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

The World Cup 2010 - What A Ride

I loved the run the USA had in the World Cup this year. Unlike in 2006, I think our coach and team did the best they could have done. Were they perfect? No. No one can be perfect. But the games were just fantastic. A tie vs. England what a good (if not lucky) start. The comeback goals against Slovenia were enough to bring tears to our eyes. And the stoppage time goal to beat Algeria left us jumping and screaming. Wow. What excitement.

When I saw the starting lineup for our round-of-16 game vs. Ghana, I was very surprised to see Clark starting in the midfield. I know Clark plays hard, but I've always thought we had to find someone who could step it up a notch. Edu played well in the tournament, though he had also made some mistakes as well. Despite that, I assumed Edu would be starting. (I liked Torres a lot in qualifying, but I have to admit he looked really bad in the tournament.) When Clark's mistake in the midfield lead to the first goal for Ghana and his subsequent poor decision to make a hard and late tackle got him a yellow card, I knew the coach had to pull him. What I didn't know is that it would be the most memorable part of the tournament for me. When Coach Bradley called Clark over to the sideline midway through the first half to take him out of the game, the camera captured a hug and some words between Coach Bradley and Clark that showed how great a coach this man is for our team. That moment, that hard, hurting moment for both of them, turned into a moment of rare honesty and love that brought tears to my eyes. Nothing else I'll see in the World Cup will compare with that.

-Bill

Don't be afraid to let your players take risks

This is an article from the editor of one of my favorite websites, footy4kids. Its not easy to let the kids make mistakes. It's not easy at all. However, if you keep in mind this is about them (the kids) and not us (the adults), that makes it a bit easier. There are times for a coach to be corrective, in particular if the issue is a willful disregard for the players teammates or coaches. But a coach should never poison a player's feelings for the game by scolding them when they were doing their best. Their best may not be right, but it's their best. What more could we ask?

Don't be afraid to let your players take risks

I was watching an U7s match at my local school last week. There was a lot of aimless running around going on, and most of the players were trying to get within touching distance of the ball.

They were tackling each other, falling over and some were standing around watching the birds fly past. A fairly typical U7s match, in fact.

Suddenly, one girl burst out of the melee and started to run with the ball towards goal. The only problem was, it was the wrong one.

When she got about ten yards from the goal she stopped, looked up and realised she was staring at her own goalkeeper. After a quick about turn, she started running the other way.

She ran past three of four of the other team, evaded several attempted tackles from her own team mates and finally got within striking distance of the other goal - about two feet from the line - where she promptly took a swing at the ball, missed it and fell over. She got up with a huge smile on her face.

Sadly, her coach was not impressed.

He was first shouting, "you're going the wrong way, WRONG WAY!". When she realised her mistake and started running towards the correct goal, he was shouting, "pass the ball, PASS IT!". Some parents were heard muttering, "she never passes the ball", "she's not a team player, is she?" and "someone needs to teach her how to pass".

When she finally fell over, the coach shouted, "I told you to pass, didn't I?"

All through the game this coach was telling his players where to go and what to do as though they were little robots.

Why all this instruction?

Because the coach was afraid one of his players would make a mistake and the other team would score as a result. Ultimately, he was really worried his team of six-year-olds would lose.

And, crazy as it sounds, there are lots of coaches like that in youth soccer. Coaches who think they are helping their players by giving a constant stream of instructions and forbidding them from taking risks.

This U7s coach might notch up a few quick wins in the short-term, but he is storing up problems for the future. By stifling his players' creativity and not allowing them to find out what happens if, for example, they play a weak square pass across their own penalty area, he is manufacturing a set of players who don't have the ability to think for themselves.

These are players who, if they don't hear an instruction from the coach, don't have a clue what to do with the ball.

Ignore the final score

''Worrying too much about winning and losing gets in the way of development,'' says Manfred Schellscheidt, head of US Soccer's U14 programme. ''There are always shortcuts that you can find to win the next game. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be winning five, six years from now... We should be concerned about the players' performance, not the final score.''

If you want to be standing on the touch line eight or ten years from now, admiring the dribbling and shooting skills of the players you have as U7s today, you have to let them take risks.

You need to let your young players dribble, run and pass without fear, and without any 'advice' from the touch line. Applaud risk taking. If it goes wrong, your players will have learnt something from the experience - it's not the end of the world!

Finally, remember to smile a lot on match days. Enjoy yourself. You're watching the soccer stars of the future!

For the Coach Who is also the Dad

Coaching your own child is a challenge. They seem to take things much more personally than the other kids. They seem to see a coaching tip as a personal insult when it comes from their dad. As a rule, I don't coach at home except on very rare occasions. Well this week, I mentioned a tip to my 10 year old daughter and got the expected response. Let's just say it wasn't "positive". So in a moment of serendipity, I asked her, "How would you have preferred I say that?" She thought about the question and then gave me some verbiage. So I asked her, "Can I try again?" She looked at me hard and then said I could. I walked out of the room and walked back in again just like I did the first time and this time I used her words instead of mine. Low and behold, she got her ball and went out in the backyard and tried out the idea! Enthusiastically, no less. I suggested she get the video camera out so she could see how she was doing. I helped her set it up and walked away. From inside the house, I could see her trying some things out, then talking to the camera. Then watching the video back. I think she really did improve her game a bit. That's not the point. The real gain is even better: I found a way to communicate with her on the touchy subject of coaching. We'll see if it works again next time...

Words Not Spoken To You (the adult)

We video our kids' soccer games and make highlight DVDs for the end of year party. Well, last week my videographer (alias: wife), left the camera turned off for the 2nd half of the game and turned it on as she put the camera away in the bag thinking she was turning it off. So we had an hour's worth of video of the inside of the camera bag. However, it did capture some interesting sounds.

The bag was in the back of the van with our boys (twin 6 year olds) and you can hear their conversation. One says, "I love soccer games; they're [one of] the funnest things in the world." His brother answers, "Me too." Then they both say bye to their team. Then one says, "I like our team. It's good...our team. I like the people that we choosed on our soccer team." Yes, he said "choo-said".

We may have missed half the game, but we got a gold nugget of audio.

Ye Ole Sharks and Minnows

Yes, this week, my U6 boys spent most of the practice playing a slightly modified version of Sharks and Minnows. This is the game where most of the kids (minnows) try to dribble across the square (in our case, about a 15' x 15' box) with a player or two (sharks) on the inside trying to kick a minnow's ball out of the box. Our modification was simple.

1. The game never stopped. Once you got to the other side, try to get back immediately.
2. If your ball gets kicked out, go get it and try again.
3. The coach would switch out the sharks from time to time.

What you get is a ton of apparently chaotic movement with lots of laughing. You get a little taunting as some minnows attempt to attract the sharks. Best of all, the boys really learn to take care of the ball. It looked like so much fun, I may try it with the U10 girls.

-Bill