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

Some Great Things

Just have to say, we had the boys 3rd practice today. We started it off with a game which I could have called "Send it into Space". I took each boys ball and kicked it as high as I could. With each kick, the boy would give a cheer and go running off after his ball. Of course, he had to dribble it back to me if he wanted me to kick it again. I've never seen so much fast dribbling. They had a blast.

However, the next event is the thing I really wanted to write about. We got all 6 boys on the field with one ball, two teams, and two goals. The next event was the miracle; they played soccer. I couldn't believe it. We had dribbling and tackling. We had goals and own-goals. We had goal kicks and kick-ins. It was so encouraging and they were so proud of themselves. I think they could sense that they had come together and done a good thing and had a ton of fun doing it.

Another encouraging thing was finding out what some of my girls did on the first day of school. Many of them made "me bags". I didn't know what that was, but apparently its a thing they decorate with their favorite things and store some of their favorite things in it. I'm still not 100% clear, but several of our players, including our newest players, girls that have only been to 2 practices and no games, chose soccer as their theme. I'm so thrilled that even with such a small experience base, they've enjoyed the sport so much that it is one of their favorite things.

-Bill

Let the Fall Season Begin

I've coached my daughter's team for 4 years now and we're moving into our 5th year. With 4 years of coaching experience, I felt pretty well prepared to coach a 2nd team, my twin boys' brand new U5 team. As you may guess, I could not have been more wrong. It was a complete disaster.

Perhaps it was the 100 degree temperature (though it didn't feel that bad). Perhaps the kids were tired from staying up too late on these long summer days. Perhaps 4 year old boys are just completely different than 4 year old girls. To say the least, practice did not go as planned.

I called the boys together to start of practice. I kept the talking really short (as any "good" coach would) and we got right down to the business of kicking the ball around.

Lesson # 1: Make the box bigger.
After showing them a couple of ways to dribble the ball, we did the classic dribble around the box drill. Six boys just learning to dribble needed a little more space than I expected. What happened next was a little unexpected. When they dribbled the ball out of the box on accident, instead of just dribbling back in, they started throwing fits. I guess we're a team of perfectionists. Well, not everyone. We had one that just decided it was too hot and he needed to go sit in the shade. I think another one joined him, but I was so busy trying to explain that "you just keep trying when things don't go right," I lost track. I had parents helping all over the place. There was very little soccer going on.

Lesson #2: No box is big enough.
OK, we'll get rid of the box and do some wide open dribbling. Well the boys tended to cluster anyway and boy1 would kick boy2's ball and here we go to "fit land" again. For the few that survived long enough to get near a goal, when they missed the goal this too was cause for whining and crying. Water break!

Lesson #3: No activity is safe.
"Alright boys, come over here and sit down. We need to settle down a bit. Let's get to know each other." Well this activity was actually going well. No one was crying. Everyone was present. Then all of the sudden we realize the recent rain as brought out the fire ants and they're attacking us! Luckily, I think I'm the only one that got bitten, but once again parents and kids were all over the place picking fire ants off of our little soccer players.

We never did play any soccer. All I could do was laugh and tell the boys that it was time to go play in the water (there was a water park where we practiced and the plan was to play there afterwards). I'm sure the parents are wondering what they've signed their boys up for, but they did laugh with me and assure me things would go better (because they couldn't get any worse).

We practice again next Monday. My mother has said she'll pray for me. I think I will need a miracle.

-Bill

The Approaching Season

The fall season is approaching and, as usual, I can't wait. I just completed the class to get my coach's "F" license. We spent several hours outdoors doing drills and games. The sun was beating down and there wasn't a breeze to speak of. The temperature peaked at 106 while we were out there. I'm pretty used to the heat from playing with the kiddos, but I have to confess that it was "hot". I also have to say our instructor is one tough dude. He was certainly the oldest person out there and he was working just as hard as we were. By the way, I had a blast playing the small-sided games.

We found out that our league has decided to better comply with the US Youth Soccer suggestions for playing rules for the younger kids. This will mean smaller teams (than expected for the new year), smaller fields, and bigger goals. I think its great. (You'd think from the way some of the coaches reacted that we were banning soccer in our town; I think they were more concerned about how the changes affect them rather than what's best for the kids.) The field sizes will be significantly shorter which will encourage having kids play both offense and defense. It will also encourage better ball control as opposed to the kick and chase tactic. The kids will get more touches and have to make more decisions. Its going to be more fun than ever. Fun is the big advantage recreational soccer has over club soccer. We really need to keep this in mind as coaches.

While there were many important points in the class, I wanted to make a special note about this point: we should coach the kids in terms of 1st defender / 2nd defender and 1st attacker / 2nd attacker rather than positions. The players should not feel constrained to certain locations on the field. Instead, they should "read the game" and do what needs to be done. That may mean supporting an attack, applying pressure, covering for the 1st defender, or any of a number of different things. I'll experiment with this and see what happens. I've always struggled getting my backs to better support attacks; this may address that. By playing on smaller fields, we will better enable this type of play. I think it will be even more fun too.

How to Pass the Soccer Ball

I think many of our girls really need to spend some time (it takes time to learn some things) practicing the most fundamental skill in soccer, kicking the ball. It really just takes practice, practice, practice. If you can spend some time with them kicking it back and forth or setup a kicking wall, I think you could see some significant improvements in a short period of time. There are several different kinds of kicks. Here are some key points to making a successful passing kick. A good pass will roll along the ground with some top-spin as opposed to popping-up in the air and bouncing toward the target.

Here are the key points:

• She should start with a little pass to herself; just a light touch on the ball to get it out in front of her. (She should use a similar touch when receiving a pass; keep the ball and her feet moving.)
  
• She should pick her target.
• She should draw an imaginary line from the target through the center of the ball.
• She then looks at the little spot on the back of the ball where she will kick it.
  
• Her left foot should plant beside the ball (not behind it). If the ball is rolling away from her, she'll need to aim to put her left foot a little in front of the ball.
  
• Her left toe should point where she wants the ball to go.
  
• She should drive her right foot through the center of the ball using the inside part of her foot with her ankle locked and her toe up (to make the ball roll on the ground).
  
• Her follow-through should go toward their target. She should maintain good balance through entire the kick.
  

And you thought kicking the ball was simple....

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