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

Will have to read through this thread later, but my son just started playing (he just turned 5) and it's been an awesome experience thus far.  They play 4v4 with no throw-ins, etc.  Just keep the ball in play as much as possible and the subs are more hockey style.  He is just now starting to understand what is going on since it's a lot more chaotic than tee ball, but it's fun watching them grow as a team. 

 
Had our first couple of games Saturday since my rant about the tournament in Mississippi which in a round about way backs up what most of us have been saying about focusing on skills and fun.

Dominated possession in both games and out shot the 1st team 13-3.  Shots even in game 2. Lost 1-0 & 2-0.  

The 1st game our shots just wouldn't fall and my most inexperienced girl was in goal.  Let a weak shot slip thru her hands. Oh well. Those are the breaks.  

Game 2 was a team we had already lost to once before 4-0. They have older girls (I have 5 girls born on 2007 on a 2006 team).  The 1st time we played they took it to us. This time we let in a couple of bad goals but had our chances. They scored the 2nd late and we were tired.  We held more possession again and passed well.

The important part was afterwards when most of us stopped for lunch.  Of course I'm beating myself up because we've played 7 games.  Dominated possession in 4, pretty close in 2 and got destroyed in one.  ALL of the parents kept telling me how much the girls have improved and how we are the only team that passes, etc. and they aren't worried about the wins.

I guess I got lucky on the parent draw or at least got parents that understand how it's supposed to work but it really makes me step back and remind me that we are doing it right.

 
SpurrierisisGod said:
Had our first couple of games Saturday since my rant about the tournament in Mississippi which in a round about way backs up what most of us have been saying about focusing on skills and fun.

Dominated possession in both games and out shot the 1st team 13-3.  Shots even in game 2. Lost 1-0 & 2-0.  

The 1st game our shots just wouldn't fall and my most inexperienced girl was in goal.  Let a weak shot slip thru her hands. Oh well. Those are the breaks.  

Game 2 was a team we had already lost to once before 4-0. They have older girls (I have 5 girls born on 2007 on a 2006 team).  The 1st time we played they took it to us. This time we let in a couple of bad goals but had our chances. They scored the 2nd late and we were tired.  We held more possession again and passed well.

The important part was afterwards when most of us stopped for lunch.  Of course I'm beating myself up because we've played 7 games.  Dominated possession in 4, pretty close in 2 and got destroyed in one.  ALL of the parents kept telling me how much the girls have improved and how we are the only team that passes, etc. and they aren't worried about the wins.

I guess I got lucky on the parent draw or at least got parents that understand how it's supposed to work but it really makes me step back and remind me that we are doing it right.
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I'm having the same experience with the parents, they don't seem to mind the losses and understand the process.   My fear was always that my own lack of soccer knowledge would be seen as the issue but they don't seem to think so (yet)

 
Righetti said:
I'm having the same experience with the parents, they don't seem to mind the losses and understand the process.   My fear was always that my own lack of soccer knowledge would be seen as the issue but they don't seem to think so (yet)
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eff em. They did not choose to volunteer, they dont have a say. Some dad at baseball last year was complaining that he didnt like the volunteer coach and that he didnt think his son was getting the foundation needed. I laughed and thought, then you should have coached the team yourself. 

I didnt say it to him because I choose not to talk to people. It only leads to more conversation that I dont want to have

 
Looking back at our last game, I really thought we did a good job with the throwins which was a very big issue in weeks before.   

One thing I will do, is when there is a ball that goes out of bounds on our baseline, is have a player other than the keeper kick it.   Our keepers don't have very strong legs (none of the players really do) but more than anything, if they kick it into the defense (which they will do often) they are completely out of position because of where they have to line up for the kicks 

I am also having them kick towards the sidelines as opposed to right up the middle, without leg strength that just leads to shots in front of an open goal 

 
Righetti said:
Looking back at our last game, I really thought we did a good job with the throwins which was a very big issue in weeks before.   

One thing I will do, is when there is a ball that goes out of bounds on our baseline, is have a player other than the keeper kick it.   Our keepers don't have very strong legs (none of the players really do) but more than anything, if they kick it into the defense (which they will do often) they are completely out of position because of where they have to line up for the kicks 

I am also having them kick towards the sidelines as opposed to right up the middle, without leg strength that just leads to shots in front of an open goal 
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You're allowed to have defensive players in the penalty area when you do a goal kick, they just can't touch the ball until it leaves the box.  So if your keeper is taking the goal kick, a defensive player can stand in the goal to protect it in the event of a crappy kick that goes right to the other team.

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
You're allowed to have defensive players in the penalty area when you do a goal kick, they just can't touch the ball until it leaves the box.  So if your keeper is taking the goal kick, a defensive player can stand in the goal to protect it in the event of a crappy kick that goes right to the other team.
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Yeah, but what purpose does that serve?  The reasoning behind having a goalkeeper take the kick is that every outfield player is a potential target for the goal kick (which I realize is completely theoretical at this level).  But if you're going to keep one of those targets back to sit in the box and cover you've already lost that target. Why not just have that player take the kick and leave the keeper in the goal (unless you specifically are trying to train the keeper alone to take kicks).

But don't get me started on coaches that press on opposition goal kicks in youth soccer in the first place.  Way to coach, Carlo Ancelotti. 

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Yeah, but what purpose does that serve?  The reasoning behind having a goalkeeper take the kick is that every outfield player is a potential target for the goal kick (which I realize is completely theoretical at this level).  But if you're going to keep one of those targets back to sit in the box and cover you've already lost that target. Why not just have that player take the kick and leave the keeper in the goal (unless you specifically are trying to train the keeper alone to take kicks).

But don't get me started on coaches that press on opposition goal kicks in youth soccer in the first place.  Way to coach, Carlo Ancelotti. 
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At the age Righetti is coaching, I had multiple defensive players that could not even reliably kick the ball far enough to get it out of the box. 

 
So in 7 v 7 games (which are supposed to go up to the U12 level), the rule is going to be that anytime the goalkeeper has the ball (including goal kicks), the opposing team must retreat to behind a "build out line" which is somewhere outside the penalty area.  The goalkeeper may then throw, roll, or pass the ball to any of his or her teammates.  The goalkeeper can no longer punt the ball (because that defeats the purpose of trying to incentivize the kids to play out of the back). 

Here's a video. 

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
Just looked it up.  I've been in support of something like that for years, hopefully it will catch on.
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It's a complete no-brainer.  USSoccer has done a lot to try to change how we teach the really young kids.  You can get your F class license online now, and the focus is supposed to be about teaching and not winning games ("No 10 year old has ever won a World Cup.")  But the challenge is getting the leagues and the parents to buy in to that. 

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
So in 7 v 7 games (which are supposed to go up to the U12 level), the rule is going to be that anytime the goalkeeper has the ball (including goal kicks), the opposing team must retreat to behind a "build out line" which is somewhere outside the penalty area.  The goalkeeper may then throw, roll, or pass the ball to any of his or her teammates.  The goalkeeper can no longer punt the ball (because that defeats the purpose of trying to incentivize the kids to play out of the back). 

Here's a video. 
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Not universally implemented yet in the leagues around here - they do not have it yet in CSL (one of the Southern California club leagues), though they are enforcing the no headers rule (well, most of the refs are). Some of the other club leagues are enforcing the build out rule. Not sure what they are doing in the rec level, as my son that age is only 5, so no goalies, etc., but I'm pretty sure it will be implemented by next season if they are not already doing it this year.

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
It's a complete no-brainer.  USSoccer has done a lot to try to change how we teach the really young kids.  You can get your F class license online now, and the focus is supposed to be about teaching and not winning games ("No 10 year old has ever won a World Cup.")  But the challenge is getting the leagues and the parents to buy in to that. 
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I had no idea what it was but after looking it up, I'm going to get my F license .. seems like a worthwhile way of spending a couple of hours especially since I can do it online

If I continue to coach, I think I'd get my D license although that involves giving up an entire weekend which Mrs. R will NOT be thrilled about

 
Righetti said:
I had no idea what it was but after looking it up, I'm going to get my F license .. seems like a worthwhile way of spending a couple of hours especially since I can do it online

If I continue to coach, I think I'd get my D license although that involves giving up an entire weekend which Mrs. R will NOT be thrilled about
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The D is offered local. I know I took it in Suffern and they are usually offered at World Class in Orangeburg (5 minutes from Palisades mall). You will enjoy it and you will learn a lot if you have a good instructor. 

 
AcerFC said:
The D is offered local. I know I took it in Suffern and they are usually offered at World Class in Orangeburg (5 minutes from Palisades mall). You will enjoy it and you will learn a lot if you have a good instructor. 
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that's not too far from me.. I think I will do it this summer..

 
Righetti said:
I had no idea what it was but after looking it up, I'm going to get my F license .. seems like a worthwhile way of spending a couple of hours especially since I can do it online

If I continue to coach, I think I'd get my D license although that involves giving up an entire weekend which Mrs. R will NOT be thrilled about
Click to expand...
Definitely worthwhile. Our local league requires the head coach to have at least a D I believe to coach at what we call the Signature level (basically a step below club, more an advanced rec that plays against other local leagues signature teams) and they require I think the C to coach within the club level. I got the F a few years back as they also required everyone to take the basic class to head coach the rec teams. Only took up a few hours on a Saturday morning (was before it was offered online) and I thought it was well worth it as a relative soccer newbie.

 
As I mentioned in my week-3 review, we are having a lot of trouble scoring which is really two pronged..

- we don't have great finishers yet, other than the one girl who is our normal center-mid.. not the strongest leg but good ability to dribble through traffic

- we don't put nearly enough shots on goal.  seems the girls all kind of freeze up right when they get within the penalty box area  (they can't possibly shoot outside of the penalty box).. one of the issues is that they all try to get their body in the perfect position which just allows the defense to collapse on them.

What would be a good drill to work on this?

 
Righetti said:
As I mentioned in my week-3 review, we are having a lot of trouble scoring which is really two pronged..

- we don't have great finishers yet, other than the one girl who is our normal center-mid.. not the strongest leg but good ability to dribble through traffic

- we don't put nearly enough shots on goal.  seems the girls all kind of freeze up right when they get within the penalty box area  (they can't possibly shoot outside of the penalty box).. one of the issues is that they all try to get their body in the perfect position which just allows the defense to collapse on them.

What would be a good drill to work on this?
Click to expand...
Shooting gallery is a venerable youth finishing drill. Maybe practice one touching and "passing into the goal." 

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
I'm not a fan of drills where a bunch of kids are standing in a line.

I would recommend something more like "animal ball"  http://www.footy4kids.co.uk/soccer-drills/animal-ball/
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You can always run two lines, depending on help.  I agree that its essential to eliminate downtime, but I also think its important to get everyone on the ball and executing the skill.  Seems that drills like animal ball could allow a kid to "hide" during the drill. 

 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
You can always run two lines, depending on help.  I agree that its essential to eliminate downtime, but I also think its important to get everyone on the ball and executing the skill.  Seems that drills like animal ball could allow a kid to "hide" during the drill. 
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Yeah, I don't know what Righetti's team is like and whether he has anyone helping during practice.  The "hiding" issue is something I've just learned to live with.  Sometimes I've had kids that just don't want to participate in some drill or something, so I just let them sit out.  :shrug:   Maybe that's why my teams have always sucked.  Well, until this season -- somehow we're dominating.  Not because of my coaching though.

 
The never have kids standing in line is over rated imo. Sometimes it has to be done. It shouldnt be all the time and the whole session but it has its place. Including making sure players are using proper form. 

Here is a shooting drill that can work for U8 because it works a lot of different things

Split the teams into two teams of 4. In a square (different sizes depending on age), the players on blue are playing possession and trying to get X amt of passes strung together without the red player stealing it or having it go out of bounds. So its a 4v1 rondo possession. If the red defending player wins the ball or forces the ball out, they get to leave the square and run on to the goal for a shot. The coach is the one playing the ball. If Blue gets X amt of passes, they have one point. If red scores on the shot, they get 1. Make it a competition and they will get into it. With shooting being your main concern, and the kids being young, have the red team shoot anyway even if blue keeps possession for X passes. 

If you have extra kids, you can increase the numbers, but 4V1 in the square works best imo

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
Yeah, I don't know what Righetti's team is like and whether he has anyone helping during practice.  The "hiding" issue is something I've just learned to live with.  Sometimes I've had kids that just don't want to participate in some drill or something, so I just let them sit out.  :shrug:   Maybe that's why my teams have always sucked.  Well, until this season -- somehow we're dominating.  Not because of my coaching though.
Click to expand...
Who's the Maestro now?

 
AcerFC said:
The never have kids standing in line is over rated imo. Sometimes it has to be done.
Click to expand...
It depends on what your objectives are.  For a team of rec league girls, I find it is almost never worth it to do that sort of drill.  The kids don't get exercise and don't have fun.  Those are the two primary goals of my practices.

 
AcerFC said:
The never have kids standing in line is over rated imo. Sometimes it has to be done. It shouldnt be all the time and the whole session but it has its place. Including making sure players are using proper form. 

Here is a shooting drill that can work for U8 because it works a lot of different things

Split the teams into two teams of 4. In a square (different sizes depending on age), the players on blue are playing possession and trying to get X amt of passes strung together without the red player stealing it or having it go out of bounds. So its a 4v1 rondo possession. If the red defending player wins the ball or forces the ball out, they get to leave the square and run on to the goal for a shot. The coach is the one playing the ball. If Blue gets X amt of passes, they have one point. If red scores on the shot, they get 1. Make it a competition and they will get into it. With shooting being your main concern, and the kids being young, have the red team shoot anyway even if blue keeps possession for X passes. 

If you have extra kids, you can increase the numbers, but 4V1 in the square works best imo
Click to expand...
that seems like a good drill...

another one I've been doing, is I line the girls up in a circle on the outside of a bunch of cones.   I take a ball and place it in the center on top of another cone and have the girls pass the ball around the circle trying to get a clear shot at shooting the ball off of the cone.    There is one girl in the inside of the circle trying to defend it.. has been a fun one and keeps everybody involved...

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
It depends on what your objectives are.  For a team of rec league girls, I find it is almost never worth it to do that sort of drill.  The kids don't get exercise and don't have fun.  Those are the two primary goals of my practices.
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It's not about having fun.  Do you give each of them a trophy after practice too?

Who do these girls idolized?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8FJ99336bU

 
I made up a game last practice that my U8 rec kids seemed to like. We practice on half a field with a temporary goal. I laid out a large square field with my space and put a goal in the middle of each sideline. I split into two teams, and each team could score on two goals (across from each other). no goalies allowed. 

I wanted them to work on changing directions and think about passing ahead. Once they started to tire of it, I threw in a second ball to make it more chaotic. 

 
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.

 
SwampDawg said:
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.
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It just means those teams have played in a lot of tournaments. I wouldnt put much stock in it. 

 
righetti - Have you put one in the win column yet?

 
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SwampDawg said:
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.
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What Acer said.

Some teams join ranked tournaments every weekend while some play in them one once a month or so. I'd look at their schedule and see if they are just playing ranked tournys all the time, or if they pick and choose and are actually good. In Vegas last year every team we played was ranked quite a bit ahead of us, and we didn't lose a game. :shrug:  

 
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SwampDawg said:
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.
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With the age changes that went down this year they are even more worthless than usual.

 
SwampDawg said:
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.
Click to expand...
I agree that they are pretty worthless.  My son's team was ranked like 4800 and beat a team ranked 2400 in their tournament this weekend 2-0.

 
SwampDawg said:
Anyone know how the GotSoccer team rankings worth and if they actually mean a whole lot ?  My son's team is playing there first "ranked" tournament this weekend and some of the teams have rankings on there.
Click to expand...
I've found that in MD, at the very top, the rankings are pretty accurate.  My son's team, which is usually ranked somewhere from 15-25, has played most of the top 5-7 teams in various leagues and tourneys and consistently gets beat (anywhere from 3-1 to 6-0).  Once you go below that, it's a total crapshoot like others have said. 

Another thing that makes the rankings even worse this year is the re-shuffling of the age groups.  Some teams that earned a lot of points over the previous seasons look totally different now.

My son's team is gonna be in Hershey, PA this weekend for a tourney.  Hershey Park is having a private event sat night just for the kids.  Should be a blast.

 
There is nothing worse to me as a coach and parent than a tournament. 3-4 shortened games means less time for all players to play and also a far greater chance for a lesser team to win. No idea how this idea took off. And hockey is worse than soccer bc you have to travel further for meaningless games. I often wonder why I encouraged my kids to play sports. Playing and instrument or enjoying photography would have been much more productive. Live and learn. Too late for me now

 
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AcerFC said:
There is nothing worse to me as a coach and parent then a tournament. 3-4 shortened games means less time for all players to play and also a far greater chance for a lesser team to win. No idea how this idea took off. And hockey is worse than soccer bc you have to travel further for meaningless games. I often wonder why I encouraged my kids to play sports. Playing and instrument or enjoying photography would have been much more productive. Live and learn. Too late for me now
Click to expand...
I hate tournament setups.   It's the worstt for Softball

 
AcerFC said:
There is nothing worse to me as a coach and parent then a tournament. 3-4 shortened games means less time for all players to play and also a far greater chance for a lesser team to win. No idea how this idea took off. And hockey is worse than soccer bc you have to travel further for meaningless games. I often wonder why I encouraged my kids to play sports. Playing and instrument or enjoying photography would have been much more productive. Live and learn. Too late for me now
Click to expand...
Honest question - why are you involved in the sport?  Seems like every other post of yours is a complaint about hating something.  Not meant as a dig, it's just something that's jumped out.

My kids love the tournament setup since it's virtually non-stop soccer for the weekend.  Makes for a long weekend for my wife and I, but I enjoy very few things more than watching the boys play something they love.  

 
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