Indoor Season Begins

     It's good to be back inside playing when the weather becomes winter-like.  The field house can be cold in the early morning but it's a warm refuge compared to the rawness of the elements outside.   The space is filled with the noise of kids excited to get back to the game and parents getting reacquainted with their "soccer friends" and the first weekend of the session is a sort of reunion.
      All of our teams had great opening games.  There was lots of energy and some very good quality of play.  I don't get as much practice time with the kids as I'd like during the indoor session and I don't want their joy in playing to be burdened by a lot of coaching instruction from me.  So, I try to keep it simple and focus on the very basics of the soccer skill set.  You'll hear some Coaches yelling to their teams about spacing and passing and "staying in your positions".  You won't hear that sort of coaching from me.   I'm going to coach each of them on the development of their individual skills using the little time we have as efficiently as I can and then I'll let them figure out how to play together as a team.   I'll offer advice on that sort of thing when appropriate but a lot of what a player needs to understand about how to use the space on the field and how to anticipate the action must be learned  through experience.  I'll let them know that I trust them to figure it out and then during breaks or after games we'll talk about what we learned.  In the menu to the right is a link to a short list of things I told the U10 team I'd be looking for this session.  These points will apply to the other teams as well.

    As for everyone's performance this weekend, here's some of what I saw:

     The U4 team got off to a very good start.  We've got some real players in that line-up.  There was the usual mix of energy, silliness and occasional bruised feeling that you expect from U4 in the beginning but I'm really happy with the level of focus the players showed.  I think this group will progress quite quickly.

    Unfortunately I was only able to work with one of the U6 teams this week.  Chris took the other.  The group I had includes our insanely strong "girl power" line-up.  We had Abby back with us joining Ava, Ashley and Hailey.  When these girls are on the field they bring a constant, energetic attack that eventually wears the other side down.  They don't concede the ball ever and they don't seem to be afraid of anyone.  I saw a lot of very good skill from each of them with sharp changes of direction and good ball control.  But I also saw a lot of very smart play off the ball with Ava and Abby especially showing that they can anticipate the action and get to where the ball will end up rather than always chasing behind it.   We had Henry and Luke returning from the outdoor team and they played very well too.  Henry is quickly developing some very good skills with the ball and he's got his brother Sam's sense of the field.  Luke took a good turn in at keeper, making a couple of good stops.  The team was also joined by three players we hadn't seen since last indoor season, Derron, Cole and Maddox.  All three were full of energy and ready to go and Maddox was showing some amazing development as a control player since his last session on the team.  By putting some finesse together with his great speed Maddox becomes a real threat to score whenever he has the ball.

     I was so proud of those U8 Sharks this Sunday.  The team we played against is coached by Eric Henderson who is the director of the Legends soccer club and hearing his compliments for the beautifully controlled, fearless and imaginative style of play the Sharks have was very gratifying.   And it was a tour de force too.  Everyone seemed to have their best game face on and we saw every player showing solid fundamental skills throughout the game.  Elizabeth, Jackson, Zach and Sam seemed to really enjoy their new rolls as senior players on the team and all of them were setting a wonderful example for their teammates.  Elizabeth managed two goals, one of which she just hammered.  Her sense of how to get open in the middle when the Sharks are attacking is amazing and that led to her first goal off a nice pass from Tyler.  For the second one she was on her own, dribbling through traffic to that powerful finish.
     Jackson was showing his swagger in as keeper.  Then on the field he was using his moves, trying to always keep the ball close.  He had some great runs and then did manage a couple of goals.  Like Elizabeth, he's got a pretty good sense of when to come in and crash the goal.
     Sam made perfect traps followed by quick steps to the open field over and over again.  Nothing super flashy, just rock-solid consistent competence with the ball.  The ball would come to him, he'd glance up the field, make a soft touch of the ball to his right or left then take off.  Sometimes he'd pass up right away, sometimes he'd try to take it in himself.  Just beautiful stuff.
     Then we had Zachary and his new-found speed.  Is it the shoes?  The dude can fly and he's always got the ball at his feet, making some sort of feint move.   He did a little "fast-slow-fast" move late in the game yesterday that was just crazy smooth.  With the added dimension of Zach's speed and finesse the Sharks' attack is really balanced and I think other teams will have a hard time containing them.
     Tyler looked very good and is progressing rapidly toward having ball control skills to match his incredible tenacity and toughness.  Our other returning player is McKenzie who had a very good game.  She was in the thick of the action constantly and showed no fear of being in the crowd with bigger kids.  She made some good moves with the ball too.
     The new players who joined us were Lillian, Reagan and Wyatt.  Lillian is fresh up from U6 and so she's just getting used to the speed of the U8 game but she played very well really, including a good turn in at keeper.  Reagan too seemed a bit overwhelmed at first but she warmed up and played with good energy.  Wyatt came into the game ready to play, showing some good ball skills and a powerful left foot that led to a goal for him.  Great first game all around.

     The U10 team chose the right name for themselves:  The Titans.  They played like it, with a great combination of speed, finesse and power.  The only returning players are Drew, Jaden and Owen and they all played very well.  Drew's skill with the ball is remarkable and now he's really tireless in his commitment to trying to beat opponents one-on-one rather than booting the ball away.  I think he really relishes that challenge now.  Jaden was solid in defense for us and showed some very nice ball skill.
     Among the new players are Michaell Michelle and Kailey who don't have much soccer experience between them but they showed a lot of good energy and were trying their best to get into the action.  A very good first game for them.  We were also joined by Morgan and Danielle, more experienced players who show great promise in becoming skilled attacking players.  I'll be pressing them both as the session goes on to try to play more often with the ball at their feet and to try to work through traffic using their dribbling skills.  I'll be doing the same with Addison, a player with a very strong kick who just needs to get in the habit of trapping the ball first, looking around then moving with it before letting loose with that big kick.
     The final addition to the team is Justin, a very polished player with great speed.  He's a great compliment to Drew and Owen on the attack.  Prior to the game he seemed nervous about being put up in the striker position but he is new to indoor and I think he quickly realized that on the smaller, faster field you are really in an attacking position wherever you are on the field.  He took advantage of that and had at least a pair of goals.  I lost track.

     Great work from everyone for the first week.  Do your toe-taps!  I'll see you next weekend.


    

Fall Outdoor Session Wrap-up

I apologize to everyone for becoming so lax in my efforts here at the blog.  The combination of my coaching schedules and administrator duties this session have made it near impossible for me to even take a moment to reflect on how the kids are progressing let alone write anything about it.  But the session is over and my schedule is less hectic so now I can take a moment to look back on the work we did this Summer/Fall and think about where our various Sharks are.  And I promise that from here on out I'll get back to regularly reporting on what I'm seeing in practices and games.

Hopefully you noticed during the course of the Fall session that the focus in practice was always on individual ball control skills.  I occasionally threw in a passing/shooting drill, mostly for the aerobic aspect of it, but the bulk of our time was spent working on ball control.  With the younger kids the idea was always to just keep them focused on having the ball at their feet and getting a feel for moving around and taking the ball with them.  For the older kids I was trying to introduce them to some more complex deceptive moves while always emphasizing to them that the most important thing is to develop a soft touch on the ball and learn to be confident with the ball at your own feet.  Kicking it away is rarely the best first option.

What I saw by the end of the session was a lot of very good progress with many players showing remarkable improvement and growing confidence.  During the indoor sessions we'll continue in that direction, always focusing on developing those individual skills that make it possible for a player to feel comfortable on the field, even in a crowd.  The indoor sessions give us a great opportunity to work on really sharpening those close-in technical skills, the pull-backs and play-behinds and all the other great moves you can use to deceive your opponent.  The turf conditions outdoor can be unforgiving but indoor it's all smooth so you have the chance to really work on that fine ball control you need to win in one-on-one situations.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And, as I've said before, I'm not looking for wins.  I'm looking for constant improvement and growth.  I'm looking for the kids to be fearless and feel that they're free to try anything.  When we see them doing that, when we see them trying to throw a step-over or scissors or Cruyf turn or whatever in to a game situation, we need to celebrate that as much as we would a goal.  To succeed you can't be afraid to fail.  Check out the video below.  It shows a professional team in pre-game warm ups. When one of the players, Juan Mata,  executes a move that just looks impossible his teammates celebrate with him like he'd scored a goal in competition.  That's how I'd like my teams to be...all the players pulling for each other and pushing each other to try harder and go farther.