Kid's sports - The Sequel

[lookout123]

I put this in Home Base because that is where the first thread was, but we can move it to sports if you all want. Or delete it altogether if you really want.

After people complained about the results from last season we decided to make sure that the teams were divided up more evenly for this session. That translated to me (and the other 4 coaches who bothered showing up) spending 3+ hours at the club one night running every single player through some evals. we each rated every player and then sat down to go through the numbers. The coaches who showed up were the more reasonable ones who want to make sure that fun and learning is priority one. The blowhards were apparently busy. After lots of ideas were thrown out I suggested we each go to the whiteboard and list each of our returning players under our teams and assume we would keep them unless and until one team looks too overpowering and then we could fill all the new kids in around the existing kids in a way to balance things out.

I went to the board and started writing names. I had lil lookout and 3 girls and 1 boy coming back. my number 2 scorer, and 2 really stroong defenders didn't come back. 2 of my strongest players, B and C, I assumed I was losing because they are family friends and we recruited C's dad as a new coach (I'm helping him in addition to my own team). I assumed he would form his team around those two. He piped in from the back though that the parents had talked and they want B and C on my team because they wanted them to stick with me. Fine by me, so I already had 7 of my expected 10 players.

We had assigned each player a number between 1-5 as a rating, 5 being the most skilled. I rated my team as two 4's, four 3's, and a 2. The other coaches had rated my players as two 5's, four 4's, and two 3's. A little generous is you look at the kids, but I already knew where this was going. Long story short, I took on 2 more boys who had never seen a soccer ball before. All I had asked for is that I get someone who can player keeper, but they wanted me to trade away lil lookout and my 2nd most experienced player to get that. No thanks, I'll teach them to stop as many as they can and just outscore the other teams.

The other teams look pretty even on paper. We picked up some really really good players from another club that has had some issues lately. There are two players that I can't believe aren't playing travel team at a higher age bracket - they were awesome in evals. big, aggressive, and SKILLS. Very impressive. 1 of the other coaches was really complaining about his "weak squad" and how he wouldn't stand a chance even though we let him have the 2 most impressive kids that came in new, 6 of his existing players, and a couple more decent newbies. Average ratings wise, his team had the same strength mine does, but he still complained so they decided that the first game of the session would be my kids against his. If the score was too out of line we'd change the teams. I saw trouble brewing, but oh well. My opinion is that, although he is a friend, he is a poor coach. He doesn't give direction or explain why or when a skill is important, he just drills the skills and tells them to go play and then complains about being overmatched when his kids resort to jumbleball and lose. Oh well.

Next up: Game One

[lookout123]

I practiced with my kids last wednesday. Only a handful showed up, but we practiced just like we would normally. My two new kids showed almost zero coordination so I worked with them on the "a defender stays in this area and kicks the ball as hard as they can outside" method. I'll teach them more as the weeks go on. I figured I would play the first game pretty defensively with just 1 forward, 2 midfielders, 3 defenders and lil lookout in goal.

Lil Lookout changed that plan for me friday night when he found out he can't fly. He leaned too far out of his bunkbed for a book and went overboard. He scratched his face up pretty good, but I thought his arm might be broken. The Xrays said no break, but a pretty good sprain in his left wrist. No goalkeeping with that hand. I wouldn't have even let him play if I thought I wouldn't kill him as a reaction to his complaining about being left on the bench.

I started with the same idea as before but with lil lookout as the defensive midfielder and another boy in goal. The other team kicked off straight to lil lookout who drove straight down the center and scored from well outside the box. 10 seconds: goal. Wow, that was a fluke. 20 seconds later my team had their second goal. We had five goals in 5 minutes. The other coach wasn't giving any directions, he didn't make any changes on the field, he just stood there quietly. I realized at that point that he wanted my kids to pick his team apart so he would have an excuse to switch players around. I love my kids together and don't want them split up for this session as it is the last they'll be together anyway. 4 of them move up to the next age group at the end of this session and I want them together one last time. I called the program director over and asked him to watch the game. I moved lil lookout, hurt arm and all, into the goal, and moved my other two real scorers into defense, pushed my two newbies up, and told them all to just have fun. I subbed all my strongest players through the goal box and as I'd send them back out I'd tell them the game was already won, now lets work on "__________". Lil Lookout, B, C, and C were only allowed to shoot with their left foot or get an assist.

From that point on the game was a lot of fun. My kids would just pass it around and try to get the new kids to score by passing to them right in front of the goal. One of my parents took it upon himself to go coach and direct the other team's keeper through the net. My kids scored three more times but I think they learned a lot more with the way the were passing to each other. Goals were off the table, so they were motivated to get the passes in and it was pretty impressive. They finished the game with the traditional cheer for the other team. The losing team was still having fun because everyone would cheer when they would come close our goal, so they weren't embarrassed. Kids are kids and they'll have fun if you let them.

After the game the kids all shook hands and then both teams took a ball and kept playing in the background while we had coach/parent meetings. I warned the parents that the rest of the games will look different because the other coaches are going to try to win. duh. Pretty frustrated at the crappiness from the other coach, but I think we managed to turn it into a good game in spite of him. All in all, a good week.

The program director realized the other coach wasn't coaching so he didn't switch the players around either.

[Flint]

Cool, turn every situation into a learning exprerience. And, you were able to expose the shenaigans. You're great at this stuff.

[Clodfobble]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: you are severely underestimating your skill as a coach. You actually understand the game and are eager to teach the kids strategy and skills. Maybe this is typical of the coaches for your soccer club, but I find it hard to believe. These kids are like 7 years old, right? Most coaches I've seen, especially for the younger ages, just run the drills and make sure everyone has time on the field. Admittedly, my experience was almost entirely with baseball, but still. The coaches were all parents who thought taking on a team would be fun; most of them had never actually played the sport themselves, except maybe as very young kids. None of them showed even a fraction of the interest in improving individual skills as you have.

Since the other coaches aren't interested in group practices, I think you should issue a challenge: next year, just give you li'l lookout, and the 9 lowest-ranked kids, and you will still kick everyone's asses.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Since the other coaches aren't interested in group practices, I think you should issue a challenge: next year, just give you li'l lookout, and the 9 lowest-ranked kids, and you will still kick everyone's asses.

Oh! He could coach a mismatched band of ragamuffin misfits to a shocking upset surprise of the golden boys with a super-secret sneak-play strategy!

[Clodfobble]

Exactly--but he still has that one star player who makes the whole thing moderately plausible.

[lookout123]

OOOH, and I am sort of a successful but disgruntled business guy. This could be good.

Now how do I pitch a movie idea?

[lookout123]

Since the other coaches aren't interested in group practices, I think you should issue a challenge: next year, just give you li'l lookout, and the 9 lowest-ranked kids, and you will still kick everyone's asses.

Although that sounds like fun, I think I'll pass on volunteering for it. It will be pretty close to what happens anyway due to half my kids moving up to the next age bracket or taking the session off, anyway.

I pretty much did that a year and a half ago. Lil Lookout was forced out of the U6 league and into the U8 league before his 5th birthday because he was "scoring too much" I started coaching U8 at that point and the director at that time didn't invite me to the evaluations. I ended up with a 4 year old lil lookout, five 6 year olds and four 7 year olds who had never played soccer before. I recruited our 7 year old neighbor just so I could have another player who could at least kick the ball without falling over. That first session we lost or tied our first nine games. Our tenth game we beat the other team 12-0. The kids all signed up for the next session and we went 5-3-2. Then I took a session off from coaching and they split those kids up. All but one still plays. Three of them have been invited to club level tryouts.

It's fun to do, but I can't do that again. It encourages my overly competitive Lil Lookout to be a selfish ballhog. It is hard to convince him to pass to someone who doesn't know what to do with the ball.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Well look what Tiger Woods' dad did with his star pupil.

[lookout123]

Lil lookout doesn't have the good fortune of having as good of a coach as Tiger had.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bullshit, you da man!

[classicman]

What Bruce said!! !! !! - Lil lookout just needs to refine the - "...time and place..." part a bit, me thinks.

[lookout123]

It was a big soccer week in lookoutville so this will come in two parts. This first part will be my usual bias free review of the week's game. The second part will be a father's unadulterated bragging.

A couple of my players' parents who are really into the game but not quite as developed as LL have been asking how LL learned to do this and how to do that. I've always replied the same way - Lil Lookout loves the game even more than I do and spends every minute he can with a ball at his feet - all I do is introduce some proper technique. Well, after repeating that for the eleventy-eighth time I offered to work with a couple of them an additional day each week. Monday I grabbed Lil Lookout from school and met B, C, and C at the club. I worked on some individual skills with them and scrimmaged. So basically this group of four had to listen to me piss and moan about the need for clean passing and opening lanes for 3 hours instead of their usual one hour practice each week. It showed in the game today.

I fully expected to lose today's game but knew it would be a good fight. We were playing one of my friend's teams and he is stacked out with 3 club level players and a solid cast around them. I started with LL in the goal, B up front on his own and 3 midfielders. B scored twice last session. He scored 2 in the opening 5 minutes this week. When I switched Lil Lookout from keeper to his central midfield spot with C and C on his flanks and B upfront it became a flat out demolition. The keeper from the other team is the absolute best keeper i've ever seen under 10 years old - he's awesome. The way these boys were passing, the poor keeper didn't know what to do. LL scored twice with his left foot and once on a backheel before I moved him into defense for the rest of the game. The passing was amazing all the way around. Even my two new kids who really don't have the slightest clue ran hard, fought hard, and moved the ball around. The final score was 10-5. The game was a bit closer than the score would show and it was a lot of fun for everyone to watch - parents from the other team were happy after the game and made sure to come over and congratulate my kids on a game well played.

LL scored 4 of the points, but was responsible for some good assists too. It really wasn't a one man show - he just has a nose for the goal. A great game from every single kid.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And the credit goes to....











top management.

[lookout123]

And here's the real proud papa. LL has been invited to tryout for a few club teams in the past and I always nixed the idea for different reasons, but mainly because I want him to have fun with the game and not add any stress to the kid. For a 6 year old the kid worries more than I can explain. Anyway, on Thursday I got a call from the club director. He reminded me that the outdoor competitive season was over and indoor club started this weekend. Because of some mixup with the age guidelines, his '01 (birth year) team only had enough to field a team with no subs. He asked if I'd let Lil Lookout play with them. I told him their practice night is a problem for us, so it probably wouldn't work. He insisted that I worked with LL enough and the kid was obsessive enough that he could play even without practicing with the team first. I thought that was complete BS, but told him LL would play with them this week at least so he'd have time to find someone to play with them full time. My main concern was that LL really wasn't developed enough to hang in that league and he'd get discouraged.

This morning Lil Lookout played his first competitive level game immediately after our rec league game. He was really nervous about not being good enough. I assured him that he was, but that he had to understand he wasn't going to dribble circles around these players and he'd probably play defense for a few games until he got used to the speed of play. With nervous energy filling us both I left him with the coach and went to the other side of the field. It is really hard and nerve racking to quit being the coach and just be dad. I have more time to be nervous about my kid instead of worrying about 9 of them. My nerves spiked when I watched the coach send them on the field and he didn't put LL in defense as expected. LL in his first competitive game ever got pushed into a Left Winger spot. All 3'9" and 41 lbs of him. Right footed and all - just chilling on the left wing.

The other team was definitely bigger and they came from a much more prestigious club than ours - with a reputation for high quality. They knew what they were about and set to work. They had our kids down by 2 within 5 minutes, but it didn't matter - our kids were passing well and moving confidently. I found out that LL wasn't a last minute addition to an established team - NONE of these players were used to playing together. That being said they looked good. LL is pretty fast and good with the ball at his feet but tends to think he can go through anyone - which he can in rec league - but here, the kid was making pin point passes and popping some amazing switches. He kept receiving the ball and moving down his left flank and putting great passes in, but their keeper was good and was blocking everything. LL got subbed out and I found out later that the coach had to tell him it was ok to shoot - he didn't have to pass every time. duh! So he puts LL back in and the kid has a new spring in his step - he starts making these awesome little cuts into the inside of his marker and blasting the ball in only to see it saved. He had an amazing left foot shot blocked and you could see in his reactions that he was getting discouraged at his inability to get anything past the keeper. Then the other team committed their 5th foul. In indoor 5 fouls results in a Penalty Kick - but it is different than outdoor. It is essentially a 1v1 with the keeper and the kicker. The kicker can just shoot or can dribble first. It isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. I couldn't believe it when the coach told Lil Lookout to take the PK. He just stood there and stared at the ball while the ref set the keeper in place. When the ref blew the whistle, nothing happened. LL stood there with his foot on the ball and didn't move. Then the keeper charged him and LL waited til the last second before breaking to his right and neatly rounding the keeper to tap the ball in. I couldn't believe it - the kid just scored in his first ever club game! This is one proud papa. He just turned around and strolled back to the center with this little smirk that said, "shoot, you haven't seen nothin' yet". And the little turkey was right. The coach switched him over to the right wing (which fits a right footer more naturally) and LL really stepped up his game. I couldn't believe how his close control has improved. He was threading the ball between two players and shooting for the corners in stride. He would win the aerial ball, not by trying to outjump his bigger opponent, but rather he stayed on the ground, watched to see which way they would head it and just beat them to their own ball once it hit the ground. He was on fire. In his first club game he scored a hat trick and had two assists! One of his goals he created entirely on his own from midfield as he snagged the ball and raced to the goal with defenders on either side of him sniping at the ball, he got to the edge of the box, neatly stopped the ball on a dime - cut right around the defenders who had overrun him and blasted the ball into the roof of the net. His third goal, was much more mundane - when he found himself caught up against the end wall with no angle to shoot, he faked going backwards, took one step right and blasted it in through the keepers legs.

His team won the game 6-4 and it was a REALLY fun game to watch. Parents from both teams were good spirited in their cheering and the kids played awesome.

In all honesty, I knew/know that Lil Lookout is above average for his age in the game but I really didn't think that he'd step into competitive play so smoothly. After the game I found out that the team our kids just beat was a year older and a tier 1 team. That means that at their club they are the "A" team for '00 players. Very impressive win boys. Very good day my boy.

Papa wishes he had just 10% of his boys talent and skill with the ball.