Coaches Blog January 2012

Well what can I say............firstly a belated Happy New Year to all the SC Gjoa family. I trust everyone is now rested after the holidays and getting back in the Soccer swing of things. I also want to extend a huge thanks to all the teams for their generous gifts to me and the other coaches. I have never before experienced such generosity and it really was much appreciated.

Now, I have been somewhat pre-occupied with work of late and seem to have neglected my blog writing duties for which I eternally apologise. Personally, I put it down to the 2-month long food hangover that I have suffered from since consuming what can only be described as “The world’s best meal” at the hands of Messrs Tucker & Cassidy (That is John & Becky of Rose Water fame) at Thanksgiving. I arrived at the meal with childhood enthusiasm and left with what only can be described as a third trimester body frame. I can now start to understand why programs such as “The Biggest Loser” exist.

Staying with the topic of food, I just wanted to give all you parents a little nudge on diets and suitable food for the players. Having spent the last few weeks at tournaments, I have noted that the food they provide is somewhat lacking in the nutrition column. On this basis, can we all look to provide the kids with some suitable food (bagels, fruit, nuts, juices) to take to tournaments so as to avoid the world hot dog eating championship which I observed this week at Clarkstown. I would also ask that your children eat in good time before a game as eating late will cause the body’s energy stores to concentrate on processing food instead of powering your child’s engine. If you want further advice, please see the following link - http://www.soccer-training-info.com/eating_right_for_soccer.asp. Whilst I don’t mean to preach, this really is important and will not only improve your child’s performance in sports, but will improve their sleeping patterns, behavior and brain performance.

Moving back to more exciting topics, let talk about soccer! If we were in England right now, we would be in the middle of the regular season playing in whatever weather mother earth could throw at us.....below is a lovely example of what a cold winter’s day in England presented back in the “good old days”. 

Thankfully at Gjoa, the above isn’t an issue. It is great that the players have the chance to train indoors as this is a valuable time for them to hone their individual skills and improve their awareness in small spaces. That said, please remember to dress your child appropriately for Soccer as sweat pants indoors = 1 human furnace of a child.

Whilst we have only been working with the players since September, it was great to have the chance to see all the teams play in the Fall and see how far they have come since then. Whilst our coaching ethos is still in its infancy, the players are clearly learning & improving and having 3 teams challenging for 1^st place going in the last 2 weeks was great to see. In order for us to make it 11 teams guaranteeing 1^st place finishes, I need you to help me on the following:

1. Get to practice on time!
2. Try and allow your child the chance to watch professional soccer on TV.
3. Take time to read the nutritional information that I have highlighted as this will make a huge impact on your child’s life.
4. Really encourage your child to give 100% at training all the time as more realistic training = better performances in games.
5. Whilst I am all for enthusiasm at matches, please refrain from “coaching” your child as you won’t always be au fait with what has been worked on at practice and what we are trying to achieve in that game. 

We also want to avoid the situation where a player is trying to listening to 3 or 4 different voices on the field. One parent recently told me that a parent was screaming at their child so much as he was dribbling past them that the boy actually stopped and asked them what they were saying. That said; please continue to be loud, encouraging and positive as we all know how good it feels when someone tells you that you are doing a good job.

Almost there! My final message relates to overloading kids on sports/practices. I appreciate that kids want to do everything and I was a fine example of this as a child. It was training on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and the weekend sometimes yielded 4 soccer matches. Take this and add on basketball, tennis and the usual running around aimlessly and my body was being put through an incredible amount of work for a developing child. I even used to run 13.2 miles for “fun”. I really was a strange child. This ultimately led to injuries, operations and playing only 1 season of soccer between the ages of 18 and 30.

On this basis, please try to give your kids a break as we don’t want our players “burning out” before they have reached their peak. You only have to look at Freddie Adu (US Soccer player who made his professional debut aged 14) to see how detrimental this can be.

If we can keep working together to give our players the best chance to improve then the Spring will be even more fantastic than the Fall.

One final thing before I depart. For those parents who have been loading up their kids with tasty nutritious snacks for us coaches, I salute you. For those that haven’t, please take yourself to a quiet corner and think about what you have done!

See you on the field!

Yours in Soccer

Dean Selvey

Director of Coaching – SC Gjoa