Fall 2009 Season

Coaches/Parents,

In reviewing the 2009 Fall season, we concluded the following:

PROs (things that went well):  overall organization of the program (practices & games), layout of fields, appearance of fields (ie: goals in place, no trash, etc), supply of infomation, staff presence on the field, equipment, field signs, trophy delivery.

CONs (areas of improvement):  uniform delivery, field space (in particular for the U12s and up), quality of coaching in particular age groups, team pictures

The CSA/OP organization will look to continue to improve upon all areas in order to make this experience as positive as possible.

Thank you all of your help and support.

Publish Post

Please let us know your thoughts/suggestions.

Happy Thanksgiving

Motor Skill Acquisition

Just as teachers sometimes fail to understand student aspirations which fall short of expertise, some coaches tend to overlook aspirations for expert performance in favor of winning performance.  Unfortunately, we often associate winning with excellence of performance; this is not necessarily a valid association.  Games are won for reasons other than excellent performance.  In the record book, however, the manner of winning is not recorded.  The ultimate goal of every coach and every team should be excellence of performance.  Coaches should be evaluated on their ability to help good performers become excellent performers.  Unfortunately, too many coaches seek and achieve personal satisfaction from coaching winners.  Many have little regard for the satisfaction achieved by individuals on the squad execpt as they reflect the coach's glory.

Courtesy to Margaret Robb
State of New York - Cortland

Spam Traffic

Question. 

I have been reading the blogs, but do not wish to create a google account since this tends to increase spam traffic.  Is there a way to post blogs without creating an account?  



Anyone know the answer to this question?

Teach Parents a Lesson

Parents are critical to your success as a coach.

If you have their support, that's half the job done. If they don't support you your season is going to be a struggle, both on and off the pitch.

An important way parents can support you and your players (their children) is to offer encouragement from the touchlines during matches. But you don't want them to coach or shout too loudly during matches as it confuses players and tends to generate the sort of poor behaviour that the FA's Respect campaign is trying to eradicate.

So how to stop your parents coaching the players?

One really effective way to do this is to get your players and their parents to swap roles for a 'match'.

First, tell your parents to bring their trainers to the next training session.

This should get them worried :)

When they arrive, explain that you value their support but that you want them to encourage the players (from both teams please) during matches and that they must not try to coach.

End the meeting by inviting the parents to play a short match between themselves with the children taking the role of parents shouting from the sidelines.

The children will love doing this!

Add some confusion yourself by shouting "TACKLE!!", "PASS!!", "CLEAR IT!!" or "SHOOT!!" Or all at the same time!

After the game ask them what they could hear from the sidelines. Hopefully, they will say it was difficult to listen when they were trying to concentrate on the game.

For the parents who did hear what was said - often what you shouted - ask them if this instruction or direction helped them.

By showing your parents how it feels to be a player being yelled at from the touchline it will help them realise that shouting - especially shouting instructions - is not helpful.

Some parents will still shout and bawl. But you have taught them all a lesson in using positive language and the majority will moderate their behaviour at matches from now on.

And most importantly, you will have demonstrated your commitment to their children's development as players and you'll enjoy a higher level of parental support.

www.footy4kids.com

Clicking for Kicks

To develop skills and master the game, the next best thing to playing is to watch. But a common lament among American coaches, one I've heard even from U.S. national team coaches, is their young players don't watch enough soccer.

For sure, the great players I've ever interviewed tell stories of watching stars make brilliant moves, and then trying to emulate them. Former U.S. captain Claudio Reyna, to name one, would watch soccer on TV with his older brother, then go straight to the backyard and mimic what he had seen.

There's no shortage of soccer on American television, but young players often aren't drawn to watching if there's not a soccer culture in their house. In many other countries, where dad's a big soccer fan or Monday's schoolyard conversation revolves around the weekend's games, children are more likely to watch soccer.

So coaches need to encourage them. They can mention upcoming games - "The USA is playing Mexico on Sunday!" -- and perhaps send e-mail reminders on when they're being broadcast and on what channel.

Coaches can start a friendly pool or fantasy league to encourage their players to watch high-level soccer. Have players pick a favorite MLS or WPS team - or teams from any league that is televised - and spur discussion on last weekend's games at the next team get-together.

Also, modern technology enables coaches to make at least some soccer-viewing convenient for their players. For this generation of kids, watching videos online is a part of their daily routine. Coaches can e-mail links to highlights or instructional demonstrations.

Highlights from soccer games around the world can be found by searching YouTube.com, and visiting soccer video highlight websites such as Footytube.com, SoccerClips.net and GoalJunky.com. MLS and WPS have video highlights on their sites. MLS's site features Goals of the Week and Saves of the Week .

YouTube also provides profiles and highlight montages of soccer role models, from Landon Donovan and Mia Hamm to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Lenny Lun, who coaches girls at Northern California's Mustang Soccer, picks a "move of the month" for his players to focus on. He directs them to a video-game promo that works perfectly to demonstrate a variety of spectacular moves that entertain and inspire.

Advanced Skills Tutorial (5:05 min.)

Below is a collection of other instructional video clips that young players of various levels may enjoy:

The Ronaldo Chop (1:23 min.)

Awesome Soccer Juggling Video (2:00 min.)

The Robinho Stepover (1:33 min.)

Juggling Pele: The Master and His Method (2:00 min.)

Kelly Smith's Tips & Tricks

Juggling Tips (2:40 min.)

The Zico (1:48 min.)

Copyright © 2007 -- Mike Woitalla

Fall Season Looking Forward

Thank you to all of the coaches, administration, parents, players and anyone I may have left out on a successful Fall season.

Now it's time to reflect on the positives and negatives. What went well? What needs to be improved upon?

We need to hear from you. Please don't be bashful. If we are to make our program better, we need the feedback.

In talking to some of the coaches last night and today, I have received quite a bit of valuable insight. Let's continue to offer up this information, lay it all out on the table and decide as a coaching group what direction we need to move in going forward.

Let's begin to light up this blog site so everyone can hear.

Hope to hear from you.

Why Is Scrimmage Dessert?

It seems to be conventional wisdom that scrimmaging - letting children actually play soccer - is something that should happen only at the end of practice. It's promised to them like a dessert, the reward for eating the broccoli.


Do all these drills and you'll get to do what you thought you signed up for: play soccer.

By scrimmaging I mean playing games to goal, whether it be small-sided games or splitting the squad into two teams right after the warm-up to play a game. That's what the kids would do if the adults weren't calling the shots. And it is their playtime.

At the youngest ages, they should just be playing soccer rather than doing drills anyway. When it becomes necessary to incorporate technical exercises into practice, why has it become the cardinal rule that they must be done at every practice and they must be done before the soccer-playing?

When a bunch of rambunctious youngsters show up to practice doesn't it make sense to let them get on with the soccer-playing? If you need to have them practice their passing technique, why not after they've played some real soccer? They might be more inclined to stay focused during a slower-paced activity after they've used up some energy.

I'm not saying that going through some technical work, then advancing through various game-like exercises that lead up to a scrimmage, isn't a good, logical way to organize a practice.

But how much harm could there be in trying it another way once in a while? The kids show up after a long day of school. The coach gets them dribbling around with their balls for a little while and does whatever warm-up their age level requires. The goals are set up and they play soccer.

Try it and see whether you don't make a bunch of kids happy. Besides the smiles, you're getting them ready for the game. That practice replicates what they'll be doing on the weekend with their uniforms on and their parents on the sideline.

Article by Mike Woitalla