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.
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.
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