All coaches should coach U9 or below

A friend of mine, Stuart Neely,  has coached at the international level and been involved with the youth academies of three different professional clubs.  He said something to me once that never escaped me but I didn't realize how important it was until this past Monday night.

His words were "anybody serious about coaching should always stay involved with the youngest players in some capacity".  His meaning was that you can sometimes get led away from the very basics of coaching when you move up levels and these young players bring you right back to square one, probably the most important place to be as a coach.

Over the past 5 weeks I've been working with a clinic for players U8-10.  I have to admit I was struggling with the lesser experienced U8 players and some in that group are very very raw.  Two weeks ago I felt I made some progress and last night I walked off the field feeling good.  During our warm-up and functional portion I felt they were really starting to understand what we were doing (dribbling and turns).  We got into 1v1 games and that showed more progress and the 6v6 game at the end told me they were catching on (with more work to do).

It's a funny relationship with younger players.  Not only can you feel yourself getting frustrated with their progress, you can feel the players getting frustrated with you at times.

The gentleman helping me , Coach Nilan, is helping with the Welland U9 boys this summer and I was glad he made this journey with me, to appreciate the work and persistence involved in coaching younger players.

U17 - The art of Defending

Today with the U17 boys we reviewed defending.  Because it was a review, we piled 1v1 , a functional exercise and a small game into the same 90 minute session.

We are not training that often yet and most of these boys play High School soccer, so we want to give them as much info as possible to take back to their school sessions.

For the 1v1 it was a simple serve and play exercise.  Coaching points for defending were:

• Goal side of the ball
• Speed and angle of approach
• Don't lunge into 1v1 battle
• Body balanced
• Threaten ball
• Think of what you will do if you win the ball

We reviewed some different scenarios during the drill but kept it basic and informative.   It's interesting to see how some players give up so easily when they are beat, yet others will run over their grandmother to get the ball back.  It was new for some of them to be told that they need to take off and attack once they win the ball.  We all see it, a team wins the ball and holds it instead of looking for a counter attack.

Then we set up a playing area with 4 lanes roughly 7x25yds each.  The diagram at the right shows 8v8 but we only had 12 players today and put 3 players in each lane.  I always adjust the lanes according to age and # players.

The goal of the game is to move the ball to your teammates of the same colour in the other lane.  So Blue 1 to Blue 2, Yellow 1 to Yellow 2.  The opposing players between the lanes are trying to prevent you from putting the ball through and if they intercept it, they try to connect with teammates in the other lane.

This game can be used to work on so many different things: possession, defending, counter attacking mentality, etc.  Today I used it for defending.

Before you progress, all players must stay in their own lane.

BUT, before you can do anything with this game, you have to let them play for a bit to figure it out and get into the spirit of the game.  It's a very competitive game once it gets going.  Once the flow was there we got into defensive shape (pressure, support, cover, balance, etc).  Coaching points were:

• Immediate pressure on the ball
• Teammates move into support position
• Player pressuring does not follow a pass
• Stay focused on team goals and do not chase balls 
• Lots of movement and co-operation between players on the defending team.

You do not want players chasing the attacking teams'  passes.  Instead a defensive support player moves up to pressure and original defender drops and tucks behind the pressure guy to take away forward progress.  If you chase the ball sideways and a teammate steps up to pressure you temporarily create a situation where you are square and vulnerable to a pass splitting the two of you.

Once the game was moving and we were happy with the movement we progressed it to where a player on the defensive team can step into the other lane to apply more pressure on the ball.  Only one defensive player can enter the lane at a time.

When we got into our 6v6 game (5+GK) we reviewed the principles of play for team defending:

• Pressure the ball
• Support
• Communication
• Recovery runs (get back!)
• Deny forward progress and goals

I was happy with their work rate and intensity today.  These boys are older and competitive so when a training session is going well it's a lot of fun.  The number of players made it difficult to keep the pace of the final game at a good level so we took a few breaks to review.   We also put off-sides into the game as well as saying it would be 2/3 height pressure on the ball (no pressuring ball in attacking third of the field).  I did not stop the game at all to coach as they were enjoying themselves and adhering to the theme of the day. 

Next time I would:

• Ensure there were more players (call ups?)
• Ask more questions during first warm-up to gauge their knowledge of defending
• Keep a better eye on the clock and provide more breaks so they have more energy left to give at the end of training

What is a "good" player?

I had a discussion with some students the other day talking about this guy who is "good ... but" or that guy who is "good ... but...".  Then I was thinking of some former players who went on to successful playing days in college, university, men's competitive, semi-pro and professional.

Here is my opinion: if there is a "but" after the "good" then you're not "good".  You might be decent, or very effective, but "good" might be a strong word.  "Good" meaning a player who would be scouted for a professional youth academy or NCAA D1 school. 

A good player has many dimensions to the package they deliver.

• Playing for the right reasons and because they want to
• Strong work ethic, in training and competition
• Internally motivated
• Proper training/coaching
• Technical proficiency is a must.
• Mental toughness is a must.
• Athletic over and above their sport
• Intelligent enough to process what's going on around them and make decisions (understand the game)
• Physical dimensions that lend themselves to success (in some cases certain aspects are way above average to compensate for lacking in other aspects)
• Lifestyle choices lend themselves to success.
• Strong emotional support system and environment for success
• Hidden X-Factor --- Can make things happen or "that little something extra"

Finding an athlete who is truly "good" is rare.  A lot of athletes have talent and potential but are not driven.  We find kids who are driven and tough, but not particularly gifted or technically strong.

I use the word "good" very rarely.  I find myself saying "decent" and "suitable" often.  Sometimes I would say "incomplete".  I will say if you find a co-ordinated athlete at the right age who wants to play and learn, you can eliminate items on their deficiency list with the proper exposure and training.

I think highly of players who play for life and give back to the game and register their children.  But the conversation was about being good.

Players who are on their way to becoming good need the right guidance and incentive to finish their journey.  This is where soccer falls apart in Canada.  Players at 13/14/15 who show real potential for getting to the next level have little incentive to continue.  Scholarships and professional opportunities are not readily available, but that is slowly changing. 

We do have young Canadians playing professionally in MLS and overseas.  But the stage is set for developing a greater number of quality players.

Community clubs are taking a different approach to player development at young ages.  The soccer powers are seriously rethinking and changing their approach at the younger age groups (See Ontario and Canada Soccer's LTPD).  In Canada we now have 3 MLS teams with youth academies and 10 provincial programs offering elite opportunities for young players.  Private academies are also connecting ambitious players with potential trials over seas. 

Hopefully we will see a stronger and bigger crop of U12-U14 players in the next 3-4 years.

There will also be long term benefits to a larger group of players who continue to play into U15 and into adulthood.  These people will become the coaches and decision makers of tomorrow.

We need better training in a more appropriate environment for younger players.  Then we need to  develop more destination programs for our young players who show promise and continue the process of turning them into good players at the right time in their life.

MLS - Congratulations Simon Gatti

Simon Gatti was a player on the first team I ever coached and we coached him during his U9-U10-U11 years.  He moved on to a career at the University of Rhode Island then the Montreal Impact.  He announced his retirement and has joined the Impact as the u14 Academy Coach.  He was a good boy who grew into a good man, and a very good player.  He will be a great coach.

http://www.impactmontreal.com/en/news/2012/02/simon-gatti-announces-retirement-and-joins-academy

Photo from www.montrealimpact.com

U13 - Passing, Passing and more passing

It was our first practice after selecting our team.

Tonight we set up a passing sequence through grids that involved a lot of passing, receiving and running.  We ran it for 40 minutes, the length of one half this season.  Their only breaks were for resetting the drills or to explain the next progression.

We basically passed on angles, received the ball opening up and passing the ball again.  2 touches.  Every player who passed into the next grid on an angle ran to the unoccupied corner so the balls were always going through each grid alternating  at opposite angles.  By the time you made your way through the grid you did 6 passes and had about 15 seconds before you went through again.  Again, it's a drill where you have to pay attention and have very little time between playing balls.

Our small game at the end was based on 2 touch.  The sessions started at 8:30pm and the boys had just run a ton, so the quality game quickly tapered off.  I know you end up with a lack luster game but the passing and running is what I wanted to accomplish tonight.  They still had some good ideas while they were playing.

We only had 12 players tonight.  One was sick and the other has a broken toe.  Smaller rosters make games easier but hurt training sessions.  We will have to re-examine that.

Overall I was happy with the boys tonight.  They all worked hard and we had our foot on the ball for quite a while.  I was impatient a few times but had my coaching points written down and touched on them all. 

Tuesday we train with our second team.  We are going to work on turns and more passing.  We'll get 6 different turns done and a large-group, field-size passing drill.