Age 7 for that first group I mentioned. I did the same for the 2006 age group and there's already less effect. Although, we have 3 tiers with 12 players on each team. Of the first 24, only two are playing on the "C" team, but one makes a strong argument to be in the middle group. I've admitted before that since tryouts we should re-assign players based on development in the past 6 months (IMO, 5 should be re-assigned up or down in the 25 oldest players (20%)).
I had a first for me, ever last night at our U19 coed indoor game. After the game, which ended in a 9-9 tie, one of their players tried to start trouble in the handshake line. As the assistant coach I'm always at the end of the line and when I heard what he said I turned on my heel and told him "don't go there". He then proceeded to try to walk through me (not his best choice as I'm a foot taller and about 50lbs heavier than him). After trying to engage him a couple of times I just let him walk away - he clearly had some issues as he refused to even make eye contact and was also given a yellow in the game for persistently throwing his hip at our players when they went by despite direct warning from the referee. I found their coach after the game and told him that he had some wonderfully talented kids and if only they could harness their attitudes they could be at the top of the league. We're talking lots of hard contact, whining when they'd lose the ball, and yelling at their own players, combined with a few who apparently thought they needed to run a star ball control drill every time they touched the ball even after it stopped working - lots of talent, not a lot of wisdom of how to use it to win games. Their coach just chalked it up to 17 year old testosterone. As we were chatting that same kid walked about an inch in front of me, again without making eye contact, and growled "don't get in my face again" with a decided hint of "or else" in his voice. At an adult. In front of his coach. The sheer audacity and stupidity of threatening an adult in public in front of your coach shocked me enough that I didn't bother to respond. How do coaches allow players with severe attitude problems like this to play for them? He's out there attempting to injure my players, hurting his team, threatening adults, and disrespecting the game. Even if he were Messi I'd have him riding the bench or off the team until his attitude improved. Am I crazy? For what it's worth, I also witnessed a first for me in the game just before ours. A kid (I'm guessing around 14) was given a yellow for yanking down an opponent and then thought it would be a wise idea to start mouthing off to the referee. Down went the yellow, up went the red. Maybe there was something in the air last night...
In addition to my G04 club team, I'm coaching a 5/6th grade coed school team. Most are 6th graders. I coached them last year too, when most of the team was 5th graders. Two of the strongest girls aren't playing this year. (One moved schools and the other is busy with club soccer and club volleyball). 6 of the 7 boys are really, really good. 3 of them are amazing. The 7th boys is decent, but has aspergers and ADHD. They all want to play striker. The girls are all pretty terrible. I have a 4th grade girl playing up. (She's my daughter and is solid.)She'll be our keeper for 1/2 a game. The other 6 girls don't even play rec soccer. Trying to run a session with thes 14 players is really difficult. The girls need basic fundamentals. The boys need to be better teammates. I don't have an assistant coach right now, but I'm going to make sure I get one. I can work with the boys or the girls, but not both at the same time. The boys get bored or the girls are in way over their heads. It's a Christian school, so I've been praying a lot.
My first thought after the game would have been let's work on our defense because the opponent scored way too many goals against us. On little guys talking crap. I had that happen when a guy cut me off while I was driving. Then the guy gets out of his car.and tells me when I got out of mine "I eat guys like you for break fast" then I knocked him out and got back in my car, and drove away.
I totally agree. My son is hitting this age right now. His friends. His teammates. Their opponents. You never know when a powder keg will be lit. It is very important for coaches and referees to start recognize when the tension begins to ratchet up and cut it off quickly. My son had a tournament yesterday. 2 games with the same Center referee. Ref also must've been around 18 or 19 (he was wearing an ODP player coat when not on the field). He was very good at foul recognition versus teenage whining and physical play. He was poor at man management, talking with the players. It goes a long way to be in conversation with them. Games never got crazy, but its a good idea to work on this so you are ready before the 'final' incident.
Yeah we've played this team before and most of the boys have this "edge" on them that combines that youthful overconfidence at their skill level with the testosterone-laden surety that they can get away with anything because they're better, faster, and smarter than everyone around them. What I didn't like were the numerous times their guys went actively out of their way to attempt to injure my players. I do not, and will not, tolerate trash talking to the other team and I only have to give most kids a look and a stern warning at most to get them to straighten out. Heck I don't even appreciate everyone hootin' and hollerin' when someone nutmegs an opposing player - I know they're just being energetic (in their minds) but they're also disrespecting the opponent and the game when they make it seem like a single fancy move that still results in a turnover is some great accomplishment. Over the course of my time there they've cut down on the non-positive commentary considerably. Fortunately despite this kid's best efforts I never felt threatened. Fortunately I've matured enough to no longer egg him on to trying to take a swing at me just so I could drop him - once upon a time that might have been my reaction but fortunately I no longer need that affirmation. I was hoping that someone actually calling him on his attitude rather than enabling it might get him to at least momentarily think twice, but at least at the time I guess not. Maybe it planted a seed, who knows. If not and he tries to take it out on my son the next time they play, well, my son is a former kenpo black belt so that might not end so well...
I've got a new assistant coach for my u5/6 team...my u10 daughter. They really like to listen to the cool "big kid" more than old man river :lol
Hi Don't want my first post to come across as an advertisement, but i am currently developing an app for mobile use and would love any feedback. The app is an in-game stat collection tool for parents and coaches. Parents can track their child's actions during the game and coaching staff can use to track team stats. There are over 40 action modules that can be turned off/on depending on the actions you wish to collect. The App is called Benchtech Mobile and is available in the iTunes store for free https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1145980862 The android version coming soon. For more information you can visit our Facebook page @Benchtech or visit our website http://www.benchtechsports.com.au/#home look forward to any feedback.
Regardless of how good it might be, this is not something I would use or test, but I will give you some feedback from looking at your website and presentation in the app store. 1) The sales approach is targeting players and parents. That is a turnoff for me. 2) The sample screenshots showed data entries that I consider meaningless. 3) A coach would have to make multiple entries to record one event involving multiple players (e.g., a pass from A to B). 4) You store the information but give no statement regarding privacy of the information or your use of the information. 5) The app store says the app is free but your website says there is a money back guarantee. This indicates to me that after you download the app you get hit with fees to use the app. The product appears to be akin to helping a little league parent track his son's batting average. This is not something as a coach I want to see parents doing. It is bad for player development. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the feedback, but there are a number of misconceptions that i would like to clarify. The first, it is FREE to parents and team coaches, second screenshots are merely sample contents it records team stats on 40 different modules in multiple zones with a single tap for each event depending on coaching staff's (because one cannot expect the coach to record the actions during the game) focus they can select how many action modules they wish to track. Finally coaches that don't like having information inadvertently have peripheral vision. As a coach myself it's useful to know where transitions happen, where chances occur or are prevented vice versa, pass completion, how many forward,backward, left and right passes, critical thirds etc, knowing these things help me develop the team and ultimately me as a coach. At the end of the day there are a lot of numbers that get you to the final number on the scoreboard. Hope that clears a few things. But thanks for the feedback
I kept shots on goal and goals scored for each player. Then you can see if the player got a lot of good shots off, and if he was a high percentage scorer or not. If he was a wing how many "good" crosses he made in a game and how many overall crosses he attempted, and how many goals came off his crosses. See if he was a high percentage on crosses. Kept tract of all crosses by any player. If a back made a lot of bad crosses he would just defend until he could make some good ones. Don't need someone who is killing our attack when he pushes up just to push up. How many corners the team got in a game, if we got a lot of corners that shows we are putting a lot of pressure on the opponent. How many goals they scored in general and let in general. How many goals came off corners and crosses. Who scored goals, and passes that directly led to goals no secondary assists. Gave it pt system 1 goal for goal and one pt for assist. So a player would not pass up a good percentage pass that can lead to a goal for a bad percentage shot that would not lead to a goal for a team scoring title. Gave a pt for a great defensive play that I felt saved us a goal. Keeper saves on goal and percentage of goals scored by opponents. Numbers of minutes played, attendance at games and practices, bookings, injuries and my overall view of each game. View of the opponent dangerous players and weakness of their keeper if he had a weakness. Overall rating of each player in each game 1-5 plus or minus percentages. Five being the best no one gets a 5 and if someone got a 1 he wasn't long for the team because no one should get a 1. Then average their individual ratings out at end of season for me and team mvp.PK goals did not count in overall scoring, but kept them and percentage made which had better be made them all. I always had a designated taker. Miss a pk I would take away a goal in overall scoring for that player. Miss 2 pks I am looking for another designated taker. I considered the taker of pks a team honor.FKs that lead to goals or assists and number of free kicks taken. FK goal counts scoring. Taker/takers is another team honor given to one or two players."What software is the best at the moment? And where I can take/buy it?"I used a book very similar to a baseball scoring book. You can get them in a soccer store at least at my soccer store. Then I would tailor the book to keep a record of what I wanted to keep a record of if it was not already there. Book or two was good for the whole season I was pretty good watching the game and keeping the book at the same time. If I missed something I missed it, and it does not have to be perfect 100% to be useful. I didn't miss much. It helps with your game impression, and helps you see certain things in an individual players performance for good or bad. On this "Boavista - Celtic game 47 Possession % 53 Not needed, why make this comparison? Depends on the kind of game both teams are playing possession or direct. If they are playing different ways this possession comparison is useless. ------------------------- 2 Shots on target (inc goals) 1 Who got those shots and goals is more important then the shots and goals. --------------------------- 8 Shots off target 1 This is important as to who is shooting those bad shots. -------------------------------- 3 Corners 2 This is a telling stat it is telling you how much pressure you are putting on the other team. -------------------------------- 198 Successful passes 264 Not that telling. Impression is important if you notice that certain players are making a lot of good passes and some others are not. Can make a note on the player that was not passing well I don't need how many to know that. --------------- 177 Misplaced passes 162 Same is true with this ---------------------- 53 Pass Completion % 62 Miss leading a lot of short passes on one team and a lot of longer lower percentage passes on another team. This comparison is useless. ----------------------------------- 48 Tackles 42 Not that important unless you notice a lot of missed tackle by the team. How many exactly? Does it matter? If you noticed it then it was too many. So that means a lot of 1 v 1 tackling in next practice. ------------------------- 1 Offside 1 This tells me not enough runs into space because there were not enough offside. Timing runs and being aggressive on attack both teams should be called for more of them. 12 is to many and 1 is not enough. ------------------------- 18 Fouls 20 Not out of the ordinary. Also where they smart fouls or stupid fouls. See a stupid foul by a player it is worth a word or two in your notes with the players name. That how I use stats
I expect to be coaching U-Littles. I will be watching for good technique, positioning and decision making. At that age I don't care about failed execution, just that they played well. At older ages, like high school for instance, I would feel differently about stat keeping.
Thanks mate for your feedback many valid points nicklaino. You are right about possession %. I have spent a lot of time with a few clubs in Europe looking at their analytics and what actions they focus on. It varies a lot from club to club, for instance at Midtjylland set pieces and 'opportunity zones', at Valencia and Man City it was all about opportunities created and prevented. However all information that you can have will also assist you. Thanks so much for the feedback and insight how you like to use your data.
Not sure how old U-Littles are but if it's under 13s stats should not be a focal point. For me decision making is an area that is often neglected -it's so important in the development process. Cheers Mate
I remember when Marco Ettchevery came to D.C. United the coach hated him. I think he is coaching the US national team now. Marco is an acquired taste. He was not a high percentage player. But when he hit something it lead to his team scoring goals. Once I can't think of his name saw that fact he loved him. I used to tell players get mad you will play bad. But with etchevary the opposite was true. When he got mad at an opponent he actually played better a lot better. You have to adapt your team to the players you have. If I had a player like him I would try to get him to be mad at an opponent . I used to play with a player Enzo he was about 7 years older then me. He was a very unusual player. He could do a toe kick, and put it right on a team mates foot 50 yards out. It was amazing I tried to learn that could not do it. Can't do it you can't teach it. Most coaches if they saw a kid who could do it would try to break the player out of it. I would teach the kid other ways to pass, but if he had the skill would let him still use it as part of his game.
You got it. It is just slang here in the US for "official" descriptions like "zone 1." Here, the zone stops at 12 instead of 13. Thirteens typically paired with 14s if using 2-year age bands. I usually don't post here using the current "official" terms. For instance they just changed the terminology from "U-12" to "12-u." Like that makes coaching easier.
In the fall (2016) I coached with an assistant for the first time. This spring I'll be co-coaching for the first time and I'm looking for guidance. I'm wondering how to approach this so that we both enjoy working together and the players get the most out of their season. I ask because I've always spent a considerable amount of time preparing practice plans, rosters, and more. Should the two of us plan to meet in advance of the season to discuss philosophy, strategy, practice plans etc? We'll be co-coaching '08 boys in 7 v 7
Big "Yes." I think the key to working smoothly with other coaches is to have detailed practice plans. This includes what each coach will do. It doesn't have to be complicated. With one coach we divided responsibility for leading the partnership by moment. I did attacking and transition to attack and he did the other moments. We each took the lead on techniques and tactics associated with our moments. When scrimmaging, he would watch the side out of possession and I would watch the side in possession. With a detailed practice plan, each coach should be consistent on the coaching points even when the team is broken down into small groups. Generally I find usually there are differences in approach which can cause problems if not discussed and resolved a head of time.
Yes, you should get together before the season starts to talk. But one of you should go in with an understanding on who has the most experience of the two.the one time I did it with a co coach it was not good. At mid season I had a gun accident and was out for the whole spring season. Used a walker during the summer. But he did come in handy to fill in. But he had a lot of problems. He was married, but he brought his girl friend to the games. She was not exactly true to him. I heard half of our players became friendly with her.
Don't co-coach. Talk to the other coach, either face to face or via phone or whatever other technology, and figure out who is going to be the head coach and who will be the assistant coach. I had a guy that thought we were co-coaching and wanted Rec U6's to start practice with 15-20 minutes of static stretching. Fortunately, our Rec Director requires one head coach and I was able to tell him he was the assistant.
Our local league just had its annual coaches meeting. Each year they bring in some pretty good coaches to put on sessions. They are generally pretty good (they put the sessions on YouTube). This year was a bit a of a head scratcher. One of the sessions, run by a former National Team assistant coach (I'm guessing Nick knows this guy as he has long ties to the NYC/Brooklyn local scene). Absolutely horrible. The topic was 'Speed of Play.' I left after about 10 minutes of him yelling 'faster! faster!' at the demonstration players. I'd be curious to see the YouTube when it comes out to see if this session went anywhere. Probably explains why we were 40 years between WC appearances. Two other sessions were very good and unfortunately didn't make it to two other good sessions due to time overlaps. One other session had a 'big name' coach doing some rather unspectacular coaching, though I liked his set up which was basically a moving rondo game. Its great that they put this on every year, but this is the first time (out of 7) that there were a couple of stinkers. Now, we are ready for the outdoor season to begin - and 18 inches of snow are on the way.
Thanks for the feedback and while I agree that it would be easier to have a head and assistant coach vs co-coaches, I'm not sure that co-coaching will be untenable. We know one another from playing soccer and hockey together and our kids are in the same school so we're not total strangers. She is a very good coach and I'm not concerned with her approach in any way. Maybe I'll ask her to meet in the next week or two (season starts second week of April) to talk about how we want to approach practices and games and delve out responsibilities for each. Thanks again for your thoughts and wondering if anyone else has any ideas on how to make this as effective as possible?