Coaching Offense

We finally had our first practice of the spring season.  I couldn't wait, because for the first time, I planned on coaching offense.  Until this season, I emphasized skills and defense (pressure / cover / balance).  As skills progressed, offense seemed to just happen.  I liked it that way because I feel like the girls will never get a better chance to learn to move with the ball then when they are young.  As they get older, the defenders get substantially better and the social repercussions of loosing the ball become higher.  

Last season, we had lost so many experienced players and gained so many brand new players that our offense just wasn't there.  That natural chemistry some of the players had always developed in previous seasons was missing.  Also, it occurred to me that most of the girls currently on the team had very generous dispositions.  They were highly inclined to pass the ball.  In fact, they seemed to prefer it.  Perhaps expecting them to develop like my offensive players had done in the past was a mistake on my part.  Perhaps I needed to leverage their social strengths.  With that in mind, I decided it was time to teach these girls to pass the ball.  

Now the hard part about passing, is know when and where.  How is a challenge too, but that will come later (understanding and experience motivate the desire for skill improvement).  So for the first practice, we simplified it down to 3 v coach.  This is difficult to explain in words, so I will just say this.  When you tell the girl with the ball she can pass either forward-left or forward-right, she can grasp that.  Then you tell the player that does not receive the pass to rotate to the forward postion infront of the player that does receive the pass; simple enough.  The player that made the pass runs straight up field to the forward position nearest her which was just vacated by the other forward.  Now you have the same situation as you started with; a player with the ball and a forward to her forward-left and forward-right.  Repeat until you score.  It's "give, go, get" or "give, go, rotate".  That's it.  A player only has to remember 2 sequences with 1 decision (pass left or right).  And I'm teaching them to pass it to the space, not the player.  The player will get there about the same time as the ball.  Now this will become more complex as we move to 3 v 1; a live player can be much more disrupting than the helpful coach.  After that we'll go to 3 v 1 + a keeper.  I have a feeling we'll spend a lot of time at this stage.  This will be a good opportunity for some keeper training as well.  Eventually, we'll go to 3 v 2 + a keeper.  Then we'll have to add in the 2 backs and go 5 v something.  

Now adding the backs works just like the front 3.  If a ball is passed backwards or won by the other team and passed behind the front 3, the first defender becomes the fulcrum of two V's.  One V facing the opponent's goal and the other V facing our own goal.  The 2nd back will move into a "cover" position.  The closest forward player to the back runs back into a back position just like she would run into a forward position after making a forward pass; she'll also be in the "balance" position.  Should the first defender win the ball, it's just like the 3 v game.  Should she get beat, the cover position becomes the first defender and another rotation occurs.  It sounds complicated when I write it, but the girls seem to be getting it.  

We just have a few weeks until the first game.  I'll keep you up to date.

-Bill

New This Season

Just the quickest of notes: We (Breakaway Fashions) are getting very close to being able to produce absolutely custom uniforms. When I say close, pending development going well, we are just a couple of weeks away being able to produce exactly the uniform print you want. You know our cheetah print which we are sold out on our most popular sizes? Not only will we be producing more of this, but we will be able to make zebra prints, camo prints, and just about any other print you can think of in just about any other color with a turn-around time of just a couple of weeks. I really think we are very close to proving this is a viable model, but I'll let you know for sure shortly.

-Bill

"That's you!"

I'm reading half a dozen books right now and will probably finish one of them in the next 12 months and start at least 2 more. Does that sound like a formula for book accumulation? Just take a look at my nightstand... Anyway, one of the books is Tony Dicicco's Catch Them Being Good. It's got a little part where he talks about coaching your own children and what a delicate balance this is. I agree whole heartedly. My little girl is quite the player and people probably think I spend hours every week working with her. The fact is, I do so little coaching at home, that I may as well call it zero. I do play with her at home, but if I offer up the smallest piece of "advise", it can very quickly go from having fun to throwing a fit. When I say "quickly", I mean instantly.

Anyway, Tony's story is one where he mentions the difficulty he's had coaching one of his older sons. The boy takes coaching as a personal attack from his father. In the story, Tony is playing basketball at home with his sons and offers a nugget of advice to his youngest son. The youngest son throws a fit and quits. Tony looks at his older son with whom he has had the same struggle and says, "That's you!". He goes on to say that at that moment the boy realized his dad had not personally insulted his younger brother, but had only offered a valid bit of coaching. He says that it triggered a new perspective in the older son's mind that led to a much smoother coach/son relationship going forward. I read this section to my daughter. She laughed and said, "I know." I still don't coach at home, but hopefully it will help us at our team practices.

-Bill

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!!!

Game 3 Notes

Parents,

 

Once again, I'm very proud of the way our girls played.  We are showing tremendous progress.  I can't tell you how proud I am of the intelligence with which our girls are playing.  They are making so many good decisions.  With a little more improvement in technical skills (which are improving rapidly), we should break through some scoring barriers.  Once we start scoring more, that will be fuel for their tanks.

 

One way you can help our team is to emphasize to your daughters the importance of preparation.  They need to understand that preparation is an integral part of any activity we pursue.  They should savor preparation knowing that they are doing everything they can to do their best every time they play the game.  Like pouring chocolate syrup into your milk, you smile while doing it because you know its going to taste so good.  We must support them in this. 

 

This may seem like a small thing, but it brings the point home.  One way you can help is to make sure your daughter's shoestrings are double knotted for every practice and game.  If they are too short, buy longer ones.  If they won't stay tied, buy new ones.  Shoes coming untied while we're playing is a real sign of a lack of preparation.  Please help with this.  Tying a shoestring in practice or a game should be a very rare event.

 

If you'd like to take it one step further, working with your girls to improve technical skills (dribbling, kicking, receiving, anything involving her and the ball) would be great.  Even if it's just kicking the ball around with good form for 5 minutes an evening, the brain will "chew" on these physical motions overnight and her skill will improve quickly. 

 

Finally, please DO NOT help your players with tactical skills (positioning, where / when to pass or dribble, etc).  I firmly believe these tactical skills are best learned at practice with a method called Guided Discovery.  You cannot teach these things with words or diagrams; the girls must learn these through experience.  If you try to teach your daughters tactics, it will only place doubt in their mind, lessen their self confidence and will cause them to hesitate on the field.

 

One more thing.  I will aim to end the Wed practice no later than 6:30 (starting at 5:30 of course).  Since this is a school night, I don't want things going too late.

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

Superstars 2008 Fall Game 1

Parents,

I do want to note a couple of things from game 1. First, I've very pleased to see that girls having such a good time. This is our # 1 objective. Second, I was very pleased with how hard the girls played the entire game. Third, while many children in this league have played upwards of 50, 60, 70+ games in their lives (it was Cassie's 80th MSA game), over half of our team had yet to reach the 10 game mark. For 3 of our players, this was their very first game. Clearly we have a lot of room for technical and tactical improvement (including the head coach), however, we are most certainly at the bottom of a very steep learning curve where rapid improvement will occur.

If we keep it fun and encourage preparation and effort, results will follow. Focus on the positive. Don't focus on the score even if we win. Ask the girls what they liked the best. Tell them you're proud when you see them try something difficult, especially if it didn't work. Ask them what they plan to work on and accept their answer even if you think it should be something else. This is all part of keeping it fun and allowing them to express themselves through the sport. This will keep them playing soccer for years and years.

Thanks,
Bill