Alyssa and Kristin celebrate our 12th straight Big Ten title
I’ve been proud to be a member of the SoccerPlus family for almost 10 years now. During that time, I’ve heard Tony DiCicco espouse what I believe to be a principle tenet to his coaching methodology many times: “challenge [your players], and then guide them to success.” I’ve always appreciated this statement as the fundamental principle in coaching our players. This past Saturday, however, this statement took on a different meaning.
There I was standing at the front of a banquet room speaking to a room full of Penn State soccer players, their parents, booster club members, and our support staff. I was up there to give out our 2009 team-voted “Most Improved Player” award to one of our backup goalkeepers, Kristin Hartmann; I was totally psyched for her. Kristin is a sophomore this year and has been playing behind All-American Alyssa Naeher (see my last blog post: Who Impacts Who?) since she arrived on campus in August 2008. Now, that’s a challenge.
So, day in and day out for the past year-and-a-half, Kristin has trained with, competed with, and measured herself against one the of the best young goalkeepers in the country in Alyssa. And yet I have witnessed countless moments where Kristin has also been mentored, coached, and inspired by that very same training partner.
Shortly after I presented the “Most Improved Player” award to Kristin, I was back at the front of the room presenting the “Defensive MVP” award to Alyssa. While presenting this award, I looked over towards Kristin and saw her smiling slightly and nodding intently. And that’s when it dawned on me: sometimes the best challenges our players face have nothing to do with us and everything to do with the challenges they present each other and the guidance they receive from one another.
Part II (Motor Coordination and Agility)
Motor coordination – the combination of body movements created with the kinematic (such as spatial direction) and kinetic (force) parameters that result in intended actions. Such movements usually smoothly and efficiently work together. Motor coordination can occur between subsequent parts of the same movement and movements of several limbs. Motor coordination involves the integration of processes ranging from how muscles interact with the skeletal system to neural processes controlling them both in the spine and the brain. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
We use a formula for all of the players we train, so that they understand exactly what we are trying to accomplish when it comes to individual, global, and corporate coordination. Speed + Control = Agility.
Agility – the ability to change the body’s position efficiently, and requires the integration of isolated movement skills using a combination of balance, coordination, speed, reflexes, strength, endurance and stamina. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
You cannot have agility without coordination, and therefore you cannot have a functioning dynamic soccer player without agility! I have often been asked when the best time to develop this coordination should occur. The answer is quite simple, AS SOON AS THE CHILD STARTS PLAYING SOCCER!
A Clinical Study issued by Iowa State University in 1990 suggests the following when it comes to Physical Fitness for preschool and kindergarten age players, “Regular physical activity…may: “
1) Improve a child’s fitness, in both health-related and skill-related areas.
2) Build fundamental motor skills like running, jumping, or skipping. (coordination)
3) Aid developmental growth. (coordination)
4) Increase awareness of the body in space. (coordination)
5) Reinforce a good self-concept through participation in success-oriented tasks.
6) Enhance language skills.
7) Strengthen social skills.
8 ) Encourage expressive/imitative thought and problem-solving.
9) Instill a love for movement (coordination) [Read full article…]
Let’s face it folks, in today’s physical education programs not only are our children learning nothing about running styles, agility, and basic physical mechanics in regards to athletics, the coordination aspect of youth players is almost non existent.
In my opinion, one of the most important speed, agility, and quickness tools we can give to our players is helping them to develop coordination. I’m not just talking about walking and chewing gum at the same time, I’m talking about global coordination, individually, with the ball, and corporately with their teammates.
One of the very first aspects of Speed of Play principles we teach our players, is that the speed of play is not only mental, but physical as well. In all of our coach’s education programs and clinics, we define speed of play as: “Mental decisions made during a match that involves the whole team, and dictates the flow of a game.”
In all of our programs, we teach our players and coaches that in order to lock into the flow of the game, the flow of the team, and have a reason with our principles and systems of play there needs to be a common theme that is prevalent in every player, and every aspect of the game, COORDINATION!
Over the next three articles, I am going to outline for you several basic exercises you can use to help develop coordination individually without the ball, individually with the ball, and corporately within the team as a whole. [Read full article…]
I found an article in the Boston Globe recently that talks about player development and the unrealistic amount of time spent traveling to games. The article is about hockey but I feel it applies to our wonderful sport — soccer.
How many of our youth players are traveling over two hours each day to train with a club team, how many are spending thousands of dollars a year on traveling to the “elite” tournaments, and how many players are not getting enough training time in to improve themselves? These are questions we all need to ask ourselves. The article provides a solution to a growing problem at the youth hockey level. Do we have an answer in soccer?
Seems that we keep spinning farther and farther out of control, there are players that travel from state to state to play club soccer. I think that town associations and/or clubs can provide a player an avenue towards skill development, tactical awareness and instill passion all without breaking the bank or sacrificing the love of the game. [Read full article…]
