Soccer Coaching Tips (SCT)

[TonyMcFadden]

Last real game for a month or so tomorrow. Ramadan starts on Monday (I think) and for a good number of teams in the league that have a high percentage of Muslim players, they won't be able to play.

(During the lunar month of Ramadan, followers of Islam have to fast, including abstaining from any drinks, from sun up to sun down. Imagine a bunch of 8 years olds running around in the heat without beinag able to drink water)

So, for the next month, we will have a bunch of friendly games...more like a good practice...

In December the season resumes.

[excel]

We WON! Woooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Down 2 to 0 first 10 minutes of the game and came back to score 4 goals and the second half. We should have won about 12 to 2. LOL! We had so many easy shots and it was like the goal post was moving on them. LOL! Just one of those games.

Next week we play the best team in the league.
So that will be our test to see how far we have come together as a team. Looking forward to it.

My daughters team was short two of their best players and ended up with a tie. Another game I missed seeing due to coaching. That is what hurts the worse is when our games are at same time.

[excel]

BTW. My daughters team won 5 to 0. Totally dominated the other team. My daughter played her best game yet. She even played a little goalie which I was surprised the coach put her in there. I have been working with her on playing it but didn't think her effort was that good. She must be giving better effort at her practice that the coach is noticing.
I had to laugh as did the coach and others when after 10 minutes and only touching the ball twice she was begging the coach to go back to her old position.

She loves playing mid fielder cause she gets so much action there.

Finally got it through her head to dribble and then pass it after she takes it as far as she can up the field.

She normally just wacks the ball up the field which doesn't help if her team can't get to it.

That is what drives me nuts about parents.
I got some real cold stares the other day when my daughter wacked it up the field and some parants yelled great job.

I turned around and said no that does her team no good when she just wacks it instead of passing it up the field and the other team gets the ball.

I get so tired of parents giving kids false praise.
Politically correct self esteem BS!

Want to raise their self esteem?
Teach them the right way to play!
Once they understand watchout what happens to their self esteem!

10 years old is old enough to be taught the game right.
So I told her watch what happens when her teammates just wack the ball.

How many times does the other team get the ball because it wasn't passed?

Ever since my daughter figured out it does no good to play that way she has improved greatly and got two assists last week plus some other great passes.

Fact is, without being truthful with her she'd still be wacking the ball listening to idiot parents screaming good job!

[excel]

My team got scored on 3 times in about two minutes at start of game. LOL! Then it got worse. LOL! Some of my best players were standing there waiting for the other guy to make a move so they were getting beat bad on a lot of parts of the game. My best goalie was getting his butt handed to him.

We were playing a pretty good team. Probably the best one yet. But we just weren't clicking together as a team and hustling was terrible.
So half time we are down 6 to 0. LOL!

So I gathered the players far away from their parents and talked to them the entire half time allowed about having days like this personally, and in life, on the sports field and off. Told them how you handle adversity in life is what you are made out of. {I've explained the word adversity to them before} I told them they need to erase the first half from your mind. Go out there and have fun. You will have fun by husling for the ball and playing as a team.

Will it worked! The other team didn't score the second half. We scored 5 goals to lose by one.
Most importantly though they discovered something about themselves as players being teammates, when playing like a team, they actually won the game in my mind. And they said they had fun and agreed the best thing was to quit feeling down about the first half and erasing it from their heads
I saw a lot of lights go on in their heads after the game as we talked about how when we passed the ball and hustled as a team we had fun and played well.
This was one of my most successful feelings as a coach.
My players responded and became winners in my mind!

[TonyMcFadden]

Soccer has to be the only sport in the world where you can say "That was an excellent game" and have a 0-0 final score.

The England - Turkey game (except for the Beckham Blooper) was one of those games...

No kid games this weeked. We've had so much rain in the past three days that the pitches are soaked. To play would permanently damage them...

[excel]

Eamonnshute. It's always something with these experts. LOL!

[TonyMcFadden]

Here you have it...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20031008/od_afp/space_science_universe_03100...

Universe is shaped like a soccer ball
Wed Oct 8, 3:25 PM ET Add Offbeat - AFP to My Yahoo!

PARIS (AFP) - A team of astrophysicists have taken a kick at the conventional view that the Universe is flat and endless, suggesting instead that the cosmos is shaped like... a football.

[excel]

Our game last Saturday was fun. Didn't start out that way. LOL!
We were scored on in the first 40 seconds. Then another quick score. Finally we settled down. Ended up at a tie at 7 to 7.

One situation I'm seeing now is trash talking. Not much of it. Just a tid bit here and there.
Had a talk with my boys about that. No go on my team.
Let your play do the talking no matter what the other team says.
Sad to see at such a young age.
These kids watch to many punks playing on pro teams on TV.

[excel]

Eamonnshute. LOL! My wife and I do something simular to that. We start them 3 at a time at end of field to pass to each other. She meets them about mid field to start resistance.
I do the same near goal. It does help them to pass.
And we get a work out!

[Tackler]

LOL, sounds great and the kids loved it I'm sure.

[TonyMcFadden]

We had some fun at practice this past weekend...

We played a 30 minute half, parents against the kids. We (the parents) didn't play to win, but to reinforce positional and passing skills.

The parents in defence forced the kid forwards to pass (and is was great to see the three forwards split up and pass to each other).

The 'forward' parents forced the kid defence to play zones. The first part of the half the kid defenders 'clumped', but by the half way point, I was being seriously marked...

It was great fun, the kids learned a lot, and I think I pulled a hamstring ;^)

[Tackler]

Agree with Eamonnshute re throw ins. One drill my kids liked was divide into 4-5 lines with keeper in goal. Line 1 on side throw in, line 2 recieve throw down line and carry down side to cross, line 3 defend against 2 but only to challenge not steal or tackle (allow 2 to get cross out), lines 4 & 5 go toward goal for cross from 2.

1/..2..3.........................................4..............5
../
../
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../
../
../
../
../
../
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../___________________/_____K_____/____

Rotation: 1 goes to back of line 2 after throw, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and 5 to 1.

[excel]

Hi Ergo. First my daughters game. What great game.
They won 1 to 0. My daughter played great. Really improving. She mostly plays mid fielder. She did a hit out there. A clean one that had everyone talking about it. Going for the ball she split the other teams players in two and sent them flying.
Oh man it looked like a bowling ball splitting the pins!
I've been working on her to be more agressive and it's paid off as she is starting every game now and playing more of the game than 85% of her team.
Very proud of her!

My game we lost 5 to 4. But it was like we won.
It was so much fun to see my boys play better.
The last two practices we worked on what we messed up on the last week. Lot of my players improving. They had a blast today. One of our fastest players wasn't able to make it.
And another one of our faster players was late coming straight from the dentist. So I think with a good week of practice they have a good chance to win next week.
It's a joy to see your players improve. Makes it all worth it!

[ergo sum]

So how did the team do?

[excel]

Eamonnshute. We got burned for a quick goal right after half time last week from our guys not covering the other team. LOL! Yep, we worked on that in practice.
Probably should have worked on the offensive part like you are stating also.

[TonyMcFadden]

Two drills we did last practice (that we hope will help in tomorrows game)

1) throw-ins. ALWAYS up the line in the direction of play. Even if it hits an opposing player, odds are it will bounce out giving the ball back to the team. The player(s) receiving the ball hover in front of the thrower until the thrower is ready to throw, then they break into space up the line.

2) passing into space (kind of related to the throw-ins)

 
 X       X                    XX              X        X 
 . 
 . 
 X       X                                    X        X 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
                            Y 
 . 
 . 
 . 
 . 
                          ZZ 
 

The player with the ball (passer) stands at ZZ. A defender (inital tries, s/he's stationary) stands at Y. The player receiving the ball stands at XX facing the passer, and points to the passer which direction s/he is going. the passer then kicks the ball to the box (made by 4 cones) and not the receiver the receiver runs to the box to meet the ball.


After a few tries the timing is sorted out and the defender can try to move to block the pass...

It really put the idea of passing into space, and moving into space for the 7 and 8 year olds on the team.

[excel]

Hi Tackler. Thanks for stopping by.
Looking forward to tomorrows game at HIGH NOON! LOL!
I think my 8 year old boys are to after getting their butts kicked bad.
They had a bye the first week so the other team didn't have the first game jitters. I knew we were in trouble when twice through the line in pre game warm ups no one could get it into the net. Tomorrow should be different.
This week we worked on some things I saw we messed up during the game and hoping to see some improvement tomorrow.
Going to be in the low 80s here tomorrow.
Glad we play at noon and not at 2:00.

Be glad to hear from you when you get time. Both perspectives from a playing and coaching view would be great. Advice? Hopefully us coaches can learn from each other.

[Tackler]

Hi excel

Looks like an interesting board. I play and coach soccer and will drop by when I have more time.

[excel]

The below is a test I made up for my 8 year olds.
I believe it's one thing in the learning process to show them what to do on the field, and a whole different learning process for them to completely understand why the Coach wants them to do that.


When your goalie has the ball you should.................
1. Go to 7-11 to buy a slurpie.
2. Take a water break.
3. Move over towards the side of the field to be in position and
wave your arms for the goalie to see you.

When you pass the ball playing goalie you should..............

1. Back inside the goal because I feel safer there.
2. Go ask my Dad who would be the right person to pass it to.
3. Run to either far side of the field in order to pass the ball.

Why would we not want to pass the ball in front of the goal........

1. The other team can steal the ball which puts them in
position for quick score.
2. I won't get a game snack afterwards if I do.
3. The Coach might have a heart attack.


When the Coach yells solo I should............
1. Take the ball by myself towards the goal.
2. Take off that stinky sock and just play with only one sock.
3. Have the whole team leave the field so I'm just playing.

When I'm about to score I should kick the ball...........
1. Towards my sister if she's not looking for hitting me last night.
2. As high as I can and hope the goalie gets dizzy looking at it.
3. Either side of the goalie far enough away so he can't fall on ball.


The Coach wants us to hustle all the time because..........
1. He thinks we will sleep better at night.
2. The team that hustles gets the loose balls so they have the best chance to score.
3. That way we won't smell the other teams socks!

[excel]

Kicky. Looking forward to it. Thanks! We getting good weather here for it also. They need to play another team. They are starting to get testy with each other. LOL!

[kickyballs]

good luck with your matches this weekend coaches.

[joepcf]

I love the sport have played it my whole life......

[excel]

Thanks Joe! Anytime you have some comments let me us know. Love to hear different sides of the coin regarding coaching, and players perceptions of coaching actions.

[joepcf]

Nice board EXCEL. At that age and any above pee wee league basics cannot be stressed enough.

[excel]

I coach 8 year olds. Todays practice I'll be using black plastic. Yep!

I'm going to hang the plastic from the top of goal post to the ground about 6 feet wide in middle of goal area.

The idea is after observing my kids go down the middle towards the goal to shoot all that's on their mind is to wack it in to the goal past the goalie with no thought to where they are shooting it.
Right side? Left side?
Or just hoping to shoot it amywhere?

Now some may think that's all you should expect out of 8 year olds.

I believe differently. I believe expect the best.
I believe start them thinking about the game.

How much success will I have? No idea.
But imo by the end of the season some of the boys will be hooking the ball into the corner.
We also do left kick, right kick on goal drill which coinsides with this new drill I'll try.

[excel]

Eamonnshute. I scrimmage my boys about half an hour or more. I stop the scrimage to change positions and point out things they can work on during it.

Regarding your situation one thing you might try is giving them patches as an award for hustle. I listed the website in the ibox where to buy them.

This sets goals for them to be agressive. I have found kids love awards.
As they obtain them, they are learning, and you are getting your point across.

Hustle awards of course are basically you saying being agressive which is you obtaining your goal.

Yet they don't hear that. They think they just need to hustle going after loose balls which you know wins ball games.
So imo it's a win win for the coach and the team.

[excel]

Kickyballs. Thanks!

[TonyMcFadden]

Quick question for those coaching under 9s (or thereabouts)

Practices always end up with a short (10 minute a side) game. This always goes well, with good passing and pretty good defending (a weakness the team has that we are working on).

HOWEVER, when they get on the pitch against another team, the first half is universally bad. There is no pressure against the opposing team, no attempt at tackles, and generally a hesitant approach. Second half is better, but still not up to the level practices are.

I know WHY this is happening. The kids are more comfortable 'attacking' their friends. Against a team of players they don't know they don't have the confidence to get in their faces. It isn't until they played against them for awhile. Needless to say, the latter part of the season is better than the first part.

Wondering if anyone else has seen this, and what approach they would suggest.

tia

ES

[TonyMcFadden]

kickyballs, I agree, except for one point..."keep competition to a minimum."

I think competiton is great, and essential.

However, you followed that line with "and motivated players are competitive and motivated people", so I'm not sure I'm following you.

[kickyballs]

with young players (to age 9 or 10) 2 things are most important:
1)touches on the ball- every time a player touches the ball he/she becomes a better player- to get to 1000 touches you must have touch 1,2,etc...its very important that drills and games are designed around this idea. drills that require waiting in line, tactical and strategy run throughs should all be kept to a minimum. games should be short sided on downsized fields to optimize touches and speed.
2)let the kids enjoy it. they should be jumping out of their skin to get to practice. keep competition to a minimum. competitive and motivated players are competitive and motivated people. we learn these traits in life and only hone them on the soccer field. believe me a 7 year old pit bull who would chew of his own arm to score a goal while running over the biggest baddest defender is going to play like this no matter how the coach handles him. likewise a sneaky, creative and cerebral player who may avoid contact and not run as hard as the coach may like is going to become a sneaky, creative and cerebral player no matter what the coach does. let them have fun and reward them for who they are not what you want them to be

[kickyballs]

this is a delightful and useful board. thanks excel.

[excel]

Cobra. WOW! Your daughter must have been very good.
Soccer is huge in Washington State.
I took my daughter to the University of Washington pitching camp. While there we noticed many fields full of soccer camps going on. Her first love is pitching. Soccer second.
So I doubt she'll follow your daughter though.
You must have driven thousands of miles with 3 kids! LOL!Would love to hear any tips you have or hers if she has the time some day. I'll be coaching next year also.

[427Cobra]

All three of my daughters played soccer, but one of them seriously. She played all of the way through college, and on a soccer mission team to China, Australia, and Korea. She could give the soccer tips much better than I. I have coached some parks and rec teams etc. It is a fun sport to watch once you understand it.

[dvinge]

Excel and anyone,
Here are some practice plans from the Canadian Soccer association
http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/coaching/practiceplans.asp?sub2=6

Different ages and all. If you look around the site you might find other material as well but I didn't have time to look.
DAV

[excel]

Ergo. Congrats for changing a lot of kids lives over the years!

The part about kids standing around in lines I can really relate to. That is something I hate to see. Sometimes the coach would have two assistants yet they all standing there watching the same kid. RIDICULOUS!

My wife helps me and we have 9 kids split up a lot of times so that doesn't happen.

Great link. Added it to i-box. Thanks!

Anything you can think of later on that has helped you teach better let me know.

[ergo sum]

Excel

I have coached, refed and right now I manage a team. Started out when my kids were six because no one else would do it. Now it is 9 years later.

The six year olds were very difficult. Most people I talk to say you really can't teach them the game all you can do is give them the skills. Watching various coaches over the years I think that too many spend too much time talking and design too many drills in which the kids just stand around in lines.

For the past 4 or 5 years my son has been lucky enough to have professional coaches, people who coach college teams and also coach youngsters. Their practices usually involve a warm up in which the basic skills are practiced. Foundations, pull backs, juggling, dribbling etc. Usually within a confined area.

Some kind of small sided game within a confined area with restricted touches is essential. You can start say with two v two and unrestricted touches. All teams play all teams and the team with the most wins is the winner. Then 4v4 with restircted touches. Depends on how many kids you have. Building to a whole squad scrimmage.

One of the best things you can do at that age is start a juggling contest. Kids who get to five get something, kids who get to ten get something. Candy bars are good for that one.

Check this out.
http://www.usysa.org/coaches/archive_COA.html

Ergo Sum

[excel]

Eamonnshute. Those are excellent drills we are using also. Thanks for sharing! Those kids are fun to watch.
My favorite time of year is soccer and softball season.

[TonyMcFadden]

At this age, basic ball handling skills are best. We put them three abreast, with a ball, and have them run the length of the pitch passing the ball back and forth (left has the ball, dribble a few paces, passes to middle, who dribbles a few paces and passes it to right, who dribbles and passes it to middle, to left, to middle, to right...etc).

The player in the middle is generally the best passer, and the two wings not as good (are more in need of the drill). At the end they turn around, so the person passing left now has to pass right and vice versa. The person in the middle does both all the time. The hardest part is keeping the kids far enough apart to make passing meaningful.

ALSO, for trap and control, three abreast again, but no dribbling...

players set up like this

A..................B.................C

A passes to B. B traps the ball, turns and passes it to C. C traps, passes back to B, B traps, turns and passes to A. After a dozen or so, rotate the players

B................C.................A

then

C................A.................B


teaches trapping and controlling the flow.


The thing that is hardest to drill into the little folks head is keeping their position (relatively). We had two goals scored against us this afternoon because fullbacks (defense) came up to help on a corner kick leaving the goalie all alone. The opposing team got the ball from the corner and lobbed it up field giving a one on one for our keeper. He stopped a number of tries, but on 2 occasions they got past him. Training will focus very much on team responsibilities the next few times out.

[excel]

Here is a link to buy patches from. I'm going to use these for them to set different goals.
Give them out at each game. The hustle patches at practices for the kids who stand out at practice besides the games. I bought more hustle patches than any other.
I've always felt what you do in practice you do in a game.

Black patch is for Hustle - It's been said hustling the lose balls is what wins 90% of the games. Makes sense to me.
If you don't have the ball you can't expect to score.

Green Patch is for best passer - I feel teaching them to pass is one of the most important things they can learn that helps the team and become a complete player.

Light Blue patch is for most improved - Each game give out a few of these.

Blue/Yellow patch for best defenseive playing.

Blue/white for best offensive playing.

You might find these to be good for your team also.



http://www.soccerhelp.com/merchandise/patches/index.shtml

[excel]

Eamonnshute. Good to hear from you. Any drills or anything you use that you find effective let me know. Thanks!

[TonyMcFadden]

Don't have any links, excel, but I too coach my son's under 9 team. There is a coaching clinic here in singapore I'm going to sign up for this year...if anything comes of that I'll pass it on.

(Now I've got to go and get ready for the season opener this afternoon...)

[excel]

Have any links to good coaching sites?

[excel]

I just was put into the position to coach my son's soccer team recently due to the ex coaches circumstances needing her to quit the team.
Have had two practices now, and still researching drills and coaching info. I'm coaching my son's 8 year old team. My ten year old daughter plays for one of the best coaches in the league so I'm gleaning things from him also.
Would appreciate all feedback relating to coaching!