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The first session with your team

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  The first week of practices can be a little messy. You may not know your kids names and you may be unsure about what you are doing at your session. This can be very stressful. Here are some tips to get started: Get to know your kids Coach Amy worked with us for several years and every time I saw her teams play, they were calling each other by something they liked or their favorite food. So Amy wouldn’t say their name, but their nickname like “Blueberry” or “Potato Chip” or “Butterfly.” It was part of what made it fun to be on the team was to have this secret code that only the players and coaches knew. Establishing the connection between the players and yourself can be a little awkward. Even if you don't do what Coach Amy did, try to find a way to build rapport with your players that builds trust between you and your players. Establish Routines and Boundaries Keep in mind that children appreciate routines and boundaries. If your rules are clear and you are consistent, then they ...
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It's always the pressure

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  It’s the pressure, stupid In 1992, President George H.W. Bush was coming off one of his best years ever. Riding high in the polls after assembling an international coalition to retake Kuwait from Iraqi invaders, he was expected to cruise to re-election. While the presence of a third-party candidate from the right most likely did the greatest damage (Clinton won a plurality of the vote), there was also a famous phrase from that campaign that resonated “it’s the economy, stupid” because after the war, the U.S. went into a brief recession and that phrase was meant to imply that Clinton was more in touch with the economic needs of citizens than the President.  I was reminded of that phrase after some of my coaches insisted that they couldn’t adequately coach their inexperienced players without having lines and a full-size goal for their practices. I do empathize with them. When I coached at the HS level, my teams always had access to at least one goal and up to 4 depending on th...
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Focusing on the function

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Teachers love visuals and visual stimuli. Elementary school teachers often work really hard to set up a classroom that has a lot of things that draw the attention of the students. Biology teachers have complex graphics that demonstrate the process of photosynthesis or the different types of macromolecules.  These visuals are both attractive and information dense so that you can get a lot on a page and students can "see the whole picture." I used to love these types of visuals as well because they can quickly convey information to my students and I can say- "just review the visual, everything is there."  Unfortunately it turns out that the novice student sees this kind of visual and thinks there is too much info and they will never understand it. Cognitive Load Theory says that the learner needs to be able to focus their attention on something in order to begin to process it. Keeping the visuals simple with a limited amount of information actually increases the likel...
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Coaching Clinic Key Takeaways

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  4/12/23 Key Takeaways from ATLUTD coaches clinic We had a good turnout of coaches for the clinic, but I know all of you couldn’t make it, so here are some key takeaways for you to think about.  Look like you are having fun and your players will too…. All of our coaches are parent volunteers. We have tried in the past to get help from HS and College students who were knowledgeable about soccer, but it rarely works out because they are either not good with the kids or don’t communicate well with the parents. I’d rather have parents who know how they would want to be treated even if their soccer experience isn’t great.  One of the issues that crops up is that our parent volunteers have difficulty getting out of “parent mode” even when they are the coach of the team. What we saw from Leigh and Casey, the coach instructors last night, was an ability to get a little silly with the players. Their enthusiasm for the activities they were doing was infectious and the kids felt it...
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Your tone sets the tone

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  Your tone sets the tone.  I like to think that I am the face of the recreational program here at Impact, but the reality is that besides for a few emails, some practices if you attend the group sessions and the occasional drop by at your games, the real face of the program is you. When our membership thinks about the program, the first thing they will recall is you and how you helped their child grow and develop as a person.  While most of your interactions with the players happen during practice, there is one time when your interactions are apparent to others as well and that is during the game. Not only is the other team there, but also some collection of parents, grandparents, siblings and friends may also be in attendance. While your parents may be accustomed to your behaviors and what you say, others may not be, especially if they are only visiting our club.  As a long-time teacher I am very aware that even though we are ostensibly there to watch the children ...
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SHOOT THE BALL!! Why can't control your youth players like you do in FIFA

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  Back in 2017, Atlanta United played their first season and there was great concern that like past professional teams in hockey and soccer it would burn brightly, taper out and then go away. Growing up in S. Florida, I was a Dolphins and Heat fan and thanks to Ted Turner’s Superstation, I was an Atlanta Braves fan. When I moved to Georgia, I never changed allegiances on any of those. Having said that, I also never owned a jersey, t-shirt or other merch from any of my favorite teams in adulthood. Atlanta United was different. I bought merch before the first season and made it a point to attend games. Once I did attend games, I was hooked and even my daughter and wife are fans as well. The experience is simply fundamentally different than at other events and it’s something that we all enjoy.  Having a background in soccer definitely helped me, but where did all of the other fans come from? It turns out that video games like FIFA were a big source of fans not only for AUFC, but ...
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novice players aren't mini- professionals and neither are novice coaches

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 Novice players aren't mini experts I had the opportunity to visit with my nephew recently and he brought his 4 year old son so we could play a little soccer. We went to a local park where it was full of recreational level teams from U8 to U14. I did several of my go-to activities and his initially reluctant son never seemed to run out of energy or enthusiasm for playing everything I threw at him. It was a fun time.  What I observed around me was not fun. Every single practice I observed was straight out of something you would have seen 30-50 years ago. There was lots of kids standing around, dribbling through cones, static passing and running laps. I was honestly surprised that not one of the coaches used anything from the USYS Grassroots program or even the National Youth License program that predated it. The experience did inspire me to write again about how these activities still do not work. This time, I come armed with some additional understanding of why it doesn't work...
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