Antony Ellis' Coach E-mails - Fall 2006

Dear Coaches, This week I am spending a few minutes with as many teams i can introducing fundaments of juggling--great for foot/eye coordination, a feel for the ball and power required, agility, and confidence. It's an important skill we must ask players to work on. Rather than shooting the ball on goal when they come to practice have them juggle and encourage them to practice at home. Here are a few points we should be aware of based on observations by watching last Saturday's games. Soccer is not a silent movie-- players must communicate. Teach them: 1) Man on (your teammate is in trouble. You must hurry and move with the ball or pass it. 2) Time (no danger around you so be patient, you have time to dribble the ball and see your options). Pass (bring to the attention of the ball carrier that your are open for a pass--to receive the ball). The proper start of the game is essential for them to understand (Kick off). Two players at the center--two three yards apart. At the referee's whistle one passes the ball softy across the line (opposition has to be outside the circle). Soccer is not American Football. Don't treat restart like American Football with a kick toward the opposition--for older kids if it's the chosen tactic and you have a strong foot you can try and score straight from kick off. Please contact me if you have any specific questions/issues/themes you would like me to address. Enjoy The beautiful Game. Thanks. Antony

Dear coaches, This week i am visiting teams focusing on fundamentals of juggling and passing. I have been receiving a lot of request to visit teams but i am afraid i will not be able to do it often by individual team for a whole session. As it is now i will be coming to you at any time in the first forty minutes of your session--allowing the last twenty for a scrimmage as it is the best thing to do for your team (or a fun game). Soon i will also be combining teams. To recap last week's email: 1) Players have to talk on the field (communicate): "Man on," "Time," "Pass." (encourage them to do so at their scrimmage). 2) Teach and have a plan for Kick off. A) Before the game starts: Come knowing the starting line up--announce it just a couple of minutes before kick off with simple pointers for each position (not too complex) and make simple addition if a child is not there yet. Don't waste valuable time debating and listening to the players what they want. (to simplify matters for the second half tell them to go out as in the start of the game or be prepared with the line up before half time comes to an end). Engage players in a physical activity --no standing around waiting for teammates to arrive or game to start. Wake their bodies up to be ready for this particular sport. No need for shooting drills--especially with one file of players and the coach passing the ball for a shot. (How many shots does your team take in a game? Some kids never even come close to the opposing goal. Ball control is more important--emphasizing first touch. Later on in the season perhaps your team will be ready for shooting before a game) Options: monkey in the middle, passing with constant movement, simulate game situation--yes a scrimmage before the game. B) Where are the defenders: Often they remain glued too close to their goal allowing a vast lifeless desert in front of them. These children are not playing soccer. They are not physically, psychologically or mentally engaged. I have addressed this issue with a few of you this past Saturday. As it is a big issue to cover now i will be raising it at games and practices in the future. C) A short note: We care about player development thus all children should play all positions on the field (not applicable to goalies--have two or three), but we care about the result too. Most of the time have your weakest and slowest players play in offence. (A weak or slow player will be exposed more frequently in defense and may be the reason of giving up a goal with the danger of becoming dispirited and at the same time letting the team down). D) Fundamentals of passing (video clips): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/skills/5012222.stm (At least watch the first one. All three are excellent--though there are variations in the advice for the mechanics involved. E) Lopsided results: On Friday i will address this issue. Please contact me if you have any specific questions/issues/theme you would like me to address. Enjoy The beautiful Game. Thanks. Antony "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football". Albert Camus (Football: as soccer is known across most of the World.)

Coaches, Below is the email i send out every season covering this issue. We have already witnessed blowouts so we have to address this matter right away. Hopefully some of these ideas will grow on your players. Thanks. Antony

Lopsided results can bring a dark cloud over the fields on any sunny Saturday. We have to remember that as coaches and adults we care about seeing all children have fun. Though it can be a learning --better to say, humbling-- experience to lose handily it is not our job to provide that lesson. At the same time we know that overmatching the opponent and scoring ten goals signifies more the weakness of the opposition rather than the strength of our team. I know that most of us try to avoid big margin wins. Definitely not an easy thing to accomplish. Personally i feel the best final result is 2-2. Both offenses fairly productive and defense/goalie still fairly effective. However, to engineer that score would be very hard and probably unethical--only mentioning it to indicate that the spirit we try to cultivate is to care about the level of joy for all the children who participate in our programs. Admittedly, as i mentioned above, controlling a team from scoring too many goals is a very tough task. Not impossible, however. Today i will give you some suggestions that surely will work. Some are more fitting for different age groups and leagues. A Challenge/Classic team can easier focus on possession and an ADP team can easier keep players to the defensive side. With Rainbow teams this goal may be harder to meet as frequently the disparity between teams/players is more stark. Also i will not be mentioning challenges that are already used-- scoring with the head off a cross, after an overlapping run, a shot out side the box, with the left foot (obvious one is to keep Ronadninhio/Mia in defense and encourage him/her to pass rather than weave through the opponents. Good teams can dominate a game --taking away any initiative from the weaker team-- and still win 5-0 with left shots. Challenge 1) Require all players (including goalie at times) to touch the ball. Challenge 2) Prohibit 3-4 players from crossing mid line or entering the goalie box (big one). Perhaps your best dribblers can be included. Challenge 3) Assign one player to definitely have a touch on the ball. Challenge 4) Two or one touch per player--hard for a Rainbow team so you can look for three touch. * 1 and 3 are to be met before an attempt on goal. One or a synthesis or alternating any of these objectives will work. I am optimistic about that. We do not have teams who can be consistently successful with these kind of challenges no matter what the disparity between opponents. If you are aware of this disparity before kick off please advice your players to observe the goals you have set up for them and please take them seriously. A sensitive matter we face with this matter is the one of how do we handle realizing these objectives. We have to be tactful. We don't want to call out "we don't want more goals," or have players of the strong team giggle when they are executing your ideas as if they are sparing the weak team. Preferably players should not know that you are trying to avoid creaming the opposition. Still, if your kids understand what is going on then this is a good time to teach them sportsmanship and compassion. Bring them to understand why lopsided results are demoralizing to the opposition. One last thing that falls into this theme: Some parents are involved into coaching from the side lines. This does not help you or your players. (Parents often, also, at times tend to create a negative atmosphere by expressing anger at the refs or at their own children or being too negative rather than just cheering, praising and encouraging). In regard to the issue at hand you can tell your parents that your team is using challenges so you avoid a lopsided score. I am sure we all find it distasteful when parents are pushing for more goals when there already is a big margin and the other team shows no signs of being able to score. At the same time i think it's inappropriate for overt enthusiasm when a team scores it's sixth goal on a weak opponent. So do inform your parents of what the team's objectives are so they don't send the wrong message to the players. This is a part of an email i sent to my Challenge team before our first game: 'I would love it if you can cheer for them and applaud every good thing they do (this applies to the opponents too--imagine if all the parents praise all the kids) and tell them to not be hard on themselves if a mistake is made. I see many children becoming despondent at the scolding, instruction, yelling coming from their parents--most of the time they feel that they are letting their parents down and other times embarrassed as a few parents also advise/instruct all the players. Also, please, refrain from criticizing/questioning/booing the decisions of the referee and the assistants. Refs will make mistakes which normally will go against both teams and rarely will a bad call decide a game.' I appreciate your cooperation on these matters. Enjoy the games. Thanks Antony "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football". Albert Camus (Football: as soccer is known across most of the World.)

Dear coaches, Recapping the last three emails: 1) Players have to talk on the field (communicate): "Man on," "Time," "Pass." 2) Teach and have a plan for Kick off. 3) Before the games starts: decide on the starting-line up before you get to the field. Stretch for a few minutes and warm up with soccer related activities without involving long lines. Remind them what you worked on at practice and that you want to see what they learned in the game 4) When your team is attacking your defenders should push up. 5) When you care about not conceding a goal don't assign your weakest players to the defense. 6) Do your best to avoid lopsided wins. A) The Laws of the game: Lets teach them to the players. Some are complicating but most are not. Only one involves a restart of the game that involves a unique--soccer-wise--skill, the throw in. Here i will mention the basic mechanics. Ball behind head, in one motion, using power of both hands equally and release. Neither foot can leave the ground before the release of the ball. Feet must be touching the touch line or outside touch line (yes feet can be in front of the line as long as part of the foot touches the line). Hand ball: Probably the most misunderstood rule. Professional referees get it wrong and players at the highest level ask for a call whenever the ball touches part of the arm. I will keep it very simple and if you have questions i will expand. Hand/arm must play ball not the other way around. There must be intent! Contact with ball must be deliberate! It does not matter even if the player who hands the ball gets an advantage or even if the arm/hand blocks the ball from crossing the goal line. Players are also allowed to use their hands to block a ball from hitting their face. B) Ronaldo is brilliant in using it. There is time for our players to use it too but rarely. However, we have to teach them to kick/pass the ball with several surfaces of the feet (accuracy, elevation, on the ground, power). Tell them not to use their toes and remind them when they do. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/skills/4188204.stm The animation and the three video clips should help. C) Defenders on some teams are still on a different ZIP code from the rest of their teammates. When your team is attacking have your defenders at least a few yards out of their big box. Most teams who do that from what i noticed in our games dominate possession of the ball. There are many intricacies here and players should always be prepared to make appropriate adjustments. D) A short note on goalie position: Goal keeper should not be on the goal line most of the time. In a break away he/she has to come up toward the attacking player--makes goal smaller, forces attacker to make hasty shot. I know it's hard to teach that to the younger players but try. Observe the first video in the above link. The goalkeepers plays up complicating matters for the attacker. I am sure we have all seen the goalie staying or retreating to the line as the break away player approaches the goal resigning to his/her fate. Goalie must take control of the situation and force the attacker to work hard for the goal. Enjoy The beautiful Game. Thanks. Antony "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football". Albert Camus (Football: as soccer is known across most of the World.)

Dear Referees and coaches, Tomorrow we are inaugurating a new ritual i would like your cooperation to help establish and continue with Rainbow soccer. Of course like all rituals there is an implicit symbolism but there are also other merits to them. (This will not be required for Peeper and Pippin games). Just before kick-off (no more than two minutes): Once the starters are on the field the referee will whistle signaling all the players to approach the center of the field and have both teams stand two-three yards apart each player facing a player of the opposing team. The official will then emphasize a few aspects or the rules and unaccepted behavior: A) Demonstrate with the ball how a throw-in is executed. (Ball behind head, in one motion, using power of both hands equally and release. Neither foot can leave the ground before the release of the ball). B) No high kicks. C) Be careful when kicking the ball. Do not kick other players. D) No tripping, no sliding tackles, no pushing, no use of elbows. E) Explain to them what the infraction is involving hand ball. (Hand/arm must play ball not the other way around. There must be intent! Contact with ball must be deliberate! It does not matter even if the player who hands the ball gets an advantage or even if the arm/hand blocks the ball from crossing the goal line. Players are also allowed to use their hands to block a ball from hitting their face). F) Players must be respectful of the referee even if they disagree with a call. Cannot yell or be rude in anyway. G) Wish them a good and safe game. Ask them to hand shake with the player directly in front of them and return to their positions. Coaches, expect that this is the process before the game so alert your players that the ref will be calling them. It may take time for everyone to get used to this for a couple of games--and it may always be a bit hard to get the 1st graders but it's doable as i have used this in different programs and everyone was in sync very nicely. Enjoy The beautiful Game. Thanks. Antony "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football". Albert Camus (Football: as soccer is known across most of the World.)

"If there were no sports, life would be easier because you wouldn't have to go play games every other day. . ." Fifth grade student, Colorado Springs Dear coaches, I appreciate your cooperation last Saturday with the instructive talk before the game--lets keep it to less than two minutes long, line them up and hand shake. I will not be recapping at the start of every email anymore. All the emails will be posted on the Rainbow web site and i will provide a link ASAP. Practical issues about practice: Every player should have a ball. If not see if a teammate can lend one until the end of the season. Ball should be pumped well enough to bounce high but not to hard to feel like a brick. If you do not have a pump to inflate the balls: At practice --if at Rainbow fields--or on Saturday have the players take their balls to Alan (blue truck) and he will kindly do that for them. Also make sure that the game ball is never too hard. It hinders their game. Some fun games and drills require cones/discs of a number which you may not have. This problem is fixable. All you need are markers which can be anything safe: rags (any piece of cloth), socks, water bottles, players bags. Use markers for the space you need for a particular drill/game--players will learn and be observed better if they are in a contained area. Require shin guards for every practice. Scrimmage/drills/games will be more manageable if players wear two different color jerseys. You can email or tell parents what color shirt their child should wear at practice--if you have enough pinnies then you are set. If you have any other ideas or solutions to any other issues i am overlooking please go ahead and email them to me. Goalie clinic: Tomorrow and on Monday i will be conducting a goalie clinic at the Rainbow Fields on YF 3 at 4:15 focusing on efficient throwing, catching ground ball, goal kicking, punting and coming out in a break away (tete-a-tete). Please send your 2 or 3 goalies to me. Please contact me if you have any specific questions/issues/themes you would like me to address--this applies for all leagues. Enjoy The beautiful Game. Thanks. Antony "All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football". Albert Camus (Football: as soccer is known across most of the World.)