Friday, March 4, 2011

Gym Practice Schedule

Hello coaches,
    Following is the schedule for the gym practices.  These practices will start the week of March 21.  I will have outdoor practice schedule out by early next week.   Please put on your calender Saturday March 12 at 10am this is the date and time that I will be digging the equipment out of the shed and you will need to come down and pick it up.
    I have allocated a certain amount of calls for each of you to use for calling post. If you don't remember your user id number and password number please contact me.  If you have not noticed the swtch has been made to sports pilot. I'm currently working on putting in everyones info. into sportspilot so at some point you can email your teams through that system.  The main thing is it is time to start contacting your teams.  I do not want to get emails or phone calls from parents wondering who there coach is and where they are supposed to be.
   For these gym practices please have the players wear sneakers or indoor soccer shoes - NO CLEATS
That's all for now

Team/Coach
U14Girls/Matthews -  Middle school gym  - Monday/Wednesday  - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U14Boys/Ayotte - Middle School gym - Tuesday/Thursday - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

U12Boys/Tronkowski - Heron Pond Gym - Monday/Friday - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U12Boys/Faucher - Bales Gym - Monday/Friday - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U12Girls/Grill -  Wednesday at Heron Pond - Friday at Middle School - 6:00pm to 7:30pm

U10Boys/Ducharme - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 9:00am to 10:30am

U10Boys/Heiple - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 10:30am to 12:00pm

U10Girls/Ormiston - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 12:00pm to 1:30pm

U10Girls/Bamford - Bales Gym - Saturdays - 1:30pm to 3:00pm

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Important Soccer Coaches Meeting

    The coaches meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 7:30pm at Hampshire Hills in the Americana rm. which is upstairs next to Tie Breakers.  

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Now that "football" is over let's talk real football...

Hello fellow coaches,
    On many superbowl Sundays in the past I have found  myself at work.  Not being a huge American football fan I don't mind working letting the true fans get the night off, while I catch the game on my break.  This superbowl, however I found myself at home in bed with a fever watching the game.  Although the game was entertaining my biggest complaint is too many damn commercials.  Give me 45 minutes per half of uninterrupted real football to watch any day. Plus the commercials were not even that good. I mean how many cars do I need to buy really?
   Anyways, you will be getting a call in the next couple of days with a recorded message of my lovely voice. The caller ID for this call is "calling post" so please don't erase or ignore it.  I'm going to start utilizing this as well as the blog and the emails to get you the information you need.
   In the last post I had asked the coaches of the U10 boys and girls teams and the U12 boys teams if they wanted to play each other during the regular season or if they would rather play just teams from other towns. Out of the 6 coaches for these teams I have currently heard back from 2.  So if you have not responded to this question yet please let me know asap.  I have to notify the league soon.
    I believe all of you have gone onto the GSYSL web site and completed the kids safe requirement.  If you have not please do so as soon as possible.
    The next thing needed from you is any potential schedule conflicts that you may have.  What this means is if there is a Saturday or Sunday during the season when both you and your asst. coach will not be able to make it.  You need to submit these dates through the GSYSL web site.  So please check your calenders and work things out with each other. The deadline for to get these conflicts in is 2/15.
   The link below will bring you to what I found a very interesting review by FIFA of the 2010 world cup. It goes into what formations and styles of play were most successful as well as how individual countries have progressed over the years.  I hope you enjoy.
     FIFA World cup review

Crowd Management Course
   State of Maryland, State Fire Marshall's Office on-line training. Course takes about 30 minutes, but be warned that it contains some graphic video of the Rhode Island night club fire.
    The web site is:  http://www.firemarshal.state.md.us/

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

We need the orange ball....

   It's time to break out the orange ball and snowshoes so we can start practicing.   The team registration for GSYSL closed on the 30th.  After looking at the amount of teams in each division I had a few questions that I sent to the league coordinator.  I asked if there are two teams from MCAA in the same division would they play each other? and what happens if there are not enough teams in a division?
    Unless we specify otherwise the two teams in the same division will play each other.  So for the following divisions I need to know if you want to play each other or not - U10 boys, U10 girls, U12 boys. 
   Each of these divisions and the U12 girls division all have enough teams in them to play only teams in the 3rd division.
    The amount of teams in each division including our own teams is as follows:  U10 Boys - 10,  U10 Girls - 7, U12 Boys - 7, U12 Girls - 8, U14 boys - 4, and U14 Girls - 2.
     What this means for the U14 Boys team is that they will have there schedule offset with division 2 teams, and the U14 Girls will be absorbed into division 2.

   Kevin Tronkowski sent me this drill which looks like a good one for when we start the gym practices.  If anybody else finds some to share throw them my way so we can share them. Think Spring!!

SLAM IT


The ability for players to cross a ball or make a defence-splitting pass comes from being able to kick the ball with the correct height, weight and accuracy. This will become instinctive to players as they develop their soccer instincts.
I like to let my players experiment with how they kick the ball. At first it is important they just get the ball back – especially in the younger age groups.
You are looking for them to react to the position of the ball and the position of their opponent. Don’t worry if they just kick with their toes at first. Pick them up on it later.
This game epitomises what soccer coaching is all about – good fun and using the tools in your skills box to try and beat your opponent. It goes back to the school playing ground when there is just you and your mate and you play each other against a wall.

How to play Slam

  • Pair up your players and put two cones in front of a wall, six yards apart.
  • Tell each player they have three lives.
  • Players take turns to play the ball against the wall between the cones.
  • They lose a life if they miss the area between the cones, let the ball stop, cannot play it first time or get hit by their own rebound.
  • They play until one of the pairs is out of lives.

How to develop it

Children in a playground would play with a bunch of their friends, not just in pairs. Get your players to do this by:
  • Having teams which try and beat each other, with any player on each team playing the ball when it's their team's turn. Misses or the ball stopping etc, count as goals. Play first to five.
  • Playing with more players as individuals. Each player can be given a number and they must hit the ball in sequence. In this case, players go out as before, and the winner is the last one left.

How to advance it or make it easier

  • Make the game easier by allowing a second touch or harder by having to use left foot then right foot.
  • Change the size or height of the goal.
  • Allow the ball to stop for young players.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

From the Pitch

 Hello everyone,
   I have managed to get the all the teams registered with the GSYSL.   If you did not sign in as a user with them then I did it for you.  If you are one of these coaches I emailed your username and password.  Please make sure you log on and do the kids safe background check.
  
    On this subject, I realize that you are all volunteers for the spring coaching jobs, and for this I'm extremely grateful.  I also realize that we are all busy in many different ways with kids, and jobs, etc.  Having said that I would like to make a plea with you all to make more of an effort to respond to my emails and complete the tasks that I ask.  I do my best not to burden you all with a lot of tasks to complete.  What I'm running up against is dealing with another league.  In the fall when it is just MCAA things are a little more relaxed with time frames and deadlines.  This is not the case with this league I have certain deadlines to meet or else our teams will not be able to play.  So again please do your best to reply to my emails and complete the tasks that need to be done.  Ok I'm off my soapbox.

   On to soccer stuff.  I have managed to get gym space beginning the week of March 21 and running right up to the first games in April.   We will have the use of the middle school gym and Heron Pond, and soon Bales as well.  So now comes the tricky part of coming up with a schedule and who will get to practice in the gyms.  On the preliminary schedule the U14 and U12 teams will practice twice a week, and the U10 teams once a week.  Of course this is just until we get outside and then everyone will be twice a week.  In order to make this happen I will have to utilize Friday nights and Saturdays.  If you have any scheduling conflicts please let me know I will do my best to take care of it.   The practice times during the week would be from 6 to 7:30 and on Saturdays I have not figured that out yet.

     As far as what to do at these practices I recommend a lot of conditioning.  Quite a few of the teams you will face in the spring have probably been playing right through the winter. So we need to get our players up to speed quickly.  Another good suggestion is to work on foot work.  We mentioned at the meeting the Coerver drills which you can find on you tube and other places.  One last suggestion would be to get a futsal ball, they are very small and heavy.   Use this to play your scrimmage games and it will help with passing accuracy. Focus alot on one time or two time passing to increase the speed of your game.   I will put some clips on the page. This is part of what made Ronaldino so great.  There are plenty of other things that can be done in the gym to get our players ready. If you have any please share them.  

   That's all for now.
    

Monday, January 17, 2011

Soccer Speak

   I know for some of you yesterdays Patriots loss was heartbreaking. So I thought I would take your mind off things with an update on spring soccer.

     I have put the paper work in for the use of gym space with Heron Pond, and the Middle school.  However due to basketball running later this year we will not be able to access these gyms until the week of March 21.  This is roughly 4 weeks before the first games of the season.  I still plan on hitting up the high school as well.  Once I receive confirmation I will decide which teams will be using them and come up with a practice schedule.   If you know of any other gym space please let me know.  The more we can get the greater number of teams that will be able to start practicing early.
  
       I also met with Nicole Banks again and she knows what our field needs are and will be able to confirm or field requests sometime in March.  Pray for another early spring because we can't use town fields until they give the thumbs up, which does not always seem to be when I think we could use them.
  
     I'm still working on registering the teams with GSYSL. However the problem I'm having is not all of you have signed up as a coach or asst. coach through their web site yet.  As of today I have 4 head coaches and 4 asst. coaches who have not completed this task.  So here is the deal you have to have it done no later than this Friday.   Please Please Please get this done.  I need to have time to enter the teams and get the check there on time by the 30th. 


      That's all for now.  Read soccer coaching books, check out coaching web sites, study the game. The more prepared you are the less stress and the more fun you will have.

  COACHING TIP :  Try the guided discovery coaching method whenever possible which focuses on asking the player to think and say if there is something they could do to improve things.  The player, not the coach, solves a problem.  Just like they will have to on the pitch.

    

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

GSYSL User registration

    Hello everyone on this beautiful snowy day.  I would like to start the process of registering the teams with the GSYSL.  What I need you all to do is register with them as a new user. The link to the web site is on the right of this page.  Please make sure to read the directions carefully.  You must hold the ctl key down and choose either coach or asst. coach and then slew down and choose MCAA. Please try and do this soon. Also if you are already registered but your role has changed please edit your profile to make the change.
 
       The MCAA board meeting was this past Sunday night. I presented our game field requests for North River Road to the board and the new baseball director. I do not anticipate any problems.  
  
      Tomorrow I will be dropping off our field and gym requests with the town and schools. Please if you have any other alternatives for practices let me know the more choices we have the better. 
  
       Coaching tip - "Consistency in attitude and expectations is crucial. Try to be motivated and upbeat for every session, as players take their cue from you. Always demand-and accpet- nothing but the best in training sessions. This can be difficult, but it is crucial in order to stay on top of the game."

Friday, January 7, 2011

Soccer Meeting Review

  We had a good spring coaches meeting Wednesday night.   As of today I have received registrations from almost all players.  So I will not need for you to contact anyone about registrations.
   I have put a link to the Granite State Youth Soccer League on this page.  Please take the time to go there and review it especially the coaches section.
  I have put this blog together quickly so that we may all use it as a coaching resource.  Please share any questions, thoughts, ideas, links, vids, etc, that you feel will be useful to coaching the beautiful game.  
   I'm really looking forward to a great spring season.