We kicked off the 2020-2021 NASA Tophat (NTH) Junior Academy Girls soccer year with our Team Camp. We thank the girls for their consistent effort, their enthusiasm, and their impressive concentration spans! All of the girls were able to attend, and all of them showed promise. We look forward to the upcoming fall season!
What did we learn?
Our main camp theme was “keep the ball.” Young players often see a soccer ball as something to randomly kick. We want them to treat the ball like a friend and take it on adventures toward goal or into open space, away from opponents. Girls who learn to control and manipulate the ball (through changes of direction and changes of speed) will be better prepared to understand spacing, which will help develop teamwork down the road.
We mixed foundation footwork activities and basic dribbling moves with various dribbling games, finishing each session with scrimmages. We love dribbling tag games and 1v1 games, because they combine competition, dribbling control, changes of direction and changes of speed. They also help develop field vision and decision-making, which are critical but often overlooked elements to success. (Our secondary theme is scan-plan-play, which starts with vision.) And dribbling games also help improve fitness.
We encourage parents to get out in the yard and play with their daughters. This might be some simple footwork challenges, or it could be a mini game. If you have a 12×12 yard space, you have a plenty of room to play dribbling marbles or snow cones and see who rules the yard!
Thank yous:
Mother Nature:
After a weather scare in the early afternoon before our first session, the weather was as good as we could ask for in August. No storms, hot, but not blazingly so. Our team camp schedule was set to run 480 minutes over four days. We were able to play for 480 minutes over four days. Much respect to Mother Nature!
Parents:
The parents did a good job of preparing their daughters for team camp. We didn’t have any dehydration cases or major foot issues.
Popsicle volunteers:
We thank the Jarrett, Kilfeather, McGinn, Patel and Williams families for providing ice cold popsicles to the players, helpers and coaches after each camp session.
The Junior Academy Girls:
We like this group of girls! Their collective work ethic is good, they are consistently enthusiastic, and they get along. One trait surprised us: most of the girls work just as hard on the repetitive tasks (such as basic footwork activities) as they do during practice games and scrimmages. That bodes well for the future!
We also thank our nine 2nd-year girls for setting a good standard for the new players, and also occasionally playing the “big sister” role to help wayward players get back onto the right path.
One minor ding: the group has not yet embraced our “no litterbugs” tenet. We’ll work on this!
Our helpers:
We are lucky as can be to have a group of smart, personable girls who are eager to help the young ones. Allison, Ally, Emily (“ET”) and Sarah have been helping us during camps or practices for years. Avanti just recently became a helper during our “Friday in July” practices.
Coach Caitlin:
We welcome coach Caitlin to the Junior Academy Girls! She has volunteered to be a coach during the upcoming season. She played under coach Ward as a U10 player back in 2000-2001, the last year before the Academy program was created, and continued to play through high school (Pope) and college (St. Mary’s).
Camp photos and videos:
We didn’t take as many photos as usual. We fully support social distancing. But photos lose their usual impact when 20+ kids are spread out.
- Photos: check our photo sharing site here: https://wcs3.smugmug.com/NASAJrAcadG/2020-Summer/Team-Camp-2020/
- Video: https://youtu.be/7cCnMqSi0B8
Daily camp recaps:
Here’s a list of topics we covered each day. The hyperlinks lead to demo videos and descriptions of the skills and activities.
Thursday, August 6:
- We started with an introduction to inside of the foot ball striking. Most young kids kick the ball with their toes. It’s a more natural movement than kicking with the inside of the foot, but the toe kick is less effective because it’s a much smaller striking surface than the inside of the foot.
- We played a popular large-group dribbling warm-up game called Volcano Island that emphasizes vision, along with changes of direction and changes of speed. This game doesn’t transfer well to small groups in the backyard, but the dribbling marbles game is a great small-group replacement.
- We introduced a different front V-pull move, the 2-footed V-pull.
- Being the final day of camp, we spent more time than usual on scrimmages. More and more girls are making more and more attempts to keep the back through changes of direction and speed.
- We finished camp with a group photo and video featuring our end-of-camp group ball toss, and some more well-earned popsicles!
Wednesday, August 5:
- We warmed up with a large-group dribbling game called dribbling marbles. We late broke into small groups to play a variation of dribbling marbles. Dribbling marbles emphasizes heads-up dribbling, along with changes of direction and changes of speed. Plus it has a huge fitness element!
- We reviewed basic pullback turns, and then introduced front V-pull moves, which start with a pullback and finish with a push into new space. The ball moves in a pattern that looks like the letter V.
- We got deeper into 1v1 competitive dribbling with a longer round of Snow Cones.
Tuesday, August 4:
- We started with a fun little partner toe taps activity called “sideways-forward.” It’s all about quick feet and timing. When two kids can make the leap from one ball to two balls, it looks really cool! (And it shows that the partners have learned to apply the proper weight to their touches, and that they have synched their movements with their partner.)
- The girls worked on dribbling turns called twist-off turns (also called “hook” or “shielding” turns). Twist-off turns allow you to turn away from a defender while protecting the ball. These moves are effective at any level, and rely more on ball manipulation than sheer trickery. In other words, they work for both daring and cautious players!
- We gave the girls a chance to try twist-off turns in competition in a 1v1 dribbling game we call Snow Cones. This game is all about turning away from defenders and attacking open space. It combines dribbling control along with vision and decision-making.
Monday, August 3:
- We dodged a weather scare and were able to get in our full session. The girls’ energy level was good throughout. Listening skills wavered at times, but that always happens early on with 5-7 year olds!
- Our move of the day was the pullback turn. Girls got plenty of reps with each foot, and then got to try their pullbacks in competition in a game we call Texas Draw. We encourage parents to check it out and challenge their daughters!
- We finished with 3v3 scrimmages, where players could only score by dribbling over the end line. This meant the player had to stay with the ball until both the ball and the player crossed the end line together.
- Our biggest current challenge is helping players make the transition from kickball players (kick the ball, chase and hope) to keep-ball players (keep the ball, keep the ball moving, get your head up, make a plan, and then try to execute the plan). This requires patience on all of our parts — kids, parents and coaches. You can help your daughter make the transition by playing “keep-ball” games (such as Texas Draw or Snow Cones or dribbling marbles) with her in the yard. You don’t need a soccer background — just being an opponent will help her develop her dribbling skills!