Albuquerque Day 3 - a visit from an unexpected superstar...

Group 1 - 8:00am - 10:00am

Day 3 of the Regional Camp - beautiful clear skies and 85F sunshine. Everyone in WHUIA t-shirts and two days under our belt. Hoping for a pretty decent day. Today’s blog might be long - sorry for that! I've got a lot of video but many of the clips are long - so I'll be editing them and posting starting tomorrow.

The early gang didn’t disappoint us and the mid-morning group were great too. We did have a scare at 10:30am as an official looking lady walked over. Oops I thinking, here goes the ‘are you a New Mexican card carrying licensed soccer coach’ or ‘have you paid the $500 a day to run a camp here’ or even ‘we’re expecting the wildfire to be here in 5 minutes, run for your life...’. No, she was a local nutrition adviser. The classic food pyramid has gone (very recently) and now we have a ‘plate’ visually showing what should be covered and portion sizes.

Group 2  10:30am - 12:30pm

The early evening gang 5:00pm - 7:00pm

It was nice opportunity to talk for 5 about simple sports nutrition and hydration. Players at the Academy are carefully monitored and have support for drinks and food. Drinks like Gator/Powerade are to high in sugar - so avoided. At the end of practice the players have a protein / carb based drink which often includes a banana. Getting fluid back in the system can be less of a problem if you are taking water / fluids on board before and during play. Thirst is a sign you have not been doing this. The protein / carb drink puts some energy back in the system and gives the body the necessary components to recover, repair and build. Exercise is an appetite suppressant, so a liquid protein carb drink is a nice compromise when a tuna sandwich sounds awful! Well done Albuquerque for making the effort to come and find coaches and players. Indiana is so unhealthy. The big hit at the State Fair this year was deep fried butter...

Running through some of the passing / movement drills for the third time allowed the kids to get into a rhythm. That means we could take a look at some smaller details that often make or break a situation. We’ve talked about the difference playing the ball to the wrong foot can have on a player. Imagine a right midfielder with their back to the direction of play and about to receive a ball from the right back. We’re hoping our player has pulled out wide, opened their body up to the rest of the field and has had a look over the shoulder to see what is going on there before and as the ball is played. OK - if the defender rolls the ball up to the midfielder’s back foot all is well. But a ball to the player one yard the wrong side and they now have they’re back to the field, a sideline in front of them and defenders closing in.

Many of us have given a player in that situation a tough time for losing the ball - but if the ball arrives on the wrong side, assuming the lack of space to adjust - we should be looking at the accuracy of the pass from the defender. It’s actually a decent argument for defenders being as competent with the ball at their feet as everyone else. It’s something the Dutch have believed in for years. Everyone learns to play in all positions at a younger age and has the same degree of technical skill. So, if your eight year old is only playing left back it’s worth having a word with the coach.

The oldest group now has 18 - so we ended up playing endzone, with Cory as a GK at one end. This is a simple small sided game in which one player moves along an ‘endzone’ and to score that player has to receive the ball inside under control. Only the player in the endzone can be there. We also have a couple of players on each side as ‘free’ support players which can offer an outlet wide when under pressure with the ball.. There are other rules we can add, limit touches, allow one player to have unlimited touches etc. The only instruction initially is ‘score as quickly as possible’.

We allowed the free players to join the play if they received the ball creating an overload. We’re also looking to see if some of the things we have worked on come out in the game. Simple movement off the ball to offer a passing option, receiving the ball on the back foot and checking before it arrives so you know what you are doing, being compact when defending and making the field big when in possession.

The shooting / defending drill was classic all day. Great competition, nice goalkeeping from Cory and Katie.

OK - the last day will really be an opportunity for me to step back, watch and let the kids play. One parent asked 'how do you keep track of all the kids and evaluate them'. I've been teaching and coaching for 20 years - so some of it is second nature. It's often easiest to identify the players who stand out at each end of the spectrum. At that point we asking what the stronger players need to be pushed and what support the weaker one require. The middle group is a little tougher to pick out - just like in a classroom setting. I make it a lot easy using technology. I use my iphone so I can video a lot of action. That way I sit back at the hotel and watch, learn names and pick out the differences. It's still only 4 days and two hours a day at that, so you have to stay on top of it. 8 hours of play is a snap shot - that is worth remembering too.

OK - it's nearly time to get out there for the last time this camp. Now, before we sign off I have to show you this - I couldn't believe that LA Galaxy would actually let this happen - how much is the man worth.....????

Oi, David... easy on the throttle....