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; 1st attacker/2nd attacker or 1st
defender/2nd 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.
Sounds like a great start.
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