One word jumps to mind to describe this past week’s team camp: incomplete!

Mother Nature dealt us some yellow cards, and we missed 3.5 of our 8 hours of scheduled camp time due to lightning delays. We ask the girls to find a way around obstacles on the field, so we’re going to take that same advice to find a way around the camp schedule obstacles.

We have arranged some make-up time during our first two weeks of practice. Check our Fall 2018 week 1 preview for details.

Team camp recap

All 27 players were able to attend our team camp. The girls’ collective enthusiasm was good or better. Their will to compete was also good. Listening skills were all over the map, but that’s normal at this point in time. We were encouraged that many of our 2nd-year players showed a desire to set a good standard for our new players.

Huge thanks to guest coach Nadia for her  help during the week! Thanks also to the parents who brought cold treats!

Link:  camp photos and videos

Camp themes

Our main theme for the 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 and vision. This was one of our daily camp warm-up 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 didn’t play this during camp, but we will include it during August practices.
• The electric fence dribbling game develops changes of direction and speed, and also rewards trickery. We didn’t get a chance to introduce this game during camp, but we’ll do so at some point in August. 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. All of the girls learned Texas Draw. Some girls learned shintago when we were in the Metro North Park clubhouse waiting out a storm.

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

Good news:  we didn’t get reports about any lost items. Bad news:  we found trash (an empty can and an empty Gatorade bottle) in our players break area after our Wednesday team camp session.