Maybe you've tried it. Any interest in "recruiting" the coaches first? Grab a beer/pizza with them. Be up front of course if it comes up—it's always good to build connections/friendships. This is received knowledge from friends/colleagues who are college coaches (they can't really offer inducements like above), but they work on the personal connection. Are their players going to the rival club? Maybe if you can develop some kind of partnership—you can act as defacto offseason training program for their school. Not sure how it is in your area, but sometimes HS coaches are "afraid" of clubs because players may choose to play Club only vs playing for their school. It doesn't happen in my neck of the woods—your club coach TENDS to be your HS coach as well.
Good idea, but if they're not responding to my emails, or in some cases follow up texts, I don't think it's likely to be worth the effort. I'm sure a few are, but that club only has one team too. So that's 18 players, and most of them are from that city's schools. I don't particularly count on those schools knowing they have a club in town. This may be part of the problem. A lot of the school teams don't do anything out of season so their coaches may just not care. For the ones that do offseason training, playing club means the players won't be as invested in that. There's no worry about losing players from their HS teams, or at least there shouldn't be. In Indiana, HS coaches cannot coach their players at clubs so this isn't unusual.
My club is moving to the next stage for all levels. As of next Monday, scrimmages will be allowed at practice. In addition, we will have regular games against other teams on the weekends.
Thanks for sharing. That tool is actually terrifying. The good news is that we are requiring coaches and families on the sideline to be masked. Other than on the field we are also requiring social distance for subs and players. Other than the inherent risk of getting more people together, I feel like we are doing it as safely as possible. I will let you know how it goes.
If it makes you feel better, I don't know of any soccer-related transmission here yet and my whole half of the state (youth and adult) have been playing "regular soccer" since August. Our overall case numbers are low so your mileage may vary with that claim. But yeah, we distance as much as possible and mask up. Policies I like: parents and players of same team stay on the same side. expanded the time between matches so there's no overlap between players/parents of different matches. kids masked up and distant on the sidelines parents masked up too It was crazy, because with a roster of 16 and 2 spectators per player—you're at a hundred people at a youth game. Using that tool, there's a47% chance there's at least one individual with covid at that game. I DON'T think my kid or me are playing indoor this year.
I have played more soccer this year than at any time in my life. Nearly every day for 7 months straight. Now, this is not a great idea because of the array of low grade injuries I've accumulated, but I haven't even so much as caught a cold this entire time. Which I find fascinating. I have never been so free of sickness. I know this is "anecdotal". But I have some theories. Perhaps being exposed to tiny amounts of virus (inoculum) at a time allows the body to safely and gradually build immunity, it does not overwhelm. Plus maybe the virus is in a weakened state outdoors in the sunlight and wind. Perhaps playing soccer outside optimizes the immune system via providing vitamin D and exercise. Just theories. But I'll bet if everyone were outside playing soccer we'd see far less sickness. Though hamstring tears would skyrocket. But what if a study was done that actually showed playing soccer or like sports actually lowered one's chances of getting sick from corona. Then would you actually go out and advise everyone to do it? Why not?
It's community-based protection. Low case count in a, low transmission environment. Bars, restaurants, weddings, funerals (it says funerals, but probably "viewing" is more accurate), prisons, nursing homes, cruise ships, and battleships—events and venues like those have the highest potential for super spreading. Not all sports are created equal. I don't think american football is a great idea, but as evidenced (small sample) between the tennessee titans and minnesota vikings. Titans have 8 confirmed and zero for minny—this thing is spreading in team planes and buses, locker rooms and meeting rooms. Not on the field. Your low dose theory IS part of the rationale for wearing masks. They stop spread AND if you're wearing one where an infected person is present then you get that low dose so, disease severity is reduced. Viral load matters. Viral load was one of my initial questions when this all started. I learned about it, because my kid's had the flu one year. Then indirectly, when my kid was being tested for an allergy—I was wondering if one molecule of egg can trigger anaphylaxis. Doctor said no, needs to be an amount that overwhelms the body. An otherwise healthy individual should be able to tolerate miniscule doses of the threat. With that said, we can't discount asymptomatic spread. You and I could be carriers and be potential spreaders. The other thing with this that I keep seeing is the concept of the super spreader. Right now, the experts believe that most of spread happens via super spreader—individuals who are good at shedding virus. It's not even just an infected person. Super spreader at a likely event: bars, restaurants, wedding, etc Again, your theory on Vitamin D and exercise isn't crazy. There's some research to back it up. Early on they couldn't substantiate the Vit D deficiency-severity link. I think, now they can. Exercise is known to give the immune system a boost so that helps too. This virus, basically, picks off the unhealthy. But death isn't the only outcome. I know 5 people directly who have had it and 4 have the long version of it. 2 months later still have shortness of breath.
We're gonna see quickly. Hamstrings heal relatively well. Teams out west are traveling to neighboring states where play is allowed. They are scheduled to play tournaments or 2 matches (so 2-4 matches) but they haven't played competitive games in six months. Lots of potential for catastrophic injuries. In CA, they've only been allowed to distance train. i worry there's going to be blown knees. Those joints haven't seen a competitive match load in half a year.
Maybe I've said this before. But I'm so over coaching skills training—specifically, skills training outside of a team context. I've done it for a long time. People keep asking me to do it, but I don't find it professionally satisfying particularly when it's divorced from team play. It bores me. I'm not convinced it's the best way forward. Skills is about problem solving. Teaching skills without seeing them apply it in a game, for me, is kinda useless. I can't fix their problems or application without seeing it in a match. I think in the last 10-20 years, the pendulum swung too hard. We used to say we don't have enough technical players. I think, in my area, technical level is pretty good (at the top level) but we don't have an abundance of smart players. I'm also finding you don't need "elite" technical ability BEFORE you can learn any semblance of team play. I have a few players right now that moved up from Rec. They are raw technically, but are catching up with our game model pretty quickly. In their own rough way, they can rondo. Their technical ability is rising bit by bit.
My new approach is to teach a reactions-centric way. Everything a player does is a reaction, a reaction to space or to other humans. And everything is a negotiation between them, ball, and the thing in front of them (space or player). So, my new philosophy is to put the thing in front of them to create a reaction context. I came up with this myself, as I myself was learning soccer. I realized that, even if I practice a move 100 times on my own, I can't execute it when I get in a game, because what's missing is I don't know when to do the move. Just knowing the mechanics of a move is only about 50% of the equation. The move itself is a reaction to a scenario. I am capped at my learning if I cannot create the scenario in practice setting. So with my 6 year old I make him react to me. I think it is working. His reflexes are good. His ball control and his moves are good and are organic to the situation. This would be hard to do with a full team of 6 year olds because you really need them to pair up and for one to only apply a little pressure to start; but 6 yr olds generally have a hard time with that nuance. But teenagers can do it. I also try to focus on training only the things that will be utilized in a game setting within the next year or so. No point in teaching things that he won't need until 5 years later. Give them tools appropriate for their age so that they can use them and feel good and excel. But yes in the background also gradually develop other baseline skills needed for more complex play later.
@NewDadaCoach 1. IMO the key to competitive athletics is anticipation. Doesn't matter if its tennis or soccer. You want to be ahead of the play instead of chasing it. My life philosophy is, "Act, don't react." It has served me well in every facet of my life. 2. Fundamentals are the bedrock of the game, no matter if it is U10 or O40. So youth coaches should be teaching fundamentals that players will be using their whole lives.
Anticipation is key yes. Especially on defense. I think reaction is very important too particularly in 1v1, 50/50 balls, and tight situations. 2. yes of course, fundamentals are the baseline of competency that all players must have. But the moves in particular, I am teaching those within the context of reacting to an opponent, because that is what moves are, the are a reaction to avoid getting dispossessed or to create space or to get past a defender. We'll see if theory holds true. I think it is a bit of a novel approach. I do see promising signs though.
@NewDadaCoach 1. The key to beating a defender 1v1 is to force the defender to react to you. 2. Anticipation is very important to attack too. Anticipating where the space will be and where the players will move is key to attacking successfully.
1 - Here's the thing. Before getting the defender to react to you, you have to see the defender and then decide "I'm going to get the defender to react to me" So, therefore, first comes the ball holder's reaction to the presence of the defender. They must react to the defender. And this reaction of the ball holder is either "I will pass it" or "I will try to get past the defender, perhaps by trying to get the defender to react to my feint"
Too many players do a move, a step over, and stand there looking at the defender. " Did they fall for it?" They want to make sure it workEd before trying to go past. It doesn't work like that. You have to trust the move worked and push it past the defender. If it doesn't fool the defender , that's what pressing and/or double moves are for. I also love what Messi does. He gives the ball a slight flick so it arcs over the attempted block tackle. Genius in its simplicity.
What still surprises me is when "kinda bad" or average youth players go on to be starters for their high school Varsity teams. I got nothing to do with that. I had some of these kids on pretty bad youth teams. Some were unimpressive, some almost got cut. Where you start isn't where you finish. These are at large, competitive high schools—not at schools that have to beg to fill out a roster.
Do you mean they improved on thier own outside of organized or club soccer, or they're still pretty bad at soccer but coach likes "an athlete" somewhere in the middle to win balls and crunch ankles? In the city we'd get girls at u16 that never played organized soccer but their HS coach, who also volunteered for us at the u18 girls coach, told them to sign up. Less likely on the boys side, though the one school does a good job of pulling immigrant kids who play pickup with the adults while our teams practice . They try to get them to join our competitive HS aged boys team, results are mixed. Sometimes, starting wingbacks are just better off being taught by a competent B teach coach from 11-14 where they get tons of playing time everywhere except keeper instead of sitting on the bench of the A team
What I meant is that they improved outside of my coaching. Despite my coaching ? There's many years between when I coached them and their varsity exploits. I agree with your last point, more playing time is better.
My older son seemed to improve his play dramatically when playing on teams with players who were above his skill level. Like, he rose to the occasion. Now, on the other hand, he will tend to digress when playing for an underdog. maybe lack of motivation, like, he sometimes believes the game is out of hand, he'll just go through the motions. If he has a defined goal, like 'score at least once' or "keep people from scoring from my zone" he generally does better.
One of my teams is shutdown for 2 weeks and the players are being asked to isolate because a player on the team we played on Saturday tested positive today
Yesterday my kid (6) played for about 3 hrs total. 1/2 hour at "recess". 1/2 after school. (online school so this is 1v1 with me) 1 hour at club 1 hour after club 1v1 with me And he wanted to keep going. I couldn't. Lately it's been like this. I run out of energy and he wants to keep going. It's hurting my productivity; but I don't want to hold him back. Wish he had a sibling. (then he watched about 45 mins of Premier League highlights; no I didn't force him, he wanted to). He's also been watching a lot of this cartoon called Supa Strikas and I think it's actually making him be more into soccer. Maybe too much so
I have 22 boys on my list of interested players for my 19U team. Only 3 of them have actually registered and made their deposits, which are due Sunday. Welcome back to dealing with high school boys. I'm happy to have 22 at this point, but we'll see how many actual deposits that turns into. Hopefully I have a full 18 so I'm not having to keep recruiting throughout the winter.
Don't sweat it. It's phases. My personal anecdote about how we played 2-3 hours of soccer everyday after school. There's going to be a point where he will take a natural break from it. Let it be. In fact, I was just listening to a podcast about Jay Demerit—he was talking about how he didn't commit to soccer until he was 18. Played basketball, track, baseball, and soccer. He still ended up playing in the EPL.
You have any contingency for COVID? Many families here lost their deposit/tuition due to COVID in the spring. Clubs tried to make it up to them but "not really". Maybe apprehensive about losing out on that $$.