Special Speed Training Session - January 5, 2006

Special Session at Hampton Turf Field
Gorge Soccer Association's head coach Dave Dew was introducing speed training through his series of coaching clinics to all participating Gorge coaches. The Gorge Canadians U11 Girls were the "guinea pigs" for him for the evening. Actually, Coach Dave wanted to introduce these drills to a younger, actively growing group of players, and our team was requested to help.

The drills concentrated on the following ...
- The proper mechanics of running, starting, turning and stopping. This included incorporating game situation movements i.e. running forwards, backwards, sideways and getting up from the ground
- Improving a players concentration, reaction time and decision making
- Improving the physiology of young players (i.e. building a "memory" of speed into their bodies)
- Lastly, and important for our girls, these drills (if properly incorporated into our training) will hopefully decrease the probablility of ACL injuries that are prevalent for female players.

The evening was great on all accounts...
- good coaching turn-out
- good training with clear goals, clear instructions and activity
- good participation by Gorge Canadians U11 team (with two players from Mike Carr's team)
- most importantly ... the girls had fun!!

It was good for the girls as they had a chance to get out and train a bit after a lay-off over the holidays --> thank goodness for Gorge's Turf Field (again)!

You girls did great! Dave Dew was happy and impressed on your "concentration, effort and enthusiasm". I also received some great feedback from the other coaches.

These drills will be incorprated to all of our practises and game warmups for the remainder of the season.

Thanks to Dave Dew and Gorge Soccer for the training and opportunities!

*** On the down side of things :-(
The only negative aspect of the evening is that we lost a player for a month. Olivia took a spill and landed awkwardly while running backwards and broke her arm. She is now in a cast and will not be available for games for at least a month. This will leave a hole in our team as Olivia is a solid/consistent defender. However, I know you girls will be able to answer this challenge and help out!