I practiced with my kids last wednesday. Only a handful showed up, but we practiced just like we would normally. My two new kids showed almost zero coordination so I worked with them on the "a defender stays in this area and kicks the ball as hard as they can outside" method. I'll teach them more as the weeks go on. I figured I would play the first game pretty defensively with just 1 forward, 2 midfielders, 3 defenders and lil lookout in goal.
Lil Lookout changed that plan for me friday night when he found out he can't fly. He leaned too far out of his bunkbed for a book and went overboard. He scratched his face up pretty good, but I thought his arm might be broken. The Xrays said no break, but a pretty good sprain in his left wrist. No goalkeeping with that hand. I wouldn't have even let him play if I thought I wouldn't kill him as a reaction to his complaining about being left on the bench.
I started with the same idea as before but with lil lookout as the defensive midfielder and another boy in goal. The other team kicked off straight to lil lookout who drove straight down the center and scored from well outside the box. 10 seconds: goal. Wow, that was a fluke. 20 seconds later my team had their second goal. We had five goals in 5 minutes. The other coach wasn't giving any directions, he didn't make any changes on the field, he just stood there quietly. I realized at that point that he wanted my kids to pick his team apart so he would have an excuse to switch players around. I love my kids together and don't want them split up for this session as it is the last they'll be together anyway. 4 of them move up to the next age group at the end of this session and I want them together one last time. I called the program director over and asked him to watch the game. I moved lil lookout, hurt arm and all, into the goal, and moved my other two real scorers into defense, pushed my two newbies up, and told them all to just have fun. I subbed all my strongest players through the goal box and as I'd send them back out I'd tell them the game was already won, now lets work on "__________". Lil Lookout, B, C, and C were only allowed to shoot with their left foot or get an assist.
From that point on the game was a lot of fun. My kids would just pass it around and try to get the new kids to score by passing to them right in front of the goal. One of my parents took it upon himself to go coach and direct the other team's keeper through the net. My kids scored three more times but I think they learned a lot more with the way the were passing to each other. Goals were off the table, so they were motivated to get the passes in and it was pretty impressive. They finished the game with the traditional cheer for the other team. The losing team was still having fun because everyone would cheer when they would come close our goal, so they weren't embarrassed. Kids are kids and they'll have fun if you let them.
After the game the kids all shook hands and then both teams took a ball and kept playing in the background while we had coach/parent meetings. I warned the parents that the rest of the games will look different because the other coaches are going to
try to win. duh. Pretty frustrated at the crappiness from the other coach, but I think we managed to turn it into a good game in spite of him. All in all, a good week.
The program director realized the other coach wasn't coaching so he didn't switch the players around either.
