely
based on attendance and success in certain tournaments. Today, the main focus for teams, clubs,
parents and players is tournaments.
The weekly league game (or two) is secondary to tournaments. And maybe games are even eliminated
from the busy tournament schedule. In Central Ohio where club teams must participate in a sanctioned
league in order to be allowed to play in tournaments, some clubs have a team for the weekly league
(usually a weaker team) so the A team can compete in tournaments all over the country. If you don't
get into the tournaments of your choice? Change clubs or create your own tournament. It works. Try it.
These tournaments allow our soccer playing youth to play a variety of teams in a
variety of states all year long. But they are expensive. It costs the average family a weekend, car
mileage, hotel expense, entertainment for between games, food and video game money.
Why? Because everyone plays in tournaments. The kids will become better players. The college coaches
can see them play. Yes, everyone plays in tournaments – except youth teams in other soccer playing
countries.
The weekly game is the most important game in most other countries. The teams have one week of
training. One week of learning. One week to prepare for the game on Saturday or Sunday. The most
important aspect of learning the game happens in well-founded training programs. The habits
necessary to become a complete player are developed in training.
Training is important. Training is critical to the success of these soccer-playing nations.
Why is training important? It allows a supervised and progressive means to learn the
game, if done properly. It allows the player, coach and team to focus on the areas of the game that
will influence performance. What are those areas?





Fitness
Constant technical improvement
Improvement of tactical understanding based on problems in the previous game
Improvement of the mental aspects of the game by applying stress in the training situation in a
variety of situations
Team building
Do any of these things happen during a tournament? Not very likely. The very nature of tournaments
prevents this from happening.
Maybe in America we are uncomfortable with training. It is still a fact that some of our youth soccer
coaches still do not have the background in the game as a player to feel confident in the design and
execution of a training session. The obvious solution is play games. So, we play games and don't train.
Soccer teams in Germany, England, Holland, etc. do play in tournaments, but those tournaments are
usually during a holiday break or serve as an excuse to go to Madrid for a week. During the season it's
the league games that count. The entire focus is on the league game. Promotion, relegation and
rivalries all depend on the weekly game. Only in America do the players play in tournaments to collect
patches for their bags or to add a medal to their collection or to spend Memorial Day in Lexington, Ky.
Play, play, play. What happened to training?
Tournaments are killing soccer in this country. Young players can't learn how to play in these types of
situations. Everything about these tournaments is bad for the development of American soccer players.
Tournaments allow players and teams with slow pace or no pace to
succeed. Teams play three games in a 24-hour period and, if they are lucky, play two more and win a
trophy. Assuming we accept the fact that minimum recovery takes 24 hours, it is physically impossible
to play that many games in a short time. In a recent tournament in Central Ohio, for example, a U-18
team played at 4:45 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday night and at 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning. What can a
coach expect to get from the players in these games? Nothing. It's not possible to play soccer in these
situations. These tournaments breed Underwater Soccer. Nice and slow, no change of pace, no
defending.
Soccer is not meant to be played this way. Soccer is a game that is played when the player is
uncomfortable, when the player closes in on fatigue, when the player runs, works and defends for 90
minutes. The very early laws of the game of soccer stressed a physical component by not allowing a lot
of substitutions. Fitness is a part of the game. Ah, so you think there is a fitness component when
playing in a tournament? No, there isn't. There is an energy conservation component, not fitness.
American youth players stop running when they are uncomfortable. Since they're playing so many
games in a short weekend, they just don't run at all.
When the players try to move on to the next level (college), they are shocked to realize they cannot
make the team. They don't know how to play. They don't know how to run and they don't know how to
work. They don't know how to defend. They don't know what the physical aspect of soccer is all about.
They have never been taught what it takes to play this game at a high level.
Technical development in a tournament situation? No chance. The games do offer a variety of
opportunities to cultivate technical improvement, but because the games are so slow and there is very
little defending, the time and space available for players is not realistic for a real soccer game. In fact,
it's counterproductive. When a player does get into a "real game" where time and space are limited
he/she cannot play.
Tactical improvements? Don't look here. There is no time between games to either discuss any tactical
problems or work on them before the next game. If your team faces a "formation" or
"tactic" you haven't seen before, what do you do? Hope you don't see it again. As a rule, there is very
little teaching going on in regards to tactics in many clubs. The prevailing mentality is simply "find the
best players and let 'em play!" Not a bad strategy. But as players move on in their soccer career, an
understanding of tactics is very important. Even a constant teaching/review of 1 v. 1; 2 v. 1; 3 v. 2,
etc., is essential to complete the maturation of a soccer player. This tournament mentality does not
allow this teaching to take place.
A player who relies only on athletic ability without learning the game will hit a "soccer plateau" and not
get any better. This happens far too often in the United States. There is too much emphasis on the
athletic ability of a player at the expense of soccer ability. In addition, tactics are important in the
development of the whole team.
If you agree with Alan Wade that the most difficult aspect of coaching a soccer team is "getting all the
players on the same page," then you will agree that teaching tactics is very important. To accomplish
that, the team must have time to train together and learn about tactics after each game.
And the problems do not end there. The mental aspect of the game is lost. Soccer is a game where the
mental aspect is so very important. In fact we delight in selling the game as a players' game and as a
mental game. But we do nothing about it. No less an authority than former German international
Jurgen Klinnsman believes that working on the mental side of the game is lacking right now in soccer
all over the world. There is no mental preparation during tournaments at all. "If it's 2 o'clock it must be
Vardar. Let's go play." The young players do not learn that a warmup prepares you to play physically
and mentally. Rather they show up, perform some cursory warmup (or no warmup at all) and play. As a
result they simply go through the motions of the game and never get any better.
Preparation is important for the individual and for the team. The game of soccer is both physically and
mentally demanding. It is the responsibility of the coach to prepare for both. In tournaments
preparation does not happen.
Fields? Are you kidding? So many teams want to attend tournaments that most tournaments don't have
the space necessary to supply good fields. Fields are created on any space possible.
The grass is too long, the holes are too big, the field is too narrow and very bumpy. The fields create
problems with injuries and bad soccer. Narrow, bumpy, heavy fields are not the surface to learn how to
play. These fields contribute to a very direct style of play and don't allow for any creativity or any
positive dribbling. The fields at most tournaments are simply unplayable.
Officials? There is a shortage of officials all over this country. Any fall weekend will
see many officials working a high school game in the morning and a college game or two in the
afternoon and evening. As the hours on the job increase, the quality goes down. This is exactly what
happens with tournaments. Officials will do four, five or six games each day.
Officials have been known to eat lunch while working a line, and, how about that six o'clock game?
What can anyone expect from an official who has been on the field for six or eight hours? These long
hours for officials can cause real problems in tournaments.
Some parents and coaches argue that they "cannot get better" playing the same old teams, that
tournaments allow better competition. Every other league in every other country plays the same teams
each year. The concern for these teams is to make themselves better. There is very little concern
about who they play. The teams train hard all week to put what they learned on the field on the
weekend. They learn how to play the game systematically and with a sound progression.
Our "tournaments kids" miss out on a lot of necessary soccer information. Traveling eight hours to play
three games in 18 hours does not make a team better. Quality of competition is important, but the
quality of each team's effort each game is what counts in the end. The time spent traveling would be
better spent training at an intense level and preparing for the game on Saturday.
Some tournaments have addressed some of these problems. The Cincinnati Blue Chip Classic each April
allows each team to play only once each day. The teams play three games in three days. Not great, but
better than the usual five games in two or three days.
Recently adidas began an Elite Soccer Program (ESP), which brings some of the best male and female
soccer players to a site for five days of training and games. Each of these programs allows the players
to "be seen" by college coaches while playing only one game a day. The players have a chance to play
the game at a higher level than the weekend tournaments. The college coach can see if the kid has a
game. But these “new tournaments” come with their own problems.
The players attend these tournaments “to show”. They don’t care about the score, they care about
showing. After a big loss it is not unusual to hear on the sidelines, “Hey dad, how did I do? Did I show
well?” These types of tournaments promote selfish play and players who don’t care about the score. A
recent unscientific survey by Soccer Journal asked college coaches what were the problems with
incoming freshmen. Two of the top five responses said; 1) the players don’t know how to win; 2) the
players are selfish and don’t know how to play as a team. So even these tournaments cause real
problems with the players!
A tournament now and then is fine. It can be fun for the club, the players and the parents. Maybe they
can travel to some cities that are fun. A tournament can bring a team "together" and build some
morale. But too many tournaments will prevent the natural progression of learning that will take place
in well-organized and thoughtful training sessions… training sessions that use the last game as a
learning situation to build on and training sessions that prepare the team for the next opponent. The
old coaching expression that "the game is the best teacher" is not true. Games used as a laboratory and
supplemented by systematic and progressive training sessions are the best teacher.
Stop the tournaments!
The Administrator wants to know your thoughts on tournaments. Post a comment below, send an
email to Jon@bluesombrero.com, or call
404-835-0305
.
February 08, 2008 in Guest Author | Permalink
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Comments
A great perspective on the tournament craze and impossible to dispute. The next step is to figure
out HOW to stop the madness!
Posted by: Brian Barr | February 08, 2008 at 09:02 AM
Dittos.
It's totally out of hand. The expense, the time to travel. It consumes entire childhoods, and those
years for the parents. Families can't do anything else but follow thier kids to games.
I helped start it around here, but I don't like it now.
My club limits teams to one "away" tourney, within 100 miles, and one "home" tournament,
within 20 miles, where no hotels are needed. It's plenty, but still too much for me.
I long for the days when we played at the same place each weekend, on Saturday. The game took
about 90 minutes and the whole event, driveway to driveway, was done in 3 hours... 4 if you
stopped for a burger & fries.
The fact that there are kids from Lexington, KY playing for the Chicago Eclipse is also absurd.
What next, two clubs: West of the Mississippi vs. East? North America vs. Europe? Where will
it end?
We started a church league here two years ago and it's wonderful. No score, no standings.
Mixture of levels of play (kind of like the sandlot) but always a good time. The parents
absolutely love it. Costs is $25/player/season, includes t-shirt, 6-8 matches and lots of smiles.
That's how we wanted it, and that's how it is.
Coach Dave Smith
Fun In The Sun Soccer
Net-Surfers FC
Providence HS GSoccer
New Albany Deanery Soccer League
Posted by: Dave Smith | February 08, 2008 at 09:04 AM
For a period of about six years and I cannot even attempt to calculate the dollars, we attended
many of these tournaments mainly throughout the eastern seaboard. I tend to disagree with this
article. I never experienced the situation where I thought these tournaments were replacing the
weekly practice/game routine. Ours were selected not to conflict with this. The experience of
playing in these venues was invaluable to the development of my daughter as an individual, a
soccer player, and a bonding time with teammates. In addition, as a parent, I now have a number
of fellow parents that I enjoyed getting better acquainted with and still keep in touch and will be
lifetime friends - relations that started with a common soccer theme but have persisted because
of caring. My daughter would have never been able to achieve the level of play and interest
without having experienced these tournaments. My ROI calculation would probably come close
to a break even based on the financial reward she has received from her present college,
however, adding the intangible value has made the tournament experience invaluable. She has
plenty of patches and trophies that mark these experiences but none of those are of conversation
today - the experience of growing up and the elements of personal growth are the conversation of
today. The patches and trophies continue to collect dust and are stored in some box in the attic
but her personal growth continues to shine each day. We tend to forget that it is not about the
game of soccer that is of most importance (because only a selected 18 to 25 will take it to the
ultimate level) but instead the lifelong skills of coping with life challenges and the building of
character is what the game offers your child. Done in the right manner, tournaments offer this
venue. Keep it in perspective, and the experience becomes invaluable for both you and your
child.
Posted by: David McKnight | February 08, 2008 at 09:08 AM
hi may name is jasir charris i played semi - pro in colombia and i gree with this article...
im a high school coach and a u16 coach and the goalkeeper head coach for a club in
massachussets and at this age of 16 my girl and kkepers done have any clue what is tacticsss....
Posted by: jasir charis | February 08, 2008 at 09:17 AM
Very interesting article. I am a bit biased because of the respect I have for Dr. Jay Martin. He
presents some very interesting points. My main concern is I think that we are dealing with a
number of vicious cycles. One, I am of the opinion that clubs have to have these tournaments in
order to help fund the club itself. How can we change the funding model without breaking the
clubs themselves? Two, tournament attendance has turned into a quid pro quo scenario. Stop the
tournaments may be the answer to quid pro quo itself but it can have a negative impact to the
whole club funding structure. Three, is the interest in improvement nothing more than a facade to
get a child on a college team? Four, do we really have an infrastructure that can deal with the
areas that we need to improve?
And a lot of this begs the question of how many tournaments are appropriate? Two, three, four?
And if it's four is it a big deal if two of those are local and not requiring an 8 hour drive?
I'm not sure if one can blame technical or tactical deficiency on tournaments. They may be a
factor but isn't it more likely that they are in a line with a number of other factors? Improper
coaching, lack of exposure higher levels of soccer, etc. For many years my daughter and I
enjoyed tournaments because in between games we would just go and watch other teams play. I
always thought of this an invaluable and informal tool. Can't tournaments actually become a
training tool? My daughters club has a summer European trip that seems to be a huge blend of
vacation, soccer, soccer culture, and foreign culture. This seems to be a great way to help fuel the
passion at a pace that is acceptable. I love the concept.
I could go on and on because Dr. Martin has shared a lot of information that really should cause
everyone to sit back and think. I just don't know if you can break the tournament juggernaut and
I'm not sure if the absence of tournaments alone will make improvements. While I fully agree
that working smarter is better than working harder I haven't seen anything else that compensates
for the issues that Dr. Martin brings up. I will remain skeptical of elite programs because of the
smaller number of players that can be reached and I'm not sure if I've seen one that truly
enhances the technical, tactical, conditioning and teamwork skills for a player. I'd love to see a
lot more cooperation between clubs, high schools, and colleges but there are many obstacles to
this.
Regardless, Dr. Martin thanks for the intriguing article.
Posted by: Mike Crump | February 08, 2008 at 09:39 AM
I could not agree more with Dr. Martin. These tournaments are insanity. Having played the game
myself, there is no physical way a player can play properly in these tournaments. We are training
marathon soccer players instead of sprinters.
USSF published a document called best practices with guidelines that clearly go against the
tournament format... but everyone ignores it. If as a coach, I opt my team out of tournaments, not
only will the parents pull their child off the team, the club will most likely fire me.... because, if
tournaments are wrong, why are we as a club putting on our own?
If the parents, who are so willing to pay money for the travel to tournaments, would simply give
that money to the club, there would be no need for the fundraiser tournament. That money that
parents spend on tournaments dwarfs the amount actually raised by the tournament. The money
should go towards proper trainers, equipment, etc... instead we rely on volunteer parent/coaches
with limited knowledge of the game to train our kids.
Where does the madness end?
Posted by: Alfred | February 08, 2008 at 09:55 AM
"Stop the Tournaments"
Hat's off to Jay Martin's article. It put into perspective what I have been sensing about
tournaments for quite some time. Numerous local club teams travel all around the midwest usa
and points beyond to tournaments 9 months out of the year. The reason "to develop players and
have them learn to compete against varying levels and styles of play" This starts heavily at the
U11 level. What Hogwash! The time and $$ wasted traveling could be well spent with effective
well planned training, team building opportunites and learning about and supporting soccer in
their own local communities.
Posted by: Docguru | February 08, 2008 at 10:06 AM
This article is very extreme. The only reason people are getting burnt out on tournaments is
because they are not taking it for what it is - a fun way to play soccer in the off season. When
parents have their kids playing in a tournament every weekend, we need to blame the parents, not
the tournaments themselves.
As for not becoming a better soccer player, I think that statement is close-minded. Players can
develop team building skills, stamina by competing in these events.
I personally played in several tournaments a year growing up (2-4) and also went on to play
Division I soccer. So the fact that tournament players CAN'T play, won't make college teams,
don't know the game, is uncalled for.
Posted by: Hilary VanDuzer | February 12, 2008 at 10:51 AM
Not to deter from Dr. Martin's angle -- he is obviously an excellent and well-credentialed director
- however,
What about "The game is the best teacher"?
Of course you need training and correction/development time between...but kids want to play.
Of course a good coach makes each session "the game" - but that doesn't completely replicate an
actual competition, especially psychologically.
I believe some folks are over-zealous in playing too much...however I also know that many are
simply seeking challenge that they can't find consistently enough in a local market, and for them,
that is worth paying for.
I think the biggest harm in tournaments (or any games for youth) is in how games are treated...if
they are win-at-all-costs, no game (local or tournament) is best for youth development.
It falls on the approach of the coach/trainer's philosophy about game time and purpose the most.
As for the MONEY part, agreed, it's a shame that soccer expenses might exclude some people
(some very good soccer people!) -- however we should attack that problem in different manners
rather than at the "expense" of those that ARE able to afford the extra pay-play.
John Crouch
Tulsa Soccer Club Academy Director
Cascia Hall Varsity Girls
Golden Goal - KICKSMART(tm) outreach soccer program
918-271-3436
john@kicksmart.com
Posted by: John Crouch | February 12, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Jon,
I found the Stop the Tournaments article very interesting. My daughter plays on a U-12 premier
team in Connecticut called the Yankee Comets. Her coach, attempts to instill the basic principles
that the author of the article discusses are lacking in U.S. players, especially those that are
playing in many tournaments. Last spring, the team began practicing three days per week (vs.
two for most other teams in our area), with one session dedicated mainly to fitness. In addition,
during the summer, the team practiced two days per week (no games during the summer), when
most teams were either shut down or playing in tournaments. He is trying to build skills, fitness
and tactics from the ground up, and winning games is never the primary concern. As a result, the
training expectations are clearly communicated to the players, and the team concept is always
stressed.
To that end, when the team is playing in a tournament, the team does not go into the weekend
with any different mindset than during the week at home. I have attached two documents. The
first is an itinerary from a weekend tournament that the team played in last fall. As you will
notice, there was not much time for fun and games, which is what we were more accustomed to
in the past. While the parents were skeptical at first, the results were terrific. The girls and
families really developed strong bonds, and the team probably had a net overall benefit from
attending the tournament. The other document is the itinerary from the team’s overnight camp
sessions last summer.
As you will see in both schedules, the coach is doing his best to maintain strong training
methods, even during tournament and camp events.
Thank you,
Posted by: Guest | February 12, 2008 at 12:46 PM
While he makes some valid points in this article I disagree with much of what he has to say.
Players need to play at their ability level and the biggest problem I see there is slotting kids into
their single year age group and playing against the same kids the same age every year. The best
players in all sports exceed the age group very quickly and need to be moved to higher levels of
competition commensurate with their current abilities. Pele, Gretzky, Garnett, etc all moved well
beyond their age groups very quickly. Coaching and training need to be at the proper levels for
athletes to excel, but so does the level of competition, it has little to do with age and much more
to do with ability, athleticism, and potential. I think single age groups are wonderful in that it
allows more levels for players to be sloted to their proper abilities, but it should not lock players
in to that level of play if the can compete at the higher level. As for the Game being the greatest
teacher, it is. That is what sports are all about, learning to play the game under pressure at the
highest level possible, sometimes pushing the envelope of ability. That can simulated in practice
but never duplicated and that is why the game is the greatest teacher.
Posted by: Richard Klabechek | February 12, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Thanks for a great article. The BIG issue, as I see it, are coaches who will put a team together
with 3 or 4 players with some premier talent, and the rest of the team filled with above average
recreation level players, and then play them in a premier division league. They then fill in with a
slew of tournaments. Result??? A bunch of losses and a thrashing in tournaments. Most of the
kids are demoralized and lost to the game. There is a great pre season tournament in
Elizabethtown KY that offers 2 games a day for two days. A lot of soccer? Maybe. However
there is no pressure to win. Scores are not recorded and there are no winners or losers. The
tournament is purely to let your kids play together, let coaches sort out who plays best where,
and give every player equal time on the field without any stress to win. I always tell my kids,
soccer is the greatest game ever devised, however if at any time it is no longer FUN, it is time to
give it up.
How do I rate a good coach? He is someone who teaches the fundamentals, finds a balance
between conditioning, teaching and scrimmaging and never bores the players with the same drills
over and over again. Make it fun and be sure that your drills are directly related to game
situations. You might just keep them long enough to take them to premier level and win a few
prestigious tournaments. If they don't make it to premier level then let them have
fun anyway.
Posted by: Harry Schwab | February 14, 2008 at 06:17 AM
Excellent piece!! What an overdue breath of fresh air and perspective.
Problem is, our younger kids are done with the politics involved with the local club. We have
decided to play "rec" soccer and go camping, horseback riding or whatever...it's more fun. Our
graduating daughter that played on a team that played for the state championship in high school
has no real desire to play anymore, which is unfortunate.
Again, great article I truly enjoyed reading it and I hope that others will read it and evaluate
"policy".
Thanks,
Posted by: Jim Forseth | February 14, 2008 at 06:18 AM