2019 Coaching Thread

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

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  1. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    @TCRZero, yes, it would take some expectation management on the part of both the player and the parents. There are some good lessons to be had in terms of doing one's own job and accepting things that are beyond your control. If you go into it with open eyes, you may be able to manage everyone's expectations.
     
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  2. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    #102 elessar78, May 6, 2019
    Last edited: May 6, 2019
    Always a concern about the less committed players-which is why I stopped coaching travel. But I’m okay with losses as long as they are competing and learning.

    The question I had, related to this, from earlier in the year was: how important is the quality of your teammates for development in the preteen ages?

    Right now, I’m trying to focused on her technical and game insight/perception development.

    We were digging more into it and the club scheduling KILLED her enjoyment of the game this winter. On Saturday and Sunday, they scheduled games AND training. It just became too much—weeekends were not a time she could go unwind.
     
  3. TCRZero

    TCRZero New Member

    Columbus Crew
    Jan 7, 2019
    As a U9 my daughter practiced 4 nights a week with games on weekend- part of what nearly killed her love for the game, but bigger issue was that the team's "inner circle" had already formed when she joined. When they moved to tougher regional division in Spring - coach only played the inner circle, and she barely got into games. Devoting that much time to a team you barely play for is not mentally healthy.

    My experience is still a work in progress, admittedly. I feel she got immensely better technically, but she wasn't learning to read the game as a squad player.

    Now that she's on a team where she has to be a leader, she's learning to be a playmaker, see the game develop around her, get into position off the ball, and anticipate runs.

    Best thing we did this year? Had her tryout for ODP. Didn't make state pool but she got good sessions with competitive kids as a squad player while being a leader on her club team.
     
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  4. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    That's another underlying factor for my kid too—always the outsider mainly because she didn't go to the same school as her teammates.
     
  5. TCRZero

    TCRZero New Member

    Columbus Crew
    Jan 7, 2019
    Great point about doing your job and accepting what you can't control.

    Our club is a lot like other smaller clubs I think: 1/3 devoted competitive players, 1/3 doing it for fun/parents, 1/3 have a different primary sport/activity (cross-trainers).

    I've been considering a team-building meeting to have each player talk about what they want to accomplish, for rest of season, next season and long-term, and do a couple of the exercises in Tony DiCicco's book. I was going to have the talk be a player's only meeting, but I'm a little worried about it turning into "Lord of the Flies".

    The goal would be to develop some understanding between the players to meet in the middle. Get the competitive players to lighten up a little, get the fun group to work a little harder/not be disruptive in practice, get the cross-trainers to help mediate a bit. Have everyone care a bit more about their teammates on the field.

    Have any of you tried this at this young an age (4th/5th grade) with any success?
     
  6. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    Kids don't usually make independent decisions until about age 10. Long term to a child this young is the next meal. Asking them to state their future plans in front of the group is going to create more anxiety and stress than ease it.
     
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  7. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    I don't see that working very well with kids that young. My 19Us really won't even open up and talk with their teammates about goals informally at the start of a session.
     
  8. TCRZero

    TCRZero New Member

    Columbus Crew
    Jan 7, 2019
    I agree about the maturity at age 10 - some of the 5th graders could handle this (albeit not very well), but forget about it with my 4th graders.

    I have to do a better job of understanding motivations and putting them in the right situations to key off that.
     
  9. CoachP365

    CoachP365 Member+

    Money Grab FC
    Apr 26, 2012
    You can ask them all what they are hoping to do this year, maybe next year. Give them paper and markers/crayons/something, ask them to write it down. They can put their name if they want but they don't have to.

    Mostly you're going to get "score a goal/score N goals/get better at soccer" but you'll see most of what they want is covered by what you'd be planning to teach anyway.
     
  10. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Moving to a new club for the fall. I'm super excited mainly because my commute will be slashed by approximately 70%.
     
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  11. jmnva

    jmnva Member

    Feb 10, 2007
    Arlington, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Today was the day that my 2 teams played each other. My co-coach with the senior girls was there so he managed them while I managed the 9th graders.

    It was fun and the seniors won 4-2 for their 1st win of the season.
     
  12. TCRZero

    TCRZero New Member

    Columbus Crew
    Jan 7, 2019
    Had a new experience on Tuesday - travelled an hour for a league game. When we get to field - it isn't lined and hasn't been for at least a few weeks, no sign of other team. Park is deserted. Parents were starting to freak out - no answer from other team's DOC, or league contact.

    Needless to say I was relieved when the ref crew showed up. We all waited required amount of time and left. Finally got contact from other team next day- they claimed to not know we had a game that night even though it had been on the league schedule website from the start of the season. We play them on Saturday in a local tournament.

    I have a feeling they had a schedule mishap - transcribed from league to TeamSnap/TeamConnect/ whatever incorrectly.
     
  13. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    That's weird. I usually try to email or text the opposing coach and manager a couple days out to make sure games are still on. Mostly it's due to how much rain we've had this spring. I don't want to waste my time driving somewhere to find out the fields are closed.
     
  14. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    For my volunteer-based club, we’ve had a good surge of registrations over the past two years. But a novel idea crossed my head. Maybe. We spend a lot of resources on training players. We need to spend probably as much recruiting and training volunteer coaches.s
     
  15. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    Good luck getting buy-in. My experience has been it's hard enough getting enough volunteer coaches who are willing to show up to coach training and a game every week. No one is going to do anything beyond that unless you pay them to be there.

    Most volunteer coaches are parents right? Maybe giving a significant registration discount to their kids would help encourage the parent coaches to do the training?
     
  16. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Their kid(s) already play free if they coach and we reimburse for coaching courses. There's just so much more to it than coaching courses. I come on here because I need answers. I've taken as many coaching courses as I can to this point, but they also don't answer all the questions one may have.

    Between me and the DOC, we are the only licensed coaches in the club above an F or an E. We basically need to develop more volunteers to the next level. I agree that it's going to be tough, but I feel we are approaching the wall rapidly in terms of what I and the DOC can contribute. We are doing some cool stuff, despite being only two people. If we can get one more, that's a huge increase. We outsource our skills training already, which is fine—it's not killing us by any means. But obviously, more educated coaches means a better experience for the players.

    Maybe the coach training is in video format, so people can watch at their convenience.
     
  17. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    Yep. We offer to reimburse for coaching courses too, but the only ones who do them are our travel coaches who are required to do them. Even then, I have to beg them to do them, and they wait until the absolute last minute to get them done.

    If you find something that works to get more coaches involved, please share it with the rest of us.
     
  18. HScoach13

    HScoach13 Member+

    Nov 30, 2016
    Club:
    Atlanta
    I finished my most successful season as a coach. My high school boys team lost in the semi finals of the state playoffs to the team that would win the state title. We lost a heart breaker in PK's. I was not prepared completely prepared for the heartbreak that these boys had in not winning. They know that only one team can win it all but they were not prepared for the reality of it. I was very proud of them they went further than any team in the history of the program. We have a very strong team and we will be back next year for another deep run.
     
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  19. DaBurg

    DaBurg Member

    Apr 18, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So, basically you are Liverpool? Boys should be proud.
     
  20. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    As another Memorial Day approaches, why the f*** again do we make these kids play tournaments multiple hours away from home?

    This weekend, we have games where we have 90 minutes from the end of one game to the beginning of the next. If we are development-focused as all of our websites say we are, why do we put kids through this.
     
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  21. DaBurg

    DaBurg Member

    Apr 18, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I haven’t yet had someone explain to me why it’s all necessary. The entire structure seems broken.
     
  22. stphnsn

    stphnsn Member+

    Jan 30, 2009
    I'm off this weekend, thankfully. I need the break.

    I won't sign up for those tournaments. I registered my 19Us for Presidents Cup this season specifically because I knew there wouldn't be multiple games on the same day. At this age playing two games in the same weekend is crazy let alone two in one day.
     
  23. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    You might be familiar with this anecdote:

    A Dutch u-national team coach told his American counterpart “you build slow players in the US”.

    The backstory is that our players do too much. So in the case of a tournament, the first game is played with 100% available energy. But every subsequent game can’t be played with 100% energy and players get used to playing at less than 100% speed and energy.

    I believe DAs cap games at 36 per year. A conservative estimate of a teenage teams in my area is at 48 games throughout the year. I think the Dutch teams are around 20 games per year. I’d have to check that claim though.
     
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  24. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Anyone know anything about Blocked practice vs Randomized practice?
     
  25. Macchi

    Macchi Member

    Mar 31, 2016
    Club:
    AC Milan
    On tournaments, I now have an almost allergic reaction to them.

    My U9 team is playing 4 games this weekend. Kids love the idea of a tournament, so I caved (this is our only tournament this year). And there's nothing wrong with them feeling like it's the World Cup, that focus and desire to win on the kids' part is a positive thing.

    I agree tournaments are just a symptom of the entire system being broken. And I'd say the biggest advocates of these tournaments are us parents, we want to see our kids win, and we don't realize how counter productive our parental desires are.

    At least there's no plastic trophy in our age group, should moderate some of the worst parent and coach behavior...
     
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