I have been quite terrible about posting. Sorry! I have been busy…
I am coaching a girls, under-14 team in AYSO. It’s quite fun. My initial motivation for becoming a coach was being able to have practices twice a week, which would get me out on the soccer field, doing soccer drills and running. I stopped playing in a competitive adult league about 1 year ago, because my back just couldn’t handle the intensity of the game. So I though being a coach and working out with my team would help me determine whether or not I wanted to get back into playing soccer competitively. I will not make my girls run laps or sprints while I sit around and watch.
But now I have a new motivation – I want to show them everything that I know about soccer. The 1.5 hour practices aren’t long enough for me to cover everything that I want to do. I have a super long list of drills and skills I want to cover and not enough time to get it all done. We have a practice game this weekend. I am excited but nervous. I have never coached this level before and I don’t know what to expect. Some of the girls on the team have obvious talent and skill, since they’ve been playing for 5+ years. Some of the girls are new to the game, and while they understand the basics of the game and are not afraid, they lack skill.
I know it’s just for fun. But everyone has more fun when they win or at least the matches are close. So hopefully we’ll have a good season. Wish us luck!
2 comments:
Good luck with that! I think you can compensate for lack of skill, to a certain extent, with discipline and motivation. I would focus on that because it will give them a better chance against teams that have lots of skill. Think the Galacticos of Real Madrid: lots of talent and won nothing mainly because they didn't function as a team. That's common in those teams. Keep us posted though. I'll be cheering for them. What's the name of the team anyways? And it better be cool like Dracula's Brides or something. Maybe you can even have them do a Haka like the All-Blacks do in rugby.
Those are good suggestions. Team cohesion is definitely more important than skill. At the last practice we did a "shadow drill" (don't know if that's what it's actually called), where everyone was lined up in position and they just kicked a few soccer balls around, switching the field, etc.
Hopefully our first game will go well.
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