Happy? Someone feel free to change the title. I kinda suck at that stuff. I start practices again tonight. It's been a month and a half since "the incident with the other club" but it feels like forever. My body was enjoying the break. I did a few private stuff but multiple kids again?! Gah!
Not sure I'm going to coach this spring. Last year we had 4 practices all season (and 10 games), scheduled by our organization at a high-traffic location at rush hour. Our spring season doesn't need coaches, it needs chaperones - preferably people who don't also work full time. I think I'll take a break until the fall.
signed my 9 year old for 4v4 rec in spring. he likes it better than the other options we've explored. I wrote down that I would coach or ref for the 4v4 league, I'd prefer coaching. 8 year old needs to focus on school/karate, so it will make it easier this spring. he said he might help me as a practice player, lol.
We've been going indoor in an elementary school gym with a futsal ball. 70ftX30ft bball court. They've gotten pretty good with control playing 6v6 in such a small space (u12/13s). We're in a 6v6 tournament on a 60m X 30m indoor turf field in two weeks. I'm concerned they've forgotten how to pass more than 2m but I guess we'll see.
Was reading something on espn about the USMNT and Klinsmann made a comment that has stuck with me today. "You're only as good as your worst player." Can't be more true. While we all should be developmentally focused, if you're beyond the rec stage, one can't just take players. I can't think of all the players I've taken on "just to make numbers". In retrospect, I probably would've been better off with less players (subs essentially) and toughing it out with the players I could work with. It's not that I'm above working with remedial players, but they demand so much time that you really hold back the kids that can move onto other things. You can even augment it to possibly say that "you can only progress as far as your worst player." Which isn't entirely true either, because one can coach to the top of the group and force the bottom tier to keep up.
That is what frustrated me with coaching house league youth. Each time they would assign about 6 complete novices, so I would have to teach all the basic techniques, rules, and tactics. It was like mixing U8s with U12s from the tactical and technical aspects. The individual work and SSGs I could run efficiently, which would promote skill development, but I couldn't move on to intermediate topics. On top of that I had to keep the same dumbed-down system of play. I suspect that was what was behind Klinsman's comment. At his level, the system and game plan has to be tailored for the 11 starters and 3 subs. Having a system and game plan that only some people can do well won't win competitions. While winning youth competitons is great, our systems and game plans should be designed to promote development, which means the players should be reaching a little. I imagine your situation is not any easier, just because the level is higher. Even if the new players are the same soccer age, they are going to be behind on the learning curve just because they don't know how you train. If they have some bad techniques or tactics.... Teaching novices new techniques has to be easier than correcting bad habits, which I expect is what you see more of at your level. I can see where you are coming from.
In my first year of coaching last year, I found that I struggled keeping all the players challenged at the same time. Every coach has to deal with this in some part, but I felt like I had players all over the spectrum (some with skill, some without, some athletes, some non athletes, some that would die if they missed soccer, some that didn't want to be there, etc. ) I'm probably going to request to move from U12 to U8 after this season in hopes that the gap between all the players doesn't seem as huge. I believe I'd be a much more effective coach if that was the case.
I suggest that you think about shifting down only 2 years instead of 4. I found U10s to be an age that is easy to work with. They are enthusiastic and soak up everything like sponges. Also U10 training is primarily focused on improving technical skill so differences in skill level is not so harmful to the training. At U12 usually tactics is more involved, applying the skills to solve tactical problems. Skill level differences are harder to accomodate in teaching tactics, especially if you have players that cannot control the ball well. While I have not coached U8s, I expect that they have shorter attention spans and need to be engaged to be focused. U10 (8 and 9) is prime time for skill development. I found it very satisfying because you can see the players improve at that age.
1. I think that's a cop out excuse from Klinsmann, but that is another thread where I clearly mark out my dislike to the circus barker that Klinsmann is. 2. Klinsmann has his choice of players. He doesn't have to play all the players nor balance out playing time for the 'worst' player at the expense of the best player, so I don't agree with him. 3. That said, coaching soccer really isn't much different from being a public school teacher where there is inclusion of special needs students and students with little interest and to some extent too large a classroom. I suppose there is challenge to manage a classroom, but that may come with aides or discussions with parents. As the manager of the room it is up to you to work with the other parties outside of you and above you to make sure there is enough cover to achieve your goals. 4. As a club coach, not at a premier level, I am under no illusion that all my players will be great (or even equal) on any one team, but at their young ages it is more important to learn to be a fan of the game, challenge them and make them want to be there all the time first. This will only want to make them want to achieve more. Without this base, they will never be good players.
As for "I'm ready for spring" thread title, I'm not. We have 18 inches of snow on the ground. Another foot on the way. The good news is our club opened up a dome structure two weeks ago. Instead of practicing once a week, we are practicing 3 nights a week. Instead of having to drive 15 miles to the practice facility, I am now 1.5 miles away.
You can't still be ready to be outside? We have another 3 weeks of our league but it's 4v4 and indoor all year so really until tryouts and I can get back to the premiere side, it's really all the same to me outside of putting on a coat and pants to run to the car. I am in the same boat as I went from a 35 minute drive with my old club to like 5 with the new one. 3 house teams (one of which is the only rec team in their division) and all sorts of skill levels per team. I need to talk to parents and our director about mixing up the boys as I have some division 1 boys who should play in 3 and some in 3 who should be in 1. Or some in division 2. Something. Some get bored and others are lost. At least it's nothing official and the way our practices are run it's really up to the kids how much effort they put into it and then get out of it. I usually have to divide - as in I tell them they can have the other half of the area - the kids between the ones who want to learn and the ones who want to goof off. I'll usually get a couple goof offs per practice on the two boys' teams but they see everyone else learning a new move and quickly switch gears. My girls are officially the quietest players I've ever had. You can hear a pindrop at practices and games. It's not that they don't talk, it's just that almost all of them whisper everything they say. Sometimes I think I'd understand their questions better if they spoke Greek. As I was leaving the facility the other day I stopped and watched a game between two teams from another club. One kid didn't close down enough on a 1v1, got beat, and his man scored. His dad then told him, "It's all your fault." Ouch. So glad I don't have to deal with that attitude with my new place. We don't practice that even on the competitive side. I know the kid was about 14-15 but that was still rough. It's not like either team was that good in the first place. Fairly certain some of my U8 boys had better skills than 90% of the boys out there.
Our season has been messed up by the weather. It started the first week of march, but due to rainouts we've only played 2 games thus far (1 win and 1 draw). I'm expecting to see quite a bit of progress for my team this season. I'm taking the USSF D and I think that has really helped me with practices thus far. My rec team had a lot of player turnover, but I feel like this team has a higher ceiling than last season. Our last game had some pretty interesting moments. Within the first 5-10 minutes of the game, the other teams coach came all the way on our end of the field and yelled instructions to his players while standing in front of my bench (I was sitting on the bench when he came strolling down). I decided to be the bigger man and not say anything until he kept standing there so I had to go through the whole your bench is over there, you are confusing my team, etc. He still didn't move so I calmly told him I didn't want to have to get the refs involved, but I would if he didn't respect the rules. It was a 2-3 minute thing and I'm surprised the refs didn't mention anything while it was going on (no raised voices and completely civil, but it was pretty apparent something was going on. My girlfriend said she was surprised it didn't escalate into anything more because she could tell I wasn't happy he wasn't moving). Onto the actual game. One of their players kept running his mouth to the ref of all people. Yes a 10-11 year old telling the ref he sucks and being a general smart ass about every call against his team. Ref showed the kid way too much leniency. Should have been red carded...seriously. I don't really advocate the use of cards at rec u11, but if a kid is going to be completely disrespectful on a continuous basis and the coach doesn't address it, then the ref needs to address it by giving a yellow and then another if the behavior isn't stopped. Ref finally snapped with about 5 minutes left in the game...literally snapped. Yelled "I am sick and tired of your freaking crap" and gave the kid a yellow. Kid still went on after that, but ref never produced a 2nd yellow and coach never subbed him presumably since he was their best player. I told my players if they ever disrespected a ref like that, then I was sending them over to their parents for the whole game and they could explain to their parents why they weren't on the bench with the rest of the team. Game ended in a 2-2 draw. I was happy with how our team performed overall. I'd like to see a little more positional discipline from a couple of my better players. One in particular struggled with the #6 role. He just wouldn't sit back and dictate play from a deep position. Once he collected the ball, he'd dribble a player and two and continue the attack more as a #10 leaving a huge space in front of my back 4. That is something I'm continuously trying to work on since everyone wants to play forward and score goals.
So this year my son is in 3rd grade and the division is "3rd and 4th grade co-ed" (so could be called u10-11ish Upwards goes by the educational grade, not the US soccer chart) so... this is way easier than coaching k-2nd boys! They listen most of the time and we get a lot of training done, they even pass the ball to their teammates during scrimmages, it's like I've landed on another planet.
I've had 1 game so far and about 5-6 practices. Progressing pretty well in some areas and slow in some areas. They seem to be really picking up the soccer IQ stuff pretty quicky (shielding, positioning for defending, pressure, cover balance team defending, spreading on offense / contracting towards center on defense etc. Seem to be a little slow on their footskill development despite that is where much more practice time is devoted. Kicking technique, dribbling technique, 1st touch control etc. seems to be alot slower than what I've expected for 9-10 year old boys. No frustration on my part though, I guess I just thought to see a little bit quicker progression on their ball control/ball mastery improvements over last 3-4 weeks coaching at U10 age group.
Vacation ends tomorrow for the kids. Outdoor fields officially open on Monday. First outdoor practice scheduled for Monday night. Coincides with the first 70 degree day since last October.
I've been out sick the last week and a half and just had a parent run scrimmages with the team for our practices. Massive difference between this game and our last game 2 weeks ago. We won but it was not soccer. Support play was non-existant but it wouldn't have helped even if it had been good because everyone was running around with their heads down dribbling. A definite "wtf is this" performance. Was so bad I gave up coaching in the 2nd half and started watching the arsenal game on my phone. I'm a true role model.
ugly practice last night. Working a little on tactics and spacing before our first game in 12 days. Full 7 players working as a unit vs. 7 cones positioned on the field as the defending team and an active goalkeeper. Cones tied my attackers 0-0. Got some work to do.
We're in the 2nd week of the season. Lots of practices have been rained out over the last couple of weeks. Last night was the 1st practice with my 5th grade girls. They were a giggly, sassy, totally unfocused mess. Their game today was a completely different story. They won in a runaway and they played scary good and made amazing passes and had a couple of really, really pretty goals. My 4th grader hung in tough against a very strong team and ended up losing on a late PK for a handball in the box. My HS team tied 0-0 and looked way, way better than last week. Once they remember how to score it should be fun
I just finished a book called Practice Perfect by Lemov. Great book on how to apply deliberate practice. One take away: Practice FEWER things BETTER and more diligently.
So I agree overall this is better approach but as a coach do you fully neglect some aspects of beginner development along the way in order to get 1,2 or 3 aspects very well developed? For instance, historically (seen this both at U14 and U10 teams I've coached), I may play 10-15 minutes of keepaway. The first 5-10 minutes they tend to bunch alot, stand around, don't space well, don't move the ball quickly enough, don't find the open player etc. Lots of stolen balls, bad passes bad decisions etc. Then the last few minutes they start to get it much better. Go a few practices working more on all of the other skills and don't have enough time to cover a keepaway type drill. When I come back around to keepaway after 2-3 practice layoff, we are back to the beginning as if we've never done it before or they learned very little to nothing from the last session. Starting over. So as a coach would it be better to continue to do 10-15 min. of keepaway each and every repetitive practice until they seem to get that 1 basic concept down with repeated success early on before bringing in another technical / beginner concept to work on. Reduce the spread of areas and concepts in training? For U10 I don't spend hardly any time on the tactical stuff, but mostly technical and footskill development.