THE DRIVE: EXAMINING LTPD, OPDL AND CANADIAN GRASSROOTS SOCCER
By: Kamal Hylton
A look into the Present and Future of Canadian Grassroots Soccer
Previously on Prospect XI, we’ve looked extensively at the United States youth development system, specifically with articles covering USSDA prospects, NPSL prospects, PDL prospects and NCAA D-1 college soccer prospects. One common thread with American prospects at the grassroots levels is the overwhelming majority that have significant experience, a track record of games played and consistent development. While this has grown to become the norm it didn’t magically sprout up overnight, with the U.S. Soccer system taking years to create a streamlined route. However, while there are still issues within the system with respect to the area of prospect development, the foundation for growth has been established.
With this article, PXI wanted take a closer look at how soccer development is shaping up within our own backyard. To help with this, we’ve spoken to a number of coaches, organizers, technical directors and others in prominent positions within grassroots soccer in Canada. Within the province of Ontario, there was a big shift in 2014 in restructuring the education of young players and coaches with the implementation of Long Term Player Development (LTPD) and leagues like League One Ontario (L1O) and Ontario Player Development League (OPDL).
Now a year or so since clubs and organizers putting LTPD into practice, there still seems to be some confusion from the general soccer public over what it is, from the coaches over how to implement it and from boards/organizers over how it all fits together. To get a better idea on all this, PXI spoke with Joel McDonald and Garfield Vernon, McDonald is a coach and technical director with over 28 years experience and is one of the leaders in the implementation/development of both OPDL and LTPD while Vernon is an experienced youth coach and currently coaches North York Hearts.
So what exactly is LTPD? McDonald strips away all the technical jargon and gives it to us straight.
“To me LTPD simply means is doing the right thing, in the right amount, at the right time and with the right kid… that’s a lot of “rights” to get right, but that’s what it is. It’s about being player centric, treating each player in the way they need to be treated. I find in soccer we don’t do a very good job at giving players individual attention in soccer, we focus too much on team.”
Although team sports help build certain skills, there has been a lack of importance placed on individual thinking and embracing of players bringing different ideas to the field of play that has become fairly concerning. Arguably of all the teams sports, individual creativity and development of players intelligence (i.e. “Soccer IQ”) is most important in soccer. This approach of focusing on the bigger, stronger and more athletic player has held back North American soccer as a whole, and specifically Canadian soccer from reaching its true potential.
Prior to LTPD, grassroots soccer within Canada held intangibles in the highest regard, players with power, speed and coaches that win. Speaking with Garfield Vernon, he saw this as being very prevalent in the early days and something that seems to be changing.
“Before the OPDL and LTPD, a lot of coaches were more concerned about winning league game than the actual development of players. Filling the trophy cabinet and padding CV’s was top priority and seen as the measuring stick rather than the achievement of growing a player that could adapt and thrive in any system as they progress through the ranks based off skills acquired because of your coaching.” Vernon continued.
“This led to coaches heaping verbal abuse towards the kids, shattering their confidence and essentially taking their creativity away. With LTPD comes an ethics course, something that was unheard of before and I believe is good for the game at the grassroots level. I’ve seen coaches yell at their players if they make a certain move or show any bit of individual thinking and lose the ball. This is a big reason why Canadian soccer lacks players with creativity or individual skill.”
So far there is a lot more good coming from LTPD than first thought, and the formation of OPDL has been welcomed my most, but one of the main sticking points has been the rule of no score, no points and no standings at the U-13 level. The intent was positive, but it has received quite a bit of pushback. Vernon has seen it impact it has impacted coaches and players both positively and negatively, but has thought of a solution that could get the best of both worlds.
“I find those rules have taken away a lot of the competitiveness away from the game. They do help the coaches focus more on development than those previous years, but it does take away that push the players need to get to the next level.”
“In my opinion they could’ve implemented a two tier system, where you institute those rules within league games only and keep major tournaments with scoring, trophies etc… Tournaments used to be a treat for the players, getting to play and compete against teams from different cities or provinces, but now that they’ve switched to what is called “festival style” tournaments with no scoring or trophies the players coming up now are developing a complacency that impacts both their development and when there are enough players with that approach it hinders the progress the club is trying to make.”
A welcomed positive for Canadian grassroots soccer has been the stricter guidelines that clubs need to adhere to if they want to join a high performance youth league such as OPDL. With the amount of youth teams that have lost money over the years, unable to properly foster the growth of youth players or keep up with the development of the game, the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA) has raised its standards as Joel McDonald can attest to within his role as an overseer of the club selection process.
“It’s a very rigorous process now, with the three key areas being Technical, Financial and Administration. Clubs or organizations interested in joining OPDL need to provide evidence that they can meet the best practices in each area or at the very least show that they could be viable clubs and handle the development of OPDL programs at multiple age levels. The clubs that get selected are those that can meet or show that as they develop they can meet benchmarks in all three phases, especially in the technical department.”
The other aspect of the game within Canadian grassroots that’s always a hot button issue is coaching education/development. With the majority of youth coaches being volunteers helping out within their local community, and thus not having the time or desire to learn everything needed to be a successful youth soccer coach, players with the potential skill or desire to excel in the game end up not receiving the proper guidance that could get them to the next level. As McDonald points out, while Canada is good at teaching young coaches the basics it has dropped off in giving them practical experience.
“It’s improving slowly, but I find in general that we [Canada] have fallen behind. So much needs to change and it’s really tough. Coaching is like anything else, you can read and learn about it as much as you want but you’ll only get better by doing it. I find right now in Canada we only do the coach education part of coach development and it isn’t until you get to the licensing system where you see a little bit of coach training, by that time it’s too late.” McDonald continues.
“There was a point when Canada was a leader, the NCCP [National Coaching Certification Program] was world renowned for the content and delivery about 20-25 years ago now. When I went through the coaching education system there was Level 1, 2 and 3, it took me six years to complete all three levels. I had to do my technical course, a theory course and coach for a certain amount of time and have the club I coached for sign off on that. Now, if you can time it properly, here in Ontario you can get the equivalent of all that [Active Start, Learn To Train, Fundamentals and Soccer For Life] in two weekends. From 6 years to two weekends! You’ve basically gone from Filet mignon to a Big Mac, everything condensed, fast and cookie cutter.”
The reason for this fast track approach to both coaching and player development seems to have been and in some ways still is during this early stage of LTPD is due to an overall state of panic that slowly works its way up, parents of players worried their kids aren’t being involved enough (using goals as the main measurement), coaches concerned about their jobs if too many kids leave their team (rather than how many players they do develop), provincial organizations nervous over not having enough coaches (rather than nurturing promising coaches) and the CSA feeling the pressure from the different provincial organizations.
One way of helping stem the problem from the coaching side of things is for the provincial organizations assigning promising coaches that have completed the various programs to the clubs. According to Vernon, this especially needs to be dealt with in Ontario due to the sheer amount of players, clubs and within the province… numbers that far exceed any other program.
“I strongly feel that the OSA has a duty to assign coaches that have gone through the program to the clubs. As it stands right now, they’re leaving it up to the individual clubs to develop their own coaches, but not all the clubs are financially capable. For example, they some clubs are unable to send the coach away to get his coaching licence upgraded, especially at the higher levels. It’s the OSA’s responsibility to make sure these clubs succeed. They should also be the ones paying the coaches, instead of the individual clubs, and should have more of a say in how the coaches progress and the experience level of coaches that are at each one of the clubs.”
As the OPDL within Ontario and LTPD throughout Canada grows, a few things will need to happen in order for soccer within the country is to hit the next level both domestically and internationally. The first would be getting all the provinces on the same page under LTPD and applying the same standards and practices throughout the entire country, allowing Canadian soccer to grow a better quality and more technically proficient player while also seeing fewer players fall through the cracks. The other aspect would be instituting a Canada-wide high performance youth league similarly to how the United States have done with USSDA, something that would be a significant aid in not only helping grow the game but give them valuable playing time at a key point in a soccer players development. While much of the talk has throughout Canadian soccer has been instituting a professional league at a Division 3 level and getting Canadian players meaningful playing time in the wake of them seeing limited minutes at the MLS and NASL level, or a Canadian women’s league equal to NWSL, it’s my opinion that the talk should be shifted first towards building a significant country-wide youth league for men and women. While both McDonald and Vernon agree this is a significant and necessary step, McDonald points out aspects Canada need to get right throughout all provinces before an attempt is made.
“I think there’s a lot of different ways to skin that particular cat, and I think you need that standards based, high performance youth league coast-to-coast first before attempting to go higher, but the fact is I don’t think we’re all doing it all right yet across the country. I think the OPDL here in Ontario is an example of a mandate that the CSA as asked for from its provinces, to create a standards based provincial league and eventually have those league clean across Canada in a manner that makes sense.”
“That has always been the issue, whether it has been the National Championships for provincial teams or club teams, it has been trying to get it to all fit together so players aren’t overlooked or missed. Where we’re still struggling is to provide enough options to players, if they can’t go this route (due to finances, location etc…) there should still be other ways they can get to a higher level without there just being one route to make it.”
Overall Canadian grassroots soccer still has some things to work on, particularly within Ontario where statistically the majority of its future professional and international players reside, but the use of LTPD does seem to slowly be catching on. In my discussions with McDonald, Vernon and others involves within Canadian grassroots soccer, I’ve come to a few conclusions that would only stand to benefit the country’s soccer program at its most vital level. Firstly, I believe there should be a monthly review of LTPD to make sure there is a uniform understanding and implementation with no provincial soccer associations, youth leagues or clubs “free-styling” it’s approach. I also believe in adapting a similarly strict/rigorous approach to coaching development as has been done when selecting clubs to join OPDL, this will make sure players are not only getting fit and proper coaching but help the country produce more quality coaches that can hopefully make it to the professional level.
If/When Canada reaches the point where there’s uniform deployment of LTPD across Canada, viable high performance youth leagues in most provinces and a USSDA style youth league within Canada, the next step for me would be taking this approach towards the international stage and seriously considering a Canadian National Youth Residency Program or “Centre of Excellence”. I’ve joked from time to time due me being from Brampton and the amount of Canadian players coming out of the Brampton/Mississauga area, about building a Canadian Youth Residency complex within the suburb for all the players to train, play and grow up together. This sounds like a crazy idea now, but if Canadian soccer was actually able to organize itself on all those aforementioned levels the idea wouldn’t be as farfetched.
Being a basketball fan, and looking at the leap Canadian basketball has taken over a relatively short period of time with a generation of player at top NCAA D-1 programs and in the NBA, I can see soccer going the same route with Canadians playing at a good level domestically whether it be within MLS, NASL or abroad.