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.