Triad Challenge League Soccer Coaches Clinic

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10240033.post-1140584136660736332006-02-21T23:50:00.000-05:002006-02-25T13:06:02.733-05:00Triad Challenge League Soccer Coaches Clinic<a href="http://www.tclsoccer.com/">The Triad Challenge League </a>held their 10th Annual Coaches Clinic on Saturday, February 4th at Glenn High school outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was a highly informative, fun event with dynamic and knowledgeable speakers. About 150 coaches, assistant coaches and parents from all over the area attended the free all-day program. Each of the six sessions dealt with different coaching tasks, demonstrating drills and techniques designed to help young players develop their skills. <br /><br />Jim Carpenter, referee coach, opened with an overview of soccer rules featuring an in-depth presentation on the always-perplexing off-side rule. He showed FIFA’s video explaining the offside rule. <a href="http://www.fifa.com/en/news/feature/0,1451,107252,00.html">For more information on the offside law, click here and scroll down to the middle of the page for the link to the flash animation.</a><br /><br />In the “Small Sided Teams” session, Chris Little, Director of Coaching for NCYSA, described how he uses “guided discovery” – posing a question and letting his players come up with the answers. He gives them little rewards – encouraging them to practice at home – rather than making lots of rules and criticizing their performance. He demonstrated a drill that teaches them to “accelerate into space”: pass the ball, run ahead, call for the ball and receive the ball. He actively trains for better communication among the players, encouraging them to talk to each other continually. <br /><br />In her “Goalkeeper & Team Training” and “Training Young Keepers”, Olympic goalkeeper and UNCG Assistant Women’s Coach, Siri Mullinix showed how she helps players hone their eye-hand coordination circling their bodies with the ball, first at the waist, then at the ankles and so on. She demonstrated a drill where players shift from side to side between cone places at goal-width, jumping up to the signal “Cross-bar!” and hitting the deck on “Down!” She showed how she coaches players to keep their hands behind the ball when catching above the waist and to slam the ball down on the ground when catching a grounder. To keep their self-confidence high, she encourages coaches to always make sure their players “end on a clean ball” before going on to the next drill.<br /><br />In the “FUNdamentals” session, Chad Heinicke and Scott Wallaston of SoccerOP pointed out that it is sometimes hard for young players to move side to side – they want to push forward. They use warm up techniques like “box the ball”, push-pull and slalom dribbling to help their player develop and sense of space. And like all the other presenters they stress verbal communication among their players. <br /><br />After the complementary lunch, Greensboro College Women’s Head Coach, Franco Bari presented the session on “Defending”. He suggests that coaches ‘start with technique, work up to tactics’. His players demonstrated the knee-slap game – players pair off and each tries to slap the other’s knee without letting their opponent get to their knee. Bari uses the game with his college players to sharpen their ability to stay on their toes and get into their opponent’s zone. It would be a fun and equally effective drill for all levels. Bari stresses verbal communication with his players, teaching his defenders to talk each other through the opposing lines always using the same terms when calling out, “Force to the right,” etc. Strategies include always having a first and second defender and, if possible, a balancer. Bari teaches his players to cut off space as quickly as possible. He drills them to approach at an angle, jockeying patiently till the ball is exposed for the steal.<br /><br />All the presenters stressed the importance of positive reinforcement as the only really effective way to motivate players at all levels. Find what the players especially value and rewarding them with it: lots of praise and good humor. The program began and closed on positive notes. Clinic organizers stressed that “…we – parents, coaches and players – are a soccer community.” And with programs like this one every year, our community can only become stronger.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </div>Deehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06577617317617824737noreply@blogger.com