coaching
Kategori: Allmänt
I have loved soccer for as long as I can remember and that is not a secret, and in August I started coaching for the Palm Beach Gardens Predators here in West Palm, where I currently live. I train a u8 girls team alone, and I also help assisting one of my very good friends, and former teammate Amy with u12 girls, as well as covering here and there for all different ages within the club, u10’s, u11’s etc. I’m very thrilled I got the opportunity to coach because I have such a passion for it and once you get to know the players better it is fantastic, getting to see there developments from day 1. Not only their individual play, but also the way they have now started to link up with each other, how they help each other out, and how they make each other better on the field. When they finally understand something I have been trying to teach them, I just get this rush, and I feel so proud of my players. I’ve finally realized why people actually want to become teachers, because I’m assuming they feel the same way about their students when they finally see the lights turn on and they really understand.
To be honest, it’s not the easiest task trying to learn an 8 year old how to play smart, how much of an importance it has to pass the ball, or why we are communicating on the field, or to simply help a teammate out by saying “good job”. I’ve actually heard somewhere that it’s not until kids reach the age of 12 that their brain has developed somewhat into the brain of a grown-up, which I sometimes have to remind myself when I’m at practice with my little 6-8 year old girls, it takes patience, which is something I’m not known for having. However, they make me want to become more patient, which is a huge deal for me at the moment, as well as it will be in the future, because they are simply helping me to become a better person without even being aware of it. On the other hand, this is something that makes me even more proud of, when they listen carefully and really starts to understand the common terms I am constantly occupying their minds with, such as “width”, “depth”, “spread out”, “pass”, “cover”, “step”, and much more.
In a time period from August up until today, October, they have come such a long way. Not only when it comes to soccer, because I’m not going to lie, they had plenty of talent before I took them over, which certainly has improved even more, but what I really wanted to point out is their behavior towards each other, and their ability to listen to “Coach Jo”(me), and to always try their greatest. For 1 hour and 15 minutes, 2 times a week, we are there to learn how to play soccer, and to be a good teammate, and as every week pass by, our session becomes more and more perfect. It is such an amazing feeling when you show up to practice and the girls get crazy starting to yell your name, running up to you wanting to hug me, asking if I can pass with them, tie their shoe laces, or just open their water bottles, really, it could be anything. Simply the smiles on their faces puts me in a better mode, and makes me want to do everything in my power to make them better players, but also to enjoy themselves in practice.
However, there are some downsides with it as well; Today we were scrimmaging against the boys and we had to mix the teams up a little bit because the boys were so many more than us, both ages 7 and 8. In one game this one boy got put alone with 6 of my girls, and he kept walking around with his head down saying in front of them how he didn’t wanted to play on the girls team, that he didn’t wanted to pass the ball to any of them, and so on. When I heard this, me, and the 2 other coaches their decided to put him on the bench, mostly to prove a point that attitude you don’t deserve to be on the field. Additionally, in the game after, my girls were going to play the boys only, and this 1 forward on the boys team goes: “This is going to be so easy, they’re just girls”. I kindly asked him to repeat himself, knowing in the back of my head that he was going to regret what he had just thrown out their, because I just knew that those 7 girls were going to make everything in their power to prove him wrong. The game started and yes indeed did they prove him, along with the rest of the boys, wrong. My girls scored 2 goals within the first 5 minutes and kept that score throughout the game. I asked him after the 2nd goal scored if he still thought it was “so easy playing the girls” and he was just standing there quiet looking at me. I just find this attitude so sad, and I thought it was a behavior that we had passed and had moved on from years and years ago, but clearly it still exists, and really hopes it will diminish more and more as time goes by. However, to end on a good note, I want to give my girls credit for being such amazing kids, and I hope I will get the chance to continue to coach them for a good period of time.
