Beastmodesoccer.com is a good resource for foot skills. I’ve used this for my kids and teams. It’s really just an organized system for getting a ton of touches on the ball. This was mostly used as home work for my teams. I would occasionally test players on specific routines and track their progress.
For indoor, Markus will be practicing and scrimmaging with K-3 boys. Under the direction of the high school coaches. I am look forward for him to be coached by other coaches. While we have enjoyed coaching him, I think having other individuals be the designated coaches will be good for him. Goodbye Grasshoppers. Hope to see that group next spring with Tal.
i've watched some of Beast Mode's youtube videos. There are few others that I like as well that are in the same vein. I'll see about downloading their program. Thanks. Lots of touches, quickness and coordination are what we're looking for.
Reading through this thread is like reading a history of my daughter's career. Parents complaining about reffing. Not getting equal playing time. Individual foot skill drills. Coaching... Looking back, I can say the best thing I ever did was get my daughter away from an abusive, negative coach when she was 13 and put her with one that completely understood how to coach girls. Berating them, benching them for creative play that didn't go as planned and dictating play from the bench were completely killing her desire and joy on the field. As soon as she was with a coach that knew how to treat her she became a beast. And for those that met her at the MegaTailgate yesterday, she has a life-long love of the sport she will pass along to her kids. Because in the end, she isn't playing pro or for the Nats after college and even playing in college at a D3 isn't paying her anything, she is playing because she loves it, just like I do.
Amen. It was funny--I'm about 12 years into retirement from playing (I hit 50, 50 hit back)--and yet for just a couple of minutes yesterday, I wanted to be out there.... Then my knees reminded me why I'm not. But still and always, I love the game!
Signed Markus up for his first round of rec soccer. Practices during the week? Oh no! The sign-up form asked for time conflicts on Saturdays. I answered with "Crew season ticket holder. Please assign him the earlier game time." I am also thinking about the little stars soccer summer camp at UA this summer. Since I already work there, it would be pretty convenient for me to walk him over to the field, and then pick him up. Thoughts on spending money on brief summer soccer camps? Husband has already given the okay with "Markus would love it."
We've had a few of the kids do some week-long camps. They always love them, even if they don't necessarily seem to pick up many skills. Still, they get more time on the ball, have a chance to get on the field with their buds, and develop their love of the game. Of course, the organizers always really try to juice up the value of the camp by bringing in some scrubs with English accents to show the kids how "real footballers" train. Loads of parents love that shit. If you've got the means, I'd say go for it.
In bittersweet news, my angry sweet baby daughter is moving on to high school sports next year. With soccer and volleyball occupying the same season, she has opted to drop soccer and focus her energies on volleyball. And just when she was blossoming into a wonderful deep-lying playmaker...
That could be a blessing in disguise. In our experience, the quality of high school soccer was really bad across the board - coaching, tactics, skills, etc. It got so bad our daughter opted to play with her club's boys open team her junior and senior year instead.
Recalling my own high school soccer career, I agree. Although, she has started asking about club volleyball to fill more of the time she'll have... My sister and I played club volleyball and, oh boy, that's a whole big thing, too. EDIT: I've got to say, it's a really weird, wonderful experience to take your kid to your old high school for a tour. She didn't seem as impressed that I could remember the locations of all my old lockers or the room where her mom and I had our first class together.
I've heard about that--my buddy's kids did this--in SoCal. His last daughter's HS team made the State Tournament after finishing 2nd in the SoCal tourney--but had lost their best player to injury right before the final. We got to see the semis, and it was a really good 5 set match with pretty high quality (as you might imagine).
Doesn't the second sentence answer the question in the first? He's probably going to have to do some sort of day camp if both mom and dad work. This sounds like an excellent choice, even if it is a week off from YMCA camp.
I highly recommend the Coerver Academy camps if there is one in your area. They do a few weeks in Columbus over the summer and my daughter has gone the past couple of years and it's great. They mainly focus on dribbling and controlling the ball at your feet. Usually teach them a couple of tricks too. She's been playing indoor this winter and she's pulled off a few moves and my assistant coach just looks at me and asks...where did that come from. Beats me? https://www.coerver.com/
Spindler Park has 2 ccoerver oaching camps: DATES: Monday 6/24/19 to 6/28/19 TIMES: 9 AM to 3 PM AGES: 7-15 (Birth Year 2003-2011) DATES: Monday 7/8/19 to 7/12/19 TIMES: 9 AM to 3 PM AGES: 7-15 (Birth Year 2003-2011) cost is $275. Pretty reasonable. I've watched a lot of youtube videos of the Coerver techniques and developed a little routine my son is doing in the basement this offseason. I think he'd get a lot out of this. Might just sign him up for both. He asked if he could do a camp this summer. We did one at Soccer First last summer and it was...meh. So, looking for another option, this seems ideal. Thanks for planting the seed @jairadballerina
I agree with the above posts and I highly recommend the Coerver camps. The guys that run it are really good with kids too. Also, if not previously noted elsewhere, I used the Coerver system as the basis for my youth coaching.
My daughter loved the Coerver camps run by Charlie Cooke. They were 5 day, all day. The coaches were all players at Dayton, Xavier and a few other small schools. She still talks about megging Charlie when they were goofing off at the end of training. When I told her Charlie was a Chelsea legend she freaked. If you do opt for a week camp, make sure it's more focused on individual skills, especially for young kids. I have seen way too many overpriced, over enrolled camps where kids were just standing around 90% of the time watching other kids play.
Yea that's where she's been going. Sam who runs the camp is a great guy and I was impressed with how well they worked with all the kids. Definitely the best camp she's been to (and there's been a few).
Can we commiserate for a second on how rec soccer for a five-year-old is a time commitment? Two seventy-five minute practices during the weekday and a game on Saturday morning. Rec soccer. For a five-year-old.
I do 45 minutes once a week but usually bleed over a bit. Also my daughter and I practice for about 15 - 30 minutes after and sometimes a few girls will stick around. Coaching indoor this Winter has been a new (and very fun) experience. Should be interesting to see how this translates to some of the girls in the Spring when we go back outdoors. Also my daughter has been "guest practicing" with Club Ohio when she can make the practices. She seems to be enjoying the extra touches every week so we will probably sign up officially in the Fall. Doesn't hurt that Warzycha is one of the coaches and occasionally subs in to coach her session. Kinda cool to have a Crew legend around
Club Ohio practices at the indoor facility between Dublin and Hilliard, in Amlin. I friend of mine built it and my daughter practiced there with OP for a few winters. Glad to see Club Ohio building their girls program.
Does anyone have a YouTube channel they would recommend for soccer skills/moves? Today Markus became a bit dejected at indoor soccer practice. One of the other kindergarteners had vastly superior ball skills. I mean this kid sort of made other kids look silly. I told Markus that after Milk & Honey we would replicate some of the stuff we saw on a few soccer videos. Some were pretty good, and we had fun with it. Some of the videos were underwhelming. Also I am laughing that we went home and started working on ball skills. My folks never did that. At five. Or any age. Good grief.
COERVER COACHING EW. Have him watch the individual skill videos and get his touches in before bed every night if he wants to.