When Is It Too Much?

by: Coree Reuter of Girls Play Soccer

I’ve started to push my girls a lot more at practice sessions this winter. We do fitness work every Wednesday, in addition to a 1v1 tournament, then we scrimmage. We’re very lucky that we get turf space twice a week, and I’ve been doing my best to take advantage of it.
However, last night I noticed a few things.

One, these girls complain a lot!

“Are we done yet?”

“We have to go again?”

“How many more sets?”

“Are we going to do something fun?”

The last question caught me a little off guard, but I had them finish their fitness work before we went to our weekly tournament. I like doing the 1v1 tournament because it gets their competitive fire going, and it’s great for teaching them how to drive forward to the goal. I keep the playing field long, but slightly narrow, and I don’t allow them to use the walls, even though they’re indoors.

Of course, they think the best part of the tournament is that the winner gets a strip of soccer=love tape for their back pack.

After the first round of the tournament, I noticed a small group of my players had pretty much checked out. They moved to a corner while the other girls finished their 1v1s, and began talking, playing with the turf, and generally not paying a lick of attention. Instead of yelling at them, I decided to ignore them.

We calculated points, set up the championship brackets, and just continued on with practice. Finally, I called the girls in for a quick chat. The despondent group noticed, and joined the huddle.

“How many of you notice your teammates sitting in the corner?”

Most of the hands when up.
“And how many of you were ticked off?”

They stayed up.

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

Silence.

I’ve been trying to teach the girls the value of being responsible for your own teammates. The idea of building each other up positively and pushing each other to be better.

I’m not sure they’re getting it.

I pulled aside one of the girls who I believe will eventually be a captain, and asked her if she was angry that some of her teammates had checked out. She said yes. When I asked her why she didn’t say anything, she said, “I didn’t want them to think I was being mean or a snot.”

I can understand that. Feelings are tender when you’re 11. But at the same time, they have to learn eventually that asking someone to step up isn’t necessarily personal. Maybe they’re too young? I’m not sure.

After a short lecture about working hard in practice, I sent them back out. I stressed the fact that they have two tournaments coming up at the end of March, and we needed to be fit. I stressed that no one comes to practice to have their time wasted, and that I believe we are all tired of losing games. Considering they all agreed with me on that point, I’m expecting a lot more out of them in the next couple weeks.
Towards the end of practice, I noticed one of my players was sulking. I called her over, and asked what was wrong.

“I don’t think I’m a good soccer play,” she said. I asked why.

“Because every time I do a move I get the ball taken away.”

I had to explain to her that I didn’t care that she lost the ball every time. That’s why we do these 1v1 tournaments — to improve our skills. I told her about the success of failure. About how Thomas Edison failed 1000 times before he invented the light bulb, and how Michael Jordan missed hundreds of shots in his lifetime. I told her that I didn’t care how many times she got the ball taken away — the important part is that she’s trying.

I don’t know if it got through to her, but I hope it did. She’s a good player, and has the potential to be a great player if she focuses a little and starts believing in herself.

After practice was over I made the girls go around and say one positive thing about each of their teammates. I think it helped. I told them that they had to prove themselves to each other in order to succeed, and that it didn’t matter what their parents had to say afterword. I told them as long as they know they did everything they could, and as long as their teammates know and I know, then the heck with the rest of them.
Again, I don’t know if they heard it. I don’t know if they’ll understand it for a while, but maybe I planted a seed.

I left that practice wondering if I’m pushing them too hard. They are only 11, after all, but then again, I think about the other teams in the area, and I realize that they need to be pushed. They’re not going to get better by sitting in the corner picking up handfuls of turf rubber, or picking daisies. There’s no reason any of these girls shouldn’t go on to play in high school or college if that’s what they want to do, but they have to make that decision on their own, first.

I can’t force them down that path, I can only provide directions and a map.

Making A Deposit: Investing in the game

Article reprinted with permission of the author: Coree Reuter

It was raining this morning when I woke up and headed down south to Stafford, VA to watch Virginia’s State ODP training session. Rain is my favorite soccer weather, so I should have known straight away it was going to be a good day.

I was excited when Celia Mosier invited me out to the training a few weeks ago, but disappointed that I couldn’t attend the first weekend. When I mentioned that I didn’t make the training session to Rae Ann Taylor, who coaches the “A” team in my age group at Loudoun, she looked at me with a completely serious face and said, “Do you want to get into coaching?” Of course I do. “Then you need to go to ODP training.”
So this weekend I was bound and determined to go check things out for myself, and I’m really glad I did. Not only did I see some real quality goalkeepers, I saw some amazing coaching. In some ways, it’s seeing the coaching that really makes a difference.

The session focused on the goalkeepers using their feet as well as communication. Celia and her assistants had the girls practicing swinging the ball wide to their outside defenders, receiving a back pass, switching the field to the other outside defender, receiving a back pass again, then looping the ball over the top to the GK on the other side, who mirrored the drill. Phase one started with no pressure, then eventually evolved into a version with pressure, then into a 3v3 +1 game. While the session itself was fantastic, it was the final lecture that game after that really made an impression.

Celia gathered all the girls into the huddle to chat with them about their homework for the week, and encouraged them to ask questions and ask for help. She also stressed the importance of knowing the girls they trained with every week, and utilizing their own peers to improve and grow as goalkeepers and people. I found it interesting, and heartening, to hear a goalkeeper coach pushing these players to band together and support each other, even though many of them compete against each other on a regular basis.

Considering the position can be such a lonely one, the idea of having such a solid support beneath your feet was one I definitely agree with, and will be encouraging the keepers I train to start to develop.
Celia also went on to talk about the idea of investing in the game. She told the girls that the more they invest in the game, the more the game will give back to them.

The more you invest in the game, the more the game will give back to you.
To me, that simple sentence set off fifty light bulbs in my head. While Celia’s advice was directed toward the group of young women who were standing before her, she unintentionally (or maybe intentionally!) gave me the most important advice I’ve received as a coach so far.

As a player, it’s easy to invest in the game. You practice it as much as possible. You live it, you breath it, you watch it, you try to embody the players you admire. The more you do this, the better player you will inevitably become. But how do we as coaches invest in the game? Certainly most of us have already made a significant investment through our own playing careers, but the real question is, will you settle for living off the interest of what you’ve already put into it? Or will you continue to add to your wealth?

There are many opportunities to invest yourself as a coach. The NSCAA and USSF offer numerous coaching courses throughout the year, and there’s plenty of soccer on television these days, and if you’re lucky enough to work in a club that offers coaching education days, there’s that opportunity, too.

But really, in my opinion (and I happily admit that it’s a young and perhaps somewhat naive opinion), the best way to invest in the game as a coach, is to get out there and learn from as many coaches as you can.
Now, I’m not saying you’re going to steal their practice plans or copy their mannerisms, but just like you tried to emulate your favorite players, you can certainly emulate the coaches you respect and admire. And sometimes, even the coaches you might think aren’t worth a teaspoon of salt.

At my Junior Level VI clinic last fall, we were asked what defined a “good coach”. When we finished rattling off our list of requirements, someone said, “You know what a good coach is because you’ve either had a really good one, or a really bad one.”  That just goes to show that regardless of our own experiences, good or bad, right or wrong, there’s something to be learned from every person who is involved in this game. Coach, player, official, parent, or fan.

So how will you invest yourself in the game? I sure feel like I’ve made  a hefty deposit this weekend.