Summer Soccer
The season is over! Just like that. What will your player be doing this summer? Mission YSL summer league? Summer Camps? Time off? What!? There is so much going on across the city, and the region, for the summer as you well know. Alternatives away from Soccer are abundant and we encourage you to get your player involved in whatever they have an interest in. Summer is the perfect opportunity to explore and learn new sports or to play Soccer in new ways, new environments, and with new friends. That brings us to soccer camps. There are plenty of them in…
We’ve changed from 11v11 to 9v9 for our 6th grade+ teams. Why?
Why 9v9 from 11v11? We made the move as a whole to directly benefit a lot of branches of Youth Soccer in SF. Player number wise. Boys have just 8 teams playing this spring across a combined 6/7/8 grade bracket. 0 from 8th grade. We had 13 teams in the same grades, so it is not a spring playing vs fall playing as we see in some other grade based play. In this spring season, in 5th grade boys there are 21 teams, already playing 9v9. Thus, we aim to have 21 teams+ joining as they already have their rosters….
SPREAD OUT! PASS!
*very personal opinion forthcoming! We all hear this at the weekend, and most of us are likely ‘guilty’ for shouting such commands. Does it work? I don’t think so. Why? The question of why is why do you tell them to pass or to spread out? It’s not in the rules. Of course its not in the rules, but yes one would say that those are 2 key elements to the game. Yet they are not told in relation to the game that is being played by the players. So, spread out. Why? Stop taking the ball off of each…
Parents and their questions
Coaches, Here a quick post on an article with regards to the parents on your team… The claim that the parents do not know what is going on, or understand the game, is fading. Most parents by now have played the game, or perhaps even just watched enough of their other children or professional games, to know what they are seeing and if it is appropriate for their kids. A large part of the resources we have been providing this spring have been focused on the appropriate level of player development, the focus of sharing with the parents, and a…
What is going on in this game?
The sidelines are awash with emotion. Cheering, applause, encouragement, COACHING, willingness for the ball to go in the goal from your player, questioning of the coach or the officials, and generally a lot of commotion that adds the atmosphere of being on the sideline of your players youth soccer game. We are still a generation or two away from a sideline of people that truly understand or have played the game. We are also a long way away from a generation of people that understand what todays Soccer looks like (see previous articles and clinic wrap ups on playing out…
SPRING 2017 COACHING CLINIC WRAP UP. WEEK 5 PART 2
Rolling over from part 1, into part 2 we continued along the lines of the development of the keeper, but in this instance it is about their importance in helping the team to build an attack by – Playing out of the Back. Why? Maintain possession, draw in the other team to create space further up the field. Developmental focus – give the players the ball at their feet to learn and develop their body position when receiving, first touch, reaction to pressure vs space, ability to make decisions under pressure.* Part 1 of the practice was a simple 1v1,…
SPRING 2017 COACHING CLINIC WRAP UP. WEEK 5 part 1
Week 5 was a wonderful finish for the spring season clinics. Part 1 was the goal keeping clinic that was rescheduled due to the rain. 8 coaches and almost 30 players came out and took part in the circuit training for the keepers. The clinic was based on the Master Coach training the coach, who trains the keeper/player. The main points for all of the stations were to encourage the keeper to keep on their toes, to be ready with their hands out, and push off the foot closest to the ball for best reach. Observations show the amount of…
SPRING 2017 COACHING CLINIC WRAP UP. WEEK 4
Week 4 is in the books. Coaching with small-sided games. The clinic developed from the pre season coaches meeting, and this slide of information. There are many positives to using small-sided games in practice. US Soccer reformatted to small-sided games for young players as they realized the benefits attributed to less numbers on the field – Info right here. Some of the benefits to small-sided games: Players are playing the game, in one format or another. More touches on the ball. More mistakes. More goals to be scored. *Players are in ‘control’ of the game – even if they don’t…
SPRING 2017 COACHING CLINIC WRAP UP. WEEK 2
Yes, week 2 is posting after week 3, but that’s ok. Possession. We have the ball. If we have the ball, the other team cannot score. We can score if we have the ball. Pep Guardiola: Everything starts with the ball and finish with the ball. Sometimes we forget that this is a game with 11 v 11, WITH ONE BALL, and we try to keep this ball, we try to play with the ball, we try to make everything with the ball. Then we get to your game, or the game going on next to you, and the ball rolls…
SPRING 2017 COACHING CLINIC WRAP UP. WEEK 3
Well, the rain got the better of us. It doesn’t mean that your goal keeper should be forgotten! How can you start training your keeper now? Chances are that you are already doing so… Do you scrimmage for a lot of practice, as advised in the classroom clinic? If you do, then you also probably use keepers. First off – how do I find out who are the keepers, or do I just ask who wants to be a keeper? Suggestion – With all of the extra scrimmaging you are now doing in practice, rotate keepers every 5/6/7/8 minutes. If…