Great Practice for the U8 Girls. Girl Power! Style of Play is Apparently Contagious.

     We managed to get out on the field finally last night for our first outdoor practice since the season started.  With the players all having missed at least two games in a row due to weather I thought it best to limit the "practice" part of the session and spend most of our time just playing some soccer.  At Coach Ron's request we let the girls play on their own teams rather than mixing the two squads and I think that that was a wise decision.  Firstly it gave his girls more experience playing with each other as a group, getting to know who was going to do what on the field.  I was really impressed with the strength and aggressiveness his team showed; a big improvement over last season.  Coach Ron's girls were more field-aware and more organized than ever and that made for a great game against Girl Power!  Secondly, it gave Ron's girls a chance to see our squad in action playing the way they like to play.  I'll come back to why that was important in a minute.
     Our squad got off to a quick start scoring three goals in the first few minutes and they did so playing the way you'd expect: possess, dribble, attack.  Their touches were great and they were all showing off their deceptive dribble moves.  Coach Ron's girls responded at first by simply playing very aggressively to the ball which was good, but their first touch was usually a vigorous kick that served only to give the ball back to our girls.

Beanie gets her zig-zag on.
Ava, Sarah and Ariel close in to challenge.

     What I found really interesting about this scrimmage was that as the game went on the girls on Coach Ron's team began to more and more consistently mimic the style of play they were seeing from our Girl Power! squad.  That's something important to pay attention to as parents and coaches.  When we stop pressuring our players with specific instructions to "do this" and "do that", to "kick it!" or "clear it out!" or "get in there and help!" and focus instead on just cheering for them to play hard and cheering loudly when we see something done well...when we stop trying to control them and just let them enjoy playing what you see is that kids do what kids do, they mimic each other.  If one player sees another doing something that seems to work or elicits a cheer from the sidelines or just looks cool then the first player will eventually give it a try for themselves.
     Coach Ron has players on his squad who aren't just potentially good, they have genuinely great touch on the ball and very strong kicks.  They can be great players right now.  At the start of the game those girls played aggressively but in a constantly defensive mode.  The Girl Power! attack does that to teams.  But by the second half those same players on Ron's side were possessing the ball more, trusting themselves more and consistently bringing the ball deep into our half.  I love it when the kids let go and just put themselves wholly into the game.  Beautiful.  And with the weather finally looking like spring...it couldn't have been better...unless we'd had Zoe, Anna and Hailey H. with us too!