It got cold fast! No chance of outdoor
training now!
I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday season and a Happy New Year!
Barry
1. fall training
2. MYSA/USSF coach training
3. MYSA Winter Symposium
4. website of the month
5. article of the month - The
Role of Captains
1. fall training - we're down to the last few weeks of
our fall footskills training. Please be sure to reserve Jan-Feb time for
your team by contacting Jef Dawson. I would
also recommend that teams take advantage of the professional training available
with Marc Sutton. For that option, you would still come and lead your
team through the drills Marc runs.
2. No new E Certificate or D License classes have been announced. There
is one Y module class listed. We are also working on bringing a Y module
class to Valley United!
3. MYSA Winter Symposium Feb. 6 and 7. Information is posted at http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/
4. Website of the Month - Exercises of the Day by
http://www.dprsports.com/
a great collection of drills and ideas!
5. article of the month - The Role
of Captains
By David Jacobson
In preparation for your next season, give some thought to
the role of captains on your team. In a recent Leadership Roundtable Conference
Call for leaders of schools and youth sports organizations partnered with
Positive Coaching Alliance, we identified several best practices in:
* The criteria used to name captains
* Specific responsibilities captains are given
* How captains can help establish and maintain your program's culture.
All are important considerations that can help you succeed
this season and beyond, on the field and beyond.
Criteria
Rather than simply awarding the title of captain to your leading scorer or your
virtuoso midfielder, Positive Coaching Alliance recommends that captains be
"Triple-Impact Competitors," who are committed to improving
themselves, their teammates and the game as a whole. As a coach, introduce the
concept of the Triple-Impact Competitor during tryouts and preseason so that
players understand the basis on which you will select captains.
In addition to helping you identify captains, this will
inspire players who aspire to captaincy to suddenly pay a bit more attention to
helping their teammates. Of course, this improves individual and team
performance and can reinforce a strong team culture, which carries rewards far
beyond the playing field.
Once you have identified your Triple-Impact Competitors,
other factors that can determine whom you name captain include:
* Who works the hardest in preseason
* Who singularly goes above and beyond your expectations in terms of improving
self, teammates or game
* Who might contribute even more to your team due to the psychological boost of
being named captain.
Responsibilities
Captains should complement coaches as arbiters of team culture. Sometimes they
may help you focus players' attention when it wanders. Other times they may
represent players' points of view on game strategy, practice plans or how to
ensure that all players stay aligned toward team goals.
Each coach must find his or her own comfort level with the
captain's level of authority among teammates and take care to understand and
cultivate the appropriate level of respect teammates afford to captains. With
the right balance, coaches can keep a finger on the pulse of the team through
the captains, and captains can voice the players' divergent ideas to coaches
without undermining the coaches' authority.
Captains also can lead in a variety of routine ways, such
as:
* Leading stretching and warm-up/cool-down sessions
* Communicating with referees
* Organizing off-field activities
* Finding ways to include teammates who are less integrated into the team
* Helping settle disagreements among teammates
* Assigning other routine tasks, such as carrying equipment or preparing
practice fields, making sure to take their turn in leading by example.
Establishing and Maintaining Your Program's Culture
Choosing the right captains and charging them with
appropriate responsibilities sets them up not just as team leaders but as
exemplars for your program. They can proudly represent your team in the broader
community, such as booster clubs or school or district administrators.
They can visit the clubs or leagues that feed your program
and encourage younger players to continue working on their games so they can
someday play for you. And they can return after graduating from your program to
share inspiring stories of the past with their successors who are carrying
forward the established values, traditions and culture of your program.
(David Jacobson is the Marketing Communications Manager of the Positive
Coaching Alliance . To request information on PCA's high school level workshops - "Becoming a
Triple-Impact Competitor" [for athletes] and "Developing
Triple-Impact Competitors" [for coaches], visit http://www.positivecoach.org/