Additional Post 2: Competing as a Team, a Tie and Learning from Mistakes

Coaching is extraordinarily rewarding.  Not only do the players have fun, but the coaches do to.  This is especially true if the team is doing well.  You get to watch a group of (in this case) girls, join together to preform in front of their parents, their friends, and coaches.  They warm up, get their heads in the game,

and score goals.  As teammates they rely on one another to keep the ball out of their half of the field, their third of the field, and most importantly, the penalty area. 

Pre-Game Warmup

" I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion."

-Mia Hamm, former Women's National Team player

Referring back to the penalty area, it is the goalkeeper's job to defend it.  It is their house; their home.  It is the job of the goalkeeper to keep the ball out of the net.  If you ask anyone of us about our least favorite sound on the field, it will always be the sound the ball makes when it hits the back of the net.  To prevent that noise from happening a goalkeeper is required to communicate, be in good form, and be aggressive.  I am putting a lot of stock into the keepers.  There is fault in that.   During play there are 10 other players on the field capable of stopping the ball before it even gets into the penalty area.  Those players are there to prevent goals.  In fact, I was once told by a wise individual that 99% of goals scored aren't the fault of the keeper, but the other 10 players that allowed the attackers to get close enough to score.

"The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible.  It's the biggest sin in [soccer] to make him do any work"

- George Graham, former Arsenal head coach

The team I am helping coach had a game today, 9.21.13.  I went through last minute pointers with the keepers that took the field and then left them to their own devices.  A good coach doesn't scream at the players on the field, but lets them play and learn from their mistakes.  That is exactly what happened today.  The girls were ahead.  A girl from the other team controlled a ball after a corner kick and took a big swing.  She got lucky, and it went in.  Now we were tied.  After half time the opposing team scored again.  There was a new keeper in for us now.  She hasn't been at practice and hasn't benefited from any coaching.  She let in a goal at the near post.  A poor mistake, but one she'll learn from.  It took us until the last minute of the game to tie it up again.

The elation on the girl's faces after they scored that second goal that tied the game was unmatched.  There is a raw happiness that comes from the girls that you don't see very often.  There is no faking the happiness they feel when they come back from the bottom.  I remember that feeling, and I experience that still today.  But that's for a later post.

After today, the girls know they need to forget about the game, yet still learn from their mistakes.  Kim and I made the plan for the next practice.  We know what needs to be done, and together we will make the team better.