“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius

Monday.. What do most people think when it is Monday? For most people, Monday's  are a downer because it means the weekend is over and its time to go back to work.  So far in Sweden I have never had a case of the "Monday's" I wake up every morning excited for the new day's tasks and adventures.  I am enjoying what I am doing so much! This past Monday I experimented; I tried some new ideas on my school kids and it went extremely well and the girls seemed to really enjoy the session. 

  In my coaching course in Florida they empathized that exercises should be simple and game like.  I'm trying to use the progression and other things I learned in the course to create my practice sessions. My session was on speed of play with a focus on communication and movement off the ball. For this session, I set up a 40 by 40 grid and that's the space we worked with the whole time.

  Communication can make the game so much easier.  Girls (myself included) can talk all day off the field but once they are on the field its silent.  We trained the simple commands of "turn" and "man on." I expanded my vocabulary and learned that "turn" in Swedish is "vän" and "man on" is "akta rygg".

The session went from playing with no pressure, to adding a little pressure and then to two verse two.  They got a point if the were able to successfully get the ball from one side the other.  The  next step was having the girls combine with their teammate before playing it to the outside.  Throughout these exercises, I talked about movement off the ball and the importance of changing your speed when you are checking for the ball.  They all really grasped and absorbed everything I was saying; the intensity was high and the soccer was beautiful.  I almost wish I could have recorded the girls; they really put on a clinic.  I was going to end with a game going to goal but I lost track of time. We did not have enough time to play...  Time management is one thing I need to work on. I get so excited sometimes; I tend to lose track of time.

 I ran this same session on my next school and made sure I had enough time to play.  I think the game is the best teacher and I wanted to see if my exercises would transfer in a game like situation.  I found that the movement off the ball was much better but the communication still needs work. 

I could feel myself develop as a coach during this session. When I evaluated the players, I noticed I still need to get the girls out of the habit of admiring their pass and to communicate on the field. I got really good feedback on the session;  now I'm going back to the books to create something that will help them reach the next level as a player and also to help myself reach the next level as a coach.