What a week! All 37 players were able to attend our 2017 team camp. We also had two guests:  Anna and Avery. They attended as an informal tryout and earned invitations to join us for the upcoming season.

The girls’ collective enthusiasm was good or better. Their will to compete was also good.

Huge thanks to coach Hailey, and camp helpers Abigail, Addison, Allison, Elizabeth, Ellery and Sarah for their help during the week — you girls rock! Thanks also to all of the parents who brought cold treats each night! We also thank Mother Nature. She teased us with the threat of storms, but we were able to complete all 8 hours of camp with no weather stoppages, and no extreme heat.

Links:  camp photos   /   camp video

Camp themes

Our main theme for the camp week was “keep the ball“. We’ll continue to emphasize this theme throughout the year. Our secondary theme will be “scan, plan, play“.

Keep the ball:

Early on, we’ll emphasize keeping the ball by dribbling:  using your body to protect the ball, using your feet to turn away from defenders or crowds and find open space, or using trickery to create open space if there isn’t any.

Later on, we’ll expand the theme to include purposeful passes to teammates. We’ll try to avoid the random “just kick it” style of play. (Or as we call it, “wheeeeee!“)

We want the girls to think of the soccer ball as their friend and playing partner, not as toxic waste to be discarded.

Scan, plan, play:

1. Scan (eyes):  Players should look around as they play, using their eyes to find an open goal, open space, teammates or opponents.
2. Plan (brain):  Use your brain to to make a decision about what you’re going to do with the ball.
3. Play (feet):  Use your feet to turn your plan into action, and see if you can be a ruler!

Our current challenges

Our biggest challenges right now are more related to mentality than to current skill level. It’s a new environment for most of our players, and players and coaches will go through an adjustment period learning how to adapt to each other and communicate effectively.

1. Make sure the girls understand that they are every bit as important a part in the learning process as are the coaches. This means staying tuned in during demos and explanations, with eyes and ears focused on the subject.
2. Develop confidence among the girls. We want everyone to be confident enough to answer questions and demonstrate skills.
3. Develop leadership skills. We would love to see players positively influence other players who may not understand an activity, or who may be distracting from the learning environment.

If we make good progress on the above challenges, skills will improve rapidly.

What parents can do to help their daughters

We encourage you to ask your daughter what she learned, and see if she wants to show you. An occasional backyard soccer show-and-tell session can do wonders for her self-motivation!

Play at home activities:

We have a large catalog of play at home activities suited to backyards or small spaces. Most of our activities include demo videos. Try them out with your daughter. You’ll both have fun, and you’ll get a good workout!

Dribbling games:

• Dribbling marbles is a fun tag-style game. It’s great for developing dribbling control and changes of direction, plus agility. This was one of our daily camp staples.
• If you have a big family or group of friends, try the game we call wrist girl. It’s similar to dribbling marbles. We introduced this during camp.
• The electric fence dribbling game develops changes of direction and speed, and also rewards trickery. We introduced this during camp. The girls learned two dribbling turns:  the pullback and the inside the foot U-turn. They also learned two stop and go moves:  the pull-push and the “cookie“. Electric fence is an ideal way for girls to improve their dribbling moves.

Really small spaces?

Try the shintago game (quick feet, trickery, agility) or Texas Draw (quick feet, quick reaction speed) games. You can play either in really small spaces. The girls learned these games during camp.

Daughter highly motivated to become ruler?

If your daughter is highly self-motivated, she can choose from a wide variety of ball control and fast footwork activities. These are ball manipulation activities that develop good touch with multiple surfaces of both feet, and also improve foot speed and leg strength. We introduced several of these activities during camp.

A common trait among players who go far with soccer (or music, dance, art and so forth) is that they work hard on their own to improve, and they enjoy the process instead of being bored by the work.

Lost and found

We ended up with two orphaned items, a dark blue Igloo water bottle, and a pink Umbro soccer ball. If one of these items belongs to your daughter, she can claim it at practice next week.