Shomit’s Youth Soccer Training Tips

I am disappointed to say that I may not be able to attend this year’s workshop in Richmond, but wanted to pass along to you the link to the workshop and also a link to the VYSA touchline, the youth soccer newsletter for the state. I hope all of you can read about some of it.

http://www.vysa.com/home/207632.html

VYSA

I wanted to share with all of you two inspiring stories of team committment that I have had the priviledge to witness. I have been coaching for almost ten years now at the youth level, and I am constantly trying to analyze what separates championship teams from teams that tend to underachieve in terms of wins and losses. Obviously, players’ physical abilities and a coach’s competence come into play in terms of winning and losing, but there is something else that is tremendously more important in my opinion.

I have found that on all the GOOD teams that I have had the priviledge to play on or coach, players’ attendance at team activities during the regular season is top-notch. On the contrary, I have also coached or played for a few BAD teams and a common thread there was poor attendance at team activities, especially games. Certainly players and families have obligations/family emergencies that may cause them to miss practice on occassion, or a winter season game/scrimmage……..that is not the focus of this post.

What about the soccer games during the regular spring or fall season?

On average, a youth soccer team plays about eight or nine league games during a spring or fall season. If a player misses two out of eight games because they take two trips to the beach…….is it worth keeping that player on the team if she misses 25% of the season? Or would it better for the group as a whole to replace that player with someone with similar abilities that would attend 100% of the games as opposed to 75% of the games?

This leads me to the incredible stories of team commitment that have helped shaped my views. My travel team, the Under-16 Manassas Lightning had advanced to the final sixteen teams in the VYSA State Cup and we had to travel to Richmond to play the Midlothian Blast, a tough opponent. My then teammate and current assistant coach for the U-15G Arlington Express, Mike Walsh, was faced with quite a dilemma. Mike, the youngest of five children, had to choose between attending his oldest sister’s wedding or playing in his team’s State Cup game. To make a long story short, Mike attended the State Cup game (with his family’s blessing of course) and proceeded to score the game-winning goal with only seconds left in the game that sent the team into a wild celebration as we had advanced to the VYSA State Cup quarterfinals. The final score of the game was 1-0…and his sister still got married.

In a similar situation this past fall, a player on my U-15G Arlington Express, Alejandra Espinoza, faced a similar decision. Alejandra’s cousin had a wedding scheduled the same day as a WAGS league game. Just the day prior, the Express had suffered a loss in State Cup that the players on the team certainly did not feel good about. It was going to be tough to bounce back as a group in less than 24 hours. Alejandra felt that she needed to attend the game for her teammates. The game started of in a sluggish manner, but with about 15 minutes left in the game, Alejandra scored two quick goals to lead the Express to victory. It was only after the game that she remarked to assistant coach Mike Walsh, “Hey, I skipped my cousin’s wedding for this sort of like you did for your sister….” Mike and I immediately burst into laughter as we recalled our own experience as players more than ten years prior.

You only have 8 or 9 games to try to achieve a common, TEAM goal. Can your team count on YOU to be in attendance during those 8 or 9 dates barring an actual emergency? Or do you think you should skip the game and go lay on the beach?

What does committment to team mean to YOU?

Youth soccer players need to make a conscious effort to understand their surroundings on a soccer field as they continue playing. Coaches should reinforce the concept of time and space on the practice field on an almost daily basis at all ages of youth soccer. There are several characteristics to look for in individual players who have a difficult time identifying how much time and space is available to them. It is up to the soccer coach to identify the mistake to the player and the player has to take part of the job by trying to correct the mistake the next time he/she is presented with a similar situation. All young players reading this should try to avoid the following mistakes that are often made when incorrectly identifying how much time and space you actually have:

1. The “hot potato” play: A team has just combined one, two, and three passes and the fourth pass comes to an open player…..the player has a lot of time and space but is unaware of it and plays the ball “one touch” and it becomes a turnover.

What’s the better play? Since the player had time and space, there was likely no need to play the ball one-touch. He/she should have probably taken a touch, looked up, and evaluated what else there was to do with the time and space that was available (another pass, shot, etc). If for some reason the player feels that they SHOULD HAVE played the ball one-touch with all of the time and space that they had, you can emphasize that their technique in striking the ball was rushed and may have caused the turnover. Situations are rare when a player should play a ball with one touch if they have plenty of time and space.

2. Playing out of pressure in TIGHT spaces requires LESS touches: Coaches and players alike get frustrated by it sometimes but it is important to keep an even keel when it happens. A player has a few turnovers where it seems as though they are dribbling too much. The idea to take players on with the dribble is great and should be encouraged. However, it is important to know WHEN AND WHERE to do it. If a player is surrounded by multiple defenders, it is often wise to pass the ball out of the pressure quickly (i.e, with less touches) to find an area of the field that is not occupied by multiple defenders.

The moral of the story is: Be aware of your surroundings on the soccer field. What’s the fastest and easiest way to get better at that? Use your eyes to help identify ALL of the spaces around you ALL of the time. Do you have space in front of you? behind? to the left? to the right?

The spaces around you are changing every second. Can you see how it is changing?

For U9 players, space may still be a bit of an abstract concept but it is great to plant the ideas of “time and space“ when having conversations with the young soccer players. For older players, it is important to not only identify the time and space that surrounds you, but to also take advantage of it and use it the best way that you can on a regular basis. Players will watch their overall game improve tremendously as they continue to get better at seeing the time and space that is available to them.

The U-15G Arlington Express and the U-14G Arlington Eagles are a combined 11-0-1 after twelve total games in the 2008 FairfaxSportsplex Indoor Session II.

Balance and body control in soccer is something that is often taken for granted by both players and coaches alike. We often see players rush shots or hit bad passes out of bounds, however, the first things soccer coaches tend to correct (and I have been guilty of this as well), is the technique that was used to actually strike the ball.

What about the remainder of your body before you strike the ball. Is your non-kicking foot in the correct place? how about your head? knee? hands? arms?

There are many activities to work on these types of things, but there are people who specialize in these types of trainings that I highly recommend. Check out this website for fantastic balance and agility training available in Northern Virginia for young soccer players who want to really improve in these areas: http://www.bodydynamicsinc.com/index.html.

I have taken my Under-9 Boys Arlington Attack Blue to Body Dynamics and found the exercises extremely challenging and FUN for the little guys. I also plan on taking my Under-14 Arlington Eagles and Under-15 Arlington Express through these types of trainings prior to the start of the spring soccer season.

I think that part of the reason for my early baldness has been from watching young soccer players that I coach miss what appear to be easy chances to score goals. As a former player, obviously I have missed easy chances to score as well so I can certainly relate to the frustration that a player feels at that time. We have all seen it.

- A player dribbles through three defenders and has an open path to goal, but shoots the ball from twenty yards away directly at the goalkeeper rather than continue to dribble at the goal and calmly passing the ball into the back of the net.

- A player has time to trap and shoot directly in front of the goal, about eight yards away, but instead rushes a shot with one touch and it either goes wide or over the goal.

You get the picture. For U-14 and older players, this is something that they need to pay close attention to on their own but can be assisted with a little guided discovery in practice sessions……..were you really trying to finish by doing what you just did, or did you just take a shot to take a shot? If there was something else that you could have done, show me what it was. Was there something else you could have done to put either yourself or another teammate in a better situation to finish? Explain to me what you think that may have been.

For younger soccer players, the focus on finishing must deal with the technical side of the game. For example, some good questions would be:

1. When you are 1 v. 1 against the goalkeeper, what are some different parts of the foot you can FINISH with. Ok, show me.

2. Which part of the foot do YOU think is easiest to finish with in this situation? Why?

This will get younger players’ thought processes going and hopefully lead to more success in scoring goals in game situations.

The challenge of coaching young soccer players is unique. Their attention span is so small, that sometimes you have to capture their imagination. Playing maze games while incorporating technical ball skills can lead to a fun way to improve overall ball mastery. Simple things such as dribbling the soccer ball around randomly placed objects in the yard at home to get from the beginning of the maze to the end of the maze can be a fun way to improve ball control.

Here is the key: After you have set the parameters of the maze and how to solve it, now put restrictions on what surfaces of the foot that they can use to go through the maze. For example: You can only use the insides of both feet. 2. You can only use your right foot. 3. You can only use the outsides of both feet….etc…

Some parameters of a maze can include, “Dribble through a goal made of small cones, then a goal made of tall cones” and things of that nature……at home, it could be a pair of slippers alternating with a pair of shoes. You get the idea. As a coach and soccer parent, we have to use our imagination to capture these young players” attention and STILL put them in a position where they can improve their ball skills. If young players start doing and ENJOYING these types of activities, their love for the game will continue to grow along with their technical skills. For U9 soccer players, maze games are simply amazing.

Soccer is an emotional sport. We see it all over the Washington D.C area during the youth outdoor seasons and we see it on television at the professional levels. Players get pumped when they have done well and may also be seen laying on the ground in tears after a difficult loss. Obviously, this is never going to change in the game of soccer. However, it is important to keep your emotions in check while playing in a game and/or through the course of a long season in order to play your absolute best.

The idea of keeping an even keel is something that I feel is not stressed enough to youth soccer players. Some people have never even thought about paying attention to it, but it is great to watch soccer teams that are able to maintain it. Soccer is such a free-flowing game, that if you worry about what happened two minutes ago or even ten seconds ago, you are going to be missing what is going on RIGHT NOW. If you pay attention to what is occurring at the moment at all times, your overall game will improve tremendously.

If you score a goal (celebrate of course)…….but then it’s over so move on and keep playing right away. If you have a silly touch out of bounds and feel like crawling into a hole…..don’t worry about it…..it’s over….keep playing right away and try to correct it the next time.

Emotions run high during a soccer season or a soccer game. Keep an even keel on the soccer field, and while playing in the heat of a game, always pay attention to the present……. not the past. When going through the season, always look forward to your next opponent, not backwards at your last one. Your teammates will thank you for it.

Here is an article from Virginia Youth Soccer Association Technical Director Gordon Miller. He is someone that I have the highest possible respect for when it comes to soccer knowledge. I was able to spend some time with him during this past summer of 2007 while taking two coaching courses with him and certainly feel that I became a better coach because of it. The views in this article are consistent with my personal views in regards to player movement from team to team. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts…..it’’s a great article.

http://www.potomacsoccerwire.com/news/458/1944

For the record, the original title of the article was “Look Before You Leap”. An administrator at Potomac Soccer Wire has added in the “to a D1 team” before posting the article to the Potomac Soccer Wire. The original article can be found in the January 2008 edition of the VYSA Touchline here: http://www.vysa.com/touchline/index_E.html

Go to the bottom of this link and click on “January 2008.”

We often hear soccer coaches yell from the sideline (myself included), “Keep Possession!” Two teams are playing against one another, so naturally, as a soccer coach or soccer player, you want your team to have the ball right? Of course…..but then what? If we play the soccer ball back to our goalkeeper 90% of the time and he/she is able to connect thirty straight passes between him/herself and the four defenders, is that good possession? Certainly not, and here is why:

Possession is only one (though a quite important one) aspect of defeating an opponent in a soccer game. What if your team kept the soccer ball for almost the entire game and never got a shot on goal? What if your team kept the soccer ball almost the entire game but played horrible team defense and gave up three goals? Was the possession that your team was able to keep good enough to achieve the common team goal? No it was not.

Often times, when players are fed the “we don”t keep possession well enough” speech from soccer coaches, they automatically think that they have to play “keep away” for twenty passes in a row. This could not be further from the truth. Always remember these few basic principles of soccer when thinking about possession:

1. My team is trying to get to the other team’’s goal as fast as possible so that we can score. (trying to penetrate the opponents” defense).

2. If we face any obstacles when we are trying to score (or move the ball forward), we should always be able to bring the ball back, be patient, then keep possession……..and get on the attack again as quickly as possible.

THAT is possession with a purpose. Being able to understand and apply this concept is a key component in soccer teams that are consistently able to defeat their opponents.