In This Issue Lesson Plans Playing Soccer vs. Playing at Soccer Questions and Answers Soccer Coaching Made Easy Quick Links Coaching Course Coaching Education Coach's Corner Coaching Handbook Coaching Articles Lesson Plans Code of Conduct Coaches Connection	Focus on Technical Training:  The Game Within Positively Impacting Players Dear Coach, "The game is the best teacher" so if this is the case, why do we even bother showing up to coach? I received this is a question from a candidate who was attending one of our coaching education courses. The quote obviously has more meaning to it and even during the early developmental stages for young children; the game should be set up to bring out the challenges. We still have to facilitate them so that they can make decisions and process them through playing games. As the player develops, our roles as coaches become more important as we instruct and guide them through their soccer careers. But if we take care of it in the beginning the end product will take care of itself. It is wonderful to see that within the US there is a program for children of all ages and abilities to play. Still, no matter what age and or ability level we like to play games in soccer because they are fun. So with our younger age groups, the more fun games and activities we can facilitate the better learning environment we can provide. I would like to dedicate this month's newsletter to Ryan Robinson who passed away early this month after being diagnosed with a MRSA Bacterial Infection. Ryan was a valuable member of Kentucky Youth Soccer 1992 Boys ODP State Pool/Team and will be sadly missed by his family and the soccer community. Ryan loved to play the game of soccer! Enjoy, see you at the Far Post!  Adrian Parrish Kentucky Youth Soccer Director of Coach and Player Development
Lesson Plans for Positively Impacting Players by Adrian Parrish and Dave McIver, Kentucky Youth Soccer Coaching Education Department  Below are four sample lesson plans. We continuously encourage "giving the game back to the children" and making them the main focal point so to encourage your players solve the problems and think for themselves with in each Key Coaching Point Section you will now find a Guided Discovery question which you can ask of your players when conducting these sessions.    U6 - Ball and Me Activities by Dave McIver U8 - Incorporating Passing & Dribbling U10 - Creating Decision Makers by Dave McIver Providing a Dynamic Competitive Environment Kentucky Youth Soccer Association recommends that you build a library which you can use for the season, you can do this by writing your own or using the resources such as the Lesson Plan Form or by visiting the Coach's Corner website collection by clicking here. Playing Soccer vs. Playing at Soccer By Christian Lavers- Director of FC Milwaukee, US Soccer Developmental Academy Program I spend several hours of every week watching or coaching soccer games at various ages and abilities; levels-high school varsity, ODP, and several different club age groups. As you would expect, even within similar age groups, the technical level of the teams varies quite dramatically.  However, disturbingly, the quality of individual decision-making and the quality of team play in many of these games seems to be almost entirely unrelated to the individual ability of the players.  To read the entire article, please click here. Questions and Answers Kentucky Youth Soccer Director of Coach and Player Development, Adrian Parrish answers questions from KYSoccer users.  Click here to read the latest Questions & Answers Soccer Coaching Made Easy A Coach's Guide to Youth Player Development by Tom Goodman, M. Ed. This excellent manual is full of age-appropriate training activities for U6, U8, U10 and U12 players. For each age group, the following are covered: -Role of the coach -Age group player characteristics -What game components should be taught -What the training sessions should look like -Sample training sessions -Age-appropriate activities As the former US Youth Soccer National Director of Coaching Education, Tom Goodman coordinated and facilitated coaching education in 55 state associations. He holds the USSF A License, the USSF National Youth License and is a USSF and US Youth Soccer National Instructor.
For more information, please contact us at: stateoffice@kysoccer.net © Kentucky Youth Soccer Association 2008. All rights reserved. No commercial reproduction, adaptation, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this electronic newsletter or any information contained, herein by any means whatsoever is permitted without the prior written permission of Kentucky Youth Soccer. You are receiving this email from Kentucky Youth Soccer because you purchased a service or subscribed on our website. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add info@kysoccer.net to your address book today. If you haven't done so already, click to confirm your interest in receiving email campaigns from us. To no longer receive our emails or to manage your subscriptions,, click links below.

Kentucky Youth Soccer | 443 S. Ashland Av. | Ste. 201 | Lexington | KY | 40502