The complete case study is available in the book From Paper to Practice: How to Develop Your Club’s Developmental DNA, authored by Pablo Toledo, founder of Plus One Soccer. Below is a very brief explanation of the general structure.
The Problem
When I took on the role of Director of the Development Project at Rush Soccer, I faced a challenging yet fascinating reality: I was dealing with the largest youth soccer club network in the world — over 120 clubs, 55,000 players, and 2,600 coaches across multiple continents — but without a unified developmental project.
Each club operated autonomously. Rush is neither a franchise nor a hierarchical structure: clubs affiliate voluntarily, with no formal obligation to apply a common methodology. This meant that any proposal had to be built on legitimacy, practical usefulness, and the creation of a sense of belonging.
Methodologically, the situation was also complex: there were documents, values, and concepts circulating for years, but they were scattered, disorganized, without a clear structure to organize or connect them to the coaches’ and players’ practice. There was no clear identity about how to train, how to play, or how to develop players.
The challenge was clear: create a methodological model with a strong but flexible identity, capable of being voluntarily and functionally adopted by clubs in extremely diverse contexts.
The Proposed Solution
The strategy was based on three central pillars:
Methodological design
Implementation through practical tools
Global progress measurement based on these tools
Methodological Design
The first step was to organize, unify, and complete the institutional proposal. This was structured into four methodological layers:
Institutional Development Philosophy
The central document was The Heart of the Rush, answering six key questions: Who we are, why we do what we do, what we believe, how we want to play, how we want to develop players, and how we support them. Its role was to condense Rush’s foundational ideas into a single text that served as a developmental compass.
Laying Model
A playing style was defined to represent the institution’s values: offensive, intense, brave, adaptable. A Rush team always seeks to attack, even without the ball. The model was built from guiding ideas and playing principles, not rigid tactical schemes.
Technical-Tactical Blueprint
A pedagogical sequence was established organized by developmental stage, with differentiated technical and tactical priorities for each phase of player development. It was structured in three blocks: technical fundamentals, general technical-tactical behaviors, and specific behaviors by position or role./p>
Curricula and Guidelines by Stage
Each stage has its own document detailing pedagogical principles, priorities, training and match suggestions, and a basic framework to plan sessions, all aligned with the institutional philosophy
A key idea was the Blue Thread: eight principles that must be present in every session regardless of age or context. These include aspects such as competence, decision-making, player protagonism, and emotional stimulation.
Implementation
Implementation focused on creating concrete, accessible tools that facilitated the model’s adoption by clubs without imposing rigid structures.
The main tools developed were:
Rush Soccer Development: We began by creating a department specifically dedicated to supporting clubs in the network on methodological aspects (video analysis, mental health, coach education, etc.) with its own website modeled as a 'one stop shop' — capable of summarizing, simplifying, and directing users to the service they sought.
Rush Coaching Manual: A platform compiling all the club’s methodological content (philosophy, playing model, curricula, model sessions, support materials), available to coaches and methodological directors throughout the network.
Train at Home: A remote individual training program for players, especially designed to increase practice volume at home. It includes weekly plans, technical activities, and motivational challenges for players of all ages.
Way Coaching Licenses: A proprietary platform with coach education courses based on the club’s methodology, with a global agreement to achieve minimum certification levels per organization.
Specialization Courses for Players: Created for players aged 13 and above, designed to support them through positional specialization stages, providing organized and engaging audiovisual material to help them understand on-field concepts faster and accelerate learning.
Among others
These tools not only enabled the model’s implementation but also created a shared ecosystem where all stakeholders (coaches, coordinators, families) could clearly understand and apply the proposal.
The Result
After developing the methodology and tools, the next step was to measure impact over time to determine if progress was being made and if the implementation generated a virtuous cycle. For this, relevant aspects to measure were defined, with ambitious yet realistic goals.
Key measurement areas established were:
- Whether training sessions adhered to the “Rush Way” method, if matches were managed following established guidelines, if club culture and traditions were present, and if clubs completed coach education courses. After one year, we observed that 1,150 coaches had completed or were undertaking Rush Way courses.
- Use of the official Rush curriculum. After two years, over 80% of clubs were active users of the Rush Coaching Manual tool
- Impact on the increase in total weekly playing hours. After one year, 34% of clubs actively used the Train at Home program to support their players during periods of harsh weather.
Measuring these areas was not simple; the main measurement source was data from the same implementation tools. Although it was recognized that ideally a professional team would periodically visit clubs, this was not possible due to budget constraints.
We also sought to unify communication and management through a platform called 360 Player, which would allow match and result tracking, facilitating centralized control and monitoring of club philosophies.
With the collected data, we developed an annual Global Technical Report comparing club performance and adherence, similar to reports produced by FIFA and national federations. This report was presented in 2023 and marked a tangible milestone beyond theory.
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