Coaching youth teams.

[usscouse]

Starting our regular Tues, Thurs sessions on Thurs.

Been working out senarios to get the fullbacks overlapping to the pointy end of the field. A 'must do' these days to get numbers up to pull the defense out of shape. My 2 (starter) L&R backs are the fastest on the school track team, nice!!!

Another drill I'm working out is crossing the ball hard and low from the wing behind the defense, in front of the goalie as we're sweeping forward.
I love to see that in a match.

Got a problem with my centre back and attacking mid postions. I have 2 players to fill those rolls but they both want to play AM. (and who can blame them. That's my 3rd striker. :) )

Both stong aggressive tacklers, fast and can score goals. But I like players to settle into the position I feel they can best benefit the team.

16 players on the roster, this will be our 4th season and we still don't have a natural left footer. How weird is that.
I make them practice left and right but when it comes to crunch time they're going to favour the right.
The last guy who I played there loved it and has gone on to a prem. team. He perfected that. Take 'em down the wing, cut in behind and go for the right foot shot or an inswinging pass across the keeper. Brilliant to watch.

Excited....Who me .....I'm too old for that...:D

[usscouse]

It was hot Tues for practice yesterday so I did some "Walk Through" drills for our overlap.

Had the guys in places where they might be after our defense breaks down their attack.
Example: Keeper passes to wing half then we walk as he moves in and does his 'holding thing" the full back moves past up the wing as the WH passes into the corner. All the while the other players are moving into postition as we sweep forward.
We used different senarios of getting the ball to the open space into the corner and practiced crossing the ball behind the opposing defense from either wing.

Successful practice session, the kids understood, improvised and "enjoyed it"
***********

I also had them play a couple of games of 3v3 for 3 minutes. They liked that so much I'm going to run a tournament playing 2-3 match ups every practice session.
It'll be 4, 3 men teams playing a 2 legged round robin. (12 matches)
Golden goal extra time after second leg for a tiebreaker. (extra players will sub)
Top 4 teams will play a 2 leg semi final round. 5th is out.
Team 1 vs 3 and team 2 vs 4.
The runner up game for 3rd place will consist of 2 3minute halves as will the
Grand Championship Final.

I'm going to let them run their own teams and tactics. I'll just ref.
They seem enthused...especially when I told them the winners will be sent by the team manager on an all expences paid trip to Germany for the WC Final.

[Twenty26Six]

They seem enthused...especially when I told them the winners will be sent by the team manager on an all expences paid trip to Germany for the WC Final.

What?!? :eek: Now if that isn't a motivator, I don't know what is. :D

Now that school is over I finally got out to see the U-12 team and coach I will be shadowing this summer. The team is a local elite team and plays regional games versus teams from Rochester and Syracuse. The coach is a real nice guy and has a lot of experience so hopefully I'll pick up many good things.

They train twice a week and play about 10 regional league games and a few tournaments. It was in the low 50's and windy so we only had 10 out of 18 kids. Coach says they usually get about 13-15.

Practice went well and we held everything pretty game-oriented, although they had an extended warm-up with a longer progression. It was so they could work more on possession, passing, control. Everything we did fit into a square grid and I was impressed at the technical ability of the kids.

Overall it was a nice practice and I already remember all nine of the kids names [only nine more to learn].

[usscouse]

We had 2 good practices during the week and I was pleased.
The CB who left us to move on to "bigger and better things" also took with him all the 'bad karma'. The kids are playing better together, talking to each other and having a lot more fun with the game. And I have an excellent replacement for him.
I hope he and his miserable parents ask to come back..! A whole nuther story there.....:rolleyes:

We had an excellent attack and defense session Thurs. Normally I have to cut back on defenders to give the attack a chance. But they're doing such a good job of finding the passing slots and running behind the defense, I had to even them up.

I have two players that have kicks like mules. They're both half backs so I'm working with then to follow up the attack and pounce on loose balls for longer shots. (Stevie or Jon Arne style) and if they don't put them in then the forwards can try to pick off rebounds.

The mantra is still "Don't get caught in possession"

[usscouse]

We have our first Tournament next weekend (16-17-18th) I'm a little nervous because we don't have a team we can have a friendly scrimmage with. We go in cold and unknown in our real abilities.

Been having excellent practices though and in the last couple we been doing walking drills? What I'm doing is getting the guys to line up in their (loose) formation then well 'walk' through several senarios of the overlapping full back.
IE: Break out, after the keeper collects, throws to fullback, he carries until threatened, passes to wing half, he heads up and in slowly and holds up the ball. full back motors up wing to meet ball from mid, behind (Hopefully) enemy defence and creates havoc. Crosses to fast flowing strikers or big shooting OM.

It's been fun, the kids are getting it and improvizing on the theme (it is an improv. sport after all)

One guy has developed into a good holding mid, big strong boy with good distribution skills and I have my lost CB sorted out, found another.

Excited? Me at my age....it doesn't go away.

[usscouse]

Oh! Picked up another kid. Only need one more, we had one break a wrist climbing or I should say 'falling" and another, a striker, broke an ankle playing basketball.
One of the team brought this new face on Tuesday, when I came on they started over to introduce him and I said "hang on, take a shot with that ball"

Well this kid hit it like Tierry Henry...toe up, side footed, weight going through the shot, curling inside the right upright. I said "go and see that lady over there, she'll have papers for you to sign".....:)

Nice kid, came over after practice and said how he liked the way we did things.

[usscouse]

Last practice tonight before the Bigfoot Tournament. I hope we do better in this one. The last was an embarrassing. 1-2-1
One nice thing is that our's are afternoon games, my kids are bloody awful in the mornings.

We're playing a scrimmage game tonight against the girls U16 team and NO! it's not as easy as you might think. Oh, we'll win but those girls are hard.
I just want the boys to stay in shape as a team, and go through their moves, we get so few chances to actually play against a team and 6 a side doesn't help prepare them at all.

[usscouse]

They were awful last night.
Too easy for then to keep concentration, our DM scored 2 out of a double figure score.
Lousey bumpy pitch with holes and a ditch running across it and far too narrow for the backs to run an overlap without tripping on the wide mid.

They did get to play together as a team though, saw some good stuff and our centre backs continue to get better and better.

[kopiteinkc]

Although not coaching at the moment, I have in the past.

My 10 year old daughter's rec team starts play this weekend. First practice tonight.

I am more than a little concerned, as the mother-coach (who is cool but has no clue) emailed all the parents that she will be working on team conditioning.

What she means by that is -- running, running, running.

I am gonna either have to bite my tongue, or come out and say something. I am not known for tact. So any advice on how to approach this would be appreciated.

[Twenty26Six]

I am not known for tact. So any advice on how to approach this would be appreciated.

I know how you feel. :o

Tell her you found this great soccer website for coaching little kids. You know tons of coaches who swear by it.


Better Soccer, More Fun (http://bettersoccermorefun.com/index.htm)

...and... get her to buy this book...

Soccer Coaching Made Easy (http://worldclasssoccer.net/books.html)

Any beginner coach doesn't need anymore than this. These are simple resources, yet cover all aspects of what you need to know and encourages soccer-like activities and discourages soccer strange activities [i.e. Laps and Sprints].

If this fails maybe try to look up your state associations guidelines for youth coaching... or tell her conditioning drills without a ball are useless for anyone under 14.

[kopiteinkc]

Well she knows I coached my older daughter in the past and actually her husband comes to me for advice once in a while.

But when I have offered to help she makes it very clear she is in charge. And being the sexist pig that I am, I tend not to take orders from a woman very well. Especially when she is clueless! :D

[Twenty26Six]

Well she knows I coached my older daughter in the past and actually her husband comes to me for advice once in a while.

But when I have offered to help she makes it very clear she is in charge. And being the sexist pig that I am, I tend not to take orders from a woman very well. Especially when she is clueless! :D

Well anyone that coaches U-10s and thinks they are "in charge" has lost their mind. On top of that, the "conditioning" thing is appalling. I hope she is using the word "conditioning" wrong.

[usscouse]

Although not coaching at the moment, I have in the past.

My 10 year old daughter's rec team starts play this weekend. First practice tonight.

I am more than a little concerned, as the mother-coach (who is cool but has no clue) emailed all the parents that she will be working on team conditioning.

What she means by that is -- running, running, running.

I am gonna either have to bite my tongue, or come out and say something. I am not known for tact. So any advice on how to approach this would be appreciated.A tactless scouse, whooda thinked it. Find a book on conditioning and have your 'daughter' give it as a gift..

We played the first match today, we got a shock when the Oppo came out, they were all as big as me ( U 16's!) 6-2 220lb. I swear some of then drove big diesel stick shift trucks in and none with power steering. Big girt buggers the lot of them.

Our guys were out muscled, they took a physical 2-0 loss. First goal was a PK, I had to question the ref on it, he was the only person to see it, his linesman looked at me and shrugged.
My CB swears he headed it...but what ya gonna do. He (the ref) did thank me for asking properly. (Not bad for a scouse, a new me?!)
Then we failed to clear a ball bouncing in the area after 3 kicks and paid for that.
We only had about 3 shots on goal the game, our keeper had a good match as did our back 4.

Another match tomorrow, we can't be worse...right...???

[usscouse]

Another 2-0 loss, at least we're staying true to form, tournament wise.
Had the same freekin' ref and after yesterdays phantom PK. He disallows a goal of ours, that the linesman said went over the line....twice.
I'm not a yeller at the ref at matches...anymore. But afterwards I told him not to Ref anymore of our matches in this event. It's just not fair on the kids.

[Twenty26Six]

We finished up our sixth successive Saturday of Microsoccer, today. It was the first time we had an event like this at my local high school. A lot of the kids were from the neighboring Town [different school district] which shares a soccer club with my village.

We have two different sessions. A U6 hour and a U8 hour. The U6s are good little kids but sometimes it can feel like an exercise in futility. I usually design the lesson plan for the U8s and I really enjoy it. A rainy morning reduced our usually attendance from, about 30/group to 20.

Today we did a dribbling exercise as a group. Everyone with a ball. Speed commands; I say 1 they walk w/ the ball, I say 2 they jog, I say 3 they run. Getting them to try and take touches with every step is always difficult. They really worked hard for me today and listened good.
... Then we break them up into two groups. Usually the "hyperactive" kids to one side and the smaller boys and girls to the other. I usually work with the smaller U8s.
... We followed that up with some fetch. They bring their balls to me and I throw them away. Then we did the classic lil' kid exercise, "Crabs on the beach".
... After that we had them play in groups of two protecting their own small cones.

Since it was the last week, we finished off with two simultaneous games of kids versus coaches. Each game had three coaches versus about 10 kids. We attacked a 2-yard wide pop-up goal with 3 small girls bunkered inside! They attacked a goal of two orange cones about 10 yards apart!

We lost 9-2. After I cried on the battlefield ;) about 8 6-7yr olds rejoiced around me in a circle cheering. They had so much fun it was priceless. Lead coach handed out medals and they all got a ball out of the program. Best part was it only cost the parents $15 [for six weeks] as all the coaches were volunteer really.


High School Boys Fall Soccer starts Monday Morning! Like every successive year it will be fun to see where in the program I can jump in and help out. My role should increase a little more this year and I've got loads more experience than last in what to do when called upon. Should be good fun.

[usscouse]

We finished up our sixth successive Saturday of Microsoccer, today. It was the first time we had an event like this at my local high school. A lot of the kids were from the neighboring Town [different school district] which shares a soccer club with my village.

We have two different sessions. A U6 hour and a U8 hour. The U6s are good little kids but sometimes it can feel like an exercise in futility. I usually design the lesson plan for the U8s and I really enjoy it. A rainy morning reduced our usually attendance from, about 30/group to 20.

Today we did a dribbling exercise as a group. Everyone with a ball. Speed commands; I say 1 they walk w/ the ball, I say 2 they jog, I say 3 they run. Getting them to try and take touches with every step is always difficult. They really worked hard for me today and listened good.
... Then we break them up into two groups. Usually the "hyperactive" kids to one side and the smaller boys and girls to the other. I usually work with the smaller U8s.
... We followed that up with some fetch. They bring their balls to me and I throw them away. Then we did the classic lil' kid exercise, "Crabs on the beach".
... After that we had them play in groups of two protecting their own small cones.

Since it was the last week, we finished off with two simultaneous games of kids versus coaches. Each game had three coaches versus about 10 kids. We attacked a 2-yard wide pop-up goal with 3 small girls bunkered inside! They attacked a goal of two orange cones about 10 yards apart!

We lost 9-2. After I cried on the battlefield ;) about 8 6-7yr olds rejoiced around me in a circle cheering. They had so much fun it was priceless. Lead coach handed out medals and they all got a ball out of the program. Best part was it only cost the parents $15 [for six weeks] as all the coaches were volunteer really.


High School Boys Fall Soccer starts Monday Morning! Like every successive year it will be fun to see where in the program I can jump in and help out. My role should increase a little more this year and I've got loads more experience than last in what to do when called upon. Should be good fun.Little kids are fun aren't they?
I used to have a team of U10's took 'em to the finals in their first season and we lost because we played on a Sunday and I only had 3 players.
Another reason, other than the odd bit of genocide, for me to hate organized religion...!:rolleyes:

[usscouse]

Last match of the tourny today. Instead of a long warm up, it was 80 degrees. I just had them stretch out as I had a long talk with them of how they were beaten yesterday by a beatable (Is that a word) team.
I told them they were beaten by a team that played the way we practiced.
Passing before they were tackled, playing triangles and moving, and not getting caught in possession.
While we were playing 10 year olds kick and all run towards the goal.

Then I went one on one with them all and told them what I expected from them.

So how did they handle it..........They were freaking brilliant!!!
Great match to watch for both sides, they stepped up wonderfully... and they had fun. The score was 1-1 but the football was a 10.
The other team scored first and our guys stepped up a notch and got the equaliser soon after with a nice ball from the A mid out to the right wing, nice move around the back followed by a beautiful ground pass behind the defense but out of the keepers reach for a tap in from the striker as he cut between the defenders.

We also had a good ref and assistants. I'm sure the last dud understood the rules but he didn't understand the game or the flow. These guys did and played the advantage rule well.
We scored the first goal with some nice passing and a finishing shot but the last pass was just offside, just a body's width as the striker stepped up.
"Good call, ya bum!" I think I said, meant in the nicest way. Even got a smile out of a guy who took his job seriously.

The boys finished full of smiles, with lots of adrenalin chatter and the most important thing, they had their self confidence back. I have hopes for a good league display after today.

[liverbird]

Well she knows I coached my older daughter in the past and actually her husband comes to me for advice once in a while.

But when I have offered to help she makes it very clear she is in charge. And being the sexist pig that I am, I tend not to take orders from a woman very well. Especially when she is clueless! :D

I had this with a woman who coached MiniLB at about that age. I frankly think it is impossible to get through to them. I kept trying to tell her that at this age they need to touch the ball a lot. If she wants them in shape set up a seperate running program that they self certify they've done away from practice. However, I've found that communications with the invincibly ignorant are nigh on impossible.

[liverbird]

Last match of the tourny today. Instead of a long warm up, it was 80 degrees. I just had them stretch out as I had a long talk with them of how they were beaten yesterday by a beatable (Is that a word) team.
I told them they were beaten by a team that played the way we practiced.
Passing before they were tackled, playing triangles and moving, and not getting caught in possession.
While we were playing 10 year olds kick and all run towards the goal.

Then I went one on one with them all and told them what I expected from them.

So how did they handle it..........They were freaking brilliant!!!
Great match to watch for both sides, they stepped up wonderfully... and they had fun. The score was 1-1 but the football was a 10.
The other team scored first and our guys stepped up a notch and got the equaliser soon after with a nice ball from the A mid out to the right wing, nice move around the back followed by a beautiful ground pass behind the defense but out of the keepers reach for a tap in from the striker as he cut between the defenders.

We also had a good ref and assistants. I'm sure the last dud understood the rules but he didn't understand the game or the flow. These guys did and played the advantage rule well.
We scored the first goal with some nice passing and a finishing shot but the last pass was just offside, just a body's width as the striker stepped up.
"Good call, ya bum!" I think I said, meant in the nicest way. Even got a smile out of a guy who took his job seriously.

The boys finished full of smiles, with lots of adrenalin chatter and the most important thing, they had their self confidence back. I have hopes for a good league display after today.

See what great coaching can do -- they'll be calling you Shanks before long.

MiniLB's team plays it's first tourney this weekend. He's playing full back on the left. A real LB. Let's see how it goes. I will be late for his first game as I'll be in the local watching the West Ham game first.

[Bjornebye]

See what great coaching can do -- they'll be calling you Shanks before long.

MiniLB's team plays it's first tourney this weekend. He's playing full back on the left. A real LB. Let's see how it goes. I will be late for his first game as I'll be in the local watching the West Ham game first.

MinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiLB! Oooh! Aaah!
Stig wants to knowwwwowowow how you scored that goal!

Good luck throwing long hard balls! :D

Stig