Knights parents & perspective Knights parents:
Throughout the season we’ve heard from most of you that you are very happy with the program and development of your child. Here are some questions/concerns that have come up from parents. Without mentioning names, we wanted to share our answers and reinforce our philosophy throughout the program.
Asaf
Director of Coaching
Boyntonknightsfc.com
561-351-7979
Q: If I have any questions or concerns who do I contact?
A: If it is an administrative question/concern (Fees, uniform, player passes and so on), please contact your team manager. If it can’t be resolved with your team manager then have them contact our knights Administrator (Greg Gatto).
If it is soccer related, talk to your head coach. If it’s something that can’t be resolved after being addressed with your coach, you can bring it up to our DOC (Asaf Lubezky).
Q: Aren’t you teaching players to be ball hogs by focusing mainly on dribbling at the younger age groups?
A: No. The players will learn to be comfortable and full of confidence with the ball. When it’s time to dribble our players will have that option. When playing possession soccer (knights soccer), all players need to want the ball. All players wanting the ball give more options to the player with the ball to create “total football”. All it does is give the players more options and increase their tool box. Dribbling a little too much at the younger age is very easy to modify while players getting rid of the ball quickly is much harder to adjust since they won’t have the dribbling option in their tool box. It’s the first skill that younger players need to learn and therefore our first focus. Our current focus is passing, receiving and decision making. Ultimately we believe that developing our players soccer IQ, problem solving & decision making is what will give them an edge over their competitors.
Q: By moving players up and down, aren’t you disrupting the cohesiveness of the teams.
A: Players need to play with & against other players in their skill level. Their needs to be a good balance between them being challenged as well as being able to express themselves. This system is very fair to the players since they always have the option of moving between teams according to their progression. It also holds players accountable for their effort, commitment and performance. They dictate their own fate at all times!
Q: What do you mean by developing individual superstars? Soccer is a team sport.
A: You are 100% correct. Soccer is a team sport and players need to learn how to work together with other players so the team can fulfill their full potential. Our objective is not to take away from that but rather add to it but increasing every players individual abilities without taking away from the team game. It’s important that our players are great teammates but not be over dependent on others. Players need to be independently good as well as know how to be part of a team. When scouts from colleges and beyond look at games, they look for individual players that will fit their team and make an immediate impact. If a player is only good if they are surrounded by certain players then they will have a tough time taking the next step. We are aware of the big picture and preparing the players accordingly.
Q: Why is my son not on the black team? I think He’s much better than most of the black team players. Even other parents tell me this all the time.
A: If your son truly deserves to be pushed up then he will. When parents aren’t the ones making the decision then it’s easy to tell you what you want to hear. The coaching staff always has the players success in mind and if there is a player that can truly help the black team and needs to be pushed up then the professional and OBJECTIVE coaches will make the switch.
Q: My child is on the U8’s. Training is great but why can’t we play as many games as the black team?
A: There aren’t true U8 leagues. Our U8 black team is able to compete with most u9 teams so there are more teams for them to compete against. You are not playing less than any other U8 teams. The black team is just able to play an equivalent schedule to most U9 teams.
Q: We love the system and coaches but we’d like to be able to tell our kids what to do while the game is going on.
A: We ask you not to coach from the sidelines because it’s confusing to the players. We might come off as the “bad guys” but we are only doing this for your own child and his teammates benefit. One of the most common sideline coaching we run into is when the player is getting close to the box and everyone screams for him to shoot. Unfortunately, you took the decision making which is the most important factor of the game away from your child. Let’s not underestimate the players. Their senses are great and they probably know better then others when they are close enough to shoot and have a decent chance of scoring. Sideline coaching might give you the feeling of helping your child (short term results) however you are creating more damage than good for them in the long run.
Q: We are the customers so shouldn’t the coaches give us the control on how to coach and run the team. Shouldn’t their first objective be to please us?
A: No. Our first objective and priority is to the kids. Our main focus and objective is to create a positive environment for them to enjoy the game & develop to their full potential. Teams that are run by parents ultimately hurt the kid’s development, parents have their own child’s interest ahead of the group and this leads to disorganization and biased decisions. It’s better to leave it to the professional and objective coaches to make the decisions even if you don’t agree with all of them.
Q: Player evaluation, my daughter didn’t get the scores I wanted/expected. Why do we have them?
A: Individual meetings between coaches and parents are important for open communication as well as honest feedback regarding your child. The coaches put a lot of extra time into this so that you can get a breakdown of what your child is doing well and where they need the most work. For a player’s growth, it’s important to make these identifications. It’s also a good opportunity for you to bring up any questions that you have for your coach regarding your child’s development.
Q: Our coach is far more knowledgeable about soccer then I am but I disagree at times with his lineups and substitutions. Is this normal?
A: We don’t expect anyone to agree with every decision made by the coaching staff. You might not agree with some of the decisions but that doesn’t make them incorrect. Coaches have many things to take into account such as: play time, flow of the game, exposing players to different roles, attitude, work rate and more.
Here is a dilemma for the parents. Imagine you are the coach of the team, you are in the final of a big tournament, everyone drove 2 hours to the game, all the players are doing exceptionally well and the flow of the game is great. If you put a child in to get his minutes, the team will slow down and most likely allow the opponents to come back into the game. Do you make the sub or leave the players in to win the tournament?
This is just 1 dilemma but there many dilemmas like this that the coach has to go through on a regular basis. Now imagine that you are the parent of the child that needs to come in? Do you put him in knowing that it may hurt the group?
Please keep in mind that any decision made in this case will have some people agreeing and others disagreeing.
Now let’s flip it, your child is the one who needs to come out. Did you change your decision?
Q: Is winning important?
A: Yes. It’s important for players to win but not on the expense of playing correctly and developing their skills for the long run. We believe in building out of the back & playing possession soccer. We don’t want to play “kick ball” even if it leads to us winning more games this season. We are not looking to take any short cuts or an easy way out. It’s harder to pass the ball out of the back, work harder off the ball to give options, be technically sound to receive and pass under pressure. This will ultimately lead to controlling games in the future & winning far more games when it counts.
Winning attitude and desire to succeed is very important in all of our athletes. It needs to start in training and translate to the game!