Kicking Off The Winter With Fusal

I was very excited to start the winter training season on Sunday.  I had given the girls a much needed two week break from soccer to rest, recuperate, and rejuvenate.  This break is just as, if not more important to the parent group who have been carting their kids around to training/games, given up entire weekends to travel and tournaments, etc.

I started the day by working with 4 Academy groups prior to seeing my U13 girls.  We had the U9 girls at noon, the U12s at 1:15PM, the U10s and 2:30PM, and the U11s at 3:45PM.  My girls were to come in from 5PM to 6:15PM.  At 5PM, I wrapped up the U11 session and made my way to the hallway waiting area, fully expecting to see a 17 smiling and eager faces waiting to get into the gym.  I saw 5... and they weren't smiling.  "Where is everybody?!?", I thought.  "Where is everybody?!?!" they said. 

Apparently, I had mistakenly put down 5:30PM - 7:00PM on our online calendar, though had emailed out earlier in the week reminders about training stating the correct time, 5:00PM - 6:15PM.  Great.  Total buzz kill and perfect way to begin the winter.

Eventually, other players started strolling in and we ended up with 18 (16 of the rostered players and two guests).  I felt bad catching parents as they dropped off their girls to let them know that I had made a mistake and training would only run for 45 minutes.  Some of the families drove 45 minutes to get here.  Oh well.  I think people were pretty understanding overall, though the girls were disappointed to only get to play for 45 minutes.

We made the most of it.  All I wanted to do is have the girls play today anyway.  None had played the game since last February, some had never been exposed to soccer in a gym.  I divided the girls into three teams of 6 players.  Two teams would play (5v5 with one sub), winner stays.  It was the first team to two goals or four minutes, whichever came first.  In the event of a tie, the team who had been on the field longest would lose (and leave the field).

It was fun, fast paced, and intense session.  The majority of the girls picked up the game well.  There was a huge difference from last winter as the ball was kept in play more (due to the higher skill level of the girls) and teams were creative on the attack. 

All in all, even with the time snafu, it was a great way to start the long winter training.  The girls had a GREAT time and wanted to do this every week.  I think that next year I will look to decrease the amount of dome time we have and augment the number of Futsal sessions.  Not only is it more cost effective to use the gyms, but also the girls would for sure benefit from more touches in these tight spaces.