Really Coaches!!!

The rec soccer season has just begun and I already have two examples of coaches doing their best to discourage their players from continuing soccer.

The first incident was at my daughters scrimmage.  Somebody forgot to tell the opposing coach that this was a scrimmage.  He acted like it was the World Cup Final.  If his girls made any mistakes, he would totally freak out.  At one point during his tirade, he threw his water bottle about 20 feet.  These are U10 girls.  There was actually fear in their eyes when he would yell at them.  I hope the parents of his team have a talk with him or turn him into the local soccer board.  I doubt he finishes the year as the coach of that team.

The second issue was also at a practice for another team.  I did not actually see this one myself.  A friend of mine went to watch his daughter' soccer practice.  Every time any child spoke during a drill, the coach made them run a lap.  My friend said out of an hour long practice, the girls ran for about 45 minutes.  They only completed one drill in an hour of practice.  These girls are eight years old.

Soccer practice needs to be fun.  I do not care if you are six or sixteen.  If soccer practice is not fun, these kids will not continue to play soccer.  Now I know that not every part of practice is going to be fun, but a good coach can make the majority of a practice fun.  Why work hard at getting better if you hate the process of getting better.  My next blog post will cover an author who has a great book that every parent and coach should be required to read before their child step a foot on the pitch.  Until next time.

Coaching Input needed.

I have watched a lot of recreational and competitive soccer and I have seen some great coaches.  There are some coaches who seem to have it all together.  Their teams seem to move in unison always in the right position.  If their teams need any adjustment it comes from an almost inaudible word as the coach never gets up from his or her seated position.  I have also seen some really bad coaches.  I have seen some coaches so bad that they have run off girls with tons of untapped potential because they made the experience of playing soccer so horrible.

When I began playing soccer in 1977 our coaches were dads who had never played soccer and in many instance had never even seen an organized game before they agreed to coach.  I do not remember much about those practices.  I do know that they do not resemble practices of today's teams.  As far as I knew, clowns were the only people that juggled.  There is a good chance that the current crop of coaches have actually played soccer sometime in their life.  If they are like me, their coaches were not great and thus there is not a great foundation to build on for their coaching career.

I understand that probably 95% of soccer coaches are volunteer coaches.  I fall into that category.  Me and my peeps did not go to school to learn the pros and cons of various soccer formations.  We wanted our kids to be active and most soccer associations require their teams to have coaches.  I figured that my 8 years of rec soccer qualified me to be a great coach. WRONG!  I realized really quickly that my knowledge of soccer was not going to be enough to get us past maybe the first practice.  I needed some help.  I dove head first into the internet to find some ideas for practice.  There are a lot of sites that use diagrams and in depth description to explain soccer drills.  Most require a doctorate to recreate in an actual practice.  I began to find a few videos of soccer drills.  The videos were great because I could now see what the drills were supposed to look like.  I could also see if it was age appropriate for my team.

One of the reasons for creating this site was to create a forum where coaches of primarily girls teams could pool our collective knowledge to try and become better coaches.  I would love any input or suggestions that you have.  If you see any of the videos that I post that you like or dislike please let me know.  If you have any videos that you would suggest, please let me know and I will put them up.  As a group we can sift through the good and the bad to come up with some great coaching resources.  I look forward to our discussions and your suggestions. 

My Daughter missed practice and it was awesome!

Last week my daughter Riley had soccer practice every night of the week leading up to her first games of the season.  The coach does not normally practice this much but he wanted them to feel what it will be like to prepare all week for a game like the girls do in high school and college.  Practicing every night was not that big of a problem except for Wednesday.  Wednesday was the night of the local Daddy/Daughter date night put on by the city recreation department.  I have taken all three of my girls for the past three years.  We have always had such a blast.  The cutoff age for this event is twelve years old.  This would be Riley's last year to go with me and her sisters.  The coach had originally said that if they did not come to all of the practices for the week, it would effect their playing time.  He later changed the Wednesday practice to an optional practice.  Riley has been struggling to get quality playing time on her team and showing up for the optional practice on Wednesday would probably have been beneficial to her.   We made the decision that it was more important for us to go to her last Daddy/Daughter date night rather than attend soccer practice.  It was an awesome night with all three girls.

There are some things way more important than soccer in the grand scheme of things.  It is important to remember that soccer is not more important than the other aspects of life.  I like soccer as much as the next person and I want to work hard to make sure girl's soccer is promoted and continues to grow.  I just do not want any girl to miss out on life because she is too focused on soccer.  Take time to dance to the music every once in a while.

The Future Looks Bright!

I took the family to Frisco, TX. yesterday to watch the U.S. Women's team take on Mexico in Olympic qualifying.  The ladies won 1-0 on a penalty kick by Carly Lloyd.  from what I saw yesterday at that stadium, the future looks bright for women's soccer in the United States.  I am not talking about the women on the pitch yesterday.  They are fantastic and absolutely dominated play even though it does not necessarily show in the final score.  What I am talking about is the thousands of girls in the stands that were cheering for their soccer heroes.  Those girls are the future of U.S Women's Soccer.

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We stood outside the stadium with thousands of fans to catch a glimpse of the National team as they boarded their bus to go back to their hotel.  There were girls of all ages stacked four deep along the barricades waiting to see their heroes.  Young girls all over America look up to these players.  They want to be able to shoot like Carly Lloyd, control a back line like Julie Johnston, or punt like Hope Solo.  It is now up to us as parents, coaches, and fans of girl's and women's soccer everywhere to step up and give as much support as we can.  If we do, and give support to all of those young girls who just want to play soccer like their heroes, friends I am here to tell you that the future is bright!

Where are all of the soccer training videos for females?

Hopefully you have noticed that this site has a section on training videos.  I want to have all of the videos featured on HSW to be videos that feature either male coaches with female players, female coaches with female players, or female coaches with male players.  I have found some but they are far outnumbered by the all male training videos.  The internet is huge and I have only scratched the surface of what is available but I bet the ratios will not change much as I continue to look for videos.

Why do you think this is the case?  Every weekend that I spend at the soccer fields I see almost equal amounts of girls and boys teams.  The numbers of girls playing soccer has to be the same or greater than the amount of boys playing.  There are more boys in general playing sports but they are divided among more sports than the girls.  There are more colleges with a women's team as there are colleges with a men's team.

HSW is going to be dedicated to creating training videos focused on the girl's and women's game.  We are going to create quality videos that can be used by players of all skill levels.  We also hope coaches and parents will find videos that will help them as they guide and coach their players.

Until we can begin producing videos, I will continue to post existing training videos.  Be sure to check out the videos.  Even there may not be great numbers of videos for female players, there are some really good ones on the internet.  I will continue to search.

Congratulations to the NWSL!!

On Friday the NWSL conducted their fourth college draft.  This year ten teams picked four ladies over four rounds.  The tenth team is the Orlando Pride which will be playing for the first time this upcoming season. 

It is great to see the NWSL growing and adding teams.  Hopefully the league will continue to grow and prosper to the point where more teams will be added.  The more teams that are added will only strengthen the women's game and give more women the opportunity to play the game they love for an actual salary (we will get into the topic of the salaries in a later blog).

Congratulations to Emily Sonnett who was chosen by the Portland Thorns as the first pick in the draft.  Emily has already spent a few games on the USWNT.  She appeared by video because she is actually training now with the USWNT in California.

If you get the chance and have over four hours to spare, watch the live feed of the draft.  You can currently see that footage on the NWSL website.  I have to admit that I am not that familiar with the NWSL but watching this footage helped me learn some very interesting tidbits from around the league.

Watch for a new page on the website this week.

We will talk soon.

New Video page

I invite everybody to check out the new video section of the website.  The goal is to add more videos on a daily basis.  The majority of the videos will be videos to help with training.  If you are new to soccer as a coach, player, or parent watching videos is a good way to learn the game.  As a coach I often watch videos to try and find ideas for practice.  I will also sprinkle in a few videos that are just fun to watch. 

Remember to stop by often and check out the new videos.

Game On!

Today is the beginning of what I hope is going to be an inspirational and influential website.  The plan is to champion women's soccer in a way and format that has never been done.  We will not focus on just one aspect of the game.  We will provide guidance for those parents and young girls as they begin what hopefully will be a lifetime love of a beautiful game.  We will stand behind the women professionals who are trying to bring a bigger national audience to their sport.

I ask for you to join us on this journey.  Let's see what this first blog can lead to.  I have some big ideas and dreams of what this website can become.  At first, we plan to move slowly as we navigate the world of building a website.  Hopefully as you return to this blog over and over you will see new things every time you return.  I look forward to our discussions about this game and the women and girls who love to just kick the ball.