U13 - A little bit of everything!

Tonight was our only session of the week.  It was 2 hours.  We had three games Saturday, three this Saturday and it's a busy week for a lot of the kids with a Confirmation Rite of Acceptance mass on Wednesday. 

It was a potpourri type of session.  But there was an underlying message to three of the drills.  "Hit the ball!". 

We started out with keep-away and that is improving with each practice.  The kids are getting to know what we want without telling them.  I stay on them and stay demanding, but I'm happy.

The next three simple exercises were:

• Striking to pass long
• Shooting while running and unopposed
• Shooting after 1v1

Coaching points for all three:

• Kicking knee bent and over the ball
• Toe down, strike with laces
• ANKLE LOCKED!
• Strike through middle of the ball
• See the ball on contact
• Foot speed on strike

Some of our boys do not want to hit the ball with the intent of driving it for an assertive pass.  They prefer love tapping it all the way up the field, but it's U13 now and the field needs to be stretch. 

I have to keep the message consistent and have them believe that proper technique and not body size is what will make the ball go.  Our smallest player is one of our best at striking a ball.  I find a lot of players in general have to get over the idea that their foot is going to hit the ground.

We then spent 5 minutes getting more heading in.  Making heading a more prominent part of our game changed our team on Saturday.  Some players were also starting to redirect their heading using it as a pass.  I look forward to more.


Coaching points were the same:

• Forehead, eyes open
• Drive the ball
• You hit the ball, it doesn't hit you

When the technical part was over, we did some shadow play over 2/3 field, going through some possible sequences the ball might take during a match.  We will do more of that.  It was less teaching and more repetition, just doing some mild shaping of our positioning.  But most of the sequences involved long, penetrating passes coming from our central defenders and midfielders.

While I was doing that, Coach Paul worked with 2 kids on heading the ball.  When he was done with them, he worked with 2 others on playing balls out of the air.

The shadow play portion was 30 minutes long and had some success.  I had to leave for a meeting and Coach Paul did the remaining 35 minutes.  He ran some "first to the ball" exercises then had a small game with them.

I don't like busy sessions like this.  I had it all planned this way and kept it organized and moving, but still not my style   I think they still get something out of it, it just seems a bit hectic to me.  When I do have these, I simply go with less instruction than usual, or else it's too much information.

Our result: Lots of touches, lots of repetitions.  Some positioning work. Getting Coach Paul more involved.  Not a text book practice, but it was what we delivered in the situation we had this week.  I have to say I was happy with what we came away with.

Our season opener is 2 weeks after this weekend is over.  We'll have to find another friendly in there before the big game, but only after we've had 3 practices for some fine tuning.

OSA - Good Video for LTPD

The OSA put out a very good video for Long Term Player Development (LTPD).

U13 - Something I sent to our parents

I sent this to our parents today.  Not only do I want parents being more involved this year, I also want to share what we are doing with the boys so they understand what they might hear during matches.  They are a good bunch and they've been supportive since I took over the team at U11.

Hi there parents,

I told you I would keep you up-to-date this year in our dealings with the boys.  Thanks for your time in reading this and helping with our message.

The boys continue to delight with their personalities, sharing their pre-teen thoughts with the group and experimenting with their new vocabulary.  I really do love this age.

I see us moving toward a final vision of our on field product.  Coach Paul and I see good ideas happening all the time, as well as things that need to be fixed.  Coach Paul had a good idea for me, but my head wouldn’t fit in the toilet.

Shin pads are required at training. If you don’t have shin pads, you risk injury.  If you worry about getting hurt and you have no shin pads, you will not tackle hard and challenge at training, meaning you are also cheating your opponent of his game-like situation.

We’ve been doing more positional work this year and giving the kids more tactical information, in various forms to suit whatever learning style works for them.  That series of sheets was sent out last week.  I have one almost ready that describes every position and their main functions when we have the ball and when we are defending.  Some will read it, other will not.  Some parents may never show it to them.  For all I know you may not even have read this far in this message.  We can’t control that, we can only prepare and deliver.

I just wanted to share with you what we say to the boys on a regular basis. 

1. If you head the ball, you must attack the ball, not let the ball hit your head.  Eyes open, body strong, through the ball.  Failing to apply the proper technique is not only poor soccer, it’s dangerous and can cause shoulder, neck and head injuries.  Bending down and heading a ball with the top of your head is a sure-fire trip to the chiropractor.  The incoming balls being headed are hit harder and are now size 5 instead of 4.  The problem is this .. Either head the ball correctly, or don’t head it .  But if you want to play U13 soccer and beyond, you need to head the ball, so we work to do it correctly.  We are sincerely afraid every time a player doesn’t go into a head ball with full intentions.  
2. When you step in for a tackle: full tackle, body strong, with force.  Not to hurt the other player, but to prevent injury to you.  Failing to tackle hard not only causes you to look silly and is poor defending, it’s very dangerous.  Tackle correctly or don’t tackle.  The only problem is if you want to play U13 soccer, you need to tackle and play to win the ball.
3. First to the ball.  Go in to win the ball.  Strong.  Going in weak is not only poor soccer, it’s dangerous.  If you’ve played any sport you see people getting hurt by going in “second” and trying to recover.
4. Going in strong forces you to be ready for impact (which doesn’t hurt) and requires balance, minimizing injuries.  Poor-balance Injuries can occur on impact or when moving your body into the next movement.
5. Kick the ball or don’t kick the ball, but don’t just swing your foot in it’s general vicinity.  Striking a ball with intention and purpose forces balance and strength and prepares you for your next movement.
6. A lot of injuries at impact are technique related and we don’t want any of our boys getting hurt.  That’s why hockey coaches work so hard in teaching how to deliver and take a body check.
7. There is no being “tired”.  Even if you are tired :) You feel some fatigue, work through it and find your second wind.  You play or don’t play.  If you are on the field, you want to play and you don’t want to come off.  
8. Inspire each other with your own hard work.  If you work hard, your teammate will work hard.  If you don’t, neither will your teammate.
   

Items 1-8 are the coaches job to fix, not a knock on any player.  We will continue find ways for players to experience game like situations at training so they are more prepared, and less fearful, for the confrontations in a game.  If a boy is scared of a certain situation, it’s our job to find ways to expose him to it and subside those anxieties.  The nice thing is if you work past any reservations you have with all situations, you are not only safer, you also become one hell of a soccer player.

The game is not dangerous, but I know it’s scary living this physical reality for the first time.  A Connor/Noah type physically competing 1v1 with a Haris/Spencer type is a reality with the U13/U14 age group.    Strength and balance are key components to durability.

Our other message is that in U13/U14 competitive sports, players who were successful before are being pressured for jobs by boys who are blooming later.  Don’t assume your spot is your spot.  There is more turnover on teams and what starts to separate players are their level of work/grit, their durability and their competitiveness in all situations.  This applies to all sports.  Coaches also like to see who the players are that push others to compete.  We want to prepare the boys for this and make sure they are mentally and physically ready to challenge at the next soccer, basketball, hockey or lacrosse tryouts.

I just wanted to share that with you.

Thanks for your support to this point.  We’ll stay in touch.

Coaches Frank and Paul

U13 - West Niagara Tournament

Today we had our first "competition".  The West Niagara Invitational Soccer Tournament is held during the pre-season every year.  It's hosted by the Lincoln Soccer Club, but is held all over Niagara.  They do a  great job!

To summarize the 3 games and our day quickly:

We won our first game 2-0 and lost our next two games 3-0 each.  In both 3-0 losses, our boys were playing well but allowed themselves to stop pressuring and challenging for short periods of time.  The last two teams were stronger than us. It was a great example of how you CAN play with them if you get in their face on every pass and how you get flattened when you stop running.

We were playing with only two reserves all day long (illness, vacations, etc) and that helped everybody play a lot.

Every player on our team had some personal success moments and we saw an improvement in one aspect or another of each boy.

Our heading was the most notable team improvement and changed our overall effectiveness in a game.

We had many good examples of 2/3/4 players pressuring an area and winning the ball.

Our goalkeeper was struggling to hit the ball in recent weeks but today he had a great day.

We held our shape fairly well.  We play an attacking 4-3-3 and we still have to master where our holding midfielder should be at all times.  When he gets lost it puts extra pressure on our central defenders.   This will improve with more practice.

Our passing was hot and cold.  But continues to get warmer with each game.

Our main weakness is still getting to the ball first and the strength of our tackling.  That is something we will continue working on.  There are some other weaknesses or course, this this is the most glaring.

Our focus at training this week will be winning the ball in a 1v1 and getting to the ball first.

The boys demonstrated today that, for Coach Paul and me,  the program has been time well spent.

U13 - Second Friendly

Tonight we played our second friendly.  The quantitative result was 2-0 in our favour.  The team we played are much improved over last season and we are very appreciative of them inviting us to work together with them.

Our 2 goals were very sweet soccer goals.    Both sequences were started as a switch in the play by our holding midfielder at the time.  They saw it works... great.

The good:

• Nice goals
• We kept our shape much better
• We were quicker getting out and coming back, keeping our shape compact up/down the field.
• They had some great ideas as the game progressed
• We had good organization on both sides of goal kicks and corner kicks
• More players recognizing when to turn 
• More attempts at switching the play 
• Lots of crosses
• The boys worked hard to get the balls down the wings, behind the defenders

The bad:

• Strength and technique when heading the ball
• Distances on throw-ins
• Some wild kicks to nobody/nowhere

The ugly:

• Not getting to the ball first.  Almost every time.

These are the coaches' problems to fix and our sessions will focus around them.

This Saturday we have our first tournament.  I wouldn't say we are 100% ready to play but I would say we want to play, which is good.  Tonight I had a to-do list for the boys and they did it for the most part.  I will work with Coach Paul to put together wish lists for each game Saturday.

I always say I don't like playing two matches in a row because there are things to fix.