Training - Thursday, Sept 20

Wish I would have had my Nostradamous-like forecasting this morning like I did on Tuesday when I moved our training indoors.  Looking at the weather predictions today, it looked like there was going to be potentially severe weather in the area tonight, but it looked to be moving NE and would likely miss us.  Wrong.  Clouds were threatening as I drove to our scheduled 6PM training, and the sky was full of lightning just prior to us taking the field.  I called over to Bielenberg to try and move the session at the last minute to the dome, but the field there was already booked by another group. 

Some of the parents indicated that they had just received word that severe weather was moving in to the Woodbury vicinity and would hit us in about 20 minutes.  Disappointing to cancel an important session prior to the weekend, and I felt bad for the families who had traveled to Woodbury from distance.  However, it was a good thing that we sent people home when we did as a tornado apparently touched down a mile from our training park half an hour later. 

Regardless, I think the girls are ready and excited for the coming weekend.  The Blue team will play in the top flight, and the White team in the second flight. 

I don't really know what to expect from the teams we'll see.  I'm trying not to go into the event over confident with the Blue team based on our last tournament success, but it's difficult to not head to Iowa and think we stand a good chance of winning the tournament.  I also don't really know what to expect from the second flight there, but I know our White team is as strong a second team as most other clubs can field.  Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Thoughts for the Parents

As I mentioned in my write up after the NSR Gold Cup event, I knew I had to do a better job of explaining my behavior expectations to the parent group.  We're all a bunch of competitive adults, and all need reminders about who we are here for. 

So, I pulled together some excerpts from a larger project I'd been working in order to distribute to the U11 parents, as well as to the entire Bangu Tsunami Academy program. 

Building a Love for the Game - A Guide to Parental Sideline Behavior and Expectations

I hope that some of the comments resonate with parents in our club as the primary concern for all adults involved with the younger soccer players should be to help them find a true love and passion for the sport.  Without this, success in later years will never happen. 

Training - Tuesday, Sept 18

With severe weather in the forecast for later in the day, I called up the Bielenberg Sports Center to move our training indoors for tonight into the dome there.  Turned out to be a good call as heavy rains pelted the dome during most of our training session.

The plan was to have the girls work on a bunch of finishing activities in prep for the coming weekend in Des Moines, with Thursday's session to focus on defending. 

Ball Masters Program - Individual Technical Development

• Bounce Juggling
• Stop and Go
• Stop, Fake and Go

Partner Juggling Challenges

Crossing and Finishing

Shooting Repetition with Combination Play

8v8 3-team Scrimmage - One Goal Wins

Training - Thursday, Sept 13

Today I wanted to give the girls some ideas on finishing breakaways.  By breakaways, I'm talking about 1v1s against opposing GKs.  If you look at my U13G Season Review - By the Numbers post in the 93/94G Journal, you won't see a ton of goals scored off breakaways.  Though they happen, they are not as prevalent at the top levels of the older age groups as the overall athleticism of opponents hinders numerous 1v1 chances at goal from balls over the top or by slotted through passes.

You might then be thinking, why then work on breakaways at this age group?  Is this really long term development?  Seems like you're just coaching to win games now, not working on technical aspects needed down the road. 

First off, you bet I'm coaching to win games.  I don't coach to lose, now nor down the road.  To me, breakaways is more than a long ball over the top of the defenders, chased down by a speedy forward.  It's more about technique and composure under pressure, having the skill to run and speed with the ball under pressure from recovering defenders, and have the control, confidence, and composure needed to calmly pass the ball by the GK. 

Though my U13s last year didn't score a vast number of goals from what people typically think of as a breakaway, many, many goals came from 1v1 situations aginst opposing GKs (from short passes in the box, from crosses that fell to girl's feet, balls popping out of mad scrambles in the box to one of my player's feet, etc.  In all these situations, many of the coaching points discussed in this particular training session are valuable tools and resources when trying to find the back of the net. 

Speed Dribble to Controlled Dribble

Passing on the Run

Catch 'Em!

We are a very fast team, at least based on the teams that I've seen at this age group already.  At this point we are also fairly direct, as most U11 teams are.  The combination of the two factors translates into more than our share of 1v1 breakaways for us, so its important to me that we address finesse finishing often.