This is probably a very important point. That club not only picks the best players but they have a "cultural advantage". At age 9 they probably already knew or have an idea of what possession soccer is. I have a talented group of 9YOs and it's all direct play, no concept of possession (yet).
I can illustrate my points using the 2v1 keep-away game. What you do with the keep-away exercise is isolate a particular aspect of the game. That concept is inherent in any practice plan. Any time they play any SSG, scrimmage, or match they are still playing keep-away only in a match-like context. So if you are using a standard training plan (individual to unrestricted large group activities) you will get constant reinforcement. That is the whole idea of the standard training plan--constant reinforcement of prior lessons and immediate integration of the isolated element into match-like conditions. At the first session I give a simple short explaination of how to play soccer using "keep-away" to describe penetration into the "danger area" in front of the opponents goal. I also talk about "pressing" to keep opponents out of our danger area and to win the ball back. I also gave a short description of zonal marking (this was the early 90's). I think this big-picture explanation is important. The players should understand specifically what the coach is trying to teach them, so they can integrate it in match play. With U10s (8 and 9) I started with 3v1, no goals, half pressure. You don't have to make speeches, just provide short statements to provide continuity for the players. The only way I can see having only a few activities is if you are only teaching limited aspects of the game. Development coaching has to be progressive. Re Chapaco Soccer's comment: "you always have to keep in mind that Gary is picking from the best SoCal kids at this point, and he emphasizes that recruiting kids with the right skills, athleticism, dedication, and soccer brain is a huge part of what he does. " This means that he is NOT developing players. He is developing competitive teams through recruitment and tactic specific training, which is very different. This is also apparent from something Gary wrote: "And you hammer these over and over and over again in all your sessions, until your players demonstrate consistent execution during match play." This is not how you push player development and creativity. This is how you win matches. No execution mistakes should not be a development objective. Even the best professionals are not perfect. This is hugely unrealistic except in a context where players are not challenged. And in that context you don't get the meaningful practice necessary for efficient development--even though your team wins a lot of matches.
Agreed. We've won a lot of matches, mostly because of having players with better skills. For 75% of the teams we face, I could send out the kids in any order with no position assignments and we'd still win. For the other 25%, the organization helps on defense but is only a starting point on offense, where the players' own creativity generates goal scoring opportunities. I agree also with the continuity part when it comes to coaching though. Players need to have some consistency to go back to that they can rely upon and build from. IMHO that should be your style of play, which I would agree is needed for a team. Are you a possession style team or an organized defense with a counter attacking offense? For the majority of youth teams, unfortunately there's no style at all. This is why we see so many games of kick-ball rather than soccer - booting the ball away from defense and hoping your players get it further up the field so they can dribble toward goal or boot it on further. This lack of strategy can actually work well for youth coaches by just placing their better (bigger/faster) kids in 'strategic' positions where they are more likely to win the ball. It doesn't help the players at all as they don't learn much more than how to win in 1v1 or 1v2 battles - the players off the ball aren't actively participating, i.e. ball watching and waiting for their turn with the toy or just staying away. All this reinforces the full season planning strategy, or multiple if you are able. This strategy should revolve around where your players are at now and the goals for them to get to by the end of the season, as a team and individually. From those goals, a coach can build practices focused on each goal as a theme. Adjustments can be made throughout the course of the season, but it normally relates to repeating some activities or practices because the goal has not been reached yet. Yes, these practices could be designed around a small set of activities, but that just seems incredibly limiting when it comes to a progressive development plan. Also, how do I know they're really developing/improving rather than just getting better at the given activity?
Winter thread indeed! I had practice last night and on the adjacent field my club holds a free skills night for the local clubs. Pre-U8 stuff. I was heartened to see 4 kids out last night in near freezing temps, slightly wet conditions—not for practice, but a voluntary foot skills training session. I think 2 boys and 2 girls.
wow, that's cool (literally). my 6 yr old may be playing a session of winter soccer (but not my 7 he's playing bball) I'm giving the 6 year old some time to think about it, if he misses soccer next week, then I'll sign him up. It will also be nice not to be 'coach' for a few months.
Our club has an intro to competitive camp tonight. Word is there are roughly 60 kids from the club's rec side coming out. I think it got down to the 20's last night. At least our main sponsor is a local coffee roastery so we are being loaded up with hot coffee and cocoa. Some of our teams still have a couple games to go. I'm kinda glad we are done already.
Had our first futsal practice last night. Since we got our indoor practice facility for free, we decided to splurge and spent our extra money on balls for the girls. Guess who forgot them in the dining room. Luckily I had one in the trunk so we managed to get by. The first few minutes were chaos. I'm not sure why kids go bonkers when they first starting running around inside a building. We had a ton of errant passes at first but by the end some of them were starting to get it. This group seems to work best when they are thrown into the fire on something new so with one ball, we played keep away with 3 teams of 3 (rotated the three and the odd team out worked on passing on the sideline). I don't know what happened by my space cadet had that really great and focused game a few weeks ago and came back last night and was doing a great job. She was dribbling out of danger and finding teammates. This sure wasn't there a month ago. She later told me, "I've been practicing with my doggy and she's really good."
To Tonythetard regarding: Slight tangent/vent: we played in a 3v3 summer league and I was sole coach for that. The girls who were with me then are the ones who seem to have a little better understanding of movement off the ball partly from what we practiced and partly from the games themselves. All of the girls who ask my advice are from that pool of girls; they're used to my style of coaching and I think they like it. I definitely drilled into their heads that we want to keep possession as much as possible, so we had to talk about/train on angles of support and how/when to call for a ball. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the girls play passes or make runs like they did during those last 3v3 games. It's frustrating. Is this 3v3 league still in place? Here at Kick It, we are always looking for new and existing cities to bring our 3v3 league into. Do you know how many teams played in this 3v3 league?
Lovely email to wake up to today. One of the parents saw our futsal schedule and said they won't make a majority of the games so she wants to see if it's ok to take winter off. Seriously. Her daughter was already behind and I can tell she doesn't do any work at home. You think taking off 4 months is going to keep her up to par? grrr. Now I have to find a tactful way to say this and that her spot isn't going to be guaranteed in spring if she falls behind - which I know she will.
take a deep breath. A tactful way.... you are disappointed because she's a great girl and you were looking forward to guiding her into the next phase of soccer training. It may be difficult to get her back into the program next spring but she can apply. Just guessing but maybe mom isn't as big on soccer as dad.
I've never met her dad but from what I gather from her mom, it's not that big of a deal. When you come to practice all done up in makeup and giant hoop earrings (the girl, not her mom) then it tells me it's not high on the list. She's going to be so far behind in development and fitness it won't even be funny. It's really on the parents at that point. Our league (KC) starts this weekend too.
We will continue to practice outside on Sundays for another month, but there are no more outdoor leagues. Indoor proprietors take over. And yes, daylight is an issue (as well as the cold once the sun drops).
I am amazed (not the quite right word) the differences in soccer norms when we're pretty close (in LI, ENY, here). But, I guess this has more to do with climate differences. Indoor season doesn't really start until early Dec here.
The difference is the ocean and the Gulf stream. I lived for a time significantly further upstate than Albany, and the snow usually started in October. I recall a December we got 100 inches in that month alone.
I grew up in Rockland. I am well aware of the difference between upstate and downstate weather. It gets cold quickly up here.
I was planning on taking the winter off. But my teams decided otherwise . For the HS girls I ended up with 20 wanting to play indoor so I'm creating 2 full teams. I'm going to try and recruit a parent to coach one of them. I'll also have my 3rd and 4th graders
Yeah, this does make LI sound like a Caribbean Island. A related aside: I was listening to Liviu Bird (ASN analyst) on a podcast and he described how he developed as a soccer player living in Fairbanks. He mentioned that because most soccer development happens on cramp indoor spaces, kids' touches tend to be better than average american kids, but suffers from tactical awareness of paying on a larger field.
blog.lijsoccer.com/GotSoccerInsanityRanking9YearOldsReally.aspx It may be a bit of topic, but I figured this would be a good place to post this pice. I coach a U7 team and when I read this I couldn't help but agree with the author. Soccer in the early years should not be about winning at all costs. Oh and about the weather. I my self play well into December here in LI.
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/54328/gotsoccer-insanity-ranking-9-year-olds-really.html Sorry, just saw link wasn't working. Hope this one does.
one thing I've learned so far is that coaches are more apt to listen to the advise of elders, experience, and common sense than the parents. many parents are more into the culture of success, and winning BIG. They will keep their kids at the recreational league so they can win BIG rather than develop skills.
An old school yard strategy that may seem good at first. Prove your worth by beating on the weak. It usually ends badly over the long term. I am lucky in that I never ran into a parent like that. Lack of time and money usually was the motivation for playing rec.
And it's always those parents who have a basic understanding of the game who are the worst. I always want to run over and ask them why they aren't coaching. I'm just glad most of my parents have next to zero clue what's going on. I think out of all my players I have one mom who still plays and luckily, she lets me do my thing. Just sent out my reply to the other parent who wanted to take winter off. I suck at being PC so I dictated to my wife and she left out/changed parts for me. I didn't expect her to be around long anyway so this just seals it. Guess I'll have two openings in spring then but unless I happen to come across someone who really wows me, I'll probably not fill either spot.