U13 - Very energetic session

Tonight's practice with our U13 boys was very energetic and productive.  Now the challenge is to carry that to tomorrow's session and into Thursday's game.

Coach Paul opened up the session with an aerobic circuit he assembled.  The boys did 3 circuits in 15 minutes.

We spent 25 minutes on three passing sequences that involved more running.  The last 2 sequences finished with penetrating type passes and we challenged the boys to run hard to keep the ball in-bounds.

Our next 25 minutes was spent on various 1v1 player races, 1 with the ball and 1 without.   The second involved goals, but both involved more running and challenges to their desire to work through fatigue.

Without breaking each drill down, they all involved the players understanding the level of work required to succeed.

When we got to our small sided game we worked on getting to the ball FIRST on restarts.  The attacking team was challenged to redirect the ball forward and the defending team to redirect it away from their goal.  There is a level of physical interaction required on restarts and we reviewed that and put them through at least 20 repetitions of balls being played from the keeper.  The game was played with regular rules on a smaller field with less than 11v11.  To keep the ball moving and the defending team working to win the ball back, we pushed for 2-touch soccer.  This will be continued tomorrow evening.

I will not comment on improvement or better awareness until after Tuesday's session.

I look forward to Tuesday.

U13 - Very clear mission for the week

This week, my mission for the boys is clear ... to help the team reflect the efforts of our two sessions in our game this Thursday.

We've had some slow starts our past few games and come out flat.  That was disappointing because our sessions had energy and the boys worked hard and listened.  The kids have been looking good but when the game comes around they are not always ready at the beginning and inconsistent throughout.

They have spurts where they show they have the physical, technical and tactical tools to compete and that motivates me to work to get them to that next level.

Coach Paul and I know we have to first look within to fix this.  It is our pre-game warm-up?  Is our demeanour not suitable for this group?  Do we need to offer more advice over what the boys eat and do before they come to the park for our game?

We are looking to offer the boys as much training, information and guidance as possible and help them become more consistent in their on-field production.

The winning/losing is not something that bothers me, I just want to make sure they have the tools to compete and, more importantly, realize that they have the tools.

I look forward to a fun week.

U13 Girls - Penetrating runs with the ball

Coach Rick invited me to run a session for our club’s U13 Girls team tonight.  It was good therapy for me and I think the girls got something out of it.

I was supposed to visit Coach Rick’s team on Wednesday but we had a funeral visitation for a friend. I was not happy with myself for my U13 boy’s game this week and this was a good outlet for me tonight.  The girls were all known to me and they were very attentive and co-operative for 90 minutes.

Rick asked that I address his team’s lack of willingness to attack with the ball at their feet, 1v1 and in open space.  He said he has been trying to get them to accelerate after beating a defender or attacking open space.


My plan was to just do a lot of dribbling, ending in a game that focused on dribbling with intention.  I was using this session to build confidence with the ball as I hope to return for a second time.

I told the girls was that we were going to look to improve their ability to attack with the ball on their feet.


Coach Rick ran them through a dynamic warm-up and I got them dribbling in a grid then followed that up with some keep-away.  I didn't coach this much as it was a warm-up, but I did use it for diagnostic purposes.


We then did lots of dribbling for 50 minutes.


I started off with 2 lines of agility poles.  We had them dribble through the cones unstructured, left foot only, right foot only, inside of the feet only, outside of the feet, then unstructured again.  They always came back through the poles but the last 5 times they ran back sprinting straight with the ball.


I noticed during the dribbling warm-up and now through the poles the girls were very straight legged when using the outside of their feet to move the ball.

The next exercise we set up a 10x40 grid marked off every 10 yds, the result being 5 sets of cones.  One player stood at the end end facing west with the ball and the remaining 4 had a ball in their hands facing east.  The player with the ball dribbles towards the other 4, attacking each one at a time and getting the ball back behind them making their way through the grid.  The 4 players are passive defenders. As each player is passed they move forward to the next cones.  When the dribbler reaches the end, the next player goes.  So the 5 players are circulating through the grid.


Coaching points:

• See the ball, defender and space behind them
• Keep the ball close and get behind the defender
• Don't be "stiff"

We started the 4 girls moving down the grid at a walking pace and elevated that to a jog to make it more challenging.

We then worked with the girls to show them three 1v1 moves that all begin with a double-tap of the ball with the outside of the foot.  Some of the girls were struggling again with the outside of the foot. 


To use the outside of your foot effectively, you need to bend your knee, toe down, ankle locked, dip your shoulder and go.


We then let the girls get into 1v1 challenges in 10x20 grids.  I coached the 1v1s a little,  but my main thing was to accelerate after you beat the player, or if you win the ball .  A lot of players beat defenders and keep going at the same pace.


We ended the game with a squad practice game setup in a grid 44yds wide by 25 yds long.  The goal of the game was to score by dribbling across the 44yd line.


I was unsure of how things were progressing to this point but I saw during the game the points were well taken by most of them.  Some of the girls attacked open space to score or take players 1v1 and accelerate past defenders.  A few were content to pass the ball off.

I was happy with the organization of the plan and the 2 coaches of the team, Rick and JP, were great in helping to keep the practice moving.  Coach Rick knows enough about soccer but I discovered that he has a very good understanding of human kinetics and offered some very good points during the session.  His voice, mannerism and personal fitness level gives him credibility with his players.

Did they improve?  I feel they did, but they need to dribble more to gain confidence with the ball at full pace.  I also think we need to keep these girls competitive at training .  The grass was a decent height but the field had some imperfections that are not conducive to a lot of dribbling.  But it was good enough.

For the final exercise, I chose a squad practice over a Small Sided Game (SSG) because I wanted to emphasize the penetrating runs with the ball.  A SSG would have been a normal game and I would have to coach instances where they could have dribbled and attacked.  With the game we played, the necessity of dribbling at speed came out on its own, without me having to coach it too much.

If I was to work with this group again I would make things more competitive by having more contests/races with the ball and disallow forward passes during the game.  I would squeeze that in between 2 SSGs to make it a Game-Analytical-Game (GAG) setup.  Penetrating runs are just as mental as they are technical, so we need to have more situations at training to build that confidence,

I trust I left coaches Rick and JP with some ideas and things to look for with their players.

I am feeling more and more that visiting a team has to be a 2-3 session commitment.  If I went back to this group I would hit the ground running with a lot more productivity.

U13 - I was not a good coach tonight

Today I was not the coach I expect myself to be.

We had our first home game and lost 5-0.  The score is not what ate at me.  The boys were absolutely flat and we did not win more than 10 balls tonight.

It's not that we weren't running, we just didn't challenge for balls in the air or off restarts or anywhere.  We were in constant recovery.

My conduct was far from a licensed coach and I was yelling up a storm.  It's a helpless feeling on the sideline when the team is not "in the mood".  We have several boys who are not always 100% ready to challenge but tonight it was the entire crew.  My job is to motivate, encourage and provide information.  I was OK on the information, but not OK with the encouragement and motivation.

Our 1v1 defending is a very sore spot with me that we need to work on some more.

Monday we will work more on 1v1 defending as well as winning balls on restarts.  We'll see how that goes before deciding on Tuesday's topic.

I did tell the boys at half to not expect me to say "nice try" if they don't actually try to win the ball.  I don't think it's a mean thing to say.  If a player stops short of a challenge and I say "nice try", then that is what they will keep doing.  I say "good idea" a lot, but not "nice try" very often.

We lightened it up a bit at the end of the game and we had ice cream (I needed it too) but they deserve and expect more from me.

We've made progress overall so Monday we work to get them back on track.

U17 - Saying goodbye to a team father

What I like about this team is not what happens on the pitch.  They are a great bunch of young men.

This week the boys won 2 games and are playing some sweet soccer.  But what makes them special is what happened Wednesday night and today.

Last Friday, one of our team fathers passed away in his sleep.  James Kevin Jennings (Kevin) was 54 years old and a true football fan.  He supported Manchester United and whatever team his son Damon played on.

During visitation Wednesday night, the boys all showed up in their red pullovers with their parents.  They were true gentlemen and represented their friend Damon with honour.  Kevin was well liked by the boys. 

This morning a lot of the boys came to the funeral and displayed the same unity and respect.  Teamwork off the pitch.

For some of these boys, Kevin was an assistant coach at U10/U11 and his wife Cindy has always been social with all of the parents. 

Goodbye my friend.  We all enjoyed over analyzing the games with you.