North York Hearts Soccer Club

Player Development

" Winning without dignity and grace is not winning"

The objective of the programme is to develop and groom young players. The players with the best demonstrated overall abilities are extracted from our House League system.

For a two-year duration, these players receive instructions under the watchful eyes of highly qualified technical coaches.

We recognize that all players do not develop at the same speed. That is why; the individual development speed of each player is carefully monitored. Our ultimate goal is to:

	Mould these individual talents into a team concept

	Through discipline, interaction, positive attitude, teaching of time management skills

	Enable and assist these once young players to be eventually ready to face the trials and tribulations of the real world in the future.

	Use soccer as a vehicle to teach life skills and to improve the overall lives of youngsters.

To us, whereas winning is also important, "It is definitely not everything"

Soccer should not be larger than life. Soccer should be kept in its proper perspective. Our goal is to try to challenge your child to reach his or her comfort level and improve his or herself as a player, and thus as a person. We will atempt to do this in an environment that is fun, yet challenging.

DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.

EXCEL ON THE FIELD BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY EXCEL IN LIFE

NEW CLUB DEVELOPMENT MODEL

About the Programme

Conducted by a group of qualified atheletic instructors and teachers
Develops young student athletes and exposes them to future opportunuties
Uses experiences on the soccer field as valuable tools for life challenges

Location

The programme is being conducted at various School Gymnasiums over the winter months and at the Esther Shiner Complex during the summer and fall months.

Cost

Contact the Club at 416-650-5743 for details. The costs can either be for full time in the programme, summer training or winter training.

Contact

For registration and other information please contact the Club at 416-650-5743. Please leave a message if no one is at the office.

Programme Details

For years, we have operated the Competitive Programme using a Team Concept approach. For reasons to be stated later, we have decided to adopt a Player Development Pool Concept as the Club’s new method of training. Our goal is to develop as many players as possible within a tiered age grouping “Soccer School of Excellence”.

Junior level tier 8 years – 11 years
Middle level tier 12 years – 14 years
Higher Performance level tier 15 years – 17 years

The technical training of these players will be executed over both the summer and winter months. Each tiered age group will be trained by a team of coaches, ably directed by a qualified professional team leader.

Our goal is to develop players under a less stressful and non-self serving environment.

Soccer should not be larger than life. Soccer should be kept in its proper perspective . Our goal is to try and challenge the player to reach his/her comfort level and to improve his or herself as a player, and eventually as a person. We will attempt to do this in an environment that is fun, yet challenging. The programme will not be guided by parental pressure and a win at all cost attitude.

Coaches, parents and players must begin to think in the long term. Training and development programmes must be geared towards the long term, in order to accommodate every aspect of player development and the player’s needs.

At this level, we should’nt be so concerned about the results, but rather the player’s performance. We want kids to love the game, enjoy getting better and getting more comfortable with the game. The Development Process puts the emphasis on players’ development, not on trying to create the most winning team. It’s all about the basics that we so often skip in favor of the quick result. Playing well is the key, and, eventually, if you know how to play the results will come.

The current environment places too much emphasis on winning vs developing a passion and fundamentals of the game. We need to encourage passion and experimentation.

Why a Player Development Pool Concept:

Difficulty in securing and keeping competent coaches
Win at all cost attitude
Parents pressure- interference on teams constantly causing upheaval, friction movement of players – selfish motivation
Constantly rebuilding teams
No vision – no goal except trophies and plaques
Better utilization of limited funding
Tail wagging the dog
No support from soccer hierarchy
No continuity – retention of players
Societal responsibility mislaid
Not doing any favours to young players
In competitive environment, difficult to control parents and spectators
Overbearing and expensive burden of layers of governance
Too much travel and too expensive
Inability of stressed team officials to step up to the plate and efficiently assume their responsibilities
Complication of administrative over governance getting in the way of why we are really doing this “coach and develop players”
Cannot fill out teams because of coaches trying to find the magic bullet for their teams
Overkill administrative rules of leagues before you can play a game
Not enough facilities to accommodate scheduling of league games for hundreds of teams
Fudging the “Residency Rule” to legitimize teams.

At the end of the programme. Players will be better equipped to compete for:

Spot in the National Programme
Scholarship to university
Exposure to international programmes
Access and introduction to semi & pro teams in Canada

If not interested in any of the aforementioned, by utilizing soccer as a pathway to “life skills”, the player will be a much more rounded and disciplined individual ready to become a productive member of society.

Player Development Pool Concept

Soccer School of Excellence

Pool of 20 players per age group

Junior Level Middle Level Higher Performance

× × ×

8 – 11years 12 –14 years 15 – 17 years

× × ×

Team Leader Team Leader Team Leader

1 Mentor 1 Mentor 1 Mentor

Senior Programme

Semi Pro