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Dear Players and Parents,
We'd like to welcome you to the start of another great season of soccer fun and development.
This will be our last season as a continuous team, so let's make it a great one!
And if there's interest, we hope to pull a U16 team together for the Spring of
2008.
In addition to relying heavily on email for practice and game reminders, we'll post the schedule
(when it becomes available) and other important information online at
www.deepbrook.com/wys/warriors.
Both players and parents should bookmark it--you'll be back frequently!
Please share the rest of this message with your player.
We want to emphasize smart soccer, which we distill down to five elements.
- Defensive positioning
- First touch
- Making the pass
- Getting open for the pass
- Communicating
A short story illustrates these elements in the context of the flow of the game.
Imagine that your team is defending against an opponent's attack. (1) Defensive positioning is key.
You and your defensive teammates play man-to-man and goal side (between your attacker and the goal),
not just for a few seconds, but for the duration of the attack.
Then, your opponent sends an extra man into the mix.
With a numerical disadvantage, you correctly choose to mark the most dangerous attackers at any given time:
those in the middle, those with the ball, and/or those with strong skills. You
also note who on your team is unmarked by the player that they sent forward.
Your tactics pay off, and you intercept a pass. Now, (2) first touch comes into play as you receive the ball with
control,
touching it away from the opponent coming at you so that you use your body to shield the
ball while you gain control.
Next up is (3) making the pass. You were able to think ahead, and so knew where your open teammate was before
you received the ball. You check for opponents and then make a pass that leads
your teammate to an advantaged spot on the field. Dribbling is okay,
but even if you're fast, passing is faster. As a general rule, you should make two or three passes for every time you dribble.
The player who gets the goal may get the fleeting glory, but the player who made the assist get's the coach's attention.
It wasn't just luck, however, that your teammate was open. Instead, he'd spent some time (4) getting open for the pass.
Rather than standing still with an opponent in the way, he found or was moving into an open lane splitting the defenders.
Although there are some times when a run away from the ball makes sense, this wasn't one of them, so coming towards you helped
you to complete the pass to him. Now it's your turn to get open for a pass, so
you move to open space. When the ball comes, if you aren't sure whether there
are defenders around you, you can always play it safe and play it to an open teammate back the way that you are facing.
To help make the play above easier, you did some smart (5) communicating.
Using your voice, eye contact, or even hand signals, you can provide your teammates to help make
defending ("I've got number four, you guard number 7"), the first touch ("You've got time" or "man on"),
and passing ("Here's your help") easier.
An important aspect of communicating is knowing when not to communicate. For instance, if your teammate can see you,
there's no need to call for the ball. Remember, it takes a lot of concentration to possess the ball--don't make the job
harder than it needs to be by offering information that isn't useful or that might even be distracting.
In this fashion, your team controls the ball until a shooting opportunity
presents itself. With the defense tired from chasing passes, your team's shot
has a good chance of finding the back of the net.
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There's a lot more to the game than what's in the simple story above, but if you master those ideas, you're well on
your way to mastering the game. And soccer isn't just about what you do on the field, it's how you do it--our
"philosophy" page offers up some broader ideas.
A worthy objective is to finish this season thinking we've played for the most unselfish
and fun team ever.
Parents, please share this email with your player.
Throughout practices and games, they'll be tested on these concepts ... by the game itself!
The better they understand the concepts outlined above going into the season, the more they'll enjoy the game.
Again, we're looking forward to a great and successful season. See you on the pitch.
It's a beautiful game,
Scott Dixson
Jon Bower
Jeff Dieffenbach
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