Keeping Each other's Tank's Full

Have you ever heard of the home court advantage?
It turns out that teams win a lot more at home than they do at away fields. Why does this happen? One reason for this is the emotional support of the fans. Emotional support has the ability to lift our spirits and make us play better.

For us to play our best as a team, it is important for each one of us to keep our "Emotional Tank" full. Our emotional tanks are like gas tanks in cars. With a full tank, you can go anywhere you want. But with an empty tank, it’s hard to even get your engine started.

Why is it important if we keep our tanks full?
If our tank is empty, we can become negative, and give up more easily. With a full tank however, we are more optimistic and able to overcome difficult situations. As the coach, I will do my best to help fill your emotional tank… but the more players and parents on our team that help, the better we all will play.

Think about missing a shot or a tackle. 

What could someone say to make you feel worse?

“Ughhh!”
“Come on!”
"I could have made that!"

Saying these types of things will drain your teammate’s emotional tank and make them feel worse. As your coach it is my job to help you learn the game of soccer, so it will be necessary for me to correct you at times. When I do this, I promise to try to do it in a way that will keep your emotional tank full and keep you feeling good about yourself.

Now…what could you say to make a teammate feel better after they miss a shot?

"You’ll get the next one!"

"Unlucky"

“Good idea”

“That was so close, good try!”

More ways to help fill your teammates’ tanks:

·Acknowledge your teammates when you see them giving their maximum effort, even if they don't make the play. 

·Tell your teammates when you see them improving.

·Show your teammates that their thoughts are important to you, by listening to their ideas.

Can you think of any other ways to help fill your teammates’ emotional tanks?

This season is going to be an especially great one if we support each other and keep our emotional tanks full. I’m looking forward to this weekend… I will see you all on the field!!
-Coach Eric

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome to the FCB Blog for U-11 & U-12 parents and players! Please check the blog as often as you like or when you receive an email reminder. It’s full of technical training tidbits and lots of other stuff to help the girl’s be the best player they can be. This first blog post lets you know what we’ve been working on during practice and previews what’s coming in September. I’m looking forward to a great year!

The Inside Scoop on What We've Been Practicing
During the first week of practice, we focused quite a bit of time on individual foot-skills and when to use these skills. We did moves to beat players 1 versus 1, moves to take the ball away from pressure, and hesitation and double moves. I hope all of the girls can name at least 2 moves from each of these categories and demonstrate how to do them. (This is your daughter's cue to show you what they've learned).

After the foot-skills and 1v1s, we progressed to attacking in groups of 3. We started the travel camp week with 3 against 0 (talking about how to move, where to move, and how to pass). We progressed this slowly all the way to 3 on 3. I designed the practices this way to continuously give the girls the right balance of challenge and success. Once the team found regular success in an activity, we added another defender to make it more challenging.