12-22 AHA Training- 3v3 Tournament
Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 11:19AM ''Today all the youth soccer is played in organized tournaments, we don't have kids playing in the streets any more. But it's in street soccer where the real talent appears.''
-Juergen Klinsmann
Today was our last day of Holy Angles Training for the year. Jonathon Schaefer, one of the South Directors and Director of Footholde, and I had been talking for the last couple of weeks about the advantages of teaching the kids the game through playing.
If a coach does too many drills, the kids lose interest and they also don't understand how to apply what they are working on, in the drills, into games. On the other hand, some coaches take it too far and they have the unfortunate idea that by just throwing a ball out there and letting the kids play will make them better. It is the equivalent of having a child who knows, and enjoys, doing some basic algebra but wants to learn more so you give her a bunch of calculus problems. Upon giving her the calculus problems you simply give her a calculator and say "Enjoy!" Now it is not as fun because she does not know what she is doing. You need to guide her along in order for her to improve. Teach the player the ideas and techniques. give them game situations to use them in. Then let them decide how and when to use the skills.
One of the best ways that we teach our players is by letting them play. But before we do that, we go over the skills that we are looking for and how to use them. In order to play a lot, we put in parameters so the players are looking to use the skills we have just worked on. Then, when they start to see the right time to use the skills, we take the parameters away and let them do it naturally on their own.
For some parents this can be quite a shock. They look out and see their kid working on skills for 30 minutes and then they spend the rest of the time (Gasp) playing! I didn't bring my kid here to play! I brought her here to train!
By making games within the games and adding a rule here or there, the kids pick up on the concepts and they understand how to do it in games. When they understand the concept we are then able to take away the rule and let them play. The players learn and they have fun doing it.
Today Schaefer and I decided to do a 3v3 tournament with the U12 East and South Blue Groups.
We spent 20 minutes working on ball skills then we let them play. We told them that we were looking for the team who could do the most combinations during the game as well as the team who could score the most goals. It was a fun way to end our Holy Angles Training.
