Premier League for tots?

2010-01-10T03:10:00.000-08:00

Why your youth soccer club needs a great website

2010-01-03T13:19:00.000-08:00

Why your youth soccer club needs a great website

my players...just like yours?

2008-02-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

I have the pleasure of coaching two U12 girls football (soccer) teams. Most of the players are great kids but there are some in both teams who provide me with various challenges.

You know the ones - the children who:

insist on chatting all the way through training sessions,
criticize their team-mates,
give up as soon as the going gets tough,
won't try to improve or learn new skills....

I'm sure you could add a few of your own to this list!!

I tried all manner of ways to get these 'difficult' kids to do what I wanted them to do. Stopped using drills in favour of SSGs, ignored inappropriate behaviour and praised them when they behave in the way I want them to (classic psychology..:) threatened them.....stopped them playing in matches....all the things that I'm sure you've tried as well.

But none of them worked. At least, not for long.

And we kept losing, sometimes by big margins. Now I'm not a WAAC (win-at-all-costs) coach, far from it. But we all like to win sometimes! And the gap between wins seemed to be getting longer and longer.

Then....

A few weeks ago I was sent some samples of a product that's new in the UK - soccer patches. These patches would (it was claimed) motivate and reward my players to behave well, learn new skills, try hard...even win matches!

As you can imagine, I was rather sceptical. Why should these little bits of cloth work when nothing else did?

But they hadn't cost me anything so I thought I'd give them a go.

I ironed a couple on to an old T shirt (it was easy, even I could do it!) and a few days later I wore the shirt to training and showed the girls the patches.

I thought they would be too 'cool' to be interested. Boy, was I wrong! They really wanted to know how they could get one. I explained that the patches had to be earned, I wasn't going to give them away. I said I would give a patch to the player who tried the hardest at training that night.

I am being quite serious when I tell you that it was the best training session I've ever had with those girls. They all listened, tried their hardest and seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. And I enjoyed it too! I gave them all a patch!! Next week they all turned up wearing their patch on their training tops and wanted to know how they could get another one.

Next match was against local rivals who always seemed to beat us. It was getting a bit depressing, I must admit. The problem was that we always seemed to give up if they scored an early goal against us. So I told my girls that they would get a patch for a 'never say die' attitude, a patch for bravery and a V patch if they won.

Guess what? We won 2-1 after going 1-0 down.

Now I'm not going to claim that we won because of the patches. But you should have seen the girls crowding round me afterwards! I made sure I awarded the patches in front of their parents (who were also very interested in the patches) and they all went away happy.

If you have problems getting your players to do what you want them to do, behave themselves at training, work hard, be a good team player etc. I recommend you try soccer patches.

They really do work!

Go to www.footballpatches.co.uk to find out more

little bits of coloured cloth, kids football and success

Premier League for tots?

Why your youth soccer club needs a great website

my players...just like yours?