Welcome to the Shooting Stars!
Here is the roster for the 2010 CNYU Shooting Stars:
Toby Kany
Malcolm Bourgeois
Conor Nadeau
James Brouder
Nico Brown
Aiden Smith
Bryan Taylor
Blake Turner
Will Curtis
William Lyden
The coaching staff will consist of me (Daniel Kany), Beth Smith and Victoria Brouder.
Our practices will be held every Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Cumberland Common.
Our games will be held - from September 11th through October 23rd - at 10:30 a.m. at Twin Brooks: Please arrive as close to 10:00 a.m. as possible to warm up, etc.
Our team colors are black and white: white shirts and black shorts. We are wearing white socks with two black stripes. Uniforms will be distributed at the first practice (or the first game if you can’t make practice).
Our team website is www.cnyushootingstars.blogspot.com
We will post updates, documents and basic information on the team website including cancellations, updates, rules, etc.
Please always provide your child with water for both games and practices. We are not planning to do regular snacks after the games. If you would like to bring a special snack for all the kids, please check with me first.
Our games consist of four 10-minute quarters. We will be switching positions at every quarter: Each child will play for an equal amount of time and will play every position evenly.
A few notes on rules:
• Shin guards must be worn or the child cannot play in a game.
• Shirts must be tucked in.
• No jewelry: emergency bracelets must be taped down.
• No slide tackling.
• There is no offsides, although “cherrypicking” will be called by the refs.
• For a goal kick, the opposing team must go back across the mid-field line.
• When the keeper touches the ball, the play will be whistled dead.
• There is a document of the official rules and interpretations; As soon as we have an electronic copy, this will be posted on our team website.
Game time notes for parents:
• Even if your child appears to be hurt, do not go onto the field until you are waved on by the ref or coach.
• Spectators will sit on the opposite side of the field as the teams.
• Parents cannot stand behind the goals.
• We would appreciate a couple of mature volunteers for linesmen.
• Any thunder and we must leave the field for at least a half hour.
• Please refrain from yelling instructions to your child; Encouragement is fine.
Our Goals
Obviously we want the kids to have a safe and fun team experience. But we also want them to learn about soccer. At this age, fundamentals such as striking the ball, passing, trapping, ball control are important. Just as important, however, is position: Kids can work on technique and ball control at home, but it’s not as easy for them to learn about position: So we want to focus on positioning. We want them to get a feel for where they should be at all times during play.
Position
We are going to focus on these three basic points:
1. Assigned position (left fullback, right halfback, left wing, keeper, etc): There are many terms (back, keeper, goalie, sweeper, midfielder, defender, halfback, striker, wing, forward, etc.) for the different positions: We are going to cover these during the season – one week’s homework will be to learn most of the common terms and the sooner you start, the better!
2. Team situation (when we have the ball we are on offense; when the other team has the ball, we are on defense)
3. Where to be on the field at any given moment
The point of this is to help our kids feel confident and comfortable at any point during the game. Any one child spends the vast majority of the game without the ball. We want to help our guys learn where they should go during play. If our team has the ball, where can he move to be helpful – to get a pass or draw a defender. If our team loses the ball, how do we transition to our defensive responsibilities? Whom should we cover? How do make choices about priorities? How do we combine our assigned position with what is actually happening on the field? If I have the ball, when should I dribble the ball? When do I pass it? When do I shoot? How do I cover another player? How do I keep players from passing to each other?
Because of this, we will spend a great deal of time in practice working on passing and defensive positioning drills. It’s my experience that kids enjoy themselves much more when they don’t feel completely clueless during a game: They spend more time during a game figuring out where to go than doing anything else. By focusing on position, our guys will always have something to do. As well, proper positioning is the part of soccer that translates to many other team sports.
This is a list of some of the key skills we will work on and that you can practice at home:
Dribbling: moving with the ball under control, being able to do this while looking up to see where to pass, etc.
Trapping: Being able to control the ball while moving. I would like to emphasize passing and trapping with the inside of the foot and using both feet. Do not trap the ball by stepping on it. You can practice chest traps, but we’re not going to spend much time on this.
Tackling: This is dispossessing – getting the ball away from your opponent. We want to be able to do this without fouling or letting the opponent get by us to move towards our goal.
Passing: Quick passes that anticipate where our teammate will be – not too hard or soft or too bouncy. We especially want to emphasize the “give and go” – moving to receive a pass from the person to whom you just passed.
Shooting: We want our guys to learn to select the appropriate time to shoot: not from too far away or from a poor angle. We want our guys to always look for an open teammate. We are more concerned about their making good choices than scoring lucky goals. We want our guys to work on accuracy and striking the ball with either foot – sometimes a quick, accurate shot from the inside of the foot is more appropriate than kicking the ball as hard as you can.
Throw-Ins: Both feet on the ground, the ball goes over the head with no side-to-side spin. Practice for quickness as well as distance and accuracy.
Free kicks: A good way to practice this is on a line at a field – that way both accuracy and distance can be measured. Challenging our guys to kick farther and more accurate can be very fun. Remember: No toes – not ever. Strike the ball where the shoes laced used to be on shoes; the knee is over the ball and the other foot is right next to the ball.
Heading: This can be fun to practice – toss the ball underhand from a few feet away and have him head the ball back to your hands. He should strike the ball just under the peak of his forehead – never the top of his head – with eyes open and snapping the head forward.
Sure, this is a long email. Some of it is more pressing. Some of it is more intended as reference or background.
This and other additional information will be posted on our website.
We will see you on Thursday: Go Shooting Stars!
--Coach Dan
Daniel Kany
14 Willow Lane, Cumberland
239-7292
dankany@gmail.com
