So I’m a little over a week away from getting my Spring Soccer team roster. In the past, I was able to draft it, but this year, they are trying a new thing where they assign teams so if a parent wanted me they better put my name on the requests or else sorry lol. Anyways, this week in the past has been one usually filled with anxiety for me. Worried, I wouldn’t get the team I wanted, worried a parent would be mad they ended up with me. Worse yet is the fear of getting that one kid! We all know that kid, the one that doesn’t listen, the kid that won’t play as a team, the kid that sings were gonna lose in the playoff game as you’re taking the field. Oh yeah, I have had that kid. 

I think the worst part of this time is not knowing what your roster looks like yet. Even now, I kind of know which parents signed up from previous teams and will be playing for me, but you never know till the list is in front of you.  This year has been a little different, though I have spent this time of year planning the practices instead of waiting to see my team. I made the decision to work from a place of control rather than teach them what I can not control.

For example, my mindset and goal that I will be conveying to parents this season is control the little things, and the rest will fall into place. What I mean by this is I will be spending a ton of time teaching how I want the team to perform on tasks that happen multiple times in a game and are practicable over and over. Things such as kickoff, throw-ins, goal-kick, corner kick, and penalty kicks. While this seems like a pretty simple idea and might not be something that will produce wins, the actual numbers against me last season say if we would have been better at goal kicks we wouldn’t have lost the first 2 games because most of the goals scored in both games came off of bad goal kicks. Having a strong inbound game would drastically improve our offensive productivity and help keep the ball in our control. How many times have you seen a kid stand there unsure where to throw the ball, and it just ends up 3 feet away and goes towards your own goal. Kickoffs are their own beast. A good start can destroy a team, but a bad kickoff just gives the ball right back to a team that might have just scored on you and boom it’s another one down in seconds because they team wasn’t ready to defend.

I have spent so much time these past few weeks researching and developing practices no matter my team makeup that I haven’t barely had a chance to care what the team looks like because come March we kicking that ball down the field with whatever roster is in my hand on that day so it don’t matter who it is. I know for a fact I got my daughter that’s a give in. I know I got a couple of kids because their parents texted and said they signed them up and put my name on the request, which is an automatic team add. From their the rest of the team, I will either know from playing them or learn very quickly because we are going to practice hard with a mindset of….

CONTROL THE LITTLE THINGS!