Action-Soccer (5)

JUNIOR VARSITY GIRLS SOCCER

November 2011- 6^th March 2012

JV Soccer Season was AMAZING! We were like a family, given that we COMMUNICATED really well on the field and off the field.

Our objectives during the season were ‘FUN’ and ‘LEARNING’! As coach wanted us to have fun while at the same time learn new things in an “individual/team” disciplined way.

First things first, we were expected to be at each practice early, Tuesdays in the morning, Thursdays afterschool, and Friday mornings, even though I live significantly far from school, I would still make it to practice before 6:50am (start time) as I was committed to training and learning.

We were expected to follow these 3 simple rules. First you are expected to attend all training sessions and matches, uniformed absence from either will result in suspension from the following match. Second you are not eligible to compete on a match day if you have not attended school on that particular day. Third you are expected to maintain high academic standards throughout the season, as your training/match commitment do not serve as excuse for incomplete/ unsatisfactory work.        

We regularly worked on so many skills and drills that helped us in both offense and defense mode and I showed a marked improvement in these areas:

            One-on-One: this was the area that needed work, we would pair up with a ball, player 1 has the ball and is ‘on the attack’, while player 2 is ‘on defense’. Player 1 would try to dribble to any cone; at the same time ‘defense’ player 2 tries to prevent this from happening. Here I was required to move and think quickly at the same preventing the defense or attacker player from possessing the ball.

            Endurance: speed is important as you can blast past defenders, which creates openings and increases the chance of scoring a goal.  Shuttle runs, 3 lap runs and bleep tests in soccer are really fun, given that we run together as a team and we don't let anyone down, instead encourage them to keep up. Endurance was a main key I improved in soccer before I would stop at 4 in my bleep tests but now I was able to go as far as 6 or 7.

            Ball handling: this included many different drills that had to do with controlling and handling the ball in a very small space, we also did ball tap drills which including taping quickly the ball, and lastly maintaining possession of the ball with first touches. This helped me a lot as an offensive and defensive player in matches.

            Shooting: This was an area that needed the most work from the beginning, so we would line up and take turns shooting at our goalie, we all improved on our shootings, including our goalie.  Given that we would first dribble up, then shoot, our goalie would roll the ball to the   shooter, and just like that we would also practice one-touch shots.

            Rules of the Game: My knowledge of the game improved this year as well as my knowledge about the positions. Since I’m mostly in defense during the matches I learned that my defensive girls and I are supposed to play narrow and in a chain like, while the rest of the team is suppose to play wide and passé to one another.

In terms of winning we only won 1 game, which was against St Christopher School, 2-0. Even though we lost the other games, we made them look bad and good, otherwise we were terrific we made several attempted goals, and we did a lot of passing between us. Nonetheless I believe we, the JV Girls, are winners in our hearts.