Photo by Thirdman

A study of the German first league saw that on average there were 108 interruptions per game.  What constitutes an interruption?  Any throw-in, free kick, or corner plus the occasional kick-off and penalty kick too.

When I watch the majority of youth games, there’s even more interruptions yet I constantly only see a small percentage of a team’s players take the majority of all the restarts.  And that makes me really sad.

Throw Ins

Because in youth soccer, if the goal is development, and you give the penalty kick, the free kick on the 30, and all the corner kicks to the same kid, you’re only improving one child.  You’re putting winning above development.

When you give a child responsibility on a team it breeds an intrinsic desire to perform that role as effectively as possible.  It breeds growth.  It helps create dynamic players.

Corner Kicks

On my squad, we have:

a set piece taker who can dip it over the wall and back under the bar.

a penalty kick specialist with an unstoppable inside out take.

a left footed service from free kicks on the right side.

a kid with a laser strike for direct kicks from distance.

a whip-in specialist for service from the flanks.

an in-swinger corner that goes for glory.

a back post floater for our best header.

a short corner for our best 1v1 dribbler.

a throw-in play for each third of the field.

a long throw it over everyone throw-in.

even a corner kick just for our backs to score.

Free Kicks

Each one is designed for a different player in hopes that I’ll be helping entire teams of players develop to their fullest instead of just a kid or two.  

I hope you feel the same.


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