In order to develop a lifelong passion for soccer, we believe that the early childhood stages of soccer development should focus on building social, motor, and ball skills while developing a love and passion for the game! Our approach is player-centric, with a focus on maximizing touches on the ball by utilizing age-appropriate activities with small player-to-ball ratios. In doing so, we emphasize developing the movement of players (motor skills) and comfort level with the ball (ball mastery) through repetitious activities.
Coaches, instructors, and parents are facilitators of the game at this stage, and serve to help the player develop confidence and creativity both on and off the ball. During this stage, Lonestar SC utilizes the "new ball" method at the Recreational level to keep the players engaged without focusing on rules and regulations of the game.
Focus | Process |
---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lonestar believes in holistic training where every activity includes all four facets of the game: technical, tactical, physical and psychological. We prioritize the technical actions of soccer into the first touch, striking the ball, running with the ball, and 1v1 play.
Players follow a set annual training curriculum with age-appropriate training objectives through fun, enjoyable and challenging game-related activities where players compete in small-sided games to develop individual technique and tactical decision making. This stage of development is vitally important to develop skillful players who move on to the 11v11 game and effectively implement the Lonestar style of play.
Core Skill | Key Principle | Training Objectives | Individual Objectives |
---|---|---|---|
First Touch |
|
|
|
Striking The Ball |
|
|
|
Running With The Ball |
|
|
|
1v1 Play |
|
|
|
Lonestar has a set playing philosophy and style of play where we prioritize our principles of play within the four key moments of a soccer game (attack, transition to defend, defend, and transition to attack). We develop our players through annual periodization and training programs where each age group has progressive training objectives, team tasks, and individual development training objectives. We play a proactive attacking style with skilled players based around the four key moments of the game: in possession (attacking), transition to attack, out of possession (defending) and transition to defend. Proactive means that we want to control and possess the ball with the intent to penetrate and score.
In attack, we give our players the freedom to improvise and encourage them to penetrate where possible and encourage a mindset to go to ‘goal’. We want our attack to have mobility, width and depth to create opportunities for overloads in all areas of the field. In defense, we aim to press and win the ball back quickly through individual and group pressing. If we can’t win the ball back quickly, we delay the opponent and make quick and incisive recovery runs to compact the space around and behind the ball.
Key Principles | Training Objectives | Team Tasks | Individual Objectives |
---|---|---|---|
Penetration |
|
|
|
Support and Mobility |
|
|
|
Width & Depth |
|
|
|
Improvisation |
|
|
|
2020 @ Lonestar SC. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.