Question- I have to complete two in person sessions to be able to register for the d license course. One is a 11v11 which is mandatory. The other choices are 7v7 9v9 and I think 4v4. Which one would you recommend and does it matter the order in which it is done? In other words should I do the 7v7 (or 9 or 4) before doing the 11v11? I am not sure what age group I will be working with in the club that I am becoming affiliated with. So it could be a younger age group which is probably most likely but still not sure. Any insights?
As far as I know, it doesn't matter which order you do the courses in. If you don't know which group you're coaching, I'd suggest doing 7v7 instead of 9v9 because there's a bigger gap between 7v7 and 11v11. Frankly, unless the instructors go off script, there won't be much difference in the material between the two.
I'm starting to have trouble with my vision, esp in low light conditions like outdoors or playing under lights. Did you all go contacts or glasses? Any opinions on playing with glasses vs contacts (coaching, I can still wear my glasses/sunglasses)?
I've always played in contacts since I got them in 7th grade. I would not consider playing in my glasses unless contact were not an option for some reason. In that case I would go with old school rec specs like Horace Grant, in matching team colors of course.
I've never had contacts. I used to play in my glasses but got sports glasses awhile ago. Every once in a while, I will play part of game in my glasses (cause I get distracted and don't change them ), and even though I play in a no-contact group, it still scares me
Day 1 of the Spring for my U10 team. I have a couple of girls that are ridiculous players so we are in the top division of our league. Hang a couple goals on the opponent and their coach proceeds to have a mental breakdown during halftime. Screaming at his kids, calls them “chickenshit” for “letting” my girls dribble through them. Starts lighting up his own assistant that volunteered to ref since we didn’t have one. I had to tell his kids and assistant that they did a good job playing and reffing. This is a guy who makes a living coaching youth soccer. Guess he wasn’t happy that his “premier” team in their $600 Nike uniforms, warmups, and backpacks got beat by a ragtag bunch in generic $7 jerseys, mismatched shorts/socks? I was embarrassed for him although I shouldn’t feel bad since he’s obviously a jackass.
Good individual skills. For pros, someone that does good things witht he ball beyond their 2nd touch - players that can be counted on to retain the ball and/or move the attack into the next zone/lead to a shot. For US Youth, usually someone with good dribbling & 1v1 skills, to the point where they are unafraid to go 1v3/4/5 no matter how many times it doesn't work out for them, because everyone will remember the one time that it does
Someone who has good technical ability and relies more on that than on physical prowess. So, someone like Iniesta for example. They aren't the fastest or strongest guy on the pitch but they can still hold the ball, get out of tight spaces, and have great vision, etc. Even in youth soccer you have kids like that, though it's kinda rare in the USA but more common abroad where a lot of kids develop good ball control in constant small sided games where they have to rely on footwork as opposed to having a lot of space to make fast runs into like Americans typically do.
Every time I think I’ve seen rock bottom, something more disgusting happens. At a local select tournament with my girls this weekend and happened to notice a U8 boys coach losing his mind on the sideline screaming at players. Looked at the results and his team won 18-0 and 20-0, in a 2014 game. If a team is capable of scoring 20 goals, they are certainly good enough to slow the game down and keep it moderately respectable. At least don’t act like a psychopath yelling at kids when you are up 20 goals [emoji2357]. Maybe play up a year or don’t enter the select tournament. Hope the families enjoy those plastic trophies.
Do you mind if I ask what team/club it was? Or the name of the tourney? I'm just really curious what kind of club would act like that at that age. I've never seen that and our club is the biggest, most competitive one in our city.
Sharing this moment from my kindergarten practice week: Kindergirl to me "Will you be my coach forever" me: "That is a long time, we'll see" Kindergirl: "Maybe until I'm 20 then?