I'm now an 8th grade soccer coach.

[Beebs]

I agree it's fun to watch him improve, but I think he is stagnating for a while. Basically Bale isn't using his new role that well; some of the nuance was lost from the long post, but he has become more predictable by starting from the insight left channel and not having as much space, It wasn't a knock on Bale, but comparing him learning a new way of playing to somebody who has the role down.

I just think he needs a little more time there, but think he would learn how to play that role better from the right side. Or just stay as an out and out winger. He does very well for Wales from the right.

Dempsey plays from left midfield too, but moves much better off the ball, always ending up in scoring positions. The biggest thing is that Dempsey has spent his career as a striker, winger, second striker, or attacking mid, and is more prone to making the right run off the ball, whereas Bale was trained as a fullback and is just getting used to being central. Bale obviously has the higher talent ceiling, but right now he isn't at his best.

One great goal doesn't really mean that much, even in that clip it says "It's fair to say he has had better games than he has today." Dempsey has scored hattricks in back to back home games, is the highest ever scoring American in the premier league and the highest scoring Fulham player as well, but if you want to see Dempsey do that, I'll raise you one.

Clint Dempsey wonder goal Vs. Juventus - YouTube

Clint Dempsey wonder goal Vs. Juventus - YouTube

Probably the biggest goal in Fulham history.

[DJ FC]

So I posted a goal from last Saturday and you reply with a goal from 2 years ago?

What has Dempsey done for me lately?

Bale wasn't even starting for Tottenham 2 years ago.

[thekremlin]

Yeah but Dempsey's from AMERICA. Bale isn't even from a real country.

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by DJ FC

So I posted a goal from last Saturday and you reply with a goal from 2 years ago?

What has Dempsey done for me lately?

Bale wasn't even starting for Tottenham 2 years ago.

Scored 2 hat tricks?

[Beebs]

I am, as of 2 weeks ago, a U12 girls club team coach as well.

[Ugly Bastard]

Sounds kind of painful really.

[Beebs]

It's certainly different, only had 3 practices to judge it so far. The U12 and U11 teams practice together, and their is another coach who does most of the training at practices, which is fine with me, I'm still not really used to constantly making sure players are doing what they are supposed to be.

The games are 8 v 8 (7 + goalkeeper) on a smaller field, so formations and shape are going to be different than a full sided game, and 12 year olds obviously aren't quite as tactically developed as older players.

The most enjoyable things are that in scrimmages it has been relatively easy to get a big change in result from basic tactical ideas: defenders pressing high up, sticking an extra midfielder on to control possession, simple things that aren't emphasized enough in the youth game here. The other enjoyable thing is that they are basically a clean slate and don't have to unlearn any bad habits, so when I tell them to play a certain way they just take it as a given that I know what I'm doing.

There are 2 or 3 pretty promising players.

[Ugly Bastard]

Is there some endgame to taking on this coaching role? Or did you just want to do it for the sake of doing it?

[Beebs]

No real endgame, just enjoy the game.

[thekremlin]

Not that I have anything really interesting to add, but I haven't said anything here and I'm feeling useless. I coached the same boys team all through HS, from when they were U10 to U13. Pretty much the same core group the whole time. My co-coach was fathers of one of the strikers. A lot of them had older brothers/sisters in my grade. We were OK.

[Beebs]

The hebrew kind of brings up an issue me and the other coach are dealing with; to what degree do you assign kids a position vs teaching them as many positions as possible. It's sort of a smaller part of the larger question of how important is winning? Obviously winning isn't really the end goal at u12, but the kids obviously have more fun winning than losing, and are smart enough to realize what their best team is.

The part I'm especially dealing with is goalkeepers, we don't really have any on either team, a few have played there, but none would consider themselves a goalie. The last thing I want to do is make somebody who doesn't want to play goalie a lot, and even if I do find a few that like it, I don't want to limit their development for the other positions.

Personally I played goalie in the first organized game I ever played and never really left; that helped me in a lot of ways but also had some disadvantages. Mainly I stopped growing at 5'7" in middle school, so was always the shortest keeper I knew, it's not a huge deal, but high level keepers tend to be around 6' tall, with 1 exception I can think of. On the other hand if you always think of yourself as a keeper, but still do a lot of drills meant for outfield players, you transfer those skills back to the keeper position easier than if you split time between positions; my best quality as I got older was my ability to play with my feet, which was important as one of the first generations of keepers to grow up with the passback rule.

So hopefully I can develop at least 1 girl per team who enjoys playing keeper but is able to comfortably play elsewhere, and 1 per team who can be an emergency backup who is comfortable enough in goal to get by. Longer term if you get 2 keepers close together in age, it's going to be an issue when they get to high school that they can't both be the starter.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

Dude, you're coaching little girls. Babysit them for the hour you have them and collect your paycheck. Worry more about how the development of their tits is going.

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mistoffelees

paycheck

The entertainment comes from getting them to play in the style I want, so it's much less fun if they just suck.

It's like a real life management simulator (yes I just compared real life to a real version of a simulation of real life, fuck you, wanna fight about it?)

[Beebs]

Won first game 6-0, first 30 seconds was rather poor, then pretty much ran the game.

[Beebs]

Won second game 4-2 after going down 0-2.

So far one noticeable thing is that club teams are different than school teams; everybody is there because they choose to be, you can play for a different club if you want to.

[Mr. Blonde]

do you remember the "girls volleyball choking" drama in middle school/high school, Beebs?

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

do you remember the "girls volleyball choking" drama in middle school/high school, Beebs?

No, I sort of remember that it was a thing, but that just might be because you said something; what was it?

[Mr. Blonde]

I can't remember the coach at the time, but I think whoever coached JV girls VB "chocked" one of the girls once -- it wasn't really a choke, more of like a "hands on the shoulders" thing I reckon but you know how bitches/parents overreact. I only remember it because my sis was on varsity at the time. Just randomly thought of it.

[thekremlin]

Coach/player strangulation was a hot topic at the time.

[Beebs]

So this season has been a blast so far; only having 2 practices a week makes it much less of a drain. The main thing is that the other coach sets up most of the drills in practice, which gives me time to work on broader ideas.

My favorite thing though has been working with 2 girls who have both become willing goalkeepers, being the position I played my whole career, this is my specialty, and I feel like I can actually give technical pointers that are useful. They have taken to it very very well too; getting them in the right mindset is key, they have to be brave. One of them broke her finger in a game and kept playing, not even mentioning it. I had to stop her from playing gk in practice several times when she had a splint on her finger.

[Beebs]

So most strangely, I've suddenly, like in the past month, gone from talking about running a club wide goalkeeper clinic, to a personal goalkeeper trainer who gets paid to teach kids to play goalie, which seems absurd on some level to me.

I think this might be fun, I can only offer tactical advise to regular outfield players beyond a certain level of basic touch and passing, I can't really show a kid who wants to play striker how to beat a guy to a header or show them a good dribble, but I can give a goalkeeper technical advise because I've played there for my whole soccer life including now.

I do need to get in better shape to be able to show a basic level of technique as example; ideally there will be some more experienced keepers who are far better than me, but might not now how to adjust his or her game beyond their physical ability.

I just starting working with a U11 girls team, I really have no idea what to expect because the team was split into an A team and a B team essentially, with me taking the B, but I think I value talent very differently. I'm kind of glad the teams play and for the most part practice separately, because I don't think he would understand me nerding out about the formation. I had total control with the 8th graders, and played a formation I don't think any of the other teams played. In the being a bit of an assistant coach with a U11 and U12 team that practiced and played together, we started off playing what seemed to be the default formation with 7 kids plus a goalie, but when I suggested changing it for certain situations, the other coach was totally down with me doing whatever I thought was best.

The coach of the new A team I'm not so sure about.

[Dent]

Happy birthday Beebs
A question, do you have to hand out Beebs to the kids to distinguish the teams?

[Beebs]

They're called pennies here

[thekremlin]

In England, one percent of a pound is a "pence". Fine, they have different names for things, you get used to it. But they abbreviate "pence" to "p". As in, a can of soda costs "ninety-nine p". This is exactly like if Americans called "cents" "c"s. THE WORD "PENCE" IS SHORT ENOUGH.

[Orgazmo]

¢