Last week, my U7 Girls soccer team got creamed. The reason was simple: the other team spread out, and one person stayed back on defense. My girls, on the other hand, rushed around like a school of fish... getting in each other's way and impeding each other's progress.
So, today, we ran one drill several different ways... for the whole practice. Spreading out, avoiding the defender, and passing to the open girl. ("Girl," by the way, is their choice. I asked if they wanted to be addressed as "women, ladies, or girls." They unanimously chose "girls.") The thing about running drills with 1st graders is that you can't always tell if they are listening. It's slow going, and the kids tend to space out.
But when game time came... holy shit! They spread out, kept the ball moving... the defender cleared the ball to the sidelines... and we had scoring opportunity after scoring opportunity. If the goal was six-inches wider, the score would have been 8-0. As it was, it was 2-0. I felt bad for the other team... they nearly scored twice, but didn't.
The lesson I learned is that lessons are learned. I'm really, really proud of my team. They showed a LOT of heart... and even though I thought they were barely listening, it turns out I had their attention.
(My daughter, by the way, had an assist.)
1 comment:
Awesome. Isn't it just incredible to watch them develop these skills? For my daughter, it was a single practice where a local MLS player gave her some pointers on being a goalie, and WHAM! She became an aggressive, in-your-face goalie, who now sports the bruises to prove it!
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