Hello Youth Parents !What a winter it's been so far ... I hope you all enjoy your week of winter break no matter where you find yourself .... perhaps it's a state of mind but keeping myself busy this coming week with soccer kids manages to make me forget that I'm not leaving the frigid northeast ! Having said that, if you happen to be traveling to sunnier places, enjoy and be safe ! And please bring back a little sunshine !
U8 and U9 players .... there's still time to register for the JAMBOREE this coming Wednesday ... a simple email to me and you're registered !
In a week's time, we kick off our 3rd and final winter 6-week youth session. There's time to register and unless numbers get crazy, you know I cannot turn a child away ... especially if it was the parent's fault to register late :) . But with staff getting increasingly busy this time of year, it will make planning smoother as I strive to maintain a proper staff:player ratio. Remember that our website has changed to
http://www.tcunitedsoccer.org/. To register, click on the blue box 'Register Now'.
Sam Snow, Director of Coaching for USYSA, paid me and our program, a tremendous compliment yesterday ... in a discussion with him about the use and absolute success of
guided discovery (where we ask questions to probe the answers from the players rather than
telling them
our answer, he said, "because of coaches like you, American soccer has a bright future" ... focusing on the development and not getting caught up in the winning & losing at these tender ages .... it takes courage by coaches
and parents to give the game back to the players.
.... If we work on a new move in training, I want the players to be brave enough to try it in the game .... we continue to provide that safe environment .... applaud the
intent and not the
result .... if they try to pull the ball back and change the point of attack and they lose the ball because they didn't go fast enough, SO WHAT??! Try again! And again and again. I admit, this mentality has taken a while to be engrained in the players ... and at times it's been a challenge for our staff .... but we're there now, coaches and players, and guess what, it's working !!
In a U7/U8 class a few weeks ago, we worked on the
dummy, where you let a ball purposely run through your legs and then quickly turn around and maintain control of it ... I admit I was surprised how quickly all of the players picked the movement up (regardless of where they fall on the development spectrum) but I was over the moon when I saw U7 Eamon pull it off in the game ! And after attention was drawn to him, a snowball effect happened as most of the kids then tried to pull the dummy in the game!
Recently, we used balloons to introduce 'receiving flighted balls' .... it worked brilliantly. For the players that flinch anytime an object comes in the air, their fears instantly vanished. And for the hotshots that perhaps are lacking of ANY fear, we were able to slow down and fix their technique ... the small details that are critical ... and in every class (from U4 through U10),
every child had success when we progressed through the session and ran through the activities with the soccer balls !
As always, please never hesitate if you have any soccer-related questions, concerns, stories .... yes, stories ! ... some of you occasionally give me feedback without realizing it ... I love hearing the car-ride stories after class !
take care and I'll see you on the field !
~Maureen
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