In 2014, former Seattle Sounders defender Patrick Ianni retired after a solid nine-year career in MLS.
A few years later, though, Ianni kept wondering what kept him from being even better. He was one of the top collegiate players in the country at UCLA, a top 10 MLS SuperDraft selection and a mainstay with the U.S. U-20 national team, but never reached the professional ceiling he had hoped.
“I recognized how much anxiety I was experiencing in my playing career,” Ianni said in a phone interview. “If I had the ability to experience the game differently, where things weren’t such a threat, and I wasn’t so blocked by internal traumas, then I would most certainly would have been a more consistent player and I would have been able to grow a lot more.”
In retirement, Ianni became interested in finding out from where this anxiety stemmed. As he began to coach private lessons and youth teams, he recognized the same dangerous, systemic pattern of pressure and fear in today’s young players. It also inspired him to help change it.
Alongside author and life coach Seth Taylor, Ianni created two books, On Frame and The Coaching Revolution. The first was designed for parents and the latter for coaches to challenge adults to take greater responsibility for the healthy development of youth soccer players.
After noticing an alarming trend of unneeded pressure on youth soccer players, Patrick Ianni is aiming to change the culture. | Photos courtesy of Patrick Ianni
“They are a collection of teaching, journaling and action-driven exercises,” Ianni said. “They are unlike anything that’s been created because Seth has used his vast knowledge of transformational therapeutic experiences and his mastery of this topic of identity development.”
Ianni, 33, played for the Sounders from 2009-13, appearing in over 80 matches and memorably scoring the 2012 MLS Goal of the Year. He looks back on the interactions he had with the Seattle coaching staff, including Sigi Schmid, Brian Schmetzer and Ezra Hendrickson, and finds himself disappointed in the way he responded to their feedback.
“Instead of seeing them as someone who wants something better for the team, I would take them the wrong way,” Ianni said. “Criticism was seen as a threat…I know now that my approach was ultimately keeping me from creating the career that I wanted.”
Rather than waiting for young soccer players to realize this later in life, Ianni’s mission is to reach them much younger. It all starts with the parents and coaches who foster this environment.
“A lot of damage is being done because you have young kids who are looking for safety and security from these parents, and they are being forced to play from their parents’ unconscious desires for them,” Ianni said.
Ianni has shared his books with friends, colleagues and parents, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, Clint Dempsey wrote the foreword to On Frame after reading it with his wife, Bethany.
“He is starting the journey of being a youth soccer parent and how difficult it can be,” Ianni said of Dempsey. “He desires to give his kids everything, but he wants to learn and he recognizes him being different than the vast majority of soccer parents.”
Perhaps down the road Ianni and Taylor will create an interactive book for young players, but for now the emphasis is on the impact coming from parents and coaches.
“I am so excited about these books coming out because they are missing pieces,” Ianni said. “The damage being done doesn’t have to happen anymore.”
The books are available on Amazon for purchase.
