Walter Clapton

ECNL Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Drew Watson recently published research about sports specialization and injury risk, which did not find any statistical significance in injury risk between athletes who specialize in soccer and those who are multi-sport 📰: ecnl.info/cahp-sports-sp…

I believe Apple is gaslighting me with all these typos on my iPhone. Either they’ve change iOS settings for the keyboard or I’m rapidly aging. But there’s no way my texting ability has declined this much.

I have worked in grassroots soccer and “pro academy” environments and even still let me share… ▪️All youth football is recreational football. ▪️Professional football starts when athletes get paid to play. Let us enjoy this coaching process accordingly. #TOVO

@coach_kevin_m Only if they’re afforded an environment where roles and responsibilities associated to all positions are practiced in reality based training. If not, let’s not pretend we are helping them at the weekend playing them in multiple positions with zero preparation.

Agree or disagree: Kids should play multiple positions until U14?

Large-group club neutral training is now big business with very little coaching taking place. $30-$70 /hr, 20 kids in a group waiting to take turns doing what they can do by themselves. When did this happen and why are we paying for it? Is this also happening across the 🌎 ?

If we knew that humans chunk information and do so with visual references as well as conceptual references we would NOT put kids in lines or dribble around cones during team trainings. Of wait… we DO know the brain/learning works that way. So why do we do it? #TOVO

🎯 Breaking News The best way to develop players with good decision-making skills is to have them make decisions in training. Shocking news. 😳😂 #TOVO

Always found it quite amusing when you see youth grassroots ⚽️ teams with the word “elite” in their name playing in a bottom bracket of a tournament and the kids can’t even pass a ball accurately. 🙄🫣😂 Please get rid of these labels in youth grassroots football/soccer.

@kestrelpsych Which area is this happening? Do you have a copy of the rules?

Pre-ECNL rules for 7v7 are dumb. Having GKs punt is anti soccer, kids can’t (and shouldn’t) head it, and letting teams press at the top of the box just makes teams go long. No wonder athleticism is prioritized in the US, so they can chase the long ball down!! PLAY. TO. FEET.

How is it possible? 🇺🇸 If blocked skill training works, how is it possible that so many youth players struggle to receive a ball and pass it effectively? ▪️Do we still believe lining kids up to pass the ball back and forth works? #TOVO

@mcannell83 @fivga @3four3 ^ 💯

@fivga @WalterClapton @3four3 Not sure what level you’re thinking about. But at the truly lowest levels, kids doing this would be bored out of their minds and paying no attention. This would be a disaster at the lowest levels.

Training without pressure is an essential piece of the puzzle. Especially at the lowest of levels, where players must learn how to crawl before walking before running. Here's Luis Enrique with PSG at the Mt Everest of football doing 11v0.

@mckseiffert @IndianaWSOC Congrats Mary!!!

Excited, grateful, honored… all the things! Let’s go @IndianaWSOC! ⚪️🔴#NeverDaunted

Reminder ✏️ Lamine Yamal could still be playing for your high school team. 🤔🤣 #TOVO

@dpowersPE There are many factors that go into the cost of a course - I see you are at Tormenta which is one of our member clubs. You would have access to our C Course at SC Youth Soccer at less than $1,000. We are in the process of listing our 2025 courses if you are looking for a course

$1875 for a @ussoccer C license is everything wrong with youth soccer in this country. #pricegouging @USYouthSoccer

@thewarden1977 @CoachFrankCyp Any research proving soccer players injury risk is reduced playing other sports? Load vs recovery is terrible in “National Leagues”. Instead of 4:1 training:games like true elite environments it’s more like 3:2. Game volume and travel are awful but everyone keeps doing it 🤷

@CoachFrankCyp Yes - they all do. In addition to doing the FIFA 11, wear the right cleats, do band activation, etc. The issues are load vs recovery, no more multiple sport athletes and early specialization.

1/2: Alright, I have had ENOUGH. Another female soccer player (16 years old) tore her ACL, MCL and Meniscus. This is 13 girls whom I know personally (3 from my former team) JUST THIS YEAR.

@MCameron008 Do you believe that this could depend on to what end someone is specialising?

specializing in a sport doesn’t mean you have to play that sport exclusively we need to stop thinking that

@joedratnol highlights the importance of clubs having true DOC’s who focus on staff development outside of the formal pathway

@joedratnol If a coach meets the competencies on a course but then returns to their home environment and fails to utilize the competencies, is that a failing of the system or the individual coaches who revert to bad habits… agree there are some incredible coaches with no licenses and this..

I would probably still be coaching if getting @ussoccer coaching licenses was actually affordable. I wonder how many coaches in the US are restricted, held back, or excluded by the fact that @ussoccer licenses are so expensive. It's certainly frustrating even still to this day

@joedratnol There are many ways for us to self-educate, a valuable way to improve as coaches. How do you suggest a formal process for gauging a coaches base level of knowledge/skills without a formal FIFA accredited license pathway? To many coaches, formal/informal ed come hand in hand

So many more affordable ways to self educate about being a better coach, but none of them give you the damn certificate of a C, B, or A license.