Canadian teams sweep their MLS games this weekend… well except for the team that didn’t play… highlights below.

Vancouver gets first win ever over Galaxy:

Impact come back twice to beat Real Salt Lake:

“The Three Laws of Robotics:

1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;

2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law;

3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law;

The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”
― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be in the same room with Alex Chiet, the Chief Technical Officer of the Ontario Soccer Association and Nick Levatt, National Development Manager (Youth and Mini Soccer) for England’s FA both of who gracious with their time and discussion regarding youth soccer in Ontario and England.

At one point the conversation moved towards curriculum and whether one was needed to aide in the implementation of Long Term Player Development in Ontario one, if not the primary, responsibility of Chiet in his role with the OSA.  A national curriculum, long rumoured is, in my opinion, will be a key component in the implementation and ongoing success of LTPD.

Although not surprised by the responses of Chiet and Levatt, who’s role with the English FA is similar to Chiet’s here in Ontario to the idea of providing a full curriculum (a season’s worth of lesson plans) for coaches – I am convinced they are both, in this instance, mistaken.

In summary, both spoke of being cautious and while providing at least a partial curriculum or a limited number of sample sessions was planned neither association wanted to produce “robots” but coaches that could think for themselves.

While I understand the reason for both caution and concern having lived through the 80′s and 90′s of coaching education in this country a time of “we don’t want you all to be the same but here’s how we want it done” automaton speak I don’t think the reasoning can be applied to the current situation.

LTPD is new, fairly complex in it’s entirety and very dependent on the timely delivery of the right information (technical, physical and mental content) at the right time (age).

To implement and deliver LTPD we need consistency in messaging, similarity in presentation and conformity in content for our youngest players that can only come through the application of a well designed and implemented curriculum.  A curriculum that guides both players and coaches (both new and new to the material) through the process of learning and development.

What we don’t need is new and lesser experienced leaders struggling to to find material or even worse finding material thanks to the internet that has absolutely no bearing or application to the players they are in charge of and then ad libbing their way through training sessions based on best intentions and a “this is how we did it when I was kid” mentality.

Give them the tool and most coaches, especially the new ones at the young ages will use it and perhaps give our players the leg up they need to move forward in the game.

At this moment in time and for this job robots may actually be what we need and in fact may be our only hope.

Detective Del Spooner: Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a… canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?

Sonny: Can *you*?

I, Robot

First let me premise this by stating two things I believe.

1. The new Ontario Premier Development League is a needed step forward for the development of top level players in Ontario and Canada – it is long past due and will ultimately ensure the ongoing development of high level players for years to come.

2. Long Term Player Development if implemented properly and with thought could and will benefit ALL players of ALL ages and ALL abilities – recreational, developmental and competitive players and coaches ALL have something to gain from LTPD.

Unfortunately revolutions, and that’s exactly what OPDL and LTPD are for the sport in Ontario and Canada, are rarely bloodless and this revolution will be no different.

Soccer in Ontario is about to be divided not perhaps as much by the “haves” and “have nots” as many have long feared but but the “wills” and the “will nots”.

Already I’ve heard rumblings of clubs preparing to pull out of the Ontario Soccer Association and know of at least one Special General Meeting being held this weekend to discuss and vote on exactly that.  Not really a surprise as the Ontario Soccer Association’s “one size fits all” governance model and lack of real service to it’s members in the past may finally have pushed organizations over the edge when it comes to the pros/cons of membership.

The reality has become if as a club you are not interested or capable of pulling together the resources to play in the ODPL and you lack the resources to fully implement the philosophy and ideals of LTPD what reasons are you left with to really be a part of the provincial association?

Well there’s competitive… er no not at U12 and younger anymore… well there’s the subsidized coaching educ…. um coaching courses are more expensive than ever… the insurance, yes that’s it.. the insurance.

Ah yes… The all mighty threat/benefit of group insurance that has been held over the head of clubs like a bureaucratic sword of Damocles since the first soccer lawsuit was launched back in the mists of time. Well the reality is there are plenty of affordable options for anyone willing to look and have been for some time.

The reality is that if your small to mid-sized club which runs a recreational program with little or no need for official blessing from the province and now more than ever you’re paying fees out that never, ever find their way back to your club and 98% of your players will never go near a provincial or even regional development program and your parents/coaches simply want a summer activity for their child with a tournament day at the end – probably, yes with trophies… there probably are few reasons for you to stay.

So what do you do?

You look at things… you measure it both ways… you size up your savings if you kept everything “in-house” and realize you will lose some but not all (or even close to all) of your customers under 12 and you decide to give your front line customers what they want.

What they want is a twelve week program with one or two nights a week commitment with little and probably no travel involved oh and they’d like a one day tournament at the end of the season where everyone gets a trophy but there is a final for everyone to get excited about. You realize can deliver all that and full uniforms this season because your using municipal fields and you’ve got your own, probably cheaper, insurance.  You hire an outside agency, or perhaps even someone from within your own club to deliver short, fun but informative coaching clinics for your coaches and you’re done. Everything else fields, scheduling and canteen volunteers stays the same.

Is this possible? Of course it is because it’s happening already all over the province  usually through community based (as opposed to club based) recreational programs. The way I see it the growth of these “fully for fun” recreation only programs will only continue to increase as small clubs and mid-sized clubs do the math and eventually decide to return to where they once came from – their own communities.

Is this a disastrous thing – I don’t think so – perhaps some tax loss and belt tightening for district and provinces but on the field the better players or the ones who want new challenges will seek them out with developmental and recreational clubs. Eventually they may even be part of the 2% make to the ODPL or even further and there is nothing wrong with that.

The rest, players, coaches and parents will do what they always done show up, chase a ball, make a friend or three, eat an orange slice at half time and then go chase the ball some more and go home smiling and there is nothing wrong with that either.

Bill