In general, the long-term stages of sports training are organized as follows in most sports disciplines:

• Phase 1: Regular and nonspecific sports practice (up to 6-8 years), in which the contents to work on would focus on basic motor skills (displacement, turns, balances, jumps and manipulation of objects) and extensive psychomotor training and varied, always through games.
• Phase 2: General multipurpose training (8-10 years) in which the predominant contents will be the work of specific motor skills, extensive coordination and perceptual training and rich technical experience. At these ages the child is in optimal physical and psychological conditions to achieve a correct learning of the technique and an adequate muscle development. At this stage we will build the coordinating and perceptual-decisional prerequisites necessary for comprehensive sports training.

To know the psychomotor characteristics of our players according to their age and the sensitive phases for the motor development of the different basic physical capacities are essential aspects that any coach should know in order to carry out a correct training planning and to favor the adequate sports development of your players. In the case of soccer, we will divide the player’s sports development into four main phases (basic psychomotor training, sports initiation, sports specialization and sports performance).

BASIC PSYCHOMOTIVE PHASE – 6 to 10 years

Children’s characteristics

• Start of school age
• There are no differences between boys and girls
• Very active behavior
• Enthusiasm for physical games and sports
• Good physical balance
• Very appropriate stage for physical learning due to its morphological characteristics (light, thin …)
• The nervous system is completed by 10 years

Contents that we must work

• Age favorable for the acquisition of motor skills (walking, running, jumping, throwing, receiving, hitting)
• Increase the repertoire of motor gestures
• Improve coordination skills
• Multidisciplinary training

Teaching methodology

• Integrative character
• Mainly use games
• Encourage the player to find solutions to different situations
• Pay attention to individual differences
• Order the training activities in a logical way:
  • From easy to difficult
  • From simple to complex
• Give positive feedback to children.

SPORTS INITIATION PHASE – 10 to 12 years

Children’s characteristics

• Second school age
• Increased growth in width
• Harmony in body proportions
• High body control
• Increased strength with respect to the slight increase in height and weight
• Excellent learning ability

Contents that we must work

• It is the best age to learn
• Teach basic and more elaborate sports techniques
• Expand the gestural repertoire. It is important that technical gestures are learned correctly
• Do not automate erroneous learning, since it will hinder later learning
• Begin to interrelate motor skills and coordinative skills

Teaching methodology

• Continue using games
• Influence the general and segmental dynamic coordination
• Adapt perceptual capacities to new temporal and spatial parameters
• Design tasks that help children to adapt their motor development to their growth and maturation

SPORTS SPECIALIZATION PHASE – 12 to 16 years

Children’s characteristics

• Morphological changes: sexual differences appear and childhood structures disappear.
• Great increase in height and weight.
• Psychological weakness and emotional instability
• Increased educational demands that increase the psychological pressure on the player

Contents that we must work

• Specialization by position in technical-tactical work
• Increase in the number of repetitions as a measure to improve gestures and improve physical condition.
• Facilitate varied learning situations.
• Increase the requirement in the effectiveness of gestures and tactical solutions.
• Physical work is carried out in conjunction with technical-tactical training.
• Increase the training volume.

Teaching methodology

• The great increase in height and weight causes a deterioration in the force-weight ratio, which causes a decrease in coordination.
• Increases the difficulty to control technical gestures, slows down the development of coordination.
• Maximum training capacity for physical condition.
• Difficulty in learning new technical actions and in consolidating and correcting technical elements already learned.
• Player restructuring stage

SPORTS PERFORMANCE PHASE – 16 to 18 years

Children’s characteristics

• Completion of the motor body and personality characteristics.
• Start of normal performance development.
• Height and weight parameters are stopped from 16 years of age.
• Balance in body proportions.
• Psychic stabilization and elevation of the intellectual level.
• Increases the ability to perceive and interpret the game.

Contents that we must work

• Second most suitable moment for learning
• Increases physical and psychological capacity, allowing to withstand greater training loads.
• End of adolescence, we can use more complex content and training methods typical of professional sports

Teaching methodology

• Specialized work on physical condition.
• Increases the volume and intensity of workouts.
• Maximum technical and tactical efficiency is reached.
• Training in specific game positions (specialization)
• We encourage the learning of situations similar to the real game.