Sessions & Camps at vitesse

Key Notes for 8th – 12th Grades

Philosophy and Structure

To Vitesse, development is a journey. It is our role to meet each player at their level of development.

We embody the development of CHARACTER of each player.

We believe the pillars of success and happiness are the traits of demonstrating absolute respect, being grateful and welcoming truth above personal pride.

We believe these are the true essential skills to be learned and deserves continuous attention for affirmation and improvement.

For this reason, we embrace ‘Development through Intensity’ as we continuously seek to expose the vulnerabilities for upward growth.

The core value at Vitesse Soccer is community. 

“Having grown up in that environment for 20 years, I am convinced that the concept of ‘community’ allowed me to play at the professional level.” -Michael Louter

The Vitesse Soccer culture wants to be known for its members interacting in accordance as in a family — respecting, supporting and celebrating each success.

To help in this process, there is a stationary ‘Faith in Soccer,’ where prior to walking on the field, players can reflect on their faith.

For families who want to help to enrich the atmosphere, at the field, there is a task chart ‘Friends of Vitesse’ outlining the club’s needs.

Communicate You Care

At Vitesse, we prioritize the development of players as follows:  Foremost, when a player connects with their playing personality it results in a life of incredible power and grace.  Furthermore, we want players to equip with a skilled personality, which is necessary when navigating different situations with different people.  To me, a player with a skilled personality applies the principles as being respectful, having integrity, taking responsibility, being considerate, being competitive, being enjoyable and being grateful.   Once these traits are evident in a person, the technical skills are easy to acquire.   

The main premise of personality and character development is through ‘playing.’   The role of the coach is to educate while always respecting the freedom of each person by allowing them to grow into the player and person they aspire to be!  The role of the parent is to give positive meaning to the experience. This is achieved by interpreting and presenting everything in a hopeful, optimistic, or constructive way. 

 Parents sometimes say ‘but the player doesn’t understand.’   My reply is always, ‘but the things that they do understand, they don’t do.’    My failure in coaching is not giving the understanding, but that I somehow emotionally shut them down when they need to perform.   I fail to ask the right questions helping the player to work through the situation.       

 Parents sometimes say ‘but the player has no confidence.’   My reply is always, ‘perhaps we define confidence differently.  We cannot have confidence in outcomes (if we could, there would be no contest).  It helps when parents tell their child something specific that the child can have confidence in.   For instance, I tell my child “I love seeing you engaged.”   An expression that might shed light is,  When the archer shoots for the love of shooting, she has the skills; shooting for the gold, she goes blind.    

 The trap is when parents want to coach their child on effort because they believe that is the key factor to success.  Frustration of the parent comes across as being judgmental to the child, creating guilt, disappointment and shame.   While the parent frames it on ‘effort,’ it feels they want to be seen for ‘success.’    Inevitably, the child learns to give the appearance of effort without ever committing to the action.  Acceptable is, asking the player with curiosity “On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate your effort?   What would make it a 9?”

 Parents sometimes say ‘but we don’t win.’   My reply is always, ‘but by different measures, every player is a great success.   Our failure is that we refuse to call out what the player is doing well.’   The final result from the game is not about what the scoreboard says, but what we make it to be.  It only has power when you call it out.   For instance, “I remember you for the courage it takes to take the penalty kick, not if you scored or missed.”   

 At Vitesse, everybody MUST communicate as it reflects if you care or not care.   When we stop communication, we are doomed.   It is a hard rule.  Players who listen will learn that communication is not about right or wrong, but about energy.   Communication lies at the heart of taking responsibility.  We will continue to improve communication as long as we journey together.  Parents and coaches are under the same scrutiny.   The feeling is right, when we acknowledge, consider, validate, provide or express.   

 For parents, the rules for communication are:  

 1) Acknowledge messages.   For instance, I reply with a emoji.   That will not perse mean I agree with the message.   It only means that I care about the issue.

(2) Reply within 24 hours if you will be at game attendance or not.  

 (3) Demonstrate consideration in helping with other teams, when they are short on players. The principle here is while we try to make it work for you, you have to try to make it work for others.

 (4)  During games, provide positive reinforcement from the sidelines. 

 (5) After the game, only validate what your child did well.

 (6) Bring closure after each game by expressing gratitude to the coaches.

Statistically, about 10% will acknowledge messages; 70% will timely reply when planning for game attendance; less than 5% will consider helping others and about 5% will express gratitude.   When addressed cordially what prevents more engagement from the parent, the response is usually ‘in this sports culture we are expected to comply.’

The best environment for enjoyment and growth is based on the caring mindset of demonstrating support of others.  Caring involves taking initiative to understand and address the needs of others, which might sometimes mean not following rules.   To the contrary, the worst environment is a structure of compliance often resulting in passive attitude and responding with politically correct answers.   With compliance the energy is negative, the effort is low, coaches get baited to take responsibility for all the aspects and the team is spineless, that is, there are no principles (we kind of feel our way through it).  When we operate on mindset to comply, no explanation will be good enough to make you understand the intricate concepts of soccer.

The trap of being compliant is believing it signifies responsibility and cooperation usually to avoid negative consequences or be in favor with a person seen in power.  We believe our role is best served by ‘being quiet.’   This approach has exactly the opposite effect that the parents intended.  ‘Being quiet’ drains the energy from 100% to 40%.  It does not provide feedback, it is felt as uncommitted as ‘it does not matter’ or ‘we do not care.’   It is very difficult to navigate forward.  Therefore, it is important that we express ourselves on matters we care about.  We are a team of leaders.    We are guided and abided by principles.  We don’t act on power, but on caring.  When you like it, you say it.   When you don’t like it, you say it.  When we care, the energy is elevated from 100% to a sustainable 110%.  Players will play better than their best.   Magic will happen.   

The best way we show we care is through asking questions with curiosity.  Asking questions with curiosity gives the players the choice to be who they want to be, rather than what you want them or assume them to be!   Players need to be thinking about and realize from any situation they can move forward.  What can you do to make it fun?   What are you taking responsibility for?   What rule would you suggest that makes the experience better?   Help players to remember they are intelligent, they can problem solve, they are the creators of the present moment.

In soccer, I found, when we care, mistakes don’t show up as a mistake or fault.  It appears to be part of the flow.  When we care, we create a new reality for what it can be, not just reacting to a stimulus heavily prone by negativity and confirmation bias.   When we care, players have insurmountable energy, that is, they go through the trenches, because ‘it matters.’

We cultivate enthusiasm by dwelling on what’s good each day.   The culprit in soccer is that we get funnelled in just seeing the score, thus dismissing  what we are doing well.  It is critical in the role of the parent that we address everything as an opportunity for growth and enjoyment.   This is nothing different for a family who went to Disney World and only talk about the rain during their stay.    We instill the meaning of the trip by hammering home what made it great.   

For the puzzle to connect, players need to play, coaches need to educate and parents need to create positive meaning.   For personality to develop, players need the freedom to play, yet, with an accountability towards positioning and playing with a caring and competitive attitude.  Caring is the oil that drives the engine.  It will give players the permission to enjoy, the energy to compete and the courage to take responsibility for their mistakes.     

Michael Louter

Vitesse Soccer