A New Idea for the Spring

(The picture on the left is a cute one. One of our customers sent it to us. It makes me think how fast our own little girl is growing up.)

For the team's first 4 years, I've emphasized dribbling over passing. I think the younger years are the best chance these kids will get to gain confidence with the ball at their feet. This was their chance to learn to beat a defender 1 v 1 (or v 2 or v 3). As the players grew, they learned to pass at the right time with very little input from me.

We lost a lot of experienced players last summer and I didn't adapt my coaching to the new situation. I continued to primarily emphasize the individual skills and didn't really work on passing tactics. I expected them to develop naturally as they had in the past. They didn't. As a result, we had very little passing. Our team relied primarily on our most experienced player to do most of the offensive work. The newer players didn't really understand where to go when they didn't have the ball and I'm not one to micromanage the situation.

I have an idea for teaching the girls how to move off the ball. I'm really looking forward to trying it out, but we won't start practicing for several more weeks. The key to the idea is that there is an obvious trigger point. In other words, I'm trying to keep it very simple. I'm thinking the girls are mature enough to understand there should be a "V" with the player with the ball at the bottom and a player at each tip. When the ball is passed forward, a new "V" must be formed. If the player that initiated the forward pass runs to the missing spot in the new V, we should get some good off the ball movement. The trigger is, "If you pass the ball forward, run forward." In other words, "Give and go." It sounds simple, but I'm sure it'll be much more challenging in real life. Right now, we usually pass and watch. Hopefully by emphasizing that she should run forward after every pass, even if she's not sure where to go, we'll get some good off the ball movement and get to see more time on the ball in open space where they can use those individual skills we've been working on.

-Bill

An Example of Creativity in a 5 year old

Again this season, we will focus on fun and development. If you're interested in learning about the coaching approach I try to use, a good article that you can read in just a couple of minutes is here: http://footy4kids.co.uk/developing_skilful_players.htm

An example of what I hope to cultivate happened just this week. The kids and I were playing "PIG" (like HORSE in basketball) in the backyard with the soccer ball. The "shot" was to touch the ball around a big toy and shoot it at the "goal" with your left foot. Well Justin (just turned 5) decided he would go over the toy instead of around it. He flicked it over the toy and into the goal. He looked at me to see if it was ok. Of course, I said, "Yes." He then said while pointing to his head, "I used my brain!" I just laughed and told him he was absolutely right. This is the creativity and skill we want from all of our players.

Player development using Guided Discovery takes time, but leads to true understanding. Understanding feeds confidence which in turn feeds creativity. These unexpected moments of creativity are a big part of what makes soccer the "Beautiful Game" to me.

See you soon,
Bill

P.S. If your daughter wants to play goal keeper, practice punting!!!