U13 - Poorly planned ending to an otherwise good session

Last night we had training with our U13 boys, and I think I made it a bit too long, or planned the ending poorly.

We had a 2-hour session on one of our club fields.  I had 2 parents help us, which was a very good thing.  I wanted to cover a variety of things before getting to my main topic, hitting the ball firmly with the laces.

Before getting to our topic we did:

• Keep-away (they are getting better at it)
• Heading
• Flick-ons, redirecting an oncoming ball over the defender behind you
• Playing the ball out of the air while running, from the front and side

I was glad we touched on all those things and I see the boys’ confidence continue to build slowly.

When we got into striking the ball with the laces, I set up several scenarios:

• With a partner, pushing ball out and striking after 1 step
• Running with the ball and striking with laces
• Receiving, turning and striking a low, penetrating pass with laces to a running winger, through 2 poles serving as defender

The coaching points were:

• Toe down
• Knee bent, over the ball
• Head and Chest in appropriate positions depending on purpose of strike 
• Jump into kick with plant foot, leaving hips open
• Lock ankle
• Follow through

I still see a reluctance to hit the ball cleanly with the laces.  There is still a tendency to revert to the inside of the food if they can get away with it.

The mini-game at the end is where I feel I blew it.  There was quite a bit of running before we got to this point and the game was a giggle-fest.  A more appropriate ending might have been a spirited competition testing their accuracy with a laces-driven pass.  Maybe I should have let them play and left them alone.

We have 2 more training sessions before our season opener.  I will have to make sure to spice them up with exciting endings.

U17 - First game of the season

Last night, the U17 boys had their season opener at home.  The game was interesting even before the first player showed up to the field.

With a 17 player roster, the team had 11 players the entire match.  Very dangerous considering it was hot and humid and most of the players had a school practice at 2:30pm.  2 players were suspended from last season, 2 players are injured and 2 players were sick.  The U16 team was still at a tournament in Erie, PA, so there was no chance of using their boys as call-ups.

Playing with 11 players leaves your team so vulnerable: tactically, emotionally and physically.  Our opponent was Oakville SC.

I was unable to be there for the first half due to a family function.  Upon arrival, we were down 1-0.  Watching the boys, I saw that one striker was running out of steam and one of our central defenders was in discomfort (limping).  Trouble was brewing.

I was happy to see they were staying organized and playing intelligently.  The team was adapting to their partially healthy teammates and picking their punches.

We drew even off a set play.  A long ball was played wide and over the defenders.  A player hit the ball out of the air back in front of goal, where it was redirected in by our striker.

After a change in tactics and formation to further compensate for our fatigue and suffering players, one of our guys was brought down in the penalty area.  He converted the PK to go up 2-1 with a few minutes left.  The team shuffled the deck again to hold their lead and finish out the match.

There were a few times where I was worried about 17 year-old tempers hurting our team, but those incidents were quickly diffused by calmer teammates.

There are things a coach can observe and comment on after every game.  In this case, you celebrate the incredible effort and teamwork, take your 3 points and go home.  I am hoping the team uses this effort and result as a springboard to an enjoyable season.  

Congratulations AGAIN Sabrina! Senior WNT call-up

Welland's Sabrina D'Angelo continues her exciting journey in our national program by getting called to be a backup goalkeeper for our women's national team, this Wednesday vs China in Moncton, NB.

Link to pregame story
Link to Sabrina's profile

When do we start specializing positions?

Determining the age of when to start slotting players in fixed positions is a never ending debate for every sport. 

Slowly, we are moving our team towards 1, 2 or 3 possible positions for each player.  We will always tinker and experiment, but there will be an underlying consistency to our line-up.

So when is a good time to specialize young players in certain positions?  We have players who have had tremendous success in certain positions but are reluctant to try other spots. 

How about when a parent is trying to interfere with where you are paying their child?  I say “try” because if a parent is influencing your line-up, your team needs another coach.

I like to try players in different spots to see if we can determine the best spot for them.   But I try to ease those changes in while keeping the rest of the line-up stable. 

Here are my thoughts.  If you have players who can succeed in more than one position:

• They develop a more complete set of skills, mentally, tactically and technically.
• It gives you more flexibility in putting other players on the field.
• You have more options tactically, for different situations.
• You prepare them to win spots in other programs, away from your team (school, academy, college, etc).

There are things you need to consider.

• If a player is trying a new position with limited (but increasing) success, you can move them back and forth so they continue to experience success.
• If a player is failing at a position that you thought would work for them, you should consider the possibility that you were wrong.  Let them go back for a while, then try somewhere else when you feel they are ready.
• Make sure you put each player’s needs before the entire teams.  When all of your players are confident and succeeding, the team’s needs will be met.
• All players deserve the opportunity to periodically play a full match. Sometimes players don’t “let it all out “ if they know they are your first choice to be replaced during games.

One last consideration is that each position has desirable physical characteristics for the players who play there.  As the players age and pass through puberty, their physical characteristics will also change.  The more technical work and situations they are exposed to as younger players, the better prepared they will be for the challenges their future coaches hand to them.

We will see how things develop with each boy as the season moves forward.  It’s a challenge for youth coaches to not get caught up in the score and situation, forgetting to serve their players.

U17 - Transition - Intro to Counter Attack

After my U13 practice last night we had a U17 session.  The start time was 7:15 because we had team photos immediately after.

Some of the boys had track and school soccer earlier that day, but everybody was in a good mood.  I was feeling pretty groovy after a good session with our U13 boys.

We started out with a dribbling warm-up and introduced them to some 1v1 attacking ideas.  I am not sure what the sequence is called, but it's a change of pace, double tap on an angle with the outside of your foot, and making a move.  The three moves we did were 1) turn back 2) chop across to the other foot 3) push it forward and go.

We progressed from this to a 1v1 drill to the net.  Players were encouraged to experiment with their new moves.  Coaching points were:

• Keep ball close and under control
• Attack defender, then change of pace to double tap
• See man, ball and space and time move properly
• After the decided move is executed, explode and go

We saw some good creativity by the attacker and some good attempts  at finishing.

On a side note, I always appreciate the GK on this team.  He works hard all the time, even when he's not being directly coached.

We used a Game-Activity-Game (GAG) approach to the last part of practice.  Our last session, we worked on maintaining focus during transition.   The progression was to introduce/review the counter-attack.  Counter-attacking is a mentality.  To me, it's a celebration of winning the ball back and trying to make the opponent sorry for losing the ball.

To start, we let them play for  5 minutes and get in game mode.  I then stopped and quickly went over ideas for what can happen when the team wins the ball back:
For the player with the ball:

• Long first touch forward if possible
• Pass/run forward into space
• Move with urgency
• Catch other team before they re-organize

For the players supporting:

• Look to get ahead of the ball for a forward pass
• Look to create a target/space behind defenders
• Look to support man with ball in case counter-attack is not there and he needs support

This break in action and ideas changed the game.  The boys gave our ideas and philosophy an honest shot and executed it with a fair amount of success.  At times we corrected a few situations but for the most part, they understood.

We only had 11 players and one of the coaches played.  It would have been more effective if the entire team was here, but they weren't.  We played with offside to make it more realistic.

This was about counter-attacking, so it was transition  from defending to attacking.  Another time we will do transition again, from attacking to defending.

This group has their first game Monday night.  I am not sure what to expect as we've had very little time together and very few sessions with a full squad.  They come to work and I always feel good about our progress when the sessions are over.