 Posted 30/08/2008 16:26:11
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| I moved down this year from coaching 12-14 YO boys to 9&10 Girls. Well I have one young lady who is usually the smallest player on the field, I usually have her on the attack because she is extremely fast, agile and a great ball handler. She doesnt have the strongest shooting leg, so if she takes a shoot she really needs to be in close. Because of this reason I usually put her in with 2 more average sized girls with pretty good shots. My biggest problem is that she gets pushed around a lot. Some of these defenders are probably 2-3 times her weight, just bump her and she goes flying. I dont want her to get discouraged, she has some great natural ability and is my best ball handler. Any suggestions, tips or strategies that I can use to help her be more affective? Thanks in advance.
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Posted 01/09/2008 07:26:26
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| Hi Mike, firstly, check her follow through on her kick. 90% of children do not follow through enough and therefore get very little power in their shot. Secondly get her to use her shoulders,put two players together and let them at first walk and then jog side by side trying to push each other to two cones about 5m apart in front of them. o 0 00 This builds not only strength but technique. Also get them to stand back to back then turn to face each other push twice on each others shoulders with their hands and then sprint to the line about 10 metres in front. If nothing else the kids will have lots of fun, but they usually find they are less bullied on the pitch too.
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Posted 10/09/2008 18:24:21
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| Mike My team is playing at U13/14. Most of our team is 11 or 12. I think one girl turns 13 this month. On top of that many of my girls are shorter and lighter than our opponents. I enjoy nothing more than one of my tiny players taking a ball from an opponent who is six inches taller and outweighs them by 40 lbs or my little daughter (4'6'' and 80 lbs) soaking wet picking the ball off their boot as a keeper. It's somewhat of a mind set to not let size intimidate you. Try having her work with larger teammates at practice on aggressively shielding the ball. (We make it more interesting by letting the girls grab jerseys and shove each other (We tell them that those are fouls that will be called in a match))) This will make her more confident when she has contact with a larger defender. Encourage her to use her speed footskills to get by these larger defenders. Working on follow through as suggested by another poster is a good idea. Hope this helps.
Tom Stoll
Norwalk Lightning Asst. Coach
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Posted 11/09/2008 01:45:06
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| Hi Mike a, i have a 15 year old son Matty who now plays for the NZ U17 squad and due to travel to England this month. Matty was always smaller than his team mates since he was 8yrs, however he is now a yound man, solid, skillful and has speed to burn. What i have learned to assist him which may help you with your smaller player is that Bulk Size kids always out-mussle small kids, so you have to adopt and develop other areas of your player such as a) Self-Confidence which can be enhanced by placing then into a Gym for lite physical body toning (its amazing how they seem to walk taller and with an abundance of confidence), b) Developing Leg and Body Poster similar to how wrestlers and self-defence sportsman train, this teachers the player when and how to 'keep Balance' and 'Tense-up' their body before impact and c) Using their given skills of stepping, speed, and using 1-2 play to get around a bigger player. The later could involve a simple 'Stop & Hold & Go-again' which can get the defender to pause or stop for a split second giving your player the advantage to beat a bigger player off the mark again with superior speed or simply to play a 1-2 play and move to another space to receive the ball again for a shot at goal! Mike G
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