For my new players...a few notes on my approach to teaching the game.

(I've edited this recently to reflect some things I've learned. The new stuff is in green. 4/5/2022)

Way back, fourteen years ago now, when I first started coaching one of my kids in recreational league soccer it occurred to me that for some of the kids on the team the first step was not learning some basic soccer skill but rather just learning how to run or how to maintain their balance. This was U6 soccer so for some of them it was even questionable as to whether they understood the fundamental concept of "a game"  Based on these observations the guiding principle for all the coaching work I've done since has been “nothing is obvious”.  I try to pay close attention to every player during practices and games to assess where they each as individuals need help.  With some players I might be working on helping them to add a new deceptive move or sharpen their shooting skill.  But with some players it might be that we need to actually work on their posture or their running stride, something so basic that you might take it for granted. Some players might have some basic athletic ability but need lots of help learning how to actually understand the flow of a game.  With each basic skill that I try to teach, including the mental skills, I consider it important that I be able to break that skill down into smaller parts so that when necessary I can teach it gradually and in a way that will reach every player, not just the more advanced players.

    When I begin working with new players I need the player and the parent to buy in to what I’m doing.  What I need the players to get is that I’m going to be encouraging them to try new things, to struggle with new skills and to put those skills into play in games.  My attitude is always going to be “let’s play to win by just playing.”  In that way I want to foster an atmosphere of casualness about the game so that the kids feel free to try their skills without fear that I’ll be upset if we don’t win.  Then I have to sell the parents on this idea too since for most of them it will be hard if they see their kid’s team getting clobbered.   They’ll be yelling for me to keep them in position.   They’ll be yelling for the kids to “kick the ball” when that’s not what we really want.  We can set the kids up to play “effectively” as a team now so that they might get some wins but what happens when they reach the next age level or next competitive level and only a few kids on the team actually have real ball skills?

     As coaches and parents we do want them to compete and to love to do so but they need to know that the competition is its own reward regardless of outcome.  Some parents may hear this and think that I’m trying to teach their kids a wishy-washy “winning isn’t everything” point of view.  That’s not the case.  You compete to win.  But if you do not love the competition for itself you are not likely to stick with it when you aren’t earning victories.  I’ve heard many athletes, most notably Michael Jordan, say that if you are afraid to fail you’ll never win because the path to victory at the highest level leads through many small failures.  For players on Fusion teams those “small” failures begin in training settings where we challenge them to master difficult ball control skills, skills that they may not think are obviously valuable for game situations.  Then we’ll push our players to try to execute those same skills in actual game situations where they will most certainly fail many times.  Yet that is how they’ll learn to use those skills and how to win with them.   A critical factor though is that players trust their coaches and their parents to be proud of them for playing fearlessly and creatively, for struggling to put those difficult skills to use.  Players have to know that that’s what you’re looking for and that you really do think winning is secondary.   But again, not because winning isn’t important but rather because competing is more important and I want them all to be unrepentant soccer field-rats who’d take a pick-up game in a pouring rain if it was their only chance to play.

   With all of this in mind I have a few simple principles that guide my coaching approach:

1) Be Patient.   Obviously I try to be patient myself as a coach but I’m also trying to instill that willingness to be patient in the players and in their parents.  Learning a new skill can take time and many repetitions and a lot of failures.  It can be a struggle.  I try to show my players and their parents through my words, my attitude and my body language that I am patient and will work with them for as long as it takes.  I try to impress upon them that struggle is just part of the work and they shouldn’t waste time with any unrealistic expectations as to how fast they can master something, nor should they make any unfounded assumptions about what their “natural abilities” might be just because it’s taking a little while to learn a new skill.   Stay focused and be patient with yourself and remember why you’re working on developing new skills...so you can take them with you into the game.  

2) Nothing is obvious.  Take as much time as necessary to teach a skill and don’t hesitate to break it down into its smaller parts.  Don’t assume one way of demonstrating a skill will work with every player.  Observe the players closely and coach to their individual strengths while trying to expand their abilities. From the players' perspective this means never be afraid to raise your hand and ask for another demonstration or a clearer explanation.

3) Stick to Fundamentals.  The primary focus has always got to be on skill development and so even when we're doing some tactical exercise at training I want it to be one that demands ball skill competence from every player.   With the younger age groups, U6 through U8, I generally avoid any sorts of tactical drills that might leave players standing in line for more than a few seconds. I will always favor practice work that gives the players lots of repeated touches on the ball. I've continued to maintain a focus on technical ball skill work with my teams even as the players mature and reach a point where they can grow very rapidly in their understanding of the game, their field awareness and their ability to anticipate each other's movements. My experience has been that players who have real technical competence with the ball will get the most out of any sorts of tactical drills we might run at training so developing technical competence is always where we start. By U9 we are regularly incorporating small "pattern" passing exercises that begin to introduce players to specific individual tactical concepts like "received with your back foot (or across your body)" or player communication (calling for the ball) but these exercises will also always be designed to give every player a lot of reps executing particular technical skills in a short period of time. So for a long time, up through U10 at least, what tactical I do design into a session will always be built on a foundation of getting lots of technical reps.

4) Teach them to be unafraid of situational failures.  If we spend time in practice learning a new deceptive move I want them initially to feel free to try it in the very next game without worrying about when is the right time to use it or when it will work.  Only game experience can teach them how to use their skills effectively so I encourage them to just go into the competition committed to trying to use those new skills.  Let's say we work in training one week on doing a step-over combination. I could use a skill like that as a player in a game situation to actually win a 1v1 or maybe just to get a defender to hesitate for a moment, just long enough for one of my teammates to get open for a pass. Either way though, if I don't actually try to use that skill I'll never get a feel for when or how to use it effectively, and no doubt, the first time (and a lot of times after that) that I use that skill I'll use it ineffectively or just mess up technically. As a player I've got to feel that getting to the point where I can reliably use a skill under pressure is worth all the times I have to struggle just to get it right and for that I need to know that my Coach and my family have my back in the whole process.

As a parent you've got to really be prepared for what this means. What if your kid or one of their teammates decides the right time to try out their new skill is just as they are dribbling through our own penalty area...and they mess up and lose the ball...and the other team scores. Will your emotional response be "Oh no! Don't do that!" or will it be "I saw what you were doing! Try it again! Take it to 'em!"?

Of course, at some point we may get frustrated that a player continues to use a particular 1v1 skill in dangerous situations, seeming to stubbornly refuse to learn from their experience. But I expect that to happen with some kids and it's okay. Just as some kids start early having a really good ball strike and then as they develop they continue to think that the solution to every problem on the field is to hit the ball hard, there will be kids who are so proud of their "Maradonna turn" that they'll just assume it's the magical skill to use in every situation. But given time they will eventually understand what's effective and what's not in particular situations.

5) Keep the focus on playing and competition.  A lot of what they need to learn as players they must learn through game experience so I try to keep a balance in my practices between focused technical work and teaching through playing games.   We spend half the practice working on a skill then the second half playing 1v1, 3v3, etc. or even a full scrimmage, situations in which we can put that new skill into action right away. And, I will always try to inject an element of competition into almost everything we do in a training session, even our warmups. If we do a dynamic warmup like the FIFA 11 then players will be doing that in pairs and I'll challenge each pair to "be more perfect" than the others. If we do any sort of running or dribbling work we'll make it a relay race. If we run any small passing pattern exercises, like Hot Corners, I'll challenge each group to try to be more perfect in their execution with more complete passes than the other groups. And, of course, once we get to the small sided play part of our sessions I'll be pushing them to win, not just play

Girl Power. First Win!

     There was a moment in the Girl Power match versus British Elite where that team's lead player, a real quality player with an angelic face and a merciless strike, shouted to her teammates to "just let them do their tricks with the ball, just stay in front of them."  I've heard that sort of thing before in rec league games but was a bit surprised to hear it in a competitive match.  And I have to admit that hearing that sentiment, that my player's skills are just tricks, always makes me a bit salty.  Yes, by all means let us hold the ball...we'll be needing it to score and you can't score without it.
     Of course the Girl Power players reacted to that call to "let them do their tricks" as well and if anything they redoubled their efforts to embarrass their opponents in those 1v1 situations.  They notice that sort of frustration coming from opposing players and their parents and it just fires them up to go harder.  Eileen was positively giggling as she took two players 1v1 even as the British Elite field general was admonishing her troops.  I'm sure Sophia was similarly tickled as she executed her "step-over-pull-back-push" flawlessly over and over again even as a dad on the other side could be heard yelling "WATCH FOR THE PULL-BACK!"  And Izzy's brilliant goal to grab the win came after she'd beat two defenders using her favorite pull-back-play-behind trick.  It could only have been better if she'd celebrated the goal by shouting "AND THAT IS WHAT TRICKS WILL GET YOU!"  Izzy's pretty reserved though and she'd never do that.
     The performance of the entire team was brilliant and it was a really fun match.  The fact that they were playing a team that would not play kick-ball but was rather trying to move the ball thoughtfully with skill gave Girl Power the opportunity to really explore their own ability to work together.  What I saw was the beginnings of a more cooperative effort where players were maintaining possession of the ball using their skills while still looking up to find opportunities to move the ball quickly into space with a pass.  Obviously for that to work we needed to see our players off the ball moving more fluidly into open space and supporting the player on the ball by being available.  We did see more of that and I heard plenty of communication as well.
     So compared to their first match this was a much more dynamic performance and I hope it has sort of opened the horizon up for them.  My sense is that as a group they are beginning to sense their potential.  At training this Thursday night they were fiercely competitive in their small sided game and that is something we really need in order to improve.  In training situations I need them to play each other hard, to defend hard and to drive hard for their shots.   I'm generally even okay if in these training competitions they get a bit chippy with each other and there are some fouls, even hard ones.  In the end even that sort of thing can draw them together more tightly as a team.  I've seen players who didn't get along particularly well suddenly ally themselves in game situations when they realize that their competitiveness with each other in training is a bond they share.  It's as though in the midst of a game they suddenly think "Hey! it's okay for me to foul her in training but it's definitely not okay for you to foul her so back off."
     This is a group of real players and athletes and I look forward to every match.

Girl Power. Learning How to Play Together.

     I only had two coaching points to make with the team prior to the first match of the season, the one at McClure against the Lakota team.  My first was to point out the field conditions.  Wet, long grass does not make for ideal conditions if your goal as a team is to possess the ball by dribbling and passing.  I warned the team to expect their opponent to try to play long balls over the top often.   Then I suggested that despite all of my coaching to the contrary maybe we should do the same.    I was happy to see that for the most part they insisted on dribbling anyway, insanely (or bravely) continuing to try to work the ball up field through 1v1s.
     My second point was to ask them to be patient with each other.  The players on this team generally get along with each other just fine at training and in games.  But they aren't what I'd describe as "tight" just yet.  There are moments when you can see that they frustrate each other and there are shifting alliances among them.  That's to be expected and we will work through it.  With that in mind I asked them all to be aware of just how few games this current group has played.  Be patient, even generous, I asked them.  Trust each other because you're all working toward the same goal and over time as you get more playing experience you'll get a feel for how to work together.
     For some time my approach to coaching the game has been to focus mostly on developing fundamental skill competence in my players and then let them discover cooperative play on their own during scrimmages and games.  We talk a lot about field positions and our tactical shape on the field, about what responsibilities the various positions entail, but my assumption is that players will largely learn those tactical aspects of the game by exploring them for themselves during play.   My reasoning in taking this approach has always been that players have to be motivated to improve in any aspect of the game by their own joy in the game, they have to want to be better because they love how it feels to play well.  So, the first step in that process is the joy they all feel in putting the ball in the net.  This drives them to want the ball in games and to want to attack.  Then comes the joy they feel winning individual 1v1s either attacking or defending and this drives them to work on their dribbling technique and their touch on the ball.  The final big step is learning the joy of playing as a group, or better, as a pack.  For me personally as a player, as good as it feels to school an opponent in a 1v1, maybe even nutmeg them, the greatest joy in the game is in creating a goal with your teammates in an effort that feels both spontaneous and coordinated.  It's that feeling of imposing yourself on your opponent together like a pack of wolves driving their prey with every member of the group bringing their individual skills to bear in a coordinated way.  It's thrilling and I think that when players catch that feeling it can change their attitude toward and understanding of the game.
      So for the players on Girl Power who've been around the longest, they've known that feeling.  They've played games where they dominated the ball and their opponents with a gracefully knit combination of skill and cooperation.  And now they're starting over again with the addition of some wonderful new teammates.  That's why my advice to the team is to be patient, even generous with each other.  Give yourselves time to get to know each other and when it starts to happen for you the progress will be rapid.
     That first game showed that they can achieve a team unity.  There was lots of insane individual dribbling into pressure situations where a bit of cooperative play might have been wiser.  But throughout the game they were regularly chattering on the bench about "that big girl" on the other team and by the end of the match they'd dubbed her "Gigantor".  That was a great sign for me as it shows them recognizing some aspect of the game as a challenge they can face together.  Even if their overall performance was a bit flat it seemed to me that they still came away from the game feeling positive, even excited about how they'd played.  That's where it starts, with them knowing that they can endure a loss together.
     The team's shared effort to stand up to Gigantor was a sign of progress and that would become apparent in their very next match.