My Ideal Yellowknife Soccer Pyramid

A few months ago after a training session with my men's team, I was talking to a couple of my teammates about the structure of soccer in Yellowknife and how it needs a major reform. Soccer here in the north is unlike any other of Canada I am am familiar with, as there is a very limited outdoor season (for adults as there is no outdoor youth league), an indoor league that isn't affiliated with the NWT Soccer Association which only offers games with no training sessions, and 2 clubs that focus on development but don't have any competition to compete against in the remote area and must travel down south to get some meaningful competition.

When I arrived home from that training session I drafted up a little note of what I would like to see soccer in the biggest city of the Northwest Territories evolve so that we can produce more players, and provide players with the right fundamentals from a young age so that if they are looking to compete at a higher level when they get older they will have the required skills. Here is what I came up with.

U4- Intro division: Players are introduced to the basics of the game where they will partake in a weekly 30 minute skill session followed by 30 minute small sided games. These sessions will be ran by club staff and junior coaches who are looking to give back to the game.

U6: One hour long development session run by club staff, along with a weekly game. 

U8-U14: Weekly training sessions conducted by the club staff along with a weekly game. There will also be "competitive" all-star teams comprised of players from the various teams in the house league (u8, u10, u12, u14) that will have an additional training session with the selected players only. These teams will participate in tournaments (varies on team), and these teams will be picked by the head coach who will be appointed by the club. 

U16-U18: These age groups will operate like the divisions below with the exception that the "all-star" team would participate in the adult league.

Adults: The organization will operate an adult league, and depending on numbers offer various divisions based on skill levels, and gender. In this division individuals will be allowed to create their own teams to enter the league.

Coaches: For any one who would like to coach a recreational team, they will need to complete the required stage(s) of coaching certification for the age group(s) that they would like to coach. To coach an "all-star" team or be a club coach that helps run the club training programs, they will need to have a minimum requirement of completing all stages of the community coaching stream, and will need to go through an interview process to be selected. The club would provide the courses for the coaches each season and if the coaches are looking to complete their national levels offered out of province, the club will help aid the coaches to do so.

The goal of the club will be to promote soccer in Yellowknife in a properly structured manner in accordance with the CSA and LTPD. For the competitive players, they will have the opportunity to train and play with players at the same level as they are to help to continue their growth in the game.

The reason why I would like to see this happen is because right now soccer in this city is very disjointed and we're doing a disservice to the younger generations by not providing them with the right tools to develop their games. Along with the players, it will also provide young or new referees the opportunities to officiate games that are more suited for their level instead of just being left with the only option to officiate in adult league games. 

When The Passion Leaves...

                It's been a while since I've last written here, and there are a few reasons behind that, but with me being pretty sick this weekend and not wanting to get out of bed I figured that today is a good day to write.

                

One of the reasons why I haven't written in quite a long time is because I have lost the full passion that I have had for the game (it's slowly coming back though). There are a few personal reasons why my passion has dwindled but I won't get into that. I have always said to myself though that when the game no longer becomes fun it's time to step away. Today I want to write a quick blog on this topic in regards to both players and coaches when it comes to the passion being gone.

               

  A couple of seasons ago I had a player's mother chat with me where she tried to help me convince her then 9 year old to stick with playing soccer after she had decided she wanted to participate in other activities. I think I may have caught her a little off guard when I said I can't do that. My reasoning/thought process behind that statement comes from my personal belief that if a player isn't interested in participating in a certain activity, there's really no point in forcing the individual to stick around, especially when the players are at a young age. When players are at a young age they are still trying to figure themselves out as people and to try and typecast into one sport for the rest of their lives (if it isn't their choice) is a bit foolish in my opinion, and they should be able to try to find the activity that brings them the most happiness. I'm a firm believer that kids should be provided with as many opportunities to find themselves while growing up.

                

From a coaching stand point, it's not fair to the coach, or to other teammates when one of their teammates has no interest in being there. They often become a distraction to the rest of the group as they have little interest and they could be potentially be taking the place of another individual who may not be as skilled, but has the eagerness to learn. I know personally as a coach I'd prefer to work with a player who is less skilled but is wanting to get better at any cost in comparison to a player who may be a bit more skilled but has little interest in being there.

                

I would like to point out that while you were reading this article, I wasn't talking about players giving up the sport because they're going through a difficult patch (team isn't winning as much, not having as much fun in their current environment), but I'm talking about the individuals that truly don't have interest in participating in the sport any more. This also goes for coaches as well, because if they're not interested then they are doing a complete disservice to their players.

                

As I said I'm not feeling too well so I'm going to be wrapping this one up now.

Cheers!

Creating a Better Environment

So it's been awhile since I've written a blog, but tonight I came across a great read titled Coaches 10 Commandments for a Great Season (found here: http://girlscansocceradventures.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/coaches-10-commandments-for-a-great-season/) and it inspired me to come up with some of my own tips on what can help lead to a great season, and great relationships amongst your team.

Come With A Proper Session Plan:

This is quite possibly the most important thing a coach can do, as player development and game preparation starts on the training pitch. There's nothing worse seeing a session being ran where there is no specific topic that you can see the players working on, and the different drills have no or very little connection to one another. This is important in the development of players as they will be having the point you're trying to get across to them engrained into them all practice, and thus they can focus on those principles that you're teaching them. With that being said, as a coach you should focus on only coaching points related to the topic that you're teaching. I know it may be hard, but in the end it's for the better. If you're coaching drills for strikers, then there should be very little focus on defensive points that session. Another thing to remember is make the session plan applicable to the level you are coaching. There's no sense in running a session that is below or well above the player's level as they will end up gaining very little from the session.

Listen To Your Players:

I've made reference to this in prior blogs, but I have personally found this to be one of the most important tools when coaching. As a coach you may have your own ideas, but it is very important to ask your players engaging open ended (not yes/no) that allow them to think about the importance of what you're teaching, why THEY think it may be useful, and when they can use it in a game situation. I've also found that this is particularly useful with younger aged players because (I'm guilty of this sometimes) us as coaches will explain a drill in terms that we understand, but the majority of your players don't. From here I have had many times where my players have been able to in the most basic of terms so that everyone can understand.

Don't Be Afraid To Have Fun (It's Not A Sin to Have A Laugh):

At the end of the day soccer is a game, and I'm a firm believer that if the player isn't enjoying the game anymore then it may be time for them to hang-up the boots (I know it seems bad to say). Fun can be had in many ways though through a training session. Coaches can do this by turning certain drills into small competitions (that will also increase the intensity), or mixing things up a bit so you're teaching them soccer related topics but in different manners (such as hand ball to teach off ball movement). Sometimes you also have to put your own pride to the side and let loose, like allowing your players to dye your hair, agreeing for them to choose your wardrobe for a day if they complete a specific task that you ask of them. When working with older groups, don't be afraid to revert back to small activities/drills that they may have done at much younger ages as sometimes it can lift their spirits to just go out and have fun. One comment that has stuck with me came over this past winter session when I was running a session for my club's u17 girls team. I had the players do a taxi race and when they were finished that I heard a player say to her teammates "Who knew fitness could actually be fun?"

When working with younger players (u8-u11), one of the best pieces of advice I received when I just started out coaching was that "About every 6 weeks, there will be a practice which is a complete throw away". What this coach meant was that the players are kids and there will be a session (if you're training multiple times a week) where their focus just won't be there no matter what you do. These are the days where instead of getting angry and sending players out, you grab your bibs, call them in split them into teams and just let them play.

Team Bonding:

One of the things that I'm really in disagreement with the OSA is their elimination of tournaments for players from u8-u12, and not for the chance to win a meaningless trophy (eventually life will trash all your trophies), but for the fact that it takes away opportunities for the players and their families to bond together off the pitch. Very few if any of the players you coach will go pro, but the bonds and friendships they will develop can last a lifetime. Ways you can provide these bonding moments as a coach is by organizing team parties/bbq's, fundraising events such as carwashes, or going to watch a professional game just to name a few things. This also allows you to learn more about the players that you coach away from the pitch.

24 Hour Rule:

Sometimes as coaches we don't like to interact with parents all too much when it pertains to the game. One of the most useful tools I always implement with any team I'm coaching is the 24 hour rule. What this is, is a rule that if there are any issues (bad OR GOOD) things don't get discussed until at least 24 hours after the event. The reason behind this is because when something happens immediately individuals may be filled with emotions and say things that they may regret shortly after. This goes for coaches too when it comes to dealing with parents on how a player(s) may be behaving. If the emotions are still there after 24 hours, then the majority of the time it is an actual valid concern, and not just a heat of the moment thing.

Look for the Positives:

Especially when you're coaching younger players, it is always very important to look for the positives no matter how things may be going. If the team happens to play a "bad" game, you may be a bit angry but after you might let them know of areas that may need improvement on, you should try your best to end your post game/practice talk with a couple positive points. The reason why this is important is because it shows the players that you still have faith in them, and that they know some things still went okay.

These are just a few of my thoughts that can help lead to a more positive team environment.  The better the environment is, the more enjoyable it is for the players, and it will make them wanting to come back pitch that much more.

Let Players Touch the Ball

As a coach and spectator of many games, there is very few things less settling than seeing players who receive a ball in a game, and their automatic reaction is to kick the ball away! This is very frustrating to watch because the majority of times these players have many different options to either dribble or to make a pass to help maintain possession of the ball, yet this doesn't seem to happen as often because often time players are afraid to make a mistake or even worse they lack the confidence to control, dribble, and take players on because they weren't taught these fundamentals from a young age.

A way to avoid this in players and helping them build their confidence on the ball can start at a young (u4-u12) and it comes down to coaching. At the younger ages it is very important that players are doing things that constantly involve them having a ball at their feet, or leaning to control a ball in many different passions, so that when it comes to games they are comfortable to deal with that situations. From the ages of u4-u7 every player should have a ball at their feet during training sessions with the focus being on using different surfaces of the foot, different movements of the feet such as turning, step-overs, stopping and accelerating, throwing the ball up in the air and having them control it with other parts of their body (bringing it down with their chest, feet, thighs, or head) will help build their confidence of getting the ball when they face such situations during games. As the players get a bit older (u8-u12) drills that focus on players dribbling at defenders and then taking them on trying to beat them should be encouraged. Things such as receiving the ball with their back to goal and a defender on them, which then you encourage the player to try to turn and beat that defender, receiving the ball  going directly at the defender trying to beat them, and even teaching players how to dribble out of the back because for defenders that is a great asset to have if they have the confidence to join in the attack or start the attack in a manner other than just punting a hail-marry up the pitch.  Even as the kids get older (depending on how many training sessions they have a week) one should be completely focused on ball mastery.

With that being said one of the most important things I've observed as a coach to help change this attitude of fear players may have is during different types of games at the younger ages is instead of putting a maximum amount of touches a player may take, coaches should set a minimum amount of touches. With me I often like to set the minimum amount of touches for players at 3. The reasoning behind this is so that the player can receive the pass, take a touch with their head up, and then make a decision by seeing the field as to whether they should dribble, make a pass or have a shot. I find this to be very successful as players tend to become more comfortable with the ball, and as mentioned before (and most importantly) they observe the field in front of them to make their decision. If they realize they have space to take the ball no matter their position (including keepers) should be utilizing that space to go forward. If they have been taught there is nothing wrong with taking a player on and they have had a lot of practice of doing  so you will see the confidence build in them.  

Sessions or Actually Coaching?

As some of you may already know, I just successfully completed my provincial pre-b assessment this past Sunday. It was unique as it was just myself and two other individuals (who I help coach the u12 boys program with) who were in the course. The course was hosted by Huw Morris and he was aided by Terrol Russell. Although I was successful with the course, I was still able to learn a lot from these two individuals as they had a wealth of knowledge to pass on to myself and the other two coaches.

One of the most interesting comments that myself and the other two coaches taking the course took in was made and then demonstrated by Terrol, and what he said was "There are many coaches out there who can run sessions, but they don't actually coach". When I thought about this, and then Terrol in action, it became evident what he meant by that. When a lot of coaches go to run a session, they have their drills prepared, and then all they do is just go out and run those drills, and if the drill isn't going well they then just make corrections to that specific drill.

What Terrol showed is that simply explaining the drill and then carrying out is beneficial to players often times as coaches we over look a lot of things that are going wrong. As drills are going on, us coaches are often quiet and watch the drill with very minimal coaching taking place during the drill (instructions being given are different from actually coaching). What he also also asked us to do was get the players more involved in the training session by constantly asking them questions. Often times as coaches when running sessions, we spend our time just giving instructions to players instead of actually testing their knowledge. I know when I was working with my former team at North Mississauga along with other teams in our COE program I would ask players questions about things they think they could change to enhance the drill, but Terrol showed us how we can ask these questions in a better manner.

Terrol was able to incorporate form of coaching right away into his training session during the warm up. He had the players dribbling around in a small area and as they were working he was vocal and motivating to the players. He then stopped them, and did something that a lot of coaches don't do... Most coaches have a tendency of just telling players what do for the drill and may offer a demonstration of what to do. What Terrol did though was instead of telling the players how to change the dribbling technique that they were doing, he asked them "how many parts of the feet can we dribble the ball with?" After the answer was given (5), he then again asked a player what was a technique they could do to incorporate 2 parts of the foot to dribble, and as the answer came he then got them to continue in that fashion. While the players were performing that task, instead of stopping them get them to use their other foot, he was coaching them and told them to incorporate both feet. Although it seemed simple to do so, many coaches (myself included) wouldn't take this approach, but instead would stop the drill completely and then tell them to use their other foot, this kept the flow and intensity of the the drill going.

Although Terrol only briefly ran two quick drills, the intensity and change from how the majority of coaches tend to run their sessions was very evident. This was good for me to learn as I believe that taking this approach to my training sessions from now on will not only help me, but will also help maximize the development of the players that I am working with. I look to implement this style of coaching into my next session this coming Saturday morning, where I want to become more of a coach than an instructor.