Coaches' Corner
Longmeadow Soccer and the Pioneer Valley Junior Soccer League are
under the auspices of the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association.
Coaches and other parent volunteers must submit CORI forms to
Mass Youth Soccer before participating in Longmeadow Travel or
In-Town Soccer programs.
During the registration period, parents and high school students
can volunteer to coach. On the last weekend of the in-town season,
coaches can pick up medals for their players and return the league
equipment and balls at the snack bar (Wolfswamp) or trailer
(Glenbrook). If a coach did not have an opportunity to return
equipment on the last weekend, please send an email to
Board@LongmeadowSoccer.com, so a pickup can be arranged.
Directors of Coaching
Beginning in the 2008 season, the LSA Board brought in two Directors of Coaching,
one for the in-town league and one for the travel league. Their jobs are to
develop a unified approach to coaching and to help our volunteer coaches
develop the skills they need to do their job effectively.
Our in-town Director is Richard Yam. Coaches can reach him via email
at
InTownDirector@LongmeadowSoccer.com for any in-town coaching issues.
Our travel Director of Coaching is Thomas D'Agostino. Tom can be reached
via email at
TravelDirector@LongmeadowSoccer.com.
Assignment/Team Problems
If coaches have any problems with team assignments
or other non-coaching issues, please contact the LSA in-town coordinator at
LsaInTown@LongmeadowSoccer.com for in-town, or the LSA Travel coordinator at
LsaTravel@LongmeadowSoccer.com for travel.
Coaching Handbook
The 2011 coaching handbook is now available. All coaches, in-town and travel
are asked to download and read the handbook. Here's a link to the PDF:
LSACoachingHandbook2011.pdf.
About Coaching
Our coaches are parent volunteers, and sometimes high school volunteers. You don't
need a soccer resume to coach an LSA team, just a good attitude, a little patience
(a lot, really) and the desire to help kids develop soccer skills. As you may have
read on our home page, LSA promotes skill development over winning games. Experienced
coaches the world over find that the emphasis on winning actually slows player development.
As with any sport, kids need to learn the technical skills before attempting the tactical
game.
Coach Development: With the help of the Directors of Coaching (DoC), Mass Youth
Soccer, and other soccer resources, the LSA board has developed four programs for coach
development:
Our
skills academy is a group coach and player development program for the in-town league
lead by the in-town Director of Coaching.
At
coaching clinics, the Director of Coaching for the travel league will
meet you and your team at one of your training sessions.
Our DoCs have developed
coaching curricula, which include technical and tactical
training activities for all age and skill levels.
We encourage all our coaches to get
coaching licenses. Even if you know the game well,
or are an experienced coach, you can improve your coaching skills through licensing
courses.
I'd Like to Coach
If you are interested in volunteering as a head coach or assistant coach,
please sign up during our spring registration events at the Community House.
If you didn't get a chance to do that, you can fill out a couple of forms
(see below) and mail them to:
Longmeadow Soccer Association
785 Williams St., #334
Longmeadow, MA 01106
We have a PDF of the Massachusetts Cori Form
that you can print and fill out. You can also fill out and submit the form on line
at the
Mass Youth Soccer Association web site. And here is the
Coaching Volunteer Form. If you have any
questions about coaching, please contact the LSA in-town coordinator at
InTown@LongmeadowSoccer.com for in-town, or the LSA Travel coordinator at
Travel@LongmeadowSoccer.com for travel.
Coaching Meetings
All coaches (head coaches and assistants) are encouraged to attend their fall season
coaching meeting. At least one coach from each team must attend. At the meeting,
you will receive your roster, player information packet, equipment bag and uniforms.
Travel coaches tend to get their rosters before the meeting, and their uniforms after.
Coaches will receive a brief presentation on the program's philosophy,
coaching guidelines, important differences between age groups, and
injury prevention. Time will also be available for Q&A. with LSA board members and
your Director of Coaching.
The in-town coaching meetings are held in late August at the Longmeadow Community House.
Kindgarten & 1st grade is 6:00 to 6:30 pm, 2nd & 3rd is 6:30 to 7:00 and 4th through
8th is 7:00 to 7:30.
For the 2011 fall season, the meeting will be August 31. At the meeting, we will be
introducing the new LSA Skills Academy.
The travel coaching meetings are held in the first week or two August at Russell Field,
near the Blueberry Hill parking lot. The 2011 meeting will be August 11.
Back to Top
LSA Skills Academy - In-Town Player & Coach Development
New for the 2011 fall season, the LSA Board is proud to announce the LSA Skills Acadamy
for the in-town players and coaches. Due to limited resources, we will begin the academy
with the kindergarten through 3rd grade teams. We will expand the program to include 4th
through 8th grades as soon as possible.
The skills academy is a way to get our in-town players and coaches up to speed on
the skills they'll need for a fun and successful experience with the game of soccer.
Once a week, coaches and their teams will attend a group training session (with other teams
in the same age group) which will be run
by our in-town Director of Coaching, Richard Yam. Coach Yam will lead everyone in a warm up
followed by a demonstration of an age-appropriate training activity. The coaches will then
take their team to a practice area and run the activity. Coach Yam will circulate among the
teams offering tips and guidance. After a few training activities, the session will end with
small-sided games.
We are excited about this opportunity to build skills for players and coaches in our community,
and we feel confident that the LSA Skills Academy will have a positive impact on the game. Coaches
are welcome to have additional training sessions on their own, but should plan to attend the skills
academy with their teams on the dates provided below:
| Grade |
Day |
Time |
Field |
| K (1) |
Tuesday |
5:30 - 6:15 |
Glenbrook |
| K (2) |
Tuesday |
6:15 - 7:00 |
Glenbrook |
| 1st (1) |
Wednesday |
5:30 - 6:15 |
Glenbrook |
| 1st (2) |
Wednesday |
6:15 - 7:00 |
Glenbrook |
| 2nd Girls |
Thursday |
6:00 - 7:00 |
Wolfswamp |
| 2nd Boys |
Saturday |
9:00 - 10:00 |
Wolfswamp |
| 3rd Girls |
Saturday |
10:00 - 11:00 |
Wolfswamp |
| 3rd Boys |
Saturday |
11:00 - 12:00 |
Wolfswamp |
If you have questions about the skills academy, please send email to
InTown@LongmeadowSoccer.com or
InTownDOC@LongmeadowSoccer.com.
Coaching Clinics - Travel Player & Coach Development
At coaching clinics, the Director of Coaching for the travel league, Tom D'Agostino
will meet you and your team at one of your training sessions. The DoC will run the session
for you with age appropriate training activities, giving you a chance to
learn which skills are age appropriate and the activities that teach them.
Coach D'Agostino schedules one session per season for each travel team. Any coach need
more help should feel free to contact Tom for advice, or to schedule extra sessions
with him.
Any coaches with questions or needing help can reach Coach D'Agostino via email at:
TravelDirector@LongmeadowSoccer.com.
Coaching Curricula
The purpose of a curriculum is to help standardize soccer training and set
expectations for the players’ development. With the help of our Directors of
Coaching, the LSA Board is developing a curriculum that we hope will facilitate
this goal. Ultimately, every player should end each season with a skill set
that is an improvement over what he or she had at the start.
There are numerous soccer coaching curricula on the web, and you should
feel free to use any and all you need. We hope our curriculum will
help you meet our “Skill Priorities” goals as stated in the Coaches Handbook.
Here is Coach Yam's Coaching Curriculum
and Coach D'Agostino's Travel Curriculum,
both in PDF.
Either one can be used for teaching in-town or travel teams.
Here is the US Soccer
Player Development Guidelines, also
as a PDF. And please see the web links below for valuable
coaching information on other soccer web sites.
Below is our Game Progression. It lists
some important aspects of coaching the game in our in-town league as players progress from
kindergarten through the 8th grade:
| Age Group |
Game Length |
Number of Players |
Ball Size |
Officials |
Rules, Technique and Tactics |
| Kindergarten and 1st Grade |
Four 8-minute quarters for kindergarten, (10 minutes for 1st), with 2-minute breaks. First quarter should be warm up with soccer balls. |
Two 3v3 COED games run simultaneously. |
3 |
Coaches facilitate without refereeing or coaching*. At this age, kids learn by doing.
|
No rules, and no goalies. Keep the players safe and keep them moving. |
| 2nd Grade |
Four 10-minute quarters with 2-minute breaks. |
Two 5v5 COED games run simultaneously. |
3 |
Coaches facilitate without refereeing or coaching. Still learning by doing. |
Fields marked in quadrants. Begin teaching the areas of the field. Rotate players between offense and defense. |
| 3rd Grade |
Four 10-minute quarters with 2-minute breaks. |
6v6 |
3 |
Two youth officials. Teach respect of the officials - they’re human too. Still learning by doing. |
Start throw-ins, goal kicks and corner kicks. Introduce goalies - all players should have an opportunity in goal. |
| 4th and 5th Grades |
Four 12-minute quarters with 2-minute breaks. Switch goals at the half. |
7v7 |
4 |
Still learning by doing. |
Teach offsides & pass-back rules. Introduce positions and roles. Every player gets equal time, and plays every position - including goal. |
| 6th, 7th and 8th Grades |
Two 30-minute halves, change goals at the half. |
8v8 |
5 |
Two youth officials. |
F.I.F.A laws of soccer apply. Every player gets equal time, and plays every position - including goal. |
* Facilitating without coaching or refereeing means keeping the game moving and letting the kids play. Young players tend to focus on the ball during a game, you couldn’t coach from the sideline if you wanted to. Keep some control over out-of-bounds and crowding the ball. Please note the rules at each grade level, e.g. don’t introduce throw-ins before 3rd grade. Always keep the players safe, and the game
fun. Please keep in mind that
LSA runs a development program at all age levels. Help the players develop their fundamental skills now. Winning games will come later.
Coaching Licenses
We encourage all our active coaches to get coaching licenses. Even if you know the game well,
or are an experienced coach, you can improve your coaching skills through licensing
courses. LSA will reimburse active coaches for their fees for the G, F or E courses from the
Mass Youth Soccer
licensing programs. You can find a calendar of scheduled license courses on the Mass Youth
site, and we organize local courses on occasion. The courses must be taken in order
starting with the G course.
G License On-Line: Mass Youth Soccer offers an
on line G Licence Class. The G license is the first in the Mass Youth series, and
is designed for coaches of the younger players. "Live" G courses are also available, and we recommend
the live course over the on-line version, as you will learn more through interaction. If you've
found an F course and you need to get the G done quickly to qualify, then the on-line
course would be a good idea.
Back to Top
Travel Team Practice Schedules
To help coordinate the use of a limited number of practice fields, we're asking
the travel coaches to let us know when and where you plan to practice. This
will also help the Director of Coaching find your team for his clinics.
This year (2011) we have three U10 teams (Wolfswamp) and ten teams U11 through U14
(Russell). This is more than
in recent years, so we will be stretching our field resources. There aren't
many training activities that require a full field, so please plan to use half a
field for training.
At Russell, we have the use of fields 2 and 3 after high school games and practices.
The high school coaches have asked us to leave field 1 alone, since it gets heavy use
from their games and practices. The coerver goals have been a handy separator at mid-field,
and allow two half-field scrimmages on either side.
At Wolfswamp, the travel league only has the U10 field. Should be plenty for the three teams,
but some of the other travel teams may need to train at Wolfswamp at some point. If so, please
remember that Wolfswamp is a big space, and we need to share with other travel teams and the
in-town teams. Many training activities don't need field markings or goals.
If problems arise, please get in touch with the travel committee at
Travel@LongmeadowSoccer.com or the board at
Board@LongmeadowSoccer.com.
| Team |
Coach |
Site |
Field |
Days |
Time |
| U10G Black |
Anderson |
Wolfswamp |
9 (U10) |
|
|
| U10G White |
Gallo |
Wolfswamp |
9 |
M/F |
6:00 - 7:15 |
| U10B |
Roffo |
Wolfswamp |
9 |
M/W/Th |
6:00 - 7:30 |
| U11G A |
D'Angelo |
|
|
|
|
| U11G B |
Yorns |
Russell |
north half of 3 |
W/F |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U11B |
Abdow |
Russell |
south half of 3 |
W/F |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U12G |
D'Agostino |
|
|
|
|
| U12B A |
Caputo |
Russell |
north half of 3 |
Th |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U12B A |
Caputo |
Wolfswamp |
|
T |
4:00 - 5:30 |
| U12B B |
Zippin |
Russell |
north half of 2 |
T/Th |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U13G |
Yam |
Wolfswamp |
|
M/W/F |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U13B |
Nolan |
Russell |
south half of 2 |
M/W/Th |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U14G |
Davis |
Russell |
north half of 2 |
M/W/F |
5:30 - 7:00 |
| U14B |
Cove |
Russell |
south half of 3 |
T/Th |
5:45 - 7:15 |