3/22 4v4 With Targets To 4 Goals

Certainly, for all of us who are involved in youth soccer there are times when you say that it's true.  That a younger player who is smaller has got to develop his other qualities, so it's a plus. It can work that way. But I don't think it's an automatic.

-Bob Bradley

0-10 Juggling Challenges

10-20 Partner Receiving Technique

20-50 4v4 With Targets to 4 Goals
We played this game a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to revisit it to see how we have improved.  I found that we lost the ball a lot less with our first touch and we really started to mix in the short quick passes with the longer balls to the targets.

50-75 Scrimmage

3/19 Tourny Prep Session III

The joy, fulfillment and self satisfaction you receive when you accomplish another challenging goal is beyond description.  It's the Ecstasy of sport.  But the agony is just as real.  You will and probably already have, experienced considerable frustrations and disappointment and doubt.  The key is to know and understand that it's coming.  That it's a necessary part of the progress.  Don't run from it.  Attack it.  Fight it.  Regroup, and shortly you'll break through, only to find yourself ever closer to achieving your goal. 
-Herb Brooks

0-5  Partner Juggling Challenges

5-30 Slalom Relay Races

Relay 1:
To start off I had the girls go for 2 minutes straight as fast as they could go through the cones.  I challenged them to leave when the person in front of them got to the first cone to start and try to catch her.  We did this four times.  First it was however they wanted to dribble.  The next two were with their weaker foot.  We finished with them being able to dribble however they wanted.

Relay 2:
I let them race through it like the first relay with a couple of different ways to dribble.  Then we had 5 teams and we had everyone battle to see who could complete the course first.

30-60 Three Team Scrimmage
Very intense day of scrimmaging.  The kids worked hard.

State Cup Draw

A couple of Saturdays ago the State Cup draw was held.  At the U13 age group it is a completely random draw.  At the older age groups they have started to seed the two teams from the previous years State Cup Final.  I would seed the top four teams, but this is a step in the right direction.  This year I will be on the sideline with the U12's and the U15's.  Both of the teams were drawn into competitive brackets and it should be a very fun time.

Unfortunately we have to play on the first weekend of the tournament which we had scheduled to play in the NSR Cup in Rockford.  This was dissapointing but it was a risk we knew we were taking when we registered for the tournament.  This means that that the West Des Moines Premier Games will be the only tournament that we will be able to compete in before State Cup.

State Cup Draw
April 27th vs Maplebrook at 1pm
April 29th vs PSA at 8pm (I thought that since my birth day did not fall on a weekend this year I would not be spending it on the soccer field . . . how wrong was I? :)
May 9th vs Blackhawks at 8pm

3/18 Ball Striking- Settle And Volley

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.

-George Best talking about David Beckham

After watching our teams out in Las Vegas this last weekend I noticed that we had difficulty with being able to settle the ball and strike it under pressure.  So today I wanted to focus on us being able to settle the ball and hit a solid volley. 

I) Throw The Ball Up To Yourself and Volley
I had the girls throw the ball above their heads, trap it with their thigh and volley the ball before it hit the ground.
We struggled with the footwork and how to trap the ball and hit the volley before the ball hit the ground.  I didn't want the girls to hit the ball back up very high on their trap, but instead I wanted them to be able to move their feet quickly and step into the ball as it came to the ground.
After a while the girls started to realize that all the work they have been doing with the SPAT program was very useful in this motion.  As they started to get the pattern down, the volleys started flying.

II) Partner Throw and Volley

Now we had a partner throw the ball up for the girls and they had to trap the ball and volley it before it hit the ground.  Even though the I wanted the girls to hit the ball before the ball hit the ground, I told them that no matter where they trapped the ball I wanted them to volley it.  That meant if they trapped the ball behind them, I still wanted the girls to hit the volley.  Not everything is going to be perfect in games and while we will train to be perfect we have to be ready for the inevitability of the ball bouncing the wrong way.  We should have the mind set that we can deal with any kind of ball.

Make It Competitive:
1pt for a good trap
2pts for a good trap and a volley before the ball hit the ground
3pts for a good trap and a volley on target
5pts for doing everything properly and putting the ball in the back of the net

Our Street Soccer today was fantastic.  The girls played extremely hard and put in the type of effort I would like to see all the time.

The Las Vegas Showcase With The U15's

This weekend Tim was running all the training for us since both Mark and I were out in Las Vegas with the U14's and U15's.  I am Eric Singer's assistant on the U15's.  It is fantastic having someone like Tim who is energetic and loves coaching so much involved in the Academy.  As we expand we will need to find more Coaches like him.

 During the U15's first game of the tournament vs La Roca Premier we were really flat.  La Roca beat us to every loose ball, won every header, and tackled harder than us.  La Roca was a skilled team but we helped them by never pressuring them on defense.  We gave them lots of time and we never stepped close to them because we were afraid to get beat.  All of these things were not good because one of Singer's main messages to the girls that; no matter what is going on in soccer and in life you should always compete hard.

After the final whistle blew Eric Singer and I discussed what kind of message we should send to the team about what just happened.  Eric has never yelled at the girls in the five months that I have been around so maybe this was a time for that approach.  We discussed the circumstances surrounding the game:
-We got to our hotel after 11pm the night before and did not get into our rooms until midnight
-We were up at 6am to get to the game
-It was our first game on grass since Disney
-We hadn't dealt with wind in a while

While we were discussing all these factors we kept looking at the factors as excuses because all we wanted was for the girls to play as hard as they could and none of those factors should have deterred us from that goal.

As Eric walked over to where the girls were sitting I wondered what he would do and what he did next was exactly why I wanted to work with him.

In a very calm voice he asked the girls how the game went.  They responded that things did not go well.  He then had them tell us what they thought did not go well.  After they came up with the reasons that I mentioned in the opening paragraph we focused in on the point that we did not play well because we were too afraid to make a mistake.  This fear caused us to play hesitant and back out of the play.

He then brought up the fact that

"In life there are going to be times where you are going to suck.  You are going to suck beyond belief.  I've played soccer for over 20 years and I've had games where I was absolutely awful.  I couldn't pass.  I couldn't dribble.  I couldn't shoot.  But there was one thing that I could do well when all the other things were going wrong.  I could 'Suck With Style.' 
I would not suck because of a lack of effort.  I could always play hard on defense, win tackles, win headers, and then keep trying to get better on offense."

After Eric telling the story about him making mistakes he asked each girl on the team "What did you learn about yourself from that game.  Not what did we learn as a team, but you as an individual.  If each of us learned something then we can move on.  If we did not learn anything then we just wasted our time."

For the first minute everyone was silent.  Then one of the girls spoke up with a great piece of advice when she said; "I learned that if I make a mistake, I need to not be so hard on myself and be able to move on."  That was a great start.

Then two other girls spoke up with good lessons, but then we were met with silence from the other 14 girls on the team.  As we looked at them waiting to hear what they had learned we saw the same thing we had seen in the game.  We saw the same question running through their heads.  "What if I am wrong?  What if what I say is not what they are looking for?"  So we addressed that issue.  We reminded them that all we want is effort.  As long as you say something that you believe in you are making progress.

The girls started saying lots of great things like; "I learned I need to trust myself and not doubt my instincts."  "I learned that I should take risks." 

After each girl had said something Eric wrapped up the talk and reminded the girls that soccer is supposed to be fun and we were going to learn from this and have a great time for the rest of the trip.

I left the game knowing that I had learned a lot in how to deal with a set back on the field from a coaching stand point.  Eric was able to get his point across by letting the girls realize what to do instead of him telling them and he did it in a positive way.  I'm guessing that if he would have yelled at them, the rest of the morning would have been spent feeling bad and there would have been a cloud over our team.  The girls would then have been motivated by the fear of not wanting to get yelled at again and it seems counterintuitive to tell players to play without fear by motivating them with fear.  By talking with them and getting them to realize everything, we were able to move on and enjoy the rest of the trip. 

Later that afternoon all the lessons that were learned from the morning were showcased and the girls played as hard as they could, they had fun, and we played some really good soccer.  The lessons were still resonating on the final day of the tournament when we played So Cal Blues who are one of the very top teams at this age group and the girls battled extremely hard against a very talented team. 

On the flight home I couldn't wait until the 12's started up their tournaments.  We are only 3 weeks away!