dcole, thanks for taking the time to watch the vid, and for your feedback. AJ's smack in the middle of his age range (born in January). He (and we) have pretty good perspective on the whole thing, I think. A year ago, he was just a kid with pretty good speed going up and down a rec league field. Where he's at now is the result of his first year of really working on his game. In no way does he (nor do we) believe he'll have anyone from La Masia sniffing around him. In his words, he's "pretty good now, but I can be a lot better." Regardless, thanks again for your time and words of encouragement and caution. They are well received.
Great kid! He looks very good overall. I think he can work on moving and dribbling faster with the ball as he seems to have enough control to be able to look away.
CoachingNoob, thanks very much for viewing and commenting. You are correct. His coaches and I are trying to get him to play more confidently (and at times, a little more selfishly) on the ball. He's a bit of a strange kid, honestly, in that his knee jerk reaction is to slow down and look around when he gets into space instead of pressing toward goal. We're trying to get him to realize that it's fine if his foremost desire is to create chances for teammates, but that sometimes the best way to do that is to run at the defender and beat him with skill and speed, forcing another defender to step to the ball and leave a teammate open. Thanks again for your quality feedback.
January is the oldest for the birth year teams, such as for the USSF Development Academy teams. It will be an advantage. My son is March and when he went from club (Aug 1 - July 31) to ODP (Jan 1 - Dec 31), suddenly he was one of the oldest and it helped him get on ODP in my opinion. The A team in his club is all kids born August - November, the B team has one or two in those months but mostly later birthday kids like my son. I cannot stress enough that having both feet is really important. This counts for juggling too - if your kid is working on juggling, they must not only use their dominant foot, but the other foot as well, and the knee and thigh as much as possible. And their head if they can manage to keep control.
rhrh, thanks for that info regarding birth date and ODP. Didn't know it shook out like that. Good stuff. You're right to pick up on his weaker right foot. We've got him finishing with his right well enough (I think there are a couple right-footed finishes in the vid), but he's still too predictable out in the midfield. It got him tackled a couple times this weekend, after guys kind of figured him out. After the game, he says "Dad, this summer I'm going to make my right foot as good as my left." Of course, I said "That's good buddy, I think that's the right thing to work on," and refrained from adding "and I've only been asking you to work on that for a year now." Thanks again for your time and advice!
My son started playing rec soccer at around 7.5, he hadn't touched a soccer ball before that. It became apparent that he would be gifted pretty quickly, he has a lot of "natural" talent. We took him to a soccer camp and they told us that we should really look at getting him in a club setting. So, we looked around and found a club. He now plays select u11.
By the way..the Feyenoord Academy has been awarded the Rinus Michels Award for the best academy of the Netherlands for the 4th time in a row!!
Posted a video of my boy several months ago. He was 7 at the time and you guys gave me some positive feedback and also told me on what he needed to improve which was mainly his speed. Well, here is a video I edited yesterday. He just turned 8 at the beginning of the video and is nearly 9 towards the end, about three months short of being 9. He still a lot to learn but shows great interest in the sport and practices a lot with his team and individually. I know it's a highlight video, but my wife asked me to do this video so she could show it to he family members back in Colombia. And she wanted just highlgihts. Let's see what you guys think. take it easy please.
I remember him from the first vid...he's grown in stature and in soccer! Really like his feet, and it's easy to tell he's put in time working on skill. Nice, light touches, even in traffic where a lot of kids will get rattled, take a heavy touch and lose the ball. Has very good composure on the ball. I noticed near the beginning of the video a beautiful Maradona...that really didn't get him anywhere. Toward the end of the video, you see a progression where he's using skill more tactically, and doing a much better job bursting away from the defender. He's got a chance to be a high calibre player, dad. You've got good reason to be proud.
Thanks, I am very proud of him. I have been working with him on speed, more mentally than physically. I tell him to make one move and go. And you are right, he's grown about three inches in the last year. That's a lot for him. He's still undersized but he dosen't look tiny anymore.
In the days of VCRs and VHS tapes if someone sent me a highlight tape especially some thing set with music. I would use that VHS tape to tape one of our games.
I agree nicklaino, but this video is for family, so that is a mitigating factor. I take all the audio off of my son's videos and don't add music.
I believe I told that father keep the music off because I wanted to hear the on the field communication. Also to shoot it further away so I could see more of the playing field. I mentioned for Nick to try and do the cryuff move and to practice shooting off it. I did not see that in the highlight tape. Highlights tapes are great to send relatives. But if he wanted comments from us he should have shot at least a half from one of his best games. I want to see his over all game.
At this age, I'd be shocked if there was significant communication. I see several of the top U16B teams in the country regularly, and they really do not communicate as much as, say, a JV girls team. I am not sure what standards I would set for a much younger player. The problem also is parents, other spectators, and coaches yelling and screaming. My son's old club had a "no sideline coaching, no commenting on ref calls, no talking to or shouting at players" policy and it was absolutely not enforced. You would therefore recommend a monopod or tripod, and following the player not the play, when filming?
Another factor - who is taping? Is it someone who is emotionally invested? As I mentioned in the vid I posted, my wife tapes the games. That being the case, I can promise you that there are some great moments that do not get captured. I specifically recall a game where my son busted his ass to split two defenders, got to the ball first, headed it down once and on the next bounce lofted it softly over the goalie and into the side netting. Absolutely gorgeous. When I got home and looked at the tape, all I saw was shaky grass and all I heard was cheering. And, to rhrh's point, my wife sits six feet from the sidelines and you can barely hear the kids. We played 20 games this year, and I recall clearly hearing my son only once, pointing and telling a CB to "SEND HIM" after he dropped the ball back from a midfield position and noticed a wing making a good run. I think the best you can hope for from a parent's highlight tape is some longer sequences of play. For instance, I'd like to see what Nicki does when he gets dispossessed. Or when he puts in a cross that doesn't find a teammate. Does he track back?
Give me a couple days guys. I will post a video of longer sequences. I just gotta go through the footage and pick one or two games. But there will be no sound. Pointless to have sound when in south texas when winds are usually around 20 miles an hour and you wont hear a thing from the kids. Appreciate the feedback.
Here is some footage from a couple games of my boy. These are his typical games. He has played better but has played worse also in other games. I encourage ball skills and moves and the coaches encourage passing and tactics but I always tell him to listen to the coach over me during a game. The first game is against a one of the better U-8 teams in South Texas, Atlas academy near the Mcallen, tx area. The second game he is playing up in a U-9 game. He played up in his last spring season but will play his age group starting this fall.
bP9175 your son Nick is a very good player. He really is a good short passer as well. You could not notice that in the highlight tape. The kids he was playing with in the second game are not very good. No sense playing up when the older kids are not as good. He looks at you too much while he is playing. The game is the time when he has to make his own decisions. The older team can't get him the ball. That is not his fault it is their fault. In the first game when he checks back to the dribbler. Have him do it at an angle not right in front of the dribbler. It blocks the dribblers view of the field. I know your not going to agree with me on this. But he should not be playing on the flank even though he has moves and can beat people their. He would be great as an offensive mid inside the field. He moves in the flow of play he will get a lot of little touches and he will make a lot of little inside passes. Then when he has a shot he will shot and score some nice goals from their. Well if not now think about it as he gets older. He is a very good player that needs to play with better players
Oh almost forgot when his guys try and make a wall. One hand covers the jewels and the other hand touches the top of the far shoulder protecting the face and they peer over the top it kind of looks like when bela lagosi played dracular. They don't turn away they won't have to because they are protected. In practice when they block a ball go wild with praise.
I actually agree with you on his position. I have mentioned to the coach if he could move him to midfield from time to time but the coach said that he will eventually but hasnt done it to this day. And good observation on your part about the older team. They werent that good and thats why i dropped him to his own age group but with a better team.
This is how you know when a player is very good. No matter what, the team never loses possession of the ball from something the player did. It does not make the player a great player. But it does make the player a very good player Claudio Reyner was like that. The bad part of that you have to take a risk of losing the ball to do something that can win a match for your team. So being a high percentage player coaches look for that. Especially american coaches but you need the other type of player to win a game who wants the ball in the 90 minute. Who was better when the game was on the line claudio or Marco Etchevery? I would take Marco every time especially when he got mad at an opponent. He wanted to punish the player and his team by doing something to beat that team. He was a lower percentage player.
Wow, the first part of that video shows some really high level stuff for U8 players. I coach a U8 team that is really quite good, and those teams would destroy us with their passing. I have to say, some of those kids really don't look like U8s to me. Was this the end of the U8 seasonal year, meaning that the kids were about to age up to U9? Are your age cut-offs 8/1-7/31? You said above that Nicki was 8-8.75 years old in the videos. If that's true, I assume he's born in the first three months of his age range (like August, Septemer or October if you use the normal 8/1-7/31 age range). Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning your son's age. I'm just fascinated to see what you call U8s playing soccer at such a high level.