Strathroy United FC believes every player deserves the best possible soccer experience.
Long Term Player Development is the primary objective of Strathroy Soccer. This development breaks down into four components: Technical, Tactical, Physical, and Psychological. As the age level increases, different components are stressed.
Technical growth: The individual ability to handle the ball consists of: dribbling, passing, receiving, shooting, heading, and goal keeping. A solid Technical foundation increases the players’ ability to understand the Tactical aspects of the game.
Tactical awareness: A player must understand when to apply the appropriate technique based on the demands placed upon them by their opponents. Tactical awareness is a players understanding of a system of play or strategy. As a player progresses through age groups, Tactical play becomes a major component of our teaching.
Physical ability: Soccer is a demanding physical sport, and each player will need to obtain a certain level of fitness. A majority of this fitness training takes place in the actual training exercises. Physical fitness determines a lot in the game of soccer. When players become physically tired, they become mentally tired. When they become mentally tired they can no longer perform the technical skills needed. When players lose their technical ability, their tactics disappears.
Psychological understanding: How a player reacts to certain situations can either help or hurt the overall team effort. Our goal is to focus on the present. Soccer is a game of mistakes. This is how we learn. We will work to focus all of our player’s energies in a positive manner, and on things they can control.
Further Information about our Player Development Model will be added for the upcoming 2018 Soccer Season.