ABSTRACT
The most important variables for measuring performance in soccer are physical condition, technical skills and tactical performance (Rösch et al., 2000). As player's physical fitness capacity during puberty is mainly related to player's maturity (Mendez-Villanueva et al., 2011), it has been suggested that the focus in youth soccer should be placed on ball-handling and game skills (Lindquist and Bangsbo, 1991). Most of the studies concerning the development of ball-handling skills have been carried out on youth teams in professional soccer clubs (e.g. Malina et al., 2005, Huijgen et al., 2010 ) However, youth soccer in Finland has been based on the ‘All Stars’ ideology since the year 2000. This ideology emphasizes that every child on a team has the right to participate and guarantees equal opportunities for each player regardless of their abilities. For example, the rules of All Stars administered by the FA of Finland obligates that each player must have equal playing time during the game and no league tables are allowed in the age groups under 12 years of age. Therefore, the aims of the present study were: (1) to examine changes in the rate of dribbling and passing skill development between ages 10 to 15 years in both genders; (2) to examine the differences in dribbling and passing skills between genders; and (3) to examine how young soccer players dribbling and passing skills have changed across a decade (between 2000–2010) when players training background changed from the system that emphasized competitiveness to ‘All Stars’ which emphasizes participation.
