So this week has been all about the club's camp. We go every day from about 6-8:30. I'm usually pretty tired at the end of the day, but it's a great opportunity to get the kids immersed in soccer and allows me to teach them a lot of things quickly. With the tournament fast-approaching, it's important that I can get them up to where I want them quickly.
The format of the camp is that I get my players for the first half--I can use that time however I want. During the second half of camp, kids from all age groups are put together on "international" teams and we play a mini-World Cup. If someone didn't know what was going on, they'd laugh at some of the things they would hear during this camp. For example, yesterday the Scotland team beat Brazil 8-5. Hearing someone shout in a serious tone "Scotland beats Brazil to advance to the quarterfinal" is just hilarious.
Once again, the Dutch team has struggled to score goals. I guess it doesn't matter who you put on the field, if they represent the Netherlands, they will not score!
As for my squad, they looked good on Tuesday. We focused on passing and dribbling. I have conveyed to my team that I want us to have the ball all the time. I want us to control possession because if the other team doesn't have the ball, they can't score. The kids enjoy my emphasis on keeping the ball, and usually laugh when I say I want it all the time. I'm trying to toe the thin line between being the funny coach and making sure they can still take me seriously. This goes back to trying to simultaneously help the kids fall in love with the game while also teaching them things they'll need for their development. We did some drills that emphasized 5-yard passes, and then worked on passing into space. That's a pretty difficult concept for some of these kids, but if they can learn to use their pass to lead their teammates, they will be able to do a lot more on the field than other kids their age.
Wednesday, however, did not go as well. I was hoping to be able to just quickly review what we did on Tuesday and then move on to better drills. However, kids who had done well on Tuesday were not bottom of the group, and kids who struggled on Tuesday shined on Wednesday! There was really only one player who did well both days, but even he had his fair share of mistakes.
I've learned that I'm the type of coach that gets annoyed with easy mistakes. We did a drill where the players lined up in two lines, basically like right and left wingers, and had to connect on passes down the field. When they were about five yards from the goal, one of them had to shoot. They shot on a Pugg goal, that's about two yards wide and a yard high. There were no goalkeepers. Because of the wide open goal, I told the players that if they didn't score, they would run suicides. I said it didn't matter to me whether they needed one touch or seven to make sure they scored, they had to score. I wanted to emphasize passing and finishing. It also didn't matter if it was the shooter or the passer who missed the shot, both would run if they didn't score.
Surprisingly, the suicides are bringing the kids closer together. The attitude is generally, "OK, next time I'll get you a better pass so you can shoot it with your strong foot," or "I'm sorry man, I stubbed my toe on that shot. We'll score next time." That's encouraging to see, as I thought some of the players would blame their teammates for making them run.
Today again I'm going to reemphasize possession with more passing and dribbling drills. Hopefully we'll see some progress. We have a tournament this weekend, so I want them to look their best!
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