Comments on: Competitive Cauldron Details

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:13:28 +0000

Any updates on the competitive cauldron for U14’s? I read your introduction and it reminded me of our team. No real tryouts, only 17 girls tryout and make the team and sometime the effort isn’t where it can be. I would love to implement some form of CC but w/o a reliable assistant I may not be able to acccurately track performance.

By: Tony Everett

Tony Everett — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:31:59 +0000

I like the up and down arrows,it makes sense to give the kids the ability to focus on their own performance week to week. The 1v1 league standing helped the younger girls, it got them playing with an intensity that they did not have before. The older girls, I’m not so sure, I think any 1v1 exercise would have helped them just as much as the one I held. I do hold practice sessions based on my Pure Game format and all the girls love that. The funny thing about that is, it is all based on individual performance and league standings. I think the difference here is they can play the game, have fun, and not feel that it is something were the league standings are important to anyone other than themselves. Not sure why this is the case, but when I announce a Pure Game sessions I get cheers from all the girls. I am going to find ways to implement the up and down arrows though. I see so many areas that you could use that system. Thanks.

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:04:33 +0000

That’s is what I have heard and found as well. Interesting tidbit – Anson Dorrance doesn’t use video tape because the players loathe it. They hate being on display for everyone. It was such a disruption he stopped using it. That said – the competitive cauldron idea makes them compete, but while there are some ranking, the focus is on showing previous scores for each girls and improvement. So he has the players focus on their individual improvement and also posts the scores. My thought is to post them in alphabetical order, not rank. So girls are prodded by knowing their teammates can see it, BUT, it’s the improvement. I might even think about doing something like Green/Red up/down arrows by each girls name showing individual progress, etc. Delicate balance for sure.

The trick is while your girls hate it – has it helped them…

By: Tony Everett

Tony Everett — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:25:31 +0000

The older girls have a problem with standing out, they simply want to fit in. When you start getting them to compete against one another and post the results there is always a winner and loser. Unlike boys, if you are in the losing spot you want to work hareder to get to the top, and if you are at the top you can walk around full of yourself saying look at how good I am. Girls don’t do that, if they are at the top they need to make sure everyone still likes them, and if they are at the bottom they just feel bad about not doing well. It is a struggle to find the correct balance that will bring the best out in the teenage girl. I have worked this type of league standing and they deal with it, but I don’t think they really like it. I have worked this with U15 through U17 and the older they get the more they dislike it.

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:25:47 +0000

Can you expand on the older girls comment? What age and why/how didn’t they like it. Will come in handy for some posts I’m working on about my own teams.

By: Tony Everett

Tony Everett — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:56:34 +0000

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. The thing I did for girls motivation was a 1v1 competition. Points were awarded for first touch, creative skills, vision (looking up before the shot), getting a shot off, and scoring the goal. This I put into a league standing and posted it after everytime I held the exercise. It seemed to work well for the youngers, but the older girls didn’t like it so much. The challenge seems to be the consistancy of it all.
Thanks again.

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:20:29 +0000

That's the million dollar question. Many of the competitive girl's coaches I've spoken with talk about the need to make the girls 'compete' in practice. Otherwise they always try to finish 'together', lest they show anyone up. It's a real challenge. I haven't figured it out yet. I had some success with it a year ago, but didn't do a good job of carrying that over this year. But as I'll explain in some future posts, our team really struggled with the move up a level and the move to 11v11, mainly from a competitive aspect. Never played up to our level.

By: Tony Everett

Tony Everett — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:48:07 +0000

I like what John O’Sullivan had to say in his article. I wonder how that works with girls though? I know the girls I have coached are not as motivated by a lot of this. How would you get younger girls to see their worth and get them into this type of competition?

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:15:25 +0000

I’ll definitely try to post our experiences as we try to implement some of this. Some upcoming posts will outline why we’re doing this and how we got here.

As for the camps… I can’t speak from personal experience as I haven’t any kids that old yet. But Anson’s books make clear they’ve found players through the camps. If you live near a college that your child might want to play for, I think a summer camp would be a good thing.

My son went to Duke’s soccer camp for a few years when he was younger – mainly because I worked there at the time and it was convenient. But he had a blast and it was a great experience all around. Just very expensive.

I don’t think it’s a requirement, but it certainly can’t hurt.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:09:46 +0000

Great link. I read his books this past Spring and the level of competition as the kids grow older can be so daunting (my daughter is only 9!)

From your experience, are camps like this (on the college campus) a critical “rite of passage” to kids who want to play at the college level?