Last weekend I only had one game for each of my teams! It seemed like a weekend off :-) The great part about it is that the games were spread out; one on Friday, one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Even the games on Sunday were spread out by a couple of hours so it gave me some time in between. I've been trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) to only talk to the players on the field when there's a stoppage in play. My hope is that this leaves the decision making … [Read more...]
#177 The Coach – Parent Relationship
We finally got in a full weekend of games without any weather interruptions. The "Polar Vortex" moved in for the week so we weren't able to train outdoor until Thursday but indoor training went ahead as usual. As I suspected my youngest team were pretty rusty. They looked like they hadn't played a game in six, which they hadn't. They had forgotten some of the basic of Futsal. Fortunately, it only took them about a half and we started to look like ourselves … [Read more...]
#063 Surviving Tryouts
Last weekend completed the tryouts for our youth soccer club. This is a year occurrence here is the States. I’d be curious to hear what it’s like in other countries. Do you have tryouts each year or more or less often? Since our system is, ‘Pay to Play’ many parents view themselves as agents. They shop around and look for the best ‘deal’. I don’t have a problem with parents looking out for the best interest of their children but too often I think they’re … [Read more...]
#049 Preparing for the US Soccer Rule Changes
The focus of this week's episode is on the upcoming US Soccer rule changes that are affecting youth soccer teams throughout the country. As I mentioned at the end of last week's, I wanted to put together a group of Club Directors, Coach, League Administrators and State Association Officials to talk about the changes that have been either mandated or suggested by US Soccer and how to transition to these rules as smoothly as possible. I was fortunate to be … [Read more...]
#016 How to Run Tryouts for More Than 2,000 Players
Each June we hold tryouts for our soccer club. Players can be moved up or down and new players join to replace those that choose to leave. It can be a disorganized nightmare or it can be a well orchestrated process where players are assigned to teams that will be the best place for their further development. I was going to discuss more about tactical analysis this week but last weekend we had tryouts for our soccer club. This is a process that no one really … [Read more...]