U-19 team Dordrecht: Day 2
09/07/2011
Coaching the first-ever U-19 team in Belgium, Saturday, 09/07/2011:
With an early start and little night sleep (damn you camping, insects, music, cold,…) we arrived at our first game.
Preparation for the guys (warm-up and gear-up) went smooth and the goals we made for the team yesterday were repeated for these fresh minds. Our enemies of today, the South-African team!!!
Meeting them and compare them to my youngsters and you see a big difference from some miles away, these guys are FIT!
This immediately had some effect on the youngsters, who were a bit intimidated but they handled it wisely.
I’m really starting to like how these guys want to learn and have fun, during briefings they pay good attention and after they have good fun, the same with this first game.
Game play, I will talk about the main stuff I’ll tell to my youngsters, the other (also quite obvious) faults I’ll leave out for later on.
Main issues:
* Giving up: after being tackled, when swimming after a South-African, because the poor condition and mainly because they lose faith!
* Power/Fighting spirit: much the same as above, but i guess the team is intimidated or afraid to make contact. After much coaching/giving confidence you can see them trying to make clean tackles and fighting but I still have the feeling they don’t give the 100% they have.
0.12: Startpuck number one: The best one of the game: I see spirit, I see effort, but the rest of the team isn’t prepared for this action and doesn’t follow our starter. Means he is left alone to battle and looses the puck. At least a good startpuck.
0.28: We seem to lack defence, this is a choice i made: do not focus to much on defence yet. These guys will not be the best team out there, and first of all have to learn to find each other. I rather have a 20-1 then a 15-0.
1.43: We are letting the SA swim under us, we pay to little attention on our body position! This will improve because most of the guys have never played this deep. But one more easy way for the SA to move and score.
1.58: We are always to late, to far and not flat on the bottom. The goal i made for the team yesterday (stay 3m from the puck MAX) isn’t reached, not yet!
3.16: Advantage puck: we made this mistake many times, Kristof is one of our best players but he lost sight of the team. We shot to the SA instead of the team. Not only his fault, the team is also far from free or even close by.
20.20: Nice action from SA: They did a flat wide, a nice example of team-play we need to try to copie or even try out.
21.02: After loosing the puck the players often loose spirit, we need to stay down and fight for every puck for as long as we can!
30.57: First good defensive action: a rotation of three Belgian players giving the SA no chance to think/pass.
32.00: Practice corner SA: And what does the team do? Go up and rest… For 13 seconds. Good thing i don’t have a weak hart. After the goodnight rest we see a team they plays one by one, no coordinated actions, no good placing. So I ask for a time-out and… SHOUT. Shouting angry is the option to chose now, these guys are almost giving up, have little internal motivation left and need the big, angry, loud trainer to motivate them!
34.55: After-shouting action: The SA let us swim to their corner. A lot of difference now, the players follow, wait but are at least there under water. They are to tired to play together and i can only see some individual actions. Still they tried to follow instructions.
These are the major things to discus for now!
A really good thing is how these guys try the stuff i ask from them out. They want to learn, they are motivated to be here and they have a good enough focus! I can also see that the little training we had seems to be sticking with some of them.
Also nice to hear from our opponents after the game, nice guys these South-Africans! The coach and player hit the nail when talking to my guys. Always good for them to hear it from an other person!
Now we have an afternoon and evening to rest, have fun and talk about the game/prepare for tomorrow! (2 games coming up!!!)
Geschreven door Bram Vreven
