A coach (and president of the club) wrote to me recently with this message:
I was wondering if I can get your advice on a situation. My daughter's Under-14 select soccer team coach often makes the team run laps or sprints after a match. I feel like there is no purpose in this and to me it doesn't help them. Can you tell me what is your point of view of running laps or sprints after a match?
Here's my reply:
There really is no good purpose to run laps or sprints after a match. If the coach feels the team needs to be disciplined, which is the usual reason for sprints after a match, then there are better ways to discipline the team. Furthermore, if the players have run hard in the match then running afterwards is detrimental to their physical recovery.
Here's the full article...
4 comments:
Great article Sam!
Now, how can we get coaches to READ and BELIEVE this?
Getting coaches to believe will take the diligent work of their local colleagues to reinforce the ideas in the article...getting them to read it? Well let's start with guiding them to the BLOG section of the US Youth Soccer website and then once there hopefully they will read it and the other resources available on the web site.
Good work Sam! I must chime in with my two cent. If a slow jog is used after a match or practice session, being used as part of a cool down program, I can accept this (as long as it is followed with low impact stretching) but if it is being used as a sort of a punishment, not good. My girls know what to do if instruction is not followed and what they do is specific to the position or fitness i.e. core strenghtening. If a shot is missed during practice, ok but if the shot is taken without reguards to the situation and is missed, I hope it was a lob because they are to sprint after the ball and back. A few times of doing this works on attention to detail but running is never used as punishment. Parent, ask the coach after practice about him/her doing this, they should be glad to answer.
Hi Sam:
Our state association recently gave the option of playing "travel soccer', as opposed to "in-house" soccer at the U10 level to all youth soccer associations within it's boundaries.
We have resisted allowing U10 players to play travel soccer (soccer against other communties) because we feel the pressure to win is ramped-up when playing against other communities and this could retard the individual players' soccer development.
Instead, we ask that they continue to play "in-house" leagues within their own community where they play short-sided games against their local friends, with a lower emphasis to win, but more emphasis on skill development.
Many parents say that we are "old-fashioned" and should allow U10's to travel since many other communities are doing it.
What is your take on this issue?
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