Giving Back the Game

Giving back the game is the theme of Indiana’s U9-U10 academy program. The idea is to give any child that wants to play soccer the best available club coaching and let them learn through teaching but more importantly through playing the game. No cuts and no try-outs just sign-up and play. Encouraging children to be risk-takers is high on the agenda and game results are not. I have tried to base my recreational soccer coaching philosophy on many of the tenets of the Indiana Academy Program. The last two seasons I have promised the parents of the girls I have had the privilege of coaching that I would teach them all the basics of the game as best as I could and that each girl would get a chance to use their new found skills in during each game.

I truly thought by encouraging each girl to take chances and to not be afraid to keep the ball at their feet that I was giving the game to the girls. Until this week I did not realize how much the girls were really teaching me. My rec team had their first two losses of the season this week and I think I as an adult learned more from those losses than I could have learned from any win. I also believe the girls learned some valuable lessons. I had expected the first game would be close and knew we would have to play nearly flawless soccer to win the second so neither loss came as a complete surprise to me.

The first loss was a 4-1 result and the girls played very poorly. They forgot many of the basic defensive lessons they had been taught concerning not clearing the ball across the middle of the box and if you are beaten to recover back to goal instead of chasing the ball. More importantly they forgot that they were a team and after falling behind 2-1 the girls philosophy turned to “kick the ball to Katie” For the most part the girls then watched my daughter try to score goals with no support. Katie made some dazzling moves including one Maradona that left three girls kicking at a soccer ball that was no longer within their grasp. As well as Katie played the other “team” played better and deserved the win.

At another time in my life I would have sat the girls down after the match and reviewed the errors we made and reminded them of the basics we had forgotten. This time however I took one look at the broken hearted faces looking back at me after the match and knew it was not the night for soccer lessons. Instead I asked the girls to show up a little early for our next match and reassured them all that the loss was not the end of the world before telling them to make sure they did not forget their post game icy-pop. As I was filling out the game report on the team bench I noticed one of my players being carried to the car by her father not realizing he was comforting her until I heard her crying. He told me another person had told her she needed to be more aggressive and that she was upset about the way she had played. I am fond of this particular girl as a player for many reasons including the fact she has some natural talent and also I think if I asked her to stand on her head for one quarter of the game she would at least give it her best effort even if she thought I was an idiot. I stopped her dad and asked if I could talk to her which he agreed to allow me to do. I took a only a few moments of my time to point out the good things she had done during the match while she sat on the bench next to me still crying. After I finished talking to her she left at least not crying so hard and leaving me with the reminder that kids are fragile things that need more nurturing than lecturing in regards to sports and many other life activities.

The next match we were about to face the top player and perhaps the top team in our league and my Katie knew it if none of the other girls did. The other team also has a Katie and the two girls were about to challenge one another’s skills and both knew who their main rival for the day would be. Ironically, we pulled into the parking lot at the same time and parked next to one another and the girls were very friendly from the start. With my lesson from the last match fresh in mind I met most of the girls early as requested and I asked them what we could have done better in the last match. The girls were all quick to point out that they had not played their positions very well and I gently reminded them that it was a bad idea to cross the ball across the middle on defense and we set about preparing for the mornings match. In my mind to win this match was going to take mistake free play and I was not sure that was going to be good enough.

What I saw over the next forty minutes of soccer showed me why we should give the game back to the kids. I saw soccer played with imagination and skill that I as an adult could not on my best day game plan. I saw two girls who laughed, joked and talked with one another while trying their best to outplay the other. I saw a PK saved by an eight year old. I saw Cruyff turns perfectly executed. I saw soccer played in three dimensions as balls were kicked backwards over players heads to switch the field on multiple occasions and goalies chipped to score goals. I saw a left-footed half-volley off a corner. I saw comedy at its best as each of the coaches simultaneously told their Katie to mark the other Katie prompting my Katie to tap the other on the shoulder and say “I think that means you are supposed to mark me” and the other Katie to look at her dad and say “You know this is all very confusing right” while both girls proceeded to roll their eyes and giggle at the two of us. I saw a girl score from what I would have thought was an impossible angle while being nearly perfectly marked. I saw another score on nothing but sheer determination. I saw the ball taken out of mid-air with control while on the run at full speed with the outside of the foot while being challenged by another player that led to a spectacular goal. I saw both teams play very good defense and in the end I saw us lose 4-3. The perfect end to this match in my mind would have been a tie and had the game been ten seconds longer the odds were high that it would have as the whistle was blown on a perfectly executed goal kick that set my Katie free with only the keeper to stop her. However, the best thing I saw the entire day was the eight girls on my team smiling after being told they had played well even if we did come up one goal short. Whoever said the game should be given back to the kids is onto something because I am not capable of coaching the quality of soccer I saw this weekend. Just for the record the eight year old that saved the penalty kick was the same girl that was crying after our previous match. I could not have been happier for her! Kids are truly amazing when we let them be.

 

Nicely done Barry. Wish you were coaching my daughter.

 

Barry, that was good enough for me to post it on the main site.

I have given up nagging you guys to write, this shows that maybe the best stuff is done without the pressure of an assignment.

Now Barry will perhaps be read by TENS of folks all over the world.

-pf

 

yeah, thanks Barry, you got me all teary-eyed at work

 

http://www.norcalpremier.com/content/view/575/1/

Something that was sent to me by a friend that I thought was interesting and supports what Barry was saying in his fine write-up.