Hapoel Soccer Meeting - March 24, 2009
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 2:49 pm
Hapoel Soccer Meeting - March 24, 2009
These were the suggestions that were sent after the 2008 Fall Season. Please post replies to speak to any and all issues. Your comments are appreciated.
Games
• Start the season earlier (We've always started the season so it ends exactly before Thanksgiving. But, when we don't have Yom Tovim on Sundays, this should be do-able. A downside is that people need to sign-up earlier and, when sign-ups are before school starts, etc., this can be tricky. But, we somehow manage when we start the league early due to Sunday Yom Tovim so... Let me try and coordinate this.)
• Practice - “Integrate more practice into the schedule. Team practice every other week on a weekday afternoon (at least for 2nd grade and up).” “More drills and learn some skills (ie trapping the ball) until they are older. Other than a little bit of scrimmaging at the end, I don't think they really need to play games until around 2nd grade.” “I believe that there needs to be more emphasis on skill building, like soccercise. If the older kids (K-5) play for 1 1/4 hours, perhaps the first full 30 minutes they can drill with one of the coaches and then play for 40 minutes. I saw improvement in my kids throughout the year and think it would have been even more pronounced with structured practicing upfront.” “Have drills with the kids so that they learn to play.....we would have been fine if the kids did fun drills the 70% of the time and played for 30%.” (This is much trickier. We have a limited amount of time and... The kids want to play. Historically, we've tried having longer "training time" but the kids simply didn't want to do it. I'm open to ideas. I have some thoughts but I'm curious to hear some ideas first.)
• Number of Players per Team - “We’d prefer to have more players per team than less.” “The number of players per team should be equal.” (Having the exact same number of players per team is difficult and contingent on the number of kids that sign-up. Our preference is 8 players per team with a miximum of 10. With this said, we can skew higher than lower when we set teams.)
•Bat Mitzvahs For G678, maybe contact the schools and ask about bat mitzva schedules and try to work around the bat mitzvas. (Coordinating around so mnay kid's Sunday schedules, especially shomer Shhabas kids' schedules, is not simple. With this said, I can contact the schools, send an e-mail to parents, etc.)
• Matt at Fields It would have been nice to have you [Matt] here in Silver Spring at least some of the time. The league feels more organized that way. (I'd love to be and only be at Layhill Village all day. It's closer to home, I could see, let alone coach, my kids' games and i wouldn't have to drive so much. With this said, currently, we're at three locations. For what it's worth, changing to two locations may be helpful with this issue.)
• Referees It was *wonderful* having "real" referees this year when we had them. A huge improvement. In one of the games a referee was calling a tight game, but reasonably so. But he wasn't explaining his calls, so no one could learn from it. I finally asked him about a call on the other team at one point, and he said it was for sportsmanship because they had one player who was yelling to confuse his opponents - the call was very much in the spirit of our league. This referee called a particularly good game, but that communication component would have made it much better. (I like the idea of the referees being more communicative as well.)
• Winning The focus on the win is inappropriate...focus on playing, kicking the ball and having fun. (This comment was from a Rockville parent of a boy in specific league and... I agree. I think the heart of this issue was that "the teams weren't balanced". This is resolvable. Otherwise, any suggestions to facilitate the players - and coaches - competing in a healthier manner is appreciated.)
• Coaches - appears to be a volunteer army....perhaps some folks are not destined to be coaches......and....they should focus on having fun..doing fun drills, getting the kids excited. (I think something that might help with this is coaches training, coaches sharing best practices and ideas and... Just more organization so we're all on the same page.)
• Play-Offs The only sour point was during the key play-off game, where our coach “benched” the 2 weakest players, my son and one other child. Subbing them in and out for very limited times would have been cool, but when they didn’t play at all for 20 minutes at a time, they felt like they were singled out as less a part of the team/less worthy. Maybe their first taste of the reality of competitive sports, but until this point the spirit of the team/league had felt a bit more inclusive. (I think the two points above might help with this.)
• No Goalies Games..perhaps no goalies are needed...get all the kids playing at once, instead of 2 bored kids playing in the nets. (We've played with smaller goals and no goalies and the kids hated it. Ranked similarly to having jerseys with no numbers. with this said, I'm open to it.)
End-of-Season Banquet
• End-of-Season Banquet Call up an entire team at once and then discuss each player. Also, if possible (only you know how the schedule works), it might be better to have the K,1,2 kids scheduled for an afternoon rather than night/dinner. (I 100% agree that we need to make changes to the banquet. It's still fun etc. but... It's lost something. I like your idea, I think we need to get the coaches more involved, etc.)
Other
• Porta-potties (We had one or two porta-potties this past season. I can look into making sure we have the same for this coming season. Coordinating this with the Park & rec isn't simple but... I can try.)
These were the suggestions that were sent after the 2008 Fall Season. Please post replies to speak to any and all issues. Your comments are appreciated.
Games
• Start the season earlier (We've always started the season so it ends exactly before Thanksgiving. But, when we don't have Yom Tovim on Sundays, this should be do-able. A downside is that people need to sign-up earlier and, when sign-ups are before school starts, etc., this can be tricky. But, we somehow manage when we start the league early due to Sunday Yom Tovim so... Let me try and coordinate this.)
• Practice - “Integrate more practice into the schedule. Team practice every other week on a weekday afternoon (at least for 2nd grade and up).” “More drills and learn some skills (ie trapping the ball) until they are older. Other than a little bit of scrimmaging at the end, I don't think they really need to play games until around 2nd grade.” “I believe that there needs to be more emphasis on skill building, like soccercise. If the older kids (K-5) play for 1 1/4 hours, perhaps the first full 30 minutes they can drill with one of the coaches and then play for 40 minutes. I saw improvement in my kids throughout the year and think it would have been even more pronounced with structured practicing upfront.” “Have drills with the kids so that they learn to play.....we would have been fine if the kids did fun drills the 70% of the time and played for 30%.” (This is much trickier. We have a limited amount of time and... The kids want to play. Historically, we've tried having longer "training time" but the kids simply didn't want to do it. I'm open to ideas. I have some thoughts but I'm curious to hear some ideas first.)
• Number of Players per Team - “We’d prefer to have more players per team than less.” “The number of players per team should be equal.” (Having the exact same number of players per team is difficult and contingent on the number of kids that sign-up. Our preference is 8 players per team with a miximum of 10. With this said, we can skew higher than lower when we set teams.)
•Bat Mitzvahs For G678, maybe contact the schools and ask about bat mitzva schedules and try to work around the bat mitzvas. (Coordinating around so mnay kid's Sunday schedules, especially shomer Shhabas kids' schedules, is not simple. With this said, I can contact the schools, send an e-mail to parents, etc.)
• Matt at Fields It would have been nice to have you [Matt] here in Silver Spring at least some of the time. The league feels more organized that way. (I'd love to be and only be at Layhill Village all day. It's closer to home, I could see, let alone coach, my kids' games and i wouldn't have to drive so much. With this said, currently, we're at three locations. For what it's worth, changing to two locations may be helpful with this issue.)
• Referees It was *wonderful* having "real" referees this year when we had them. A huge improvement. In one of the games a referee was calling a tight game, but reasonably so. But he wasn't explaining his calls, so no one could learn from it. I finally asked him about a call on the other team at one point, and he said it was for sportsmanship because they had one player who was yelling to confuse his opponents - the call was very much in the spirit of our league. This referee called a particularly good game, but that communication component would have made it much better. (I like the idea of the referees being more communicative as well.)
• Winning The focus on the win is inappropriate...focus on playing, kicking the ball and having fun. (This comment was from a Rockville parent of a boy in specific league and... I agree. I think the heart of this issue was that "the teams weren't balanced". This is resolvable. Otherwise, any suggestions to facilitate the players - and coaches - competing in a healthier manner is appreciated.)
• Coaches - appears to be a volunteer army....perhaps some folks are not destined to be coaches......and....they should focus on having fun..doing fun drills, getting the kids excited. (I think something that might help with this is coaches training, coaches sharing best practices and ideas and... Just more organization so we're all on the same page.)
• Play-Offs The only sour point was during the key play-off game, where our coach “benched” the 2 weakest players, my son and one other child. Subbing them in and out for very limited times would have been cool, but when they didn’t play at all for 20 minutes at a time, they felt like they were singled out as less a part of the team/less worthy. Maybe their first taste of the reality of competitive sports, but until this point the spirit of the team/league had felt a bit more inclusive. (I think the two points above might help with this.)
• No Goalies Games..perhaps no goalies are needed...get all the kids playing at once, instead of 2 bored kids playing in the nets. (We've played with smaller goals and no goalies and the kids hated it. Ranked similarly to having jerseys with no numbers. with this said, I'm open to it.)
End-of-Season Banquet
• End-of-Season Banquet Call up an entire team at once and then discuss each player. Also, if possible (only you know how the schedule works), it might be better to have the K,1,2 kids scheduled for an afternoon rather than night/dinner. (I 100% agree that we need to make changes to the banquet. It's still fun etc. but... It's lost something. I like your idea, I think we need to get the coaches more involved, etc.)
Other
• Porta-potties (We had one or two porta-potties this past season. I can look into making sure we have the same for this coming season. Coordinating this with the Park & rec isn't simple but... I can try.)