Looking Good

I have to say the girls were playing some good looking soccer this weekend. We had only one practice in the last 2 weeks. In that practice, we worked on back passes and for some reason that really seemed to drive home what I was trying to teach them.

I can’t explain how awesome the player spacing and movement looked. They weren’t getting any direction from the sideline. We had all five field players up pressuring the other team. They were all moving and adjusting and not bunching. We had players passing to the top of the opponent’s penalty box and other players arriving simultaneously to take a shot on the goal. We had one back pass that came out of the corner and moved the ball right around the defense to the top of the box. It was fun to watch.

Of course, we still missed a lot of opportunities in the match which could be attributed to either players missing practices or just a lack of technical skill. But these things are just a matter of time.

We’ll continue to work on the back pass scenario. The way we practice it is:

• Setup with a forward and 2 or 3 backs providing cover.
• The forward starts with the ball.
• The coach pressures the forward forcing a back pass (the back pass “decision” is a bit contrived, but it works)
• If the forward passes to the back to her right (facing backward), she then moves square out to her right.
• The coach follows the ball and applies pressure to the back.
• The back then touches the ball to her left (facing forward) away from the pressure and passes the ball to the space even further to the left of the forward.
• After making the pass, the back “goes” to the top of the opponent’s penalty box.
• Make sure the remaining back(s) are covering and not getting up field and leaving us defenseless.
  
• The forward touches the ball even closer to the sideline away from the pressure while turning up field. She then crosses (passes) the ball to the top of the box.
  

That’s what we worked on. I think by giving the players a target on the field (the top of the box), it helped both the passer and the “goer”. Just the concept of taking the first touch away from the pressure before making a pass is quite a step of progress for the less experienced girls. It also highlighted some opportunities for improving left foot performance. I’m a little worried that by providing a fixed target, that they are missing the point that this technique can apply in different parts of the field. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that.

-Bill

Update on the Breakaway Fashions Website

Our Breakaway Fashions website has come a long way in the last year.  The image to the left is the top of our "home" page.  The image to the right is the bottom.  I think the design is very clever with the dictionary definition and the polaroid snapshots (I can't take the credit for that.  It wasn't me.)

Our shopping page has also come a long ways.  (Now if I can only get this blog to add the picture in a way that doesn't make the formatting of this article very awkward...no, that didn't work.  Let me type a few more words and see if that helps...no, that didn't work either.  Let's try it with a new paragraph.)

(That didn't work either, so I'm just going to cut and paste the raw html.  A yes, now let's see if I can continue writing.)

(It looks like its working.  Excellent.  Back to my article.)

So, we used to be lost in the backwaters of Google where pages wander in unread darkness.  With our new page and some research on webmastering, we managed to get to page 8 or 9 on Google if you searched for "girls soccer uniforms".  Well I checked this morning and we are now on page 2 of Google if you search "girls soccer uniforms".  I think that's pretty good.  My next plan is to allow buyers to add comments for each uniform.  I have yet to try this, but my plan A is to add a blog entry and then link back to it since people can enter comments on these things.  It's kind of a system work around, but I'll give it a shot. 

So please forgive the akward looking updates that will follow.  And give us a thumbs up for making page 2!

-Bill

First Game of the Season

The day of testing arrived.  Did our new offense yield results?  I must admit, the overall result was positive, but there is still a long way to go.  The girls were excited.  All the girls had found their jerseys and skorts (except for one which required an emergency re-order) and the player whose cleats were always coming untied had even gotten new laces.  They all wanted to play.  I wish I could've started them all, but I had to choose only 6 to start, but the rest got in quickly (though the others didn't want to leave the pitch).

I didn't see a lot of "gives" followed by "goes".  I certainly didn't see much rotation.  However, I did see significantly better spacing and positioning.  We had some technical issues with receiving the ball, but we can work on these skills.  I could go on, but I'll leave it at this.  As the game went on, we got stronger and stronger.  Our pressure on the other team built up over the whole game.  Though the scoring came slowly at first, the pace increased as the game went on.  I love a strong finish and that's what we got.  The girls had a blast and the coaches were very happy.

-Bill

One more practice until the first game

Practice seems to be going well.  It's hard to tell for sure.  I think I'm seeing significantly better passing.  I'm sure we have more diversified goal scoring.  However, it isn't the same as playing 6 v 6 against another team.  We just won't know until Saturday.

I did work on goal keeping a lot in the last practice.  I think we've got some good ones.  I'm still worried about them drifting off of their line even when they have a back pressuring the ball.  One of them has kind of the opposite problem and hesitates when it's time to come off her line.  Good goal keeping isn't really why most of the girls are playing soccer so we don't spend a lot of time on it, but it can make a big difference in the score.  

All in all, the girls pretty much just played on their and did a good job.  I made a couple of comments when I saw some good hustle (and a couple of comments when I saw some ball watching), but other than that, some of the girls really took a leadership role and kept their teammates moving.  This leadership is something that makes me very proud to see.

-Bill

Lots of Progress - Still so much more Potential

Our last U9 girls soccer practice went very well. We were actually missing quite a few players for various reasons, so with 6 girls and 2 coaches, we had a really good ratio.

We started off by breaking the girls into 2 teams. Each coach took 3 players. A team would start with a goal kick and the coach would defend against them. The girls understand the give / go / rotate movements, so emphasis was more on execution such as taking the first touch away from the defender and passing to the space before the pressure arrives. If the coach won the ball away from the girls, his team would leave the field and the other team would give it a try against their coach. The team that was off the field would work on some of those execution items such as keeping the ball on the ground and making a good first touch. Since each round would only last a couple of minutes, the girls didn't get bored with the game or the drills. I saw excellent progress too.

We ended with a 4 v 4 scrimmage with the coaches playing the back positions. Improvement was significant. We still have significant issues with players ball watching rather than moving to the needed position, but the degree of this problem has been significantly reduced.

Our first match is a couple of weeks away. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this goes.

-Bill

Oh those U5 Kiddos

My U9 girls are coming along.  But my U5 boys present quite a different challenge.  It probably doesn't help that 1/3 of the team consists of my own twin boys.  It is always difficult to coach your own children.  I think people assume I do a lot of coaching at home as well.  It couldn't be farther from the truth.  Sometimes I struggle to get them to participate in the activity we have at practice.  At home, (if I tried), it would be 100x harder.  Anyway, enough about frustration.

I have noticed something in the boys that is very obvious at this age.  Its an observation pertinent to the argument about coaching the skill with a drill and then trying to apply it in the game or learning the skill while playing the game.  I catch myself using both methods.  I certainly think that for recreational soccer, learning while playing is much more fun compared to drills, so this is where I put my emphasis.  However, opportunities to use a certain skill can be few and far between during small sided games.  Even if the opportunities are frequent, at these young ages, they seem to go purely on instinct.  

The example I have in mind with my U5 boys is dribbling under pressure.  I want them to dribble the ball, but instead they just kick the living daylights out of it.  In a drill environment, they'll dribble all day long, but put them in a match and legs and cleats are flying all over the place in an effort to put a permanent dent in the ball with their toe.  If they dribble even once, I drown them in at-a-boys.  Every time they boot it into the adjacent team's area, I point out that they need to "keep it close".  But in the heat of play, all coaching seems lost.  I'm told by a 3rd grade teacher, that you just have to expect to repeat yourself a thousand times and it will eventually sink in.  Once it does, they've got it.   I prefer to think that if I can create the "right" game, the realization will come around much more quickly and with more of a true understanding.  

I'm half way to 1000 and still trying to think of the "right" game.  I may get to 1000 first.

-Bill

Soccer season starting?

(An entry in the blog by Mari!  I didn't know she even knew we had this thing...)

Yes, it's upon us.  Order your jersey's early to avoid having to wear last year's or even worse having to buy those cheap t-shits and writing the player number on the back with a sharpie!  It takes us a maximum of 5 business days to ship out an order once it's placed so order now! 

If you're having trouble convincing your parents to purchase our uniforms, refer them to our website.  Besides being the cutest soccer uniforms on the planet (and we've looked), they fit great, keep our girls safe with the wicking and SPF and we won't discontinue a jersey EVER!  When you factor in the fact that we put your team name and player number on every jersey at a cost saving of $10-$18 per jersey, why would you buy a cheap one for $15 or even an expensive one?  So here it is, we're a one stop shop.  You get your jerseys in the mail and they are ready to wear to the game that day!  What could be easier?  No need to trek around town looking for someone who will put your players' number on the back (and hope they don't ruin the jersey in the process). If you want your team name, oh yeah, "they" charge you extra.  No wonder there's a whole bunch of nameless teams out there that we have to refer to as, "the green team" or "that team that didn't have a name but had a real good little player"). 

Barring any unexpected technical mishaps, we will be posting our new prints on the shopping cart this weekend!  We're always looking for your input so tell us what would make for a cool looking jersey.  Some have suggested tie-die, flowers and bugs (for all the Lady bugs, Bumble Bees, Yellow Jackets, Dragonflies etc.).  We will start with 4 new ones!

On a different note, we wanted to take the opportunity to THANK all the coaches, parents and soccer associations who have support us these past couple of years.  We love the pictures you send us, the emails and phone calls telling us how much your girls "love" their uniforms.  Just today a coach called to order a uniform for some new players on her team and said that her daughter had definitely gotten her $20 dollars worth out of the skort she bought from us!  That is the biggest compliment we get, when our teams come back season after season because no other uniform WILL DO!

-Mari