U10: The four things we need to work on.

In an e-mail to the U10 Bullets families I mentioned that given our limited time together I'm trying to keep my coaching simple this session and just focus on the same four points repeatedly when I talk to the kids. They are:

Run through the ball. Look up. Play faster. Take your chances.

Just in case anyone is interested I'll un-pack those points a little now.

When I tell the kids to run through the ball what I'm asking them to do is to resist the urge to wind-up for big kicks. We don't have many kids on the team who actually have good kicking technique, which in most situations involves hitting the ball with your shoelaces or instep rather than your toe. The quickest way to develop good kicking technique is to get the kids to simply focus on running into the ball, crashing into it as they run. What we see most often is that they are trying to get rid of the ball too fast, treating it like a hot potato, and this usually results in just giving the ball back to the opposition. Run through the ball is also an important mantra for defense. A defender who tries to react to what the player with the ball is doing is at a disadvantage. To flip that advantage a defender needs to be aggressive and make decisive moves to get the ball. Even if you don't get it you force the other player to move with the ball or pass it and that opens an opportunity for one of your team mates to intercept the ball. So if you see your kid trying to run with the ball and push it out into the open rather than just kicking at it remember, that's a good thing.
To find their way to the open space the kids need to look up rather than just looking at the ball. When they are five and six years old we are constantly coaching them to "keep your eyes on the ball" so now when they are nine they do that but they usually fail to look around to see where their team mates and the opposition are. What I've been asking them to do is to try to be aware of where their team mates are so that, especially on defense, they don't get in each others' way and so they can start to anticipate how they need to cover or use the open spaces on the field. I've played a lot myself and I know the feeling of tunnel vision that can come over you when the pressure is on. The trick is to get in the habit of looking around the field before the ball gets to you and trying to stay loose so that your peripheral vision is clear. The most dramatic improvement in players that I see is when they learn to do this and let their instincts take over. So if your kid seems tense before a game try to get them to loosen up.
If they are loose they will play faster. I don't mean that they will become better runners but rather that they will react to the ball and to the situations that develop more quickly. I think what causes a player to slow down and play behind the action is usually a fear of making a mistake. I want the kids to know that they can feel free to risk making mistakes so long as they are trying to do something to either steal the ball from the other team or move it up the field for our team. So while I can't simply tell them to "play faster" I do ask them to attack, be aggressive and don't wait for the action to come to you, make your opponent do something.
And finally I try to remind them every week that they aren't going to get better if they don't try to play better and by try I don't mean that they aren't already trying hard. It's just that right now they are usually trying hard in ineffective ways. They need to take their chances. As an example, one of our better players, Avery, has said to me after a game "that one kid kept just running around me when I'd try to take the ball from them." My reply was, well you should try to do that. When she said that the other kid was just better than her I asked how do you think they got that way. They get better by trying stuff. By trying to dribble around someone or steal the ball or strike up into the offensive side when you see a chance at a shot or try to beat the other team to a ball, etc. It's not as though we are going to have a chance to practice and practice until we're good and then we can start playing the games for real. We're playing now, so make the games the practice and feel free to try to be a player now. Taking your chances and loosening up so that you have fun while you're playing doesn't mean you don't care about winning. I want them to want to win. What they shouldn't care about is losing. Sometimes you have to lose a lot while you're working on getting good enough to win.