Back for Week Four. Quality Play all Around.

     I was watching a U10 game yesterday and was really struck by the high quality of play from both sides.  Lots of calm, soft touches on the ball from many players.  Lots of thoughtful, imaginative passing.  Lots of fearless challenges for the ball.  What I didn't see was a lot of "kick-ball", the aimless volleying of the ball back and forth that drives Coaches crazy.  If you saw two youth Basketball teams standing in their respective halves of the court simply throwing the ball back and forth at each other over the mid-court line you'd immediately think "hey, that's not really how you play the game."  With Soccer it can be very hard to convince the kids that the game is not about kicking the ball but, as with Basketball, the game is about  possessing the ball.
     So anyway, I'm watching this U10 game and I can see kids who just a few sessions ago were wildly kicking at every ball that came near them are now patiently settling the ball, looking around a bit and thinking about their next move.  The transformation is dramatic and thrilling to see.  I watched a U8 game after that and then coached a U8 game of my own and in both of those too the level of play was fantastic and dramatically improved over what we were seeing from mostly these same kids just three sessions ago.  When the final game ended the referee complimented the league as a whole, noting that he's refereeing lots of games, including select club games and the quality of play in NKYA is as good as anything he's seen locally.  Well done Coaches and players...well done.