This is a review of various items from our web site, plus aspects of our Junior Academy philosophy that we reviewed during our summer orientation presentation.
Bad weather?
Rain itself won’t stop us, but lightning or unplayable fields could affect us. General rule of thumb: assume all games are “on” and will be played as scheduled. If anything changes, we’ll update our Junior Academy Twitter account. Link: bad weather procedures
What can you expect during the games?
Anything can happen, and probably will! We haven’t had a game day in 3+ months. Some players will hit the ground running, some will show rust since they haven’t played a real game in a few months. And we may have some new players this spring. They are entering a new environment, and may need some time to adjust.
Restarts (throw-ins, goal kicks and corner kicks): Have patience. Players will likely look for perfection, but every moment they delay the restart reduces the chance for a good outcome. You may hear the coaches putting players on a 3-second countdown on restarts. Restarts are a situation where we’ll treat “good enough” as a success.
The first quarter is likely to be chaotic. It’s common for young players to start out with all energy and no purpose. The girls will settle in as they burn through their initial adrenaline rush.
How will we define success?
We ask the girls to play with skill (feet: keep the ball), with desire (heart: show enthusiasm and desire), and with intelligence (brain: scan, plan, play, i. e., make informed decisions). Skills and intelligence develop over time through purposeful practices. The heart aspect comes from within, though.
For many players, the ball is still a tougher opponent than the players on the other team.
Players will be successful if they try to keep the ball:
- Go meet the ball when it’s near you.
- Keep the ball moving. (Stop and go moves are effective, but “stop and look around” play doesn’t tend to work.)
- Get your head up.
- Find open space, an open path to goal, or an open teammate.
- If you can’t find open space, or an open teammate, use a dribbling move to try to create open space. (Pretend you’re going one way. The defender will likely follow you. Then change direction and speed to go the other way. When done properly, you’ll lose the defender and create open space!)
Common mistakes: Some players may freeze with the ball like a deer in headlights, some may dribble with their head down directly into the nearest opponent (or teammate), and some may just kick the ball aimlessly. This quote can help keep us all sane as kids make these mistakes: “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”
More experienced players will be successful if they keep the ball more often than not (instead of just trying to keep the ball), turn possession into attack, and do so at a decent pace.
Spacing (team shape):
Young players want to be where the ball is, so bunching is absolutely normal at this stage. Our emphasis so far has been on keeping the ball. As the girls develop success keeping the ball, we’ll start layering in activities that emphasize spreading out.
What will we (coaches) do to help the girls?
We’ll focus on things the girls can handle now, and offer lots of encouragement for effort and creativity. We’ll offer advice during “coachable moments,” and we’ll ask the girls questions to prompt them to think, but we won’t constantly direct them as if they were players in a video game. More details: game day guidelines for coaches
What can you (parents) do to help the girls?
- Pre-game: Make sure they drink plenty of water the day before the game, get a good night’s sleep, and eat a healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water the morning of the game.
- During the game: Be your daughter’s biggest fan! Be every other player’s 2nd biggest fan. And let the players make their own decisions. In other words, cheer them, encourage them, make them feel good about themselves! But please don’t coach them during the game (i. e., yelling “shoot” or “pass” or providing other directions). More details: game day guidelines for parents
- Encourage your daughter to keep her focus on the game, instead of looking at you every time she’s involved. But if she does look your way, keep a happy expression for a moment, and then focus back on the action.
Mismatches:
Every now and then, there’s a one-sided blowout game. We could be on either end of a lopsided score. If we get a big lead over an opponent, remember that the next goal we score isn’t the winning goal of the World Cup. If we’re way behind, don’t despair. It’s one game, and if we’re getting pounded, we should be able to learn a lesson from the experience.
If an intra-academy game is a mismatch, we may shift players between teams to make the game more balanced.
If we’re playing a team from another NTH branch or club, coaches may occasionally pull a player off the field (or add an extra player) to make a blowout game more competitive. This is done “on the quiet” with only the ref (if we have one) and coaches being aware of the change. If you notice a numbers mismatch, please keep that observation under wraps.
Uniforms:
Players should bring both uniforms to all games. (“Wear one set, have the other in a zip-lock back in your backpack.”) Each game day web page has details about what to wear for each game. But if there’s an unexpected color conflict, we may need to change colors.
Good luck to everyone this season, and have fun!