Michigan Fire Juniors

The Michigan Fire Juniors, through the curriculum and guidance of the Chicago Fire organization, are committed to the technical training of our players. As the Technical Director, I have spent much of the past two decades studying what so many successful professional clubs are doing to develop their youth players. I have had first hand exposure to... our own Olympic Development Program at the state, regional and national level and have paid very close attention to what our national team coaches at every level are asking us at the youth level to focus on and why. I have had indepth exposure to some of the world's most reknowned youth development programs such as the Liverpool Academy and how they develop their youth players in an attempt to prepare those players to play in the English Premier League one day. A huge amount of their focus is technical development. Many of our US players do not get the opportunity to advance to the next level, which is different for every player, because of the inability to play technically fast with technical precision to match. Recently, my Cornerstone University Women's Soccer Team played the Haiti National Team. In assessing the play of their national team players, we determined that in virtually every element of the game, the Haitians were "faster" than most of our players. Their technical "speed" was effected by their supple, sure touches that so often put the ball just out of the reach of our defenders allowing them to maintain possession under our fierce pressure, dictate the flow of their attack without hindrance from us, and control the ball more than we were able to. Another important element in terms of skill development is the focus on ball mastery of the basic skills, as opposed to the entertaining "tricks" with the ball that we all enjoy watching. While these are fun to learn, they typically have little to no application in the a game, and even when they are attempted in a game, they rarely do anything to positively affect the game. The most dangerous element in the ...Read More