Everybody Makes Mistakes, That's Why Pencils Have Erasers

If you can remember a few months ago there was an uproar by many individuals in the province of Ontario who are both apart and unattached to the soccer community, with Don Cheery being the biggest critic (media wise) to the removal of standings in youth soccer up until the age of 12. This is a topic for another day, but with the introduction of LTPD players are able to play in  a much less stressful environment (or at least it should be that way).

In the old system, coaches often hindered players development because the focus of play was on winning instead of actually developing players, and more importantly allowing players to be creative. As I watch rep games in the older age groups, I often see very little creativity from players, when in pressure they are quick to get rid of the ball instead of trying to take a player on, and I believe this can be attributed to the fact that from a very young age these players were never given the freedom to actually be creative as coaches wanted to win, and if the player tried to do something creative and made a mistake, they were often yelled at and in some cases taken right off the pitch. From a young age when players are in such an environment, they get scared of making mistakes because they don't want an ear full from the coach after.

With the removal of standings and having the kids just play, coach's should now (although they should have always been) be encouraging their players to try for them to be creative without getting on them negatively if they happen to be unsuccessful with what they are attempting. When we started to walk, our parents didn't yell at us, but instead would encourage us to keep trying until it became natural to us, and this is the approach that we should have with all young players in the game. 

If a player is coming out of the back, or in the middle of the pitch tries to beat a player with a step-over and happens to get the ball taken from them, instead of instructing the player to get rid of it next time, coaches should be encouraging that player to keep trying it so that eventually as they do develop they aren't afraid to try it again or other tricks that are even more advanced, because one day they will eventually be able to do such things successfully. The u9 team I've coached for the last 2 years have conceded goals where players try to make a certain pass such as looking to play it back to a defender and it gets intercepted and the counter attack is on. Instead of yelling at the player to not try that again, it is important to recognize what they are trying to do, and point out it was a great idea, and maybe I will tell them next time they need to put a bit more pace on the ball to make sure it makes it to the player next time. If a player realizes that the coach isn't going to be upset with them with for making a mistake, it will only help build their confidence and they won't be nervous to try it again. Something like this is very important because as they get older, there will be many times where they need to knock the ball back to their defender to maintain possession, and if their confidence is shattered from a young age it will be much more detrimental to them as they get older.

Quite possibly the most important position where coaches should allow for "mistakes" to take place is the keeper. I was recently watching a  u10 game where a coach was yelling at their keeper to stay deeper in their goal as the keeper was highly aggressive at challenging the shooter and got beat over their head a couple of times. I later had a talk with the coach and the keeper and told them that they should be encouraging the keeper to continue this style of play, because as they grow (and can touch the cross bar with ease) the goals lobbing over their head will decrease dramatically, and they will also be cutting down the angle on what the shooter has. There is nothing worse than seeing a keeper at the u13+ age group who afraid to come off of their line because from a young age their coach was instructing them to stay deep to avoid getting beat over their head.

With young kids we must remember that they are going to make mistakes as they aren't professionals, and instead of getting on them for making the mistake, we should be encouraging them to try it again. With there now being nothing on the line to play for from up until u13, we need coaches need to do their best to let players confidence grow so that when they are ready they can do something special like a rainbow to get by a defender instead of have them just knock the ball down the pitch in hope that their player can chase it down.

I conclude this entry with a quote from William Edward Hickson "IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN." To all coaches, please remember this and encourage the creativity that your young players have inside of them.

They Do, But Are They Really Learning?

Having watched many youth soccer games over the last decade (I'm an official as well, and for many years was on a pitch no less than 6 days a week), I have heard the saying that players "look lost out there" or "their style of play is very robotic". We then ask the questions of "why do they look lost out there?" or "why are they playing like robots?" and below I am going to explain my thoughts on why I believe this happens very often and what can be done at an early age of development to help stop this problem.

Many times when coaches run a training session, they explain the drill, do a demonstration, correct (or yell a lot of the times) something that is being done wrong, and then watch the players go through the motions of the drill properly. This may seem good if the players can complete a drill properly, but coaches (especially at the younger ages u8-u13) often forget what I believe to be the most important step when teaching children to play the game, and that is finding out if the players truly understand what they are being taught.

As a coach of a girls u9 player pool this is a step that I refuse not to overlook at any of our training sessions. The way this can be done is by asking players open ended questions (other than just do you understand? or do you have any questions?) Questions that need to be asked are "why is this important?" "when in a game would we use this?" or "if this happens (a change in the play as things rarely work out exactly according to plan) what do we need to do?". Questions like these give you as a coach a better understanding if the players are actually grasping what you are teaching them, or if they are simply just going through the motions of what they are being shown. As I mentioned briefly earlier, there are the coaches who like to yell or tell a player how to correct something they are doing wrong in a drill. Although correction is needed, I believe that the best way for this to be done is not by telling them what they should do, but instead asking what the player or team believes they should do to correct what they're doing, and then as a coach you should elaborate on what they say.

As a coach this approach has many benefits in the development of young players, along with the development of the coach. Some of these benefits are:

• Helps you understand if the players are grasping the concept of what is being taught
• Makes them aware of when to apply such skills or tactics in a game
• When they hear information coming from a peer they sometimes can better relate to what is being said
• As a coach working with younger kids there are moments where we use advanced terminology (I'm guilty of this sometimes, but luckily my assistant coach is able to remind me that the girls are 9), but there is a player or two who understands what you are teaching and can break down what you are teaching into the most simplistic terms that wouldn't ever cross your mind
• It challenges the players to think deeper about the game

At the end of each training session it is important to ask the players a few questions and they are:

• What was today's topic? (hopefully you tell them at the start of training)
• What are some important things about the topic?
• Why/when do we use such skill/tactic?

If these steps are followed it will give you a much better gauge on whether the players you are training are simply just going through the motions, or if they are actually understanding what they are doing. If they truly understand what they're doing then it will help them that much more in their development.