Try the Tie-Dye in a Tri

Try the Tie-Dye in a Tri...Triathlon that is.  You won't have any trouble keeping track of your daughter in the crowd with our girls sports jerseys.  And with the younger ones, the odds of them getting off-track are not insignificant.

Our Zebra Jersey works too well?

Q: How does a zebra use it's stripes?

A: To confuse a predator.

They say that predators can't see any single individual zebra. When the herd is all standing together, predators see one big animal and are less likely to attack. There is power in numbers and stripes. Anyway, when we put our black lettering on our black striped Zebra jersey, the letters can get lost too. So we recently provided a team with Hot Pink lettering, which turned out pretty cute. Take a look!

Softball, Tennis, Soccer, What Else?

It's becoming clear that our jerseys are for more than soccer. They're also good for girls softball team jerseys and girls tennis jerseys. I'm guessing they'd be good for volleyball and maybe even basketball. Girls golf? What other sports would they work with? How about a triathlon?

What a Game

There's no way I can describe yesterday's game for the US National Women's Team, but I'll try:

• The thrill of scoring first.
  
• The taste of destined victory when Solo saved the PK.
  
• The anger over the referee's call to allow Brazil to retake the penalty.
  
• The concern about going down to 10 players.
  
• The pride of the fitness and effort for the remaining 10 players.
  
• The depression when Brazil scored in extra time when they were clearly offsides.
• The gut wrenching 30 minutes when our women were fighting beyond exhaustion, but couldn't score.
  
• Then the Big One: the unbelievable thrill of the last minute goal in the extra time's extra time. Who could believe it?
  
• The heartbreak to see our first penalty missed.
  
• The rebirth of hope upon seeing the Brazilian keeper had cheated way forward and was caught allowing us to make the re-kick.
• Finally, the joy of making the last penalty and winning the match.

If you missed it, you really missed it.

How to Achieve in Soccer - The Path

If our purpose for playing and coaching youth soccer is to achieve certain results in the players (thinking, skills, etc.), then how do we reach these goals?

First, we focus on the path. You can say you want to achieve one thing, but if you’re actions are not pointing toward that destination, you’ll never get there.

For example, if my primary goal for my kids is to teach them to recognize a situation, discover a solution, and communicate it to their teammates, then our practice should consist of activities that move us down this path. If my practice, instead, consists primarily of telling the kids the solutions to problems and then having them practice executing that solution, I’m clearly not moving toward my stated goal. The kids will play better soccer, but will they be reaching my goal of improved thinking and communication? I would have them moving down the wrong path.

This last season, in an effort to get more goals, I went down the path of practicing my solutions to the problems. It worked. We scored more goals. However, I had lost sight of my real destination. To top it all off, trying to get them to implement my solution was quite frustrating for me. Rather than enjoying seeing my players discover the solutions to their problems, I only experienced a sort of relief when they finally “got it”. Even then I could tell it was an artificial understanding because when the situation was not a perfect match to what we’d practiced, they’d often make poor decisions. I’ll be going back to my preferred method of letting them discover the solutions and designing games for practice that will guide them in this discovery. It takes longer to get “there”, but when they get “there”, they are truly “there” and ready to discover more solutions.

Why Do We Play and Coach Soccer?

Why do we play/coach soccer? Why do we spend several hours a week in activities focused on the sport of soccer. Our actions should have a purpose. We spend a lot of time on soccer. What is the purpose of this activity?

Fun? I like to have fun. However, doing something just for the fun of it is often a formula for trouble. True joy can be a result of achievement with a purpose. Fun is something a vandal may say justifies his vandalism. Fun is not a “purpose” for playing soccer.

Achievement? I think this might be it. Improving your soccer skills, growing a team’s chemistry, and putting together a good season are definitely accomplishments which you can be proud of (unlike my grammar).

Our world of soccer is like a simulation of our real world, but in the soccer-world consequences to actions are more immediate and obvious. It has as lot of the same appeal as many video games, but with the very important difference that it is not completely imaginary. It gives us an opportunity to achieve. The lessons learned can translate out of the micro-world of soccer and into the macro-world of everyday life.

As a recreational youth soccer coach, what am I trying to achieve? I think the key phrase here is coach. A youth coach, like a teacher, has to have the child’s achievements as his primary goal. I think where things get conflicting is that as a coach, we tend to adopt a professional coach’s metric and judge our achievement by wins. This causes us to put our achievements as a coach (wins) above the achievements of the players. There is no doubt, prioritizing winning will cause a coach to sacrifice player-learning in order to achieve the desired results. As a recreational coach, I have to have the discipline to prioritize the child’s achievements. If I actually think about it, those are the achievements that give me the greatest joy.

There are teams where everyone knows going in that the primary goal is winning. That’s fine, but on these teams, the parents and players are also conceding that player development will be secondary; I guess to them its worth it. On my teams, parents should know that the priority will be on player development. It will cost us some wins, but it’s worth it.

Select Soccer - They've reached that age

Over the years, we’ve had several players leave our rec soccer team to join academy soccer teams. Here in North Texas, there is no shortage of soccer clubs to choose from. If your goal (as a parent) is to see your little one get as good at soccer as quickly as possible, there is no doubt that doubling up the practice schedule and playing year around in various leagues and tournaments will do it. Concerning soccer, I personally put my priority on helping my kids have fun, get some exercise, and spend some time with Dad. Turning them over to another coach at age 6 doesn’t seem like the best plan to me.

Now my girls are old enough to start thinking about select soccer; actually, I should say the parents are thinking about it. I’m having trouble understanding the motivations of the parents that want to “go select”. Again, if “soccer skills” is the priority, which they say it is, then the extra time and professional coaching you get at a club is certainly justified. They say the girls need these skills so they can achieve their “dream” of high school and college soccer. I wonder how many of these girls have ever been to even one high school soccer game. I wonder how many have ever even watched more than 5 minutes of soccer on TV. I wonder how they acquired this “dream”.

Honestly, these parents are putting way more priority on soccer skills than they do on their child’s education. Their kids are in their prime learning years, but do these parents spend an extra dime on ensuring they’re kids are maximizing their “thinking skills”? A child’s “thinking skills” will play a far greater role in their success in life than “soccer skills”. Playing soccer does deliver some life skills, no doubt, I spend a lot of time and energy coaching soccer for that very reason; however, I don’t put it higher than my kid’s education.

If parents instilled in their kids the “dream” of becoming a entrepreneur, scientist, engineer, or some other productive occupation rather than “high school soccer star”, and then backed it up the time and resources they are willing to put into select soccer, imagine how this would carry forward in their children’s lives. These types of dreams that don’t end in high school.

Invite Them to Learn

It's so easy for us as adults to want to see instant results by asking our kids to be little robots that do exactly what we want them to do. I'm told by those who know, that kids don't learn under this kind of pressure. You have to invite them to learn. An invitation can be declined; it's not an order. As a coach, am I making my sessions an invitation to learn or a chance to drill a lesson into their head? In the attempt to get better results, I know I've leaned more toward the drilling side of things. This will have short-term benefits, but long-term consequences. It takes more effort and preparation on my part to have a session that is an invitation which is so attractive it won't be turned down. As a coach, I need to do my preparatory work as much as the players.

Win the Ball and then Protect It

Today we'll practice practice getting to the ball first. Then once you have it, don't let the defenders take it. Of course, it has to be fun.

One really good game which let's everyone work on dribbling at the same time is ball tag. On a small field, let the entire team go after one person and try to tag his ball with their ball. The target player has their hands full just dribbling around the square avoiding all the shots at his ball. Whoever gets his ball with their ball becomes the new target. The kids love it and really learn to keep it close and still keep their head up.

Next we play the Get it First game. In this one, we'll have two lines of players on either side of the coach. The coach will toss the ball up so it gets some good bounces. The first player in each line will try to be the first player to get the ball. Once they win the ball, they try to score at the opposite end of the field with the other player defending. While those two are busy, the coach can toss another ball and let the next two go at it. Emphasis here is on running through the ball while it's bouncing; it won't work if they stop and try and settle it. After that, they need to dribble and shoot under strong pressure from the other player.

After that, we may play the Star Wars game where you set up a couple of smaller boxes with a shared edge and set a defender in each box. The other players try to dribble through each box (going from one end of the rectangle to the other) without letting the defender kick the ball out. If the defender does get it, they retrieve their ball and try again immediately. If they make it, they count a goal and try again immediately.

I'm thinking we can't get enough of these games.

Positions vs. Positionless Soccer

I want the U11 forwards/mids moving, overlapping, crossing over, confusing the defense, understanding and anticipating the action. They want positions, a "safe" place, organization, to simply wait for the ball.

Do I give in and allow them to play with these fixed positions and clear instructions on what to do in the most common situations? Or do I allow them to struggle with the chaos and let their minds begin to really understand the patterns? Or is it just too much to ask?

I see a good response in some players. This gives me hope that letting them sort through the chaos is potentially a good idea.

I've learned a lot over the last several years and continue to learn. I have to admit that my U7 team playing 4 v 4 with no positions, always has someone in the cover position even though its often not the same person. They actually connected on some passes this week. They even maintained separation when their teammate had the ball. Yet they still dribbled aggressively and pressured aggressively. I think I may have done a better job with them and they are handling the chaos even though they're much younger.

I'm still not sure.

Passing in the Fast Lane

No, I'm not talking about driving. We played a new game yesterday that really seemed effective.

I like simple, self-correcting games that I can explain once and then let them play. In this one, I setup a "lane" 10 yards wide and 40 yards long. 3 girls started at one end and 2 girls we set to stop them. The object was for the 3 girls to dribble or pass their way to the other end without letting the ball get out of the "lane". Even though it was 3 v 2, they really struggled at first. However, with some tips on shielding the ball under extreme pressure and supporting your teammates, they got better. Then we pointed out that passes need to be to the side of your teammates away from the pressure. Then we talked about first touches away from pressure and even up the lane. We saw some quicker passes in a give-and-go situation. To top it off, we enforced offsides which made it really tough and certainly reinforced this tricky topic.

I really think they learned a lot. They had to be more precise and think quicker than normal. Hopefully, it will make the wide open space of the field seem slow and easy.

First Touch and Getting it First

I expect the girls' off the ball movement to improve slowly with our current plan. However, their first touch is still a problem. Also, while we still need a lot of work on seeing all the possible passes, we get miscommunications; one player will be looking for a through-ball and the passer will send it toward her feet. The result is the defender steps up and wins the ball. We're going to have to learn how to read the defense so we are all on the same page.

Even more importantly, our first touch still needs work. The ball is bouncing all over the place. To address this, I'm thinking of a game where players will have to keep it close and keep it safe from a defender. Perhaps a game where we have small boxes setup around the field and a player from each team in each box. The blue team will have to receive the ball without letting it rebound out of the box and at the same time shielding it from the opponent in her box. Then she needs to pass it to a teammate in another box. With these constraints, I think we'll be able to make the lack of first touch obvious to the players. However, I'm a little concerned that this drill may encourage them to wait for the ball rather than coming back to it. Hmmm.

Passing the Point

We have been working on "passing the point" and I like what I see. The girls started off real shaky, but got better quickly. It takes a lot of concentration to be working on setting up a contract to get the ball from one teammate and give it to another all while the ball is bouncing around you. They just want to watch the ball. It's hypnotic. We have to break that spell with a disciplined effort.

We simplified things by first just passing the point, no ball movement at all. After a few rounds of making sure everyone had both of their contracts, they got better at just this step. Then we had them pass the point and when everyone had their contracts, they passed the ball to complete the contracts. It took several rounds of this to get them in the habit of remembering who to expect to get the from and who they would give the ball to (pardon the poor grammar). After that, we tried getting the ball moving before all the contracts were complete. We still have a way to go. However, we now have a common understanding and a common language to describe this fairly complex topic.

Passing the Soccer Ball - Make a Contract

Passing the soccer ball effectively requires that you have a plan before you get the ball. While the technical skills to receive and pass the ball are certainly prerequisites, teaching the girls to stop ball watching and start thinking isn't easy. I tried out a new idea and it looked like it was working.

I first explained to the girls what a contract was - in our case, an agreement between players to pass and receive the ball. Each player needed to first get a contract from a teammate to pass the ball to them. Next to get a contract with a different player to whom they would pass the ball. That doesn't sound very simple, does it. A simple means of communicating this contract is the key.

Here's what we did:

• If you don't have a contract, raise your hand.
• A player who has a contract to receive the ball looks for a player with their hand in the air and points to that player. If a player points at you, you have your first contract.
• Now you lower your hand and point to another player that needs a contract. When that deal is done, you're ready to receive the ball.

In essence what happens is you "pass the point". The players will be pointed at and then do the pointing all before the ball arrives. Now you have player anticipating the action, watching off the ball movement, and ready to move the ball quickly to another player after receiving it. After the pass is made, she raises her hand again and tries to get a new contract.

This gets them thinking the right way, then you make sure they're moving to get open so the first pass is an easy one for their teammate. Just standing with your hand in the air is not the idea.

We'll keep working on this and see if it translates to the game.

The Coach's Vision for the Team

I wrote some recent articles on coaching good field vision in your soccer players. However, there is a different type of vision a good coach should have. I'll admit I'm weak in this area myself.

A coach should have a clear vision for how he wants his team to play. I personally have often focused more on the tactics and skills we need to improve on to make up for some gaps revealed in the previous match rather than having a long-term vision of what we should be working toward.

Of course, you need a little bit of both. However, having a long-term vision and making sure you're working toward it takes a bit more discipline. The plan I have to help me will be to:

1. Have a real vision. I mean a real picture in my head. In the case of soccer, more like a movie.
2. Try to find something measurable to help you gauge your progress toward that goal. If your vision is to look like Barcelona (a bit ambitious perhaps), should you count the number of successful passes? Is there a better metric?
3. Set incremental goals with dates. This will force you to prioritize the work necessary to reach your long-term goal. Since you have a metric, setting intermediate goals should be easy.

Finally, the coach's vision needs to take into account the strengths of his players. Forcing a square peg into a round hole is a hopeless task.

Another Soccer Vision Game

I mentioned earlier a game to improve soccer vision where a leader ensures the follower is dribbling with "eyes up". I just read about a different version of the game where both the leader and the follower have a ball. The rules are simple. The follower tries to tag the leader without loosing the ball. The leader tries to remain untagged without loosing her ball. When the leader is tagged, the players switch.

I'm a little worried about the leader being so "careless" with the ball that the follower doesn't really have a chance. However, we may be able to deal with this by limiting the space to a fairly small square or something like that. I'm pretty sure the kids will like this one.

Coaching your Soccer Kids to have Split-Vision

I was recently reading an article on coaching your players to have better vision on the field. "First touch" skills are, of course, a prerequisite to good vision and that's still an area where we need to work. Still if I can improve my players' vision with some occasional drills at the same time, I think it is time well spent. Some points in the article reminded me of a drill we ran recently that the girls really seemed to like. It was very challenging and there was lots of giggling to boot. (Our friend Sarah taught this drill to us.)

Here's the key steps of the drill:

1. Pair up the girls with each pair having one ball.
• One player is the dribbler.
• The other player is the leader.
2. The leader, while facing the dribbler, starts running backwards.
3. The dribbler must keep the ball as close to the leader as possible while maintaining eye contact with the leader. The challenge is to keep the distance between the dribbler and the leader to a minimum.
4. The leader varies her speed and changes her direction constantly.

The dribbler learns to keep the ball close (if she dribbles it too far ahead, it will contact the leader) while keeping her head up because she has to maintain good eye contact. If she looks down, the leader reminds her to look up.

Hopefully, this drill will build more self-confidence in the girls so they will take a look around and know they won't lose control of the ball.