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right now i've just been tracking with my kids' ages, but i've been thinking about getting certifications and having a more formal go of it.
the last two years of coaching i could really see the differentiation come into play. you could tell which kids did the winter soccer clinics and which ones were just signed up for something to do. so i think one of the biggest challenges i had was balancing team strength so that regardless of who was out there, we weren't too exposed in any area. but it's tricky, because in rec you need to have everyone out there (even the kids who want to sit on the sideline) and you want to make sure everyone plays every position so that they don't pigeon-hole themselves at an early age.
i also de-emphasize scoring and try to make sure i have a comment for each girl when she subs off. i praise them for hustling back on defense, being in position for a pass instead of chasing each other, getting around an opponent, being aggressive as a keeper, communicating to their teammates, etc. i tell them they should be the ones talking to each other on the field, because no one wants to hear me yelling from the sidelines.
but you kind of get a feel pretty early for their strengths and weaknesses, so i try to keep that in mind in terms of what i personally am looking for each of them to accomplish. you have to be realistic, because gains are mostly going to be marginal within any given season. but i try to bring up stuff from previous practices/games that i saw, or how they played as a team early in the season vs. later, and i like to think that somewhere deep down they appreciate that stuff being noticed, because not everyone is going to be the goal scorer.
this year it was hard to keep morale up early, because we were getting dominated and kids are not shy to say "we suck". but i told them that i was more concerned with improving their skills than winning games and by the end of the summer we won something like five of our last six, so that was rewarding. ------ "I can't promise I'll try. But I'll try to try."
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