Coaching Youth travel soccer, I don't know anything about soccer (1 Viewer)

[Mookie]

.LOL at the thought of you being done.  You're in like Pacino in Godfather III!  Kudos to you for getting so involved in your daughter's life and enjoy the ride! 

Oh, and challenge the girls to learn how to juggle the ball in the offseason.  To do it properly, they need to use BOTH of their feet - and not just thigh the ball.  Youtube is a great resource for getting started.  Create rewards or recognition if they can keep the ball in the air for 10, 25, 50, 100 times - even the occasional email to the team announcing that Suzie just juggled 46 times can go a long way towards Suzie and the other girls' motivation and development.  IMO, it's the single best thing they can do for their game by themselves (first touch, left foot, close control, eye-foot coordination etc), and it can be a lot of fun once they get the basics down.

 

[Righetti]

.LOL at the thought of you being done.  You're in like Pacino in Godfather III!  Kudos to you for getting so involved in your daughter's life and enjoy the ride! 

Oh, and challenge the girls to learn how to juggle the ball in the offseason.  To do it properly, they need to use BOTH of their feet - and not just thigh the ball.  Youtube is a great resource for getting started.  Create rewards or recognition if they can keep the ball in the air for 10, 25, 50, 100 times - even the occasional email to the team announcing that Suzie just juggled 46 times can go a long way towards Suzie and the other girls' motivation and development.  IMO, it's the single best thing they can do for their game by themselves (first touch, left foot, close control, eye-foot coordination etc), and it can be a lot of fun once they get the basics down.

great suggestions..  I've told the parents on the team that they are stuck with me till the girls are in high-school... assuming i don't get ousted in some kind of coup

 

[SwampDawg]

Awesome, so cool listening and hearing about the improvement through this thread.

 

[Righetti]

Thanks, it's been a lot of fun

 

[BassNBrew]

Looks like Trump is rubbing off on you.  Just a matter of time before you start winning bigly and doing it so often that the parents tell you that they are getting bored with winning.

Congrats on the break though and enjoying the process.

 

[Righetti]

Thought it was time for an update.  We play two seasons and after going 0-9-1 in our first fall season being generally outplayed and thoroughly out coached, we came back this spring as a different team.   We are 2-2 through four games but on a roll.   Our girls trained with an outside training group over the winter and it made a huge difference, they have gotten so much better in their footwork, field vision and just have a better view of the field

these are the biggest differences 

- I now have a full time assistant coach, last year I had a parent that helped me on the sidelines but now I have a guy who is all in.  Two coaches at practice is a big difference as we split the girls up and work in groups of 5 or 6 girls.   

- our goalies have now gotten some real coaching as we have time to spend time with them.  They are playing well in goal but the two biggest differences are their confidence knowing what their responsibilities are but even more is our goalie throw-ins, we have spent a lot of time on it and last year we kept getting turned over, this year we are turning those into opportunities as teams play right up on the line and if you can get it over that wall you have a ton of space 

- lineup.  Last year we had girls playing all over the field which I think is important as it's too young to force them into roles this early.   But it also had their heads spinning.  Asking a girl to go from a left defender to a right forward in consecutive substitutions was too hard.   We went with some standard spots and have girls learn those responsibilities   Won't leave them there all season but to teach them basic responsibilities is a huge difference 

-forwards   We had good defensive play last year and that continues but our forwards were just lost   It was in part because I was hiding players there but this year we are starting two girls who can both score   One of them has 5 goals already, the other has 1 with a few other near misses   Still learning the nuances of course but it's coming together   They are playing up and it's a huge difference 

- midfielders    We found three starting midfielders who can flat out run and can all play   It's such a difference having three girls stay in their positions   Our. spacing is so much better  

- corners and throw- ins.   We have our midfielders handle the throw-ins and forwards take the corners (defenders take the goal kicks)    This allows us to work with them during practice but even more it gives them responsibilities before hand   Last year they were deciding on the spot who was making the throw-in when they were on the parents side and it was a mess with a lot of times a girl who wasn't the one you'd want taking the throw-in   Having a dedicated position making the throw in keeps it all so much easier 

But the biggest might be

-new player    I got a call in November and kind of strong armed into taking another girl   I had 12 and didn't want anymore (substitutions are rough enough) and the one I added in the middle of the fall was just lost    BUT it turns out this new girl is really good, she's already starting in midfield and has two goals.  But her addition had a second effect, she's been a great addition because it allowed me to move one of our best scorers to forward  she filled out the lineup really nicely and she's only just starting   She can run, can use her body and his good instincts

overall, so much different feeling coming off of a win   Winning isn't everything but these girls needed it after working so hard all off season 

 

[Righetti]

Thanks again for all the support Acer

sleeping on it a night, I really am thrilled with how much they have improved in the 12 weeks I've had them.  I've learned a ton from this thread and just watching videos and reading stuff online 

we have two games left against the #1 and #2 teams in the league.  Both beat is pretty handily and this will be a heck of a challenge. 

I don't want to downplay our ability or chances but those will be very tough games for us.  With that said, we have 4 or 5 kids who can play, so we're not totally overmatched and hopefully we found one or two really good ones  

What I've seen is that some of the really good teams have one or two absolute studs   Girls who can rocket the ball, can see the field and just seem to be in the right place, we haven't had that girl but maybe we're finding her  

Our center-mid has handle and can use her body to shield the defender and is aggressive but doesn't have the strongest pure shot   A few weeks ago she would have been our best player who could hang but is not a stud.  She played goal in the second half because I wanted to preserve the tie for a winless team 

But the midfielder who had been playing defense most of the year really thrived yesterday   The girl has a great leg and it is the first time that I felt like we had one of "those" girls.  She boomed one in for our only goal and had two more than were near misses.  

If those two can learn to play off of each other, it can start to happen for this team.   They are also the two who compete the hardest against each other in practice, I often pair them up against each other in drills as they have similar skill sets (strength, aggressiveness, able to use their body to shield the defender)

im sad that the season is only two more weeks, it has gone by fast 

Funny reading my own observations from last year.   These two girls are now both forwards and playing great.  I really had them in wrong positions

 

[Righetti]

One of the drills my son's U9 travel team has been doing has been a fantastic drill for teaching them how to create space and completing simple passes.  

Two teams of 4 with a modest sized box (I'm guessing 20' x 20').  Team A owns the ball while team B sends in only 1 defender (the other 3 are outside the box) making it a 4v1.  The object is for Team A to complete 5 consecutive clean passes = 1pt.  Once a point is scored, or the lone defender wins the ball, or the ball is played outside of the box, play swaps with Team B owning the ball and Team A sending in a lone defender.  First one to 5 wins.  

At first they're going to follow their instincts and group up on the ball with the defender usually winning before a point is scored.  After a few cycles they start to realize spacing and will open up. It's gotten to the point where they're outgrowing the drill and score too easily, so now they're using 2 defenders instead of 1.  

i'm going to try to run this drill..  Our spacing has been better but I think working drills like this will only improve that..

 

[Righetti]

After a tough run last season, the Righettettes are on a roll.  We were rained out Friday night but took the pitch on Saturday against the top team in the divison.  These girls were 4-0 and already beaten us 5-1 in our first game (and twice last season).   The 5-1 game was actually a bit closer than the score indicated, as our goalie was called for three consecutive out of the box penalties leading to a couple of easy conversions.   She did come out of the box but didn't quite understand the lines on the mixed-use turf field. 

 
On to yesterday.   We show up on their grass field which has a decent incline going one way.   I know their team has only 9 girls and decide to make them play uphill in the first half to wear them down. 
They are very top heavy with one phenom and a bunch of role players, she's a really strong player and gets very physical  but we were ready.   One thing we notice right away is that they play 1-2-4 scheme which means we're really clogged up around their goal.   We take the ball first and immediately turn it over.   Our center mid puts it out in front of our red midfielder and she just doesn't react and I look down thinking "not again".  But we immediately take it back and we are on the offensive and move down the field, our girls are passing, dribbling and just looking strong.  We get it into the box time and time again but those four defenders are just everywhere.  Not sure if they are good but we have nowhere to go.   
Their goalie makes a few saves and instead of throwing it out, punts them which throws us off as we have't seen that all season. It's effective for sure.  Also, they take their top girl to make their goalie kicks which had been prime turnover and scoring spots for us in the last two weeks but she actually puts some mustard on it and easily gets it past our girls who are all playing up.   
But still we keep pressing, we stay with our lineup but the other team is much more physical than we are used to.  At one point I have both forwards out, one who took a cleat to her arm the other who go head butted accidentally.  Our center mid is out as she is nauseous and the red mid is out after getting her ankle cleated.  The first half goes back and forth and we have opportunities but nothing crazy.  It's 0-0 and our goalie had a couple of nice saves
 
We go into the second half and except for our nauseous center-mid, we are healthy.   We keep fighting and now we are taking shots on goal.  Their defense is still there but we are doing a better job in transition.  Our backup forward who played goalie the first half gets two shots on goal off of nice crosses but with no real boom they are easily stopped.  Our backup midfielder gets a couple of opportunities also but she kind of freezes and can't convert.   Our starting blue midfielder puts two really nice shots on goal but both go wide right.  
 
I look down on my watch and we have five minutes to go, I throw by starters back in and put my two forward back in their preferred spots (one likes the right, the other the left but they had gotten switched during the substitutions). And all of a sudden we take two shots on goal, one goes wide right and the other gets stopped. The goalie goes to make a throw out and we immediately turn it over, with the goalie out of position, our red forward takes the ball through all the traffic and puts it into the right corner of the net, a real beauty. 1-0
 
I immediately sub out one midfielder and go three defenders and we play out the last four minutes with me biting my fingernails to the root.  Truth be told, we were close to putting another one in the net as we were flying high and the other girls looked deflated but I want going to let them get a cheap score on us.  

 

[Righetti]

Anyway, after game 2 which we lost 4-1, we went with a few lineup switches, ones that seem so obvious now but I couldn't quite see before. Having a second coach is also helpful as we can discuss things and bounce ideas off of one another. 
 
One major change is that we put our two best scorers in our forward spots, both girls have strong legs, have noses for the back of the net and can dribble in traffic.   This brought our newest player into the starting lineup as a midfielder and really rounded out the entire midfield group.  We now have great speed in our midfield, good scorers up front and a stud on defense.   We bracket the other defender but putting our strongest midfielder on her side and switch her out with  another with a similar ability every 10 minutes.   Our goalies are playing well, making less plays than last season as we are giving up so many less shots on goal but keeping us in.   They both become forwards when they aren't playing in goal which they like.  One nice spot is a girl who was lost last season and didn't want to play, has found a role.   I have her play a center mid position, she's got body size and putting her in the middle actually is a good spot for her as she is physically imposing (even though she is a total pushover).  She also has taken a few shots on goal as she has found a groove be now asks to get back into the game.  This girl wanted to drop out last season and she showed no desire but now she is contributing and she will get a goal this year.   
I want to move my top defender into forward or midfield some, she doesn't ask for it and loves defense but think I don't want to limit her.  She's a good kid and she has worked her tail off and deserves a shot at some glory.  
 
Thanks for reading.  I'm so excited, this is such a great game.   Wish I would have learned to love it earlier 

 

[Ned]

So cool see the growth!  And you're falling in love with the game too!

One thing we notice right away is that they play 1-2-4 scheme which means we're really clogged up around their goal.   We take the ball first and immediately turn it over.   Our center mid puts it out in front of our red midfielder and she just doesn't react and I look down thinking "not again".  But we immediately take it back and we are on the offensive and move down the field, our girls are passing, dribbling and just looking strong.  We get it into the box time and time again but those four defenders are just everywhere.  Not sure if they are good but we have nowhere to go.   

Just so you're aware, its defense - mid - forwards....so they were in a 4-2-1.   Strange to pack 4 back there with only 7 on the field.

Has your association talked about the US soccer changes that were made last year?  I'm surprised they're still playing 8v8 with no build-out lines.  

Any tournaments on the horizon?

 

[Righetti]

So cool see the growth!  And you're falling in love with the game too!

Just so you're aware, its defense - mid - forwards....so they were in a 4-2-1.   Strange to pack 4 back there with only 7 on the field.

Has your association talked about the US soccer changes that were made last year?  I'm surprised they're still playing 8v8 with no build-out lines.  

Any tournaments on the horizon?

Ah, 4-2-1, i should have known that

the league decided to not implement the new rules till next year so we will actually go from 8-8 to 7-7 next year which will be hard

first of all, I will have too many subs (have 13 rosters now) which will be hard   Secondly, we've been playing one way, and we'll have to change that  maybe not the end of the world but just some adjustments    The other thing that is odd is that the field size doesn't change as far as I know, so we go from 8-8 to the same size field with the same size girl who has to run much further now   But it will open the field up and give each girl more touches, which I like 

 

[PIK95]

So cool see the growth!  And you're falling in love with the game too!

Just so you're aware, its defense - mid - forwards....so they were in a 4-2-1.   Strange to pack 4 back there with only 7 on the field.

You really should go to a 2-4-1.  You will own the midfield and not get hit with counters straight back at you.  More importantly, you will have the ball which is the only way to actually improve skills.  

Fyi, if anyone uses three wide anywhere in youth soccer you put a ton of pressure on the kid in the middle defensively.  Very rarely does anyone attack from the flanks (sucessfully) in u12 or under. You are much better off having two mids and/or defenders pinching the middle than having them defending the outside. 

  So basically whatever formation you are playing, better have either a two (or four) man defensive setup and two (or four) midfield setup in u12 or under.  Never have three in either spot because you get killed in the middle of the field when the other team has the ball.  Good luck!

 

[PIK95]

Next year in 7v7 use a 2-2-2.  In 6v6 go 2-2-1. 5v5 go 2-1-1.  With these formations you will have the ball more which will improve skills because you will have the ball more.  The best part is that if some stud kid on the other team goes coast to coast on your outside for a quick goal, you immediately get possesion back.  Time of possession is my #1 most important stat for u12 and under development.   Usually the results follow suit.  

 

[Ned]

You really should go to a 2-4-1.  You will own the midfield and not get hit with counters straight back at you.  More importantly, you will have the ball which is the only way to actually improve skills.  

Fyi, if anyone uses three wide anywhere in youth soccer you put a ton of pressure on the kid in the middle defensively.  Very rarely does anyone attack from the flanks (sucessfully) in u12 or under. You are much better off having two mids and/or defenders pinching the middle than having them defending the outside. 

  So basically whatever formation you are playing, better have either a two (or four) man defensive setup and two (or four) midfield setup in u12 or under.  Never have three in either spot because you get killed in the middle of the field when the other team has the ball.  Good luck!

Next year in 7v7 use a 2-2-2.  In 6v6 go 2-2-1. 5v5 go 2-1-1.  With these formations you will have the ball more which will improve skills because you will have the ball more.

My son's U9 team runs a 2-3-1.  He plays as the CM and he's growing to hate it for the exact reason you said... It puts a lot of pressure on him to control the game as well as the coach pressuring him to take games over.  We're leaving the club for many reasons, but this is near the top of the list of reasons why.

 

[PIK95]

After spending the last four years building my sons team into a (VERY deep) juggernaut, my town club into the biggest and best in the state, and joining forces with a professional MLS Academy, I am now focusing my attention on getting us a lighted turf field for the fall.  1.4 mill price tag!  Wish me luck.  

 

[AcerFC]

After spending the last four years building my sons team into a (VERY deep) juggernaut, my town club into the biggest and best in the state, and joining forces with a professional MLS Academy, I am now focusing my attention on getting us a lighted turf field for the fall.  1.4 mill price tag!  Wish me luck.  

Don't you live in Rhode Island or New Hampshire? Those states are as big as my town

 

Good luck. 

 

[Blick]

You really should go to a 2-4-1.  You will own the midfield and not get hit with counters straight back at you.  More importantly, you will have the ball which is the only way to actually improve skills.  

Fyi, if anyone uses three wide anywhere in youth soccer you put a ton of pressure on the kid in the middle defensively.  Very rarely does anyone attack from the flanks (sucessfully) in u12 or under. You are much better off having two mids and/or defenders pinching the middle than having them defending the outside. 

  So basically whatever formation you are playing, better have either a two (or four) man defensive setup and two (or four) midfield setup in u12 or under.  Never have three in either spot because you get killed in the middle of the field when the other team has the ball.  Good luck!

At this age, I'd rather have the kids playing a 3-3-1.  When they move to the big field, the transition will be easier to either a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 (depending on how you arrange your Center Mids).

 

[CletiusMaximus]

Just so you're aware, its defense - mid - forwards....so they were in a 4-2-1.

I love the 1-2-4 at this age, especially if there's no offside. Let's call it the "Kloppo" formation.  Hoof it forward, score goals. Most of these kids won't be playing in two years anyway so no need to worry about building a tactical foundation.

 

[Ned]

After spending the last four years building my sons team into a (VERY deep) juggernaut, my town club into the biggest and best in the state, and joining forces with a professional MLS Academy, I am now focusing my attention on getting us a lighted turf field for the fall.  1.4 mill price tag!  Wish me luck.  

You should start a thread - I'd love to follow along.

 

[PIK95]

You should start a thread - I'd love to follow along.

When things like that get too public, that's when you run into trouble imo. That being said if anything interesting comes up I can just drop in here.

 

[Righetti]

My biggest fear about next season is how I'm going to manage the roster.  I have 13 girls today playing 8v8 which is already 1-2 too many.   Next year when we go to 7v7, I'm really not sure how to handle it.  Have to actually hope for a couple of them to drop out. 

 

[mr. furley]

coaching 6/7 year olds this year. 14 kids on the roster. we're required by the league to play 3-2-3. 

half the kids have behavioral problems. should be an interesting season.

 

[Righetti]

Played our second to last game today, a 4-2 win which ensures we'll be above .500 (5-3 now with a game to go).  We have made such progress since we started this thing last August and then went winless in the fall.   I look now and wonder how we could have possibly not won at all last season and it shocks me.  We have found 6 really good players, some nice role players and a couple of girls who can handle goal, so at any given point we have 7 out of 8 players on the field who are as good as the girl they are matched up against baring the occasional stud we could play   (Unlikely in our flight)

Few thoughts

getting them into some regular positions made a huge difference, I still moved them around a bit but giving kids a single set of responsibility was a big difference    We were asking 7 year old girls to go from right forward to left defenseman in consecutive substitutions, it was just too much

our defense is awesome, we press the ball well and recover   One major difference is that we always keep one top defender back, and then bracket the weaker one with our strongest midfielder playing on the same side. 

Adding the one girl mid-year was huge   She's a heck of a player and changed our entire lineup   She's a midfielder which moved one girl up to forward.  She also plays defense and handles our goal kicks since she probably has the strongest kick on the team from a standing still position

one girl who didn't show much last season has made big strides all year and scored today.  Was so proud of her, she looked at me after the goal went in and didn't even know what to do.   Great moment for her  

one issue next year is that one of my goalies doesn't really want to play goal next year    She's already complaining now   The issue is that she's a much better goalie than field player   This is really the best slot for her   I play her a lot of forward in the half she is not playing in goal but she can't finish and she's too slow to play midfield consistently    Hard to figure out  

the other goalie is good but too young to turn these girls into permanent goalies   Not that she'd want to do that either 

 

[AcerFC]

Temper your expectations. The change in flights is a real thing. Don't feel the need to jump up two levels next year. We started in C and went 8-1. Jumped up to B for the Spring and didn't win a game. You don't realize just how many girls are more athletic and just better than the ones you have. 

Having said that, great job this spring. 

 

[Righetti]

Temper your expectations. The change in flights is a real thing. Don't feel the need to jump up two levels next year. We started in C and went 8-1. Jumped up to B for the Spring and didn't win a game. You don't realize just how many girls are more athletic and just better than the ones you have. 

Having said that, great job this spring. 

Thanks @AcerFCI'm afraid to put them back in a bad spot and likely will remain in my flight and stay there until we are at least competing for first place

right now there are only three flights (ABC) but I expect there to be more next season especially as many clubs will start to field more than one team because of the 7v7 change and smaller roster sizes. 

I expect our club to have a second team of most beginners, I'd think they would play one flight down from whatever we play   So if we are in C, they would be in D but no real idea how that works 

 

[PIK95]

My biggest fear about next season is how I'm going to manage the roster.  I have 13 girls today playing 8v8 which is already 1-2 too many.   Next year when we go to 7v7, I'm really not sure how to handle it.  Have to actually hope for a couple of them to drop out. 

Isn't it going to 9v9?

I thought 6v6 was switching to 7v7?

 

[Righetti]

Isn't it going to 9v9?

I thought 6v6 was switching to 7v7?

No, U9 and U10 both go to 7v7 on a new smaller field configuration 

U11 and U12 go to 9v9 on the same "small sided" size field we were on 

u13 and up will be 11v11 on the big field 

 

[Righetti]

So we finished our second season at 6-3, the turnaround was tremendous.  We finished 4th in our flight.  We went 1-3 against the top 3 teams but two of those loses were the first two games of the year before we settled into our standard lineup.   We went 1-1 against them after that, and felt like we could hold our own.  I'd really like to play one of those top teams again to judge us against them.  We're closer to the top team than we are the bottom ones, that's for certain

I wasn't there for our last game as I'm in Japan for work, but we played really well winning 7-3. It was a really nice way to end the season and a couple of our subs scored which is always nice.  

I got about 5 girls who will train together over the summer with the guys we used over the winter, so they should come back pretty strong next year. 

I'm going to really miss the coaching, the kids and the fun, that's for sure. 

 

[Righetti]

The league had tryouts this week.  I wasn't there as I was out of town but we had a trainer there who ran the tryouts.  We had a total of 20 girls show up plus one who was sick.  We will have the ability to field two teams and likely go with an A team and a B team.  This would also mean that a few girls who played on my team will move to the other team. 

Few questions for you

would we be better off keeping only the starting 7 on one team and moving the other 6 to the other team. Theory is that the other 6 will likely be much better than the kids who have not ever really played, they would all probably be starters which they won't on the "a" team.  Both teams would then add 3-4 new kids to fill out both rosters 

Or

do we just go with the top 10 and move three girls onto a B team?  Nobody from tryouts was better than the kids who played this year  maybe some kids were even but nobody outplayed a veteran, so the second team would be 2-3 veterans and a bunch of kids who have not played before 

 

[PIK95]

No, U9 and U10 both go to 7v7 on a new smaller field configuration 

U11 and U12 go to 9v9 on the same "small sided" size field we were on 

u13 and up will be 11v11 on the big field 

That's what I said?

 

[AcerFC]

The league had tryouts this week.  I wasn't there as I was out of town but we had a trainer there who ran the tryouts.  We had a total of 20 girls show up plus one who was sick.  We will have the ability to field two teams and likely go with an A team and a B team.  This would also mean that a few girls who played on my team will move to the other team. 

Few questions for you

would we be better off keeping only the starting 7 on one team and moving the other 6 to the other team. Theory is that the other 6 will likely be much better than the kids who have not ever really played, they would all probably be starters which they won't on the "a" team.  Both teams would then add 3-4 new kids to fill out both rosters 

Or

do we just go with the top 10 and move three girls onto a B team?  Nobody from tryouts was better than the kids who played this year  maybe some kids were even but nobody outplayed a veteran, so the second team would be 2-3 veterans and a bunch of kids who have not played before 

My opinion will likely be different from others from where I am in coaching. In my opinion, you really do not need to be making an A team and a B team at U9. Having said that, the most important thing for each girl at this stage is developing into a better player. How they do that in your situation is up to you. If you think the girls who do not start will get better on the other team, OK. However, that could go south as they are no longer with "their" team or their friends. 

If its me, I would keep the team together. Move up to the D division in the fall and try to find a few extras to fill out a second team 

 

[PIK95]

Creating a pool of straight birth years that maybe even practice together is more important than making a straight A and B team.  That's how I am setting up our 2009,  2010, and 2011 kids right now.

 

[SwampDawg]

Couple of questions 

Righetti what did you end up doing as far as your team makeup ? Every league is different but ours doesn't allow a club to have two teams in the same tier unless they are both in the lowest so for that reason I would keep the top 10 and send the other 3 down to play with the lower division team. Your league might be different and maybe you could create two more even teams and play the same tier.

For the soccer gurus, at U13 moving to 11v11 what formation do you recommend ?  As I had feared my son got moved up to the 2005 (U13) team because he has a fall 2006 birthday and that team was short players switching to 11v11 this year. Luckily his coach from the last few years son also is a fall 2006 birthday and got moved as well and he is taking over for the coach who was up there that seemed like a nice guy but not a great coach. I'm sure he has some ideas but just wondering what the norm is for kids moving to the big field the first time.

 

[Righetti]

After hours of internal debate, meetings with my other coaches and literally some sleepless nights, we decided to split the original team into two squads of 6-7 girls.   We will field one squad in the C flight and another in the F flight.   We want to keep the continuity and feeling of one team so will hold joint practices with girls getting mixed and split into stations for the positions (goalies work together, defenders from both teams work together etc)   We will also hold team events and parties together with the hope we can keep everybody feeling as one team    

Each squad got 3 new girls, so both squads have 10 girls committed.   It was really an effort to take the kids who were with me last year and apparently like soccer and give them all the playing time againt their level of competition to get better.   I felt moving 6 of them together would take the feeling of politics out of it and would not make 3 girls feel very badly.   We also plan on taking 1 girls up whenever we can to play with the C flight team, so girls keep the continuity of playing together

i reached out to most of the girls who were moved and they (through their parents) seemed disappointed but I really believe it is the best decision    A girl who starts will get maybe 10 minutes more per game than a girl coming off the bench, which for a single game isn't much but over a ten game season is 100 minutes and over a two season year is 200 minutes of playing time   That is something you can't make up in practice etc   

And keeping 13 original girls when we moved down to 7v7 also meant even less playing time per girl, so for the program it seemed like the right call    We'll see how it turns out 

 

[Righetti]

I'm also wondering what formation we should be looking at with 7v7.  A girl on our team player in a summer tournament using 7v7 and her dad told me it looks like a totally different game as the field is much smaller.   

He thought we might not see a lot of advantage with playing a forward so thought we could either go

3-3

or

3-2-1

anybody have any thoughts?

 

[Blick]

Couple of questions 

Righetti what did you end up doing as far as your team makeup ? Every league is different but ours doesn't allow a club to have two teams in the same tier unless they are both in the lowest so for that reason I would keep the top 10 and send the other 3 down to play with the lower division team. Your league might be different and maybe you could create two more even teams and play the same tier.

For the soccer gurus, at U13 moving to 11v11 what formation do you recommend ?  As I had feared my son got moved up to the 2005 (U13) team because he has a fall 2006 birthday and that team was short players switching to 11v11 this year. Luckily his coach from the last few years son also is a fall 2006 birthday and got moved as well and he is taking over for the coach who was up there that seemed like a nice guy but not a great coach. I'm sure he has some ideas but just wondering what the norm is for kids moving to the big field the first time.

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your players would help to determine the best formation for your team. I'm guessing you won't have this advantage. Therefore, I'd probably keep it simple at first and use a 4-4-2. The small side formation the players were using is probably very similar in positional responsibility to it. 

However, I like the flexibility of a 4-3-3. 

 

[CletiusMaximus]

For the soccer gurus, at U13 moving to 11v11 what formation do you recommend ?  As I had feared my son got moved up to the 2005 (U13) team because he has a fall 2006 birthday and that team was short players switching to 11v11 this year. Luckily his coach from the last few years son also is a fall 2006 birthday and got moved as well and he is taking over for the coach who was up there that seemed like a nice guy but not a great coach. I'm sure he has some ideas but just wondering what the norm is for kids moving to the big field the first time.

My son made the jump to U13 last year. He's still 12 until December, playing U14 this fall due to the new calendar year system. We had a great coach last year. I think his system was essentially a 4-4-2, but he would give individual instruction - one forward hanging back a bit, one of the central midfielders more defensive, etc.  Of course, it will also depend on the individual players you have. 

 

[SwampDawg]

My son made the jump to U13 last year. He's still 12 until December, playing U14 this fall due to the new calendar year system. We had a great coach last year. I think his system was essentially a 4-4-2, but he would give individual instruction - one forward hanging back a bit, one of the central midfielders more defensive, etc.  Of course, it will also depend on the individual players you have. 

How did that go for him last year being on the young side ?  That is basically the same boat my son is in, he turns 11 the end of October. My concern was that he is going into 5th grade and is a smaller kid, with some of the bigger clubs around us their U13 teams are going to end up being a bunch of spring 2005 birthday 7th graders that didn't make their middle school team. Skill wise I totally have faith in him against older kids especially ones that didn't make school teams but I'm worried those kids also get a chip on their shoulders and will want to use their size and age advantage to just make it a more physical game.

 

[Ned]

I'm also wondering what formation we should be looking at with 7v7.  A girl on our team player in a summer tournament using 7v7 and her dad told me it looks like a totally different game as the field is much smaller.   

He thought we might not see a lot of advantage with playing a forward so thought we could either go

3-3

or

3-2-1

anybody have any thoughts?

My son played U9 last year 7v7 and the field sizes varied a lot.  Be prepared to play on a small field or a big field.  It'll all depend on the clubs you're visiting.

I think 3 in the back is too conservative for 7v7, but you know your team best.  I'd go with 2-3-1 with the expectation that the wide midfielders will need to track back and help on D.  Having a pair of CB's controlling the back should be enough at this level.  You need to have a striker to keep the field stretched, otherwise you're going to get stuck with the other team pressing you backwards into your own half since they won't have to respect a striker. 

 

[CletiusMaximus]

How did that go for him last year being on the young side ?  That is basically the same boat my son is in, he turns 11 the end of October. My concern was that he is going into 5th grade and is a smaller kid, with some of the bigger clubs around us their U13 teams are going to end up being a bunch of spring 2005 birthday 7th graders that didn't make their middle school team. Skill wise I totally have faith in him against older kids especially ones that didn't make school teams but I'm worried those kids also get a chip on their shoulders and will want to use their size and age advantage to just make it a more physical game.

It was a difficult year. My son has good height and good foot skills, but is rail thin and definitely gets pushed around. He played very timid at times and I could tell he was intimidated by larger boys rolling right through him. I tried to show him how to use his hips and his body leverage, protect the ball and be confident. It is a big adjustment, going to the size 5 ball and 11v11 on the large field.  Most kids at that age can't even get a corner kick into the box in the air. But they all cope with it just fine in the end. I just did my best to keep his spirits up and make sure he's still having fun.  The biggest issue for my son is his best friends - classmates at school - are now playing one age group below him, even though they were born only a couple months after him.  These kids have played together since U6 and had a blast. Again though, that's something they've adjusted to and I think it will be fine.  If he plays in high school, it might even be an advantage because his experience will be against older bigger boys.

 

[Blick]

This may be a topic for another thread, but how do you think the age group changes have affected your clubs?

Beyond shaking up the team rosters, I think it had little affect on club/classic teams.  

At the travel level, I think it's had much more affect, mostly negetative. It's been my experience that kids at this level are playing more for fun and the social aspects than they are for scholarships and state cups. Now that they aren't playing with their class mates, I think many are not as engaged. 

Personally, I wish US Soccer would have left travel soccer out of the age change mix. They constantly push small sided games and coaching kids to love the game, then they push down rules that are opposite of these goals and only really benefit the highest levels of play. I don't get it. 

 

[Ned]

This may be a topic for another thread, but how do you think the age group changes have affected your clubs?

Beyond shaking up the team rosters, I think it had much little affect on club/classic teams.  

At the travel level, I think it's had much more affect, mostly negetative. It's been my experience that kids at this level are playing more for fun and social aspects than they are scholarships and state cups. Now that they aren't playing with their class mates, I think many are not as engaged. 

Personally, I wish US Soccer would have left travel soccer out of the age change mix. They constantly push small sided games and coaching kids to love the game, then they push down rules that only really benefit the highest levels of play. I don't get it. 

Now that we're adjusted, I don't think it's a big deal for us here.  There are a lot of clubs in a close vicinity where classmates are spread out so much that school isn't much of a factor.  

 

[SwampDawg]

This may be a topic for another thread, but how do you think the age group changes have affected your clubs?

Beyond shaking up the team rosters, I think it had little affect on club/classic teams.  

At the travel level, I think it's had much more affect, mostly negetative. It's been my experience that kids at this level are playing more for fun and the social aspects than they are for scholarships and state cups. Now that they aren't playing with their class mates, I think many are not as engaged. 

Personally, I wish US Soccer would have left travel soccer out of the age change mix. They constantly push small sided games and coaching kids to love the game, then they push down rules that are opposite of these goals and only really benefit the highest levels of play. I don't get it. 

100% agree, I think your elite programs aren't really affected because they are bringing kids together from different areas and they team makeup changes each year anyway. Where it hurts is the small club teams that play in travel leagues. That is our case, when my son started at U9 two years ago with the old age groups it was all kids from his class. Last year with the changes the club decided they could stay together and play as a 2006 team even though they only had four fall 2006 birthday's, the rest were spring 2007. That worked well because they skipped right to U11 and didn't have to deal with going from 9v9 down to 7v7 and the build out lines. The issue occured this year because being a small club and small school district once the kids start playing Middle School soccer a lot stop playing at the club level. So when last years U12  team moved to U13 they didn't have enough players for 11v11 with subs. So they called up the four fall 2006 kids and two spring 2007 kids from last years U11 team. Now the club has a U13 team, no U12 teams because the remaining kids from last year U11 team were all spring 2007 birthdays so instead they have two U11 teams. As you said I think at the non-elite team level most of these kids are doing it to play with their friends and also as a way to get them ready to play in Middle School and High School and now you are dividing up classes.

 

[SwampDawg]

It was a difficult year. My son has good height and good foot skills, but is rail thin and definitely gets pushed around. He played very timid at times and I could tell he was intimidated by larger boys rolling right through him. I tried to show him how to use his hips and his body leverage, protect the ball and be confident. It is a big adjustment, going to the size 5 ball and 11v11 on the large field.  Most kids at that age can't even get a corner kick into the box in the air. But they all cope with it just fine in the end. I just did my best to keep his spirits up and make sure he's still having fun.  The biggest issue for my son is his best friends - classmates at school - are now playing one age group below him, even though they were born only a couple months after him.  These kids have played together since U6 and had a blast. Again though, that's something they've adjusted to and I think it will be fine.  If he plays in high school, it might even be an advantage because his experience will be against older bigger boys.

My conversation with my son has been basically this year is a training year. Next year when the kids he has always played with move up to U13 himself and the other 5 that moved up will have a years experience playing 11v11 on the big field and it will be an advantage for their team. He's small but solid and he doesn't usually back down and is extremely quick so I think he'll be ok until he runs into the kid that just figures he'll truck everyone and out weighs him by 40 pounds. Luckily the 6 of them that are moving up are all really good friends so they will have that. My other concern is they are extremely competitive and the last two years have been very good winning the league, the team they are moving up to is the opposite, other then a couple kids they are not committed from the parents down, they went I think 2-7 last year.

 

[SwampDawg]

Bouncing this back to the top because we need to know how Righetti's team is looking in preseason training and I also have a question for those who have been around youth soccer and seem to know the ins and outs. What is your take and opinion on the ODP program especially at a younger age ?  My son is trying out for the U12 regional team, probably a long shot as I would assume they get a ton of kids but our thinking was it would be a good couple of training sessions for him with some different coaches and exposure to that type of process. Any way I have been doing some reading and it seems some people really like it and others really look down their noses at it. What say those with experience in it ? 

 

[dino259]

Marking this for research.  It looks like it worked out that my 2 boys practice flag football on Tuesdays and that my youngest playing 9U soccer will practice on Wednesdays.  We choose to have him do rec soccer instead of the academy soccer because he also wanted to do flag football.  I am thinking this is the only year we will let him do both.  Because I want to help with all of there teams I did not take the head coach for any of them but will help out as much as I can.  I almost snapped and took the head coach of the soccer since they were up to 3 threatening emails looking for a coach.  I was hoping for someone with experience to help my son learn and develop.  Unfortunately it looks like the guy who is the head coach does not have experience with either coaching or soccer.

I am not even sure how many they play with or if they have a dedicated goalie.  I think they play 7v7 with a goalie.  What size ball, field, or goal?

So with that said, and I will look back, but quick list of the basic drills to start with and run every practice?  What basic things should we look to do right away that will help during games or practices?

Thanks all.

 

[Righetti]

Season two started off with a 1-0 win for my black team and a 5-0 win for our gold team

we split the returning girls up 7 top girls went to the black team and 6 girls who mostly were subs went to gold team.  Both teams got a handful of new girls split randomly.  We've been working together and trying to keep continuity as much as possible and it worked out well this summer as we were able field practices of 10-12 kids from a pool of 20.  

We are in the C flight while the other girls went to E and through one week, both seemed perfectly matched.  

As for my team, we went 2-3-1 which worked well but it's hard to generate a lot of offense as our home field is maxed out in terms of dimensions although we went to the smaller 12 foot goals for the 7v7

We controlled the game mostly, never felt we were in trouble and had a few very nice transitions.  We want to have our goalie play the ball quickly and the push the ball in transition to our backs and midfielders, it worked well and we can up wide four times before finally scoring one late

I mmediately went to a 2-1-2-1 set playing three defenders to preserve the score with a few minutes to play.   

Very proud of our girls 

our gold team team also played great, one girl who was a sub for us last year took over and scored two goals and really had a chance to shine. I spoke with her parents over the summer to tell them that this would be best for her, and it showed.   She needs more playing time and this gave it to her.  So happy for all of them

 

[PIK95]

Bouncing this back to the top because we need to know how Righetti's team is looking in preseason training and I also have a question for those who have been around youth soccer and seem to know the ins and outs. What is your take and opinion on the ODP program especially at a younger age ?  My son is trying out for the U12 regional team, probably a long shot as I would assume they get a ton of kids but our thinking was it would be a good couple of training sessions for him with some different coaches and exposure to that type of process. Any way I have been doing some reading and it seems some people really like it and others really look down their noses at it. What say those with experience in it ? 

In my state it's a joke.  It's a recruiting tool for the club coaches who run it.  Nothing more.

 

[PIK95]

Our u14 (Mostly 2005) Boys Academy team started of on the right foot today with a nice 3-1 win at home over one of the favorites.  We are 18 deep and I think we really wore them down.  We used a 4-5-1 and it worked out great defensively.  

  We held possession for 70% in the first half, but we were still down 1-0.  We broke their trap twice with through balls for goals in the 2nd and added a 3rd on a slow build up.  Great game overall.  Our top two players (one even airballed a pk) were pretty average today which makes me curious on how much better we could be.