Size VS Skill, when do you see a difference.

@toucan , Even though your post was quoted, I don't think these comments were directed at you. You seem like an honest straight shooter. But there's plenty of clubs out there who use coaches like yourself to line the trophy case so they can line their wallets on empty promises to inexperienced club soccer parents.

I’m pretty sure they were directed at him since Gokicksomegrass’s response to toucan’s post started with a capitalized THIS.

THIS is the reason why a parent should always focus on the development of your kid, not how much hardware your kid can hang up on the wall. "Winning team" means just towing the company line, like a good company person should do. Clubs are just "non-profit" companies who need to make payroll and pay for DoC's new MB AMG G65.
(Ya, the black shiny one. Who could that be, folks wonder???) Keep that in mind and all will be known.

Many kids of parents who were loyal, bought stupid, expensive crap during the auction, and kissed ass were kicked to the curb by another better kid developed outside of the club aka "recruiting".

And this seems like a backhanded compliment.

Yeah, I feel you, coach. Need to keep steaks in the frig. But that ain't my problem.

Not sure why you’re pissed at toucan. He is building and recruiting winning teams that focus on ball control and possession through Coerver style drills. Sounds pretty good to me. I’d love to get coaching like that for free, but I’m willing to pay for it because I want my boys outside and playing instead of inside and gaming.
 
The Board: "Someone please be honest: What are coaches looking for?"
Toucan: "Here are the 4 things all coaches look for, but won't tell you. If your kid doesn't have those 4 traits, there are plenty of Flight 2 teams for them. Also, winning is nice."
The Board: "How dare you!"
 
I have always coached girls teams, so maybe my process wouldn't work so well with a boy's team. My girls are almost universally attentive, hard working, and anxious to please. They love Coerver drills. And I rarely have trouble teaching one to play a possession-style game. True, some do it better than others, but for the most part all give a really great effort.

The last true possession girls club team I saw was Deanza Force 98/99 and maybe the Surf 98/99 team. I would love to see another one. What age group and level are you coaching? My player is off until June and I have some time to kill. What team are you talking about and where will they next be playing.
 
That was an interesting post directed at me, though snarky and wholly uninformed. Taking the points one-by-one:
  • Building "winning teams" is not about getting hardware. It's about striving for excellence. Not that there is anything wrong with winning a couple of tournaments here and there.
  • What "company line" are you talking about? That comment is senseless.
  • Nobody at our club is making a ton of money. Our fees are about $1500 per player per year, which is in the middle of club fees in general. Our coaches get paid about $800-$1000 per team per month, which is about average. There isn't any extra money in the budget to make DOCs or anybody else very much money at all. No coach or DOC in our club is making much money from soccer, and none are driving BMWs or other expensive cars that I know of.
  • My teams had no auctions or other fundraisers. To the extent any of my teams were short of money for tournaments, referee fees and other sundries, I paid those expenses myself, to the tune of about $5,000 in the last year. I could not support myself on the salary I earn as a coach, much less live in splendor. Though I have been coaching club soccer for many years, it is not my "day job."
  • I didn't kick any kid to the curb last year. Of my two short-side teams I retained 23 of 24 players for our new club year starting this March. That is a 96% retention rate. There may be many reasons for this, but the fact that those teams had a collective record of 25-2-1 made them fun for the girls, and created a platform for all players to develop.
In any event, I don't know what this poster is angry about. If he wants his kid on a "losing" team rather than a "winning" team, well, bully for him. There are plenty of lessons that can be learned from losing. But most all of those same lessons can be learned while being on a team that wins more games than it loses, and most kids have a lot more fun on winning teams.

Nah, it's cool, bro. Just get all triggered when a coach who coaches ulittle girls 08/07, what 8,9, 10 year old prepubescent girls,
and talk about slow little girls are no good, recruiting some more faster little girls, and creating a "winning team". Sorry about that.
 
The last true possession girls club team I saw was Deanza Force 98/99 and maybe the Surf 98/99 team. I would love to see another one. What age group and level are you coaching? My player is off until June and I have some time to kill. What team are you talking about and where will they next be playing.
Since you brought it up, I have been fortunate that my DD plays for Marquez Rebels SC '01 Elite is as close to a true possession style team. It also helps that Ryan has the '00 Elite team as well. As a result next years team at the '01 Elite should be quite a team, with about 5 girls dropping to play their age and the already heavily talented current roster with is made of some of the premier '02 girls. It should be quite a year.
The following link is a National League game, although the competition was not the best, you can see the way they possess and pass.
 
I teach "possession-style" soccer; where the primary means of ball movement is foot-to-foot passing. Usually that means 3-6 passes to get the ball into the attacking third. My youngers are pretty good at it for their age, but we aren't anywhere near the level of the two older teams you speak of. I know we struggle to put passes together against fast, athletic teams who really come at us hard. But if you put us against a weaker team and we get a 3 or 4 goal lead, then we often play for "pure possession," and can often string 10-15 passes together at a time. That is pretty good for G2007s and G2008s. We still have far to go.

I think you may be baiting me about wanting to watch my teams play, and no doubt you will see much to be improved upon if you do, but I have already PM'd you with our current schedules.

No bait. I am serious. I like to hear that a coach is teaching possession. It can be done but wins and losses can't be important early on. That DeAnza 98/99 team used to lose with they were the were ULittles but around U13/14 they started to be a force and the rest is history...
 
Since you brought it up, I have been fortunate that my DD plays for Marquez Rebels SC '01 Elite is as close to a true possession style team. It also helps that Ryan has the '00 Elite team as well. As a result next years team at the '01 Elite should be quite a team, with about 5 girls dropping to play their age and the already heavily talented current roster with is made of some of the premier '02 girls. It should be quite a year.
The following link is a National League game, although the competition was not the best, you can see the way they possess and pass.

I live close enough that I can see this team play live. Can you PM me a schedule link please? Thank you in advance.
 
Since you brought it up, I have been fortunate that my DD plays for Marquez Rebels SC '01 Elite is as close to a true possession style team. It also helps that Ryan has the '00 Elite team as well. As a result next years team at the '01 Elite should be quite a team, with about 5 girls dropping to play their age and the already heavily talented current roster with is made of some of the premier '02 girls. It should be quite a year.
The following link is a National League game, although the competition was not the best, you can see the way they possess and pass.
#12 @ the 5 min mark! She is not messing around, bravo.
 
Back
Top