Further, as I had predicted just by counting the kids present at tryout, that all were going to get an offer because they barely had enough to make a team in each age group. And certainly not enough coaches to handle more than one team in each age group. So going through the motions above was even more pointless.
Offtopic: Back in the 90s and earlier, did players get 10% of the transfer fee? And that was standard practice? I can't find it on searches now, but I feel like it was standard operating procedure back then.
I have never heard of that being the case. Agents were less prevalent in the past, but I wonder when they decided they deserved a commission for negotiating transfers instead of just getting their share of the players' wages. That's what's nuts to me. Clubs have to buy the players from their current team, and then they have to pay the shakedown demanded by the agent. It's crazy.
If it's like some of the clubs in my area, you now have to show data on why a kid was cut or placed on a lower level team. Tryouts now consist of a lot of drills that can be timed/counted for that reason instead of watching the kid play small-sided and letting the game itself expose the weaker players.
Gross. Not that we can't be objective but tryouts generally fall into a "rule of thirds": bottom third are not ready for this level, top third are clearly ready. The middle third of players can be pretty interchangeable. One player may be ahead in athleticism, one kid ahead in ball control, one kid ahead in mental toughness. On any given day one will show better than the others but it's not indicative of which one is better. How would you even write that up or score that? Physical would weigh more than game intelligence/character stuff.
You can time the dribbling drills, count juggling, and record their 1v1 record. It's an absolute mess that means nothing, but too many parents thought their kids were top-notch and asked for coaches to justify why their son/daughter was cut and some even showed up with lawyers (especially at the High School level). It's a slap in the face to a lot of the coaches who just know the game and are looking for simple things in a player. Again, I'm not sure if that was the case with the tryouts you attended but I know coaches have complained about the "data-driven" tryouts in my area instead of the standard 4v4 into 7v7 into 11v11 tryout that most clubs used in previous years.
Anybody video tryouts yet and just eviscerate the player to the parents when pressed for info? Bad body shape, Zardes-touch, etc?
Tell you what. First parents to press me for "data-driven" tryout results are whose kid I'm cutting. I've always wanted to be able to "try-out" the parents (that doesn't sound right). In high school we had to do all that BS at tryouts: count juggles, cooper test, 40 times.
Still one of the biggest challenges for me is trying not to cram too much into a session. For my group, I believe each session NEEDS all of these: ball mastery 1v1 moves learning 1v1 competition rondo SSG Scrimmage Mental training I WISH I could trust them to do the ball mastery and practicing their favorite 1v1 moves on their own. During TEAM training time, we should be working on TEAM training. Ideally.
Those topics nest well. The first 2 bullets could fit in a warmup phase, preceeding a 1v1 competition. The rondo and SSG could be a progressive exercise starting with a directionless rondo and then adding goals of some sort to give the activity direction. Ending with an unrestricted scrimmage. As for mental training, conducting mental training jointly with play, rather than separately,.is effective in terms of learning. And time efficient too.
A fellow soccer parent at my club invited me to join a Facebook soccer parents group. I applied, got accepted, scrolled through a thread and immediately left the group. Soccer parents in that group are the dregs and many of our fellow Americans (if you are American) are ********ing dumb. On another note, I think parents should have to have a ticket to watch their kid play. They earn their weekly ticket by volunteering at the club.
Great idea. I may have shared this before, but an instructor at one of my courses said his dream job would be coaching at an orphanage.
Just got excited when I drew up my lineup for this weekend. 2 weekends ago, we went to the final of a tournament when 3 of our better players weren't available, so making it to the final was unexpected. We got those kids back for the season, so now this team feels loaded. We added up a few kids from our rec program, they were a concern in August—they're not fully there yet skill wise but they are improving and contributing. Just lacking that polish that the other kids who have been with us for 3(?) years have. As always, "working on it" I'm excited because we seem to be able to have matchup advantages AND depth. I have 2 legit goalkeepers. Albeit they are shot stoppers and their distribution stinks (for now). This is a travel team and I've never had two legit GKs and this deep of a bench on any of my pay-2-play teams.
I've had a couple of training sessions this week. My 1st and 2nd grade teams are still doing social distancing in boxes. We've shortened practices from 60 to 45 minutes to allow transition time for coaches take down/set up. This week was all dribbling games so the boxes worked fine. It was just great to be back with the kids.
I started watching All or Nothing with Spurs on Amazon Prime this week. Seeing Jose working with those guys in training made me miss coaching, really for the first time since we cancelled training in March. I've started recruiting for my 19U spring team, and I'm getting excited to start working with the boys again once their high school seasons end.
The last 3 weeks or so have been my first real of coaching since September 2018! I was doing assisting (not by choice), assisting (by choice) in the intervening months and skills training ("fake" coaching). It really gets in your blood and glad to be back at it in a meaningful capacity. I love and hate these All or Nothings. I really crave more of the coaching detail, but don't get enough of it. Only enough to tease me. Granted, it's entertainment, not a coaching documentary. I wish we could make a special cut for coaches.
I watched it. Very interesting. Well produced. Son is my favorite player so I wanted to see this documentary. Yes I agree I wish they had showed more of Mourinho doing tactics and strategy and breaking down opponents. It showed him more of a motivator, which is also good, but it got a bit redundant. It was a lot of "you must be aggressive"
Sorry to go off topic but since Tottenham came up, my favorite player Son just scored 4 goals! With all assists by Kane. This is also a good example of two direct style teams going at it. And fast, aggressive counter attacking.
What is your team spacing/shape looking like. We graduated to a 9v9 pitch that is 80x60 which is a lot of space for my 10YOs. At 7v7 it was small enough we could occupy it touchline to touchline and everyone is reachable with a pass. Not so much on this big field. Not enough leg strength to be too spread out. We're too disconnected. It's almost like we need everyone to Be in a quarter of the field. 30 x 40 is even a little big. Some pro teams play 30 yards front to back.
I haven't watched All or Nothing. Not sure I will. There isn't much coaching philosophy in but for capturing the passion of the game I highly recommend the 2 Seasons of Sunderland Til I Die
The English Game for me. Hearing Fergus Suter give the modern game to the English in the original Scottish accent was akin to seeing the fiery finger inscribing the tablets in DeMille's 10 COmmandments...
A concise video of Son's 4 goals. You should have all of your players watch and study. Great display of counter attacking football. Son does great job of staying on sides. Kane with quick release perfectly placed into space to exploit by the fast striker. Great vision starting at the defense/turnover to see the counter opportunity.
My 2nd graders are still in boxes but passing is allowed. I had a crazy drill where there they'd pass to the next box and have to turn to get the incoming ball from the previous box. The best part was I got them talking. The passer had to say "It's coming" and the receiver would respond with "i'm ready" It will be fun to see if I can get this to translate to some sort of on field communication.
My excitement for recruiting is waning. Lack of responses from HS coaches is frustrating. I'd get it if there were a ton of clubs in our area, but there are literally only 2 clubs within 50 miles of the 13 schools I'm trying to recruit from.