The purpose of the youth player curriculum is to guide North Hunterdon Soccer Club
in focusing on the objective of “player development” by clearly outlining the
developmental progression of players across age groups. This will enable the
club to provide a benchmark in order to develop a coaching consistency within
the volunteers and non-volunteers working with the youth soccer players within
the Club.
The information provided is based on research and practice in child psychology
and child development, child education and learning theory, physiology as well
as observation and youth soccer coaching experience. The information has been
sourced from US Youth Soccer “Best Practices” guidelines, New Jersey Youth Soccer
and various other State Youth Soccer associations.
The club fully understands that every child varies in their development and these
are only guidelines. The guidelines are meant to be flexible as all players of the
same age are certainly not at the same developmental level. It is important that
we challenge all players at a level that befits their ability. One of our goals at
NHSC is to fuel the passion and love of the ‘beautiful game’ and this guide will
hopefully allow the club to improve the soccer experience for all our members.
