JT's Blog - For the love of the game - Sept. 7

JT's Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. John Thomas "JT" is the Assistant Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

Why can’t we do more of these events? On August 24-26, I flew to San Jose, Calif., to present four different small-sided games clinics for Youth Soccer Month (Sept). The theme of the day was “For the Love of the Game”. The event was held in Union City, Calif. There were a lot of kids and parents out to just have some fun but they really weren’t sure what to expect. There wasn’t going to be any coaching of the players or parents telling players what and when to do anything, so for the parents and the coaches, what was there to do? How about simply enjoy the kids playing. There were a lot of smiles and running and kids making decisions about what to do in a free flowing game that seemed to be fun.

This event was organized by Evert Glenn, an US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (US Youth Soccer ODP) coach and staff instructor for the California Youth Soccer Association-North. This event was a trial outing of a proposed event series to be run in conjunction with the California Youth Soccer Association-North Recreation Committee called “For the Love of the Game”. It’s a day of soccer dedicated to bringing local college coaches and players together with recreational youth coaches and players in a relaxed free-flowing, non-competitive environment.

The small-sided games are played 3v3 though 6v6 on appropriate field sizes. Pick-up games occurred from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The games were short with no scores being kept. Coaches and any upper-level players were mixed in with recreational players of all ages except the U8 age group, for safety reasons.

The secondary theme of this event was small-sided games, which I trained four different groups of players and coaches ages Under-6, Under-8, Under-10 and Under-12. I saw joy and fun being had by all. However please note, CYSA-N was one of the first states to use small sided games as a training tool but coaching education is always to the benefit of the players being coached. There were recreational coaches and competitive coaches in attendance of each training session of my small-sided games demonstrations.

The fields were located at Cesar Chavez Middle School in Union City, Calif. The complex had three full grass fields and ample side areas for other activities. There were more than adequate comfort facilities and volunteers from the local soccer community who offer concessions items and music for the youth and parents listening pleasure.

JT's Blog - Soccer Skills - August 29

JT's Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. John Thomas "JT" is the Assistant Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

The week of August 11, I taught at the National Youth License course at the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, with Dr. Ron Quinn and Paul Halford, the Director of Coaching for PA West.

It was the thirteenth course completed this year. The candidates came from PA West, Eastern Pennsylvania, New York and Wisconsin. I look forward to hearing great things from them. One of the main themes that continued coming up from the candidates was the discussion of skills of former youth players that are coaching today and how to develop them as coaches. Here are some great tools you can use:

“The most important soccer skills to teach children” from the excellent Soccer-Coach-L manual.

Soccer players need a lot of different skills, and it does not matter for most of these skills whether you teach Skill A or Skill B first. However, there are some skills that are absolute "must-haves" for any player and are so important that you probably will want to teach them first.

Dribbling the ball is arguably the most important soccer skill at any level. Practice activities should encourage all young players to dribble and stop and turn the ball with different surfaces and to move in different directions with the ball under control.

“Basic Coaching Concepts for Players Under the Age of Nine Individual Technical and Tactical Issues for U-7’s and U-8’s”, by Tom Turner, Ohio Youth Soccer Association-North Director of Coaching and Player Development

Most young players have little or no visual awareness of their immediate surroundings, and, in particular, the proximity of teammates and opponents not directly in front of them. Receiving passes when facing away from the opponent’s goal is a difficult skill, even for accomplished players, and most children will not look up until they have received the ball, secured possession, and turned to face forward. Often, young players will simply let the ball run past them into what they hope will be open space.

Young players should not be restricted in their movements on the field and moving should become a natural extension of passing. Passing to other players should be expected and encouraged at age eight and up, although dribbling the ball is the most likely method of advancing the ball. Instruction that limits players to a particular area of the field does not allow for the natural emergence of supporting positions and angles that become so important for positional play in later years.

“The Most Important Skills To Teach”, from the Coaching Manual.

Basic ball-holding skills (receiving and shielding); basic ball-stealing skills (defense); and basic take-on skills (attacking). Most kids naturally seem to have a few basic defensive skills, even if they were never formally taught. The other two areas require instruction to accomplish with even minimal competency, so there is a good argument to start first with ball-holding skills; move next to take-on skills; and then to get to ball-stealing skills. What do you think?

Should young players learn ball-holding before take-on skills? Once you get possession, the other side is going to try to take the ball back. If you can hang on to the ball under pressure, you'll have time to make better decisions (including finding an open teammate to pass the ball to). Also, if you are confident that you can hold the ball, you are less likely to blindly whack it away and let someone else worry about it (a technique commonly known as "passing the responsibility rather than the ball" or the "hot-potato phenomenon"). What are ball-holding skills? Most folks refer to them as receiving and shielding skills.

Sam's Blog - Running in Soccer - August 27

Sam’s Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. Sam Snow is the Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

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...

Sam's Blog - Coaching DVD Shoot - August 21

Sam’s Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. Sam Snow is the Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

Over the past weekend video footage was shot for a new DVD that US Youth Soccer will release in February. The DVD is on basic ball skills for the Under-6 to the Under-14 age groups. The coaches featured in the DVD are Rick Meana, Director of Coaching for the New Jersey Youth Soccer Association, Brian Pitts, Director of Coaching for the South Dakota Youth Soccer Association, John Thomas, Assistant Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer and Karla Thompson, Director of Soccer Operations for the Arizona Fury.

Mother Nature smiled on us as the rain stayed away and highs in only the 80s prevailed. A great group of kids worked really hard to get onto film visual examples of techniques that must be the base to playing soccer. Some of the skills filmed were deflections, chip pass, heading to score, dribbling, receiving, tackling and more. Basic movements for Under-6 and Under-8 were also filmed. These physical movements are the foundations to refined ball skills in latter years. Some of the movements that will be in the DVD are balance, hopping, jumping and agility and again many more are demonstrated.

The DVD will show each skill in regular speed, then in slow motion, then in regular speed again and all from three different camera angles. A game clip from teenaged players will show how the skill will develop over the years and be used in matches. Following the game clip will be an activity that a coach could conduct in a training session to bring out that particular skill in the players.

The US Youth Soccer Recreation Committee, the Coaching Committee and the coaches who worked on the DVD feel the product will be useful to many coaches across the United States. In fact they think the DVD can help not only the novice coach but also the coach who has grown up playing the game and can demonstrate the skills, but may not know how to break them down in order to teach them to someone else.

An extensive technical manual has also been written with all of the coaching points for each skill along with the diagrams and details on each training activity. The DVD will first go on public sale at the 2008 US Youth Soccer adidas Workshop in Pittsburg on February 8, 2008.

Sam's Blog - Observing Game-like Activities - August 20

Sam’s Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. Sam Snow is the Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

Some people see only the surface when observing game-like activities. They see only soccer camp type games that they associate with killing time. Yet when the layers are peeled away it is clear that there is quite a bit of depth to what appears to be a simple activity.

It’s even easier to dismiss the activity when it doesn’t look like the things that professional players do at their training sessions; that the soccer implication is not immediately obvious. So let’s take one of these game-like activities and peel away the layers one at a time and see what the implications for the game are.

DRAW!

…just a camp game or something more?

Some people see only the surface when observing game-like activities. They see only soccer camp type games that they associate with killing time. Yet when the layers are peeled away it is clear that there is quite a bit of depth to what appears to be a simple activity. It’s even easier to dismiss the activity when it doesn’t look like the things that professional players do at their training sessions; that the soccer implication is not immediately obvious. So let’s take one of these game-like activities and peel away the layers one at a time and see what the implications for the game are.

In the activity DRAW two players stand facing one another with a ball between them. They stand with their feet squared and flat. On the coach’s call of DRAW they try to be the first one to use the sole of the foot and pull the ball back to them. The players keep their score and after a certain number of rounds or a set amount of time the coach asks the players their scores.

Sometimes if the coach calls out a word that sounds similar to DRAW and a player pulls the ball away then that player loses a point. As many rounds as the players care to play can be done. Now that you have the procedure and rules for the activity let’s dissect it. We’ll use the four components of the game to dissect the activity.

Fitness: improvement will be seen with balance, agility, and foot speed and eye-foot coordination
Technique: the skill to manipulate the ball using the sole of the foot will improve
Tactics: reading partner’s body language to anticipate action or reaction is improved
Psychology: mental focus and alertness to the coach’s call and to the partner’s
movement; rebound ability has a chance to improve in between each round; mental toughness whether winning or losing a round

This is a fun way to start a training session scrimmage sometimes too. Do have some fun with the game too and call out LAW or PAW just to goof a little, which can have a positive impact on team building.

DRAW is a relatively simple activity meant to improve competitiveness among the players as well as achieving improvement in the components described above. Yet even in this one simple activity it can be seen that there is more than meets the eye.

JT's Blog - Soccer Fitness - August 8

JT's Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. John Thomas "JT" is the Assistant Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

You may or may not know that we at US Youth Soccer’s Coaching Department are asked to review books, articles, websites and videos. I thought I would share some of the comments from the Fitnessforsoccer.com. In reviewing this site, I found that it provided some very good information on several topics. Highlighted are five areas of concern from the Fitness for Soccer website.

Soccer Stretches Dynamic warm up exercises should be the staple for every soccer practice warm up. However, knowing which sequence and which stretches and movement patterns are best for your soccer players can make all the difference. We already know quality of movement and movement speed are some of the secrets to soccer success. However, the flexibility of individual players can have a significant impact on their ability to move on the field as well as protect themselves from injury. Another important issue is how players warm up before practice, before critical games and what they do before and after exercise can either add value or detract from their results. All too often I see players spending way too much time performing static stretch (holding a stretch for more than 2-3 seconds). While this may have a place in the role of warm-up, research has shown this can tire out your nervous system and pre-fatigue a muscle. The result is that the player can start the game feeling flat and result in a greater chance of injury.’

Mental Coaching Playing to your full potential and achieving your best effort in soccer performance must involve a comprehensive approach. Our philosophy is to “prepare your body…prepare your mind…to play your best”. Gaining a mental edge over your competition has to do with unlocking the true power of your mind. If you are feeling frustrated with your exercise plan or current level of play, count on this library of articles to pull you through to another level. No matter where your difficulties lie, whether they are with stress reduction, emotional control, game strategies, mental imagery, breaking out of your comfort zone or mental preparation, inspiration and guiding force to motivate you to your best soccer performance ever.

Sports Nutrition Championship performance begins with making great nutritional choices. What are the best snacks before play or practice? Are there foods that can help my performance during play? Whether you need to change your body composition by losing body fat and/or gaining lean muscle or just learn how to fuel your body properly to optimize your performance on the field. Remember that mentally your brain needs to stay conditioned to tell your body what to do. So, which foods produce champions and which foods can hinder play?

Soccer Fitness What about agility drills, soccer specific balance and deceleration and transitional movement training? Deceleration training is as critical as acceleration techniques. Remember that soccer players decelerate quickly as they approach the ball and then quickly change direction! Learning how to decelerate quickly could give your players a very significant tactical advantage.

Soccer Injuries Imagine feeling pain in your low back every time you play, getting sidelined with an ACL injury, a hamstring pull or groin injury. The passion you feel for the game is sometimes overwhelming yet the idea of not being able to play due to an injury can be devastating, not only for yourself but for your team. Learning how to manage and treat injuries, how to know when something is serious and how to take care of your body and protect it form injury is the secret to longevity and consistent, powerful performance is key.

What are your comments of this information, would it help you to have more understanding of this information?

Sam's Blog - Numbers - August 6

Sam’s Blog will be a weekly addition to the US Youth Soccer Blog. Sam Snow is the Director of Coaching Education for US Youth Soccer.

What’s up with that?

While walking around a soccer park this weekend watching youth and adult amateur matches I noticed again a goalkeeper wearing 00. OK, I’ll admit up front that I am a soccer traditionalist in some ways. I think that soccer shoes should be black, that coaches should tuck in their shirt and that jersey numbers should be traditional whenever possible. With apologies to Jaime Moreno, but 99 is not a soccer number. Yes I know I don’t have a leg to stand on with this argument since even in the Mexican first division players have jersey numbers like 142 for crying out loud. Perhaps it was their try-out number from ODP.

Maybe I’m hung up on the traditional jersey number thing because of fighting the battles for years to get soccer accepted as a “real” sport. One small aspect of that fight was that soccer numbers were 1-18. Goalkeepers wore numbers 1 and 18 and field players wore numbers 2-17. Now that college teams and even professional teams have rosters in the twenties stopping the numbering at 18 does not make sense. However 00 is not even a number. Mathematicians take it easy I know that 0 is a number, but we’re talking about people here. You’re a zero is a slander. Why on Earth would a coach let a player be less than zero? Come on give the kid a number.

We can call it a soccer field instead of a pitch or we can call it a baseball field instead of a diamond. We can call it a soccer ball instead of a football, despite the obvious reason why it really is a football. We can call it a soccer game instead of a match. We can call it practice even though when it’s done correctly it becomes a training session. We can even call it recreational when in fact it is all competitive. But we must give the player who is already somewhat separated from the rest of the team a number.