Playing on rails

What we need is some drills that focus on defensive work. The game Saturday was wild and hectic and just like everything that I do with the girls it showed me new things that we need to work on and reminded me that so-called "simple concepts" are really only simple because I'm 30...the girls need more time to internalize things before they become "habit". One of the major problems I'm seeing right now that we have our one superstar player who pretty much does all of our ball work AND all of our defense while the rest kinda trot along side whoever has the ball. Problem being the team is so reliant on her that if she isn't on the field absolutely nothing happens. Last Thursday in practice we started working on the concept of getting in front of the attacking players to block their line to the goal. Get in front of them, take the ball, all these things went out the window Saturday and we were back to chasing the attacking players down the field to the goal. Going to have to find a way to explain the concept of "heading them off at the pass" over just "following the ball". Just a side note....watching a superstar going up against another superstar is pretty exciting stuff!

Every individual is a unique recipe for disaster

So as poorly as I felt about Monday night's practice session I felt equally thrilled by our hour together last night! On the negative side my assistant coach was called in to work leaving me flying solo, which sucked, but There was an UPSIDE!! Because I couldn't break my girls up into two groups like normal, and because I chose to start working some much less "general/simple" concepts, I was forced to take time with each of my girls individually away from the rest of the group one at a time. Now I've never done that before, instead I merely watch them as a group (either the entire team or whichever three I'm working with while Michael works the others) and I learned a lot of things about each one that I did not know.

Also because of the advanced nature of a couple of things I was trying to work on I found it pretty much impossible to get the girls to work with each other in a productive manner, but I did find a way that I can run the same exact drill once Michael can help me out and even better if I can enlist one more parent to allow us to split into 2 kids versus 1 adult (I say adult but I'd take a sibling just as quick). In addition to ME learning about each individual girl I discovered in each of them areas where I really feel that since I lack the ability to spend one on one time with them I could really use some parental help so I started last night to get with each parent individually to talk about where we're going and how they can help if they are willing. Lots of really long sentences in this post.

I'm just amazed at what an experience this is becoming for a guy who got suckered into volunteering and now wishes he could travel back about 5 years and start doing this even before he had kids of his own. I honestly can't imagine NOT doing this now that I'm involved and every single moment I get with my team teaches me more about each of them, and about myself as well. Looking to the future and this is going to be REALLY good!!!

I'm really sucking at this aren't I......

So it seems that I just can't remember to write about the Saturday game BEFORE our Monday practice so I'm having to bundle two days worth of blog posts into one. Guess I need to try to be better about that.....

Ok, so Saturday right? Saturday was a BLAST!!! Our first game with my entire team in attendance and the team we went up against, I feel, provided a real challenge to the girls that the first team we faced didn't and the girls really stepped it up. I honestly haven't the faintest clue what the score was so we'll just go with the official policy of "it was a tie".

Monday night practice on the other hand was a totally different animal. I suppose a little of the "new" is wearing thin on the game for some of the girls, and they're beginning to let some of their personalities show through. One has started manhandling anyone within arms reach, despite my insistence that the "no hands" rule applies equally to the ball AND other players. Another is playing at a level higher than our age bracket can provide a challenge for and is acting out a bit because of it. Two of them, who I would say had a very weak start, are both making strides in leaps and bounds of improvement, though the larger of the two is extremely timid for fear of "hurting somebody". And the last two seem to be polar opposites of each other....one seems to really WANT to play but struggles with the basics, while the other seems to have a fairly solid foundation and absolutely zero interest in the game. Lots of places in there for me to feel I'm failing to do MY job, but quite a few places to feel good about what I'm doing at the same time. I guess the only thing I can do at this point is to continue trying to impress the basics and keep things fun enough they don't lose interest. I'm still having fun but it has definitely gotten harder.

Let's get together....

So we had RAIN!!!! All day yesterday it rained off and on and it's been toying with it today as well. Considering the drought that's a very very good thing but I was a little worried about it putting the brakes on our Thursday practice. After work I went by our practice spot and in spite of the rain it was looking great, no mud, grass only mildly damp, and I opted NOT to cancel practice. Sadly two of my girls didn't make it but I wasn't going to let that spoil it for the 4 that did show up! We started again with our usual circle drill, toe touches and dribbling and re-hashing the basic concepts like "no hands" and "kick with the inside of your feet" before moving on to some more interesting games.

Remember those superstars and butterfly chasers I mentioned last time? Well, when you end up pitting three out of the four girls against the superstar in a scrimmage and then having to help the three by deliberately interfering with said superstar to try and make it even remotely fair the only thing I can think is "this girl is going to end up on a scholarship!" so I'm really hoping that I can keep her interested in and excited about the game. The butterflies on the other hand.....well I'm obviously failing as a coach in a couple of ways there. See, the way I figure it if the girls aren't particularly interested or focused it's more than likely because I'm not making it interesting enough to keep their attention. Going to have to find a way to reach them better without boring the other end of the spectrum. On the other hand, of course, it REALLY doesn't help that the one who needs the most help only comes to one practice a week because her mother obviously prioritizes cheer leading over soccer....because yeah....that's 4 year old appropriate.....:facepalm:

Wow! This is the most fun I've had in FOREVER!!!

Ok ok ok so I didn't blog about our first real practice last Thursday. Guess I need to fill in some details. One of our players opted not to play at the last minute leaving us with only 5 players. An early morning APB on Facebook Thursday morning miraculously managed to yield a 6th player that we got signed up and on roster in time for the first practice that night and wowee what a mess we made.

We started out with some basic toe touch drills and some rules for the girls to start grasping the concept of what we're going to be doing followed by some dribbling exercises and some shooting drills all the while circling back to where we began and going over it again. Honestly I kinda think some of the girls got a little bored at times, which is 100% my fault, but even admitting that I feel like I had no choice but to focus on the core principles. The most important thing about this endeavor is that no matter what else goes on there's nothing more important than the girls here. Screw the parents, screw the "scores", screw everything, if the girls aren't having fun there's just no point in bothering with this at all and all of that hinges on my ability to keep it interesting. Only problem is that at the same time every single thing I'm doing has to actually translate into applicable soccer related skills. I feel like Mr Miyagi trying to find fun ways to trick the girls into learning the skills that they'll use to play the game!

ON TO THE GAME!!! So we get there to set up last night, we're one player short because one of the girls couldn't be there and we haven't so much as had a scrimmage to explain to the girls the concept of what we're going to be doing. but a quick breakdown and they pretty much had it figured out. We've got our superstars, and we've got our butterfly chasers, and to be completely honest.....they weren't always the same ones from moment to moment! I saw tons of great things, and just as many not-great things that we'll be working to encourage/discourage as needed in the following practices and the entire experience showed me a lot of things that, as a coach, I'm doing right and a lot of things I hadn't thought about that I can approach in my practices that I truly think will let me get the girls to relate to the game and develop skills that will be useful but all in a way that, with any luck, will be engaging and enjoyable across the board for everyone! I can not wait for Thursday!!!

You have GOT to be kidding me......

WOW! So we had our "first practice session" last night via the OSA Fundamentals Clinic last night as I had planned, thinking that the girls would get more out of it than I felt I could provide them on my own. I think I counted about 65 little kids from 4-6 years old and there were only 2 players coaching the clinic. Don't get me wrong, the guys made a valiant effort, but there is absolutely no way 2 people can coordinate that many small children effectively. I think that with the help of a few parents we can achieve a more productive practice session on our own so it looks like we'll be skipping the clinic in the future.

On a brighter note after last night, along with all of the research I've been doing on my own, I actually feel very confident that I can provide a coaching environment that, while not producing a world cup level team, will be able to lay ground work for the girls to build skills that should be helpful if they continue to pursue football as a sport, and if they don't.....well I think they're going to have a lot of fun and that's really the only thing that actually matters in the long run.

Lethal Weapon

So yesterday we went to the coaching clinic and the coaches meeting where we received some basic coaching information and our rosters. At the clinic the wife pushed me out to volunteer along with 11 others to go through some drills and exercises which is where we get the title of today's blog post....I'm gettin' too old for this $#1][!

Afterwards we picked the girls up at the in-law's had dinner and then while the wife was bathing kids in preparation for bed I started making phone calls to try and touch base with the parents of my new players. Three voicemails (one call returned), one invalid phone number, and a full message box means that at our first "practice" tonight at the fundamentals clinic is so far going to consist of Cassie, and just one other player. Hopefully I'll hear from the remaining two voicemails today and we're going to get with OSA to try and find alternate contacts for my remaining two players.