The Huddle - Edition 13

Intro
You’re Back, Thank You!

With school in full swing, many kids are juggling academics, homework, and extracurricular activities. As a parent-coach, it’s crucial to keep practices and games fun, energetic, and focused—especially when your players might already be mentally exhausted. This week, we focus on tips and strategies for maintaining energy and focus during practices and games to help your team thrive despite their busy schedules.

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Insight of the week
Keeping Kids Energized and Focused Amid Busy Schedules

Balancing schoolwork and sports can be draining for young athletes. Kids are often mentally and physically tired when they show up for practice after a long day. However, keeping them engaged and energized can not only make practices more enjoyable but also lead to better performance during games.

Key Stat: A report by the American Psychological Association shows that 45% of children report feeling stressed by school-related tasks, with sports often compounding their daily workload.

How to Keep Players Energized:

1. Short and Dynamic Practices: Focus on high-energy, short-duration drills to maintain focus. Long, drawn-out sessions can cause fatigue and disengagement.

2. Positive Energy and Encouragement: A positive coaching style can lift players’ spirits and energize them even when they’re tired. Frequent, genuine encouragement goes a long way.

3. Fun Breaks: Incorporate short, fun activities in the middle of practice to give their minds a quick break and reset.

Drill of the week
Quick Throw Relay

Sport: Softball/Baseball

Objective: Teach players to improve their throwing accuracy, speed, and teamwork, while keeping them moving and engaged throughout the drill.

Setup:

• Mark two lines, 60 feet apart, using cones or markers.

• Divide players into two teams and place them on each line in a single file line.

• Each team gets a baseball/softball.

Instructions:

1. Relay Setup: The first player on each team throws the ball to the next player across from them and that player then throws to the person second in line from the first group. The goal is to complete the relay as quickly as possible without dropping the ball.

2. Focus Areas: Coaches should encourage quick transitions, proper throwing mechanics (elbow up, follow through), and catching fundamentals.

3. Competition: The team that completes the relay first, with accurate throws and clean catches, wins the round. If the ball is dropped, the player must retrieve it and return to their spot before continuing.

Advanced Version:

• Increase Difficulty: Add a time limit for each throw, requiring players to pass the ball within 3 seconds to maintain the relay speed.

• Longer Field: Instead of single file lines throwing back and forth, spread kids out in their lines with about 40 - 60 feet between each player. Have them complete the relay by advancing the ball to the next person in line (this works on smooth rotations and glove to hand transitions).

• Shorten Reaction Time: Reduce the distance between players and have them perform rapid-fire throws to build reflexes and faster decision-making.

• Add Targets: Place targets at each end for players to hit with the ball before completing the relay.

Tip: This drill keeps players on their toes, focused, and moving constantly. Emphasize teamwork by rewarding teams that communicate well and complete the relay with the fewest errors.

Coaching tip of the week
Games Within the Drill

After a long day of school, practices can feel like a chore for some young athletes. But making practice fun and rewarding through "games within the game" helps players stay focused, energized, and excited to improve.

1. Points for Effort-Based Plays:

   • Example: Award points for hustle plays like backing up a teammate, communicating on the field, or recovering a loose ball. This encourages effort and focus even when players are tired.

   • Tip: Keep track of these points during practices or games and offer small rewards or recognition at the end of the week for those who consistently engage.

2. Set Personal Challenges:

   • Example: Create individual mini-goals for each player to achieve during practice, such as making 10 accurate throws in a row or catching three fly balls.

   • Tip: Use personal challenges to keep players focused on their growth rather than on their immediate fatigue or distraction.

3. Team-Oriented Goals:

   • Example: Have the team aim for five consecutive error-free passes or achieve a certain number of outs within a drill. Create small team-based challenges that help players focus on working together.

   • Tip: Reward the team for reaching these milestones, which keeps everyone focused on collaboration and collective effort rather than individual success.

Impact of Games Within the Game: Incorporating mini-games and effort-based rewards helps break up the monotony of drills and keeps players invested, even when they’re tired. It encourages them to focus on the small wins, promotes teamwork, and keeps the energy level high.

Blog highlight
The School Effect

As the school year kicks off, many young athletes face a juggling act between school, homework, extracurricular activities, and their sports commitments. While this is part of growing up and learning responsibility, it can lead to mental and physical fatigue that affects performance during practices and games. As a parent-coach, it’s important to recognize these challenges and implement strategies that keep kids energized and focused on the field. With the right approach, you can help your athletes stay engaged, energized, and motivated even when they’re balancing a heavy load.

Through a Season
Follow Me Through a Soccer Season

This week we held our 3^rd  practice after our 2^nd  came of the season.  We lost a close one, but the girls had fun.  I noticed during the game that a good number of the players were confused on where they should position themselves on the field during the game.  Many times, they collapsed on each other (herd ball), and others they were just caught off guard.  So for our practice this week, here's what we did:

• We slowed things down during the first half of practice doing what I call a SloMo practice.  

  • I started by placing cones in the starting positions for each position and then I had a player stand in place next to the cone.

    • At this age we only play with 7 (6 fielders and 1 goalie).  If your team is larger than that, then just double up players at the cone positions. 

    • I had them visualize the separation between the positions as the field was "covered" by doing this. 

    • Then I held a ball in my hand and walked to a specific place on the field.

    • I asked them to pick the cone up and place it (and themselves) where they think it should go in relation to where the ball was. 

      • This was revealing.  Some of the players understood where to be placed, but some of them were wildly out of position. 

      • We took time to discuss where they should actually be positioned and the reasons why. 

      • After doing this a couple of times at different ball placement areas, I had the girls find a new cone/position and we continued.

      • We did this for about 30 minutes.

Note: While you're doing this drill on your own end, it's also helpful to have another coach work with your goalie to understand how they shift side to side based on where the ball is. 

• After the SloMo drill, we spent about 20 minutes scrimmaging at full speed with another team.  

  • During this scrimmage I could see a vast improvement of positioning.

  • And for those that still fell out of position, when they were coached, they were able to correct things quickly. 

• This might be one of the most useful drills we'll do all season, and I plan to do it more. 

Equipment highlight
Controlled Hitting

This is one of the nicest hitting nets that I’ve seen, for multiple reasons. From a functional aspect, this breaks down nicely so it can be put away in a compact area. No need to keep it together at all times. From a practice aspect, this is fantastic because it enables your players to practice hitting without chasing balls down around the court (or yard). It doesn’t require an additional person to receive the hit either as everything funnels into the net and down into the retrieval area. This one is on sale over the next few days as well. So scoop it up!

Content
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You might be new to coaching a team or sport. You may be a grizzled coaching veteran. Either way, check out the content section of thecoachingdad.com. You’ll find resources that cover a large number of sports including game refreshers, position breakdowns, injury management, practice ideas and more.

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