Coaches Information – Travel & Intramural
Dear Coaches,
Welcome to the new season. I know many of us have already started our fixtures for the Fall season but I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to everyone and speak about some of the standards we should adhere to through our training sessions and games as coaches of youth players. It doesn’t matter if you are coaching your child for the first time, or a Premier Travel coach. We can always improve ourselves and hopefully you will find that we are making extra efforts to keep you up-to-date with the latest information from a coaching perspective which will help you and your players achieve their goals.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Wednesday 21st September – Minnesauke School – Club Coaches Meeting 7.30pm – 9.30pm
(Jeff Bookman from Chelsea Football Club talking about training Youth Players and Video Webtools through Inside Soccer. Injury prevention in young athletes through Kailee DiDomenico and Dave Orlando)
Saturday 24th September/1st October/15th October/22nd October 9.30pm – 10.45pm)
(Coaching Youth player 1st – 4th Grade – Bring your teams and clipboard as we go through variation of drills designed to create a FUN environment for your players)
No Laps, No Lines, No Lectures……
Do your training sessions include sending your players on laps. players standing in a long line waiting to take a shot at goal. Long winded speeches about how a drill should work and what the players should be doing. If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’ then you are doing yourself and more importantly your players a huge disservice. Soccer is a game of movement, agility and constantly thinking, for your players to get better, you HAVE to adhere to these rules. Any coaching course you go on, these are the three things which are highlighted more than anything else which are bad for players development we are here to teach the game of soccer. The players should be getting as many touches on the ball as possible.
Instead of laps;
- Exercises which encourage lots of dribbling under pressure of time or defenders (everybody is moving)
- Circuit Training (players go to different section every 30 seconds and must complete as many designated moves as possible)
Drills like this are high intensity, they get the heart-rate up and are a positive way to start a session, creating immediate competition with peers. Players under the age of 10 should NOT be stretching. Children of this age will very rarely suffer any sort of muscle related injury and stretching players of young ages is counter-productive.
Instead of lines;
- Have one group of 4 players shooting at goal for 2 minutes (see how many goals they can score in that time). On one side of the drill have 4 players constantly rotating in a 1 vs 1 drill on a small field, and have the other 4 players playing 2 vs 2 the other side. Move players to different section after 2 minute period with 1 minute rest in between. That way EVERY player is active.
- You do NOT need to have players always attacking a goal. How about an end line or a gate ? You can have 3 or 4 mini games going at once and players will be constantly active.
Instead of lectures;
- Concentrate on getting across 2 or 3 key points and repeat through drill.
- Ask players for their feedback, how will they achieve there goal, what are the key things they need be aware of. ENGAGE them but keep it short !!!
If you need help setting up a session, then visit some of the online resources listed below, you could plan a whole year of sessions based on what you can find on line. NONE will involve Laps, Lines or Lectures.
Game Etiquette
Coaching soccer can be tremendously hard at times. In fact one of the most difficult dilemma’s is when I coach a team that is scoring goals for fun and the other team is getting demoralized to such a degree that I need to fix the situation to ensure that I am not being disrespectful to them and being mindful that we are dealing with CHILDREN who may love the sport. As adults we need to understand why it is important that we do not run up scorelines for our own ego’s or the ego’s of our players and parents. We need to take the moral high-ground and do the right thing once we open up 4 or 5 goal leads, when it is clear that our opponents are struggling. As a coach can you encourage your players too;
- Play the remainder of the game using only their weak foot.
- Passing back to your own goalkeeper so they have to use their feet.
- Playing two passes in your own penalty box before starting an attack (this will encourage other team to push forward and take some pressure off them)
- Switching your players positions around
- Playing 10 passes, with every player touching the ball before starting an attack
- Only scoring with a header or volley
- Playing 2 players down or inviting the other team to add more players on the field.
All of the above can be combined and factored into what your team might need to work on. Again there is no right or wrong way (apart from running up a big score line without having the courage to challenge your players) in doing this, however if you can be smart and discreet, interact with the other coach as adults, then you can find a solution that will be beneficial to both teams and ensure that every kid on the field has the chance to leave the field with a smile on their face and not dreading coming back the next week for another beating.
Coaching Resources
If you go to Google, Yahoo and You Tube and type in ‘Soccer Drills’, ‘Soccer Dribbling Drills’ or ‘Soccer Passing Drills’ etc, etc, you will find close to a million different sites and resources. MANY of these are free, so feast on whatever you can get. I currently work with two pay sites, which have FREE material, I am currently in conversation with them now about creating something through our club, they are.
Inside Soccer - http://www.insidesoccer.com/
World Class Coaching - http://www.worldclasscoaching.
If you would like help planning a session or understanding coaching youth soccer more. Then please feel free to come to any of the Travel teams or Academy training nights, or indeed our Saturday morning clinics where you can work directly with your own players as we show you drills, or you can contact me at the number or e-mail below.
Thank You,
Mark Nash – Stony Brook Soccer Director of Coaching
