The course was spread across two weekends, with short 3 hour sessions on Friday night and full day sessions on Saturday and Sunday for a total of 38 hours. A friend of mine also took the course, so we carpooled and bounced ideas off each other throughout the course which made it much easier to handle.

In short, it was a fantastic course. Despite common perceptions that it was only good for 11v11 coaches, I found it to be perfect for any coach U10 and above. There was very little 11v11 specific material covered. Instead the bulk of the course was spent on how to coach. How to build a lesson plan and how to execute it.

US Soccer has developed a new practice plan template that concentrates on using small sided activities to teach. You start with a warmup to introduce the basic skills/moves that will be used. Next you move to small sided activities which put the players in 1v1, 1v2, 2v2 situations. Then you move to an expanded small sided activity which can range from 3v3 to 5v5. Finally you wrap up with a small sided 6v6 scrimmage. I found it a much easier template to use that the older ‘Restricted/Unrestricted/Match Situation’ template. It’s focus on small sided play ment you could use it from 6v6 on up through 11v11 without modification.

Here’s what I sent our league’s coaches afterward, encouraging more of them to take it:

Coaches,

Congrats to all the coaches who took coaching classes this summer! For many of you who have now taken Youth I and/or II, I wanted to share some thoughts on the next level of coaching courses and why they are an excellent next step.

Chris and I recently completed our USSF ‘D’ License Course in Raleigh and I wanted to share some of our experiences with you about this excellent coaching course and others available to you.

For those of you unfamiliar with the US Soccer coaching course structure, there are three ‘levels’ of courses available. The courses are designed to be somewhat sequential. The entry level courses, designed for coaches who coach kids younger than 12, are Youth I (U5-U8) and Youth II (U10-U12). These single day courses are excellent for any small sided (less than 11v11) soccer coach. The MYSA requires that all Recreation coaches have their Youth I or II license within one year of starting to coach. Challenge head coaches need to have their ‘E’ license. That rule will be enforced starting this fall, so if you coached last year and don’t have Youth I or II, you need to get it ASAP. You can take Youth II without having Youth I. Take the one appropriate to your team’s age. The next level of licenses are the state ‘F’, ‘E’, and ‘D’ licenses, which are taken in order (F then E then D). Full descriptions of these can be found at http://ncsoccer.org/Education/education%20home.shtml

One thing we’ve found is that the courses overlap a bit. The descriptions all talk about them being designed for 11v11 coaching, however I’ve found this not to be the case. While it may not make sense for a U5 coach to take the E or D classes, any serious coach that wants to learn how to be a better coach should consider getting their E and even their D license if they already have their Youth I/II license.

We spent two solid weekends in Raleigh (38 hours total), and 11v11 concepts came up for *maybe* 2 hours. Even then they were fairly generic. The rest of the course was dedicated to things like team management, basic tactics, and how to develop practice plans, which are ALL modeled around small sided activities (up to 6v6) The activities we saw demonstrated were simple enough to use with a U10 team. The core focus was not necessarily on the game itself - but how to coach it and coach it well. A sizable majority of coaches in our class were coaching U8 up through U12 - small sided teams.

My point in sharing all this with you is to strongly encourage any of you who enjoy coaching and think that you’ll coach teams at U10 and above for a while, to consider taking a state level course. They will absolutely help you become a better coach. The USSF has developed a new practice plan methodology that is designed to progress from a simple warmup (individual players), to small sided activities (1v1 up to 3v3), then expanded small sided activities (4v4), and finally a 6v6 scrimmage with goal keepers. The idea is that all practice activities should be teaching ‘the game’ - not just a specific move or technique. The thought is that you can design a practice that focuses on a specific technique (passing, dribble, defense, shooting, finishing, etc.), and still have the activities modeled after the game itself because the players are learning the topic in game like situations the entire practice. Both the ‘E’ and ‘D’ courses have been updated to reflect this new methodology.

So if you have your Youth I/II certificate and plan to coach U10 or higher - go get your F or E license. Once you have your E license - if you think you’ll want to coach a travel team at some point - take the time to get your ‘D’ license. It is a very intense course, spread across two solid weekends (Fri evening, Saturday and Sunday 8-5) You spend the bulk of your time outside playing soccer as the instructors demonstrate example practices, or as course candidates practice coaching using the techniques taught in the class. You get two ‘topics’ that you must create practice plans for (one each weekend) and the instructors evaluate you and provide feedback. Then on the final day, you develop a third plan and are officially graded.

I’m not going to gloss it over. The E and D classes are intense courses where you play a lot. While not a requirement, the best way to learn about the things you’ll be teaching is to do them (or in my case TRY to do them). And the ‘D’ class requires that you ‘pass’ your final coaching evaluation - you get graded. The ‘E’ class practical session is evaluated and you receive feedback, but it’s not graded. But even for someone like me who didn’t play soccer when I was younger - both the E and D classes were invaluable in what they taught me about coaching. If you can’t actively participate for whatever reason, don’t let that stop you as it is NOT a requirement. I sprained my ankle badly the first morning of my ‘E’ class and completed the course on crutches!

I’ll admit I was a little bit intimidated to take my ‘D’ Class, and for no particular reason beyond wondering if I was ready - if I had coached long enough. But once you get going and realize most of your classmates are coaches just like you with a wide variety of backgrounds (I bet 30-40% of the candidates there hadn’t played soccer as kids), it’s not so bad. It definitely was weird being ‘graded’ again, but by the time the final exam rolled around, I was more relieved to know the class was just about over (its fun but exhausting) than worried about the exam. If you can find another coach to go with you, that helps too. Chris and I could compare notes, recall various drills we saw that the other forgot, and carpool. D classes get canceled a lot due to insufficient signups, so you’ll likely travel 1-2 hours to get to one and may have to signup for 2-3 before you get one that actually happens (this was my third try to take it in the past 6 months - they kept getting canceled)

Don’t forget - the latest coaching class calender can always be found at http://ncsoccer.org/Education/school%20schedule.shtml and let me note that it has NEVER been this packed. Our new state DOC is really working hard to setup as many courses as he can - this current list is at least 2-3 times the number of courses normally offered by the NCYSA in past years. So take advantage of it!

See you all on the fields

So what was it like? In a word - intense. The temperatures were in the low 90’s for much of the course, so the instructors scheduled the lecture sessions for the hottest parts of the day - we thankfully had an air conditioned classroom. However, we only spent 4 to 6 hours total in the classroom. The rest was spent out on the field learning how to coach. Of course, in order to coach, you need players, and that’s where the intense part comes in. Everyone plays. Thankfully one of the coaches taking the course invited his U13 girls to come out and play as well, which gave us all a much needed break on the weekends. These girls played SO hard and we were all very thankful for the rest! It also helped because you could observe other candidates and the feedback they were getting when you weren’t always on the field playing. So if you take the course and can lineup some older players to play, it will be a huge help.

The ‘D’ course is the first course in the series where you are graded. The course is all leading up to your final evaluation coaching the rest of the candidates. However, you get plenty of time to practice. The first weekend is primarily field sessions demonstrating various drills and techniques. Then you get your first topic to create a practice plan for and demonstrate on Sunday. These topics are not simple like ‘dribbling’ or ‘passing’ but more specific things like ‘Help your team take advantage of width on the attack’. And yes, goalkeeping topics are given out, so be prepared.

During the practice sessions, you are given cones, pinnies, and players to put on your practice. The evaluators will ask you to start at various points of your plan, be it warmup, small sided, expanded small sided, or the full side scrimmage. The evaluators will give you advice and hints and even sometimes stop things to demonstrate something themselves. Be prepared for frank and honest feedback. But the best thing by far is observing the other coaches, how they handle things, and what type of feedback they get. This helps a lot.

As the weekend progresses, the coaches bond a bit and it really is a lot of fun. You also find that some of the coaches will start to purposefully make mistakes to help create coaching moments for whoever is under the microscope. Of course there are always people like me who didn’t play as kids that create those coaching moments all the time! But still, it can be helpful.

Finally, on the last day, you are evaluated for real on one last topic. There are a dozen or so topics and they’re assigned at random. During the evaluation, you go out, do your thing, the evaluator asks you to move on from one activity to the next, and you’re done. Then you get to wait for the results in the mail. See Page 119 of the D Manual for the grading sheet. To earn your State D, you must satisfy a number of general criteria, which almost all participants will. In our class, everyone ‘passed’ and received their ‘State D’. However, in order to move on and take your National C course, you have to receive your ‘National D’ license.

In order to get your national D license, you have to receiving passing marks for the following criteria:

• Lesson Plan (Outline/Organization/Progression)
• Teaching Ability
• Knowledge/Content/Clarity
• Recognizes tactical teaching moments
• Recognizes technical teaching moments

That may seem simple enough, but they really want to see it all. On average 30-40% of the candidates receive their national D certificate. If you don’t and want to try again, you come for the last two days of the course to practice once, get your topic, and then get evaluated the next day.

So what hints do I have if you’re going to take it?

1. Read the manual. It’s packed with info that you don’t cover in the lecture sessions
2. Know the coaching points inside and out
3. Avoid buzzwords - you’re coaching kids - they want to see the concepts taught, not the manual
4. Don’t talk too much - get started quickly. If you talk more than 60 seconds to start a practice, you’re going to get dinged
5. Observe the evaluators - you’ll find part of this is doing what THEY want to see and most will tell you. We had two evaluators and I probably would have coached slightly differently had I been evaluated by the other one
6. Bring lots of water and sunscreen! Bring spare clothes/socks because you WILL be soaked at the end of the day if you take it during the summer
7. Bring a note pad. Any time I had a chance, I scribbled down all the various drills and activities other candidates were using. Great way to build up a collection of new stuff to try
8. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, of both the evaluators and the other coaches

And just have fun. I was nervous because of the impending ‘exam’, but honestly the course was so intense, by the end of it I found myself happy that the exam meant the end was near and I was a lot less nervous than I thought I would be. I was happy to be through, figured I’d get my State D anyway, and that was good enough. Imagine my surprise when I opened my envelope and I had my National D. I was floored since I knew I had probably messed up in ONE of those five areas.

Overall - a great course. If you coach U10 or above and expect to do it for a while, make getting your D license a goal. It’s worth it.

Soccer hit our town like a freight train. Population just under 10,000 and no soccer league six years ago. This year we’ll likely cross the 1,000 player threshold. That’s a lot of kids playing soccer for a town our size. But the other day I saw something that brought a smile to my face.

I was driving by one of our elementary schools on a sunny, but COLD and windy, day with temps in the high 30’s. There were 20 or so kids playing soccer during recess while the teachers stood by bundled up like Eskimos. I recognized a lot of faces, but not all, and they were having a ball. What struck me was it wasn’t like 10 or so hard core players playing while everyone else strolled around the playground or did something else. Almost all the kids out there were playing an informal game with jackets thrown down on the ground for goals.

Imagine that! I did note that the ball they had was in tatters. I’m thinking as part of our community outreach I might suggest our league buy some balls for the teachers to use during recess…

Bad blood has resulted from U.S. Soccer running its developmental program in the middle of some high school seasons. A number of affiliated, high-profile clubs within that program have jointly decided to ban their players from joining their high school soccer teams, despite U.S. Soccer’s public statement last year encouraging participants to play high school soccer.

“This first year was a learning experience [for the kids],” El Camino Real (Calif.) boys’ soccer coach David Hussey recently told the L.A. Times. “If the second year, they still think the development league is more important than high school, there’s a problem.

First, I think the lede to this article is horrifically misleading. Your everyday average person may not get youth soccer, but anyone involved in it for some time gets to understand exactly how it’s setup. In short, the USSF oversees a HUGE group of youth players who play from the lowest Rec level up through the national teams and one of the main facets of that is providing a top down organization to find and develop top talent for our national soccer program. High school soccer simply isn’t part of that. So why this article tries to make it out like we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, I don’t understand. It’s all about choices.

Even before the USSF Academy, there has been tension between High School and Club soccer. In many areas, high school soccer programs are a joke, so the kids want to play club ball year round because it provides a better environment for them. In areas where high school soccer is strong, the clubs usually don’t play at the same time the high schools do, though that is changing.

Besides - the USSF Academy is NOT that big compared to the total number of kids playing competitive soccer, and if top players would rather play Academy ball vs high school - that’s life. High school coaches need to do the best they can with who they have. Club coaches have always had the same issue - kids leaving teams to go to other clubs with stronger/higher level teams - and while they may not like it - they mostly understand it’s what is best for the kids.

So color me unconvinced this is such a huge issue. Yes, as a high school coach you may be upset if your star chooses not to play anymore because they earned a spot on an academy team that might lead to something bigger. But you shouldn’t cry about it - you should be proud you helped get them there and wish them the best.

Youth soccer in America is very diverse in terms of the types of programs and offerings. Recreation, competitive club teams, regional teams, high school teams, academies, and national development teams. That’s not a bad thing - it gives kids and their parents many choices. Trying to make it out like every decent soccer player has to play for their high school is short sighted. It’s one choice of many.

The scheme was launched at Battersea Park School in Wandsworth, with Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari, chief blazer Peter Kenyon, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack present. There will be four pitches (like the one shown above), with Earlsfield and Eel Brook Common (both due today) following the opening of Wandsworth and World’s End.

As a resident of the Garratt Lane area, I pass the Henry Prince Estate almost every day - so they really are building a Blue Pitch on my doorstep.

The aim of the pitches, which can incorporate tennis and basketball as well as football, is to get local kids involved in grass-roots sport. Primary use will fall to the club’s community coaches, but will be free for the local community to use.

What a great idea for promoting the beautiful game in urban areas.Here is what one recently completed pitch looks like:

Battersea Tech Park after Chelsea and Adidas got done with it

Granted, the MLS teams don’t necessarily have this kind of money floating around to do big impact projects, but partnered up with the likes of Nike, Adidas, or whoever the primariy equipment provider of the day is would have a hgue impact. The key is once the parks are built, maintaining them so they continue to be used and don’t just fall into disrepair over time

More info can be found at Chelsea’s website about the project itself and the star filled opening of one of the parks. Here is their official Blue Pitches website as well.

My U12 Girls team had an interesting season as things took a strange turn late in the season. Hopefully we all learned from it. Lots of posts coming during the off season on things like parent perception, dealing with the mental part of the youth game, slumps, and more.

We’re likely to face some of our toughest opponents ever as a team this weekend, so wish us luck. It’ll be interesting to see how the girls handle it - I think the girls are getting excited about it.

And yes, I’m being vague on purpose - since many of my players now read this site - I don’t want to post more details until after our Fall season is over.

So consider this an open thread to discuss your own seasons and experiences.

One of our defenders has a rocket of a kick - good thing to have for clearing, though she’s also scored from mid field more than once this season. Normally she works very hard to possess the ball and bring it forward, but we were down by a few goals and the girls were playing frustrated. Yet they showed they can still have a sense of humor. This defender cleared a ball out of bounds hard in frustration … sending the ball right towards her Mom’s head. As the other team went to get the ball, the player, with a HUGE grin, danced over to our parent sideline and with the appropriate hand motions said ‘You all may want to move back a bit!’ then turned and danced away. Given the current mood of the match - very funny. Her sister had her moment as well when her father, who you NEVER hear on the sidelines, shouted something or other as everyone’s frustration mounted. She was so surprised she stopped in her tracks and said ‘Daaaaaaaaaad!!! Oh my gosh!’ or something to that effect. Priceless.

Needless to say, we got beaten handily. We have a great group of girls with lots of foot skills, which is great. But they completely forgot to pass and tried to play 1v1 the entire match. Against another team that does pass - doesn’t work to well. So I explained to the girls after the match that passing was one of the foundations of soccer, if you can’t pass - you can’t play. All the foot skills in the world won’t help you if you don’t pass. Sort of like having the fastest race car in a race and having no tires. Not going to do you much good. Maybe not the best analogy, but hey - it’s NASCAR country here.

By the time the other coaches and I reached my truck with all the gear, many of the players had already left and were well on their way home. We all were pretty bummed because we hadn’t just lost, we’d given up and our opponent decided to play keep away for the last 10-15 minutes. One of those matches that as a coach you are just bummed about, trying to figure out what to do next or what went wrong.

As I’m packing up the truck, my cellphone rings and it’s one of my players, who is giggling yet trying to sound serious and manages to say:

Hey Coach! We just passed this huge billboard for Discount Tire! On your way home can you go there and pickup some tires for our race car so we can win?

I laughed until my sides hurt - talk about unexpected - and was in a great mood for the rest of the day.

Local youth baseball teams — and thousands of others across the country — can’t use those nicknames on their uniforms unless the jerseys are officially licensed.

For years, local leagues have understood they can’t use MLB logos on their uniforms without buying a licensed product or getting permission, but the use of team names hasn’t been as much of an issue.

But around Memorial Day, MLB stopped a dealer who had been sewing names like Cubs and White Sox on the jerseys of a Chicago youth league.

This is greed pure and simply. MLB absolutely has the power to create an arrangement where this isn’t an issue with their vendor. Besides - I can’t imagine the reaction of a judge when MLB tried to say a little league team couldn’t screen TIGERS in block letters on a little league uniform:

In Greensboro, Pella Stokes, an attorney, sponsors five youth teams of varying ages called the Tops Tigers. None use licensed jerseys.

“It had nothing to do with any … Major League team,” Stokes said of the name selection. “It just matched Tops.”

Stokes doesn’t believe MLB can trademark a name like Tigers.

“To argue that you could protect an animal name, I think they would have a difficult time,” said Stokes, who is in general practice. “It’s a fact of nature.”

The scary part is that 40% of little league teams already pay the extra money to buy licensed uniforms. Wow.

I wonder what the position of MLS would be. Again - you can’t use the logos. But the names? We absolutely have teams named the Galaxy, Dynamo, Revolution, etc. I would hope MLS would take a more sensible position. I may just email them to find out.

H/T FoothillsdFutbol @ NC Soccer Forum

So a huge shout out to Kristy and the many other MYSA TopSoccer volunteers and buddies who got this program off the ground for so many kids who normally wouldn’t get a chance to play! US Youth Soccer has rolled out a training course for TopSoccer administrators and coaches, so touch base with your State DOC to see if you can get the training locally. This is a fantastic program and a great way for soccer leagues to give something back to their community.

ADDING: Here is some newspaper coverage the program recently received as well.

In their quest for copper, which is valued for its conductive properties, thieves exact devastating collateral damage, from rendering cancer patients unable to seek radiation treatment at a clinic in Vista, California, to leaving entire neighborhoods without power, as was the case last week in Ohio.

As communities have stepped up efforts to stem the thefts, bandits have become more resourceful, turning from traditional targets like electric substations, construction sites and homes to cemeteries, artillery ranges and athletic fields.

In the past three months alone, CNN found at least five incidents of copper wiring thefts from light poles on athletic fields, in addition to the three incidents in metro Atlanta.

“Usually, athletic fields aren’t guarded, they don’t have locked fences and they’re pretty easy to get into,” said Bill Verner, vice president of government relations and communications for the Georgia Electric Membership Corporation, a statewide trade association serving Georgia’s 42 electric cooperatives.

“Copper theft is like where identity theft was 15 years ago. It’s becoming an epidemic that’s affecting everyone, and the cost of damages often falls on the consumer, or in the case of athletic fields, the teams that use them,” he said.

I’ve read about copper thefts for a long time, but honestly never thought about them going after the lighting on athletic fields. Makes sense though, since lighting systems have extremely long cable runs and use very thick wire given the currents used to drive the lights. It would be interesting to know which types of systems they are hitting. I’d imagine getting the wire out of a structured system like MUSCO would be difficult where the ballasts are elevated off the ground and there is no easy access to the wires elsewhere inside the metal pole. But many fields have conduit running up the poles, making it easy for thieves to cut the conduit and pull out the wire. A lot of fields have their lighting panels outside, making them even more vulnerable.

I like the idea of changing the law to make the charge apply to the the cost of the materials stolen AND the damage inflicted to get the copper - making it a felony in most cases. I can’t say we’re doing anything in particular to guard our fields. We used to leave a couple individual lamps on all night for security, but neighbor complaints forced us to turn them all off. However our cables are terminated in a locked building and on the pole end are embedded in the poles, with the boxes elevated 12 feet off the ground. So to get to the wire they’d have to break into the closet to access one end and the light poles to access the other and it would be difficult to attach anything at either end to pull the wire out (you can’t do it by hand in most cases). Still vulnerable I guess, but hopefully not as much as others. I expect at some point the lighting companies will have to start running alarm circuits to each pole that trip an alarm if the ballast/control/junction boxes are opened on the poles. Given the cost of your average lighting system, this would be a minimal increase in cost.

Does your league take steps to protect your field lighting? If so, what are you doing?

Right now it only contains articles from On The Pitch. If I get time I might someday expand it into a collection of the best youth soccer articles out on the Internet, but that will take a lot of time. So for now, I’m hoping this will make some of our better content easier to find.

The Guide can be found by clicking ‘Guide’ in the menu bar above. If you maintain a league or team website, feel free to link to it so your coaches/parents can easily find it.

Weather Patch - This was handed out when our team played in the equivalent of a sand storm this Spring. The girls suffered through horrible conditions to play those matches and we wanted to reward that. So we gave this out then. We also gave it out to players that missed that tournament when we played in extreme temperatures or conditions later in the season.

Lunachick Soccer Patch - For a while we kept talking to the team about ‘Lunachick Soccer’ - basically when they had played really well as a team and with intensity for a full 60 minutes. We had one match in the fall where the girls just played their hearts out. It wasn’t even a high scoring match (2-1 I believe) but they all played fantastic soccer. This was referred to as Lunachick Soccer and they all earned this patch (I had some extras ) They loved it. We decided not to do it this season as we had other ideas for patches.

So here is what we’re doing this year…

First, we’ve changed our metrics a bit. Last year the girls earned a patch the first time they did something, so many earned their patches quickly. This year we’ve made each patch something you have to earn over multiple matches. The goal is to have the girls try to perform conistently across multiple matches. We’ll see if it has the desired effect. Players can earn up to nine patches, not including the start patches.

Juggling Patch - When a player can demonstrate to one of the coaches 30 juggles in a row without the ball touching the ground, they will earn their juggling patch. The hope is to help the girls improve their soft touch on the ball by learning how to juggle. Thirty is a high number, but we’re also giving them all year to accomplish this. The hope is it’ll spur more of them to get their soccer ball out at home. If they start juggling and get bored, they might try other things with the ball that they might have never done if they hadn’t started out practicing juggling. I think most of the girls are up to five or eight, so I expect this patch won’t be awarded until the Spring. My son’s team decided to up the incentive for this - they have to ALL do 50 juggles and when the entire team can do it they get a pizza party.

Kristine Lilly/Assist Patch - Named in honor of Kristine Lilly, who has one of the highest number of assists for the US Women’s Nation Team, this patch will be awarded to players who make five assists during the course of the year. The goal is to encourage unselfish play and reduce the reliance on outrunning defenders to score. I struggled with the threshold for this patch, thinking five was too low, but given the number of goals scored per match, I figured it gave more players a chance to earn it. Our team loves to dribble and go 1v1 with defenders - which is great. But we still need to remember that we can’t dribble through defenders and often a good solid feed pass is the better option. Hopefully the chance of earning this patch will help. The hard part of this is tracking assists. Up until now I didn’t do it very often, but we’ll do the best we can to ask the girls who assisted and make sure it gets recorded. Of course, now that there is a patch involved, I’m sure the girls will shout out their assists after each goal.

Mia Hamm/Goals Patch - Named in honor of the US Women’s National Team leading goal scorer, Mia Hamm, this patch is awarded to each player that scores 5 goals in a year. For some of our players this will be an easy patch to earn. However, it also will help the team in another way. Girls like helping their teammates accomplish things, so we can hopefully convince our stronger goal scorers to focus on assists to other players in order to help their teammates get their goal patch too. We’ll see if that works. The good news is so far, halfway through our Fall season, all 14 girls on our team have scored at least one goal and nine have scored more than one. So we may see most, if not all, of our players earn this.

Maradona/Moves Patch - To encourage the use of soccer moves in match situations, players who execute soccer moves in at least five different matches and use at least two different moves in doing so will earn the Maradona Patch. A number of our girls have done a scissor in a match, but we’re trying to get them to try others in pressure situations. Many recently got comfortable doing a Ronaldo (roll the ball and step over it), so we’d love to see that. Pull backs don’t count. We’re looking for other moves like a scissor, step over/reverse scissor, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo, etc.

Leadership Patch - This patch has our league colors and is probably the hardest patch to get. It is awarded to players who exhibit leadership qualities on the team, in matches and/or practice. Now you might think this is limiting the group of girls who might be able to get it, but the key is we use varying standards to award this patch. More extroverted players will get this for helping fire up their team, directing people on the field, etc. But some of the more introverted girls may earn it for other things like good sportsmanship, speaking out more, stuff like that. I found that most of the girls earned this from the most unexpected situations in previous years. The coaches just ‘knew’ when they had earned it and it was fun to come up with the story as to why.

Intensity Patch - This used to be our hustle patch, but we decided to change the name a bit and expand what it took to earn this patch. Getting soccer players to hustle during a match is only half the battle. Once they get near a free ball, many will back off ever so slightly instead of charging in trying to win it. We want to encourage the girls to not back away from fighting for a free ball and to play with high intensity. So players who attack free balls, don’t give up chasing opponents down, step in front of balls to settle them vs letting them bounce or go by, etc. in at least three matches will earn this patch.

Volley Patch - This patch is awarded to any player that attempts to head or volley the ball into the net in three or more matches. Even if they don’t score, if they successfully get a volley/header shot off, they earn credit towards this patch. We made the threshold higher since attempts count in addition to actual goals scored. While corner kicks will be one of the main times players can earn this, we want them to start sending long crosses from the wing - hopefully this will encourage them to do it more often.

Support Patch - We play a fairly risky 2 defender formation, allowing us to better cover midfield and bring five players on the attack. This means it is very important for players to support their teammates, not just on defense, but even on our opponent’s end of the field. The sooner we can get the ball back the better. So we want players to constantly think of how they can support their teammate should they get into trouble. We’ll have to make clear to the girls that running right up to a teammate with the ball is NOT support. So players who show solid support for teammates on the field in five matches will earn this patch.

Blood Patch - The girls love this patch because they never know what it’s going to take for them to earn it. So this will be the same as before:

The name for this patch is great and came straight off the Soccer Help idea sheet. This patch is for toughness, bravery, and plain old grit. I don’t want my players to play hurt or to hurt someone else. I make that very clear. This patch is for players who get knocked around on the pitch and keep on going after the ball. One of my girls blanched when I explained this patch. “Why do I have to bleed to get this patch?” she asked. That’s not the point, but in a few cases, blood will be involved. It’s the nature of the sport. A perfect example. During our league tournament, one of my girls who used to duck when the ball flew at or near her, got hit hard by a ball and her nose started to bleed. A lot. So we sat her down on the bench with some ice and tissues. I figured she wouldn’t want to go back in after that, but before I needed to sub players in (when I would have asked her), she was already telling me “Coach, I’m ready to go back in”. She wasn’t seriously hurt, but went through a scary experience and was ready to play some more. Blood Patch.

Champions Patch - Awarded to all the participating players if they win a tournament. Different color stars will represent different tournament wins. This grew out of our team’s mental block when playing in tournaments. We can be on fire in our regular season matches and when we get to a tournament, even against the same teams we’ve played in the regular season, we don’t play well. So we figured we’d let the girls earn stars for each tournament they manage to win.

These may seem like odd colored patches, but we chose them due to their light borders since we have blue shorts. If you have lighter color shorts, the original color set might be better for your uniforms:

So that’s our patch program for our U12 girls team this year. All these patches and others can be purchased from SoccerHelp.com.

What other accomplishments would you try to award for kids this age? Have you used patches with your team? If so, how did it go? This will be our third year and it’s impossible to tell if they caused the kids to play any harder, but they’re fun to earn and hand out all the same. The girls love them and were rather annoyed with me that it too this long to finalize the program.

The first thing to do is find a place to hold it. We have a number of banks that donate the use of their parking lot and some water for civic groups to hold car washes and are located near heavy traffic points. Many require proof of liability insurance, which if you’re team is registered through a USYSA state affiliate or US Club soccer, you have. Just download a copy of the insurance policy off their website. Because they tend to be in high traffic areas and are closed on Saturdays, banks are ideal. But all you really need is a parking lot and access to water.

We made up a couple of signs to put up at the soccer complex for a week and put together a flier that some businesses posted in their windows or placed on their counters. We made sure to thank the bank prominently on the fliers. We got the league to email our coaches as well to spread the word.

Next, get some supplies together - we purchased most of our stuff, knowing we’d likely do one again. Our parents chipped in some soap, buckets, and sponges as well. But you probably can get everything you need from your parents with some advance planning, and then just buy some soap and sponges. Here’s what our checklist looked like:

• Hoses
• Buckets
• Sponges
• Rags
• Soap
• Small scrub brushes (for tires)
• Glass Cleaner
• Paper Towels
• Gatorade/Drinks
• Snacks
• Hose Splitter (we used a 4 way splitter)
• Spray Nozzles
• Canopy
• Radio
• Folding Tables
• Trash Bags
• Cooler for drinks
• Ice for cooler
• Money Bag
• Couple sheets of poster board/stock
• Large black markers
• Staple gun, stakes, hammer
• Sunscreen
• Extension Cords
• Camera
• Cash for change (1/5/10)
• Traffic Cones
• Towels

Obviously there are things on here that go beyond your basic carwash. But we were going to be there for six hours, so we needed to make sure we had plenty of sunscreen and cold drinks. The radio kept things moving. The markers and poster board let the girls make up posters to hold up (or permanently place on a roadside with stakes) to attract customers. The traffic cones allowed us to setup four washing areas, letting us handle four cars at once with 3-4 players and 1-2 adults at each station.

I got there about an hour early to set everything up with the help of team parents as they arrived. The folding tables helped us keep everything off the ground - we had one for snacks and drinks and another for car wash supplies. We had four hoses connected to a main supply hose and two buckets per station. A few girls went to the road and within 15 minutes we had our first car, then the next, and the next…

Here’s what we discovered. First, you need willing adults. The players will wash the cars, but won’t cover all the surfaces. When new cars arrive, they want to jump to the new car. So having an adult with each team helps keep the focused and the adult can make sure the car actually gets clean. So yes, the adults work, a lot. But the players do as well. One thing we needed to bring were small 4ft ladders to get that extra boost to reach the center of each roof. I’m tall and standing on the tires of a car or van, I was able to do it, but a small ladder would have been nice and I’d limit that to adults. We had a few players who preferred drying to washing and knowing if they did a good job they could stay fairly dry, they dried cars ALL day and did a great job.

We had four hoses going off of one main hose, which was about the most you could do. Two hoses per faucet would have been better, but we only had one faucet and we did OK with the nozzles on the shower setting.

After the first hour, the girls all wanted to go hold up signs, so we had to stagger that to give girls a short rest, but then they had to come back so we still had enough players washing cars. Lunch was kind of comical as one of the players asked if she could get lunch. I said yes and they ALL ran to buy lunch. Ooops. Next time we stagger lunch across a couple of hours and groups.

One surprising thing was the rims. I had purchased a couple scrub brushes and had an adult running around with the ‘wheel bucket’ cleaning off the rims. But they never got really clean in the crevices. A few girls noticed this and asked if someone would go buy toothbrushes. No joke, and those girls scrubbed the crevices behind the adult on every car with toothbrushes - making sure the front rims sparkled. I was surprised by this, but it sure made the people happy when we were done!

I was impressed with how the girls behaved. They worked hard for the most part. The only time we had to put our foot down was when they decided to start washing each other and thought it would be fun to hold up signs covered in soap suds. Um - not in a million years. But the inevitable water fights didn’t happen until things were winding down. We had about 30 minutes left, and being the mean coach I am, they got to wash my truck last. That was like their cue to start water fights while trying to wash. Well deserved mayhem ensued, but at that moment three cars pulled up to get washed. So we had to regroup, fill up the buckets again, and get back down to business. Karma!

In the end things went very well. We ran out of soap - I’d suggest bringing two gallons of it. Make sure the girls (and adults) put sunscreen on AFTER taking their shoes off (ouch!). Keep the soap away from the players as they’ll use too much. We had one adult in charge of all buckets. After each car the girls brought their buckets to one spot and an adult topped them off, refilled them fresh if necessary, and checked the sponges for any gravel or other stuff that might scratch a car. This helped ensure the buckets were ready to go every time a new car pulled up.

I think after expenses we made $400 for the team, which wasn’t too bad - just about pays the registration fee of a tournament. Since we have lots of supplies now, we’ll probably net closer to $500 next time. Some other youth groups that have done car washes here have gotten close to $1000. However, you will find that a moderate part of your money comes from team families. We had one player who must have had four different parts of her extended family come out to get a car washed, for which we were very grateful. But we had plenty of coaches and random folks come as well. Looking back, I probably would have gotten an easy to read sign made up and asked the bank if I could put it up Thursday or Friday. The hand made signs were fun, but never all that easy to read. We had steady traffic, but a good sign probably would have gotten us more.

So overall a success. We learned a few things and I’m sure we’ll do another one in the Spring.

• Strategic Thinking
• U10: 2-3 or Not 2-3. That Is The Question
• Strategic Thinking Followup

In my first post I touched on 8v8 and noted that teams with strong defenses were winning, at least in our Rec division. You’d be amazed how many coaches still put their weakest players back on defense, then can’t figure out why they’re allowing five goals a match. Back then we saw a number of formations in Rec, from 3-4 to 1-2-3-1 or 1-2-1-3, with the latter ones much more structured (players stayed in very small areas of the field). Recently teams seem to have migrated to a more free flowing 3-4 almost across the board (some will say it’s a 3-2-2, but it’s pretty hard to tell!) Now that I’ve coached 8v8 at the travel level a bit, it’s interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.

Obviously, the first thing to consider as a coach is formations are only as good as the players using them. You will find your players will drive you towards a successful formation, not the other way around. We’ll touch on why in a moment.

Most U12 Rec teams I’ve seen play will use a simple 3-4. The three defenders can usually stop most attacks given the lack of passing at that level and the four up front can make for a strong attack. The better teams often push all three defenders up front and try to seal things off at midfield. In Challenge last year, we played a 3-2-2 or a 3-1-3. Three defenders helped us stop many attacks, even if less skilled players were in back. But the formations had a few problems. 3-1-3 leaves the midfield too open so our forwards rarely got any service. The three forwards want to stay forward, so the sole midfielder had to try and cover it all - not likely. Plus you find your midfielder strongly tempted to come back and help defend on strong attacks, leaving your midfield wide open except for your center forward (who you expect to be pushed to midfield by a smart defense).

After some debate and watching some stronger U12 teams play, we switched formations this season. What I describe here is based on our experience with girls - though I have seen boys teams use this often as well. We have a strong group of players who can play defense, so we decided to go with two defenders. Initially we decided to go with a 2-3-2 since it setup so many natural triangles. (Bonus points to the first person who can say which collegiate women’s program made the 3-4-3 a success!) We told the strikers/forwards that they were in no ‘position’ in terms of left or right. They were encouraged to go where ever they felt they had the best chance to score without getting near their teammate. But we found that we would often end up with one midfielder again trying to settle things down in the circle, since our wings were told to stay wide. So we shifted to a 2-4-1 formation. This provided more coverage at mid field where so many goal kicks and punts go at this age. On the attack we push five up front with two defenders at midfield and our players forming a W in front of the goal (wings deep, striker in the goal box, center mid’s just outside the penalty area). On defense, we rely on our two main defenders with support from the two center midfielders who will come back on wing attacks, corners, goal kicks, etc. From a front to back point of view, we try to keep our striker between the opponent’s goal and midfield, our wings between the opponent’s goal and a few yards over mid field, our midfielders between the 18yd line on each end (yes I know it’s not actually 18 yds in 8v8 ), and the defenders between our goal and midfield except on corner kicks or deep attacks when a team leaves one or none of their strikers at midfield. Our keeper plays almost as a sweeper, clearing balls outside the penalty area she can clearly win before an opponent is able to transition to an attack on a throughball.

Now this is a risky formation because you only have two defenders and most teams bring four attackers in 8v8. However, we rely on our defenders ability to intercept passes, back each other up well, and win 1v1 challenges along with the two center midfielders coming in to support. Even against teams who pass very well, we’ve kept scores low and most we let in are breakdowns/mistakes vs the other team moving the ball through our defense. In watching some top level U12 girls teams, many use a similar formation. But your defenders have to have serious confidence to do this and they have to play together well - backing each other up as needed. If we find a team taking the risk to bring five against us, we’ll have one of the midfielders hang back a little more than usual. Eventually we want our midfielders to get the idea that when one is fighting for a free ball going towards our goal, the other center mid should be drifting towards the opponent’s goal. Step by step as they say.

The formation has worked well for us as we’ve only allowed 3 goals in the regular season. Tournaments have been less successful, but we’ve also found that our team struggles in tournaments and also that many of the fields we play tournaments on are at the shorter range of the 8v8 field requirements. In those cases we probably could switch to a 2-3-2 since the forwards and defenders are often closer to midfield to help ‘take up space’ I should have tried that last weekend but didn’t.

So for those of you coaching 8v8 - what formation have you found works for teams at your level? Are you still using three defenders, or have you stepped up to using two? Do you stick with one formation only or have you found that you switch depending on what you face. Do your players know the difference between the two formations?

The fact that a soccer mom wore a gun openly at a kids soccer match makes your head spin:

What’s the difference between a bulldog and a soccer mom?

In the case of Meleanie Hain, it’s a loaded sidearm.

On Sept. 11, Hain created a stir among other parents when she wore her weapon - a loaded Glock 26, about the size of an adult hand - in a holster to her 5-year-old daughter’s soccer game at Optimist Park in Lebanon, also known as Southwest Park.

Although she did not break a law by carrying the weapon openly, she is now facing the loss of her concealed-weapons permit. But she is not giving up without a fight.

“I’m just a soccer mom who has always openly carried (a firearm), and I’ve never had a problem before,” she said. “I don’t understand why this is happening to me.”

Just wow. What would you do if you found out a soccer parent was carrying a gun to matches openly or concealed? Does your coaching code of conduct prohibit them from carrying concealed weapons to matches?

H/T yhatemetoo and AnonX at NC Soccer Forum

But this post is pure fun - yet another installment in Tales From The Lunachick Fringe.

My U12 girls team recently played a rare Friday night match as a makeup. This was neat for the girls because most of our home matches are played Saturday or Sunday afternoon when the soccer complex is deserted except for an occasional travel match going on. Friday nights the complex is jammed with every field in use for Recreation matches. So they love playing on Friday night because a lot of people will wander over to watch and cheer. They played a solid match, but the fun really started afterward.

First, the oldest player on the team had turned 12, so instead of a post match chat, the team sang her happy birthday at full volume. One of our players had scored her first goal for the team, which she was very excited about. But then the team discovered that was her first goal ever. They went crazy and posed for a team picture so her parents could save the moment. Lots of cheering ensued and she was beaming from ear to ear.

But wait - those are fairly normal stories for a soccer team right? These are the Lunachicks we’re talking about - it has to get better. Oh it does.

After a previous match, the girls came off the field saying they were REALLY hungry and asked why we never had snacks anymore after matches. Kind of like participation trophies, some things fade away with travel soccer. Well I mentioned it to the parents and sure enough, we had snacks again, starting that night. So when I told the team we had snacks, they let out a cheer and ran for the parent sideline.

Standing on the sideline holding the snacks was the father of one of our players. Standing next to him was my 11 year old son who had come to watch the match. As the father saw the wave of Lunachicks running toward him for the snacks, he handed them to my son and said ‘RUN!’ Let’s just say it was hilarious watching 14 Lunachicks chasing down my eldest, who was doing his best to elude them. One of our faster players eventually caught him, grabbed him with both hands, and hurled him to the ground. The snacks went everywhere and it was like a feeding frenzy. As the Lunachicks grabbed snacks from all over the field, my eldest jumped up grinning ear to ear and the parents were laughing in hysterics.

Must have been a full moon. Throughout all this, our opponent was still having their post match discussion in a far corner of the field. I’m sure they think we’re all certifiable.

The game is over and the players are looking at you as the coach, the person in the know. You are thinking that they are looking for your insight on the game that they just played; how can we get better as players and as a team; what is our strategy for practice this coming week to fix those problems so that we can improve; what inspiring words do you have for us - but in actuality all they are looking for is the SNACK!

It goes on to list seven things to consider when choosing a snack. The newsletter also includes a few practice activity ideas. What other ideas do you all have?

Funny story - as teams get older, many of the things common with younger teams fall by the wayside. Participation trophies, post game snacks, etc. Recently my U12 girls got done with a match and one of them says “Man I’m starving! Why don’t we do snacks anymore?” We had a snack schedule the next week, much to the girl’s delight. The parents figured they’d grown out of it.

What I discovered was despite us generally having solid team bonds - the girls had plenty they wanted to talk about - including things that probably were holding them back as a team. I found myself sitting there with a bunch of talking points I’d drawn up and ignoring them as I acted as a facilitator for the girls. I let them steer the discussion while trying to make my points in reaction to them and led them from one main point to another. My biggest challenge was to make sure conversation didn’t turn personal (We’re doing bad because of HER!) which it never did. But I absolutely encouraged them to bring up concerns with us as coaches so they might understand why we do some things and how we might reach them more effectively.

When they finally started to fidget (and that took a LOT longer than I figured it would), we wrapped things up and a meeting I thought would take a max of 45-60 minutes had taken close to 90. As we finished up, I handed each girl a picture of the team and told them to put it up in their room somewhere to remember what they were a part of and that every time they stepped on the field, practice or match, they were part of a team and the team deserved their full effort.

I don’t know if there will be a long term impact from this, but short term it was clear it helped the team a LOT. I’ll followup later to let you all know if it had a long term effect. If it does, midseason meetings will probably become a staple for my teams. It went that well.

So don’t forget that as coaches we’re always learning and I definitely learned things from that meeting including ways I could better reach the girls when trying to teach them soccer. They learned that the coaches do want to hear what they have to say and also that their teammates are there for them more than they thought. I believe it also got them to better understand what it meant to be a team.

Have you held team meetings like this? What surprised you the most? How well do you think it worked? Do you hold them regularly or just when a team is having problems?

But some coaches are working to make their player’s experience more memorable. I know in my eyes it’s great for team building, but it’s also just fun for the kids and keeps things exciting. But it’s not easy and takes a lot of effort on the part of a coach and manager and often the parents. One thing I’m seeing more and more of are team websites that go beyond ‘Yay we won!’ or are nothing but a photo gallery. Some coaches are having a lot of fun with their sites trying to give kudos to their teams with funny stories about recent events, goofy pictures they highlight, fundraising, etc. I stumbled across one such site recently - a U9 girls team in Florida that share’s a name with my U12 girls team - The Lunachicks. Just read some of the recaps from their coach. The girls must love reading them with all the nicknames and campy writing.

Here is another great example. Two teams from Holly Springs, NC recently traveled to Washington D.C. to play a scrimmage in front of tens of thousands of fans prior to a DC United match. What an amazing experience for the kids:

Thanks BJ for sending the video! That must have been an amazing experience for them. BJ also created a YouTube channel for his team with lots of video.

I don’t believe coaches should feel they have to do these things, but if they (or their parents) have the time and energy to do it - how cool is that for the kids? I know my parents are wondering why, as a blogger with his own site, that our Lunachicks don’t have a site too. I tried to resist, but failed, so www.lunachicksoccer.org will come to life soon.

I’m curious what other ‘neat things’ some of you have done for your teams (or parents have seen done with your child’s team), both online and offline.

Dear parent of a participant in youth sports,

You are being asked by the Center for Sport Policy and Research www.sportpolicy.org , under the direction of Dr. Colby Jubenville, to participate in this study because you may be a parent of at least one child who participates in some type of youth sport activity.

The confidential questionnaires and module will take approximately 25 minutes to complete. You are encouraged to complete the research instruments in one sitting.

Because we know your time is valuable, three (3) TARGET gift cards valued at $100 each will be issued at random. Please provide your email address if you would like to be included in the drawing for the gift card. You will have the option to enter into this drawing at the completion of the survey.

This survey has been approved by the MTSU Institutional Review Board. The research protocol has been reviewed and it has been determined that the study poses minimal risk to subjects and qualifies for expedited review under 45 CFR.110 and 21 CFR 56.110. Thank you for your participation. Please click on continue if you wish to complete the study.

Additional information:

1. There are no expected costs associated with your participation in this study.
2. Discomforts, inconveniences, and/or risks that can be reasonably expected are no greater than those encountered in everyday life.
3. There are no unforeseeable risks associated with this study.
4. There is no compensation for your participation in this study.
5. If you should choose to withdraw from this study, you are free to do so without any penalty or consequence.

USE THIS URL:

To participate in the survey on Parent Experiences in Youth Sports, visit the following link:

Parent Experiences in Youth Sports

http://www.keysurvey.com/survey/220677/104f/

If you have any questions about this research study, please contact Dr. Colby Jubenville at (615) 898-2909.

I’d love to see the preliminary report and results from this when it’s completed! If I can get a copy of the report when it’s published, I’ll definitely post a followup!

Last year when our team formed, one of our parents had his graphics designers at work, who were between projects, come up with some designs for the ‘Lunachicks’. They gave him a couple and a few other parents gave it a shot and we chose a fairly simple one that would be easy to recognize and screen. You can see it on the right. As one of our parents coined it: “Chicks on Moons”. But we never got a chance to do anything with it until this year (my fault as slack coach! )

Our league gives each travel team a small equipment budget, so having a lot of equipment already, we decided to spend some on practice shirts for the girls. We got royal blue T-Shirts and screened the design in yellow. These are the league’s colors. We put their number on the back, just like it was on their uniforms, and told the girls they had to wear them to practice. I told the girls we wouldn’t send them home if they forgot, but hills definitely were in the realm of possibility if they did.

So the girls began arriving at practice in their Lunachick shirts. At first I think they were a bit self conscious, but then they seemed to enjoy wearing them - proud in a way. They weren’t just a team of soccer players, they were “Lunachicks”. Now we stressed teamwork and team building all through the preseason in a variety of ways, so I can’t say what type of impact the shirts had exactly, but I think in the end it was good.

At our first match, when the referees were checking player passes and calling each girl to step forward and stand behind them, the girls decided to stand there arm in arm until the entire team was there:

They’ve done this ever since and came up with it all on their own. It’s just a small thing, but it spoke volumes to how far they had come as a team. Did the shirts play a part? Impossible to tell. But I think it helped them gel as a team along with other things and so far the results are very positive.

Just for kicks, we told our parents that they could order ‘Lunachick Attire’ through our local sporting goods store. Let’s just say we were blown away when we took the final order in and there had to be 40 different items on the list (sleeveless T-Shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, etc.) Yeah, the parents got a bit carried away, but the girls thought it was the coolest thing when the sidelines were nothing but Royal Blue and ‘Chicks on Moons’ at their first couple matches.

Do you do practice attire? Does it help build a sense of team?

Being the weird coach that I am, I decided to try a few different things this season to find out. Beyond the practices and matches, I wanted to try and get this team to really become a team. One that meant more to those on it than just performance on the field. Sure, teams only last a year and it’s sort of a roll of the dice in terms of who returns the next year, but still. A team that pulls for each other no matter what could be powerful on the field and be something special to the girls off the field. So our coaching staff (and manager!) came up with some ideas. We decided to do some fundraising, maybe attend an out of state tournament, have cool team shirts made, and other things which I’ll cover in future posts.

One idea we had was to come up with an activity that was more than just the girls doing something for themselves. We wanted them to give something back to their league while at the same time gaining something themselves. To do that we decided to have the team hold a girl’s soccer clinic for our younger (U6-U10) female players. But first, a little background…

Our league is fairly new, formed in 2002. Our travel program is even younger - formed in 2005. One thing we have found (and given the numbers across the state, it’s not unusual), is that many girls seem to be intimidated by the idea of ‘travel soccer’. Many girls who absolutely should play, choose not to for a wide variety of reasons. My U12 Girls team is testament to this. Many of them had no desire to leave their Rec teams until we took many of them to play some girls only friendlies against another area league. They loved it and that convinced them. Otherwise we probably would not have had enough girls to form the team.

Add to that, our league plays co-ed in Rec. I firmly believe this is a good thing for the league and the girls. However, it takes significant effort to educate the coaches on things they need to handle like girls hanging back or boys never passing to them. So we also try to do things that give the girls a chance to just play with girls and gain more confidence.

So with all that in mind, we decided to hold a girl’s soccer clinic and have the Lunachicks help run it (we made it optional for the Lunachicks to participate but all of them came). Our hopes were that:

• The younger girls would look up to the Lunachicks as role models (yes given the Lunachick’s past escapades, the parents chuckled at that).
• They would see that girls can do really cool stuff in soccer as they get older and stuff they only thought the boys could do - well the girls can do too.
• The younger girls would get a chance to learn and play soccer with peers.
• Those younger girls with less confidence might gain some playing against just girls.
• The Lunachicks would gain some personal confidence AND team confidence acting as role models to the younger girls.
• The Lunachicks would appreciate that they were giving something back to the league and doing a sort of community service. No, it wasn’t picking up trash or helping out with another charity, but it was something.

We picked a Sunday afternoon, had the girls wear their bright and colorful travel uniforms, and crossed our fingers. We sent an email to the parents of every girl aged U6 through U10 explaining what we had in mind and invited them. I recruited some Rec coaches to help out as well. The hardest part for me was coming up with drills the girls would enjoy AND learn something from. I know - duh - I’m a soccer coach - they all should be that way. But I wanted to make sure these were really fun. So I asked for ideas from a number of other coaches and came up with about ten different activities we could do, which I copied for each coach (you can view them in PDF here). I wanted to make sure we had enough drills to do in case a few bombed. Initially we setup the following:

• The Jungle
• Soccer Moves
• 1v1 with opposing goals
• Shooting through Hula Hoops
• Keep Away
• Treasure Chest
• Hoop Pass (those half hoops you stick in the ground)

and hoped for the best.

We had about thirty girls show up. At first we ran them through a few simple warmup activities all together. The best thing was rolling the ball with the bottom of their foot. The younger girls struggled with this and the Lunachicks swooped in to help which the younger girls loved and it got everyone comfortable with each other. Then we split the girls into four groups based on age and divided up the Lunachicks and coaches among each group. We honestly ‘wung it’ in terms of which stations each group did. The two youngest groups LOVED the jungle of cones and corner flags. The older girls really liked the hoop shooting drill, something the younger girls couldn’t do (we discussed moving the hoops to the ground, but ran out of time). I gave each group’s coach the leeway to choose stations they thought the girls would like and told them to punt and try another if one didn’t work for their group. An hour later we had some very excited girls who had done all sorts of soccer activities. We then pulled up all the stuff and cleared the 20×30 U6 fields for some 3v3 or 4v4 scrimmages, which they played for a good 45-60 minutes with regular water breaks.The Lunachicks helped the girls on the field during the scrimmages, especially the younger ones.

All told the clinic lasted two hours. The younger girls were tired, but the older girls still wanted to play (and the Lunachicks were going NUTS to play because they hadn’t played that weekend), so we split up the older girls and the Lunachicks to play a scrimmage with blended teams. I told the Lunachicks to concentrate more on involving the other girls vs putting on a show, which most of them did. Then afterward I left the Lunachicks scrimmage amongst themselves.

The feedback we got from parents was overwhelmingly positive. The younger girls loved having the Lunachicks show them how to do things during the drills and the scrimmages. We have twins on our U12 team and they each wore bright pastel color Hummel cleats - one set was bright pink, the other lavender (yes that’s how you tell them apart - pink or blue ). Apparently the younger girls thought those were the coolest thing ever. As for the Lunachicks, they seemed to enjoy serving as role models and I think it did help them from a team standpoint. They were doing something unique and worthwhile. In our eyes it was a huge success for what we were trying to accomplish.

Looking back, there were a few things we’d probably do a bit differently, but not all that much.

• Have the girls sign in for the clinic. Not from a security standpoint, as nobody could leave the fields without a parent, but just to know what age groups came out so we could plan better for the next one.
• Expand the instruction sheets a little more as some coaches had never done these and didn’t always understand what my scribbled notes meant.
• Try to keep things moving on some type of suggested schedule. it wasn’t a huge deal, but some groups stayed at a station longer than they might have had they known the time.
• Have the volunteer coaches come out earlier to help setup so we could explain how each station would work ahead of time. In an unexpected twist, many of the coaches who helped hadn’t seen some of these activities and couldn’t wait to try them with their own team.
  
• Give the Lunachicks a chance to play on their own so the younger girls could see them in action. We sent the younger girls home before we scrimmaged with the older girls and some parents, having heard we scrimmaged, said the younger girls would have loved to watch. I had considered that, but know many were tired so I had them go home. I sent our home match schedule out instead, but knew few would have time to come out just for that. So perhaps some short period where the girls could play all out for 10-15 minutes to give the younger girls something to see would have been good.

In the end this turned out to be a really fun thing to do and I think it helped both the younger girls AND the Lunachicks. I wanted to share it all with you more to give a model on how a clinic like this could be organized. I was very nervous setting this up, as I’d never done something like this before, but in the end I think it worked well. Suggestions and feedback, good or bad, certainly welcome!

Believe it or not, this is the kind of thing many competitive travel teams should do as well. The  younger kids think the older players are ’so cool’. My U12 girls team recently did a skills clinic for U6/U8 age players and the younger girls LOVED it. Sure - it wasn’t doing something as touching as this story, but the idea is you can teach your team a little bit about giving back. I’ll have a more in depth post on that later.

But all around cool story I had to share.

H/T wavedad @ NC Soccer Forum

Fast forward to the U12 boys match. Hard foul by a player. Referee walks over to him, talks to him about the foul, and pulls out the yellow for all to see.

Can someone explain to me why you would show a yellow card to an 11 year old boy but not an 11 year old girl? That drives me crazy. Have I seen girls cry when they got yellow cards? Yes. Does that mean they shouldn’t be shown for girls? No. One of the biggest challenges as a girls coach is to get them out of this social expectation that they can’t play physical soccer with intensity.

I know this is such a minor thing, but it’s annoying as hell. Whenever one of my players gets a card, I specifically ask the referee to show it. That’s the whole point - making it clear that what they did stepped over a line. They aren’t all delicate flowers that will crumble if they’re called out on a dangerous play. You could argue that the girls most likely to get cards are those most prepared to handle them being shown.