Nightly Plan: Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Tonight's Announcements

Hey everyone! It was a blast hanging out with so many of you last night at Flatbread. Last night's cancellation was a bummer, but we are super pumped about tonight's forecast and excited to see you all on the field! 

• Tonight's skill: Control, Throw-ins, & Dribbling (you will have some choice in your drills to combine last night and tonight's skillwork). Please look over yesterday's post to review the dribbling drills.
• Tonight's theme: Perseverance
• Please review your time slot: Logistics = 4:30pm, Registration & Lead Staff = 5pm, All other volunteers = 5:30pm, or 7pm
  
• Parents' Game Tonight: tonight we'll have a special parents vs. coaches game starting at 8:10pm. Please pay close attention to the schedule listed below and make sure to listen for Brian's announcements during the night. Also please read the parents game how-to below.
• After Hours Thursday - Volunteer Scrimmage:  Tomorrow night after kids depart we will be having our traditional volunteer  scrimmage on the field! Don't be shy if you're not a soccer player - this is a game for everyone and it's always a blast. 
• Assignment changes: I know we had to switch a few of you around last night due to some coaching holes, so thank you for being flexible. We will be making a few more changes tonight to ensure that each team is well-staffed and no coach is left by him/herself. If you have to move teams tonight, I apologize!
• #soccernights2015 - if you have pictures from the week, post them using #soccernights2015 so we can see them! You can also tag @soccer_nights on twitter and instagram !

Tonight's Schedule

5:30PM: Registration, coaches warm up with kids
5:45PM: Coaching staff meets with Brian at bleachers  to go over daily drills (in 2 shifts)
6:10PM: Large Group welcome (starting a bit early tonight)
6:30PM: Warm-ups & games in Division, skills demonstration (Skill: Dribbling & Controlling)
6:40PM: Team Time #1
6:45PM-7:10PM: Team Drill Work
7:10-7:15: Team Time #2
7:20PM: Scrimmages 
7:45PM: Closing Large Group. Present “Heroes of the Night.” Teach Dance. (Parents and coaches playing in games, meet in center field with terry)
8:00PM: Dismiss to teams, set up for parents game, Team Time #3
8:10PM: Parents Game, kids seated in teams while snack is distributed
8:30PM: Check out in teams 
8:45PM: Debriefing in Divisions
9:00PM: Large Group Debrief

Tonight's Skill: Control, Throw-ins, and Dribbling 

Soccer Nights, Day 3: Controlling & Throw-ins from vineyardcommunityofferings on Vimeo.

**NOTE TO COACHES: Feel free to modify this and/ or do some different drills- as long as the kids are having fun and learning how to control the ball we are on the right track!

See also pages 13-18 of Soccer Curriculum Packet.

Coaching Skills to focus on:
CONTROLLING
1) Move your feet (be prepared)
2) Set up the next action

THROW-INS
1) Two hands
2) Bring ball all the way behind your head/neck
3) Keep both feet on the ground

Exercises/Drills
1) PAIR THROWS
Set Up: Partner Players up (by skill), Each set of partners gets a ball 3- 4 yards apart
Play: Player underhand tosses the ball to the other player
1.     Thigh trap
2.     Chest trap
3.     Headers (NOT IN CAMBRIDGE. ILLEGAL)
4.     Foot trap

2) THROW AND PASS
Set Up: (Same as drill 1, but pass to someone else, or dribble through cones)
Tips: Focus: Prepare your control, so you can do something with it after (pass to teammate, pass through cones)

3) THROW-INS 
Set Up: Same as above, 5-10 yards apart
Play: Throw it in, throw back and forth
Focus on form (use two hands, all the way behind your head)
PROGRESSION:Throw it in to each other, trap/control it

Games
1) TOSS IN A BOX 
Set Up: Make a big box, have players stand 15-20 yards away
Competition to see if players can throw ball, so that it stays in the box

2) WHO CAN THROW FARTHEST
 
3) TRAP IN A BOX
Have kids trap the ball in a box, keep making the box smaller
(point: focus on control)

Tonight's Theme: Perseverance

Team Time #1 (before drill work) 

• • ○ Review names, welcome new players
    
  • - Recap last night’s goal
    
  • - Set goal for the night!
    
  • • possible goals:
      
    • • - Tonight as a team we will give 110% and challenge ourselves to keep going even when we are tired, or if we are losing and discouraged.
        
      • - We will individually identify something we really need work on (could be soccer skill or character/behavior related) and we’ll work hard to improve in that during the night.
        

○ Review Hero of the Night: VICE MAYOR BENZAN
■      talk about skit
■      How does VICE MAYOR BENZAN show PERSEVERANCE?

Team Time #2 (before scrimmage)

• - Check in on team goal for the night:-
• -- How are we doing so far?
• • --what could we do to improve?
  • -- if we’ve already reached it, what could we add to challenge ourselves?

• --who has shown the value of PERSEVERANCE like VICE MAYOR BENZAN?  when?
  
  
• Team Time: #3 (after large group, while parents game is set up)
  

• -Check in on team goal for the night:
• • • --how did we do?
    • --what could we do to improve as a team for tomorrow?
    • -what did you learn tonight about controlling/throwins/dribbling? (1-2 ppl share)
  • ---what did you learn tonight about perseverance? (1-2 ppl share)

• --what did you learn tonight about our hero? (1-2 ppl share)
  
  

Tonight's Parents' Game: How it Works

When is the game, and who plays?
The Parents Game will be at approximately 8:10pm tonight, AFTER large group (we'll do large group early). We'll set up two fields, one on each half of the regular soccer field, with the goals on the sidelines.  Games will be 10 v. 10, and can be either coaches vs. parents or coaches AND parents. It is vital that at least ONE coach from each team stays with the kids during the game. Coaches, unfortunately this means that not everyone can play in this game. Sorry! Fortunately we're having a volunteer scrimmage after programming tomorrow night where everyone can play!

Where are kids sitting?
Blue division = in teams, spaced out along outer perimeter of blue division area (end zone)
Orange division - in teams, spaced out between the two 40 yd lines
Green Division = in teams, spaced out along far end zone nearest to far end zone

How will team time, snack, & checkout work during parents game?
Before the parents game begins, coaches & assistant coaches should lead their teams to sit along the perimeter of the two fields, spaced out so that each team has its own space and is separate enough from other teams. Once teams are sitting together with whatever coach is NOT participating in the game, coaches should engage team in quick team time while waiting for snack volunteers to come and hand out snack to them in teams. Kids should NOT be running to get watermelon from the snack volunteers over near the division table. Snack will be brought TO teams when they are demonstrating they are ready (by sitting with their team ready to watch the game). While you wait for snack, talk to your team about how the night went and if you met your goal. 

Check out: During the closing dance time, coaches not playing in game should go retrieve checkout clipboards from division area so you're ready to meet your teams when they are dismissed from large group.  Check out tongiht is similar to other nights in that parents must check out with coaches. Parents who are not participating in the game may come sooner than those playing. Parents who are participating in the game may end up checking their kids out later than our normal time, as we usually let the game run a bit past 8:30.

Tips from Brian for how to occupy kids during Coaches/Parents game (for EVERYONE, not just coaches): 
During the scrimmage there are a few things you can be doing with your division:

• When your Division’s team has the ball, you can lead a cheer of Go, Go Go!!!
• When they pass, you can get your team to say in unison, “What a pass?!!” 
• When someone on your team is dribbling, you can yell in unison, “Dribble, dribble, dribble”
• Anytime your Division’s team takes a shot on goal, the whole team should do your Division’s cheer, which we practiced yesterday.
• When you team is on Defense, you can get your team to cheer De-  Fense!  De- Fense! (Like the do at basketball games.)  Or you can lead them in a cheer of “Heeeeeeeyyyy insert Division Name
•  ... Get the ball back! Repeat this.
• Additionally, each team should come up with a dance that they want to use in case your Division’s team scores a goal. 
• These are just some ideas, feel free to get creative and have fun! 

Point System Reminder

Throughout the week, division leaders will keep track of points awarded to the teams in their divisions. Divisions will compete against each other for the most points at the end of the week, and the participants in the winning division will receive a small prize.

Ways to earn points

Team Time: Explained later, during team time teams will set a nightly goal. Coaches may award points for teams meeting their goal.

○      Completely met  = 10 points
○      Majority of team met goal = 8 points
○      Partially met = 5 points

Awarding to individuals: coaches or division leaders may award points to individual participants for anything they see fit, including but not limited to the following:

○      embodying RRT (respect your coach, respect your teammates, try your hardest)
○      exceptional commitment to either theme or skill of the night
○      specific challenges during the night (e.g. making a drill harder or challenging a particular kid during the scrimmage to meet a specific goal for X amount of points)

Large Group Competitions:
○      Each night there will be competitions between divisions during opening large group (outlined later). Winning division will be allotted 10 points for the night.

Regulating Points
In past years we have had all divisions “compete” when in actuality they were all working together to reach a corporate goal. Thus, when different divisions had different economies for awarding points, it didn’t really matter. THis year as teams are actually competing, we’d like to strive for more consistency. I’ve suggested point values for some things (like nightly team goals and large group competitions), but additional points can be at the discretion of coaches and division leaders. While obviously each division will vary (especially at sites where some divisions have more teams than others), divisions should aim for somewhere in the 30-60 realm for points per night.