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I see jungle ball on a weekly basis around where I live, and the worst part is the many coaches and parents think they are a possession-based teams!
Everytime I hear a coach say they are a “possession” team, I feel like screaming.Simon/Amal
In terms of receiving across their body, they still aren’t displaying it consistently in games. They have come a long way though considering that concept was completely new to all of them. However now they at least understand it’s the right thing to do and are aware when they don’t do it. This is one of the many many bad habits that I need to correct that they learned from their recreation coaches (their dads).
The parents are of little help to me now. The problem is the dads. All of them are good friends and played together in high school, but never progressed from there. When they were playing in the 80s/early 90s they had that old school mentality of just run laps and sprints and them do a scrimmage for their high school team. In fact, I know their coach because he is still around. He is not a soccer coach in any sense of the word; he’s actually a baseball fanatic and head coach of the high school baseball team. He would only coach soccer in the fall because no one else would. So you can understand what kind of soccer education they had coming from a coach like that and how it has shaped their philosophy that they transmitted to their daughters.
I have had several parent meetings to explain my philosophy, but to no avail; they can care less about possession based playing. Every single discussion entails them saying something like “They need more conditioning.” Despite us having a winning season so far, they still say all this. To be honest, they are not out of shape, and we do “conditioning” with the ball in game related scenarios/patterns. But they do get tired in games and there is a simple reason for this: because they can’t retain possession and constantly have to run around chasing the ball to regain possession. The parents cannot for the love of all that is sacred make that simple logical connection! It’s frustrating seeing how blind and ignorant they are!More context:
Last season was their first season in competitive travel soccer. They lost every game by score lines like
8-0,7-0,4-0. In fact they only scored on goal and that was in the last game. I was the assistant last season and took over the team after the head coach was fired a little over half-way through the season. The original coach put them in the U14 Bronze division even though we had only one 14 year old, three 13 year olds, two 10 year olds, and the rest 11 or 12.As head coach this season I decided to make us a U13 team. I took out the 10 year olds and 14 year old, but we are still a very young U13 team. I also moved us down a division to Copper yet for some reason we have 4 Gold teams and 1 Platinum. We beat the other Copper teams and a Bronze team and lost to all the Golds by only 2 goals each game.
The score lines look good, but the thing I love the most is they are showing signs of development in many areas of their game. The parents however only care about the wins. It’s a poisonous environment because they don’t allow their daughters to realize and celebrate their development.Simon,
Thanks for the great response; it’s refreshing to read about other coaches’ experiences like yours who are trying to implement choreography in their practice.
I forgot to mention that I have a U13 girls team but half of the team is comrpised of 11 year olds. I’ll also mention for context that all the girls are new to competetive soccer, with all of them having between 8 months and 1 and a half years of experience. This is their second season in competetive soccer so they are still in “rec” mode in many aspects and I am still trying to correct so many bad habits and ideas they developed from the typical “soccer dad” coaches they had while in rec soccer.
Here is a general account of how practice goes with my team:
1) rondos (4v0 or 4v1)
2) Posession game (5v5+5)
3) functional training for attackers and the back four plus defensive mid. This typically includes shooting practice in different scenarios (related to our attacking pattern) and defensive scenarios (right now the back four are working on the concepts pressure, cover, and balance)
4) working on attacking pattern one or two. I have them do it without pressure as a refresher and then add defenders in various areas to work on scenarios that may arise while trying to execute the pattern
5) building out of the back. We do this as much as possible every practice.
6) scrimmage with conditions that are conducive to seeing an attacking pattern manifested at some point.
Now given the fact they are so new to the game, they have shown a considerable amount of development from their last season when I was the assistant and their headcoache’s idea of conducting practice was mostly springs, laps, some random passing excercises, and a scrimmage. They are not just winning games now, but winning in style as they execute many 3 pass passing sequences.
Lately I have had a stressful time dealing with parents who don’t agree with using rondos or choreography despite evidence of their positive impact on their development. They want more conditioning in the form of sprints and laps. They think choreography is a waste of time because it’s not “intense” enough. This negativity has leaked into some of the player’s minds and I sometimes find it difficult to keep them engaged because they parrot their parents sentiments that they should do more shooting practice and “conditioning”.
So given the extra context I added in this post, what are your comments and suggestions to address this situation? What I am really curious to know is how do you keep your players engaged in choreography so they fully commit to executing it properly?
I strongly feel that if parents would leave the coaching to me, then this process would go so much smoother. Their soccer IQ is so low, and their influence over their children is understandably so strong that it’s making their kids development so much slower.
Hello, my name is Kit Elliott. I am obsessed with the game to the degree where it’s almost all I think about because I want to be the best coach possible for my players. I’m so glad to have discovered Gary and Brian’ s work along with other like-minded coaches that are interested in perfecting the art.
I coach a U13 girls team here in the Monterey Peninsula, and have just started my first season as a high school soccer coach for JV girls. I will try and post some videos of their progress as the season goes along. So far they are developing very quickly because they are all so smart and open-minded. They love the rondo exercises we do everyday, and often ask if we can continue doing them after the exercise is completed. They’re an eager group.
I look forward to learning more from you all.
