It's been one of those months when you try to squeeze in a lot and potentially don't do justice to the things you squeezed in. Soccer has been something else. That is the most polite way I can describe it. We are in way over our heads and I have at times lost sight of the point and been too hard on the girls especially my own. Balance that with the fact we have gotten better every game, the girls keep coming and laughing and having fun but we keep making some of the same mistakes over and over again. I have finally realized how I can fix them but it's going to be hard to do until the spring season.
Right now we are practicing inside and they make tremendous strides when we are together, the hard part is not being able to orchestrate them when they are out on the field. Rather than stay in their spaces or zones they tend to group up when the ball hits the wall and allow their opponents to get in behind them. When our goalie get the ball we allow the other team to get in between our goalie and us causing cheap goals frequently. I need to be on the field more and the field needs to be smaller from them. There is a reason while USA Youth Soccer has recommended field sizes and numbers of players per team. 3v3, 4v4, etc. http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/index.html
On the other hand we have seen great single game goal keeping efforts from numerous girls and Ruby plays keeper like her hair is on fire and it's good action to watch her get after it. Previously, I mentioned that we are playing up, if I have one piece of advice for any parents with five and six year olds playing soccer. Play in your age group. We have no business playing under seven and thankfully all of the coaches we have gone against don't run it up on us and try to work on things. So for them we are nothing more than a practice. We are getting better and they are still having fun I have to remind myself to keep my focus on fun. I confess that at times I'm not loving it as much as I should. The only reason for that is I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. Losing sucks to me and I get down when we don't play well. The girls aren't that interested in winning and losing. Scoring a few goals, being with their friends outside of school, possibly getting to hang out after the game with a friend, and potentially fruit snacks (kid crack) these are the things important to a six year old girl. Written by a thirty three year old man. wow.
Right now we are practicing inside and they make tremendous strides when we are together, the hard part is not being able to orchestrate them when they are out on the field. Rather than stay in their spaces or zones they tend to group up when the ball hits the wall and allow their opponents to get in behind them. When our goalie get the ball we allow the other team to get in between our goalie and us causing cheap goals frequently. I need to be on the field more and the field needs to be smaller from them. There is a reason while USA Youth Soccer has recommended field sizes and numbers of players per team. 3v3, 4v4, etc. http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/index.html
On the other hand we have seen great single game goal keeping efforts from numerous girls and Ruby plays keeper like her hair is on fire and it's good action to watch her get after it. Previously, I mentioned that we are playing up, if I have one piece of advice for any parents with five and six year olds playing soccer. Play in your age group. We have no business playing under seven and thankfully all of the coaches we have gone against don't run it up on us and try to work on things. So for them we are nothing more than a practice. We are getting better and they are still having fun I have to remind myself to keep my focus on fun. I confess that at times I'm not loving it as much as I should. The only reason for that is I am looking at this from the wrong perspective. Losing sucks to me and I get down when we don't play well. The girls aren't that interested in winning and losing. Scoring a few goals, being with their friends outside of school, possibly getting to hang out after the game with a friend, and potentially fruit snacks (kid crack) these are the things important to a six year old girl. Written by a thirty three year old man. wow.
