Developmental Program PHILOSOPHY

OVERVIEW

Our Developmental Program is for players aged 3 to 9 that love the sport of soccer and want a local in-house league to participate in without the travel required with our Academy program. It is a non-competitive, fun, and inclusive environment intended as an introduction to soccer through short-sided games, focusing on individual player development. The Developmental league offers excellent soccer fields, participation medals, and trained referees.

Some of the basics of short-sided soccer are:

Reduce the size of the swarm. Young children prefer small groups. Large groups are too intimidating.
Create more touches of the ball. Fewer players on the field equal more opportunities to dribble, pass, and shoot the ball. The game itself is the best teacher!
Do not allow players to "hide" or be excluded from an activity. With large-sided teams, it's easy for the more timid children to "hide" on the field.
Present realistic but simple soccer challenges. The beauty of the game is that the answers will become obvious to the players the more opportunities they have to answer them.
Have fun! If all of these basics are presented in an environment that downplays the importance of winning, the result creates great enjoyment for the players. If they are having fun, they will ask to come back year after year.

eligibility AND SCHEDULE

u5 and u7

Players in the U5 and U7 divisions play coed short-sided games (3v3 for U5’s and 4v4 for U7’s) with a Play-Practice-Play method of training. Practices are held on Saturday mornings in the Fall and Spring and Sunday evening in the Summer. Players arrive at the designated time and start playing a small sided game for 20 to 25 minutes followed by a short skills practice to work on dribbling, passing or shooting. Training concludes with another 20 minutes of play. The Play-Practice-Play method keeps the players energized and learning the entire time. Game and practice times are as follows for Saturday mornings in the Fall and Spring: U5 8:30-9:30 am, U7 9:45-11:00 am. Game and practice times are as follows for Sunday evenings in the Summer: U5 4:00 to 5:00 pm, U7 5:15 to 6:30 pm.

U9

Girls and Boys are separated by gender in the U9 division and play short-sided 7v7 games on Saturday mornings in the Fall and Spring and Sunday evening in the Summer. Practice and game times are as follows for Saturday mornings in the Fall and Spring: 8:30-10:00 am. Practice and game times are as follows for Sunday evenings in the Summer: 4:00 to 5:30 pm.

All players in the U9 division can also choose to add one week night of additional of training on Thursday evenings (5:20 to 6:40 pm). Players will be working with experienced DSC coaches on improving their individual skills and have a better understanding of how to play this amazing game of soccer! These sessions will be at the Dubuque Soccer Complex. There are a limited number of spots in these sessions to keep a low player to coach ratio, and are filled on a first come, first served basis.

Developmental Program PHILOSOPHY

OVERVIEW

u5 and u7

U9

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