Avila Paradigm

Avila Paradigm v2

Spacing, The First Frontier

That famous Star Trek phrase goes, “Space—the final frontier,” but at Avila, spacing is the first frontier.

For too long, youth soccer has clung to outdated principles. The real challenge in playing great soccer isn’t just about mastering skills or physical fitness—it’s about understanding and adjusting one’s spacing.

Scrimmage is the key. Players can’t learn the art of spacing without frequent play. It’s through regular scrimmages that they become aware of their surroundings. You can’t adjust your spacing effectively and in a timely way if you haven’t been put in a position to learn about space. By that, we mean small-sided 4v4 scrimmages, which are essential for encouraging players to find their own solutions.

Today, young players often get limited scrimmage time during their weekly, adult-controlled practices. Coaches tend to focus on skills, fitness, or pre-designed tactics, where thinking is discouraged, and following instructions becomes the norm. This approach trains kids to execute rather than think, leading to dire ramifications

“Many children are like a toolbox; they have the skills and physical tools to do the job, but they just don’t know how to build a goal.” - Coach Eryck Avila

The order of things matters. In countries that consistently win the World Cup, young kids scrimmage frequently, often just in the streets. This environment is their first space, the perfect frontier. Here, while just playing, their skill development soars, but only after their tactical awareness improves—because the order matters. Many moves are actually born from situations in a game.

Free from adult intervention, children first play soccer and then seek out solutions in the form of skills as the game presents them with options repeatedly. This natural progression is how we should approach youth club training.  In this order:

“Soccer is improvisational. It requires constant adjustment. A child's brain needs to be like a NASA super computer, calculating multiple random factors instantly. And so the core thought that all great players need to develop, centers around how to adjust their spacing to exploit time and space, not just for themselves but for their teammates. It's only then that physical skills and physical fitness are meant to enhance the child's awareness and decision making. “

Today, it seems that parents and coaches often prioritize tangible, measurable improvements like skills and fitness. However, in doing so, they overlook the “natural” order of things and the core challenge—spacing. Spacing is the first frontier, and scrimmaging is your spaceship. It’s the mechanism to elevate your kids to the next level of performance.

For the USMNT to excel internationally, embracing innovative methods, such as the unique way that we scrimmage at Avila Soccer, could be transformative. At Avila, we structure our scrimmages to specifically develop Soccer IQ with signature rules that foster a possession style of play. The United States already boasts some of the greatest athletes in the world, with world-class soccer skills. The issue lies in our coaching methods, which need to evolve. We must adopt a new model such as the Avila Paradigm that trusts in the natural genius of our youth.

The Avila Theoretical Model

SCAN FREQUENCY

Small-sided scrimmages force players to develop their Scan Frequency. This should really be the first step in any player’s development. This is what happens in nature when there is no adult intervention. Kids first play soccer and then they start to seek out solutions in the form of skills. The order matters.

SKILL

For many, SKILL development is the obvious first step in the development cycle for many players. But, it needs to be secondary to playing small-sided games first. Because many moves are born from situations in the game itself. As a player develops their visual perception and recognizes certain affordances that the game is giving them–they learn which skills to use and when. Without context, skills development is useless.

AWARENESS

AWARENESS is the prerequisite to Intuition. Also known as Scan Assembly and is a crucial milestone where it’s now evident the player is able to engage in basic memory-segmented scanning. In other words, they see:

the image they are viewing live

the image they scanned a moment earlier

And can combine these two things nearly simultaneously to make plays others may not have thought possible.

INTUITION

Developing one’s INTUITION is the key to becoming an impact player. It’s when the player now has the experience to engage in Scan Orchestration. Which is the next level above Scan Assembly. Cognitively,  now the player is capable of Advanced Memory Segmented Scanning. Meaning they routinely combine three images simultaneously to make a great play:

the image they are viewing live

the image they scanned a moment earlier and are keeping fresh in their mind

memories of past situations like the one they are in now

PREDICTIVE MOMENTUM

To truly have a sense of PREDICTIVE MOMENTUM, the player’s intuition must extend from not just the pass sequence but throughout the entire play sequence. From when your teammate passes you the ball, you receive it, you pass it somewhere else, and you move somewhere else. It’s not just about being an expert at what to do when they receive the ball but about where to run to next to be the most efficient.

SOCCER IQ

The ultimate goal is to have a high SOCCER IQ. Some people call this decision-making. It’s the tactical decisions you make. For example, how well you are engaging your teammates, adjusting your pacing of the pass, the spacing of your body, the position of your hips, and disguising your intention.