Why Your Kid Looks Better in Training Than in Games
Almost every soccer parent has watched it. The kid flies through the cones at training, beats everyone in the small-sided games, and then on Saturday it looks like a different player is wearing the shirt.
The instinct is to add reps. More touches, more ball mastery, another session. Christian Silva, a former pro who runs Silva Academy in Florida, says that is usually the wrong fix. In his words, the gap comes down to one word: perception. Reading the game. And as he puts it, "It's not something you can just rep your way out."
Why Does My Kid Play Better in Practice Than in Games?
Silva gives an example from his own environment. A player moves up a level and suddenly the dribbling that worked last season falls apart. Nothing happened to the dribbling. What changed is the time available. "The problem is it takes you three seconds to get ahold of the ball, and at this level you only have 1.5 seconds." The first touch has to get cleaner, the movement before the ball arrives has to get sharper, and the player has to recognize the moment earlier. The skill is fine. The player is not getting to the point where the skill can be used.
That is why he tells even his most technical players that he is "not super impressed with technique." His line is that the skill isn't the skill; it's the recognition of when to do the skill. Cone work builds the first half. Only the game builds the second. Or, as he says, you can beat Cone FC every week and not do much on Saturday.
For parents, this changes what to look for from the sideline. Not whether your kid pulled off the move. Whether they had the intent to try it, whether they scanned before the ball came, whether they got their first touch out of their feet fast enough to have a decision to make at all. Those are the things that transfer.
What parents can do
Watch for intent and scanning, not tricks, when your kid moves up a level
Ask whether extra training connects to what their team actually asks them to do
Let them play unstructured games where the 1.5 seconds is real
Adapted from Episode 32. Why Your Kid Looks Better in Training Than Games, with Christian Silva.