TOMMY SPIJKERS

I started the Player Development Soccer Academy (PDSA Soccer) with a lot of experience in soccer training and coaching. At the age of 16 I started coaching in the local soccer program in the town where I was born and grew up in the Netherlands, Tilburg. My mother was the coordinator of an age group and needed a trainer/coach for one of the teams. Since I played my whole life she asked if I was able to help her out and do the training sessions before my own team had practice. After falling in love with coaching soccer I decided to start the next season to fully focus on coaching soccer instead of coaching and playing. After that first season I have coached several youth soccer teams in the Netherlands. For my UEFA B license I did an internship as the assistant coach for the first team of a semi professional team. That year this team won the league, state cup and national cup. The excitement of the success of this team really pushed me towards trying to become a professional soccer coach.

Shortly after that season I moved to New Jersey to chase the dream of being a full-time Professional Soccer Coach. I was 24 years old and I worked for a soccer training organization providing training session in New Jersey and New York City. After a year I got the offer to become the Academy Manager of a USL Professional team in Dayton, Ohio. I accepted that position and worked for 2 years for this club as their Academy Manager. During those 2 years I came to the conclusion our vision on how to develop youth soccer players was not going to be in line, and I chose to start PDSA Soccer instead of renewing staying with this club.

As I just mentioned I was the Academy Manager for a professional club, but I felt that we were not offering our players a truly professional environment. In my opinion too many decisions were based on resources, not on what would be best for the players. After trying to find middle ground for a long time it became clear to me we just saw things differently.

In my vision players need to learn how to do skills (technical) first, then they have to learn when and where to use these (tactical). Finally they need to learn to do all these things as a team.

With PDSA Soccer we focus on the skills part. We teach player how to dribble, pass, receive the ball, do moves, shoot, etc. As a player, especially looking back, I always missed technical training. In the United States a lot of people look up to the Netherlands when it coms to youth soccer development and that is probably deserved. But this does not mean that every player in every program is receiving the best of the best training. I have had to learn all the skills myself at 25 years old. I was the crazy coach who was there 20 minutes before every session to practice the skills I wanted the player to learn the very next week. That feeling of having missed out on becoming a technical skilled player as a young child has played a big part in the development focus I have created with PDSA Soccer.

PDSA Soccer is providing a wide range of training programs in which we focus on individual development. All the programs we offer are additional to the player’s current club and team activities. Based on the season we offer programs as:

Skills Classes
Camps
Summer School
3v3 Academy

We offer private and small training your round, which is one of our bigger programs.

In addition to these training program we offer small sided tournaments. We have created the 3v3 State Cup and are looking to expend that by finding local partners in every state for example. We believe these small sided concepts are great for the players development.

Let me start with explaining the process we have in place for private and small group training. We start with a meeting with the player(s) and talk with them about their goals. After this meeting we create a specialized development plan for the player(s). With this plan in hand we start the training sessions.

I feel private and small group training is one of the biggest development tools for any player at any level of any age. There are 2 reasons I feel this way.

The first reason if when doing private or small group training we can completely customize the training to the development points and goals of the players. When doing a group session every player is working on the same type of skills. In our group sessions we do challenge every player at their own level. When we work on moves for example the more development players will reworking on different moves than less experienced players, but the players are working moves. If a player really needs to improve their shooting this is not helping them with that. In private and small group training we work on what the player needs to work on.

The second reason I feel that private and small group training is great for players is the feedback they receive during the session. When doing a group session we have 12 players in the session. If this is an hour session that the best case scenario I am able to provide every player 5 minutes of feedback. This is not the exact number because time will be spend on explaining the drills before the players start. When I am not providing feedback the players are off course still improving their skills, as they are doing the drill and the actual skills. In private and small group training I can spend way more time to provide the player with feedback. In a session with 2 players I can provide each player 30 minutes of feedback. That is 6 times (!) as much as in a group session.

After doing a set number of training sessions we evaluate with the player and make adjustments to their development plan. We offer homework through our website with every session, which is based on the player(s) development goals. This way we make sure every player which is doing private or small group training will achieve their goals.

I honestly feel there are not that many things the US could adopt from the Netherlands when in comes to training or coaching methods. Looking at some of the coaches in this country, there are some high level coaches in the United States. There are 2 things I would love to see in the United States when it comes to youth soccer that I do see in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands team have practices during the week and play a game on Saturday. One game, not four and winning one makes you a winner. One game and if you lost that game, you have to wait a week for your next game. During the week coaches and trainers actually have time to work on improving the players. There are no Wednesday evening games, week days are for training. Tournaments are only at the end of the season, and they are for fun. There is on ranking based on who played the most tournaments and won them. You play tournaments for fun.

The second thing is the focus on looking good. Players in the Netherlands want to win every game, just like players do here. But in the Netherlands parents are not as crazy as the American parents. Parents don’t go crazy at a 10 year old soccer game in the Netherlands. They are not constantly coaching and yelling from the parents side to make sure their child wins. Coaches are focussing on winning and teach players how to waste time at U10 games? That is just nuts to me. When I started playing I was on the 7th team in my age group. That is the “G” team. Can you imagine anyone signing up their child for the “G” team? Here parents would just take their kid to a different club where their child is on the “A” or “B” team. Club philosophy, development plans, values, it almost doesn'’t matter as long as little Johnny is on the “A” team. I think parents should pick a club based on what their child will be taught, and in which way. Not based on if this the “A” or “D” team.

The United States is great when it comes to creating athletes. In the Netherlands we focus on technical skills and tactical game understanding, but things as speed and agility are almost forgotten. I feel Dutch youth soccer players could really improve their game a lot if they would be able to become better athletes.

When starting PDSA Soccer I always have had in mind to grow this into a nationwide soccer training academy. I understand this is very ambitious and I work hard to get closer to this goal. I feel I have fine tuned and proven the concept. We have the development and training philosophy combined with the training program I feel will benefit every players.

We just started a new location in Chicago, which will be a new challenge. After this location my focus will be to recruit new coaches in new location and keep building towards to goal of making PDSA Soccer a nationwide concept.

In addition to our new locations we are also getting more involved online. We have been creating some training programs players can do on our website. We are going to publish some of these programs in the near future. I am very excited about this part of our business because this will allow us to help players improve their technical skills no matter if they live close to a PDSA Soccer location or not.