CYS KOC 8104 Soccer Tournament teams will embrace a concept that coaches are building Athletes to be successful on the pitch and in life. The principles of our teams is not single minded to win games. Our coaching staff wants to build positive athletic qualities and character traits that will make our athletes successful on and off the field. Through hard work and perseverance, each CYS Tournament team member will be asked to be the best possible version of themselves on and off the pitch. You should also be aware that, in being selected to the tournament team, the Coaching staff is expressing their faith and belief in your potential to become the kind of athlete with whom the Coaching Staff, Team and CYS community will be proud.

The team will have specific goals, which we will all strive to achieve together. You will want to do the best to live up to the standards of the CYS community. The word TEAM should be emphasized. Do you think Coaches or future employers want a personwho wants to do great work for a team/company or a person who wants to work for a great team/company? Think about it for a minute. There is a difference. Coaches and future employers want people who want to be part of a great team/company, not a person who wants to do great work for the team/Company. The difference is that the person who wants to be part of a great team/company is all about the success of the team. The person who wants to do great things is all about himself or herself.

This booklet is intended to help you grow more knowledgeable about the game of Soccer. You as a player are expected to be thoroughly familiar with the contents. The familiarity should be to the specific skills and to the strategies and philosophies. Your attitude and performance as a player will be judged by these standards.

Every day we are called upon to make decisions in our life. Some of these decisions may be of the utmost importance, while others are merely obsolete. Anytime we do anything, we must decide between two actions. Example: To study or watch Tik Tok, Youtube videos. You as an individual will base your decisions on what you think is valuable or worthwhile. The personthat best utilizes his or her decision will come out on top. Therefore, if you decide to study rather than watch tik tok or youtube videos, you will achieve good grades. The same is true about Soccer. If you choose to work on your passing, dribbling and receiving, then you can become a great soccer player. If you choose to stand around in practice or do drills incorrectly, then you will not become a good soccer player. Whether you know it or not, your decisions are based on what you value.

Every Athletic team and Coach has a set of values that they believe in. These values are the reasons why the coach handles the team and for the goals set for the program and each of its players. The set of values for the CYS will not only assist you in your playing career, it will also assist you in your life after sports.

The Coaches want you to think about values and we want you to understand what we think is important to do and to be as a player.

CYS Soccer Tournament teams believe the following are two important values that will also impact your attitude:

1. Dedication to personal excellence.
2. Concern for others.

There is a balance to be struck here, for striving for personal excellence; we may become overly concerned about ourselves, therefore, neglecting those around us. As we shall see, however, the sense of personal worth we gain through dedication to personal excellence makes it possible for us to be more mature, less self-centered in our relationships with others. Read carefully the discussions of these values, which follow and think about these things. Pay close attention to the specific Do’s and Don’t’s of conduct which proceed in the value section.

What distinguishes the great people of present day from the past history? How are they different from others around them who are less successful? It is certainly true that they possess great abilities such as high intelligence or superior physical strength and coordination, but one might well ask about the millions of other people whose natural abilities were equal or superior to those of the great people. Why did they not achieve as much as these few great leaders whose accomplishments have molded the world in which we live today? The answer lies in these three attitudes: drive and determination to succeed, dedication to a clearly seen goal, and self-discipline.

Every athlete has seen the importance of drive and determination. Soccer coaches know that the player who tackles mastering technical techniques (passing, dribbling and receiving) rather than not worrying about technical techniques will be the superior player. They know that the player who hustles on offense and defense and is willing to give effort will be the better player. The coaches know the player is not afraid of failing of trying will only become better by learning from his or her mistakes. It has been said that fail stands for first attempt in learning. Coaches want players who fail and then learn from their failures to become better the next time a specific situation arises. They want players whose desires makes them tougher when the going gets rough, and they want players off the bench who never stop driving their teammates to greater effort through their encouragement and support. In short, when all things are equal, the aggressive athlete is the better athlete.

In order to succeed, it is necessary to know exactly what you want to accomplish. It is necessary to set goals for yourself, and keep them in sight to guide your decisions. Soccer has much to teach you in this respect. The game consist of little decisive moments, sudden little situations to which you must respond. You must set your goal to be prepared for these moment’s.  For each of you the goals will be somewhat different, according to the strengths and weaknesses of your abilities. You must evaluate your abilities; make the best use of your strengths, and minimizing your weaknesses. For example, if you are not fleet of foot, you must learn to be quick on your feet and make quick decisions. Having a clearly perceived goal means knowing where you are going. Dedication means caring deeply about where you are going.

Self-discipline is having the courage, the patience, and the persistence to put aside distractions and direct your efforts toward those goals you set for yourself. You have only so much energy and only so much time in the day. Each part of this, which is spent on frivolous or useless activity, is opportunity lost to work toward the achievement of your goals.  Every bit of time at practice, which is wasted, can never be regained. There is a time for everything worthwhile in your life, but life will be much more meaningful if you can concentrate your attention on one of these activities at a time. What, after all, is happiness? Webster’s dictionary says that happiness is a sense of progress. In other words, we are happy when we feel that we are accomplishing something. Discipline is what makes this possible. WE are not happy when we just follow our random wishes for this or that. The discipline imposed by your coaches will be aimed at helping you to acquire a strong “self” discipline of your own.

There seems little need to sermonize here about the importance of concern for others. This value is central of most of the great religions on earth, and obviously necessary if people are to live and work together. Certainly, it is vital to good teamwork. But how does such concern display itself, and what makes it possible for you to be this way?

Being able to reach out to others is a mark of maturity. Being self-centered and unkind is a mark immaturity.  That is to say, that concern for others is a mark of being grown up emotionally. The mature athlete who is confident of his or her abilities and of his or her actions will not need to tear down others in order to build up their own ego. The mature athlete will never be heard criticizing another player’s ability except in a constructive way. The mature athlete will not provide excuses for the mistakes he or she makes or try to pass blame onto others. For example, say a player makes a bad pass on a goal kick and the result is the other team scores a goal. Whether the bad kick occurred or not, the goalies job is to stop the shot on goal. The goalie did not do their job. Of course, the pass should have been more accurate, but that goes without saying. Recognize the fact that there are only two reasons for calling attention to the mistakes of others. One is to offer constructive criticism (the majority of the time this is the Coaches job), and the other is to keep people from noticing your own mistakes. The mature athlete deals with his or her mistakes honestly and does not need to place blame because he or she is self-confident enough to accept the fact that he may not always be perfect.

This attitude carries over to the team level.Too. The Soccer team, which is confident of its abilities, does not need to ride the opposition from the bench or hoot and howl when the opposition makes mistakes. If we are better than our opponents are, they will notice as the game goes on, we do not need to tell them. Actions speak much louder than words.

Above all then, be a mature athlete, have confidence, and have consideration for others; for teammates, opponents, referees, fans, coaches and parents. Remember that these are people, not just puppets who happen to be around in ou lives, and they have feelings just like you.  A word of support and appreciation from you is always welcomed. As a member of the CYS Tournaments team, you are expected to make every effort to guide your actions by these principles.

DON’T EVER………

Berate other players on your team or criticize them for mistakes. Constructive criticism is the job of the coach.

Criticize publicly, especially to teammates the actions or policy of the coach. This is one of the quickest ways to tear down team morale. It is the coach’s job to acquire the respect of his players, and respect is to be earned not given automatically. But certainly no player should go out of their way to destroy that which have been built by others. On this subject, if you have a gripe or issue, take it to the coach in private. You might be surprised to find him seeing your point of view. Remember your concern for others extends to the coach. He gets his ego wrapped up in the game and makes mistakes too.

Argue or speak harshly to a referee. The referees we encounter will in most cases not be particularly skilled. Highly skilled referees are found only at the professional level of Soccer. Eventhen, the precision we demand from them is fantastically unfair.

It has been estimated that a Soccer referee has to make a decision every 22 seconds. Approximately 45 of these decisions are technical – whether goal kicks, corners or throw-ins – leaving around 200 decisions to judging physical contact and disciplinary actions. Of those 200, around 35 are visible decisions where an action is taken (fouls, restarts), and 165 are non-visible, where play is allowed to continue. In total, refs make around five errors per game, meaning they are right 98 per cent of the time. “By definition, you make a decision and one team is happy, the other team isn’t, and so are their supporters,” he said.

“All that you ask for is an understanding of the complexity of the job. You see week in, week out that referees make brilliant decisions.”

CYS Coaches are not asking you to always agree with the referees; we are asking you to conduct yourself like a mature athlete.

Say anything derogatory to a coach or player of the opposition. Making our opponents smaller will not make our or yourself any bigger.

Do ALWAYS……..

Cultivate in yourself a desire to play the game well and be a credit to it. Show this desire at all times. Hustle at all times on the pitch. Use every available opportunity to work hard on your dribbling, passing and receiving skills.

Play the game aggressively. Run hard, defend hard, think hard and strive to win. The team that will not be beaten will not be beaten cannot be beaten!

Enjoy playing the game of Soccer. If you do not, then you would be better to find yourself another activity.

Be as cooperative and helpful to others as possible; assist in the care of the teams gear and in keeping the field well cared for.

Accept constructive criticism with an understanding that it is aimed at helping you. Realize too, that if a coach yells at you, he may be trying to get you charged up for action.

Be punctual in arriving for practice and games. The late great Vince Lombardi used to say “if you did not show up 15 minutes early, you were considered late. So, if you are early, you are on time and if you are on time, you are late”.

Cultivate an attitude of pride in your own accomplishments and in those of your team. It has been said “pride cometh before the fall”, but what is meant here is the pompous sort of pride, which undermines your efforts by making you over confident. A pride in the fact that the entire team is striving to do their individual best is actually a steadying factor that will help you to lose in a clutch pressure situation.

Lastly, remember humility. The individual who is conceited is one who is self-satisfied, and he or she quickly becomes stagnant and fails to improve. If success comes to you and your team, remember that ability carries with it a responsibility to use your talents in the service of God and your fellow teammates. In particular, give of yourself to the younger kids you encounter in the league or at the fields. Those young ones admire you more than you know. Truly great athletes are too busy going somewhere to have time to waste thinking about their own importance.

Whether you are a starter or on the bench, cheer for your teammates when you are on the bench.

WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN

1. Understand your role on the field.
2. Do your job to the best of your abilities.
3. Pass to the open player.
4. Play the way you face.
5. Take space when available.
6. Everyone plays offense and defense
7. Communication
8. Hustle all of the time
9. Minimize errors

HUSTLE

1. Insist on It!!!!
2. It does not take talent.
3. Fans love it.
4. It causes the other team to make mistakes.
5. It will win for you when you are not playing well.
6. It does not cost anything but extra effort.
7. It is contagious.
8. It involves thinking and being in the right place at the right time.
9. Hustle is a combination of :
   1. Enthusiasm
   2. Desire
   3. Thinking
   4. Giving your best

CARDINAL RULE OF PRACTICE:  Do not ever do anything in practice that you would not do in a Game.

Soccer, like all sports, is a game of repetition. You practice something over and over and over, and pretty soon it becomes habit. This can be as true of doing something wrong as it is at doing something right. History shows that the player who practices the correct fundamentals repetitively is the player who eventually becomes the star and performs at high levels in pressure packed situations. This player makes their high school team, plays in college and possibly professionally.

Remember that there are two ways to do something. You can call it positive or negative, right or wrong, winning or losing. They all mean the same thing. You do things wrong in practice and you will be the one who will be the person who makes errors in the game that cost the team a win. If you practice the correct techniques in practice, you will be part of a team that increase its chances in winning. The team that makes the least amount of mistakes is the team that wins. Winning starts with proper technique in practice.