Improving Soccer in the VALLEY I have been in the Valley for six months and have had a chance to see how soccer is played here. As I watched, I came up with some questions about what I saw. I hope these questions will provide some good discussion and some changes to soccer in the valley. The questions are “Is the structure right? Do we promote the game? Is it about personal glory for a Coach or President? Are clubs promoting player development? Do we develop coaches with ability to coach players and give the right information to them? Are our players playing at the correct level?”   Now that we have the questions, how can we correct them? When I grew up the game of soccer was a game of possession. The teams worked to try to control the ball with skilled dribbling, accurate passing, and powerful shots. In many of the games I have seen, the players seems to try to ‘boot it’ as far as he or she can. In this game culture of “BOOT IT”, the player gets a big cheer, whenever he or she BOOTS IT up the field, as long as the ball is nowhere near their goal. I believe we need to create a culture where ability is valued over size, skill over strength and intelligence over hard work. To produce outstanding players we need coaches who have a good understanding of the game, who are able to correct technical defects, who understand how to break techniques down, and who give correct information to their players. This road to soccer improvement will be a long-term project that will require changes to the way we train for and play the game. It will also require tremendous improvement in the CSA Coaching Licenses and their delivery. In the meantime, one area that can be improved is the games of the mini-level players. We need to create a philosophy that encourages our players to receive and pass with quality; to know how to attack 1v1, or 2v2; to know how to defend 1v1 or 2v2; to develop skill dribbling or turning while maintaining possession of the ball individually and collectively, to understand how to play and to decide when to dribble or pass? We will only start to improve on this when coaches are judged on the quality of players they produce, not on the amount of games he or she wins. During the summer of 2008 is when we start to recreate player development. To make the improvements that I have discussed, U6/8 will be playing 4v4 games instead of 7v7. At the U8 level, the boys and girls will be playing separately. The goal is get more players playing at once, instead of having 7 playing and another 7 to 10 sitting on the bench watching. We are looking to create 3 or 4 mini fields within the 7v7 field and have players playing as much as possible. There will be ‘loads of touches’ of the ball, better player interest, a stronger emphasis on technique, and more playing time, which should make most parents happy. The u6’s will play for 40 minutes total, while the u8’s will play the first 40 minutes of 4v4 (or 5v5 with the keeper) and the final 15/20 minutes playing 7v7.  Will separating the boys and girls work? The aim is to get more girls playing. While traveling around the Valley, coaching, holding coaching courses and watching games of mini’s and youth’s, one of the factors I have witnessed is the low numbers of girls playing soccer, especially in mini’s. When they do play, they have few touches of the ball. IS IT FAIR FOR THE GIRLS? After speaking to many girls, coaches and parents through the Valley, the way forward is to SEPARATE boys and girls, we need to continue the GIRLS DEVELOPMENT and ENJOYMENT.     Mini/Youth Coaches – Goals for player development 1) Encourage your players to play the ball on the ground, this will require both supporting play in front, sideways and back, when having a training session, bring in a rule that ball must be below knee height.  2) Promote short passes, which requires players to support each other in attack and defence, and is harder to defend and anticipate. 3) Play only longer balls in response to a movement by a team-mate not in the hope of one, to move and ask for the ball after which the pass is delivered. 4) Play longer passes, and particularly those in the air, predominantly only when there is no close option and always into the feet of the attacker, never just “BOOT IT”. 5) Discourage young keepers from kicking the ball long unless there is no other option and at all times try have the keeper roll the ball to a teammate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back. 6) Encourage decision making, for example, if the player can’t find a teammate with a pass, can they dribble, or run with the ball. Teach the ability to shield the ball from their opponents. Never “BOOT IT” 7) Encourage players to express themselves, not everyone can dribble/pass/run with the ball, some play quick, others slow, some can read situations, let them find “THEIR OWN GAME”.  8) Vary the speed of the game, don’t play 100mph all the time, slow the game down, keep possession of the ball, you don’t have to go forward all the time, you can go backwards, switch the play. There is ONLY ONE BALL ON THE FIELD, SO IF YOU HAVE GOT IT, YOUR OPPONENTS CAN’T SCORE.   TO ACHIEVE THESE GOALS, WE WILL HAVE TO CHANGE OUR TRAINING!!!!!!!!!! In training sessions, every player should have a ball. Each should be looking for between 500-750 touches as a warm up. Then there should be time for refining techniques, skills, improving 1v1 attacking/defending, learning the game by playing loads of 2v2,3v3,4v4,5v5, and overloading 4v2, 5v2, 6v4 etc. If coaches make these changes, coaches can teach key factors when in possession of the ball, when the opponents are in possession or during a changeover. Coaches also improve player decision-making such as when to pass or dribble. They also allow players to develop a feel for the game that only comes from hours of practice. “LET THE GAME BE THE TEACHER” If we can get the coach to encourage his players slow down and relax on the ball, posses the ball, support each other, to play together, to take opponents on, to take up positions of angles to each other, move the ball around, one or two touch soccer, create triangles/diamonds in their play, pass backwards when forward pass not available, use goalkeeper, read the game, play away from pressure not into it and see a numerical overload 2v1 or 3v2, we will be heading in the right direction. It doesn’t promote player growth and development, if we encourage players to ‘BOOT IT’, to get rid of it, or not to play the ball back. They don’t learn if they don’t take risks, such as getting goalkeeper to kick it long all the time. Our players will become bored and disheartened with the game. That is not our goal. Our goal is to create more intelligent players who are able understand the game. They will be technically strong, they will create triangles/diamonds and support play with and without ball. They will be able to play in all directions and “to start the attack from defence”. These principles will be the underlining factors and our goals that will “IMPROVE SOCCER IN THE VALLEY”