U13 - Moving forward towards season

Up till now we have been training in gyms, indoor mini-fields with other teams, trying to keep costs low.  We've also been on ourdoor tennis courts to get more time in.   Niagara only has 2 outdoor full size artificial fields and no indoor full size pitches.  (that changes next year in Welland with our new building!)  For indoor soccer we have 3 mini pitches in Niagara that are all booked solid.

But what he have done has been beneficial and most of the work has been individual technical work and small group tactics.  We've been playing a little bit of catch-up with some of the boys and working with who has been able to come out because of hockey and basketball. 

Now that the weather has been getting warmer and we have some field time booked we are ready to move this season's program forward.  The boys have been very good but they are wanting to compete.

With Coach Paul's work scheduling easing up a bit in the coning month's we'll be able to have more activities where we split the group in half and a coach for each side.

We will continue with the group fitness/agility sessions on Thursdays.  We will continue with our technical and small group work with small sided games.  Before our May 28 season opener, we have 3 field times booked in St Catharines, a tournament in local Beamsville and a day of 3 friendlies with a series of clubs.  That makes a minimum of 9 chances to get our 11v11 organization in place.

We are going to have some squad practices to focus on GK/defenders, midfielders and forwards, groups working together up the flanks and through the middle.

For the first 2 field sessions in St Catharines the opposing coach has agreed to 40min phase-of-play for each team in our own half and then 11v11 for 40min with coaches on the field for each team.

My goal for the first two 11v11 sessions will be to setup our shape so the boys are in a situation where they can succeed at applying what we've been working on in training.

Our 3rd session on the full field will be a straight up game.  Then we have another split phase-of-play and 11v11 setup before our tournament and final series of games.

It would be nice to have the field for ourselves with a few extra guest players, but I don't see that happening and I have a budget to work with.  We split the cost of the fields with our fellow renters.  The teams we are sharing with are good matches for what we are trying to accomplish.

We still need to have our parents meeting and a team social before our tournament in May.

We have a lot of work to do in 7 weeks.

The boys seem like they are enjoying themselves so far.  I have been feeling better about sessions this year compared to last and they have been running a bit smoother.  I haven't been as rushed getting to training  and the weather has been co-operative compared to last spring, when it rained and rained and rained.