The first season of my coaching career came to a close a few weeks ago. The girls' final match clashed with Richmond's relegation battle in the Victorian Premier League. While I was concerned with Richmond's plight (they ended up beating Sunshine 8-0, ensuring their presence in the VPL next year), I was suprised that I never once thought about Richmond while the girls were playing.
Our final match was a good reflection of the whole season. A competitive match of the whole season. A competitive match, we weren't the pushovers that the final scoreline of 3-0 suggested. Just the usual lapses in concentration and an inability to take hold of our opportunities. I know the girls can play as a team, although individually they lacked many of the skills that individuals in opposition teams have.
As the girls could only commit to one training session a week, I don't think I had the time to work with each of them on ball control, passing, dribbling and shooting. Technically there was a lot of work to do, so I took the approach of teaching them how to play the pall to the best of their abilities. From that perspective, I thought that they had a few great moments through the season, particularly towards the end, and they noticed it themselves too.
And if they can notice it themselves, it tells me that they started to understand football a little bit better. As for next year, I don't think I'll be keeping the same team. The U15 coach's daughter will move to the U16 team next year, so I expect that he will take on that team. The girls who will be too old from the U16 next year will probably move onto the U18 team. The team also has a father of one of the players coaching. So I'll just have to wait and see what happens.
From a personal perspective, I think I'm a lot more patient now. I'm very competitive and this clashed somewhat with the girls' lack of competitiveness. Two or three were competitive, but it wasn't sufficient to carry the whole team. So I had to be the one to bend. We'll see how I go next season.
1 comment:
Great effort Cecilia, as a teacher of sorts, I have discovered patience to be the most learned of curves...
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