2019 Coaching Thread

Discussion in 'Coach' started by stphnsn, Mar 11, 2019.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    If I may vent for a sec - last Sat the opponent's coach was on the field (we were both reffing the game) and during a 10 minute stretch of the game she was out there on the field while holding a baby, must of been a month or two old. I didn't know what to make of it. This is U6, we don't take it too seriously, so I didn't say anything, but it was so out of the norm. In my head I was kinda beside myself and thinking "who the hell does this?". What if she had tripped or the ball came flying at her? She had lots of supporters (parents, grandparents) on her sideline, so she could have sat and someone could have replaced her, or she could have just told me she needed a break and I would have been completely fine officiating solo. I doubt I'll encounter such a bizarre moment again but if I do I'll just tell the person to take a break to tend to their baby and let me handle the field.
    The lack of competency in this "league" is something else.
     
  2. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    U6 players can strike the ball hard enough to kill a baby.

    I suggest you report her to the club.
     
    NewDadaCoach repped this.
  3. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    That no one else stepped up to take the place of a mom carrying a newborn illustrates how hard it is to get volunteers nowadays. :laugh:
     
    NewDadaCoach repped this.
  4. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    Thanks, I told the club registrar.
     
    rca2 repped this.
  5. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    First Columbus Day weekend in about a decade I haven't had to sleep in a hotel, because I don't have to coach at a tournament.

    Not a big fan of tournaments at all.
     
    stphnsn and rca2 repped this.
  6. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    One of the great benefits of not coaching Club is I also get to play myself.

    The team I joined plays a flat 4-4-2 (how archaic). The two strikers don't play connected and worse one plays way wide near the touch line (right on top of the outside mid.

    When this happens, I pinch to the middle to create angles and create an overload. Our CMs like to roam (not necessarily a good thing). What do you coaches think of this as a "fix"?

    Team is fairly successful and I'm the new guy, so not really in a position to mandate change. We get away with it because we have several athletic (big/fast/athletic) forwards and several guys who do know how to play. But it's clear most of them were raised in a different footballing era. But they do things I'd never let the teams I coach do.

    On most days, everyone is so isolated from each other-there's no chances for high percentage combinations.

    When I play in the middle, instead of playing flat I tell my CM partner to push forward and I play as a 6 or pivot to link the back and midline. And to give structure to cut out counters.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    I always hated playing 442 with recreational teams because they never understood how it should work.

    For instance there is no significant difference in playing a 433 vs a 442 if you follow Dutch Style principles and use a classic 433 with 3 CMs. Essentially you have a pressing shape, an attacking shape, and a 442 zone defense shape. To me you could call it a 424 or 343 too. What happens on the field shouldn't changing because of the label we use to describe it. The shape should be always changing as circumstances during play change, so the numbers cannot be about a shape on the field, at least not when you are talking about the senior game.

    To me, I just use the number to indicate the theoretical number of backs, mids, and forwards. Otherwise formations are just telephone numbers.
     
    elessar78 repped this.
  8. The most important thing in Dutch football is to form (interlocking) triangles, which by the way is most easily done in 4-3-3 formations, but not necesarily only possible in that 4-3-3.
     
  9. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    The classic Ajax attack was to move the LB into the midfield as the left side of a central diamond. It is commonly referred to as a 343. I think of it as a chain of overlapping diamonds: 12:121:21.

    442 with a "second striker" can play very similar to a 433. I think the 433 with dedicated wingers is easier for rec players to understand than a wingless formation like the 442.
     
  10. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    . . . when you have a meeting with your players ahead of going to watch the local varsity team play to warn them that "what you see isn't how you're supposed to play soccer." . . .
     
    stphnsn, rca2 and CoachP365 repped this.
  11. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    @elessar78 Apparently coaches need to give that disclaimer prior to viewing US MNT matches as well.
     
    stphnsn and elessar78 repped this.
  12. ouch
     
  13. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    My season is over. Our opponents for Sunday had to cancel due to lack of players and coaches. I suspect they were missing kids for fall breaks and didn't account for that during scheduling. It's crappy, but it is what it is at this point.

    Last night was the final training session, and we did a players versus parents game. That was a great way to end a tough season. We got everyone on the field. The kids were having fun. Parents had fun. We coaches were having fun. It was a good tonic for me as I was in a rut the last few weeks. It was good to see so much joy from the game again.

    My final C course meeting starts next Thursday, and I've got a few more assignments to finish up for that. Then we're on to 19U tryouts for my spring team. I was dreading more soccer, but I feel a little bit better about it after last night.
     
  14. soccerinmich

    soccerinmich Member

    Jun 26, 2010
    Season is coming to an end. One week left. Results have been good after a slow start.

    Team has built a lot of trust. We lost 6 players from last year. We worked hard to be a solid defensive team and have that as a calling card.

    Our attack struggled early in the season but has come together the last few games. We are learning to play away from pressure, switch the field, and make Intelligent dangerous runs. Wish we could keep going and not have the season end
     
  15. NewDadaCoach

    NewDadaCoach Member

    Tottenham Hotspur
    United States
    Sep 28, 2019
    Just had our 6th game. We're 6-0 but I'll be glad when this is over. I just don't like coaching kids who stand around in a game and don't even care to know where the ball is. And I can't stand being asked "is the game over yet?", "can I go home now?"... it's a waste of minutes to give these kids playing time when other kids could be using those minutes to develop.
     
  16. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Lost 2-3 yesterday, but ironically, the girls played their best/most complete game yesterday. Two of the goals against were looping mis-hits, but both our goals their GK had hands on it—so wasn't clean either. Our build up play was good against a good opponent. Created lots of chances but were wasteful—girls are taking shots from poor angles or too far. We introduced them to playing a ball across the face of goal, away from the GK instead of taking a bad shot just this past Thursday, so it's a topic we'll need to keep going back to.

    Overall, I'm happy with the season. We set them on a path where they rarely play kickball. Even 3 weeks ago we were still in the 1 to 0 passes per possession stage. Last week we regularly linked 2 and this week regularly 3 to 4 passes. So progress. We've been working so much on the build out, I don't think they know what to do in the attacking half.
     
    rca2 repped this.
  17. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    LOL. Somehow kids never hesitate when in the opponent's half.

    On the serious side, the tactical problems to solve don't change until the defense falls back in front of their goal and the space behind the back line disappears. I.e., there is no large gap to exploit between the opposing backs and the keeper.

    So then you either make an early cross or through pass behind the back line before the large gap disappears or else you play in the small spaces around the goal. Senior teams will withdraw up the field to raise the line of confrontation back to the center circle to create the large gap behind the back line again. Reset and try for the through pass or early cross again. In simplest terms, that is the whole attacking game. Some people talk about the "11 phases" of attacking play, but I like a more general, simpler view--"see space and go." Kind of like "pass and move" basketball.
     
  18. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Agreed. Right now, their "front play" is unrefined. On the menu are; simple 1-2 combinations, 3rd "girl" passes, more quality on the entry pass across the face of goal. They've never been showed some basic ideas on how to break down defenders in front of goal other than, maybe, 1v1.
     
    rca2 repped this.
  19. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    That is something even internationals are still working on. :)
     
  20. danielpeebles2

    Dec 3, 2013
    another fall season comes to a close for younger son's team. administrator called the games due to forecast of rain. no stats are kept, so no makeup.

    maybe my last year of coaching unless I end up volunteering for something when the kids don't need me to taxi them around in the future.
    ...

    older son is having a pretty good time playing for big club. We probably should have started with club soccer sooner if he really wanted to make high school team, but we'll see how it goes.
     
  21. danielpeebles2

    Dec 3, 2013
    Seems like she is one of those folks who feels responsible for everything. Kind of like an adult child of an addict, or something like that. Trying to be the hero multi-tasking supermom martyr.

    just reading this for the first time... but I know people like this.

    and yes,
    my kid's U6 team did have a kid on it who was an athlete and ended up playing club. he could have messed that baby up if pressed into it.
     
    NewDadaCoach repped this.
  22. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Around here there is a shady amount of conflict of interest between club and high school.

    the varsity coaches are usually club coaches too-and they coach at the clubs that directly feed into the respective high schools. Granted it's hard to find good coaching outside of club ball, but not that all the varsity coaches are great coaches anyway.

    but more than a few parents have mentioned that there's unspoken pressure to play for THAT club or else you won't get picked for HS. And sometimes this starts in elementary school!

    To me, Very shady to shell out $2-3K per year to be considered for varsity. On the flip side, the coaches feel that they must pick these players for varsity because they've "coached" them leading up to this point. They've improved them, they know our style of play-blah, blah.
     
    CoachP365 repped this.
  23. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    Unless the rule has changed, Indiana high school coaches cannot coach their HS players in the club environment. I think there are some limited exceptions for DOCs, but by and large they're kept separate.
     
    elessar78 repped this.
  24. Buckingham Badger

    May 28, 2003
    Same rule in Wisconsin but only enforced if you ask. We were in a tight spot this August when a coach ghosted a week before and therefore we asked. Answer no but as season went on we found out 2 other schools do the same.

    Also, the story of playing for a club gets you to the HS team has been the same story since I played 25 years ago. Was true then as now.
     
  25. Buckingham Badger

    May 28, 2003
    My season(s) just ended this weekend. Our club worked really hard for us to get our U9 numbers up so that we were able to form 2 U9 teams. Due to space limitations we practiced together 2x/week and 1 practice was 1/2 of a U12 field the other we shared a full U9/U10 field. I coach one of the U9s and the other U9 coach played D3 soccer so she knows the game. I ended up organizing the practice plans simply as she was very scattered with stuff and too much strategy. I actually think we have gone backwards in the last 30 years with kids physical abilities so you have to start simpler.
    Our club does youth by school grade (2nd graders) in a U9 league so our teams are younger. When we split the 2 teams we tried to do it even but we acknowledged that I had a little better players but kids that were more unruly. My team was super aggressive which was good and bad. Every game was close but we started 1-4 but ended successfully at 3-4-1. The league will resort into an A and B division and based on standings we'll probably be put in the bottom (6/7th in a 10 team division) and usually we get 2 new teams for the fall to get to 12 and we will split into 2 groups of 6). I really hope to be in the top as we are closer to the top than the bottom. There is a distinct difference in the top 7 and the bottom 3.

    Usually by u11/U12 the kids will end up splitting and not playing by grade so they are age appropriate but we kept my U10 together losing only 2 kids to our competitive team as 2 kids turned down opportunities to play as they would rather be with us. Its worked out well. Added 2 new kids and 1 kid who came back after taking the spring off to try baseball. Lots of work and we started slow. Ended 3-5 with 2 wins in our last 3 beating the 1st place club, winning against the bottom 5-0 and then losing to 3rd place team 6-5. Overall, there were weeks where I was ready to quit but we had a talk about my expectations and the last few weeks were good.

    I know our league like many others has a reffing shortage but I have to vent about what happened today and through much of the season. I know we are not to criticize the refs but why? I had a kid beat the goalie on the end line and the goalie tackled him (no call), I had several kids pushed from behind in the back as they shielded the ball with their body (no calls). I had the ref signal advantage many times as a kid would get tripped and then lose possession because he is off balanced then the call never comes. I believe the ref blew his whistle 3-4 times all game. How can we ask these kids to try to play with possession but then when they do they get physically punished for it and no call. Its disheartening.
     
    rca2 repped this.

Share This Page