What's Happening this Spring?

It has been a long winter of indoor training and spring is quickly approaching. I want to thank all of the parents for getting the girls to the tournament and for your support this past weekend.  I was extremely proud of the level of play all three of the teams displayed.  We were confident with the ball at our feet and consistently succeeded in beating defenders 1 on 1 and in groups of 2 and 3.  The number of overlaps, wall passes, through balls, shots to the back post, crosses away from the keeper (with players looking to get on the end of them) was impressive... especially against the level of competition.  And all of these fantastic things were happening while players moved around and played nearly every position on the field.  It's a nice bonus that all three teams were undefeated and won the majority of their games by very large margins.  

The progress of the teams is due in large part to the fact that 95% of the players have attended 95% of the practices this winter.  Thank you for your dedication in getting the girls to practices... I know all of you have quite a lot on your plate.  When I get consistent time with the players, it makes my job quite easy.  

Focuses for Spring Training:
Up to this point we have focused quite a bit on movement in attack in groups of 2 and three, while consistently addressing individual ability with the ball (moves, passing ability, taking the ball out of the air, shooting, etc...). Moving forward we will continue to touch upon these topics, but will focus more and more upon the speed at which we can execute these activities.  We will also train more often within the formation we will be playing in the game (known as functional training).  An example of this is defending and attacking in the "W" formation. 

During the tournament we played in the "W" formation (2 defenders, 3 midfielders, or also described as four players in a horseshoe with one player central) and had one target or forward in front to play in to.  In the spring we will play the same "W" formation, but with three targets to play.  The targets will not have set positions, but will be encouraged to move and make runs to unbalance the defense.  I'll be pushing the girls to get more and more comfortable overlapping and switching positions in the run of play.  The games should be very fun to watch!

I'm definitely looking forward to the spring season, but it feels a little bittersweet knowing that this will be my last season with these wonderful players.  Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.  See you all out on the fields! 

Goal Setting

It was a wonderful experience meeting with all of the teams outside of practice this past month.  The main purpose of meeting was to discuss goal setting, but it was also just nice for the girls to spend some quality time together outside of practice.

RECAP OF THE EVENING

First, I had each of the girls write down an individual soccer specific goal in their log books.  They all traced their left hand onto a blank page and wrote in the palm:  Goal   "I want to...

All the players wrote what they wanted to achieve, and we talked about the difference between an outcome goal and a performance goal. 

OUTCOME GOAL

An Outcome goal is a goal we don't have complete control over.  Example: "I want to be the fastest person on the team" 

This is a great goal, but no one can control the speed of their teammates.  If the fastest person in the world is on their team, this might be an unattainable goal no matter how hard they work. 

PERFORMANCE GOAL
We can turn this goal of getting faster into a performance goal by setting parameters we can control.  Example: "I want to decrease my mile time by 30 seconds"      

What's Happening in October and November?

Incredibly... we are already half way through the fall season. I'm very happy with the improvements the girls have made thus far. Most importantly, our players are seeing and creating 2 on 1 situations with more frequency and success. This is due to more positive movement off the ball: players without the ball consistently looking to move out from behind defenders and into gaps. Players with the ball are becoming more aware of these options. The next step, and what we've been working on for the past few weeks, is the speed at which we find and connect to these options.

Next week we will be working on striking with our laces. The girls will learn or again see the correct form when shooting, clearing, and passing over distance. They will get repetitions in practice, but will be given activities they can and should do outside of practice if they want to build the muscle memory to improve their striking ability.

We will then go into finishing activities and the decisions and options the girls need to look for in the box to give themselves more opportunities to score.
- shooting back post and following for rebounds
- the angles to cross the ball instead of shoot
- getting the ball outside the 6 yard box when crossing to eliminate the keeper
- the timing and angle of approach when finishing a cross
- the patterns that work to penetrate behind the defense without becoming off-sides

Lastly, we'll transition into the winter season going back to individual ball mastery, skills, and movement and decision making in 3 versus 3 situations.

On a different note:
In the near future you might notice that one or two girls look a bit more uncoordinated than they did last year or even last month. They may whiff on clearances or shots, and passes may be way off. We need to all remember that soccer takes an unbelievable amount of body control, and little growth spurts can put a player off their game. With time, this will pass of course. So in the mean time it is important that we are encouraging and understanding.

See you all on the fields...

What's Happening in Sept?

Hello and Welcome to the FCB Blog for U-11 & U-12 parents and players! Please check the blog as often as you like or when you receive an email reminder. It’s full of technical training tidbits and lots of other stuff to help the girl’s be the best player they can be. This first blog post lets you know what we’ve been working on during practice and previews what’s coming in September. I’m looking forward to a great year!

The Inside Scoop on What We've Been Practicing
During the first week of practice, we focused quite a bit of time on individual foot-skills and when to use these skills. We did moves to beat players 1 versus 1, moves to take the ball away from pressure, and hesitation and double moves. I hope all of the girls can name at least 2 moves from each of these categories and demonstrate how to do them. (This is your daughter's cue to show you what they've learned).

After the foot-skills and 1v1s, we progressed to attacking in groups of 3. We started the travel camp week with 3 against 0 (talking about how to move, where to move, and how to pass). We progressed this slowly all the way to 3 on 3. I designed the practices this way to continuously give the girls the right balance of challenge and success. Once the team found regular success in an activity, we added another defender to make it more challenging.