Playing to Win or Do We?

We play to win. We try our hardest because we want to win. We practice, sweat, freeze, and sacrifice because we want to win. The coach feels the urge to win in his players and himself and does everything in his power to win. It so easy to forget, soccer isn't a job. Soccer may help prepare us for a job, it may help us do our job better, but soccer is not a job (at least for most of us). It is so easy to forget that you can win a championship, but if it wasn't fun, you're not coming back.

The studies show that winning isn't what keeps most players playing soccer. It's the challenge, the team atmosphere, the fun. Now if I could just find a reference to those studies...I'll have to look for them later.

Update: I found this article on the US Youth Soccer website with several references at the bottom. Youth Soccer in America - How do we measure success? There's a quote midway through the article that I thought summed up my thoughts well:

"Winning isn't everything, but trying to is!" – Rainer Martens, sports psychologist

First Things First - What to Coach First for Soccer

I have it from a reliable source (footy4kids) that a good set of skills for youth soccer players to develop first are the ball-holding skills.

In the spring, I'm going to emphasize these holding skills even more. I'm also going to emphasize the skill of waiting for the defender to take a stab at the ball and beating them with a quick touch.

We've done some work where the kids dribble toward a goal and a defender and try to beat that defender, but it has occurred to me that it might be good to learn to beat the back by standing still and reacting to the defender's first move. By removing the act of dribbling, it takes a lot of the timing and touch skills out of the equation and may make it easier for the kids to learn how to hold the ball while facing their opponent. Of course, they'll eventually need to learn to attack on the move, but I'm thinking practicing this "stand and wait" method may be a good incremental step.

Who Gets the Credit for the Goal?

I watch Barcelona whenever I can. It's a joy to watch them play soccer. One of their young forwards, Pedro, is a player I tell my kids to keep their eye on. Sure he scores plenty of goals, but I tell them to really keep their eye out for 2 things:

1. Watch how he hustles. His energy when he's pressuring the ball and off the ball movement when he's not are a great example to any kid.
2. Watch what he does when he scores. The first thing Pedro does after a goal is sprint to the player that passed him the ball and "give" that player the credit for the goal.
   

When my kids score, that's what they need to do; look for the teammate that helped make it happen and give them a big hug or high-five. I think Pedro's attitude is contagious within his team. I even saw David Villa run to Pedro after after scoring a goal assisted by a nice pass in from Pedro. It's moments like these that really make me smile.

Adding the overlapping run to our tactics

The girls did good the season. They've come a long way in the last 2 years when we basically started with half a new team.

(Before going into what we'll do next, let me apologize for not updating this blog much the last few months. It was one of those times when somethings had to drop off the list and sadly this was one of them. I'm getting back into the grove and I hope I can remember some of the things I wanted to say during the season.)

The girls' skills have certainly improved, but there is plenty of room for more improvement; however, if they're not kicking the ball around outside of practice, that improvement will come slowly. I don't complain. The fact is, even my own daughter doesn't even look at a soccer ball in the off season. I'm assuming we're all in the same boat, so let's move on.

Tactically, our back line (2 outside backs and a center sweeper) played fantastic. Pressure, cover, balance. I don't recall ever noting in a game this season that we were leaving a player unmarked in front of our goal. This was our biggest problem in previous seasons and it just went away. Was it coaching? Maturity and experience? I'll never know. Either way, it's time to challenge them again.

The big change I want to add next season is the overlapping run from the outside back. It will require not only coaching her to make the run and the forward to feed the ball into the space in front of her before she's offsides, it will require the other players to rotate around to cover for the vacancy created in the back. This will be interesting. If anyone has advice on this I'm all ears.

-Bill

A new soccer game that is a hit with the kids

I've got a new soccer game the kids (U7 boys) love to play. We make a square. For my seven boys, a 10 x 10 yard square seems good. All but one player have their ball. The one that does not have a ball is the target. All the other players are trying to hit this target (below the waist) with their ball. Whoever hits the target becomes the new target and the old target gets their ball and joins the others.

The game moves quickly. The kids have a blast. They learn to move in fairly tight spaces with the ball close to their feet for a quick shot. When they shoot and miss, they run after their ball and dribble it back into the square for another try. Every player has a ball but one, so we're getting lots of touches. Best of all, a good time is had by all.

Tuck in those Soccer Jerseys...or Not

Breakaway Fashions' girl's soccer jerseys are designed to be "untucked". Unlike jerseys worn by many other teams, when these are not tucked in, ours do not go down to their knees; they look good untucked. Some referees have told me there is a rule that the jerseys must be tucked in. I've checked the FIFA laws of the game and have found no such rule. Local rules should take jersey design into account.

So let them stay untucked. It's safer (keeps them cooler) and it looks better too.

-Bill

The Soccer Skill Our Kids Need to Learn

According to Jürgen Klinsmann, American soccer players need to improve their "first touch". That covers a lot of the game. I believe it's true for my kids. While they love our soccer practices and games, they really don't play much soccer outside of the season. Without that day-to-day playing with the ball, they're just not going to develop that instinctive first touch that some players have. There are a hundred reasons/excuses why they don't play much soccer in the summer, but the fact remains they don't. I'm have no doubt this is true for most of the players on our two teams. So to make up for it, I'm thinking at practice we'll play some one-touch, quick-pass games and some keep away games in tight spaces. However, for now its still too hot (reason/excuse) to practice, so we'll just keep sipping our lemonade and talking about what we'll do later this year.

-Bill