HAND STRENGTH AND SOFT HANDS
Hand Strength and softer hands
Exercises – Have keeper do as many real push ups on the ball as possible. If they can’t do real pushups have them put their knees down and try it.
Coaching point – Make sure they have a contour grip on the ball just like they would catch a ball.
Do 3 alternating sets of these -
1) Have keeper stand upright facing a wall – hold the ball over their head and push for 10 secs as hard as they can against the wall.
Coaching points – To avoid any back injuries do not allow them to arch their backs while doing this. Also have them flex their abs. Again, make sure they have the contour grip on the ball.
2) Have keeper stand facing the wall and jump as high as they can and slam the ball as hard as they can over their head against the wall for 10 secs.
Coaching points – Make sure they land on both feet and continue to make adjustments on ball to keep contour.
All exercises – keeper keeps their eyes on the ball. “Watch with your eyes – catch with your hands”
Have keeper sit on floor with legs stretched out in front of them. Serve balls at them. This takes everything else out of the equation and allows you to focus on them keeping a steady head and only receiving the ball softly and properly. Serve progressively harder balls. Builds confidence.
Progression – serve to right and left and have them take ball to the ground.
Coaching points – Keep head steady, arms flexed a bit to absorb the hit. Once you start serving right and left and they start going to the ground – Make sure they are landing correctly and maintaining the good habit of covering (bringing knee up to protect their groin).
Landings – Ball hits first – no sharp angles (shoulders or elbows) They should land on their clavicle (Back of shoulder). Do equal amount of work right and left. Keep ball away from your face so strikers won’t kick you in the head.
SOCCER GOALIES DIVING TENDENCIES
found the following story on the NPR iPhone App:
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138922339/under-pressure-soccer-goalies-tend-to-dive-right?sc=17&f=1007
Under Pressure, Soccer Goalies Tend To Dive Right
by Shankar Vedantam
- August 2, 2011
The Japanese women’s soccer team stunned the United States a few weeks ago. After a tense match in which Team America seemed to have the upper hand throughout, Japan leveled the game with a late equalizer and then went on to win a penalty shootout.
New psychological research suggests that soccer goalkeepers and teams aren’t only affected by the high-stakes pressure of a penalty shootout. Without their awareness, goalkeepers also appear to be biased to dive to the right in some situations.
The consequences of this bias could potentially affect games ranging from casual pickup matches to world championships.
The bias primarily seems to affect goalkeepers when their teams are down, according to psychologists at the University of Amsterdam, who published their study in the journal Psychological Science. The psychologists believe the bias likely extends to other sports as well that involve rapid decision-making under pressure.
Marieke Roskes, Daniel Sligte, Shaul Shalvi and Carsten De Dreu said their hypothesis arose from a discussion they had with each other at a bar one Friday evening. The researchers were talking about two recent papers. One showed dogs tend to wag their tails to the right when approaching their masters. The other showed that soccer goalies have a tendency to dive one way or another while facing penalty kicks — they seem to dislike staying still.
Combining the ideas in the papers, and referring to soccer goalkeepers, Shalvi said the psychologists asked themselves, “Could it be that they would also, like the dogs, dive more to the right?”
On the following Monday, they started examining the evidence. They looked at penalty kicks in the men’s World Cup soccer championship from 1982 onward and found 204 penalty shootouts. When teams were tied, they found that goalkeepers dived left and right equally. But when their teams were down, the psychologists found goalkeepers were more than twice as likely to dive right as dive left.
Predisposition To The Right
Now, there’s a scientific explanation for this — and it doesn’t have anything to do with being left-handed or right-handed. Among humans, dogs and some other animals, individuals unconsciously move to the right when they approach something they really want. Lovers tend to lean their heads to the right when they kiss; dogs wag their tails to the right when their masters approach.
The predisposition to go one way rather than another doesn’t mean that individuals always have to go that way. But it does mean they have an unconscious tendency to favor one side rather than another in certain situations.
Shalvi and the other psychologists said the tendency likely arose in different species because there was an evolutionary advantage for many members of a given species to favor one direction rather than another — when they were hunting or avoiding predators, for example.
Shalvi thinks soccer goalkeepers tend to dive right when all hopes are pinned on them. That’s why they dive right, he said, “especially when their team is behind and their likelihood to be heroes is the greatest.”
During the recent U.S.-Japan match, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo faced four penalty kicks and dived right all four times. That’s an anecdote — and may also reflect a deliberate decision on the part of Solo and her coaches — but her behavior does line up with Shalvi’s psychological research.
Laurie George, a former professional soccer player who now coaches goalkeepers at the University of Maryland, College Park, said she would share the results of the study with her charges, but said she would still remind young goalkeepers about the basics: Try to make yourself as “large as possible” during a penalty kick, watch the eyes and positioning of the player taking the penalty kick, and get a good jump. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]
To learn more about the NPR iPhone app, go to http://iphone.npr.org/recommendnprnews
RECOVERY DAY AFTER A SOCCER MATCH
Recovery Day
10 Ways To Recover Quickly After Exercise
What to Do After Exercise to Speed Exercise Recovery
By Elizabeth Quinn, About.com Guide
Updated March 02, 2011
About.com Health’s Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
See More About:
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workouts
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tips
Use a foam roller for myofascial release and massaging tight muscles
Photo � E. Quinn
Rest and recovery is an essential part of any workout routine. Your after exercise recovery routine has a big impact on your fitness gains and sports performance and allows you to train much more effectively. Unfortunately, most people don’t have an after exercise recovery plan. Here are some tips to get your post-workout plans on track.
Why Recovery After Exercise Is Important
Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building. This is even more critical after a heavy weight training session. A muscle needs anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild, and working it again too soon simply leads to tissue breakdown instead of building. For weight training routines, never work the same muscles groups two days in a row.
10 Ways To Recover Quickly After Exercise
There are as many methods of recovery as there are athletes. The following are some of the most commonly recommended by the experts.
1. Cool Down. Cooling down simply means slowing down (not stopping completely) after exercise. Continuing to move around at a very low intensity for 5 to 10 minutes after a workout helps remove lactic acid from your muscles and may reduce muscles stiffness. warming up and cooling down are more helpful in cooler temperatures or when you have another exercise session or an event later the same day.
2. Replace Fluids. You lose a lot of fluid during exercise and ideally, you should be replacing it during exercise, but filling up after exercise is an easy way to boost your recovery. Water supports every metabolic function and nutrient transfer in the body and having plenty of water will improve every bodily function. Adequate fluid replacement is even more important for endurance athletes who lose large amounts of water during hours of sweating.
3. Eat Properly. After depleting your energy stores with exercise, you need to refuel if you expect your body to recover, repair tissues, get stronger and be ready for the next challenge. This is even more important if you are performing endurance exercise day after day or trying to build muscle. Ideally, you should try to eat within 60 minutes of the end of your workout and make sure you include some high-quality protein and complex carbohydrate.
4. Stretch. After a tough workout, consider gentle stretching. This is a simple and fast way to help your muscles recover.
5. Rest. Time is one of the best ways to recover (or heal) from just about any illness or injury and this also works after a hard workout. Your body has an amazing capacity to take care of itself if you allow it some time. Resting and waiting after a hard workout allows the repair and recovery process to happen at a natural pace. It’s not the only thing you can or should do to promote recovery, but sometimes doing nothing is the easiest thing to do.
6. Perform Active Recovery. Easy, gentle movement improves circulation which helps promote nutrient and waste product transport throughout the body. In theory, this helps the muscles repair and refuel faster.
7. Have a Massage. Massage feels good and improves circulation while allowing you to fully relax. You can also try self-massage and Foam Roller Exercises for Easing Tight Muscles and avoid the heavy sports massage price tag.
8. Take an Ice Bath. Some athletes swear by ice baths, ice massage or contrast water therapy (alternating hot and cold showers) to recover faster, reduce muscle soreness and prevent injury. The theory behind this method is that by repeatedly constricting and dilating blood vessels helps remove (or flush out) waste products in the tissues. Limited research has found some benefits of contrast water therapy at reducing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
How to use contrast water therapy: While taking your post-exercise shower, alternate 2 minutes of hot water with 30 seconds of cold water. Repeat four times with a minute of moderate temperatures between each hot-cold spray. If you happen to have a spa with hot and cold tubs available, you can take a plunge in each for the same time.
9. Get Lots of Sleep. While you sleep, amazing things are taking place in your body. Optimal sleep is essential for anyone who exercises regularly. During sleep, your body produces Growth Hormone (GH) which is largely responsible for tissue growth and repair.
10. Avoid Overtraining. One simple way to recovery faster is by designing a smart workout routine in the first place. Excessive exercise, heavy training at every session or a lack of rest days will limit your fitness gains from exercise and undermine your recovery efforts.
Listen to Your Body for a Faster Recovery
The most important thing you can do to recovery quickly is to listen to your body. If you are feeling tired, sore or notice decreased performance you may need more recovery time or a break from training altogether. If you are feeling strong the day after a hard workout, you don’t have to force yourself to go slow. If you pay attention, in most cases, your body will let you know what it needs, when it needs it. The problem for many of us is that we don’t listen to those warnings or we dismiss them with our own self talk (“I can’t be tired, I didn’t run my best yesterday” or “No one else needs two rest days after that workout; they’ll think I’m a wimp if I go slow today.”).
Also See
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
Injury Warning Signs
Immediate Injury Treatment
Should I Ice or Heat My Injury?
Products That Help Athletes Rest, Recover and Soothe Aching Muscles
Suggested Reading
Spring Training Fitness Tips
Avoiding Muscle Cramps
Preventing Health Illness
Suggested Reading
Injury Prevention and Sports Safety
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness DOMS – Muscle Pain After Exercise
Common Sports Injuries
Recovery After Exercise
Rest and Recovery: As Important as Training
Active Recovery
Overuse and Chronic Sports Injuries
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ACL INJURY PREVENTION IN WOMEN
Women Soccer Players and ACL Injuries
The Problem
Briefly, women are more prone to have ACL injuries than men. Here are some the areas they are exploring for a cause:
1) women tend to run more upright while men have more of a forward lean thereby easing stress on the knee.
2) Women tend to have an imbalance between their quads and ham strings with the ham strings being underdeveloped.
3) Women tend to stop, turn and land more flat-footed. Men tend to drop their backsides lower as they stop and turn as well as landing more squarely on both feet and bending their knees to absorb the shock on the knees.
4) Anatomically, women have a smaller notch where the ACL pass through the knee.
5) Hormone Cycle – Women have been found to have more ACL injuries in their pre-ovulatory phase. Women who are on an oral birth control have a reduced incidence. The question is how does estrogen affect ligaments.
6) Women tend to have a more “knock-kneed” alignment so that when they land their knees tend to bend inward.
7) Women are more ligament dominant than more muscle dominant.
Suggestions
1) Work to strengthen muscles that support the knee with special emphasis on the ham string. a) Squats –
Why it’s a winner: Squats work multiple muscle groups — the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals — at the same time.
How to: Keep your feet shoulder-width apart, flat on the ground and straight ahead and your back straight. Bend your knees and lower your rear as if you were sitting down in a chair, keeping your knees over your ankles.
b) Lunges – forward ,backward and sideways
Why it’s a winner: Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body. Lunges also help improve your balance.
How to: Take a big step forward, keeping your spine straight and keeping your toes straight ahead. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees. Keep weight on your back toes and drop the back knee toward the floor — but don’t let it touch the floor.
c) Bounding – Make sure you land with feet straight ahead and cushion your landing by landing on the balls of your feet and rolling onto heels while bending knees.
d) Weight training
e) Calf lifts
f) Ladder
2) Thorough warm up before activity.
3) Re-learning how to run (forward lean), land ( more squarely on both feet – try to have feet aligned with body when landing rather than to the side and bend knees and lower backside) and when stopping lower backside.
The Program
1) Improved running, stopping, turning and landing techniques.
2) Ham string strength work. 3)Flexibility and stretching. 4)Strengthen muscles that support the knee and soften landings (calves)
General
Much of what I have seen at the club and college level gives only a nod at trying to improve this situation. Introducing these ideas and then expecting the women to do it on their own or doing the program once a month or occasionally at team practice is not enough. These exercises need to be done at least 4 times a week to build the proper strength, balance and flexiblity and to get the repetitions necessary for the players to run, stop, turn and land naturally in the proper manner. When they run they are working the quads more than the hamstrings and therefore contributing to the imbalance. So rather than lower the running raise the hamstring work.
Suggestion for women’s programs of all ages:
Introduce a regular ACL injury prevention program in a training session to all players and coaches to be used in and out of season.
This is serious business for female athletes of almost any sport. Remember females are susceptible by a much larger margin ( anywhere from 2 to 8 times more likely). 70% of these injuries happen where there is little or no contact.
I have attached a supporting article from the NIH Magazine
Coach Esler
An Athlete’s Nightmare: Tearing the ACL
Past Issues / Summer 2008 Table of Contents
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Almost two years after successful surgery to repair a torn ACL, Michelle Backus of Gaithersburg, Md., is once again playing soccer and running track.
Photo courtesy of David George Photography
Two years ago, then-15-year-old Michelle Backus was out-maneuvering a teammate during soccer practice when she heard “a pop” coming from her left knee. The pain was instantaneous. “It felt like glass breaking,” she says, “I fell over, and I knew it wasn’t good.”
Michelle had just torn a part of her knee called the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL. All too common among athletes, an ACL injury is usually caused by a sudden deceleration or landing maneuver with the leg in a vulnerable position. Although ACL injuries are most often seen in team sports, 70 percent are incurred with little or no contact with another athlete. As with Michelle, the athlete often reacts to a nearby player, and the sudden movement causes the ACL tear.
Recent studies have shown that young female athletes sustain more ACL injuries than young males. In fact, young women are two to eight times more likely than their male counterparts to injure that ligament, according to Dr. Barry Boden of the Orthopedic Center in Rockville, Md. Michelle was one of Dr. Boden’s ACL patients.
There are many different theories as to why young women suffer a higher rate of ACL injuries. “One thought is that women have more of a knock-knee alignment,” says Dr. Boden, who is conducting research on the injury with funding from the National Institutes of Health. “The alignment of women’s knees tends to bend inward when women land.” Some researchers believe that this inward bend may predispose women to ACL injuries. Dr. Boden says there are other theories based on how estrogen affects the ligament, as well as the idea that women are “ligament dominant” rather than “muscle dominant.”
Golf great Tiger Woods will miss the remainder of the 2008 season due to an ACL injury and a double stress fracture in his left leg.
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Dr. Boden believes that one of the major reasons any athlete suffers ACL damage is because they land in a flat-footed position, as opposed to landing on the balls of their feet. “If the calf muscles are not absorbing the force, and if the knee is not in the proper position, the knee buckles and tears the ACL,” explains Dr. Boden.
After her initial diagnosis and a round of physical therapy, Michelle had her ACL surgery. The procedure took longer than anticipated because Dr. Boden discovered that Michelle also had a meniscal (cartilage) tear. Three days after the surgery, she was back at physical therapy. During her six months of therapy, Michelle learned how to jump and land properly to minimize the chances of re-injuring her ACL.
Almost two years later, Michelle is still playing soccer, as well as running track. She has found that the physical therapy has even helped her with track. “I run hurdles, and now I use my left leg as my lead leg because it is more flexible.” The physical therapy had an even greater impact on Michelle—it helped her decide on her future career. The rising senior wants to study physical therapy in college.
Fast Facts
An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is usually caused by a sudden twisting motion in the knee when an athlete lands or steps.
Young women are two to eight times more likely than young men to injure the ACL.
Landing on the balls of your feet, rather than flat-footed, may help prevent ACL injuries.
Preventing and Treating Cruciate Ligament Injuries
Prevention: The anterior cruciate ligament is most often stretched or torn (or both) by a sudden twisting motion (for example, when the feet are planted one way and the knees are turned another). Although ACL tears are usually difficult to predict, their occurrence may be made less likely by thoroughly warming up before sports, learning to land on the balls of the feet (not flat-footed), and using strength training to make the muscles firmer.
Symptoms: You may hear a popping sound, and the leg may buckle when you try to stand on it. After the initial painful rupture, the knee develops swelling, which typically lasts three to four weeks. Once the swelling subsides, the athletes usually don’t experience discomfort or giving-way with activities of daily living. However, with return to sports, the knee often buckles, causing more damage to the knee.
Diagnosis: The doctor may perform several tests to see whether the parts of the knee stay in proper position when pressure is applied in different directions. A thorough examination is essential. An MRI is accurate in detecting a complete tear, but the only reliable means of detecting a partial one is arthroscopy (a small surgical incision through which a surgeon can use a tiny lens to see the tear).
Treatment: Surgery to repair the ACL tear is usually followed by physical therapy over a period of from six to 12 months, depending on the tear.
To Find Out More
Visit www.niams.nih.gov and
www.medlineplus.gov.
Glossary
Ligament
A band of fibrous tissue that connects two or more bones at a joint.
Tendon
Fibrous cords of tissue that connect muscle to bone.
Meniscus
A C-shaped piece of cartilage that acts like a pad between the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone).
Sprain
A stretch and/or tear of a ligament.
Strain
An injury to either a muscle or a tendon.
Photo courtesy of NIAMS
Summer 2008 Issue: Volume 3 Number 3 Pages 24 – 26
MedlinePlus | Subscribe | Magazine Information | Contact Us
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An Explanation – The Missing Link
The Missing Link – An Explanation
When I first began my formal coaching education there was a strong emphasis on getting into the session quickly. Little, sketchy or no explanation was given and if you spent anytime doing so you were criticized by the training staff. There were good reasons given such as making your coaching points as the session moves along or if you spend time talking no one is listening or the players came to play not listen so the quicker you get into the session the quicker you will have the players attention and focus. My instructors were correct about getting into the session quickly but here’s what I found happens if you don’t give a brief but complete explanation:
1) It results in the players operating in vacuum. They try do what you ask and in the end some get it, some get part of it and some get nothing but more questions.
2) If you are playing a game they spend most of time trying to figure out the game rather than the lesson. Many times you have to be satisfied with the idea that if you play the game again at a later date they will get more out of it because now they understand the game and have their minds freed up to learn what you are trying to teach. The explanation links it all together for them.
Example:
What concept am I trying to convey to you? What do I want you to take away from this session. I want you to understand the concept and be able to build on it and apply it in games.
When the coach is planning the session she/he should determine what they want to accomplish with the session. Once the session is complete ( obviously you have your coaching points listed) the coach should word an explanation that tells the players: A) What the day looks like:
1) Skills warm -up
2) A small sided game that shows how to recognize and use space.
3) Scrimmage
4) Cool down
We’ll be done in 1 and ½ hours.
B) Then explain what the point of the game is and why you are doing it.
When you scrimmage you can set conditions, that reinforce your points, for a while then give them time to play without conditions. Finally, while they are cooling down you can review your coaching points one more time.
After practice you can analyze, player by player, who got the point and who did not then decide where to go from there.
Good Luck! Coach Esler
THE VALUE OF CONTINUING COACHING EDUCATION
Coaching Education
I have found that the more I learn the more I find that I need to know. We never know everything so stay humble and keep looking for learning opportunities. Just one idea can make all the difference. As I have said before, if things are not going well look at yourself first. Maybe you need to be better.
Some of the major benefits of coaching education include:
Learning new things- just one idea.
Being exposed to higher level coaches – they are higher level for a reason.
Feeling part of something bigger than you.
Keeps you humble.
Helps keep you ahead of the curve.
Makes it all more fun for you.
In best interest of players and program.
Shows you not only what to teach but how to teach.
Keeps you positive.
Sources of coaching education
NSCAA
1) Magazine includes many sessions and articles.
2) Sponsors training classes at many levels and on many subjects. Many held at the state level
3) Training DVD’s
4) National Conventions held annually. Includes many training sessions run by high level coaches. It is the largest gathering of soccer coaches in the world.
USSF – Many of the same things as NSCAA
State level sponsored training programs.
FIFA
English FA
Watch and analyze EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga games
Success in Soccer Magazine – My personal favorite – Has more of a European flavor. Has many sessions in each issue.
To suscribe: 888-828-4263 or www.successinsoccer.com
Using Visualization In Soccer Coaching
Using Visualization in Soccer Coaching
I. Purposes
1) Accelerate training.
2) Improve game performance.
3) Increase confidence through the use of positive input.
Accelerate training
Each time a player properly visualizes the execution of a skill it is internalized the same as having actually done it physically multiple times. Since skill ownership is based on repetition this is a huge time saver. Visualization is not intended to replace physical training rather augment it. You need not have mastered a skill to use visualization but you do need to have seen it done correctly and tried it many times to understand the nuances of a particular skill. In the end owning a skill requires 10,000 repetitions of the skill and must be executed at pace and under pressure.
Game performance
Any player at a high level will tell you that they have actually seen the goal they score before they actually execute it. The same applies to surgical passes they make, moves to beat a player, runs they make and first touches. Wayne Rooney of Man U does this night before a game before he goes to sleep. Rooney goes so far as to check on what uniform color he will be wearing to help flesh out his visualization.
Increased confidence
Events being visualized are supposed to be positive. These are internalized as successes. These successes build confidence that is needed to attempt the skill,shot, pass or run in a game. Once you have learned to visualize you can critique yourself as you go. You can immediately replace a failure with the picture of success. In soccer there is no time to mourn a mistake as it makes the team a man down. Replace the mourning with a picture of success and move on.
II. Building the mental picture
1) Living, breathing color and detail of every step in the process.
Ex: Building the mental picture of a shot on goal from a service.
Is it cold out, raining, on grass or turf, under the lights or daylight?
Seeing or creating the opportunity. The run – Timing, pace, gaining position on the defender, blindside run.
Will this be a one or two touch possession and shot? Will it be a header? Do you receive the ball on the ground and touch it into space with your first touch? Does the service come in hard and require focus to cushion the ball on your first touch and if so what surface of my foot do I take it on?
Where is the keeper? Do I shoot near or far post? High or low or upper ninety?
Is the defender pressuring me hard from the back or side and how do I fend them.
Do I get my plant foot pointed in the right direction and my hips around?
What surface of the foot do I strike the ball with, laces, toe poke, inside of the foot?
Do I follow my shot to pick up rebounds?
See the ball hit the back of the net.
2) Practice the visualization technique.
First few times you try you will need a quiet place to allow you to focus as well as closing your eyes to eliminate visual distractions.
Pick an event you wish to visualize.
Develop the detail of the visualization.
Follow the vision step by step.
Repeat the process as often as you can. Obviously, you should not be doing this while driving or in class.
3) Our goal is to be able to do this process during a game as part of your thinking process. See the goal happen before you even shoot. You cannot become accomplished without practice. Even a small bit of practice will give you results.
Good Luck! Coach Esler
Avoiding The Coach Trap
AVOIDING THE COACHING TRAP
THE TRAP
A major part of coaching is seeing and recognizing adjustments that need to be made during games and in training. We do not need to make adjustments to things that are doing well only those things that are wrong. Looking for mistakes or things that are wrong puts us on the path to thinking negatively.
AVOIDING THE TRAP
1) Understand the difference between being critical and critical analysis. ASK.com defines:
A) CRITICAL – Severe in judgment, acute, belittling, biting or dangerous. ( This is amateurish.)
B) CRITICAL ANALYSIS – Dissecting the information that is available. It is an evaluation that is careful, deliberate and analytical. ( This is professional.)
2) Recognizing that the trap is ever present.
Quote from unknown and paraphrased – What you are thinking is usually what comes out of your mouth. What comes out of your mouth is what players and staff hear. What they hear determines how they react. How they react defines your success or failure. Be careful what you think!
3) Maintain a positive attitude towards your players and fellow staff members. Create a culture of mutual respect as we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
4) Maintain a proper perspective.
A) No one mistake or loss is the end of the world. Losses do not define a coaching staffs or teams quality.
B) Changes take time. Improving a culture or teams skill level could take several years.
5) When something isn’t working well look at yourself first instead of immediately blaming others.
6) Set reasonable expectations for yourself and team.
A) Winning is not the idea – doing your best is. Each coach and player has a different “best”. Do not measure success by winning or losing. The wins will come.
B) Setting a goal over which you do not have absolute control of the success or failure is not a goal it is a wish. You cannot control others.
7) HAVE FUN! If you are not having fun then you need to make a course correction as something is wrong.
TOOLS
1) Pose your criticism as a suggestion. These are intelligent people let them make the choice.
2) Pose your criticism as a question and let the players figure it out. They’ll own the answer more readily than just being told.
3) Frame your criticism as a sandwich. First, say something positive such as “I can see that you are working hard”. Then add the center of the sandwich – “I suggest you play faster, maybe restrict yourself to two touches”. End with another positive – “Your a good athlete and a smart person so I know you’ll succeed”.
4) After given instruction and allowed the player to attempt something new you will probably get some improvement, not perfect but “better”. Better means you’ve improved, thanks for trying. It does not mean perfect. It does mean we still have to work on it. You still have your credibility in tact and were not patronizing.
5) When you see one player successfully doing what you are trying to teach you should praise them so that the others hear rather than always critiquing them all one at a time. Example: Mary is doing a great head fake to sell the move.
Finally, these are things you have to do all the time not some of the time. Consistency is mandatory. Practice makes perfect. Bear in mind that you can erase a years worth of work with one ill considered comment.
Steve martin comment on criticism – Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That when you criticize you are a mile away and still have their shoes.
Coach Esler
Teaching Simple Soccer Space Recognition and Usage
Some of the most beautiful scenes in soccer are balls played through into an open space. It has more excitement than watching a long pass in football or a 3 point shot in basketball. It’s precision is sports surgery.
Teaching space can be broken into three initial pieces.
1) Recognizing space.
2) Creating space.
3) Using space.
I am going to share one simple game that teaches recognizing and using space and I will have to cover creating space in a separate article. I call it the Endzone game and the field resembles a football field.Size of field
To start – We want lots of success while teaching the concept so make sure you make the field large enough for the number of players to insure that success. Example: 10 total players for a 5 v 5 game ( No keepers initially) Always create a rectangle. Make the playing field (not counting the endzones) 30 paces wide and 40 paces long then make the endzones 20 paces deep and 30 wide like the field.
Conditions of play -
1) Defensive players are not allowed into their own endzones.( This creates space behind the defense artificially)
2) The ball must enter the endzone ahead of the attacking player. ( This creates an artificial offsides line)
3) Rules for the field of play are standard soccer play rules.
4) You cannot dribble into the endzone you must run onto a pass.
Scoring – Run onto a ball in the attacking endzone and control it before it goes over the endline or touchline and you earn a goal.
Coaching points
1) Straight runs should be served diagonal balls.
2) Diagonal runs should be served straight balls.
3) Time runs properly.
4) Recycle your runs if necessary – standing still benefit’s the defense.
5) Weight passes properly.
6) Don’t force it if it’s not on.
Progressions
1) Make the field smaller or add more players for more surgical passes.
2) Add goals.
3) Add keepers
Finally, take away the endzone but enforce offsides rules.
Summary – You will find that the players will start recognizing space all over the field once they get this game. Good Luck – Coach Esler
Teaching the Game of Soccer Simply
TEACHNG THE GAME OF SOCCER SIMPLY
Coaches are always in a position of trying to make adjustments and corrections. We are well-intended and thoughtful but we still end up with unintended consequences. Many times one of those consequences is confused players. They are usually confused because we have made our teaching so complicated that the player cannot tie or relate what we are teaching to the playing of the game.
We need to make sure that each player understands the basics of the game and can clearly tie everything we teach to the game. Here are a few simple ideas for starting out right.
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