St. Mike's High School Jr Boys Soccer

I am spending some time at St Michael's Catholic High School in Niagara Falls for a teacher who is recovering from surgery.

While I am there, I am going to be helping with the Jr Boys soccer team.  Today was my first time with them and it was enjoyable.  I am going to use this time to learn how to be a good assistant, something I've never really had to do.  Both coaches are full time teachers and it's only right to respect their place in the school and be helpful in the background and step up when asked.

It's nice in this case because the coach is Loris Lucchetta, the person I work with on Welland's U17 boys.  Keeping the circle tight, I guess.

Today we worked on 1v1 defending.  The practice plan laid out by the coach was solid and he showed maturity by altering it when he realized he would have to introduce a totally different topic to make his one step work.  It's never a bad thing to alter your plan if it makes the session better for the players.

It's very early in this team's life.   The session had a diagnostic tone to it, seeing where the boys stood in terms of knowledge and technique.  They have a lot of work to do.

Coaching while at a school makes the experience so much better for me as a teacher.  You make new connections with students, hopefully making their own school experience more memorable.

High School coaches fill a VERY important role in transforming youth soccer players into players for life. A definite challenge for a coach-teacher is to keep their cool during games.  You're still in your official role as a teacher and the players are students at your school, so every word and action are subject to review, questioning and potential discipline.  You should always be a well behaved coach, the teaching designation just makes it an official requirement.

Next up for this group is Tuesday after school, when everybody returns from the Easter break.

U13 - Possesion Play

Last night the u13 boys trained outdoor on a tennis court again.  The weather was dry and the fields are still not open.  I want them breathing and running outdoors.  To me there is something different about the fitness demands and breathing indoor and outdoor.  Maybe there is no science to support me, but it’s my gut feeling.

I sent the parents a note about dressing for early season outdoor training.  Last night the temperature was 7’C (44’F) and a bit windy.  My suggestion is thin layers than can be peeled off as the player gets warmer.  A great suggestion made to my wife (who runs) is to dress for how you will be once you get warmed up.   

The last thing you want is to get cold in your core.  Once you hit that point, you’re toast.  The technical gear that is out there now is amazing.  Our problem when I was a boy was sweating under your layers and that sweat getting cold on your skin.  With dri-fit type clothing , that problem is gone.

Practice went well last night.  I showed up with a full plan in hand and the boys came in a good mood.  We had a few guests with us and they all got along swimmingly.

We started with a 12 minute run and some suicide type sprints.  We then ran a series of turning, passing and 1v1 drills just to get touches on the ball.  All exercises involved teammate, nothing in isolation.  Of course all exercises incorporating dribbling.

When we got to our game we stressed possession and options again.  Before we could get to possession and support coaching points we spent 10 minutes establishing our shape. Without shape, everything else falls apart.

I was happy at the end of training.  I determine what I really want out of that practice and focus the majority of my coaching points towards that.  Sometimes it becomes difficult to not over coach and you run the risk of losing your audience to excessive talking.  It was cold and the boys are young, so they want to play.

My next session will build off this and I will incorporate more keep-away type exercises.  I knew I was going to be alone today so I did not want to set up mini groups that I could not pay the proper attention to.

Overall I think I still need to tweak my approach with this group.  They are different from my other groups in the past and it’s my job to figure out what makes them most excited at training.  They keep coming back, working hard and giving me another chance to coach them and I appreciate that.

Next up is our group fitness on Thursday.

U17 - shape, movement and support

This morning we worked with the U17 boys.  This is a tough balance because right now a lot of the boys have high school soccer so you have to be careful of how much fitness work you do.  Some of the high school coaches in the area run the boys a lot.  And they are starting their preseason tournaments as well.

Last Wednesday, for high school soccer,  my son played 6 25-minute indoor 6v6 games (with 2 subs) between 9:30am and 3:00pm.  You have to know what's going on with the players and take proper care of them.

So, today ... we had 12 players in attendance at the Welland Soccer Club indoor field.  The only notable injury was a bruise one player had from getting spiked at school soccer training  (he wasn't wearing shin pads).

We started with a small run and dynamic stretch as always.

Our next exercise was a sequence involving turning and passing.  The pattern run was game realistic and we did 4 different turns.  Our coaching points were:

• Dribble at pace leading into the turn
• Head up after the turn
• Quick-early-accurate pass after the turn

Some of the players learned new turns today and overall they were "OK" at it.  Some used a few of the turn-pass patterns in the game at the end, so that's always good. 

One coaching point I forgot to remind them of was balance during the turn so they can make a proper pass and move after the turn.  Looking at my plan, I didn't have it written down to remind myself.  My fault.

We followed this with a passing sequence that involved a minimum of 12 touches going through the pattern.  We started with 2-touch, then 1 touch passing, then 1-2 combo going through the sequence.

It was one of those exercises I enjoy where there is pressure on every player to get it right or the sequence breaks down.  It was about working to make the good pass and to run and fix the bad passes coming to you.  We are trying to instill a level of responsibility and teamwork in their passing and receiving and realizing there is more to being on a team than just having the same jersey.

They were working to keep it going and for the most part they did.  We did very little technical coaching during this portion.  It was more giving them ideas on how they would fix passes, using their athleticism to get to a stray ball  and being creative in getting it to the next guy.

I have to say, up to the game portion of training, I was happy with them.  We got a lot of movement and ball touches in.  We were all happy as coaches and the players were happy with themselves.

When we got into the game we changed gears a bit.  We wanted to see that they worked towards not having the man with the ball as the last man.   This forced some support movement.  Then we worked on the type of movement you would do when passing the ball back.  To keep it simple we said if you pass back, you make 3 steps backwards and wide,  then play is ON.  If the defender follows you then a space is opened up for the man with the ball.  If the defender goes towards him then he can use you and now it's a 2v1 which opens up a world of possibilities.

We kept the instruction on support down to those 2 points.  I want to see if we can build this group up one step at a time.  Some have had solid training at younger ages and some are playing catch-up.

Coach Loris wanted to try something and it worked fairly well.   Later in the game when he said freeze the defending team stood where they were and the attacking team had to split defenders with 'x' amount of quick passes and the game was back on.  We have to tweak it a bit but the boys seem to catch it and Loris explained it well.  I look forward to seeing where that goes.

I think it went smoothly today.  I should have been more thorough with coaching points but I always fear talking too much.  17-year-old boys want to play as much as possible.  We have 4 coaches and it's tough to keep everybody busy with only 12 players at training.  You want to avoid 4 people barking out instructions but you also want to avoid a coach doing nothing at the same time.

Next up are 2 outdoor sessions during Easter weekend.  These boys are making progress and they are fun to work with.  I appreciate how they make me feel welcome and work hard.

U13 - Practice Cancelled

We cancelled practice for Saturday.  The unusually warm weather we've had in March gave way to one last cold spell with wet snow before the month ends.  Winter's last roar, I guess.

I did not have an indoor field or gym booked as a backup, so we will just reconvene Monday night.  The forecast is promising.

U13 - Fitness session #2

Tonight we had our second fitness session involving all travel boys players from U10-U13 and U17.  It was VERY cold tonight and we had a lot of boys winding down their hockey and basketball season.  In total we had 47 boys, down from last week's 70.  Five of our fourteen players were missing, 4 for hockey the other for basketball.  Our other U13 team was also missing 7 players due to winter sports.  

I am looking forward to more players and warmer weather.  :-)

The good news from tonight is that the kids who came did so in a big way.  Their work rate was refreshing.  We also had several new parents manning our circuit stations.

I've been thinking about what we want out of this.  My personal desires are:

• Ability to bring a higher work rate in games
• Making the players realize what they are capable of
• Physical literacy and co-ordination
• Team/Club bonding

One of the early feedbacks from a parent-helper was to better explain each exercise or why we do it.  So tonight I did a brief explanation and provided each station person a small list of coaching points.  That is something we'll have to keep improving.  We also did a cool-down jog afterwards, acting on more feedback.

We did the same thing as last week:

• 12 minute run
• 5 40m sprints
• 15 station circuit (twice)

I was hoping to free up the coaches and have more parents manning stations, but the lower numbers took some of last week's parent helpers with them.  I want the coaches to see their kids in action and cheer them on.

My personal feeling after the session was good.  The boys are able to help set up, the level of co-operation was good and I felt I had a better handle on the situation, being the second time doing it.  The kids are learning how to train which is good.  Training is always good, but learning HOW to train is important too.

We re-demonstrated 2 of the stations after our break and the boys really refocused their efforts.

I should have done my homework sooner to see who was there and organize the parent helpers in advance.  I was assuming they would all be there but they weren't because it was their boys who were missing.  Never assume.  This week I will get my ducks in a row to make sure the evening passes a little smoother.

Another item that needs tweaking are the stations.  They were OK, but they need to be changed up to keep the routine fresh.  We may opt to change the format of the second portion altogether.  We'll see.  Now that a system is in place I should consult somebody who is a fitness guru to adjust the stations.

I am starting to see a bit of a trade-off with this.  The positives are definitely the energy of the group, the club atmosphere and the guarantee of good numbers.  The down-side is your ability to coach and perfect the technique of each exercise, due to the numbers and format.

The feedback from other coaches has been positive with good tips for future sessions.

I was not always feeling good at the end of training since January, but that has been getting better as time passes this season.

Next up is Saturday morning ... more footwork, more passing, more soccer.