Wrong Sport Right Message

LET THE KIDS PLAY!

Jeff Ginn Farewell

When: Wednesday, April 9th 2008
Time: 7:30 pm
Where: 2303 Butler St
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
Map: http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=m&lat=41.238596&lon=-95.805767&mag=3&q1=2303%20Butler%20St%20COuncil%20Bluffs%2C%20Iowa


Hello,

If you are receiving this email it is because I have been involved with you in the Council Bluffs community at some point over the last four years. I have been very blessed to have the many opportunities to develop as a person and build strong relationships with all of you. I wanted to inform you that I have resigned as the men’s and women’s assistant soccer coach at Iowa Western Community College. I was recently offered a position in the Northern Utah soccer community, and have committed to improving a stronger soccer atmosphere in Utah Youth Soccer Association’s District 7.

I would like to invite you to a farewell program that will be held this Wednesday (April 9th) evening at 7:30pm. Three people and I will be speaking; Iowa Western Head Coach Ammon Bennett, Iowa Western Assistant Coach Brad Silvey, Iowa Western Sophomore Karley Nelson and then I will thank you with a message of my own. Please dress nicely, as we will be in a chapel, but for those of you coming straight from work or a soccer field, come as you are. I want to make sure I see everyone before I depart Friday morning.

Please know how grateful I am for the way that this community has embraced me and for the many people that have helped me mature and become successful in my efforts.

To contact me in the future please email me at coachjginn@yahoo.com.

Thank you again!


Gratefully,

Jeff Ginn

What it takes to be Successful Part 3

This is the third installment of the topic "what does it take to be a successful ODP player", I have already addressed four important technical qualities necessary for players to possess in order to be successful in this program they include (1) quality of the first touch, (2) the ability to strike a ball cleanly, (3) the ability to dribble to penetrate and to maintain possession, and (4) the ability to head the ball in attack and defense. The last technical area to be addressed will be:

(5) The ability to finish with their first touch—this may be the most difficult skill to master of all five of the technical qualities mentioned. I am not talking about composure on the ball, which also plays a big part of quality finishing; I am talking about the player's technical ability to strike on goal with their first touch. The player has to possess the ability to solve problems technically under intense pressure when receiving the ball close to their opponent's goal. There are many variables a player encounters in this situation, such as the position of the goalkeeper, the flight and pace of the pass they are about to receive, the position of defending players, etc., which forces the player to choose a technique to use to strike the ball at almost "warp speed". The biggest problem for young players is that many believe scoring goals is all about striking the ball with power. I am going to show my age here by quoting a line from the old FA Instructional films that were made after England won the World Cup in 1966, whenever a player missed a goal scoring opportunity by going for power instead of accuracy, the announcer would say "he went for power when clinical accuracy would have done him better". Landon Donovan is by far the best pure clinical finisher I have ever had the pleasure to work with at any playing level. When you watch him closely, his decision making as to what surface to strike the ball with, what pace to put on his finishing attempt and the placement of his this attempt are exceptional. Maybe this is why he holds the records for scoring goals with the US Men's National Teams at both the youth and senior levels. Another interesting fact is that something like 70% of all goals scored are scored from the player's first touch—more reason for the player to become comfortable with dealing with goal scoring opportunities with their first touch.

What It Takes: Anson Dorrance

University of North Carolina Head Choach, Anson Dorrance has a message for youth players wanting to play at the highest level. This can be found on his DVD: Individual Soccer Skills with Anson Dorrance

What it takes to be Successful Part 2

Continuing with last week's blog topic of, "What it take to be a Successful US Youth Soccer ODP player", we have already mentioned two important technical qualities the player should possess. They were (1) quality of the first touch and (2) the ability to strike a ball cleanly. The next two technical areas to be addressed are:

(3) The ability to dribble to penetrate and to maintain possession---the player should be comfortable dribbling with all four surfaces of the foot, the sole, inside of the foot, instep, and the outside of the foot. The player has to be comfortable in their ability to move at speed with the ball and to avoid challenges from opponents while still maintaining control/possession of the ball. Players at this level have some tactical understanding of when to hold the ball up/shield and wait for supporting players to combine with. They also have some tactical understanding of when to take a player(s) on in an attempt to beat the opposition. A player can understand tactically when and where during a match to execute this skill, but without the technical abilities of knowing how to make these tactical decisions actually work creates many frustrating moments on the soccer field for the player. As the competitive level of matches increases for players, they need to understand that turnovers because of a poor or a needless dribbling run puts their team at a defensive disadvantage from which many goals are scored.

(4) The ability to head the ball in attack and defense---Can the player effectively clear an incoming high ball with their head when defending, can the player effectively pass and shoot with their head when on attack. There are many things that can go wrong to affect the quality of a good header (1) mistimed jump, (2) poor assessment of the flight of the incoming ball, (3) closing of the eyes, and (4) mistimed thrusting of the head towards the ball. All of these situations will affect how the player strikes the ball with their head and how successful the header will become. Heading is a skill that often receives less than its normal share of appropriate training time during practice sessions. But think about the number of goals that are scored off of restart situations from headers or the number of assists that come from passes from headers, especially from flick headers. By possessing the skill to handle any type of heading situation while playing on both sides of the ball (attack or defense) allows players to increase their chances of moving up the elite player development ladder.

Next week I will finish up with the technical abilities necessary to be a successful US Youth Soccer ODP player before moving on to the tactical qualities needed by players to be successful in the US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program.

1500 Hours

This weekend was brutal for me.

I was joined by CBFC coaches Dan McCoy, Dale Ruis and Mike Cheney in Kansas City for the World Class Coaching symposium. The event showcased four highly accomplished coaches presenting four training sessions each, it was a full weekend of soccer and note taking. The brutality of it all was that I was sick and felt horrible the entire time, to make matters worse, I am sure I spread it to multiple coaches including our own that were accompanying me. After downing cough drop after cough drop all weekend, somehow I survived. Other than the illness, it was a pretty great weekend.

One of the presenters is a long time hero of mine. Not only does he share the same passion for soccer as i do but he also shares the same faith. I purchased his latest book, had him sign it, expressed my gratitude and moved on. Anson Dorrance has always been the guy I wanted to be. I love UNC soccer, I love the women's side of soccer and I would do anything to be as success full as this man. Not many people in our country know who this man is or what he has accomplished. But if you read his profile on the University of North Carolina Women's Soccer web site. You will see that he is the most winningest coach in ALL college sports, not just soccer, but every sport ever. He has won more titles than anyone and his winning percentage is unmatched. He once went 92 matches straight without loosing!
My point is that as I sat and marveled about what he has accomplished, I wondered what sets him apart, what makes him so unique, what makes his players so brilliant on the field as well as off. I researched Coach Dorrance on the web and found these things on wikepedia.com;

Dorrance's success comes from several inter related attributes. First, he has an eye for recruiting outstanding talent. Related to that is his emphasis on competitiveness. He noted early in his time as a women's coach that women seemed to have an inhibition against open competition. He decided to develop an atmosphere at UNC in which women were rewarded for having an aggressive desire to win. Finally, he noted from his work with both the men's and women's team that women tended to play best in an atmosphere which focused on relationships.

Dorrance was able to bring out his player's aggressiveness and competitiveness while also fostering an almost family sense of the team. Regarding the aggressiveness, Santa Clara University women's soccer coach Jerry Smith noted in a 1998 Sports Illustrated article, "When you watch them, you can see the edge they have. I'll go beyond aggressiveness. It's meanness. Anson has found a way to bring that out of his players."
Mia Hamm added in the same article, "I grew up always good at sports, but being a girl, I was never allowed to feel as good about it as guys were. My toughness wasn't celebrated. But then I came here, and it was O.K. to want to be the best."[1]

I recently posted Coach Dorance's video on the web for a short time. I opened a window for players and parents to see what it is that the greatest college coach ever expects out of his players. I hope that parents, coaches and players all took an opportunity to look at the video, take notes and utilize it to improve. I watched the video and thought to myself, "wow nothing too complicated." Then I remembered a quote from, in my opinion, the most influential women's soccer player ever, Michelle Akers. She once was quoted to say, "Soccer isn't brain surgery, have fun!"

Too many times I think we as adults forget what soccer is all about...fun. Too many times I think the players forget that it is all about...fun. One of the down sides of modern sports is that we as adults tend to make soccer so very convenient for ourselves. (Disclaimer: I say that knowing how much we all do to get our kids to and from soccer activities that seem to consume our lives.)

When I use the word "convenient" my intentions are to recognize how easy it is to "have our kids play soccer" these days. The video that I posted on the web shows no more than four people at a time, outside, with a ball, doing real easy activities over and over again. I would like to say that today's children don't do that, because we have made soccer convenient to 'our' schedules by having training sessions convenient to when we can getthem to practice. This method has taught our youth to only "play" under adult supervision. Now they only touch a ball when there is someone there to instruct them. If our children are truly enjoying soccer they should have a ball with them at all times, come home from school, put down their phones, shut down the internet and walk to the nearest park with three cones and a ball and maybe a friend or three to "play" with. How often do we invite our kids to go outside, enjoy the weather and soccer ball during the summer? It seems to me that the 3v3 tournaments are making it "convenient" for our kids to play soccer in the summer when there are no schedule practices. The summer is the best time for kids to explore the game and develop their individual skills by being creative and exercise without boundaries or instruction. This spring break, encourage your children to go outside and "play." See how many hours your child will go out on their own and touch a ball.

Playing and competing are two different things. CBFC is putting on a 3v3 tournament. The PROVE IT! tournament, as it is called, is an excellent opportunity for our kids to showcase their skills. When we line up on the sidelines this July, we should not marvel in the many goals, or get discouraged when the children loose the ball. But we should get excited when a player gets around an opposing player or two without having to pass by "doing up" the defender by nutmegging or cutting around or through the opposition.

I hope that this spring the CBFC players go outside with a ball and play by themselves or with a friend or two, making up their own competitive games, trials or challenges. To be rather honest a player will never reach his/her full potential as a player if they do not spend a significant amount of time on the ball on their own, without teammates, coaches or structured training. Parents, our children are not satisfied with you just dropping your child off at practice or camps, they need mom and dad to get excited about their passion for soccer and encourage them to go out and play with a soccer ball for an hour a day. The only way someone falls in love with something is by dedicating his/her time to it. Your child has a romance with the soccer ball, but being passionate about that ball is different.

Ronaldinho, 2006 FIFA player of the year, was asked before the 2006 World Cup if he had a girlfriend. His reply was honest and charming. He looked at the ball in his hand, pointed to it, and said, "this is my love, this is my girlfriend." He has dedicated his entire life to the game and has become the premier player in the world. As you will see in the video...his smile is contagious and everlasting!



To conclude, the final Coach at the symposium was Mauricio Marques from Brazil. He concluded by giving us one key fact that i believe every CBFC coach wrote down. Now before I give you the quote, let me remind you that Brazil is considered to be the very BEST soccer country in the world by the majority of soccer advocates.

"Brazilian kids play soccer on their own (no coaches)on average, 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 300 days out of the year (1500 hours), when American kids do the same thing they will be the best soccer country in the world."

What it takes to be Successful

John Ellinger's Bio: John Ellinger is Technical Director for US Youth Soccer
One of the questions that we are asked frequently at US Youth Soccer is "what does it take to be a successful US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (US Youth Soccer ODP) player"?

The generic reply from most US Youth Soccer ODP staff coaches when they identify a player they like is to say, "that player can flat out play." There is nothing wrong with this assessment; in fact, the coach is paying the player a tremendous complement. What does the staff coach see in a player to merit such an accolade? Well, let's start with the technical areas that are necessary for a player to become a successful US Youth Soccer ODP player:

(1) Quality of the first touch—does the statement "the first touch is everything" mean anything to you? A player needs to have the technical ability to receive any type of service (pass) from their teammates and even the opposition for that matter, and to be able to handle it cleanly. The first touch can either take you out of a pressure situation or it puts you back into pressure from an opponent or space. One type of two-touch soccer that is not conducive to what people call "the beautiful game" is when the receiving player's second touch is the tackle to win the ball back after a poor first touch. Two Men's National Team players who have a flawless first touch are Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley (both former US Youth Soccer ODP players). Both always look and feel comfortable with the ball at their feet.

(2) The ability to strike a ball cleanly—it does not matter what surface of the foot we are talking about-instep or inside of the foot, the player needs to be able to put the proper pace on the pass. Can they drive a ball over various distances to the intended target (both diagonal and down the line passes), can they bend the ball into the open space in front of a teammate or around defenders to the feet of their teammate, can they execute a proper chip pass or lofted pass and can they play the ball with both feet? A good example of this technical ability is when you see a defender play a long ball forward in order to get his team out of a pressure situation—if that defender just played a 40 or 50 yd rope to his teammates' feet and he accomplishes this on a consistent basis, then this player has some talent and it is not an attempt to play "kick ball", "long ball" or "direct soccer". I have not worked with any defenders yet, who honestly do not feel that they can make that pass. The player who can hit this type of ball from the back or from one flank to another flank does have the ability to strike a ball cleanly.

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