Percy Hoff receives two CSA Awards

Hollandia’s Director of Player and Coach Development, Percy Hoff has been honoured by the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) with two awards.

The CSA has awarded Percy Hoff with the 2015 President’s Award. The President’s Award is bestowed in recognition and appreciation of outstanding and unique efforts for an extended period of time, resulting in the positive and constructive development of the world’s greatest game at the national level across Canada. Percy’s tireless commitment to the game exemplified the dedication and selfless involvement of the many individuals who make soccer the number one participation sport in our country, and further exemplifies the ideals of this award.

Canadian Soccer Association’s has also awarded Percy Hoff the 2016 Award of Merit. The Award of Merit recognizes the efforts of those persons who have made a significant contribution to the sport of soccer in Canada in the area of promotion, growth and development, for not less than a period of ten years. Nominees must have made a contribution in the area of administration, the advancement of officiating, coaching, and/or sport medicine.

13151414_10153645824368137_4584831533438565122_n

The entire Hollandia family both present and past extends its congratulations to Percy on receipt of these awards and thanks him for his life long contribution to making the greatest game in the world better for all involved.

(Photo courtesy of Lisa Bagonluri)

Soccer Saturday Reborn

Hollandia is really excited about some changes we have been working on for the past year or so with community association coordinators in the North (Lawson Heights, River Heights, North Park, Richmond Heights, and City Park) to ensure a better experience for coaches and players in our area. This program is also available to teams in the Silverspring Community also.

Soccer Saturday is generously funded by Saskatoon Youth Soccer Inc. and in conjunction with the Community Associations, and the ASTRA Soccer Academy, Hollandia is happy to announce a major update to the way we will be delivering the program this season aimed at involving community coaches as well as the players.

A common problem with coaching soccer is that usually you are given a bag of equipment, some basic training, a few website links for drills and then left to your own devices. For most volunteers, this is just not enough, and we know it. It doesn’t help us learn from each other, and for some people it leads to a really challenging season.

Each season we have tried different things to better connect experienced coaches with new coaches, get some access to master coaches, and to support all community players to have the best learning and enjoyable experience possible. This season, we have been able to work with the other community associations (and our coaching partner Astra) to arrange for head coaches and assistant head coaches to help us with out practice sessions and provide practical coach training. This means these coaches will be designing the practices, and groups of teams from the Community Associations will practice at the same time, in the same place to implement the practice plan together.

For this season, the kids will mostly be practicing in their teams, or in groups of two teams, but will share the field with 6 or 7 other teams. As you can imagine, this has required a large amount of scheduling and negotiations amongst a large number of people. We have just recently finalized these plans. Practices have been arranged to take place on Saturdays at the Umea Vast Field (the soccer fields behind the Lawson Heights Mall). Practice dates are: April 30, May 7, 14, 28, June 4, 18, 25.

To help us organize these sessions, and to give our coaches some options we have created a sign-up sheet at the following site:https://www.volunteersignup.org/BAAR8. U6, U7 and U8 have some options as to when on Saturday they would prefer to practice. U10s will all practice at the same time. Can I ask that any interested coaches sign up for the practice time you would prefer as soon as possible? For those teams with co-coaches, I encourage you to check with each other and pick the time that works best for both of you.

For coaches – the requirements will be for you to bring the equipment to the practice, and to implement the practice plan with your team per the guidance of the head coach. Coaches will be required to run the practice session before games and to coach the team during games. There will be a 15 minute turn-over time between practice sessions on Saturdays so if you have questions about things that arose during your game, you can ask another experienced coach, the assistant head coaches, or the head coach. Of course, we are also hoping this will make it easier for other parents to step in and cover off practices in the event you can’t make a practice.

We recognize that this set-up is not perfect yet, but we are hopeful it will provide an improved experience for our coaches, and for our kids. If any of you (and your teams) would like to schedule additional practices just for your team, you are of course free to do so, but there is no requirement to do so.

If you have any questions, please message me here, or contact mini.soccer@hollandiasoccer.com

A Development Model That Works

I want to extend my congratulations to all parents, players and parents who have contributed to Hollandia’s success this indoor season. A special thanks to our coaches and assistants for their leadership by inspiring and motivating the players, to team managers for doing the work that allows coaches to focus on coaching, and especially to our Culture Keepers who continue to spread the word about the great culture we continue to develop at Hollandia, sometimes in the face of adversity.

We continue to believe that winning results are not the only measurement of success. There are so many other measurements, most importantly the continued development of ALL of our players, regardless of the division in which they are playing. Success in this area is a result of our structured developmental plan which includes the promotion of single-year age groups, skill sessions for all players and our plan to develop groups of players, rather than focusing on the results of individual teams.

The best demonstration of this success was demonstrated this year in the U14 girl’s where several players who were elevated to higher divisions performed incredibly well over the season. This group also finished the season with one Provincial Championship, two Provincial runners up, two City championships and one City runners up medals. This group also produced a Provincial MVP winner in Zyna Centeno. The biggest indicator of the success of the U14 girls program is the continued growth in numbers with an incredible 67 players signed up for the outdoor season.

Another measurement of success is the gradual improvement of all of our teams. Some teams such as the U12 Premier boys and girls started out well behind other zones, sometimes losing by double digit scores, yet by the end of the season they had closed the gap on the league leaders, winning and tying games with them. When we consider that some of our teams are split down the middle during the winter season for developmental purposes, these successes are further amplified. One of the highlights of the City finals was watching our U14 division two boys, the smallest team in the league, overcome a big and physical opponent to win the final.

In watching the City Championships, I was incredibly proud of watching how many Hollandia teams competed in the playoffs and the finals. Eight Hollandia teams participated in 13 semi-final games, with seven of those moving on to the finals, and four of the seven finishing as Champions. ( http://www.saskatoonyouthsoccer.ca/plugins/userData/Indoor%202015-16/ID2015-16%20Playoff%20Schedule.pdf )

Rather than focus on the results of these games, it is important to note the quality of soccer that Hollandia teams play, along with the class that is exhibited by players, coaches and parents. Hollandia teams in all divisions are noted for their ability to play a style of soccer that focuses on the use of skill as opposed to a kick-and-chase style that is much easier to coach. This is a testament to our coaches who support our vision of the game, our skills coaches who help all players develop their skills, and to our developmental partners ASTRA who provide supplementary training to most of our top players.

As the zone with the smallest population of all, we continue to lead the way in terms of the number of registered soccer players, the behaviour of players and parents and the quality of players produced in all divisions. I thank you also for providing feedback for our coaches, which we will use to further develop and grow our coaches and improve their interaction with players and parents.

Laurier Langlois
President, Hollandia Soccer Club

Why The ‘Hurry Up” Mentality

How ‘pushing’ your child forward harms development

In this day of predators and sometimes unethical adults, I understand perfectly the common urge among parents to ‘advocate’ for and protect their children. However, over-parenting can be detrimental to the development of children, their eventual independence as adults and their confidence in having to deal with setbacks in many aspects of their lives.

astra-Jessica2011-400x300Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the book ‘How to Raise an Adult’ offers many insights into the effects of over parenting. Listen to Julie’s very engaging recent interview on CBC.

Julie talks about parents “protecting and preventing” rather than preparing children. I would add to this and call it “Pushing, protecting and preventing”. Unfortunately, since I began coaching back in 1987, I have noticed a dramatic increase in these tendencies.

I am constantly urging soccer parents to let their kids develop at their own pace, to let them become independent and go through the soccer experience without constant intervention on their behalf.

Parents must start to understand that just like math, science, music, karate or swimming, learning soccer is a step-by-step process. Children must learn skills in predetermined order, but they must also learn to think, to advocate for themselves, to be assertive, to have confidence and to take responsibility for themselves in the sports environment.

The pushy parent always wants their kid on the Premier team, or worse still, they want them to play in an older age group. Insightful soccer people understand that putting a child into a group with older children (unless they are physically, technically, tactically, psychologically and socially ready) is harmful.

Stressing children in this way leads to the elimination of a critical factor in the development of confidence and the ability to perform at peak levels – something coaches call “Flow”.

When a player is in a state of flow, they are able to perform to the best of their ability, and this ultimately increases confidence. When they are stressed and put into a situation where they may feel overwhelmed, and they will stop using the skills they have learned.  They will often revert to making simple backward passes in games; passing off the responsibility of doing something useful with the ball to others, so as not to make a mistake.

And we keep complaining that Canadian players are not creative enough!

Unfortunately, the soccer system in Saskatoon in badly flawed with respect to its developmental model. For example, two-year age groupings lead to possible five-year physical maturity gap between the oldest and youngest player in any age group.

And I still have parents requesting to have 9 year-old players play in the U12 division! I still see some of our clubs placing 10 to 13 year-old children on PSL U14 teams. The science against this practice is overwhelming, but too lengthy to discuss here. Not to mention that the cardio-vascular systems of players at this age are not even ready for full-field play.

When a coach asks me to move a younger player to an older team, my experience tells me that most of the time, it is about the coach’s own desire for results, rather than a desire to see the child develop properly.

So parents, please allow people who are trained and knowledgeable in the game to nurture your kids through their soccer experience. The bottom line is that if they do not thoroughly develop the fundamental individual ability to maintain possession of the ball (technique and individual tactics) they will forever be the weakest link on their team. Pushing them up when they have not mastered the basics is foolish.

Certainly ask questions, but please try to avoid personal attacks against coaches who are trying to help.

 

 

Percy Hoff in Master Coach Certificate Program, University of Delaware

Already qualified as a Master Coach in the Canadian National Coaching Certification Program, Hollandia Director of Coaching Percy Hoff has been accepted into the American NSCAA Master Coach Certificate Program at the University of Delaware.

The NSCAA MASTER COACH DIPLOMA/UD MASTER COACH CERTIFICATE is the pinnacle coaching diploma for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). The course is designed for experience and qualified coaches highly experienced and highly qualified coaches who want to achieve mastery in their professional development. The course is designed to prepare and educate coaches to work at the highest level within their profession and to serve as a mentor and educator for developing coaches for the betterment of soccer in the United States.  Candidates who successfully complete the requirements for the course will receive both the MASTER COACH DIPLOMA/UD MASTER COACH CERTIFICATE from the NSCAA as well a certificate and 9 continuing education credits from the University of Delaware.

homeT2news_098The NSCAA MASTER COACH DIPLOMA/UD MASTER COACH CERTIFICATE  was created and designed to meet the needs of of elite level coaches and it consists of a week-long residential course that includes on-field sessions, classroom  lectures, group projects and presentations; a 13 week online component consisting of lectures, discussions and reading assignments; a one-week apprenticeship at an NSCAA approved location; and with the guidance of NSCAA approved mentor the development and implementation of a required comprehensive project that will contribute to coaches professional growth. In addition to instruction, interaction with other Master Coach Diploma candidates is expected to be a large component of the experience.

The objective for the course is for candidates to achieve mastery in six functional areas.

  • Setting the, Philosophy, Vision, Culture and Strategy
  • Shaping the Environment
  • Building Relationships
  • Structuring Training and Competition Schedules
  • Preparing for Competition, Managing the Game & Analyzing Performance
  • Learning and Reflecting