Update 2/25/07

Ladies,
this is a repeat of a post from last year but I wanted to reiterate the importance of fitness and a solid technical foundation for soccer. We may have a few practices canceled here and there which we may or may not be able to make up. If we can't make them up, particularly the early ones, we need to make sure we're doing the things we're supposed to be doing to stay fit. Some of you are doing other sports right now and that is a good way to assist in your fitness upkeep.

Also, there will be changes in the schedule and I will try to add scrimmages in when possible.

1. Running - as I told you before, soccer running is just about all sprints - there is no jogging involved. Therefore, you can increase your soccer running fitness by doing "fartleks." This is when you sprint at regular intervals when you are on a run. For instance, try to run at a jog for 20 minutes. Every five minutes, increase your jog to a full sprint for 30 seconds (the fartlek), then slow back down to your jog. As you get better, you can run for longer periods and sprint for longer periods. For now, jog for 20 minutes with the sprints every five minutes.

2. Exercises - stomach exercises are very important. Do as many crunches in a sitting as you can. The crunches with your legs extended upward are very effective. Also, try to hold the "Bridges" for two minutes, then add on 15 seconds the next times you do them. Hold side bridges for about 30 seconds or as long as you can stand them.

TECHNICAL

1. Wall touches. If you have a brick wall at your house, and chances are you do (and your parents let you), practice striking a soccer ball against the wall. You only need to stand about 5 ft away from the wall to be effective. Hit the ball 100 times with each your left and right feet trapping the ball each time or playing one-touch back to the wall. This is a great way to improve your touch. You can also throw the ball against the wall and head it back or body trap. Do 50 body traps.

2. Juggling. If you don't have a wall, you can juggle the ball. Remember also to throw the ball a few feet in the air and practice trapping it with all parts of your body (except hands and arms!)If you do these few fitness and technical drills, you can greatly enhance your game in a short time. You won't need to spend time at practice going over the basics.

Team Update 2/18

Ladies,
fantastic job yesterday against the 91 Lady Lobos!
You played arguably the best 91 team in town in frigid conditions. You played against a howling wind in the first half - and going against the wind always fatigues a team worse than playing with the wind - which is why I always take the wind when given the choice at the coin toss. You played on after one of your players took a knock to the head - and scored a top class goal to boot.

There were a lot of good things to take away from the game. For one, the Lobos attempted to play 2 touch the entire game. That lasted about one minute as you guys kept them under too much pressure and they had to do more dribble possession. The several set pieces (corner kicks) we either had offensively or defended, you girls were very organized. They didn't even come close on any of their corners and of course, we scored off of a corner.

Because I played a lot of you out of position, I won't give you too many tactical comments. We need to work on fitness. We were flagging at about the 60 minute mark (10 minutes left in the game) and under a lot of pressure. Soccer fitness training involves a lot of sprints done over an extended period of time, because that's the kind of running we do in soccer - essentially 5 miles of sprinting over an 80 minute period!! The Lobos were more fit than we were but as they have D1 league they have to peak earlier. We have the luxury of being able to peak physically a bit later in the Spring - but we still need the work.

We also need to work on technical stuff. We could have passed and trapped much better as a group. Off the ball movement was lacking too. All this could be attributed to a lack of fitness - as you make more technical mistakes the more fatigued you are.

Anyway, a fine job on Saturday. We'll see you MOnday.


Sonny

Spring Game and Practice Schedule

The practice and game schedule has been posted and sent to your individual email accounts. Several things to note about the schedule...

1. It is subject to change. Games and practices may get rained out and rescheduled or I may get a scrimmage scheduled so please update your schedules as you get changes or I send you new schedules.

2. There will be things added on like club training, for which I don't have a date yet.

3. There are several breaks in the schedule, one during the early part of Spring break and again right after the JAWS tournament. As much as possible, I'd like to keep those days free but rained out games may get re-scheduled in those places.

4. This Saturday, please wear regular soccer clothes. We will wear pinnies during the game. Please show up at 10:00 AM ready to go.

Coach Sonny

Cougars Update 2/6/07

A lot of new information...

1. First of all, practice Sunday has been moved from 2-3:30 PM at Suggs Park at the request of several teenagers on the team. In this case, the parents meeting is now scheduled for 3 PM and will last no longer than 15 minutes. We will cover a few administrative details and should be the ONLY meeting I should call for the season. Please let me know if you can't make it and I will get with you on some of the details.

2. One of the "details" we need to cover are team fees for the season. these would be referee fees for MSSF, rental fees at Goose's, and 2 tournament fees (BCB and JAWS). According to my calculations, $108 per player should cover everything. The State Tournament fees, thought not particularly expensive, is something we'll have to discuss on Sunday. You can bring a check for $108 on Sunday made out to Jennifer Beyer. Which brings me to another point. This is a very bare bones operation with no team overhead fees or complications. My wife Jennifer is the manager because nobody else wants to be manager. By default, she is also the treasurer. Jennifer keeps an account ledger - a real one like you see in old TV shows like "Little House On The Prarie" - to follow the team fees. If any parent would like to take the honor/job of being team manager, we can talk more about that after the meeting.

3. Another important detail is paperwork. As we always have to do, we have to update player photos each year for the player cards. This year I'm just going to take digital pictures of the girls at the next practice and be done with it unless you have some pictures of your girl that you just have to give me. So returning players should be squared away as long as your daughter comes to practice on Sunday or you get me a picture on Monday night at Goose's. Please get all paperwork to me on Sunday if you can - Monday at the latest.

New players need three things: photo (which I will take care of), a signed and NOTARIZED medical release form, and a photocopy of your child's birth certificate. I will email the release form only to the affected players. If you happen to have the medical release form/photocopy of birth certificate from your old teams, you are welcome to use them and bring them on Sunday.

4. The MSSF schedules are supposed to be released electronically on Thursday on the Mike Rose website: http://www.mikerosesoccercomplex.com/, then click MSSF and follow the prompts for High School Girls Bracket B and look for the Lady Cougars. So you'll know the game schedule. CPARD is supposed to release the town fields for practice beginning Feb. 14th. Hopefully, we'll have a stable practice schedule several days later.

5. Practice schedule:
Sunday, Feb. 11th, 2-3:30 PM at Suggs
Monday, Feb 12th, 8-9 PM at Goose's
Sunday, Feb 18th, 2-3:30 PM at Suggs
Games to follow the week of the 19th...


Sonny