Changing Expectations

Over the last two weeks all of our U9 girls teams have been really "clicking".  They have been clicking so well, it has been one of those occasions where the coaches become a spectator of sort.  The one thing which becomes a problem when you become a spectator is you begin to get caught up in fandom and forget who you are watching play.

This Saturday I had to put down the clipboard, stop tracking all those things, which the girls normally get excited about and become their coach and most understanding supporter again; they just weren't living up to those expectations I was beginning to have for them.  It's something we as coaches and parents of young players must constantly keep in mind as we go through the ups and downs of the growth of these little people.

We were in a match, this Saturday, which I knew we should easily have navigated, but it was like everything blew up and everything they knew went out the door.  It was less than five minutes into the match, while I was chatting with the opposing club coordinator, that I decided to lay down the clipboard and start doing my best to cheer them on.  Things ended up not in our favor and as we moved immediately on to our next match, I talked to a parent who saw what I saw and I had already made my choice that it was just going to be one of those days and we should all wipe away any expectations and just work to make sure the girls did their best and continued to pump them up.

Funny thing happened, the next game, they did what kids do, completely flipped their switch and played incredibly against an opponent who was more talented, more physical, and one who a few years ago annihilated us...one of those clubs who when I mentioned them later anecdotally to another parent, who wasn't there, rolled their eyes way to the side and said, "Ohhhh, that club...".

Final was a 1-1 draw and both girls teams knew it as they came up to the line to shake hands.  My comment to our girls, "We ended in a draw, it must've been a good game."

I always like these moments of clarity, which remind me what we're doing here every weekend.  It's not for us, it's to let them play for better or worse and to make sure there's an appreciative smile waiting for them.  Of course I was honest with them and let them know what I saw, which was they looked a little off and a little tired, but that I was okay with that.  If I were to come down on them, like I have seen so many other coaches and parents do, what would it have served other than to drown their desire to play again and enjoy the game.

I can only hope as I continue to grow with this group, I never forget why I am here, what I am doing with them, and have the ability to change my expectations to whatever these great kids are giving to me every time they play.

Tough Girls

Reasons why shinguards are important and why we tell our players, "Yes, in our style of play, you will get kicked."

The purple spot and center knot was with shinguard protection from this past weekend, which she didn't tell me about until tonight...of course it didn't stop this girl from playing this evening and continuing to smile with her teammates.  She even began anticipating those "Karate Kicks", as I call them, and tip toeing over them to follow the ball; something we've been working on, moving the ball forward away from them, but to where they want it, leaving it go, and coming back to it...getting away from having soccer ball separation anxiety; seems to happen to our Legends players for some reason.  :-)

Digression aside, I suspect more of our players have a few knots of their own to show from that match.  The girls grumbled a little bit coming off at half time, but before they could get too far down that path, I asked them, "What are we here to do?" and the team consensus reply was, "To play soccer!" and that's what they and the rest of the girls Academy group have been doing.

Coach David, Pat, myself and some of our aspiring "Sub" coaches have really enjoyed watching them play with skill, toughness, and a relentless desire to get our there and just play soccer so far this season.

Culture Change

Great article from 6 1/2 years ago and it looks like we're still trying to get past this hurdle.  A testament to how long it takes to change culture when you're going against what's deeply established not only in a sport, but in our very nature.

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/assets/1/15/ItsWonderfulToWin.pdf

Setting the Stage – U8 Young-in’s

My first note to a new U8 group...boy are they in for it!...............

If me talking too long wasn’t enough, sometimes I type too much…not all the time do I do this, but my time here is my response to your trust in me as this team’s coach and teacher (it’s also not always so soon afterwards)….

Every once in a while I read a book then get to see a movie about it and I’m like, “What the heck happened here?  This is nothing like the book.”  I used to have this same notion after seeing my son and daughter play before moving up to the next age bracket for the first time or beginning to play at the next level and then get to their first game and pffttttttt…I was like, “what happened?”  Well, nothing and many things happened at the same time.  To begin with, they were in new environment and overwhelmed, but really trying to do everything they knew how to do…unfortunately, the competition was bigger, got there faster, and was more physical.

Why do I point this out?

Well, I received a lot of initial information about this wonderful group of girls coming out of HappyFeet from Eric.  Enough in fact to inflate my pride and I am not even one of their parents, but one of the wonderful things about my decision to coach/teach at the U8 level is every time I have a new team, I have never read the book and pay no attention to the press no matter how glowing.

After a couple training sessions and tonight’s match, I can clearly say this is an amazing group of young players.  My early assessment is:

>Players who like to play, not because they are told, but because they want to play.  After every goal, they lived up to that expectation; hustle back to center and get right back to playing again.

>Players with attention to the game.  This is THE youngest U8 team in the league, all true U6 but one.  We will continue to play teams older and more physical than us.  Only until we play another Legends team we structured in a similar fashion will we play another team in our same age banding.

Facts about tonight’s match, which I don’t put out there to explain what happened, but to show how well our girls met this challenge:

>The other team played in the top division during the fall season out of 4 divisions.  They had to go up against our two strongest and most veteran U8 teams…and were squashed; the older and more senior of those two teams deciding to take a risk of their own and move to U9/U10 competition.

>If you couldn’t tell, the parents were okay with their goal-goal-goal play until they realized in the second half they were the team they didn’t care for and then began analyzing the game and seeing who they were truly playing rather than being bent on payback.

>The opposing coach realized earlier than the parents they may have moved waayyy to far down and apologized for things.  My response, “Keep playing, I am not upset”.  It is MY job to know what I have on MY bench as a coach and it is MY job during those challenges to keep MY team motivated and engaged.  Even with all those goals coming, I had to push back the girls who wanted to play goalie and there were always smiles going on and off the field.

I won’t always be your daughter’s coach and they won’t always play for Legends, but one thing you should always look for in a coach is how they can challenge a player and keep them in the game when things aren’t going their way AND even more importantly when things are going to easily.

The opposing coach was a nice gent, but he did eventually suffer from how to engage his players.  Obviously this is my own perception and analysis, but he ended up forcibly slowing his players down rather than providing some simple ways to take risks.  Not to put him down, but one problem with a win over development attitude is the inability for the coach to be a risk taker.  His goal was to keep shooting but from further out and inadvertently ended up punishing a player to the point of tears and taking her out of the game for not doing what he had asked rather than creating the trust that if they failed in their task they would not be to blame...meaning, they were still required to score, but from further out…not “hey everyone, I challenge each of you to see who can shoot from the farthest out in the attacking half.”  See the difference in approach…pay attention as your player gets older.

Game play for the remainder of the season (Pay special attention here because my approach will NOT change):

>Goalies:  As the girls get older we will incorporate goalies into 1v1 play, which greatly enhances keeper play, but no one will explicitly be positioned or sorted out to play goalie.  Typically, I identify those with an aptitude for this role and give them additional opportunities for the job, but in reality, those same individuals end up being really good field players.   Ella J even noticed, she asked me, “Why is that girl playing goalie the whole time?”…I don’t know why Ella?  What fun is that?

From a match perspective, if a goalie doesn’t want to use their hands, I won’t ask them to use their hands…you put your hands down in front of an out of control 7 year old karate kick!  If we end up on the low end of the score, you will see me ask a keeper to become an additional field player.  We will give up the goal for a player to get additional touches on the ball so don’t ask them to get back or fret over another ball going in to the net.

>Positions and five up front:  Everyone asks it, “When do we learn positions?”  Answer, when all players have mastered ball control and 1v1 play.  Then we move to a 2v2 concept; 1^st attacker/2^nd attacker or 1^st defender/2^nd defender…when is this?  Probably U10…and besides, we do play positions, we play a 0-0-5. J Eventually, as I do with my U9 group, I start them in a 2-3, but where they end up is up to them.  My expectation right now is 5 attackers and 5 hustle back defenders.

>Bunching:  “It’s U8 soccer” is the common retort and is true for the most part.  The truth is you are paying for us to create dominant ball hogs and when you ask 6 players to go on the field and possess the ball, what do you think you’ll get?  Our training throws them into these situations with their own ball every week and eventually they begin to see the tiniest spaces and react to them.  I will put incentives in place to reward not taking the ball from one another and these little steps will get them to start looking around for who has the same jersey as theirs.

>Shooting and scoring: The only way to score is to shoot and as we move along with our goal of complete ball control, I will ask the girls to shoot whenever possible, when they are in the attacking half.  It only takes the tiniest of a moment after creating space to shoot.

Final snapshot for this season:  Encouragement and ZERO expectations every match and look for something new each game each player did differently from the last and celebrate it.