The coaches with this group, Ben, Loris and Venanzio have done a good job making good soccer available to these players. I coached Loris somewhere around 1992/1993 when he was U17/U18.
At this point, with these boys, you want to keep them interested in the game and help them to learn how to incorporate creativity and athleticism into their play. A lot of boys are over-coached for too long and tend to be robotic and predictable when they play. Because boys don't play soccer on the streets in Canada, we have the double duty of working on fundamentals and developing creativity while they are with us.
Today we did a lot of one-touch work with movement. To keep the ball moving and compensate for the occasional errant pass, players needs to be willing to be flexible in how they played the ball. Your desire is to be able to open up and make a nice simple pass with the inside of your foot. We all know that in a game there are so many variables and situations that you gain more helping players discover all their tools rather than force them into one or two specific techniques.
To be creative on the fly you need, at the very least, the ability to play the ball with all parts of both feet (inside/outside/heel/laces/soul) and have very good footwork. So younger players need to work on those skills and develop the mechanics for those movements. Then, at some point, a player can catch defenders off guard by playing a penetrating pass with the outside of their foot or play a wall-pass in the air with their laces, etc.
When you are learning, it's very important to master the fundamentals and proper execution of each technique. This gives the foundation for the players incorporating their athleticism and personal "flair" to solve problems on the field.
Give them problems to solve on their own and give them the freedom to solve the problems their way. Make suggestions and use various teaching methods to draw answers from them, but you can't command creativity.
People watch professional sports and wonder "how do they do that so instinctively." A few years back Steve Yzerman and Sergei Federov put together a sweet sequence of passes ending in a beautiful goal for the Detroit Red Wings. The sportscaster after the show asked how they think of those things on the fly and Yzerman replied "We rehearsed that play a 100x at practice".
I like the following three statements:
PRINCIPLE #1: “THERE IS NO CREATIVITY WITHOUT THE MASTERY OF THE FUNDAMENTALS.”
PRINCIPLE #2: “THERE IS NO CREATIVITY WITHOUT FINDING YOUR OWN PERSONAL EXPRESSION.”
PRINCIPLE #3: “THERE IS NO CREATIVITY WITHOUT PRACTICE AND SELF-DISCIPLINE. (I've seen this before but worded differently. I got this version from http://lynlasneski.posterous.com/3-principles-of-creativity)
