WESTSIDE UNITED
Thank you for visiting Westside United Soccer Program's web site! We are a family-friendly, parent-driven, and professional trainer-powered group. Westside UTD welcomes your ideas and most importantly your willingness to get more involved and make our player development program even more successful!
Player Development Select Soccer Program
Contents
Partner Clubs
Program Overview
The Westside United Soccer Program (WUTD) is based in Seattle, Washington.
WUTD is an advanced player development program that was formed in partnership with four soccer clubs of the Seattle Youth Soccer Association (SYSA): Ballard Soccer Club, Magnolia Soccer Club, Woodland Soccer Club, and Queen Anne Soccer Club. Ballard Soccer Club is the sponsor of WUTD. SYSA is a Non-Profit Organization formed in 1969. It promotes the game of soccer and serves over 13,000 boys and girls in Seattle and Shoreline in King County of Washington State USA. SYSA is a member of the Washington State Youth Soccer Association (WSYSA). Through our sponsorship by the Ballard Soccer Club, we are affiliated with the US Youth Soccer Association (USYSA) which in turn is affiliated with FIFA.
The four SYSA clubs’ recreational soccer programs are the primary feeders to the WUTD program. We are proud to be associated with these clubs and their players.
Our sincere thanks to the managers of these and other SYSA clubs for their dedication and commitment to the game in allowing us to providing a community-based advanced player development environment for the children to develop and grow.
The Westside United Soccer Program provides professional training and player development to qualified players to assist them in advancing to play at the highest levels of play they can achieve.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Westside United Soccer Program via our website www.westsideunited.org
Philosophy
General
The Westside United program is designed around a long-term development of the individual player. We structure it to first provide our boys and girls with a fundamental base in technical skills and ball mastery. As their technical skills competence grows along with their confidence, we instruct them on using this competence to integrate into a team environment that adds elements such as tactical skills and strategies. As their technical skill mastery develops, so too will their understanding of and appreciation for the game of soccer. At the older ages, the focus of the instruction becomes building on those techniques with advanced training.
As most soccer coaches recognize today, the game is the best teacher. There is no way around it … playing a lot develops players faster. Practices are game related, economical in nature and have high activity levels. The more touches on the ball a player has (both during and outside of practices and matches), the faster they will develop. The more game-like situations a player experiences, the more decisions they will need to make. Some will be good and many “less good”. This iterative process with immediate real-time feedback from the “game” to the player improves both the players’ technical skills and their decision-making quality. Since good decisions follow “less good” decisions in the past, our coaches and trainers endeavor to make practice and game situations an emotionally “safe” zone for our players to experiment. This will permit our players to take risks which will result in long-term success. We will endeavor to provide constructive feedback and coaching points throughout.
Finally, we will integrate speed, agility and flexibility training into our instruction to aid with strength development and injury prevention.
Our base for program delivery is a synergistic combination of professional trainers and coaches that demonstrate superior technical skill proficiency coupled with parents and families that volunteer to contribute to the program commensurate with their unique talents. We are a family-friendly, parent-driven, and professional trainer-powered group!
Our families and players share values, set high development standards, receive expert instruction, work hard on soccer but also maintain a balance with other interests and have fun in the process.
Suitability to the Westside Program
There are various player development and select soccer programs available to families. Each has its benefits and tradeoffs. Westside United’s program is ideally suited to players and families:
- Having a passion to work hard at developing soccer skills.
- Seeking access to more competitive play and professional trainers focused on player development.
- Looking for a balance of advanced soccer training and other non-soccer interests.
- Appreciative of an intimate, “local” community-centered team resulting in a more family-friendly practice/game commute schedule.
Some have properly coined the Westside United approach “PDL-Lite”. It actively engages the player development without the associated tradeoffs in a PDL program. It is designed to accommodate those soccer players that aspire to play at the highest level of competition they can achieve while still participating in interests outside of soccer.
Balancing Non-Soccer Activities
Westside United recognizes the value of and encourages its players to maintain participation in activities outside of soccer. Most of our players will participate in other sports or other after-school activities while playing on Westside United teams. We do ask, however, that in situations where there are conflicting activities resulting in non-attendance at Westside United activities, that the families decisions about which activities to attend are balanced across the conflicting commitments.
During spring and early summer, it is recognized that some players’ practice attendance may vary based on these activity conflicts. It is expected that during league play (fall/winter), participation in the Westside United soccer teams will be foremost to other activities. We believe the right to play on a Select Soccer team is earned, and we expect players (and their parents) to make serious commitments to attend practices and matches. Parents should always notify coaches in advance of any known non-attendance at a team activity.
Game Playing Time
Westside United’s primary goal is to aggressively develop our players’ skills. At the U11 and U12 levels, adequate game playing time is essential to player development. 50% of game time should be considered a minimum requirement at these ages, at least during regular season matches. However, consideration will be given to players showing greater effort in practices.
Year-Round Playing
Westside United families are passionate about soccer. Overall, all teams play about 9 months out of each year. The league season for boys & girls U11 and above is from September to December. All of our teams participate in tournaments over the summer and begin practicing shortly after tryouts (typically in March). The league season culminates in State Cup where all competitive teams entering are initially randomly matched in a bracket (U11-U12). Those teams that win advance in an elimination tournament until eventually a State Champion is chosen for each age/gender group. State Cup begins in January and depending on how far Westside teams go may result in the State Cup Championship games in early March.
However, there will be scheduled downtime periods throughout the year to avoid a cycle of close to year-round play. This is to ensure our players and families have the necessary downtime to maintain their passion for Westside United and for the game of soccer in general.
Additional Information
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Westside United Soccer Program via our website www.westsideunited.org
Ballard Westside UTD is a partnership of the Ballard, Magnolia, Woodland and Queen Anne clubs of the Seattle Youth Soccer Association (SYSA). Our purpose is advanced player development for our members, provided in a community-centric environment.
