GESC Style of Play

What does it mean to be a part of a club? To us it means everyone is working together toward similar goals. Unfortunately however, I have coached in, been a part of, and seen countless clubs over my coaching career that consist of individual teams and coaches all doing their own thing with no unification.

This concept of being separate teams but merely sharing the same name is not the club we have set out to create and is not something we want to be a part of. In that way we want to change the US youth and club soccer paradigm. All of the coaches that are a part of GESC coach with us in large part because they believe in what we are doing and want to be a part of it. We don't need or want individual coaches reinventing the game of soccer, or players feeling like they need to completely rediscover how to play every season. Instead we want continuity that builds on itself every year and allows coaches to get more nuanced and introduce more and more details as players get older.

This is our unified club-wide style of play and is one of the things that sets GESC apart. Our coaches all got together this spring and put pen to paper (or keyboard to google spreadsheet might be more accurate) and discussed how we want all of our players and teams to play. While it is still a working document and there is still more to add, including hopefully eventually some video examples, photos and diagrams, and more details, we broke down our desired play style to what it should look like in each third of the field. We agreed on things like how we want to move the ball forward near our own goal, where we want the bulk of our goals to come from, how our players and teams are going to defend in the attacking third and when we should press and when we should drop off, and so much more. We also made sure to include how we want our kids to learn, that we want them making decisions and how coaches can guide them through that, as well as how we want players to act and what attitudes and behavioral traits we want our players to possess. We also dove into how we as coaches can help this process and accomplish these things.

The end goal is a consistent club philosophy and style of play that we encourage at all ages, so that every team and player are learning the same things as they go through the program, with more details and fine tuning being added as they get older. This consistency is super beneficial for the players and will help their play get stronger and stronger every year and give them the best chance for success as they get older, plus more strongly instill positive character traits and life lessons that will serve them well in whatever they choose to do in life, and regardless of who their coach is each season.

Without further ado, check it out. We don't have anything to hide and we would love for you to look at it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me for explanations or further details.