An interesting thing happened one day. It was hot, mid nineties and humid. Outside we placed a large sheet of canvas, put goals on them kept the hose running and the kids cooled down on a splash court. As the kids filtered back inside the gym they stayed barefoot. The game going on was a pick up game of 7 v 7 in the gym to futsal goals (3 x 2 meters) with a soft play practice volleyball. This ball is very soft, it is very safe, and the kids had discovered perhaps the most surprising teaching moment of my career.

We have all seen it, the kid who breaks away through three defenders, facing the goalie they drill a perfect strike right into the the keeper's belly button. So this lefty, faster than a jungle cat, broke free and nailed that play volleyball at a good 50 mph right...into the smiling face of a six year old.

For a second I was worried. But the 6 year old was smiling even larger now, he had just made a save vs the best shooter in the gym.

"Finishing can't be taught," this is coaches speak for "I have no idea how to teach it."  Current methods  put kids in situations to replicate the situation, and pare down the decision making process "Low to the far post, high to the near post." We train functionally, with pressure, with loading, conditionally, and still the highest level of skill in players, putting the ball in the net, remains a general mystery.

So the lefty turned the corner again, this time he took something off, but he still pinged it, the little 6 yer old stayed active and went for it, deflecting it away at the last second.

The gym went crazy, this goalie was hot!

Now the lefty comes again, but this time he saw the keeper cutting off the angle, a very soft chip. The six year old, slow to recognize the vector backpedaled late, the ball dropped just over both arms outstretched, no chance to jump the 6 year old picked the ball still smiling...he know it took a great finish to beat him.

In a "Finishing environment" their are two antagonists, the keeper and the attacker. Perfect learning situations involve simple to complex game theory.  It starts out with the very rudimentary "I am just hitting this as hard as I can." 99 percent of our players are in this category.  But to progress you need the problem to progress. In typical systems the keeper is the variable.  Most teams have one keeper who does only a so so job of staying active as players are in close, they are too smart and don't feel like getting hurt with a size five ball from five meters into their stomach.  Certainely they can not keep this up for the hours and hours required for a player to repeat lots of chances.  On top of that keepers at  9-12 years old they are not keeper sufficient enough to require anything but a mediocre finish to guarantee that the ball goes into the net. 

So at the wheelhouse of learning U7-U13, We don't have situations real enough to reward high level finishing.

This is where the ball came in.  It made every keeper great. Even a six year old stays active at the final finishing moment.  This requires the shooter to present a better solution in order to solve the finishing problem, not just any shot will suffice, it has to be finished, and with this ball, that is what the kids do they chip, tuck, slide, power, roof, drag, back heel, rainbow, to get the ball into the net.  They are becoming finishers.

Kids are smart...here is a good example of them teaching us.  I could easily have commanded that a regular or futsal ball was used that day in the gym. They wanted to use that ball to learn something more!  They knew before I did, though they could not articulate it, they understood that this ball would teach them finishing.

So my great learning moment was not how the ball helped to create finishers, but how the environment helps come up with the right questions.  Without those questions there are no great answers, no genius, no invention.

Three  lessons:  1) get a ball like this, it's fun and the kids love it. Then collect as many different balls you can and see what is learned from them.  2) let kids pick the ball rules and parameters of the game. They are smarter then we are.. 3) The environment is everything, mess with it, have fun with it, take care of it.  

12 resolutions for 2012

Here are my 12 resolutions for players for the new year.  I will follow up with a more in depth blog post on each of these topics, but for now here is what we are thinking about in 2012...

1. Have more fun
Everyone wants to have fun, but fun is allusive and sometimes poorly understood. As kids we enjoy fun through "play," but as adults we find fun through "work."  As we age and grow in sport the transition from play to work is sometimes difficult, but important to conquer.   When kids tell us it's not fun any more, what they are really saying is they don't understand how to make the hard work fun.  Studies in youth hockey have found that the time spent in free play (pond hockey) as kids allowed them to carry on to the hard work of deliberate practice as adults.

2. Play everyday
Guess what? It says nothing about where and what level. Expand your opportunities by enjoying every game.  Learn how to set up game with small groups, and learn how to enjoy yourself on your own, imagine, create and dream. Free play is the world's greatest training system.

3. Keep working on skills
Don't stop when most do at 11.  Keep working on your skills everyday.  Professionals do.  Cantana was known for spending time before and after MU training at a wall working on receiving and turns.  Turns out the skills dictate tactics, and tactics are limited without skills. Free Play technique as kids/ deliberate practice technical training as adults.

4. Play close to home
No need to seek out the greatest and best. Time and again around the world the greatest players have arisen from their neighborhoods.  Meanwhile all efforts in the S have focused on separating the gifted and Talented

5. Don't separate by level.  
Best players under the best coaching is a bunch of non sense.  No one knows who the best players are so you really want to separate them?  Tom Byer, a New Yorker considered the pioneer of grassroots soccer in Japan, believes that the best players improve by focusing on the players underneath them.  Let the kids play with their friends and leave em alone.

6. Don't be concerned with tactics. 
Tactics, as Cruyff said, are what you need when you don't have the players.  So because you are going to be one of those players, keep working on that part. The rest will take care of itself.


7. Forget about Talent
Develop a growth mindset, that is acknowledging that accomplishments are attained from effort (not talent). This means EVERYONE can get better, good, great and beyond with effort.

8. Practice scoring.  
Small goals develop dribbling and passing, finishing takes a big goal and keeper.  This is the beauty of futsal, the space is tight but the goal is big and still requires a final finishing action. Of course active goalies are difficult to come by.  In other cultures the goalie problem is solved by placing the new kid in goal, this assures that every young player is trained in goal first, thus the game has plenty of keepers to keep their game going.

9. Remove the physical.  
Address the physical, but it allow to grow as a facilitator of Technique, not as it's own weapon. Do everything with a ball. Physical is finite, skill is infinite. Focus on the one with the biggest upside.

10. Get comfortable. 
Be careful about pushing kids outside the comfort zone.  They will just get anxious and play like it.  Coach Wilmer Cabrera said it best "Our kids are just not comfortable on the ball in tight spaces."  He was right on that and wrong on his remedy: "I think our kids need to be pushed out of their comfort zone."  Does anyone else see the problem here?  Over and over again it's been shown that kids don't learn under pressure, that's for adults, and the 17 year olds that Cabrera were training were neither adults or bound to get more comfortable by continually pushing them out of the comfort zone. Instead do everything and try everything with a ball.  Invent things, do what you like, dribble, score, shoot, run, turn jump and spin with the ball, don't let anyone take it from you.  That's how you get comfortable, not under pressure, that comes later but until then try just about everything.

11. Leave the Marshmallow on the Table.   The self control exemplified by the famous "marshmallow test'" (see the earlier post "Don't eat the Marshmallow") points to the importance of addressing emotional growth and it's importance to later well being.  Self control turns out to be a very high predictor of adult success, the good news is we can improve on self control. Teaching ourselves how to think so that we can outsmart our desires will help us develop into a happy adults and soccer player

12. Dream.  I love this one.  When we dream we dream of lavish plays, flashing beauty on simple form, of last second winners against all odds, of the last second goal in the World Cup final, of the diving header, the bicycle kick.  The Dream always comes first, keep it up. More important than you will ever know.



Just missing the list again this year:
 Soccer, ever the karma inspired leveler makes sure that the harder we try the more we are humbled.  Here is a short list of things that are NOT important.

• Increase speed of play  Kids should dictate the pace not the coach.   High speed practices are great, but not so much when they are pushed by the coach. 

• Play up an age group unless there is a plan this generally is a mistake.  Do what you can do and do it great. By pushing up age group(s) you naturally get to the point where you can't "do" it anymore thus losing practice experience. 

• Play for an elite team  There is no such thing in youth.  Best to save your elite play for when you are 25 and in the world cup.  Until then just play and learn.

• Play in an elite league  The travel alone takes time away from play and learning.
  

• Play for an academy If you go to an academy, make sure it's about schoolwork, not soccer, the term "Soccer Academy" has become an albatross.