Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
Quick combination play focuses on attacking possession, the ability of players, and players always looking and finding space. This is part of our High School Training for Coaches Curriculum, part of the Rondo and Possession Series referenced here:
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
When you first start coaching – be it your initial foray as a parent coach or the beginning of a new season with a new team for a more seasoned recreational coach, figuring out what to cover in a practice can be daunting. This is often especially true after you have seen them in their first competition – the list of “things they need to work on” feels endless. But you’ve got to start somewhere, and it’s best to go in with a plan.
Start with a Plan:
First, give
some thought to the skills you would like to introduce and the topics you would
generally like to cover over the span of the season and work from there. Be
realistic and age/developmentally appropriate with your expectations and goals.
Pick a theme for the practice. Keep it focused. Don’t worry too much about correcting non-theme-related “issues” that come up in that practice (might be no need to address a missed passing opportunity if you are introducing and working on moves to get around a defender)
Incorporate that theme into the progressive stages of your session: warm-up, drills, and game-type situations. Emphasize throughout. Regardless of the theme – keep it fun and keep them active.
Be over-prepared. Occasionally an activity will be a bust and you’ll need to change course. Having extra theme-related ideas as part of your plan will prevent you from panicking and (hopefully) the 7-year-olds from finding the dandelions more interesting than practice.
Keep building
on the themes each week. But repeating an entire practice plan (with tweaks
based on what worked and what didn’t) can be a good thing for everyone too!
Playing – scrimmaging is sometimes the best teacher!
And finally, whether it be at the beginning of practice as players are arriving (great incentive for kids to arrive on time) or at the end as your final activity, it is always a good idea to give them an opportunity to just play at each session– scrimmaging with no restrictions and little to no coaching!
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
On November 7th, 2021 Alan Merrick (MOTI Sports’ Director of Soccer Content) a veteran football/soccer player was recognized by his first professional club joining the “100 game club” and recognized as their 481st professional player in the 143-year history of the West Bromwich Football Club (founded in 1878 in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England).
Why is this important?
Recognition of a players’ achievements in life allows young aspiring players to have inspirational role models and career paths mapped out before them as potential paths for personal and vocational growth.
Learning to play and compete in Football/Soccer, not only gives us purpose and numerous physical and interpersonal skills, it prepares us to work as a member of a team with a collection of individual talents working towards one goal.
Being able to see and witness this achievement puts a spark of direction and determination inside each person observing the recognition event. Today, it is important to show youth, vocational and professional paths that are opportunities to be followed. Not everyone will be that lead player, but there are enumerable positions for supporting our teams along the way.
The Albion Tie and Albion Players Cap were presented by Ray Wilson former teammate of Alan’s now the Chairman of the West Bromwich Albion Former Players Association The Cap represents Alan being the 481st player to play for WBA the Tie for playing over 100 first-team appearances with a total of 153 during his 10-year career at Albion.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
The fall season is short and hopefully (mostly) sweet. But that doesn’t mean it is without challenges. Often times everyone involved starts a season with renewed energy and optimism. There is a plan and goals for where things will ideally be when the final final whistle blows. This is, however, all before school starts and daylight gets shorter and maybe that master plan isn’t going quite as expected…
If a mid-season dip sets in, what can a coach do to help reinvigorate effort, focus and fun? Sometimes it requires going off-script and changing the plan. Try to figure out what the team actually needs. For younger players, this might mean less drills and possibly some time relay races, 1v1 to goal or more free play. For older players, it helps to ask them for feedback. Take the pulse from some of the trusted leaders on the squad. Maybe an extra day off? Is a relaxed team-building practice needed?
Regardless, the fall can and should be a magical time to play – and at the center of it all is the team experience. Building the energy and momentum of the team as a whole can be a valuable shift of focus and an important motivator to get everyone through the final weeks still smiling and remembering why they love the beautiful game.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
The chance of that skill you just introduced to your team at practice finding its own way to game day is slim. So, now what? Some tips on how to bring those skills to life and make them stick!
Emphasize: Choose one or two skills to focus on each training session. After players have learned to do a skill without pressure, incorporate it into the rest of that training session (and the next one!) and give them opportunities to try it in game-like situations. Remind players before the end-of-practice scrimmage or prior to a game that you are looking for a certain skill. Challenge them to spend 10 minutes working on the skill at home between practices.
Encourage: Players need extra incentive to try something new and something they might not find immediate success with. Give a certain skill extra weight/points for that practice or put a restriction on their play that they need to do the skill before they can shoot or score. Keep track of how many times players do a certain skill during a game.
Praise: In the early stages just trying is a success and should be highly praised! Verbalize and show excitement around your observation of attempts and fully executed skills to the other players, to the individual as they are substituted off, to the whole team at half-time or to a parent and player as you walk off the pitch after the final whistle.
Jemma Merrick is a life-long soccer fan, long-time soccer player and coach, and current soccer mom. After high school, Jemma played both Division I and Division III collegiate soccer, at the University of Virginia and Macalester College, respectively. Jemma coached the women Macalester College Team.
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