The Running Goal Kick

Several years ago, when my daughter's team was playing U6 soccer, I got tired of our goal kicks turning into a scoring opportunity for the other team. We played 3 v 3, and if we sent the other two players forward, the other team more often than not jumped the kick and got a 1 v 1 (or worse) with our player that did the goal kick. The only solution was to get our players out of the mode of "passing" to their teammate and into the mode of trying to kick the ball to the other end of the field. Positioning our players even farther up field was not a solution as the same thing would happen, it would just start farther from the goal.

The solution was a thing we called the "running goal kick". I think it teaches principles that will be important as passing becomes a real option when they get older and it works really well to boot.

On a running goal kick:

1. All 3 players line up side by side with the kicker in between the runners.
2. The kicker targets a gap in the opposition to kick it through. (If they're marking up our two non-kicking players, this becomes real easy.)
3. By aiming at a gap rather than a person, this is good chance for learning to pass the ball to space.
4. Also by aiming at a space, it is also easier to get the player doing the goal kick to look at the ball rather than the target since they're not passing to a person that is probably moving around.
5. As the kicker kicks the ball, the other two players start their runs up field, one on each side.
6. This puts the runners in the correct orientation to keep the ball moving in the right direction (i.e. toward the other team's goal).
7. This has another benefit in that it gets the runners used to moving away from the ball in anticipation of a pass to space.
8. The runners get the ball and keep it moving toward the goal.

This is the "running goal kick".

This same method translates well to kick-ins and kick-offs too. Your starting positions are defensively strong, but your momentum is very offensively oriented. It takes some practice to get the little ones to understand what's going on, but it works much better than sending two-thirds of your team ahead of the ball with 3 hungry opponents ready to jump the kick and score.

Our First Silent Saturday

Silent Saturdays is a thing that's apparently been catching on around the world with youth soccer. For our association, today is the first time its been done. My U6 boys team had their game this morning.

Going in to the game, I felt like this was going to be a really good thing for the kids. I gave the parents a reminder and we let the game begin. I could not have been prouder. Our boys clearly knew what to do 99% of the time with no assistance from either sideline. Now it did feel awkward to me. I usually yell out to the boys when they do a good job, and I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do even that except on the occasions where it was an exceptional play. I think the parents found it awkward as well, but I hope they realized that the kiddos really don't need their help. Maybe with the next game, we'll all cheer more and still avoid the coaching.

The other team clearly seemed to struggle more and their parents even barked out a few orders during the match. But they generally did a good job. I suspect their team is much more micromanaged on a regular Saturday.

Let me give a couple of examples that really justified this Silent Saturday.

1. The other team was doing a kick-in. Our boys were defending beautifully. One of our boys noticed the other team was about to kick it in with a square pass to his teammate. At the last minute, our boy moved up the field and jumped in front of the kick. He took the ball, dribbled, and scored. If the parents of the other team had been allowed to coach their player on where to kick it, the intelligent play of our player would have gone unrewarded. We need to encourage our players to think and adjust on their own. When parents impose their adult intelligence to direct their player and thus outwit our 6 year old boy, that's just plain not fair. I was loving Silent Saturday giving our boy the opportunity to use his wits to score a goal (and he's not a prolific scorer)
2. We had a player doing a kick-in who didn't know where to kick it. His father did a great job holding his tongue and letting his son play. He kicked it right out in front of our own goal and the other team scored. How is this a "good thing" you ask? Well I told a player on the bench that he needed to help his teammates when he saw them about to do something wrong. Sure enough, later in the game, the same situation popped up and what happened? The boy I'd spoken to on the bench took a leadership role and talked to his teammate about the correct direction to kick the ball. This moment of leadership would not have occurred if the parents or coaches had taken it upon themselves to correct the error before the player had a chance to speak.

These are just two examples of how Silent Saturday worked exactly the way it should. It was awkward as a coach at times, but the opportunities it gave the kids are worth it.

How we're doing on Balance

I have no idea how we're doing on learning "Balance" because we haven't kicked a soccer ball in forever (or a least several days). Rain, Rain, Rain. So much rain the city has closed the fields and parks for games and practice (at least for soccer, football seems to have a higher priority...). I sound like I'm complaining, but actually I'm glad they're protecting the fields. If we tear them up now, they'll be bad for the rest of this season and all of the spring season too. So our soccer can wait, and this blog will have to wait too....

Balance, Balance, Balance - The Answer

I think I found the game to really teach balance to our U10 girls. It's a complicated, intricate soccer game with several rules which must be followed precisely. Not really, of course, its 3 v 2 plus a keeper.

When you put 3 attackers who understand how to move off the ball against 2 backs and a keeper, you get the best game for learning balance I've found. I suppose it never occurred to me before because at the younger ages, we just weren't that good on offense to take advantage of a 3 v 2 situation. Now at U10, those backs had their heads on a swivel as one applied pressure and the other tried to provide both cover and balance. If one back was beaten, the other closed down on the attacker and the first back had to get back quickly to cut off the easy pass across the box to the waiting attacker. I think it really highlighted to them that you can't just focus on the ball. We'll do this one a good bit more and see how it translates to the games.

Pressure, Cover, Balance, Balance, Balance - This sounds familiar

We still struggle with balance. My U10 girls, from time to time, just get mesmerized by the ball and forget to mark the girl in front of our goal. It's not all the time. A lot of the time they get it right, but a lot of the time they just don't look around to see if there is a player that we should be marking. Maybe I'm expecting a maturity level I shouldn't expect. Maybe I should draw a line down the middle of the field and tell players not to cross it. I want to give the girls maximum freedom on the field. I want it to be fun more than anything else. I want them to do the right thing because they're taking care of each other rather than following a rule. However, I want to stop these easy goals too! I'm open to suggestions.