Below is an email that I sent out to everyone in our East Academy. The basis of the email is to find out how much people want/can play during the winter months. We offer a number of different programs to our kids with the belief that it is better for a player to be able to make 2 out of every 4 events we hold each week, than it is for them to only make 1 out of 2. Even though the percentages are the same, the players are playing twice as much soccer.
Even with as much as we offer I wanted to find out if we have kids who still want more. If you want to play, I want us to be able to offer you something.
I have received many questions from the first email and I want to keep a running dialogue with all of the questions and comments that I feel that many people may be asking. The questions so far are great, so please ask any questions and post any comments you have on this site.
Hi Everyone,
As a kid growing up I loved to play soccer all the time. I loved training. I loved games. I loved playing with my friends. I loved going out to my front yard for hours to train. The more I could play the better. I would play for hours every single day. Then I would drive from St Cloud to the Cities to play on my club team. In the winter I played hockey. I would do the same thing with hockey. But I still played soccer 3-4 times per week and I would have played more if I could. Bangu is here for the players who want to play at the highest level possible. One of my beliefs about top level players is that they want to play all the time. They simply love playing.
But wanting to play all the time and being able to play all the time are two different things. Many of our players play multiple sports, have religion classes, after school activities, play musical instruments, have brothers and sisters who need to get to places, need to do homework, and they all need family time.
With these thoughts in my head I am curious to find out the answer to the following two questions from everyone in the Academy.
1) How many days a week the players in our academies want to play November through March?
a) The 2-3 days offered is enough
b) I would like to go 4 days a week
c) 5 days is great
d) How many days are there in the week? 7? No that is not enough for me.
2) Would you be interested in additional opportunities to play?
a) Yes
b) No
I am looking at the possibilities of offering something to all of our players on three additional days per week from November through March.
The types of training that we will include would be:
-Dribbling
-Passing
-Shooting
-Juggling
-Futsol
-Creative Play
-Numbers Down
-Numbers Up
-Combination Play
-Plyometric
-Agility
-Balance
-Free Play
-Video Sessions
Each day/week you will be working on something different or be using a different method. This way the playing and training will always be fun and interesting to the kids.
Every 3-4 weeks we will take one week off so the kids can have a break.
The issues facing us to run this type of program will be finding the space and time. The reality is that we probably wont be able to get prime time hours at any of the domes, but maybe there is a gym that has space available. I am open to anything and I will look at finding more field space at the indoor facilities if there is enough interest for these programs. (I grew up playing hockey and I can't wait until soccer does the 6am sessions like hockey does. It frees up the rest of your day for whatever you want to do. If this would be an option you would like to explore let me know.)
My other issue/goal for this is that I want the training and facility fee to be free. I want to find sponsors for this program. If you work for a company or if you would like to sponsor this program we can work out a partnership for the program.
This really depends on the location, my son would love to play all the time if possible but as parents we have other tasks to perform during the week. Based on this we will chose a) but open based on locations, the closer the better, we live in Woodbury.
Location and time will play a huge factor for most people as everyone has a lot going on. The more interest we get for these programs the more we can offer at different locations and times. I will be able to set up some of these things as I get more information.
I do get worried with burn out so 5 days a week is too much in my personal opinion for her. She pretty much plays soccer outside in the yard and in the house as well.
This is the question that I am most interested in. How much is too much for a person before burnout? I never got burnt out on any of the sports that I played so I do not have first hand experience with it. Aaron Paye from the Minnesota Thunder expressed my sentiments about the topic: "Don't believe it when people say if you play to much you'll get burnt out. If you love it, play as much as you can."
The key to not getting burnt out is having fun. You don't get burnt out if you are always being challenged and you are always doing something different. When training sessions are the same thing over and over, then you get burnt out. If we can keep each training session different and offer different activities each time we train, then it will always be interesting for the kids. My goal with these sessions is to bring in a lot of different training techniques that we don't always get to use with our teams due to time constraints. With these sessions we can give them a view point from the German way of doing things one week and the next week we can explore how Brazil looks at the same topic. We will also use different types of balls. Size 5, Size 1. Futsol Balls. Juggling balls. Tennis balls. ect. If we can keep it fun, the kids will learn and they will be excited to come each day.
I am concerned with too much gym floor soccer. We are very about knee problems and we have seen an increase in Osgood slaughters (spelling) and this we do not want to see happen.
I will have to do more research on this topic and get back to you. Until I can get an educated response to this I don't want to put out any incorrect information. I do have a couple of articles dealing on the topic here, but I will have to check into the correlation between playing on a gym floor twice a week and knee issues. Maybe we can add in some exercises to help strengthen the areas around the knee as a part of the program.
We really enjoyed the indoor at corner kick last year when it was just play against whomever was there. I know she would hold back on occasion and not want to play as intense when there were little ones there. If they were her sisters I know she wouldn't’t be concerned, but I know she was concerned about hurting some real young ones there. J I would also love some days when you focus on certain things like shooting.
The street soccer days were some of the best training days last year and these will definitely be included in at least one of the days for the program. Growing up playing hockey, we would play all the time at the outdoor rinks. It was the place where we learned the most. For the younger kids they had to try hard all the time and prove to their teammates they could do something, or they would never touch the puck. For the older kids it was great because they could try out all the moves they wanted, they could work on setting other people up, and they could also work on picking out opportunities to attack and opportunities to just sit back and let the game flow.
Back to soccer. I had decent dribbling skills growing up and I worked on it all the time, but I noticed that when I started working camps and playing games like crab soccer and sharks and minnows against 10-12 year olds when I was in college my skills got a lot better. The reason was because I did not want to hurt any of the kids. This forced me to control my body and every touch of the ball I took. I had to be in complete control of both or I would run the risk of being out of control and hurting one of the campers. Hurting campers is not good for business.
Another example of how playing with the younger kids can be challenging is when we play with the kids we challenge ourselves to try and nutmeg each of you. You know it's coming and we still try to do it. It is tough to nutmeg a 4ft 8in person because their legs are so short. So our moves have to become better and we have to learn to set everything up. We can't simply just kick the ball and hope that our moves work.
If you are older and you really don't want to hurt one of the younger players; you need to learn how to control yourself while you play, while at the same time become more creative with your moves. You'll find your skill level will increase a lot if you challenge yourself to do this.
As far as cost. This is an issue….With multiple kids in sports it does make it challenging and I would love to able for her to do more. For example, summer camps are great but cost really is a concern when putting them all in things equally. So if you could find a sponsor I would love it.
My goal is to find someone to help out with the costs. The more we can do to keep the costs out of the equation the better players we will produce. Cost is one of the biggest issues that we face here in MN because we cannot just go out to an open field and play for 6 months of the year. Dome time is expensive. Gym time is cheaper, but gyms are often used by basketball during the week. (I also have to look into the knee issue.) I am confident however, that we can find a way to make this work. The more sponsors we can get, or the bigger sponsorship we can obtain, the more the players can play, the coaches can coach, and the parents can worry about what's for dinner:)
With hockey it is very difficult to know your schedule. Since you played hockey, I’m sure you know you don’t always practice on the same nights.
This is why I want to offer something on as many nights as possible. With hockey's crazy schedules it can be tough for hockey players during the winter to make things on a consistent basis. This is where our 2/4 is better than 1/2 theory comes into play.
Yes, we'd be interested in other opportunities - but realistically on a drop in basis only - in other words we couldn't commit - running the other kids / and her hockey schedule will likely get in the way...
This is where the sponsorships would be huge. If it we can get someone to cover the costs, we don't have to always worry about having enough people to making it financially viable.
I would like to get as many kids as possible into this program and in order for me to plan the best sessions I will need to get an idea of how many people will be at each session. But I would love for anyone to be able to drop in. That is why I will ask that each kid who is there shows that he/she wants to be there. I can run a session with 8 kids or 40 kids and have great success as long as the kids come with the attitude that they are there to challenge themselves. I will work with each kid, but I will not babysit anyone. If you are there to goof off and you are hindering other players goal of improvement, you will find yourself on the outside of activities working on your own. But if each player who shows up to this comes with the goal to leave the session as a better player, we can run great sessions every time.
While soccer is very important, she loves basketball just as much. With basketball, she typically has practice 2 nights per week, with approximately 9 weekend tournaments from now until mid-March. Unfortunately, the practice schedule is all over the board - some weeks its T & Th, other weeks its M & W, and some W & Th practices, depending on when they get gym time. Then, on a few occasions, there is only 1 practice scheduled during the week....go figure.
So, if you're able to schedule additional training opportunities, we'd definitely be interested. My thought is the days she's not playing basketball, she could do soccer. This could range from 2-4 days per week.
Hearing that people want the extra opportunities is what I am looking for. Most kids love whatever they are doing at that moment. During basketball season I understand that basketball is her number one priority and maybe her favorite sport. If we can offer her a chance to play soccer more, she will enjoy it. The more you do something, the better you get at it. The better you are, the more fun you have.
The girls would be interested in more soccer....just depends on when/where. the biggest challenge for parents is trying to balance all of the kids' activities and family life...having said that, if it works in our schedule both girls would like to do more soccer!
This is another big challenge. The family balancing act. I am a huge proponent of car pooling and I would love it if we could set up a place to meet like people do to car pool to work. If we could work something like this out, we can save some time each week for every parent. If you can car pool with 4-5 other people, you only have to drive once every one to two weeks if you want. However, if you want to be at everything and the car ride is a great place for you to catch up with your kids on their lives that is also great. My mom and I had lots of great conversations on the way from St Cloud down to the cities.
Andy, the motivating factor for me to place our son with Bangu is the belief that the club caters to highly dedicated kids enjoying the game of soccer, playing year round. This, I thought, would mean more training and playing opportunities than a community (city) club would offer. I hope this is still the vision of Bangu. I prefer not to see the club take on too many kids that are not as dedicated to soccer as other sports they play.
You came here for the right reason then. These "highly motivated kids" are the ones I am really looking at for this program. While I want have as many opportunities for the multi-sport athlete as possible, my biggest motivating factor are the kids who want to play soccer all the time. My biggest fear is that we are not providing enough opportunities for the kids to play. I want to give any player who has dreams of playing soccer at the highest level, in the future, every opportunity I can to get him or her there.
Please don't misunderstand me: I am not saying that the kids who play other sports are not as dedicated as the ones who only play soccer.
What I am saying is that I don't want to have a player who wants to play soccer, not have the opportunity because we are not offering enough things. I guess my mission statement would look something like: "If you want to play, we will always have something for you."
We wouldn't mind 4 days per week (or more on an occasional basis). I like the idea of a break every 3 or 4 weeks. They do seem like they need some down-time as well as the parents. It may be a little crazy to deal with around the holidays.
One of the tricks of this program will be ensuring that the kids do get a week off here and there. (The parents too. Remember that car pooling is great!) A week or two off with no soccer is not a bad thing. It can bring you back with more energy and focus. But again, I never got burnt out and one day off for me seems like too much. I love doing this and I know there are kids who feel the same way. I know not everyone is the same way and that is why I hope that parents and kids would have no issue with coming up to me and saying "We need to take a week off from soccer." If you are feeling that way I encourage it. With this program I will probably continually remind people that if they need a week off to take it. Team sessions and games will still be able to happen if you are not there for a week. The world wont fall apart and you may even come back a better player after the time off.
I'd also would like to receive some regularly scheduled feedback on how she is developing in terms of strengths and weaknesses so that she can work on those issues away from Bangu to help her continual improvement. With this feedback - it would be nice to get some guidance on associated drills to help in her areas for development. She loves playing for Bangu but probably isn't aware that there is a possibility each year of not being asked back. She will want to work on those items that will keep her at comparable skill levels to her peers to sustain a spot on a roster.
Great points about the realization and regularly scheduled feedback is a great idea. The biggest factor in this is for us to find the time to meet with each parent and player to discuss these things a couple of times a year. This is something that we will be looking into.
I will approach my staff about some level of corporate sponsorship to see if there is an interest level. It would help if they knew that the organization was trying to do some type of public outreach to help the community. If you have any projects of that sort that you could fill me in on it would help in selling this.
In the Academy we have the Kids Helping Kids program where we have each team do volunteer work 3 times per year. This ranges from working with the Feed My Starving Children Foundation to the Academy Festivals that we put on. Last year's Kicking It For Wishes Festival raised over $14,000 dollars for the Make A Wish Foundation.
First, let me thank you for initiating this dialog. From our family standpoint (3 active kids) this can become a tradeoff between what we want, and what we have time for. She really likes soccer. She is the type of kid that would say yes to every opportunity so it is good that she has parents!
Right now she is juggling school, soccer. and dance (which in her case is probably enough).
As her parent, my response to question 1 would probably be A that 2-3 days would be enough especially if those 2 to 3 days were strictly training. I say this partially because kids can loose focus if the training seems to go on forever with no games in sight.
My answer to question 2 would be YES, especially if there were some kind of game involved. As you might recall, she really liked playing in the leagues you ran up at Cornerkick last winter. We really enjoyed them as a family too. The games were fast paced and exciting. I feel there are most likely pros and cons to playing soccer in that environment and don't know where it fits with your goals for the training of the teams that you have put together as well as for her as an individual on that team.
I guess I might put some of this back to the soccer professional -- (that would be you!) Given that she is one person from a team and our time is somewhat limited, what mix of training options would you suggest that would maximize her contribution to the team? What specific skills does she need to focus on to further her development, and given all the available training options which ones do you see as maximizing that effort?
Probably more than you bargained for.....but as I said earlier I think this is a good conversation to have.
Glad you enjoy the dialogue. All of this feed back is exactly what I want.
I agree with you that kids lose focus if there are no games in sight. Kids first concern when coming to soccer is "When can we play?!" It is the fun part. It is our job to balance out the training and games. While our teams may not compete in a lot of leagues during the winter months, we do make sure that the kids play a lot. Corner Kick is great for playing. The small fields there are my favorite place to play. The games are fast paced. You are always around the ball. The most fun part is the creativity that is required to play good soccer and win on those fields. I would love to have at least one day a week where this is the majority of what we do.
As far as which sessions would I advise that she do? The regularly scheduled team sessions are the most important. After that, if you can't go to everything, I would ask her which day is most appealing to her. If she says she wants to go and play, the street soccer day would be great. If she says that she really wants to become a good dribbler, the day that we focus on dribbling would be a great day. However, when asking her which day she would like to take part in, ask her what her goals are for soccer and how she plans on achieving them. Help her to make an educated choice as to which day she thinks she will benefit from the most. On our side of things a lot will depend on how many days we can offer something on and that is where the variety will come in. Every day that she can do something is great. If she comes with a good attitude and the mentality to get better she always will.
First, we have limited funds, so if it is above and beyond what we are paying now, it really needs to be done well, for us to try to sacrifice for it.
Hopefully we can get a sponsorship so this can be free. I know that our program costs more than most others because we offer so much with high quality trainers. If we cannot get sponsors to cover the cost I want to lay out exactly what you are getting. A detailed schedule of what we are focusing on. I want the kids to be able to get that something extra that we can't always do with the team training techniques. I want the kids to know what they are coming to each session for so they can learn the most and have fun.
Second, will a kid feel left out if they can only do what is currently offered, or part of the extra? Is that going to be looked upon as less commitment? Some kids do another sport, and I know for our son, he is really committed to soccer(he would probably tell you 5-7 days!), and is currently playing football, too. We want him to be able to winter swimming, and still make all soccer commitments.
From our side of things a player will never be looked down upon or seen as less committed because he cannot be at everything. We understand that there is more to life than soccer. I will never think less of a player as a person if they choose to go to something else besides soccer. As long as they are getting the most out of what they are doing it is ok in my book.
Also, his group is doing Friday futsol league already. Would they be able to come to as little of it or as much as offered??
If they can only make it for part of a session that is fine with me. I can work with that.
New Questions And Comments
In the Monday, Wed., Friday scenario, would the girls be required to go to all three days, or would it be possible to choose 1 or 2 of those days? I'm wondering this, due to other committments the girls may have that might conflict with the time chosen (religion, piano, brownies, etc.). I guess for me, flexibility and convenience would be the two most important factors when deciding if Delaney could actually take on more training.
Good thoughts and question about having to attend all three days. They would not need to attend all three days. What I would like to do with this is make it so when I set up the dates I would get an idea from everyone of what they could attend, ie monday's work good for us, but then let people know that if you have one week where you can attend monday, wed and friday you are more than welcome too. The idea with the sponsor is that we will be able to have as many or as few kids participate each session and not have to worry about who owes what for which day and whether or not we would be able to cover the cost. If we can find the sponsor it will make everything easy and people can show up when they can.
Monday, October 15, 2007 at 03:09PM 
I wanted to get an early start on the trip so I planned on leaving around 10am. John Grisham's book Playing For Pizza would provide the entertainment for the trip down there. It is not the typical Grisham book since it is not a legal thriller. It is about Rick Dockery, who has played with various teams in both the U.S. and Canada, and has usually ended up on each roster as the third-string quarterback. During a disastrous AFC play-off game in Cleveland, Rick throws three interceptions in eleven minutes, allowing the Denver Broncos to beat the Browns and to advance to the Super Bowl. Rick is injured (and we see him in the hospital, in a scene reminiscent of "Jerry Maguire," complete with his agent hovering over him), is cut from the team, and is the most unpopular man in town, if not in the entire NFL. With his options limited, he agrees to go to Italy to play for the Parma Panthers for a season. The Panthers have two other paid Americans on the team as well as a dedicated group of Italians who play the game for free. The Panther's goal is to win the Italian Super Bowl and Rick is their new found savior.
