U10 Boys Have More Than One Tool in Their Kit.

Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.

   
     That's Abraham Kaplan's formulation of the old proverb about how when your only tool is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.  In youth soccer the "hammer" that many a young player has is their kick.  The feeling of hitting the ball solidly with the top of your foot is addicting and many young players either come to the game already enamored with that kick or, once they get the technique, they quickly fall in love with it and then see every game situation as a good opportunity to crush the ball.  Every game situation.   I think we could start calling this tendency in young players "The Birmingham Screwdriver".  That's an old English insult and the meaning is obvious:  some situations that we encounter require subtlety and balance, a twist here and a delicate turn there.   But if we react with brute force instead then we're using "The Birmingham Screwdriver", i.e., a hammer.  And so for many young players whenever the ball is close it must look like a nail and the thing to do is to use the hammer.

     Prior to the U10 boys' final game Sunday I and another Legends coach were watching a U12 game and at one point we started counting how many kicks in a row we would see before there was even one quality touch on the ball.  At one point the total got to a frustratingly high eight kicks.  Eight times the ball was pounded from one end of the field to the other before a player managed to get it on the ground and try a few feeble dribble steps before, yes, booting it away.  And the parents and coaches watching that game were hooting and hollering like they were at a rodeo!  Ugliest. Soccer. Game. Ever.
     When my boys took the field I was anxious to see them have a game where they really played with the level of skill that I know they're capable of.  They'd had some wonderful games recently where every player seemed to be playing with such freedom and creativity, carrying the ball fearlessly into traffic.  They'd all shown that they can play in tight spaces and maintain possession of the ball with a great combination of subtle ball control and physical toughness.  Possessing the ball is harder than just kicking it away and you've got to be tough because if you're a player who moves with the ball a lot you're going to get fouled a lot.
     I was so happy to see them find their game right from the start.  The other team scored first but we came roaring back with a couple of beautiful goals by Cooper and Luke.  Luke's goal came at the end of a crazy run through what seemed like every player on the other team.  To start that sequence Gabe made some great moves to beat one guy one-on-one and then dished the ball off to Luke who then wove his way into the box for an unstoppable poke that stayed too low for the keeper to have a play on.  Cooper got his goal by twisting, maradonna-style, to find just a bit of clear space and then, finally in the right situation for it, he brought out the hammer and ripped the cover off the ball, driving it high into the corner of the net.  Untouchable!
    I believe every player managed a shot on goal and I lost track of who had the ones that went in but our attack was just amazingly balanced.  Every player was a threat to break into space and have a shot.  They were using every turn and feint that they know and doing so in a way that was intense but at the same time smooth.  Not like it was easy, but rather like they were in the zone.  The final goal was the perfect illustration of that quality.  Cole picked up the ball just in our half with a beautifully delicate first touch  to intercept a pass.  As he approached the first defender he executed that lovely "play-behind" move he has and cut past the other player easily.  Under pressure from another defender, Cole touched the ball forward to Lucas who drove deep into the left hand corner using this crazy "sole-flick" move that he has.  While running with the ball he puts his right foot on top of it, slowing it ever so briefly then sort of flicks the ball forward again with a little roll of his foot.  With two defenders on him he uses that move to actually nutmeg one of the players then runs around him to get to the ball again.  Without a moment's thought Lucas then drives the ball across the net with his left foot!  Oliver was already crashing into the box at that point and in a fierce tussle with the keeper and another defender Ollie get's just enough toe on the ball to put it into the net!  Are you kidding!!!?
     I'm pretty sure that Brandon had a goal too as did Quinn.  Maybe Gabe too?  I was so caught up in the game I lost track.  When the game is played that way, with skill and grace and power there's just nothing better.  Hopefully the memory of the game sticks with them and they'll all remember how much fun it was to be able to play the game with a kit full of tools.

Doin' Work.

     The girls had a great practice last night and the best part of it was something that I think any experienced coach or teacher would really appreciate.  I had the team run one dribbling exercise that they are familiar with, with some variations, then introduced them to a completely new drill that is a little complicated.  Then we finished practice with a new scrimmage set-up that is meant to force the players to be more aware of their surroundings.  With all three parts of practice it was remarkable how cooperative and eager to get to work the girls were.  No excessive goofing off and an excellent level of effort from everyone.
     They even impressed me prior to the start of practice by organizing their own relay races.  They had two lines set up and as new players arrived they were invited to get in line and join in.  Emily's dad and I were talking about the team he coaches and at one point he stopped and watched the girls then asked "is this a new warm-up for practice?"  "No" I said.  "They're making it up on their own."  They're a bunch of old hands at this soccer thing now.

Girl Power is...Durable.

     There was a moment during the second game on Saturday where the girls seemed to briefly forget who they are.  The team they were playing was easily the toughest competition they'd faced in months.  The squad was on average physically bigger than our girls and had some players with real speed and strong strikes on the ball.  We gave up a goal early in the first quarter and Girl Power seemed to be set on their heels a bit by the speed and aggressiveness of the other team.   There had already been several shots on our goal and at that point I noticed that our girls were all drifting back toward their own goal, sort of conceding our half of the field and crowding into the box.  They were instinctively falling into a sort of "bunker" defense, all of them feeling that they had to do something to stop the next shot. 
     After a little talk at the half they went out and played the way they've learned to play.  They possessed the ball more and slowed the other team down.  They had to work hard at that as their opponent wasn't simply going to let them have the ball.  Playing against better competition forces you to reach a new level of intensity in your own play.  You've got to work harder to maintain possession and when you lose the ball you've got to work harder to get it back.  But all the while you've got to keep your cool and be patient as your scoring opportunities develop.
    Girl Power's second half comeback in that game was the highlight of the tournament and maybe the season.  They've had so many games where they were simply masterful in contrast to their competition; so many games where they were imperious in their insistent domination of the ball.  And we all loved watching that.  But this weekend they had to face a tough challenge and they rose to it.  They overcame their fear of conceding goals and instead went on the attack looking to find some goals of their own.  And how they were rewarded!  A brace for Ashely and another for Hailey is what they found!  Magnificent!  And to the coach and parents of the other team that comeback was stunning!  I didn't enjoy being on the sidelines next to such a screamer but his panicky groaning at his team when Hailey's second goal went in was delectable, I confess.  And to his credit, the other coach's comments to me after the game complimenting the girls' skills were in earnest. 
     Given their performance Saturday I think the girls went into Sunday's game feeling very confident that they could win.  In fact they were, as a group a little over anxious to get to the ball and be the one to score and so they gave up some easy goals by leaving our goalies alone too often.  That's okay though.  Being over anxious for the ball is the type of mistake we can work with.
     Regardless of the outcome of that Sunday game I think it's clear that playing against good competition in four straight games had an immediate affect on the girls' play.  For most of them it was just a realization that they can play the way they know how to play even when facing faster and tougher opponents.  Hailey kept patiently weaving in and out then taking off when the space opened up, simply adjusting her intensity up a few notches to match what she was seeing from her opponent.  Ava, Eileen and Zoe, discovered that no matter how tall the other players are the ball gets played on the ground so using your skills against bigger players still works.  They were tough as nails.  Zoe even had a technically perfect chest trap at one point in Sunday's game and that's huge for her as she's been a habitual hand-baller in the past.
     Ava has always been our most precocious player in terms of field awareness.  Since U4 she's been instinctively moving in and out of the scrum around the ball, anticipating when to attack and when to defend.  Whenever any of our girls starts out in defense I encourage them to be on the lookout for opportunities to move up and join the attack.  What usually happens though is that they do move up and then never come back.  Ava's the one who knows how to dash up top for a shot opportunity or to just keep the ball in the other half and then turn around and re-establish position in our half.  I wish she was a little bossier and would direct traffic a bit as she's clearly got the best vision for the field and is the quickest to react to what she's seeing.
     Emily played with remarkable speed throughout the games as well as showing rapidly improving field awareness.  She was still charging in on the ball sometimes when her own teammate already had it but now she's looking up and seeing them in time to avoid a collision by leaping, gazelle-like, over the ball!  It's like a soccer ballet!  Her highlight was in the early game Sunday where she got open on the left half of the field.  One defender was herding her that way so to take a shot she had to go with her left foot and she crushed it off the post.  In practice if I asked her to strike the ball left footed she'd protest that she can't but in the game it just comes naturally.
     Anna was typically persistent in her use of her pull-back and play-behind and managed to frequently shield players off the ball for long stretches.  As I mentioned above, I didn't like that the team fell into a defensive state of mind in that second game Saturday but in Anna's case I think that was a kind of breakthrough.  As great as she's been playing all season I hadn't seen her hustle back to defend very often and this weekend she seemed to suddenly be thinking about the need to do that.  That's an experience she can build on.
     Finally, for Abby and Ashley this weekend was a true breakthrough.  Abby has consistently been our most dedicated and creative dribbler.  She loves her spin moves and her play-behinds.  Interestingly though, even as the competition we faced this season was not very strong Abby didn't actually manage many goals.  She likes possessing the ball and dribbling with it, enjoying the feeling of playing keep-away with defenders without feeling much urgency about finding a path to the goal.  In that second game Saturday though she seemed to have stepped up to a new level.  Under the sort of pressure we haven't faced all season Abby was suddenly even smoother and more creative with the ball, one move flowing into the next in combinations that, rather than simply maintaining possession, allowed her to slip past defenders and consistently make progress up field not simply across field.  In particular I was impressed with a sort of loop combination that she was using repeatedly to amazing effect.  She would run into a defender then do a right-footed pull-back and play-behind.  When the defender followed Abby to her left after the ball Abby would then step across the ball into a shielding position with her left side now between the ball and the defender.  When the defender would then move back to their right to get around her Abby would deftly cruyff the ball under with her right foot, spin to find it and then be well in the clear.  The big difference this weekend was that she was executing that with speed and really deceptive smoothness.  It was some beautiful play.
     And then there was Ashley.  Ashley's game has always been based on speed and power.  I can't remember a time when she didn't have an excellent shooting stroke.  Some of them are born with it.  We saw a couple of players on the other team with great natural strokes like that but nothing like Ashley's ball skills and in the second half of that Saturday game she came out on fire, not simply playing hard but seeming to actually get bigger and faster.  She was unstoppable, forcing the defense to yield to her.  She would run headlong into their line then pull-up fast with a stop and go move followed by a pull-and-play to draw them left.  Then a quick cut to the right and boom!  In Sunday's game she'd determined that she wanted to keep playing down the left side and try from that corner to cut back in for a shot.  It didn't work out and I couldn't talk her out of it but I am so impressed by the consistent effort.  She drove to that corner over and over again and danced around with three, sometimes four players on the other team, daring them to steal the ball and letting them bounce off of each other while she kept working toward goal!
  
     The video shows some of that smooth skill that Abby has but it also shows a lot about all the girls on both teams.  Note how both Ava and Kathleen come toward the ball with the clear intent to steal it rather than kick it away.  Kathleen comes in low with her eyes focused on the ball.  Ava reaches once for the ball but then spins, anticipating Abby's next move.  Brilliant stuff.
      I'm probably forgetting other game highlights that deserve to be mentioned.  Here is one non game related highlight though.  Prior to the championship game I started teaching them how to run a drill we call "hot corners".  It is a great little game that forces them to work as a team, anticipate and to develop solid passing strokes and first touches.  It's also a bit complicated and I wouldn't have expected to show it to players this age.  Even my U10 players have had a terrible time mastering it and we've invested a fair amount of time in it.  I wanted to run the drill with the girls just as a way to kill time prior to the game.  Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to see how anxious they were to master it.  They had fun obviously, with plenty of silliness but they also were actually running the drill and trying fairly hard to get it right.  And they liked it.
     The first time I tried to teach this drill to my U10 boys they acted like it was a punishment.  But these girls are like soccer playing sponges.  They want to play but they want to get better.  They like working at it.  Their attitude as a team is exceptional and their love for each other and trust in each other is beautiful.  They're great kids.
   

Girl Power vs White Tigers.

     I've been coaching soccer since my oldest was three...so...that's eleven years now.  During that time I've also been a league administrator.  I've seen a lot of soccer.  The quality of play that we saw last Wednesday night from two U8 girls teams was kind of astounding.  Control, skill, purposefulness.  Patience...and then speed.  Toughness...but grace and creativity too.  Man, do I love watching these girls play! 
     Can you believe how much Ron's Tigers have improved?  They are fierce and they play with plenty of skill.  I'd say ball possession in that game was just about 50/50 despite the outcome.  Each player has improved so dramatically since last fall.  Girl Power got to face the toughest team in the league every week at practice.  What a luxury that has been!
     As for Girl Power...what can I say about them.  Their confidence with the ball has become almost nonchalant at this point.  But to see them maintain that same calm attitude about ball possession while dealing with the fierce pressure that the White Tigers were putting them under was truly amazing.  Both teams were dribbling rather than kicking so the game was an exhausting battle of short runs back and forth, every player on both squads getting and relishing the chance to carry the ball through heavy traffic.  And both teams were showing their new found understanding of how to maintain just enough space.  That awareness of their spacing resulted in many exchanges for both teams that looked suspiciously like overlaps and give-and-gos.  I think these girls are on the cusp of a whole new dimension of play.
    

Girl Power is a pretty good team...whether you like it or not.

     Okay, before we get to some highlights...
     At one point in Saturday's game one of the coaches commented loudly to her partner that "this team just doesn't play defense, I guess."  I assume that she was referring to the fact that while our girls might start out with two players in our own half we don't keep that shape for long and the girls feel free to roam around the field finding opportunities.  I know how that must look to another coach.  If our players weren't so competent with the ball then we'd look like a bunch of five year olds chasing around in a pack.  But given the team's overall level of skill, the fact that we usually end up with all five field players moving up into an attacking position must look to other coaches like we're running some sort of full court press.  I guess that's what it is.  Our defense isn't about position, it's about possession.  We keep the ball and you can't have it.  It's fairly effective.
     I don't like the thought that perhaps we have developed some sort of negative reputation around the league.  But if we have that's the fault of all the people who have seen these girls play and failed to appreciate what they've accomplished.  These girls love the game.  They love to work at getting better.  They're tough and fearless and they play with real joy in their skills.  No apologies.  Give us your best game because that's what you get from us.
     Some parents and coaches in the NKSL may wonder why we are even in this league.  They may complain that our team and Ron's team shouldn't be playing in a rec league.  I get it.  But barely a year ago we were getting beaten regularly.  Ron's team couldn't win a game in the spring.  Now both teams are undefeated and that's the result of just one year of training and hard work from the girls.  We didn't get to this point by accident.  So my response to the rest of the clubs in NKSL is why aren't your teams getting better?  Why not mimic what we're doing?  Why not assume that if our girls can learn to play this way then yours can too?  I ask these questions as a coach who is genuinely concerned about the growth of the game in this area.  When I see one of my teams play a better team, a team that has worked to build their skills, I don't see them as a threat.  I see that team as an example and I say to my players "if they can do it we can do it too."
     End of rant.

     As for the game, I'd say that the most impressive aspect of Girl Power's play was their sudden grasp of the importance of spacing on the field.  We played a little game at practice Wednesday that was meant to help them understand what it means to play in a supporting position for a teammate who has the ball.  I called the game "Shadows" and while I'm glad that they enjoyed it I'm a little surprised that it seemed to have such a dramatically quick affect on their play.  The basic principle is simple; when a teammate has the ball be close enough to help but not so close that you're in the way.  It's something I've talked to them about forever but something about the analogy of a shadow seems to have really clicked for them.
     Zoe, for example, has always been a player who is so aggressive and anxious to get to the ball that she will frequently steal it from her own teammate.  But in Saturday's game she showed remarkable awareness of when to go in close and when to drop back.  There was one moment in particular when Zoe was moving behind Anna in a good supporting position.  When Anna decided to do a pull-back and actually head backwards Zoe quickly began back pedaling to maintain her space and give Anna room to work.  I'm obviously thrilled with how skillful a dribbler Zoe has become but to see her reacting to a teammate in a game situation in that way was really wonderful.  It's the start of developing some real team cooperation and that's the next step for these girls even as we continue to build their repertoire of deceptive dribbling moves.
     We also had a preview in this game of how devastating the team can be when they combine good individual ball skills with heads up field awareness.  Hailey had two beautiful goals off of perfect crossing passes from Ashley and in both cases it seemed clear to me that every moment of  those exchanges was intentional.  Ashley carried the ball in and saw Hailey in position.  Hailey saw Ashley working and headed straight for the goal.  Brilliant!  Can't wait to see them in action in their tournaments.
    

U10 Boys Fearless in Brilliant Draw.

     "Wait...did we win?"  One of the boys asked me that as they came off the field after Saturday's game.  I realized that he was asking earnestly because even though the game ended 2-2 it certainly felt like we were in control throughout.  The boys played with so much grace and patience and excellent ball control that it did seem odd that the game ended up being a draw.  But no one was disappointed.  The boys were effervescent after the game, and throughout, really.  They were clearly feeling the freedom and confidence that their commitment to skill gives them.  The game is simply more fun when you can play with sound fundamental skill and they were clearly enjoying themselves.  I know I loved every minute of it.
     From my spot on the sideline I saw so many beautifully executed turns and feints, so much smart ball control and aggressive defense.  But what I was most thrilled about was their new sense of how to play smartly away from the ball.  Something seems to have clicked for them.  My goal is to have each of them feel they can confidently possess the ball even when pressed but at the same time to be open to finding a teammate, to be open to other attacking opportunities.
     I've used the phrase "all strikers" before but I think a better way to understand what we're trying to do would be to say that we want "all point guards".  We want every player on the field to be able to create opportunities both with their ability to penetrate and shoot and with an ability to distribute to teammates.  The problem we've had consistently is that while all of the boys on this team play confidently with the ball they don't always play smartly away from the ball.  Saturday was a new story though.  In practice Thursday we'd worked on getting the concept of "shadowing" your teammate when he has the ball; giving him space to work while still being close enough to support.  That seemed to have stuck with them as not only did we see them more effectively "shadowing" each other but I even heard some of the boys using that phrase on the field and talking to each other about who was who's shadow.  What a leap forward!
     Quinn put in our two goals and he was just on fire in this game.  His ability to dribble around defenders, sometimes using complex moves but sometimes using nothing more than a deft hip fake, all showed amazing confidence.  His elation after the second goal, that triumphant "Yes!" as he turned back to his teammates, it was wonderful to see.  That little guy is a straight up baller!  Here's some video showing exactly the sort of "fake" that Quin has now mastered:

    

 There were too many highlights from this game to cover.  They all played so well.  Thanks for the great game boys.

Club Scrimmage

     I didn't get started trying to arrange for a scrimmage between Girl Power and one of the U8 boys squads until late in the day Saturday.  Yet when the teams and parents actually began arriving at the field just two days later for the match the excitement was palpable, like it was a rivalry game (derby) that we'd been anticipating for weeks.  The girls were really fired up to play and relishing the thought of taking on a tough challenge. 
     As a training and learning opportunity for the girls I was looking for a couple of things from this game.  I wanted to see them test their skills against tougher competition and I knew that this boys team would not just give them space to dribble.  Rather, the boys would certainly challenge quickly and forcefully on the ball and that would force our girls to be quicker and more creative with their moves.  There is a challenge that a coach faces, and that I've discussed here before, when you've succeeded in getting a player or a whole team to buy into our club philosophy that they need to play skillfully, patiently, that they need to be willing to take the long way around to get to goal.  The challenge is that when they face really tough competition they'll revert back to their old "kick it and run" style of play and forget in a panic everything they've learned about having a soft, skillful touch on the ball.  Clearly that didn't happen in this scrimmage.  Our girls showed over and over again their willingness to patiently find open space, working touch-line to touch-line and even back towards our own goal when necessary to find or create attacking lanes.  They were challenged fairly vigorously by the boys but they stayed true to their skills.
     The second thing I was hoping for though was that the boys' team would challenge the girls hard enough that the girls would feel some pressure to go beyond their dribbling skills.  These girls are very comfortable with each other and they do see themselves as teammates, as together in everything.  But they don't actually cooperate much on the field.  Specifically they are all watching the ball waiting for their turn most of the time and they even get in each others way quite a bit.  Ron and I talk with them constantly about this at practice and games and I think that intellectually they get it but in game situations their instincts take over and they just want the ball.  So what I was hoping to create with this scrimmage was a situation where their instincts would be challenged in a very concrete way, a situation where they would have to learn that sometimes you can help your team by playing a certain way away from the ball.  Some of them do demonstrate some very good field awareness and anticipation throughout the game but that's as individuals.  They haven't yet developed the sort of wolf pack mentality that a brilliant team has.  And brilliance is the goal.  Right now we're a team of brilliant players.  Where we want to get to is to be a brilliant team.  I'm looking to see them challenged in a way that forces the individual players to realize "if I want to score I need help.  If I want the team to win I've got to know how and when to help." 
     I'm not looking for passing at this point though.  What I want to see is that players are aware of what might happen next in a a given game situation.  Here's a specific example:  You see one of our girls, say Ashley, get the ball and start working up the field.  She makes a move to clear one defender then another but just when it looks like she might really break loose you realize that now one or two of her teammates have crept up behind her and are now only a few yards away, if that.  Ashley then gets trapped by a couple of defenders and cleverly decides to turn backwards for a few steps to gain some space.  She'll want to turn around, get into space and then make another move to go laterally and out-flank the defenders pursuing her.  But what happens over and over again is that when she decides to turn backwards to find space what she finds is her own teammates standing right in her way.  This happens over and over again with all of our players.  It's maddening because you think that given that it happens so consistently they'd be expecting it by now and that the players off the ball would have learned to maintain more space.   It's crazy.
     I really appreciate the quality of the game the U8 boys gave us.  That was a beautiful match on both sides.  Hopefully in our upcoming tournaments we'll see more of that sort of competition.

U10 Boys on the Right Track: They're All Strikers.

     I try to train all my players to be strikers and goal scorers.  That includes the kids who don't run very fast (yet), the kids who are a bit afraid of the ball or of contact with other players, the kids who can't take five steps in a row without tripping over a blade of grass.  It includes the kids who think they "only like defense" and the ones who always volunteer for keeper duty.  It even includes the kids who aren't even sure yet that they like the game enough to work hard at it.  All of them.
     The rationale is simple. Eventually players do have to play positions on the field in order to play effectively as a team.  They can't chase the ball around in a swarm forever.  But the fundamental ball control skills that a striker learns are essential for effective play everywhere else on the field, including in keeper; touch, control, ball striking.  Depending on the team you're on, we get one or two hours per week for training. Time spent trying to teach players tactical position play is time not spent on mastering fundamental technical skills.
     My daughter plays on the JV team of one of the local high schools.  I've seen several of her games this season and my experience is always the same.  Watching her team and her opponents play you always see the players well spaced and maintaining effective positioning on the field.  They're fit and can run up and down the field without difficulty.  They're tough and unafraid of contact.  But they also play a very skills-poor form of soccer.  Every player on my daughter's team is looking to pass the ball immediately but they don't all have reliable passing strokes nor do many of them have good first touch on the ball.  So what you see is good spacing with the ball bouncing all over the place;  no really organized attack since no one has the confidence to actually keep the ball and create shooting opportunities.  They are playing exactly the type of tactical game their coach wants them to play but the team for the most part lacks the technical skills to pull it off.
If you aren't comfortable enough with the ball at your feet to move with it while looking up you won't see or create many real passing opportunities.
If you don't have a good stroke on the ball you'll likely waste whatever passing opportunities you do manage to find.
If you don't have a good first touch on the ball then when an occasional quality pass from a teammate finds you, that pass will be wasted as it bounces off of you.
The tactics are pointless without the techniques.

     Watching my U10 Rec team play Sunday I couldn't have been happier with the progress they're making.  They've all got a long way to go in developing better fundamentals but they are in the right place attitude-wise right now.  They all think they're strikers.  They take it for granted that their job is to keep the ball and go for goal.  If that's their attitude then getting them to work on their skills is an easier task.  I don't have to convince them as to the "why" of doing that skill work.
     But do they pass the ball much or play any sort of organized attack?  Not often.  In fact there was a great moment in that game where Gabe made a fabulous run, weaving in and out of at least three defenders and as he cleared the last of those Quinn was wide open in front of the goal and yelling for a pass.  Gabe didn't pass the ball but tried to take on one more defender.  He got stopped and lost the ball.  As they were coming off the field Quinn said to Gabe "dude, you never pass.  I was wide open."  Gabe's calm reply to that was just to look at Quinn, one eyebrow raised, and say "I was headed to the goal."
     Try for a moment to see the contrast between my daughter's high school team and my U10 boys from a coach's perspective.  It's unlikely the high school coach is going to get those players to improve their skills much at this point so long as they continue to focus on tactics and outcomes, so long as they are always trying to manage a win rather than developing the players skills.  So in a sense it's too late for that team, for those players.  But these boys, who are now all convinced that they can carry the ball right into the goalie box, they want to work hard on their fundamental skills because they know those are the skills that get them into that 1v1 with the keeper.  Understanding how to utilize their skills collectively will come to them over time as they gain more playing experience and, when they do start cooperating, they'll have the skills to do so effectively.
     Right now a player like Gabe sees the path to a shot as being a zig-zagging line that starts at his feet and ends in front of the keeper.  Eventually he'll see that there are other paths to the goal involving his teammates as well.  When all you focus on in practice are those individual skills the cooperative skills can be slow in coming.  But Gabe's got time.  I've got time.  What's the rush?

     Fundamentals first.

Opportunities

Here is some roughly edited video of the 9/13/14 Girl Power game.  It's eight minutes long, nearly a quarter of the actual game.  I left a lot in, including some not-so-good play, in hopes that the girls can watch the video and start to get a better sense of how they often get in each others' way despite all their good skills.  So, try to get you player to watch it and see if they can spot the moments where they miss opportunities because they are too focused on the ball.




Additionally, there are two things I want them to notice about their play that are very positive.  First, they are simply relentless and that is a constant advantage to them.  Second, when they did get scored on they went through a brief period where they were playing too fast and with too little skill and patience.  But they were able to get past that and re-establish their pace and dominance of ball possession.  That's going to be important whenever we face stronger teams.  They've got to stay committed to playing with the all the skill and control that we work on at practice.

Legends U11 Boys: Patience.

     Given the way our boys had played that last game in Nicholasville I was very surprised by what I saw yesterday.   We possessed the ball at least 60% the time and for the first ten minutes Lexington FC couldn't get it out of their own half and I was afraid the game might be a blow-out for us.  But then we get beat on a counter attack.  And then again...and again.
     I saw two things happening.  First, the other team realized that none of our players is anxious to give up their own dribble so the Lexington defense adjusted to begin challenging aggressively in one-v-ones rather than laying off and covering passing lanes.  Second, our own boys were so focused on attack that they failed over and over again to anticipate those counter attacks.  Our players in defense got caught ball watching at midfield repeatedly, punts and clearing passes flying by as they stood stone still.  I even pulled a few of them off the field at points in the game to discuss that issue.  This failure to play solid defense surprised me as I thought they played so well in Nicholasville.  In that game their level of cooperation, communication and anticipation was very high.  But yesterday they each seemed to be playing alone and so they chased the ball a lot, crowded the six yard box when they didn't need to and at one very embarrassing moment they even failed to realize that the other team had been awarded an indirect rather than a direct kick.  This, even though the referee said the word indirect at least three times.  So, as the other team is setting up, our boys are forming a wall rather than marking up man on man.  That should have resulted in a goal for Lexington but we got lucky.  I call that moment embarrassing because to see players at U11 seemingly unaware of what the referee's call was shows that to some extent some of our players are caught up in the rush of the game, like a six year old would be, but not fully engaged in the game the way a more mature player is.  As coach Ben explained it to the boys after the game, soccer is in some ways like chess or checkers; you can't play well if you don't know where all the pieces are all the time.
     I've got to find a way to address that at practice while still keeping our focus on developing skills.  I've got to put them in situations where they have to use those skills while still keeping an eye on the rest of the field, situations where some sort of pressure forces them to anticipate.  What I won't do is give up on the skills-heavy character of our training.  Anyone who watched that game yesterday had to have seen how much more skillful our boys were in general.  I don't mean by that that we played better.  The other team played more effectively and their cooperation and energy level as a team were admirable.  They beat us straight up.  But our boys stayed committed to using their skills generally.  They took on their one-v-ones and won a lot of them.  The Legends development goal is to take players who've learned to be ball-hogs and then give them the understanding of game situations that allows them to become co-ball-hogs, to cooperate while still being willing and able to take on those one-v-ones.
     The post game talk yesterday was a difficult situation.  I have to be honest with them about what I'm seeing so that, hopefully, we can learn from what happened.  At the same time I want them to be able to walk away from the game feeling good about where they are in their development, to be confident that it'll all pay off.  I believe with this group it will pay off and I know they can play more effectively as a team.

Teachable Moments Part Two: The Game is Just More Practice.

     What Girl Power does to dominate games is as plain as day.  What our girls do is simple; they possess the ball.  They come and get it, they dribble and dribble some more and when they can see the goal they shoot.  No passing, no clearing kicks, no fancy overlaps (yet!).  They play with complete commitment to their skills and with complete confidence in their ability to win every one-v-one they go into...and it works...over and over again.  They are, in the words of Hailey's dad, straight up ballers!
     And yet what I hear from the other bench is always the same:  Pass the ball up...clear the ball out...kick it!  I walk away from a game like Saturday's really puzzled.  Can't they see what we're doing?  I hope they do, honestly.  I hope our girls are setting an example that others will want to emulate.
      I tried in this game to give each of the girls very specific challenges that I wanted to see them meet on the field.  They were all playing with such amazing grace, creativity and energy it seemed like a great opportunity to present them each with a challenge based on what I was seeing in the game.  I asked all of them to try a Puskas move and a Cruyff turn.  I saw lots of Cruyffs.  They love that one.  Not so many Puskas though.  That's a tougher one and I think the fake shot component is something they may be a little embarrassed about using.  It can seem a little theatrical.
     I also asked them to use that carry-over dribble touch we've been working on.  I was really happy with how willing they were to give it a try in the game.

Match Week Two: Teachable Moments Missed.

     Coach Eric's U8 boys were playing immediately after Girl Power on Saturday morning so he was able to stand on the sidelines with me for the girl's game.  Hanging out on the sideline with another Legends coach, observing our players at work and discussing what we're seeing...I really enjoy that opportunity.  In this case it was fun because while Eric knows all the girls, he hadn't seen most of them play in a while.  His surprise at how dramatically they were improving was very gratifying and confirms what I've been thinking as I watch them play.  They're at a stage right now where they are building on their skills and experience very rapidly, leaping forward every game. 
     This week they found themselves facing a BSS team that had thirteen players on the squad.  Ridiculous.  We had only one sub with Zoe being out and it was hot and humid but our girls showed that in addition to having a lot of skill they're also very fit and so they handled this game easily.  They dominated possession of the ball as always and rose to the challenges that I set for them to keep trying their moves and winning their one-v-ones.  There was still too much ball chasing but I'm just accepting that it will take a while for them to work through that. 
     There were two highlights I want to mention.  One was the second of Hailey's goals that was a simply beautiful little chip shot.  She had dribbled past a couple of defenders and still had one in front of her slightly to her right about seven yards out from goal.  Eric and I were both watching and when she got to that one-v-one with the last defender I'm quite sure she looked up, saw where the defender and the goalie were and very intentionally hit a delicate chip just to the defender's right and out of the keeper's reach.  She looked as cool as could be, a real killer.  I believe Eric's comment was "whoa".
     The other highlight of note was a run that Abby made where she wove in and out of the entire BSS team to get to goal, literally beating every one of them one-v-one.  Great stuff obviously and something you'd want any player to have the confidence and skill to do, right?  Even if your player was on the other team you'd want them to see that and learn from it, be excited by it and want to emulate it, right?  So if you're the coach of the other team that's got to be a great teachable moment, right?  Well, what we heard the BSS coach say was "girls, she just beat all five of you at once" in a tone of voice that was unmistakably demeaning.  If you ever hear me talking to this team that way fire me immediately. 

More on this in my next post.
     

Soccer-Palooza!

     The Legends fall season kicked-off Saturday with games for Girl Power and the U10 Boys, both great games.  The Girl Power squad found themselves facing a much younger team who were clearly in the wrong division.  It was a very lopsided game with our girls scoring easily from the start.  I took a moment as I was leaving to stop and talk to some of the parents on the other team to be sure they understood that our two teams meeting was clearly a schedule mistake.  The other coach was doing a great job of maintaining the proper attitude and her team played fairly energetically throughout but you could see that a few of them were very inexperienced.  Well, you've got to start somewhere.  Our girls did very well in taking the game as an opportunity to sharpen their skills by attempting all of the dribbling moves.  They were generally very gracious too.
     The U10 Boys had a great game in their opener even though they took a loss.  Afterwards I described the game to a parent as a typical Legends team loss: we possess the ball more than the other team but get beat on counter attacks.  Given the way we are training our players that is to be expected.  We insist on ball control and stubborn ball possession and all of our coaches try to discourage players from defending by wildly kicking the ball.  We don't call for clearing kicks or teach our players to boot the ball out of bounds.  Everyone on the field has the same job wherever they are: have a soft touch on the ball, use your moves to get into space and head toward the goal.  The expert practitioner of that philosophy in this game was Oliver who played brilliantly from start to finish.  I think the other team had five goals but they'd have had at least three more if not for Oliver's determined work in our half of the field.  Most impressive was Ollie's ability to carry the ball backwards toward our own goal and then make a smart turn, leaving the pursuing opposition behind.  He easily put in the most yards run by any player in that game.
   
     We capped off the day by heading up to Columbus for a Crew game and our players got to take the field before kick-off.  It was excellent!  The kids all began commenting right away about how perfect the field was and they couldn't wait to play.  There was another club using the other half of the field and their kids looked a bit tentative about actually kicking a ball around and playing in such a big, unfamiliar space.  Not our Legends!  They knew exactly what to do: put the ball on the ground and play.  We only had the field for about 15 minutes but I think they all worked up a good sweat and showed off some fabulous skill!  What a blast!

First Touch Drill.

Below is video of a drill that we'll be teaching the select level players and that we'll probably be using as a pregame warm-up too.  It's called the Hot Corners Passing Drill but we aren't using it in order to teach passing skills.  That's just an incidental benefit.  What we really like about this is that it forces the players to have a good first touch on the ball and to be able to anticipate, to think ahead and know what your next move is even as you focus on the ball.  For our purposes we'll also ask the center player to execute some sort of skill before distributing the ball again.  Check it out.

Coach Mark finds Ronaldinho video that defines "first touch".

One concept I'll be trying to help the players understand this season is "first touch".  What we mean by that term is a player's ability to take control of the ball easily even when it arrives to her/him with some pace on it.  The analogy I use when talking with my teams is an obvious one:  you've got to catch the ball with your feet as easily as you'd catch it with your hands.  Follow the link below to Coach Mark's blog to see a short bit of video he put together that shows the legendary Ronaldinho taking a ball out of the air with unbelievably effortless finesse.  In the video you see that a defender has popped the ball straight up, at least 30 yards into the air, and as it comes down Ronaldinho is calmly waiting for it.  With a simple flick of his foot he gets the ball to land at his feet like a sack of flour.  Amazing.

Coach Mark's Legen- (wait for it) dary Blog.: First touch.: The game is much easier if you don't have to chase down the ball after your first touch.  Watch Ronaldinho show us how to do that.

Fall 2014 Skills Training: Change of Pace

     Watching all of my teams play over the course of the spring I began to notice that one thing that separates the more advanced players from the rest is their ability to change their running pace easily, to be able to stop quickly then burst back into a full stride or to change their pace mid stride with stutter steps and feints.
     I think that all of our Legends players have at least one really good change of direction move that they can rely on and they all, I think, understand in a general way how to use that move in game situations.  For some it's a simple cut to left or right.  For others it's something flashier.  But few of them are comfortable yet using change of pace as a way to deceive an opponent.  Rather they tend to get up to full speed and stay there until they lose the ball, running "down hill" in the same gear all the time.
     This season I want to work with all of my teams to develop each player's ability to use their speed more dynamically, to be able to accelerate fast, to stop quickly and with control and to change pace with ease.   At each practice this season we'll start with a stretching/strengthening routine (about 10 minutes) that I hope will help the kids to develop their running stride, their balance and their feel for how to accelerate explosively.  Then in each practice we'll also work on a deceptive dribbling move that I think specifically emphasizes change of pace with some sort of stop-start component.
     My plan for this season is to not move on from one skill to the next until I'm satisfied that all of my players on the teams are comfortable executing the skill and are ready to try it in a game, and this is where the influence of the parents, of our "supporters section", becomes so important.  My instructions to my teams on game day will be simple:  I'm not interested in the final score, I'm interested in seeing each of you go out there and use the skills we've been practicing.  So when you are watching them play, please be sure to cheer loudest when you see them try to use a deceptive move, when they try to possess the ball and take control of the situation rather than booting it away.  Let them know that you see them taking chances and playing bravely.
     Here are video clips showing the first few moves we'll be working on this season.

The first is the famous Puskas or "V" move. 


Next is the Cruyff turn, an essential move for every player.   And then the Mathews, a great little hesitation and cut move. We'll also work on the mirror version, the Elastico.

Quality

     The best part of this World Cup was the ignominious exit of Brazil from the tournament.  From their very first game in the group stage the "Seleção" demonstrated that while fabulous ball control skills are a wonderful thing for Nike ads, when it's game time you forget the fancy moves and just start diving...shamelessly.  The flop by Brazilian star "Fred" in their opening game versus Croatia was so egregious that I really expected FIFA authorities to issue some sort of post-match fine or at least an apology for the referee.  As it was, Fred's transparent simulation led to a PK for Neymar and ultimately to a 2-1 win for Brazil.  
     And that's how they played every match.  All of the commercials for Nike and Coke were highlighting the romantic tradition of Brazilian joga bonita, the bare-footed, play-in-the-alleys-and-on-the-rooftops-to-the-beat-of-a-samba version of the game.  But the team in the tournament, dressed proudly in their national colors, was showing the world what most fans know to be the true nature of Brazilian soccer:  flop, dive, simulate, whine...feign injury and writhe in pain until the ref produces a yellow card...and then when you take the PK be sure to point to the sky and thank Jesus.  Man, I loved watching these losers get waxed by Germany and then again by the Orange.
     There were other divers and floppers on other clubs but, thankfully, there were also some great examples of players who don't tip over so easily.  At the top of that list is Lionel Messi.  Coach Mark was able to isolate some video from the Argentina v Belgium game that shows Messi being fouled repeatedly and yet he does not go to the turf until he is literally forced down.  In the closeup you can see that it's not until Fellaini actually steps on Messi's foot, pinning him to the ground, that Lionel finally tumbles down. Until that point he keeps stumbling forward not wanting to give up on his chance to get off a shot.  Brilliant quality.

Tournament Weekend.

     Once in a while at a practice I'll let my teams finish a session with a little scrimmage.  When we're nearly out of time I'll yell out "next goal wins!"  That's a great way to motivate them to give all of their energy for those last couple of minutes but it also re-enforces an attitude that I'd like them to have toward playing and competing in general.  Regardless of what the score in a game is, regardless of how hopelessly out of reach victory may be, every chance you have to get to the ball and to take on another player, every chance you have to attempt to beat them with a move, in short, every moment of the game is still a competition.  Don't let the score take you out of the competition.   Literally, don't let your expectations about the outcome rob you of the chance to keep playing, to  keep coming for more, to keep giving yourself over to the game.  It's an easy lesson to learn on the practice field where they're naturally comfortable playing hard against each other, where the game really is just a game.  But can they bring that attitude with them on match day?
      I'm proud to say that my Legends teams did bring that "next goal wins" attitude with them to this past weekend's tournament play.  Neither team managed any wins but they played every minute of every game as though the next goal they put in would seal the victory.  They played with skill and patience, creativity and speed against some very good competition and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Girl Power, especially, was challenged in a way they hadn't been during the regular season.  Every team we faced had at least a couple of bigger girls with some real speed and skill.  But rather than being tempted into trying to play at a speed that is beyond their abilities right now they just kept plugging away using their moves, getting space as best they could, doggedly running down opponents to steal the ball when they had to.  It was a beautifully confident and committed performance all weekend for the girls.
     The U10 boys stayed committed to their skills for the most part too.  I was especially happy with the fact that they were generally playing with a very high level of mental and physical intensity without much accompanying emotional intensity.  Something we've talked about throughout the season is that they've got to be able to play with intensity without being angry.  What I saw on Saturday and Sunday was a lot of very intense effort and real commitment to possess the ball without a lot of emotional nonsense.  They were strong but cool headed most of the time. 
     Thanks to everyone for participating.  For me, to be able to hang out in one spot basically and watch our teams play game after game, that's just an amazingly great way to spend a weekend.  I hope everyone had fun.
    

Girl Power. Our Offense is Our Defense.

    Here's something that I noticed in the game Monday evening:  At one point in the second half a player on the ISC team got the ball just on their side of the half line and managed to break away down the bench side of the field.  As that player is carrying the ball past me down the line Ava comes streaking up from behind, touches the ball away from the other player while still headed toward our goal.  Then when she'd gained a good three or four yards ahead of the player she had just dispossessed she made a nice Cruyff turn followed by a simple zig-zag and got turned back up field and brought the ball well past the half line.
     I've seen Ava make this sort of defensive stop before but in this game I saw some of our other players do it too and it occurred to me that this is another unexpected benefit of the sort of training we do and the confidence the girls have in their skills so I want to be sure everyone else understands what was going on. So, what Ava did there was to confidently take the ball away while running at full speed into our own half.  She didn't feel like she had to run up on the opponent and somehow stop the ball right there.  We see kids try that all the time with disastrous results.  They play like they somehow aren't allowed to run past the ball when chasing an opponent.  They are in a panic to get turned around immediately so they swipe at the ball or they try some sort of pull-back and then not only do they fail to get the ball but they also give up a step or two to the attacking player and then our keeper is in a one on one.  But Ava knew better.  She knew that the space she had left between the attacking player and our goal was more than enough for her to use her skills to get turned around so she just took that space by stealing the ball while running past the attacking player.  She carried it right toward our goal but in doing so she got the space she needed to turn around.  She was using the whole field.  I've always thought that Ava is ahead of the group a bit in her ability to see the whole field and to anticipate.  But I think that the confidence she shows in knowing how to use all that space to her advantage is a result of the hard work she's done in developing such excellent ball control skills.  She's always been able to see where the open space on the field is but now she's got the skills to use that space, even for playing defense.
     I think we can expect to see all of our girls adopting this tactic to great effect.

Legends Soccer Party!

     We had good weather for most of the day yesterday and thanks to the folks over at the YMCA we even had music during many of our games.  What a blast!  All of our boys U10 teams were in action at Boone Woods yesterday and they put on quite a show.  We had the same referee for all of our games including an early game for Coach Ryan's U10 girls and by the end of the day he paid us the compliment of saying that he was really impressed by the consistent skill level of the players in our club.  Thanks Ref!
     Another measure of the progress our players are making was pointed out to me by Coach Les  (he assists with Coach Johnny's team).  As my U10 boys and Coach Johnny's team were showing signs of running out of gas near the end of their game yesterday Coach Les speculated that the reason they were tiring out was that so much of the game had been played without the ball ever going out of bounds.  Since all of our players are committed to playing a controlled style of soccer with lots of smart touches and fewer big kicks the result is that when two of our teams face each other it's a marathon of dribbling and the ball stays in play nearly the entire game.  So no breathers for throw-ins and goal kicks.  I hadn't thought of it that way before but that makes a lot of sense and it's yet another way in which our Legends coaching philosophy and the style of play it promotes is beneficial to our players in the long run.  To play the way we want them to play they have to work harder, they have to get accustomed to exerting themselves for longer stretches.  Hopefully this means that by the time the current group of U10 players are in High School they'll all be able to run all day!
     I'd asked the U10 Zombies to be sure and show me at least one fake-shot move at some point in the game and they all delivered beautifully.  Lucas F. did a great fake-shot into a Cruyff turn and when he came off the field he was really excited to know if I'd seen it.  That Cruyff turn had really frustrated him at the first training session where we introduced it but he's been plugging away diligently at mastering it.  Now that he has the move he's understandably proud of it.  Well done Lucas!
     Cole is a big fan of the Maradonna turn and actually came to our very first practice with some ability to do that move, at least in a practice setting.  I've prodded him every week to keep trying to use it in our games and he has attempted it pretty consistently.  But yesterday was an amazing leap for him as he pulled the step off going at nearly a full run.  It was a very sharp move and devastatingly effective, taking him quickly past a defender into wide open space.
     Those are just two of the highlights from a game that was full of good skill.  Well done Zombies!

Girl Power Shows Their Mettle.

     Yesterday's game was a real test for the girls and it demonstrated clearly how they are so different in temperament from other teams.  Obviously our girls are at this point somewhat accustomed to winning.  It was also obvious yesterday that the team we faced is probably accustomed to success too.  It became apparent early on that the game was going to be a close one and the contrast in the reactions of the teams to that situation was very revealing.  Simply put, the BSS team reacted by getting progressively rougher as the game went on, with a couple of their players openly showing their frustrations with some crude, graceless behavior.  Meanwhile the Girl Power squad reacted by simply pressing forward as they always do, sticking to their style of play.  They absorbed the pressure without backing down.  They dribbled into the other team over and over knowing full well by the end of the game that they weren't facing a defense so much as a gauntlet of elbows and stiff-arms.  Yet they kept going and even raised their own level of intensity to match their opponent without lowering themselves to playing in the same angry style as the BSS team.
     Unfortunately we'll have games like this where we face teams with young rage-a-holics in training on their side, big players with infantile attitudes who lash out physically when the game isn't going their way; the type of player who wants to turn the beautiful game into a hockey game.  I hate hockey. (I could rant about that sport for a while but I'll spare you.)
     A phrase I've used before when talking to some of my older players, and even some of my teammates on my adult teams, is that you have to take the game you get.  You don't get to pick your opponent in advance or write a script for the game.  I want my players to be more in love with the game than they are with winning so that for the love of the game they'll take whatever opponent they get in whatever weather on whatever field with whatever lazy referee that we're stuck with on that day.  Girl Power is the exemplar of this attitude.  Last fall when they were getting beat a lot they nonetheless played every minute with the same enthusiasm.  This spring with the situation reversed they still play with the same enthusiasm and joy for the game and they've learned how to be somewhat casual about the way they dominate games, staying focused on how they are performing themselves without developing any bad habits either in terms of their play or their attitudes.  They are graceful under all conditions and that is something to be very proud of.
    In terms of game highlights I have to confess that I was so caught up in keeping an eye on all the pointless off-the-ball fouls being committed by the BSS team that I wasn't taking notes as I usually do.  I know that Abby put in the first one, and I can't forget the beautiful pass and shot combination that Abby and Hailey H. put together for the final goal.  Send me a note if you know who had the other two.  In any case, it was fantastic to see them come back from two goals down to tie it up.  That showed some amazing heart.  And they played, as always, with a beautiful combination of skill and determination.

Derbie Day Soccer. U10 Boys and Girl Power show their style!

     During this week's practice sessions the players had worked on a move that is particularly useful for drawing a defender out away from their goal so that you can then cut back past them so I had asked all of my players to be sure they made an effort to use that skill at least once during their games.  I'm happy to say they all did it and it seemed for some of them to really kick up their confidence.  Most players, myself included, can't help but feel tension when they are in possession of the ball.  One way to put it is that you feel hunted.  You have the ball and everyone else wants it so they are literally coming after you.  The attitude we hope to instill in Legends players is that when you have the ball you aren't the hunted, rather you're the hunter.  If you have the ball you are in control of the situation and you can use the ball to tempt, trick and even force opposition players into mistakes.   Drew W. is our leading exemplar of that sort of confident predatory style of play.  Over and over again he uses the other player's anxiousness to get the ball against them and yesterday he found the goal four times in just one half played.  When Drew had to leave at the half to get to a baseball game some of the parents on the other team seemed relieved.  That was premature on their part as the remaining Legends continued to find the goal often, all of them showing enormous confidence in their ability to possess the ball.
     By having my players dribble the ball back up field a few steps and allow the defender to chase them before they make that sudden cut move back I wanted them all to get comfortable with the idea of taking control of the situation.  You could see in the games yesterday that they are getting it and in both the U10 Boys games and in the Girl Power game they totally dominated possession of the ball.  What you see in a lot of our games, especially with Girl Power, is that other teams, even the ones with some skilled players, expect the game to have a kind of flow of shared ball possession, like the teams are basically taking turns playing offense then defense.  But what Girl Power demonstrates week after week is that the ball belongs to them all the time.  Even when you have it it's still our ball and we're coming to get it! 
     For the U10 Boys this week's game was an amazing improvement over the previous week.  They played with much more energy and more anticipation, rarely giving the other team the luxury of even a few unchallenged steps with the ball.  We need that confidence every week, even against stronger teams.  Overall the team's ball possession skills were so effective that in the second half, with no subs, we were actually able to play for stretches with only five players on the field.  I hope I can keep them playing with this level of energy for the remainder of the season.
     Here are some highlights for the boys:
>Drew S. played with a beautiful touch on the ball all day.  He's kind of where Conner was a few months back.  His touch is great and he's confident he can shield the other players off the ball and now he just needs to add in a burst of speed into space to be instantly more effective.
>Conner was indeed bursting more confidently into space and by the end of the game he seemed to have realized that his first move was often creating that space so a second move wasn't necessary.  Of course his preferred step is still the Maradonna!
>Kaleb executed a stop hop and play that was so graceful and effective that I wouldn't be surprised if the defender he was facing has still not found his shoes.  He put in a few goals too and a couple of beautifully placed corners, one of which earned us a goal.
>Drew W. was his usual combination of strength and grace, weaving in and out of traffic and, most importantly, clearly seeing the way the situation would open for him one and even two defenders ahead.  Love that ability to anticipate.
>In a great example of anticipation Will at one point made a nice little dink pass to Drew W. as he ran towards him then continued his run in a sort of overlap to get open on the right sideline.  At that point Drew didn't need to pass off to him but that Will anticipated how that might open things up was brilliant.  His goal keeping was stellar too.  Just fierce to smother the ball!
>Braden was great in as keeper too and was especially efficient in his outlet punts too, getting them all out very quickly.  Once on the field he showed some very good skill including a well executed Cruyff turn.

     For Girl Power yesterday's game was another goal scoring bonanza.  Ava, Anna, Hailey H. and Ashley all scored for us and everyone else had their chances with our girls maintaining possession of the ball for something close to 90% of the game.  They play with great grace and skill with their possession of the ball always being purposeful and when they do occasionally lose the ball they swarm to re-possess with an unnerving fierceness.  And I think that, more than just their crazy skills, is what throws other teams off.  Our girls don't run into opposition players to kick the ball away, rather they always move in close rapidly to regain possession.  They steal the ball.  Most teams are used to playing a version of the game where the ball sort of pin-balls around the field from one cluster of players to another and eventually someone gets lucky and puts one in.  Girl Power goes to the ball with the intention of coming away with it into open space.  No pin-balling or volley balling or kick-balling.  Just beautiful football and with the attitude, as I mentioned above, that the ball belongs to them at all times.
     As for their highlights...well the whole game was a highlight reel and the other coach and the referee sitting on the side were both sort of dumbfounded by what they were seeing.  At one point late in the game Ava executed a beautiful Maradonna for the sixth or seventh time and it carried her right into the open space in front of the goal.  As she made that turn the other coach said "she really likes that move" and his tone of voice told me that while he meant it as a compliment he was also tired of seeing her beat his defenders with it.  I think by the end the other coach, his players and their parents were all very tired of seeing the Girl Power squad.  I never get tired of them. 

Derby Day Soccer. Zombies!

     I realized at this week's practice session that the younger U10 boys team have continued to refer to themselves as the "The Beechwood Zombies" which was the name they used in the preseason 3v3 tournament.  I like the name for the irony of it alone since when they play the way they did yesterday they don't look anything like zombies.  They were fierce in their attack in yesterday's game but they were also wholly committed to playing with skill, even to showing off their skills a bit.  You have to keep in mind the added effort that it takes when you commit to playing that way.  Passing the ball up the field from player to player is an energy efficient way to advance but dribbling and taking on defenders one on one or even one on two is physically demanding.  Add into that the energy it takes to execute some of the more complicated moves the boys were using and you have to be really impressed with the overall effort of that game.  Despite the final score I think the Zombies clearly had the majority of ball possession throughout the game and they were definitely wearing down the other team, especially their midfield players,  by the end of the game. 
     Someone might ask the obvious question, if passing is more efficient why aren't we working on that rather than all this deceptive dribbling stuff.  The answer to that question was visible in the game.  The other team's real strength was that they had players who played very aggressive defense, challenging our players very quickly for the ball rather than giving any space.  Despite that excellent defensive effort by the other team our own players were able to win those confrontations at least half the time thanks to their growing confidence in their dribbling skills,  When watching pro soccer you'll sometimes hear the phrase "holding up the ball" used to refer to players, especially midfielders, who can smartly distribute the ball (pass) but who can also possess the ball when pressed and so are able to coolly "hold" the ball up in midfield or beyond for their team thus keeping the attack alive.  Every one of our Zombies is going to be that kind of player, able to absorb pressure and maintain possession then find space to either attack or pass effectively.  At higher levels of play against better defenses being able to execute passing but not having the ball skills to "hold up" the ball means you get beat.  
     Yesterday we saw a lot of the possessing and dribbling but we also did see some passing play starting to develop.  In particular I saw one beautiful little pass from Luke S, to Cole that was a great example of the type of passing I'm happy to see them attempting.  I don't want to see them passing off the ball to get rid of it in a panic but when they are confident enough over the ball to look up and see an obvious opportunity then I'm fine with it and that is what happened with Luke in that situation.  He'd taken the ball off of one player and made a nice move toward the center of the field.  Two more players were closing on him and he looked up and saw that as they moved toward him they were leaving a wide open path for Cole so he took advantage of that.  It was smart and the pass was well struck and on target.  Excellent.
   Another good example was a run that Lucas Y. made where he brought the ball all the way from our own half into the opposition penalty area.  By the time he'd zig-zagged and spun his way right to the goal line he had at least four of their players hanging on him and at that point his dribbling options were sort of exhausted.  Realizing that, Lucas managed to get just enough space with one more move to be able to put in a crossing pass that found Cole and Luke wide open.  Brilliant play!
      I had set the boys a specific task prior to the game that they had to demonstrate in the game that they could play the ball backwards, away from the opposition goal, and then make a quick cut to head back to goal.  They all did it at least once in the game and I was thrilled with that.  When they see every game opportunity as a chance to put their skills to the test then they can begin to progress very rapidly and, most importantly, they can relax and enjoy the game because they know that it's their effort not the game outcome that matters. 
     A couple of other highlights:
>Cole and Lucas Y. both pulled off Maradonna turns.
>Lucas F. was great in goal.  The shots that went in were completely beyond his reach but when he did get the ball he made a beautiful punt that made it past the half line.
>Lucas F. also played beautifully while in the field showing off some brilliant skills.
>Oliver was playing brilliantly too, exemplifying that sort of "holding" midfield play I mentioned before.
>Will was on fire.  He took the ball where he wanted throughout the game, even striking out from keeper to dribble down field.  My spouse, Chris, was on the sidelines near him when he got the ball on that run.  According to her as the ball came to Will and his teammates were all calling for the ball to be passed out to them Will took off saying "I got this".  Awesome! 
    

Back to Basics

    Sorry it's taken me so long to get to writing about Saturday's games.  It was a very good day in that I was able to stay at the field all day and see so many of our Legends players in action.  The progress players across the club are making is wonderful and our teams, especially the U8 teams, definitely have a distinctive playing style that catches the attention of other club parents and coaches.  Coach Eric was there Saturday with both his U8 boys teams and during the game for his younger squad a parent on the other sideline was overheard saying "I'm glad we're playing them this year and not next year."  I assume he meant that it was clear that with the skills those boys were showing it is just a matter of time until they are dominating other teams.  That sounds like the situation Girl Power are in now.  Last fall they were full of potential but now they are full of goals!
     My own teams' games were a mixed bag and it's taken me a few days of mulling it over to figure out what seemed wrong about the way my U10 teams played.  Where that thinking lead was to the painful conclusion that it wasn't how my players had played that was bothering me, rather, it was how I'd handled those games as a coach.  I realize now that on Saturday I allowed myself to drift away from the coaching principles that have been successful in the past for me.  I'd gotten ahead of myself and started coaching for "team" performance rather than staying focused on individual performances.  At least that's what happened in Saturday's U10 games.
     The best way to make clear what I mean is to reference a post I wrote nearly two years ago describing my coaching strategy for the teams I was working with then.  If you can, take a moment to follow this link and read it.  In that post I lay out a few simple points of focus that I wanted to keep in the forefront throughout that season's training sessions;  things like posture, soft touch, field awareness.  My intention was to stay focused on individual skill development and then assume that cooperative team play would sort of develop naturally as the players became ever more competent and confident.  As evidence that that approach can work I give you the U8 Girl Power squad.
     The U8 girls were awesome Saturday and again played with an amazing combination of individual ball skill and team cooperation.  The cooperative play isn't all that organized yet.  Rather,  it's just a generally more effective spacing on the field; they have a good sense of where they all are on the field.  As one parent described it to me in the context of their defense, it's not so much that they maintain defensive positioning as it is that they move to re-take the ball in waves (or concentric circles maybe) with one player taking a direct path to the ball and then her teammates taking ever wider looping paths to cut off the other team's progress.  So rather than all of our players concentrating at the point of attack they anticipate where the next point of attack might be and the next one and so on.   It's a new development for the team and it's beautiful and it's largely something that they've put into play on their own.  All we work on in practice are their dribbling skills.  All I talk to them about are their dribbling skills with additional simple admonishments to "keep your heads up", "know where your teammates are."  This developing version of cooperative play is essentially their own creation.
     But while the subtleties of that sort of "team" play are delightful the real beauty of Girl Power's  play is obviously their individual dribbling skill.  They are, every single player, completely committed now to dribbling and to being deceptive.  That is what makes this group of players so much fun to work with.  I don't have to convince them of the value of the deceptive dribbling skills they are learning.  They've already bought into it wholeheartedly.  Add to that their natural gifts like speed and determination and you get a team that is constantly on the attack.  With this team I can spend the whole game focusing moment by moment on each player individually, taking sideline opportunities with them to offer only simple points about the way they used a move or what other move I'd like to see them try.  The overall flow of the game I leave to them and they take care of it.
     Going forward I've got to be sure I maintain that same sort of focus with the U10 boys;  stay focused on their play as individuals and convince them that their success on any game day is tied to their effort, not to the final score.  I pride myself on being the type of coach who is always focused on teaching "the basics" and yet here I am needing to be reminded: get back to the basics!
    

Girl Power Comes Full Circle.

    Back in the fall the Girl Power squad had an interesting experience after a game against a VHSC squad early in the season.  That was just the first session of play for the Girl Power group in their current form and while they were already a hard working group with a lot of natural ability and a love of the game they were also still at the stage where they would get in each others' way a lot, crowding the ball and often playing without a lot of field awareness.  But they were already a team that was committed to dribbling rather than kicking and in that particular game the VHSC coach was very impressed with them.  Our girls took a real thumping in that game but they picked the ball up and ran to the center circle after every goal, always ready to play some more.  I know that at the time I was telling parents and other coaches that the team's real character could be seen in that; in their desire to just keep playing regardless of the score; in their joy for the game.  When the VHSC coach came over to me after the game the first thing she wanted to compliment the team on was their indefatigable attitude.  Even as the score of the game became hopelessly lopsided my girls would just sprint to the center circle, usually giggling about some silliness that only they understood, and on the whistle they'd kick off and go at it again.
     The VHSC coach asked if she could speak to the team and when they were gathered around her she first complimented them on their impressive skills.   Then she asked them how old they were.  "Six!" was the response except for a defiant "I"m five" from Hailey H.  "Wow" the coach said.  "And y'all are so good already!"  She continued, "Now my girls are all on the upper side of the age group so they've played in U8 a lot longer than you have."  I wasn't sure the girls understood exactly what she meant but she went on to explain to them that they could all keep playing U8 for more than another year and eventually they would be one of the oldest teams in the league.  "Whoo!  Then everybody else look out!"  she concluded.  Well the girls got that and they were all excited about it and I recall that over the next few weeks the subject of their age and where they'd be next year came up quite a bit.
     I really appreciated that other coach coming over to talk to them and I think she found the right way to help me deal with a lopsided defeat.  I've coached plenty of games where my team was getting thumped and I know from experience that there is nothing the other coach can do during the game to make the defeat less uncomfortable.  When my team is getting beat I expect the other coach to just let their players play.  It's my job to keep my kids in the game and with Girl Power I've always found that rather easy.  They just love to play.
     Now the girls have come full circle.  They deal out the drubbings now and yet they are about a year ahead of schedule.  They're still one of the youngest teams in the division.  So what happened? What I see is that their commitment to possessing and dribbling the ball has only strengthened but now we're also benefiting from much better field awareness and some early efforts at cooperative play. 
     In Saturday's game the other coach commented to Coach Chris (thanks for covering for me!) that our girls had "an interesting formation" in that they didn't seem to be playing any set positions.  Coach Chris responded with the party line:  "yeah, we don't work on that."  Brilliant!  But even though they aren't stuck in specific positions the girls are getting much better at assessing the situation on the field themselves and dealing with it accordingly.  They don't crowd the ball so much and they are getting noticeably better at anticipating the need to break off and get back on defense.  They're a smart group of girls. 
     As we go forward I expect we'll have some games where opposing coaches and parents will resent our girls and think they're playing in the wrong league.  Let's be patient with them.  We know how far our girls have come and they've earned their success.

Boys U10 #1 Finds Missing Mojo!

     The U10 Boys #1 team had a brilliant return to form Saturday morning and despite the final score I could not have been happier with their performance.  There is no way to sugar coat what we saw in their game Thursday evening of the past week.  That was some poor soccer with an ugly combination of panicked, disorganized play and, frankly, lazy play.  Drew's five goals was an impressive achievement but other than our guest sub, Karolyn L., he didn't have much real help on the field.  Following that game we were able to put together a brief scrimmage and that seemed to me a good way to wash away the bad taste of a poor outing.  Just play.
     On Saturday they showed up ready to go and played with real energy and intelligence the entire game and we saw much more of the sort of all-out effort that has made these players so effective in the past.  We're still walking back into defense a bit or even getting caught ball-watching, but overall the players were more mobile and loose throughout the game.  There was also more commitment to using their dribbling skills and they did so to great affect.  It's strange though because the team we played Saturday was just as aggressive to the ball as the team we played Thursday.  Oh, well.
     In any case, even though we didn't come out on top in terms of score the boys were clearly enjoying this game more and they finished feeling very upbeat despite the loss.  They know they played better and I'd say that an important element in the return of their confidence as a team was the combined performances of Connor and Braden.  Returning to play after missing Thursday's game due to a cold, Connor was once again earning his new nickname, "The Blender", by trying to spin his way past every defender and in this game he combined that great ball skill with a new-found ability to strike into the open space that he creates for himself.  He was pressing the other team's last defenders repeatedly and had plenty of very good chances.  It was great to have him back.
     When Braden got out into the field after a first half stint in as keeper he wasted no time in taking the ball right into the other team's goal box on an amazing solo run that started at midfield.   As the half went on he had several more great runs and while he did make a very pointed effort to throw in one "stop-hop-and-play" move he was generally making his way up field using a very simple sort of shielding dribble to keep possession of the ball in tight spaces. 
    

Finally! Sunshine and Soccer!

    
     After a two week layoff due to weather our Legends teams were finally back on the field for a day of soccer.  I was able to watch six of our teams in action over the course of the day and I was happy to see lots of that Legends signature style:  skill, patience and stubborn ball possession.
     I managed to record some highlights from the games and, as the video shows, some of our teams are farther along in their commitment to possessing the ball and trusting their skills but they are all on the same path.   As I mentioned in my last post, I do think that the style of play we are teaching is contagious and if we just let the kids play they'll all catch on eventually.
     After watching Coach Johnny's U10 boys start the day with Kaleb, Drew W. and Owen all filling in I headed over to the home fields and enjoyed a thrilling performance from the Girl Power! squad.  Once again they lined up facing a team that clearly had a significant size advantage and once again our girls ignored that and just got to work playing their game.  Not only did they come out on top but the score was actually a little lopsided with six of our seven players managing goals.  Zoe and Hailey B. each scored this time so now we've had goals from everyone this season.  That's what you call Total Football.  In the video you can see how the girls are getting better all the time at playing smartly off the ball and rotating around each other into advantageous positions.
     Our girls showed great skill all game although not all of it is flashy.  Mostly it's just a lot of very competent and smart first touches followed by confident dribbling.  I think that's how the training we do typically translates into game play.  We ask them to attempt very difficult technical skills in practice and the result is that in games their basic level of competence with the ball is raised even if they don't try any dazzling trick moves.  But of course we can count on Ava and Abby to put on a technical display at some point and they didn't disappoint. 
     In the U10 Boys #1 game we had help from Lucas Finley and Owen and Lucas was fantastic, putting in two goals in an amazing performance with the upper division team.  Owen had a goal as well off of a free kick.  Then there was Kaleb.  What can you say about a four goal performance?  He was en fuego!  We also got great play from everyone else on the squad and I'd like you to especially notice in the video the skillfull  play of Drew "Skeletor" Skelton.  You can see him make an amazing shielding move to get open for a shot.
     Unfortunately I didn't get any video of Conner S. using his moves.  He's really getting to the point where his moves usually pay off with a break into open space.  I expect to see him scoring more often now and I hope the rest of the team will mimic his style a bit in terms of his willingness to play the ball right into an opponent's feet and then make a move to beat them.
     Great games kids.  Speaking for the coaches and your parents let me say...Thanks.  We love watching you play.