Synergist Attila
Not many children are ready and dedicate life to becoming the next Premier League superstar, and there is nothing wrong with having different dreams. However, there is a great chance that every pursuit requires learning about responsibilities and team-building.
Leading the player and the team is my priority in order to create a learning environment. I sincerely believe that soccer aims to create meaningful values for all children by bringing families and communities together which influences the child's lifestyle outside of the soccer circle.
Taiwan's learning environment aims to establish long-term goals to guide children through a development process of a leader. Therefore, they can make autonomous decisions ON and OFF the field.
Player-centered Approach
Daily training will increase performance, but athletes must avoid overload to stay in the game. Da-Sing School is optimizing the training environment to train five evenings and two mornings in a week cycle. The goal is to maintain a thriving elite soccer environment where athletes can take full advantage of the training.
These are only the fundamental principles of periodization training because you dive into an ocean of complexities when you start looking at psychology. Looking behind the player as a person and guide is what I stand for as a starting point to nourish a player-centered environment.
Assistant coach 韓慶鳳 Chingfeng Han's role was the key to our success. Her contribution to the program was exceptional and way above our standard. From the beginning to the end, she organized the trip, made phone calls, and translated. Throughout our journey, I find the characteristics of the role model when I see her putting others first instead of herself. She was supportive when people were confused and inspired others to get into action. She had a lot of hard work to carry on her shoulders which I can never return to her because 韓慶鳳 Chingfeng Han sacrified weeks out of her time to create a learning experience for Taiwanese children. I see her actions as exceptional because most of us would have stopped pursuing it as soon as we had nothing to gain. But she turned it around and came up with reasons why it had to be done.
Also, thank you to Chun Hua Chang for helping us connect with the schools and coaches all around Taiwan. She is an essential part of the Taiwan charity community, and without her kindness and support, we would not make it this far.
At the left principal 顧淑芬 Ku, Shu Feng; AT the center, assistant coach 韓慶鳳 Chingfeng Han; At the Right, Me. One of the responsibilities of a school principal is to bring people together in order to create a developmental environment. What brought us together is the similarity of purpose. I want to assemble a learning environment for kids somewhere in Taiwan, and principal 顧淑芬 Ku, Shu Feng, had the other side of the puzzle because she desires to lead an educational environment with someone at her school. That's how long-term relationships can form: same interest, but different power. I can not emphasize enough how much I appreciate principal 顧淑芬 Ku, Shu Feng's support on my journey.
At the left, Director of Student Affairs- 洪文龍, Hong, Wen Long; At the right, Head Soccer Coach- 梁瑋祝, Liang, Wei Chu. What makes a word class player is less about the talent but more about the coach who inspires players to practice and nurture psychologically to bring out the key qualities of the soccer player, which is the driver of the team's tactical principles. There are only a handful of coaches focusing on long-term development in the world, and at the sessions I felt the quality of world-class leadership. I have never seen any team become great because they were born to be great. Great teams built from great coaches like 梁瑋祝, Liang, Wei Chu; and 洪文龍, Hong, Wen Long.
Language barrier brought me many challenges to coach, but I was so lucky to have coach- 張竣傑, Chang, Jun Jei on my side to translate. We were exchanging ideas on Taiwan soccer and the USA soccer methodology. Furthermore, he provided support for the fluid transition between exercises and assisted players in remaining involved and motivated. Also 張竣傑, Chang, Jun Jei significantly influenced the field to help me use one of my coaching tools, "check for understanding," which is players' comprehension of goals and objectives. I loved the conversations on sharing experiences and evaluating the outcomes together to impact the Taiwan soccer community. We were trying to stitch the USSF and Taiwan soccer methodology to create one.
劉馨鴻 Joan Lou and 韓慶麟 Ben Han was the founder of New Taipei City soccer practice. They helped us to recruit kids for the session and find the field for training. We were all in this together because all the parents and kids shared common goals. Our motivation lies in four pillars. The first pillar, fun; sneak joy into everyday life with excitement and memorable moments. The second pillar, education; learn valuable skills to make life easier in the future. The third pillar, social; make friends to create a brighter future. As the saying goes: show me your friends and I will tell you your future. The fourth pillar, health; exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle, and we all know how important to stay healthy. 劉馨鴻 Joan Lou and 韓慶麟 Ben Han created the secret sauce for our session where kids had a choice to come and stay, but everyone was excited to be part of the game.
All communication has its benefits when used in the right moment, length, behavior, and purpose. The most common ways to verbally communicate with players are to stop the play, coach in the flow, freeze, and create intervals. . .
We are getting into a 9v9 game with one sub. The formation is 1-3-2-3. The defending system of play 1-4-2-1. The attacking system of play 1-2-3-3. The style of play in attacking is possession-based playing style, which surprised me because most teams have direct style at this age. . .
The story of a girl who doesn't stick out from the crowd and doesn't know that her technical skills are proficient in dictating the game's pace. She holds a proper central midfielder quality to become a reliable pivot point in possession of the ball to create chances in the offensive third. . .
My childhood hunting back, 40m X 20m field on a concrete surface with the 2m X 3m goal on each end. I had many concerns about the surface, but we made it with no injury. We ran a 5v5 game with a goalie and played in a 1-1-2-1 diamond formation on both sides. . .
Organized intervals are more than delivering information. Structured intervals will focus on three impacts
›Injury Resistance
›Development
›Performance
Professional coaches understand the power of intervals by using it to empower the team through creating the right influence. Coach chooses the learning-direction by favoring one challenge over another. The coach's long or short-term view will decide which one is the most crucial for the upcoming interval. Whether it’s games or training intervals, coaches must use all three pillars to create a learning-centered environment. To find a potential interval opportunity, coaches must look to the identified game situation. Deciding on the length of the interval also depends on the training session’s identified situation. Because executing the identified game situation in a higher intensity, players require more and longer intervals. The game speed of the team's tactical principles is your starting decision about time. Behavior and purpose are complex decisions on when to guide, command, comment, or compliment because they must support the 5 elements of the training session.
We are getting into a 9v9 game with one sub. The formation is 1-3-2-3. The defending system of play 1-4-2-1. The attacking system of play 1-2-3-3. The style of play in attacking is possession-based playing style, which surprised me because most teams have direct style at this age. The style of play in defending is pressing in the medium and low block, creating high press after the team gets back to an organized and balanced defensive shape. Here is a quick summary of my observation of the game and what to improve. The pace of the ball was a joy to watch and the number of passes before their last possession on the ball was on average 5-6 passes, which is exceptionally high in youth soccer. The objective of connecting the defense line with the midfielders, or moving the ball from the defensive third to the middle third had an 80% success rate but connecting the forwards with the midfielders at the attacking third was less than 30% success. I find that happening because of a lack of space to pass or dribble forward. In the offensive third, the pressure on the ball increased dramatically. The opponent's quick cover and smartly balanced defensive structure prevented the attacking team from triangulating and creating passing options.
The story of a girl who doesn't stick out from the crowd and doesn't know that her technical skills are proficient in dictating the game's pace. She holds a proper central midfielder quality to become a reliable pivot point in possession of the ball to create chances in the offensive third. To create time on the field, players must have a positive first touch on the ball. The first touch is a complex technical skill to learn because it involves position, moment, direction, and speed, so most kids do not have it. However, when a shy U9 girl can cushion the ball without having the ball bounce away from her feet as well as find the opening on the field to drive the ball into space faster than a defender can deny chances. This made me think twice and forced me to update my book of experience; My collected data shows a U9 girl perfectly capable of mastering ball control with proper coaching and massive quality practice time.
Just like in my childhood, a 40m X 20m field on a concrete surface with the 2m X 3m goal on each end. I had many concerns about the surface, but we made it with no injury. We ran a 5v5 game with a goalie and played in a 1-1-2-1 diamond formation on both sides. For several reasons, I don't like to have a goalie at this age, but we had those big goals on each end, and I had to do something to defend. When the ball goes out of bounds on the sides, I try to keep the game flowing and merge them back to the field, but every player must go back to diamond shape when the ball goes out of bounds at the end lines. We had the funniest moments when the kids were so focused on the ball that they lost track with the outside world and ended up playing on the basketball field.
I love Taiwan for those little surprises. I'm a coach who loves to get the children's drawings because it represents appreciation in the children's world. During these moments, my hard work paid off and powered me to keep going.
I have been coaching for over ten years in the USA and I noticed that kids around age nine start slowly but steadily change and stop showing appreciation. By age 16, forget it; all appreciation is gone with the wind. At a young age, something triggers them to adapt to a new environment. And who is creating the environment? We are, family, coaches, teachers, friends, peers, and the surrounding unknown people. Which means that I am, as a coach, part of the problem but also the solution. This makes me question how to measure coach success. I concluded that neither winning nor salary is linked to the quality of the coach. Instead, I must measure success on how a person feels, think, and act toward me.
One day, in some random grocery store, I ran into a huge heartwarming surprise. I see a kid voluntarily approaching me to show care, kindness, and respect because I am his coach. At that moment, I felt appreciated. Not every coach can recognize the power of this moment in life but for me it felt like a surprise birthday party with my close friends.
I respect Taiwanese culture for their
Throughout my journey, I enjoyed every minute of this training, and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to create a learning environment for Taiwan.
I see Taiwan as a place where I experienced family values, safe streets, and respect from one another. It is a lovely place to be to find joy in my heart.
