The Creative Skill Camps experience USA 2009

Last Updated: Thursday, Aug 27, 2009, 11:08

The International Street Soccer Association bought together three of Europe’s finest Street Soccer Coaches and players to run Creative Skill Camps in the States.  Mark Tiernan of Ireland, Matthew Gernaat of Holland and Darren Laver of England got together to educate young developing players in the States the benefits of becoming highly skilful with the ball and also teaching children to understand what it takes to become a great creative player. 
The coaches started their trip in Ohio, and then moved on to Tennessee, then Rhode Island, finishing in Pittsburgh.  This experience of coaching in the States was new for all three coaches, but they all learned a lot about the standards of soccer, how players seemed to be coached and the effects of the soccer culture.  Young developing soccer players in the states are of a very high standard, very athletic and dedicated to becoming great, we found it a joy working with the players.  One of the things we found common amongst many performers, not all, was that the need for physical, strong attributes had taken over the development of the fundamentals.  We are not saying that this is not needed, but it was plain to see that the culture that many European countries have with playing soccer in the Street, truly love the game aside from the winning, was missing and therefore it was difficult to see players with natural developed skill and ball mastery.   
At the core of the ISSA is the belief that too many performers have not realised their full potential because of a lack of self-awareness and creativity. We have churned out an endless stream of players with the ‘made in a factory’ characteristics of work capacity, discipline and combative spirit over the years, but have not balanced these positive qualities with the others, limiting the ultimate way we can perform.

The ISSA went to the States to allow players to understand that they are in control of their own learning.  To bring to them the ‘playing in the streets way’ which most great skilful players tend to have in each one of their root.  Every young player learning to play has an inherent desire to express him or herself through the game, but all too often they are denied this right because of an 'authoritarian' coaching approach.

Ultimate development will be best achieved, in our opinion, by the coach who respects, trusts and encourages the player to do it in his/her own way and then who follows them as they proceed. This will increase each player’s thirst for learning, empower them with greater responsibility for their own development and will enhance their self-esteem – all vital to the progress of young players.

Overall our trip was a great success, children not only benefited from the excellent coaching and demonstration of some of the most up-to-date skills of the game and developed an extraordinary love of the game where they will always continue to experiment and discover ways to master the ball, it was plain to see that even over 5 days of training they benefited in a number of ways. Firstly, physically their movement was ‘free’, they started to move more fluently and become more technically proficient.  Secondly, they became better decision-makers, dealt with pressure and learnt to express themselves more positively. Finally the player’s become more accomplished learners and learnt how to think for themselves.
From here we will be running plenty more of these camps, engaging more and more children and also in the near future running courses that will help coaches to understand the ISSA philosophies and its benefits to the beautiful game.  We are still in contact with many of the players and parents, continually aiding their development.  We are starting to see an amazing response from the children and young adults who are coached on the camp.  Most of what I do as a coach is to stride forward, throwing seeds back over my shoulder onto what I hope will be fertile ground, but without having a chance to look back very often to see what the results were.  So far It is a very nice feeling when someone finds us later and tells us that something took root after we had passed through.

We look forward to seeing the same players next year and hopefully the teachers this time become the students and the students become the teachers.