This title may seem harsh, because as a coach I "mother", protect, encourage and support my players at every opportunity. They are my responsibility, they are the ones my Club assigned to me to train to make them better players. In turn I take that role very seriously, and as a bonus I try to make them better persons.
Now I know that many of you would hope that I would make them Liverpool supporters, but as noble as that is, I want them to learn to play the game, love the game and support whatever team they want, except Stoke (check earlier posts). But what I really want them to do is to learn responsibility. Towards a team, both on and off the field, and outside of the game as well. To this end I have both a small, but important task, I assign my players, and a game related matter that I use to develop responsibility.
The Small Thing
Now, this hearkens back to my title. How many times have we, as coaches (or parents heard) " I can't find my cleats, my shinguards, where are my socks, and where did you put my jersey?" My answer has always been "Not my responsibility, those are yours." Harsh, not really. As a parent my job is to make sure that they have the appropriate equipment, and to get them to training and games on time. The player is responsible to maintain their equipment, and have it ready for the next session or game. Simple. Yes. Is it accomplished, well only about 75% of the time, which is about a 50% improvement over the past.
How have I accomplished this? With Hal White's simple pre-session, pre-game night before preparation routine. At the start of every season my players are given their game, they are to acquire their training gear, pro-wrap (hair stuff I coach girls), shin guards, shoes, and socks. The instruction is simple. Pack all of the equipment necessary for the next session or game the night before, ideally right after supper so if anything needs to be washed or cleaned it can be done, and still packed on time. All of my players are fortunate enough to have Club back packs, but of course any type of kit bag will do. The PLAYERS are to do this, not the parents. This is a small, but vital step in developing personal and team (collective) responsibility for a larger purpose. Now when a player fails to pack their cleats (how does this happen), shinguards, socks, training shirt, what is the response? I ask them why they didn't notice this last night after supper. I have yet to receive an answer other than "I forgot".
I have several remedies; spare and particularly pungent shinguards, the pinnie (training bib) of shame, or worst of all, go home and do not return until you are prepared to play or train. The spare shinguards are a lesson not often forgotten and the shinguard failure is rarely repeated.
The Six Second Game
I quite like this very simple scrimmage. It is to all purposes a very standard five aside small sided game. Two nets, two keepers, 25 x 40 pitch and four outfield players. They pass and move, and look to shoot and score. Here is the twist. If a player loses possession of the ball, in any fashion; tackle, missed pass, missed shot, bad touch etc, they must get the ball back within six seconds ( if the keeper saves the shot it does not count as lost possession). If they don't get the ball back, the opposing team gets a point. Now, if you really want to push it, if they get the ball back, after losing it, the other team has six seconds to get it back.
So what does this accomplish?
Personal responsibility: The player learns to take charge of their own mistakes whenever possible.
Playing under pressure: The coach must count out loud the six second count down. This places pressure on both squads. One trying to regain pressure, the other trying to maintain it.
The power of pressing. This game encourages players to "press" on the player with the ball trying to force a mistake to gain possession.
Maintaining Possession. By keeping the ball, the players learn the value of possession by earning points.
Maintaining Possession, Part II. The players learn the cost of losing possession and in turn learn to press the opponent as quickly as possible to get the ball back. This leads to smarter passing, better shielding and less wasted shots.
First team to seven points wins. The losing team does a forfeit.
Does any of this make the player a better person? Well only time will really tell, but if my kids, and my players learn to bag their bags for the day, or prepare for an exam at least one day ahead of time, well that is progress and one less headache for this parent/coach and maybe a few others out there as well.
I'm back, I have lots more to write.
YNWA
Hal White
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