I think I will just train my kid in the winger position for a while. I was trying to train him as striker, winger and midfielder, since I think he'll end up as one of those once he gets to 11v11. But it's too much, not enough time to do all those. And I noticed, in the pros, wingers can play striker, but strikers don't play winger. For example, on Tottenham, after Harry Kane left, you saw Heung Min Son play striker and he did fairly well at that position, but he's a winger. But, you would never see Harry Kane play as winger. You would never see Erling Haaland play as a winger. Or Lewandowski, Luakau, etc. It just wouldn't make sense. But wingers can fill in as striker when needed. So, therefore, I think its better to, if you only have time to learn one position, to learn winger skills. Those will create a good foundation for other attacking roles (striker or CAM/#10).
How old is your kid? Are you a licensed coach, experienced, etc? If <12 and no, I think you're over-complicating it. Find a good coach/team and let them figure out what position best suits his talents, play style, etc.
He's about to turn 10. He's on a competitive team, for the 3rd year. I have played a lot of soccer and studied it a lot. I don't train him excessively. But it's more about what kind of path he should be on in the next year or so. There has to be some training outside of the club as that is not enough for an advanced player. And I can't afford to private trainers too often, maybe a little bit. But I'm pretty good at studying things and understanding what it takes. He's a good striker, but he's not getting exposed enough to other positions. So I have to do it on my own. I've coached his teams outside his club. I don't desire to be a coach though, I want to focus on my kid. Not enough time to do both. Could work if the mom carried some of the weight.
Any of those strikers you listed would do as well at winger as many wingers would do at striker. Wingers are not going to be strong enough to deal with the physical demands of playing striker. Your kid should learn how to play all positions including goalie. Playing all the positions will increase their soccer IQ. Also gives them a better opportunity to get on the field. If your kid is only a winger then what happens when a kid shows up that is faster? A better dribbler? A better crosser? Then he doesn’t play but if he knows other roles then he could slide back to outside back or CDM
I think stuff outside of practice at that age should mostly just be ball mastery type stuff - juggling, wall-ball, foot control/change of direction moves, etc. That and finding a way for them to play with their friends outside of club practice (assuming you have enough around to make 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 work). I'd let the coach worry about positional stuff.
It seems to me that a winger could later go on to play wingback or fullback. I just don't think there's enough time to learn all the positions deeply. I guess it's a matter of becoming a jack of all trades or mastering one or two. Also, I know many won't agree, but I am thinking of his body type and what position will fit best. He will likely end up about 5'9" - 5'11". It seems that teams at the high levels prefer bigger strikers, and of course this would also rule out center back or goalie. So winger/wingback/fullback or midfielder would fit him best. But he likes to score so I think winger or CAM. I look at pros that he might have a similar body type as, players like Antoine Greizman, Eden Hazard, or Dybala. So this can give some clues as to the style that might fit him.
But the coaches only play him at striker, 3rd year running. (different coach each year) I feel that the winger position can be distilled into it's essence, which is basically cutting to your strong foot and getting a shot/cross off. So if you're right footed and playing left wing, then get really good at faking left, cutting right and shooting; or if you're on right wing then fake left (inside), cut down the line and shoot/cross. Practice this ad naseum and you'll be really valuable. Of course practice other things too, but get this down pat.
I know you've been told this a number of times in a dozen different threads here, but this should be a red flag where those coaches are concerned, given how young your son is. Kids at that age should play all over the field, as stated by someone else above. At his age -- and he is really, really young -- he needs to learn how to master the ball and, for my money, how to use his off foot and what to do when he doesn't have the ball -- in a very general sense, the kind of knowledge that will benefit him at any position. Someone asked the question above, what happens when someone faster comes along at his (well, your) preferred position? Almost certainly this is going to happen at some point.
Yeah I agree that kids should play all over the field, but nothing I can do about it. That's why coached his indoor team; so I could control where the kids play and mix them up. Yes, I think that will happen at striker. I think a more typical striker type would get a spot over him in the older age groups, that's why I want him to start training as winger or midfielder. But we'll have to do that outside the club, on our own. I guess, my overall point is that it seems that learning winger can be a good foundation from which you can play many other positions later in age. Do you agree?
Before, I was having him work on a variety of skills. But now, for maybe the next 6-12 months, I want to focus on mainly one thing... ---> Receiving the ball, faking left, cutting right, and shooting. This sequence. As it is the most essential and core sequence for a winger. The faking part can be done in a variety of ways. A simple feint left (just step/lower shoulder), or a scissors... and many other variations. The shooting part too can vary. But the bread and butter shot is shooting to the far post. If you're on the left side, cutting right and curling it to the far post. If you on the right side then it's more of a straight shot to the far post, or high to the near post usually. Since time is limited I'm just trying to identify the most core thing to work on and get in a lot of reps. Ie, where you get the most bang for your buck in terms of time spent. He will have to work on other fundamentals at his team practices. He is an only child, which is a big disadvantage. So I have to think about how to structure my and his time so he can get enough touches to keep development level high. With siblings there naturally is a lot of development through play in the backyard type of stuff. My kid is the only only-child on his team.
If you go back through newdada's posts over the last 3-4(?) years, that's been mentioned over and over again. To his credit, it hasn't happened yet, but his kid is still young.
A couple of things. First echoing all the advice about, he's young, let him enjoy playing, work on individual skills instead of position specific things. And importantly, watch high level soccer with him and talk about things that are important - the off the ball movement that lead to a good chance, notice the players scanning without the ball, moving without the ball, notice how defending happens in groups etc. That said - good luck finding a coach that is going to be tactically hip enough to have inverted wingers. If your son is a lefty, you're going to have to fight to keep him from being automatically put at left back or left wing. If he's a righty you're going to have to hope that if there is only one lefty on the team you have a traditional coach who will automatically put them at left back so your son can play left winger, vs one of the more modern coaches who will live with a weaker righty at left back in order to be able to teach crossing more easily to a left footed left wing (half sarcasm). Also, ideally, he'd be at a club that rotates kids through the positions over the course of a season. But it sounding like that's not the case, so I'm guessing they're already at 7v7 or 9v9 so one of the outside back positions would probably be best for him, he could learn to see the game in front of him, when to start the attack with a pass, when to drive into space, etc. If he can produce from there it should assuage the coach fearing he'd lose the goals that come from having your son as the forward.
I think through pushing and prodding I have found the threshold over which burnout begins, so I try to stay behind it. Now he is also playing baseball, so I feel that helps balance things out. If anything, he doesn't play enough soccer. Kids can play a lot more than we think. At these ages the forces on the body are low, so not much risk of injury. I've seen more kids injured in baseball due to overuse; mainly due to pitching year round. I'm the ginuea pig. I've injured my knees and shoulders, so I feel I have a good sense of where the boundary is. Ideally there would be time for "pre-hab"... ie strengthening certain muscles to relieve strain on ligaments/tendons.
Sorry, you haven't even come CLOSE to finding when burnout begins. Wait until he's in MS or HS, playing for the school team, his club team, and maybe pick up games (and could be reffing). His friends invite him to hangout, go to the movies, he discovers dating, or working, plus homework, and then realizes ALL the time he practices and plays soccer, with you cheering him on from the sidelines, he'd rather be with his friends, or working to make some spending money, or be with a significant other. I've seen good players (as in starters on State Championship teams) all give up the sport (at least the organized version) for these reasons, to say nothing of injuries. When DS was your son's age, he was with a group that played soccer during recess. They loved the sport. After the second year of college, he's the only one from that group still playing. The top scorer on his HS team, who was on a D1 team, gave it up after his freshman year. Leg injury that just wouldn't heal. Don't get me wrong, I wish your son the best and hope he succeeds in whatever he does. But you're barely a quarter of the way around the track, with a LOT of hurdles between you (him) and the finish line. You don't have it solved yet.
"he'd rather be with his friends"... I'm hoping he will be friends with his teammates. So when he plays soccer he will be with his friends. He likes his teammates now. He doesn't want to switch teams. He likes to be around people so I feel team sports is good for this, no? But I get that for various reasons he might give it up. All we can do is try I think as long as he's enjoying it he'll keep going Based on his personality, I think he'll keep playing. He's not really into homework. But he likes school because his friends are there I try to keep it fun. That's why I haven't gotten him into hard core trainings yet. I think its more about consistency. Keep learning bit by bit
Amen on the lefty thing. Mine is a lefty and at 12 or 13 was slotted in at left back (at least partly at his request, which shocked my wife and I). It worked for him -- the coach who made decision was big on teaching his fullbacks to attack, other players (and their parents) looked down on the position and didn't want to compete for time there, and he and the RB played constantly and thrived. But from that point on, through a long list of coaches in two clubs and at school, he played on the left side or as a left-sided CB. This spring his college coach has moved him into a central midfield role, but he was glued to the left side for a solid 7-8 years based on just what you describe. There are two sides to the coin -- some coaches seem to love to have left-footed players to plug in over there -- but you can be firmly pigeon-holed by it.
Left footed players are usually the more skilled ones. Probably a big advantage too to get recruited because everyone could use a lefty for crossing and free kicks.
Another thing to be careful of is playing time. I have a kid who is an excellent winger and vocally prefers that position. But he has been on some teams where the coach sees the wings as the place he can hide less skilled players. Like you can’t put a less skilled player at the 8 or 6. Worst case with a bad winger is that you just don’t progress the ball and score. Often my player will stay on and rotate to striker, but it’s not always the case. So my kid’s playing time is less than it would be if he didn’t express a clear preference for wing.
So then do you believe that for development its best for a young kid to play a lot of midfield? Someone has to score the goals, so if a team is competing at a high level I feel they will select quite talented forwards. But I do agree that that is also where you place less talented folks as they pose less risk.
Not necessarily. Midfield doesn’t suit every kid. It’s worth looking for a coach who really uses the wings well to progress the attack. Unfortunately it’s not a universal tactic. Touches in competitive games are critical, so match the kid to the team. Like I’d want a coach that builds out of the back with a CB… but as a parent of a mostly forward, that only works for my kid of they can get the ball into and past the midfield.
School soccer is different from club soccer. My son's club team had kids from like 8 or 9 different school districts. While they were good friends on the field and loved being around each other during away tournaments and games, at the end of the day, when they're 10-15, they all go home to their neighborhoods and rarely see each other outside of soccer unless they go to school together.
The pull of playing for your school and playing in front of fans who aren't your parents (even if at most schools it isn't the same kind of crowd as football or basketball) is big, too. My son's team's playoff runs in three of his four years high school years (COVID killed the playoffs one year) was a major highlight for him in those years. In the latter playoff stages the school loaded a bus full of students for away games and they were playing in front of what had to be 800-1,000 fans.
In hindsight, make that 400-500. Still bigger than any club crowd he played in front of by a bunch, but my old-man memory is probably inflating those crowds a bit.
I really wish certain clubs/leagues didn't restrict playing soccer for HS. Maybe my kid will play soccer at the club and baseball for the HS.