Lorain City Soccer Association

We have setup a new website for information regarding the soccer school:

http://www.loraincitysoccer.org/school

Orientation & Final Registration for the Soccer School will be on Thursday, Aug. 23th at 6pm.

The season will begin on Monday, Aug. 27th with our first Training Session at 6pm.

All events and training will be held at Longfellow Park.

Please don’t park on Michigan Ave. use the school parking lot!!

Here are some of the resources that I have used:

http://www.decatursports.com/soccerdrills.htm

http://www.bettersoccermorefun.com/

http://www.oysan.org/coachingarticles.html

http://www.coacheshandsonsoccer.com/index.html

Your Public Library is also a great free place to go for help. One of my favorite tools are other coaches. I have watched many coaches from varying levels of play train their squads. It is very helpfull to see how the childern respond to a given exercise. Are they excited about what they are doing? Many “drills” just run the players through the “motions”, without requiring much thought on the players part. Drilling also can create alot of Downtime, with players waiting in lines for their next chance to touch the ball. If I find a drill that appeals to me on a fudamental level but involves Downtime, I will modify it to inject some energy.

Take a good look at your practice sessions. How many touches does each player get on the ball? Are you struggling with LOTS of chit-chat? If so then your players are not busy enough, maybe spending too much time waiting in line! We can only do so much as Parent/Coaches, we strive to find time for practice. We are constantly competing with video games, TV, gossip and all the other distractions bouncing around in our players minds. Todays youth soccer players also have to deal with sports conflicts, family life, school and the very serious “negative” pressures of the World.

Our training sessions should be a place for fun and focus, giving our children some escape. Youth soccer players would develop well in the neighborhood pick-up game (if such existed). These games have it all, recreation, escape, hard competition, moments to shine and time to get respect! But most of all, it is what the pick-up game lacks that is most important… ADULTS!

Kids Love to Play!

Steve

By Michael Langlois, author of “How Well Do You Communicate? A Guide to
Better Communication with Players and Parents for Youth Soccer Coaches”.

1. Let the coaches’ coach. If you are telling your son or daughter - or any other player for that matter - to do something different from what their coach is telling them, you create distraction and confusion.

2. It is very unnerving for many young players to try and perform difficult tasks on the field on the spur of the moment when parents are yelling at them from the sidelines. Let the kids play. If they have been well coached, they should know what to do on the field. If they make a mistake, chances are they will learn from it.

3. Do not discuss the play of specific young players in front of other parents. How many times do you hear comments such as, “I don’t know how that boy made this team…” or “she’s just not fast enough.”. Too many parents act as though their child is a ’star’, and the problem is someone else’s kid. Negative comments and attitudes are hurtful and totally unnecessary and kill parent harmony, which is often essential to youth
team success.

4. Discourage such toxic behavior by listening patiently to any negative comments that might be made, then address issues in a positive way. Speak to the positive qualities of a player, family or coach.

5. Do your level best not to complain about your son or daughter’s coaches to other parents. Once that starts, it is like a disease that spreads. Before you know it, parents are talking constantly in a negative way behind a coach’s back. (As an aside, if you have what you truly feel is a legitimate beef with your child’s coach - either regarding game strategy or playing time, arrange an appointment to meet privately, away from a
soccer field.)

6. Make positive comments from the sideline. Be encouraging. Young athletes do not need to be reminded constantly about their perceived errors or mistakes. Their coaches will instruct them, either during the game or at half-time, and during practices. You can often see a young player make that extra effort when they hear encouraging words from the
sideline about their hustle.

7. Avoid making any negative comments about players on the other team, this should be simple: we are talking about youngsters, not adults who are being paid to play professionally. I recall being at a rec baseball game some years ago, when parent on one team loudly made comments about errors made by a particular young player on the other team. People on the other side of the diamond were stunned- and angry. Besides being tasteless and classless, these kinds of comments can be hurtful to the young person
involved and to their family as well.

8. Try to keep interaction with parents on the other team as healthy and positive as possible. Who’s kidding whom? You want your child’s team to win. So do they. But that should not make us take leave of our senses, especially our common sense. Be courteous ’till it hurts; avoid the ‘tit for tat’ syndrome.

9. Parents on the ‘other’ team are not the enemy. Neither are the boys or girls on the other team. We should work to check any negative feelings at the door before we hit the pitch.

10. What is the easiest thing to do in the youth sports world? Criticize the referees. Don’t criticize the referees. Oh, there are times when calls are missed, absolutely. And that can, unfortunately, directly affect the outcome of a contest. That said, by and large those who officiate at youth soccer games are hardly over-compensated, and give it an honest - and
often quite competent - effort. At worst, they at least try to be fair and objective.

11. On that note, outbursts from parents on the sideline made toward the referees only signal to our on children on the field that they can blame the refs for anything that goes wrong. Blaming others is not a formula for success in sports.

12. Yelling out comments such as “Good call, ref” or “Thanks ref” may only serve to alienate an official. The ref always assumes they made the proper call, that’s why they made it. Trying to show superficial support because the call went ‘your’ way is simply annoying to the officials, and to anyone within earshot.

13. Walking up and down all game long along the sidelines, following the play, is unnerving to players and totally unnecessary- particularly so if you are trying to yell out instructions to various players, including your own son or daughter. It is likely embarrassing to the player/players involved and simply counterproductive. If you want to coach, obtain your
coaching certification and then apply for a job.

14. We all feel things and are apt to be tempted to say things in the ‘heat of the moment’. But we don’t excuse athletes for doing inappropriate things in the ‘heat of the moment’ (there are penalties, suspensions, etc.) so we should apply similar standards to our own sideline behavior. Quickly check yourself and ask: Will I be proud of what I am about to say or do when I reflect on it tomorrow?

15. The parking lot is not the time to ‘fan the flames’. Whether it is a coach’s decision, a referee’s call, a comment that was made, let it go. Don’t harass the coach, or an official, or a parent on the other team after the game is over. Go home, relax, and unwind. Talk positively with your child. The ride home is sometimes as important as the game itself.
Make that time a good memory for your son or daughter by discussing as many positives as you can about him/her, her coach, her teammates, etc.

Here is a look at the design for the new uniforms.

(Click the image for a full page view)