The Administrator

Team Building Can Be Fun

Along with the outstanding spring weather, comes spring soccer, which also brings spring tasks, that can make your volunteer roles seem more like full-time jobs! Personally, I think many of the tasks that come after initial registrations can be fun, as long as they are easy to accomplish. Team Building, emailing players with rosters, scheduling, and more are what make the season happen. I don’t want to overwhelm you with what is happening right up to the season kickoff, so let me back up and focus on the first step: building teams. How do you build your teams? Travel programs are pretty straightforward. Players try out and coaches pick who they like, but it can consist of more than that. With rec teams, it is often based more on other information. It requires you to balance teams based on specific data, ratings, or other guidelines.  I have always liked this process. Think about it: you are initiating new friendships and experiences simply from mixing and matching players with one another. What goes into this process though? Is it a random selection, or do you need to use player information to level the playing field? Here are some of my favorite team-building criteria and why: Player Experience-- This is pretty self-explanatory in how to helps to balance out teams, but I love this team-building question for other reasons. Placing more experienced players with those with less experience gives them a chance to learn from one another. The more skilled kids have a chance to act as leaders, teachers, or even coaches in sharing tips and advice with each other. Living Proximity-- I will always remember carpooling with four guys from my neighborhood to and from practice. Though we rarely talked about soccer, we often bonded during our drives, which translated to better team chemistry on the field. Friendships are reflected with how players interact within a team, and placing families in a situation to carpool can help strengthen these relationships. Past Team Involvement-- Is your goal to keep kids together on the same team year after year, or do you want to give kids a variety of coach and teammate exposure? Either way, knowing what teams they played for in the past, or last year, is valuable in ensuring teams stay together or play with a different group. Most online systems will track team history for you from year to year, which can allow you to utilize this for team building. After your teams are built, new teammates can continue to bond and build team chemistry by interacting on their team pages. With that in mind, at Blue Sombrero we recently hosted our second ever live webinar this month on how to best utilize your Team Pages. On Friday, April 6, our very own VP of Sales, Tom Arnett, sharedinformation about one of my favorite additions to date. If you have some free time during your lunch break or at the end of a stressful workday, take a minutes to listen/watch the recording to learn how to elevate your club and your current processes. What are some of the questions you ask to build your teams each year?    Guest Author: Ben Wineski : regional sales manager : Blue Sombrero, LLC

 

Practices are fun it’s the planning that is the killer

It’s Sunday night and I have two practices to plan this week for my travel team I am coaching.  We are six weeks into the season and I need to liven up the practices to help reinvigorate my players.  I will spend the first practice working on refining their basic skills.  I know the basics are the foundation of a good player and if we don’t continue to improve on these, it will be difficult to raise our level of play.  My second practice will focus on one of our biggest problems—scoring goals! 

I wipe the dust off a book and DVD that my club provided for me but there is nothing that catches my eye.  I begin to comb the internet for those few elusive drills/games that my players may have not seen before.

I start with the US Youth Soccer website and then move to my state soccer association site.  I run into a lot of material but nothing that is fresh and new. 

I do a Google search and start clicking away from site to site.  I find a few good drills/games on a couple of sites but I am now 35 minutes into this process and I still have only 3 quality drills/games.  I have to sign up for a half dozen free newsletters in order to look at these drills/games and my inbox is already packed with special offers from these sites—HELP!

Here are a few tips to help you get through this time consuming process:

• Narrow down your list of sites you visit to the ones that continuously add new drills/games.  Fresh new content is a must! 
• Make sure the drills/games are understandable.  Too many arrows and dotted lines may add to your frustration when trying to decipher what player moves where.
• Look for drills/games that are supported with video and/or animation… it makes it that much easier to understand the drill and how it is supposed to work on the field.
•  Make sure you can print the drills/games from the site to bring to your practice, or better yet, the ability to email them to your smart phone to view them at the field.

As a coach, you cannot just print a few drills and expect to be done.  Plug the drills/games that you found into a practice plan.  Below is a simple format I like to use, which divides my practice into thirds:

1. Ball skills
2. Drills/games geared towards your practice theme (i.e. finishing, passing & receiving)
3. Small sided games keeping with the practice theme.  

Keep your format consistent each week and this will make the practice easier to follow for the players and the coaches.  Re-evaluate the format each season and make adjustments if needed. 

Bottom Line: If you spend a little extra time researching soccer sites and find one that has the qualities listed above and it costs a few dollars-JOIN!  The money you spend for the yearly subscription (usually less than $50) is well worth it.  It will pay for itself by the amount of time it saves you over the course of the year. 

Keep the practices fun and challenging and your players will reward you with improved play and maybe even a goal or two!

-Guest Author: Tyler Isaacson

Tyler Isaacson has 30 years playing and coaching experience and works with clubs across the country developing recreation& travel practice programs which are used by over 10,000 coaches.For more information visit: www.youthsoccer101drills.com.

RED LIGHT/GREEN LIGHT: WHERE DO WE STOP & GO IN 2012?

“Coach Qiana, can we play red light/green light?”  It is a question that I am always eagerly asked by my smallest students.

For those coaches who have incorporated this game into their practices, it is an activity that helps to develop a player’s dribbling abilities.  The participants begin on a starting line and dribble when the command “green light” is said.  At the time the coach yells “red light,” the players must promptly stop or risk taking 3 steps back.  The first person to the finish line wins.

I thought red light/green light would be fitting for this end-of-the-year blog entry because I believe it is the perfect time for us to reflect on and discuss our obstacles and goals in the sport of soccer for the upcoming year.  Both individually and collectively, there are habits we would like to stop as teachers of this game and new traditions that we would love for parents and players to move forward. 

In the last few years, a couple of red light/green light examples have been implemented to help give our players a better understanding of the fundamentals of the game, as well as to educate our instructors and parents on how to reinforce these principles.  Check out the examples below.

• Kicking is not soccer:  The time for encouraging players to kick and chase the ball is coming to a halt.  With state associations emphasizing “soft touch dribbling,” coaches are teaching the youngest players how to interact with the ball more and enlightening parents as to how their choice of words can support this effort.

• The New Ball Method: With practice times limited, scrimmage play seemed to go in fits and starts when the ball would repeatedly go out of bounds.  The new ball method keeps the play going constantly as coaches simply yell “heads up, new ball,” and toss another ball into the playing area.  Especially for those newest to the sport, goal kicks and throw-ins were irrelevant and putting a stop to this practice in favor of continuous activity participation has only benefitted development.

So now it is your turn.   “What would you like to give a red light in this sport for 2012?”  “What do you think should be given the green light in American soccer?”  Join in on the conversation.  Together, we can keep pooling our wisdom to help develop our athletes into great participants of this global game.

Qiana Martin is an international athlete, global soccer ambassador, Fila Body Toning Spokesmodel and owner of Eat Soccer.  Her for-profit and non-profit efforts introduce new communities to, and inspire participants of, the beautiful game.  Most recently, Qiana released her Soccer Mental 90 and Soccer Mission: View the Match downloads on iTunes. In 2012, she will be a featured soccer video expert on eHow.com.  To learn more about Qiana’s work on and off the field, connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Fundraising 101

Running a youth sports organization is hard work whether you’re a competitive club with just a handful of teams or a large rec association, some challenges are universal across all levels of youth soccer.

One issue that consistently comes up at all levels of play is finances. We all know that playing team sports is important for the youth in our communities. However, in order to keep the teams playing, a non-profit association often needs assistants from parents or anyone willing and able to financial donate.

Contrary to popular belief, history has proven that the holiday season is a great, if not the best; time of year to collect donations for your organization. At the end of the year many are assessing their financial situation and for their own reasons, are more willing to donate funds. Here are a few ideas to capitalize on others’ overwhelming generosity and increase financial flow to your club:

Ease of Use: Provide a link on your website, encourage parents and community members to contribute to your organization.

Fundraisers: Holiday cookies, candy canes, or popcorn balls (if you are from the Midwest). Pick a product or service that your organization can easily promote and manage.

Apply for Grants: There are many companies looking to give money to non-profit programs. Do your due diligence; look up grant programs such as:

1. Nike
2. The Finish Line
3. Dick’s Sporting Goods
4. Liberty Mutual.

Set Goal: It is a lot harder to achieve something if you do not know what you are striving for. Set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals. From new uniforms to a new club house, providing an objective to your fundraising is important! It provides a goal for the collective efforts of your club and allows you to track progress towards that goal.

Did you know that Blue Sombrero has a Donation module? When using SombreroREG™ for online registration, administrators can display custom donations options to parents upon checkout. Blue Sombrero partners have raised thousands of dollars this way!

Blue Sombrero has also enhanced SombreroPAY™ to allow donation campaigns. It’s simple to set up an account and even easier to spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, you can post your progress using a Donations thermometer widget!

Have fun fundraising and please let us know how it goes!

Happy holidays!

 

Author: Eric Williamson: Regional Sales Manager at Blue Sombrero

The Designer's Dime: Homepage Content

Hey guys, Magie Brennan here, BSB's graphic designer.  Going to give you a "dime" of my time to talk to y'all about keeping your websites up-to-date, navigable, and looking the best it can be.

The homepage on your website is the first thing every person that visits sees.  It has to be warm, welcoming, and attractive. Website homepages are like billboards or magazine ads: the viewer takes less than three seconds to glance at it and pass by it.  If it's intriguing enough, they'll look at it longer. The biggest issue administrators or webmasters face is wanting to pack all the information and everything you could possibly imagine about your club/organization all on the homepage.

This is where I come in running and screaming in slow-motion "NOOOOO!!!"

The homepage is the foundation, let your other navigation links do the rest of the work.  It should have the core basics about your club, with the interior pages having all the details.

Here is a an example of a clean homepage http://www.ussoccer.com/ (although I'm not fond of the second menu on the bottom, we can overlook that for now).  Why is this a good clean homepage, you ask? Well, let me tell you.

• It's not busy, it's not packed with information
• It's quick and straight to the point.
• You can learn more (if you're inclined) by clicking the links in the menu, rather than having to scroll down forever and ever on the homepage.

Here's what I think the homepage needs for BSB customers:

• Opening/welcoming statement or a short "About Us"
• The programs you provide, short description that links to another page
• Twitter feed/news update headlines/blog headlines
• A feature of some sort (feature story, tournament recap, player/team spotlight for example). Don't make it too long, link the rest of the story to another page.
• Your contact info in the footer at all times, and whatever social media you're connected to.

Things to consider:

• Keep the welcoming statement or the "About Us" introduction on the homepage simple, and link it at the end to a more detailed description on another page.
• If you have a blog or news updates, keep that on another page and have the headlines of the blog/updates only on the homepage... and either over to the side or on the bottom.
• Make sure to break things up so it doesn't look like a big block of text.
• Try not to clutter with too many images.
• If you're thinking "does this need to be here?", you've already answered your question.  Put it on another page.

That's it for now, check back in next time!

Next Designer's Dime Topic: Menu Navigation, How Many Is Too Many?

If you have any questions or topics you would like me to cover for future blogs, shoot me an email at magie.brennan@bluesombrero.com

 

Inspiring Confidence In Your Game Performance

One of my favorite television shows is Necessary Roughness, a TV series that follows a therapist who helps athletes overcome the mental obstacles blocking them from performing like superstars.

The TV series highlights the importance confidence has in being successful in sports. Sports psychologists will tell you that 10% of the game is physical.  It is the mental 90% that truly makes the difference in achieving success. 

Therefore, you can only imagine how feelings of disappointment, shouts of “unlucky” after goal attempts and a pressure to win can take a toll on a player’s execution.

All athletes at some point face a question of confidence in their abilities.  However, athletes that are successful have developed mechanisms to deal with confidence issues.

I want to share with you three confidence building exercises that I use to tackle this problem.  These include three quick and easy drills to tally achievements, visualize best game responses and use optimistic self-talk. I created these drills after observing the performance of Brazilian players who exhibited a sense of confidence that far exceeded their skill set.  As a result of their confidence, their play on the field reflected (exceed their abilities). 

To strengthen the self-belief in your players, I would like to encourage coaches to test out these exercises. 

Track the Ball: For each season, I write down my soccer goals, and I jot down every small accomplishment that I achieve towards these aims.  It helps me to keep my progress in perspective and motivates me to focus on my target.

Picture the Goal: From creating collages of great players and energetic moves to daydreaming about making amazing crosses, finishing goals and dribbling past opponents, I spend time imagining my actions on the field. 

Announce the Win: Every player engages in their own mental conversation.  What are your players saying to themselves before, during and after the game?  It is common for me to speak winning the ball in my mind before the ball arrives in my area or a phrase of supportive encouragement if I make an error.  Since incorporating this positive dialogue, it has become easier for me to brush off missteps and become a magnet for being in the right place at the right time to score goals.

I can tell you firsthand that enhancing the confidence of your athletes will yield more than great field play and team victories.  You will have equipped these players with tools to help them to record, dream and speak their way to achieving goals in other areas of their lives.

- Qiana Martin

Qiana Martin is an international athlete, global soccer ambassador, Fila Body Toning Spokesmodel and owner of Eat Soccer.  Her for-profit and non-profit efforts introduce new communities to, and inspire participants of, the beautiful game.  Most recently, Qiana released her Soccer Mental 90 and Soccer Mission: View the Match downloads on iTunes. To learn more about Qiana’s work on and off the field, connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

Are you Creating a Culture of Creativity?

The United States is often criticized for not generating creative soccer players in our ranks. When we look far and wide, we find no Zidanes, no Rivaldos or Ronaldos and no certainly no Messis. For America to make it to the next level on the world stage, we will need to develop players that have both the technical skills and the tactical awareness to exploit holes in defenses. And, this has to start at the youth levels. But, can creativity be taught? Can a player like Messi be developed or is he a gift from heaven?

Is Your Soccer Club Doing More With Less?

Soccer has evolved over the past 10-20 years. Has your club?

Thousands of town soccer clubs keep reinventing themselves by using new technology, new equipment, new  playing formats for different ages and implementing new training systems, to name a few.  The end result for many of these clubs is the ability to run a club with fewer volunteers than ever before.

 

Are you still using the old style goals? 

Those goals are so heavy you need a half a dozen people to move them.  Pricing for these products has come down considerably over the years. 

Today: There are light weight goals with wheels that can be moved by one person or pop-up goals that can be assembled in minutes.

Does a Little Bit of Tennis Belong in Soccer?

A recent study from the London School of Economics and Political Science has published a study claiming that penalty kicks are unfair.  They studied 2820 shootout kicks in major national/international soccer games and found that the team that shot first won 60% of the time and the team that shot second won 40% of the time.  The researchers went on to say that in 96% of the time the team that won the coin toss chose to shoot first.  They concluded from their research that the team that won the coin toss was given a 20 % advantage.

The Family Guide is Bigger, Better, and Available in More Ways!

We’ve got some exciting news! But first, the authors of The Family Guide for the College Soccer and Scholarship Journey want to thank The Administrator for supporting our college soccer guidebook and seminars over the years. You guys are tops! 

Our exciting news is that we have completed an extensive revision to our book. The 33 articles are even easier to read and are now available in three different ways at three different price points. The guidebook is available as a hard copy, as a PDF download, and on Amazon for Kindle devices (most economical). 

All 3 versions can be ordered on our site, www.mycollegesoccerjourney.com. The Kindle eBook version can also be ordered, as expected, through Amazon’s site then clicking on the Kindle Store. Simply type our book title into the search box and you’ll find us! For $9 you Kindle carriers are getting a great deal!