Mario Mrakovic’s Grass Roots Development Program Produces Results
The impact of early player development is clear. Soccer players benefit from early training and grass roots development programs such as the one at San Diego’s Surf Soccer Club. But, have you ever wondered what the odds are that not one, but two U9 teams trained by the same original Grass Roots soccer coach could win State Cup at the same time? They are astronomical and it would depend upon a very strong development program and a talented coach.
This year, San Diego Surf Soccer Club‘s two U9 teams, both the girls and boys top teams won State Cup‘s prestigious President’s Division simultaneously. The games were actually played next to each other in Lancaster, California and were won moments apart. The girls team was coached by Chris Lemay and the boys team by Danny Salas.
A significant number of players from both soccer teams had played with Surf Soccer Club for two years or more and had benefited from participating in the Grass Roots program coached by Mario Mrakovic at The San Diego Surf Soccer Club.
The grass roots program consists of very early development focusing on foot and ball skills with players as young as six years old.
Coach Mrakovic is a firm believer in skill development and making soccer fun. Mrakovic also believes in teaching young players sophisticated soccer moves. For example The Beckenbauer, or Cruyff or Ronaldinho just to name a few. Here is a link to Mario Mrakovic article in which you see a video of this specialized training.
You would think that these exercises were beyond comprehension or ability for most six years olds but you would have to think again. Not only do the young players eat it up, but they come to master these soccer techniques in record time, and have tons of fun learning as well as developing a great sense of accomplishment.
These kids (boys and girls alike) gain a distinct advantage over their fellow players because as they get older and greater technical demands are placed on them, having this knowledge and ability will allow them to smoothly and easily adapt to the new technical and tactical demands of their coaches.
Another special aspect to these teams’ success is their introduction to Futsal. (Futsal is an indoor soccer game played on a basketball like court. No walls to bounce the ball off, only strict and adept ball control skills will do. This world renowned soccer play once again uses those ball control skills mentioned above to develop the player into a fast moving, fast reacting, and very tactical player as you have to transition very quickly form offense to defense — just like basketball! Mrakovic launched San Diego Futsal years ago and has helped many youth players improve their skills.
Ask any parent who has been lucky enough to have experienced these two training programs together and they can tell you their child is very comfortable and adept at handling the ball. These players are also often considered among the best players on the team. Coach Mario Mrakovic understands soccer and how to effectively develop foot skills in young players.
Coincidentally, if you have had a chance to review Claudio Reyna’s (Director for Youth Soccer, US Soccer Federation) comments on youth soccer development you will notice many similarities between these training programs and what U.S. Soccer is recommending be adopted to improve our American youth soccer players. Here is a link to that very interesting article: “Claudio Reyna youth Soccer changes in America”.
Reyna emphasizes starting players at a young age and believes it is important to develop ball skills early on.
It will be interesting as the years pass to see how many, if any, of these young players make the National teams.
World Cup 2018 is around the corner and the 2022 World Cup is not that far away. We will not have long to wait to find out.
