“Introducing- the pass”

The coaching strategy:   Now kids enter those exciting transitional years.  Physical growth including speed, strength, and aggressiveness become evident in the early developers. The players cognitive abilities have advanced significantly and now are ready to appreciate the benefits of teamwork.  Sportsmanship, communication, emotional control, and group cooperation are the developmental themes of this age.

Fun remains pivotal to success.  Ensuring equal playing time and rotating players into all positions remain important.  The concept of all players playing defense and all players playing offense will be emphasized in the more competitive years ahead.  Using games to identify areas of weakness and using practices to introduce drills to improve specific player skills are now the main teaching tools.  Pointing out areas of strengths during practice and games helps build player and team confidence.  Final scores of games at this age should not be recorded as individual player development remains your focus, not your team record.  (No matter what your players and parents might think)

 Technical stuff:  Continue to include ball control skills at the onset of practice as part of the warm-up.  In particular the skill to quickly change direction while maintaining control with the ball should specifically be mastered.  The concept of good first touches should be introduced and you should begin to see this during the games.  Fakes on offense and defense should be encouraged.  Passing skills off the dribble now become the focus of group activities.  The new tactic of moving around obstacles with two passes should be reinforced and head down dribbling should be strongly deemphasized.  Proper defensive positioning, posture, and movements should be introduced and practiced.  Running 2 v 1 attacks on offense are fun at this age.  This is the age where they should be introduced the correct technique of the power shot.  Once they learn this specific skill the game will take on a whole new life.

Parents:  Educate parents early that their role on the team is safe and timely transportation, emotional and inspirational player support during games, those important snacks, and to use appropriate communication channels to give favorable and/or unfavorable feedback to you, the coach.  They are absolutely not allowed to coach from the sidelines (i.e. “Johnny next time just dribble around that defender because he is slow”).   It is your job to address these parent activities if and when you encounter them.

Referees:  By definition they are always right, even when they may in fact be wrong.  Our club rule is simple-no arguing.  Stay focused on coaching and leave the rules up to the ref.  Remember emotional management and self control are developmental challenges at this age so be a good role model.  If you believe the ref is making mistakes then discuss your observations at a different time with our referee trainer, Jim Copenhaver.