Randolph Soccer Club's Philosophy Regarding Player Development

Randolph Soccer Club’s training philosophy is focused on long-term player development, in both a technical and tactical sense.  Click HERE to see RSC’s current Player Development Goals.  These guidelines are derived from US Youth Soccer and US Club Soccer’s player development curricula.  RSC’s professional training staff develops their session specific plans for each team for the season based on these guidelines.  Each team trains for an hour and a half twice each week, with training sessions planned and run by professional trainers.  Each team has its own professional trainer assigned for the season, who handles training and games.  For 8U, the professional trainer attends the majority of the festivals.
 

At the younger ages (8U-9U), all players participate in RSC’s Youth Academy, which is focused on developing the foundation of technical skills needed to put tactical knowledge to work at the older ages.  Click on the ages that follow to see the Fall 2020 Youth-Academy themes for that age group:   8U;  9U.  There are two Y-Academy sessions generally with a mix of 8U and 9U teams (boys and girls) training at the same time, sharing a large common field space for each Y-Academy session.  The Y-Academy follows a general four session cycle.  On day one and two of the cycle, each team has a technical training session on a specific theme with their own trainer.  Day three can vary over the course of the season between a technical training session on a specific theme with their own trainer and a technical stations session.  On a technical station day, each trainer sets up a specific activity in support of the topic for the session.  Teams warm-up with their own trainer; then teams rotate to one or two other stations over the course of the session, getting to work with the other Y-Academy trainers.  Finally, on day four, it's either an additional team specific training session or a 4v4 tournament day for the session.  RSC’s most experienced training staff runs the Y-Academy sessions, as we believe that it makes sense to give our youngest players the strongest foundation possible for future success on the pitch.
 

For 10U-15U, RSC's high-quality trainers work to build players' tactical understanding of the game, putting to use and further developing the foundation of technical skills from the Y-Academy years.  10U-15U trainers submit a seasonal training plan to RSC's Director of Coaching.  Each team's training plan is developed out of RSC's Player Development Goals for the appropriate age, along with an eye to the specific needs of the team.  Each team training plan is shared with team families early in the season.  Trainers also have some flexibility to run team specific sessions on occasion to address a specific theme coming out of recent games.