D.O.C.  Corner  Advice, questions and guidance from our Directors of Coaching

CBAA Soccer is fortunate to have Two Directors of Coaching on Staff with our Intramural Soccer and BUSC Travel Program(BUSC).  We began our "DOC Corner" articles in our Spring Edition of our Pitch from the Press eNews.  Please click below to view our latest from Neil Smart and Ryan Hayward.  If you have a question for either one , or both of our Directors' of Coaching, please email us. 

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FALL 2013 DOC CORNER ARTICLES

|||     NEIL SMART, INTRAMURAL DOC   ||||  RYAN HAYWARD, BUSC TRAVEL DOC  |||

Dear Senior Class of 2014 -

To aid in your continued success after graduation, the Buckingham United Soccer Club has created a one thousand dollar ($1,000) scholarship, to be awarded to one male and one female soccer player, who has played for Buckingham United Soccer Club during their soccer career. As a current or past member of the BUSC family, you are invited and encouraged to apply.

The purpose of the BUSC Bob Kline Soccer Scholarship is to honor a graduating high school student who experienced a love for the game of soccer while playing for Buckingham United Soccer Club. We want to know how soccer has been a part of your life, what effects has it had? How was BUSC a part of your growth and development as a soccer player?

Please note that this honor will be awarded to the applicant that has shown how playing soccer for BUSC has influenced their ... [..continued, read more  ]                                                            

Deadline: February 28, 2014

About Bob Kline and the BUSC Scholarship

CB Cares Positive Coaching Award Presentation  at Herbst Fields to Bill Gibbons of Buckingham United Soccer [click arrow to start video]

Positive Coaching Award 2013

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2012-13 BUSC U12 Renegades

A special thank you to the Jones Family and CB Cares who make this award possible!  If you missed the ceremony back in June, please enjoy the press release video above.  

Many of you have expressed concern regarding the condition of our soccer fields.  While we've communicated rather generally that we have been, and are still in the process of trying to improve the condition of the fields, we wanted to provide specific information since you all certainly deserve to know.

We maintain a very cooperative and respectful relationship with Central Bucks School District, as well as the Townships of Buckingham, Doylestown, and Plumstead, and without the use of their fields we would be seriously compromised. For all school district and township fields, we have little control over the condition of the facilities and are not directly responsible for, nor empowered to perform at any large scale, field improvements or field maintenance.  For the most part, the CBSD and township fields are in good condition.  However, we are currently working with representatives of CBSD and the various townships to address issues, including bare spots and potholes on some fields prior to fall season games.  We are also working with CBSD and the townships to ensure that fields are mowed regularly throughout the season to facilitate practices and games.

For the Herbst Complex, a combination of factors has led to the present condition you all have undoubtedly observed.  While we have enjoyed a relatively cool and wet summer, there were 2 weeks of intensely hot and dry weather in July that followed directly after a period of cool and wet.  The net effect was that the turf roots were significantly stressed through excessive heating that was actually exacerbated by the high soil moisture.  There was also unusual activity at the Complex in the form of a lacrosse tournament that followed the intensely hot and dry period in July and a pipeline rehabilitation project that was conducted in an easement through Field 3.  Unfortunately, we find ourselves set back with respect to significant strides that had been made last year and this past spring and our ability to implement a long-term turf management plan that was predicated on a baseline that no longer exists.

Del Valley College Soccer

Looking for a family outing or a team event?  We have College Soccer in our backyard. 

Del Val Womens Soccer    

With six, double-digit win seasons, four Freedom Conference playoff berths and one appearance in the ECAC South Region Championships, the Aggie women's soccer program has certainly seen its share of success since being elevated to varsity level in 1994.

The Aggies produced their greatest year in program history in 2009 as they notched a school-record 14-4-2 mark. They were ranked regionally and hosted a playoff game for the first time - a day that was capped by Emily Perryman's goal in double overtime to send the squad to the Freedom Conference Championship Game. Delaware Valley fell 1-0 in the title contest at an Eastern University squad that eventually reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA playoffs. The Aggies were then selected for the ECAC playoffs where they lost on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Swarthmore College. [... read more... ]

Del Val Mens Soccer   The Aggie men's soccer program is under the leadership of Tom Drummond, who took over as head coach after the 2010 season. He led the team to a .500 overall record last year.

The program has been in existence since 1976. In 2001, the team - behind the stellar play of three all-conference honorees - jumped out to a 4-0 start in the Freedom Conference and qualified for the conference playoffs for the first time in school history. Last year, the team finished with a .500 record.

The 2013 team will play in front of a first-team all-conference goalkeeper in sophomore Chase Clement.

Intramural DOC Corner - Neil Smart  

Dear Parents & Coaches,

Welcome to another fall soccer season!   As we go to press for the current CBAA eNewsletter, I hope that your child is enjoying the game and having fun this season.  As part of Coaches Corner I would like to address the following question that I hope coaches and parents will find useful.

This edition's topic:  Please Address The Issue Of Organizing An Effective Practice For My IM Team

As a general rule IM practices last for one hour and it can be a challenge for any coach determining what is most important to cover in each practice. As coaches we always want to make practices fun for the players but we must also incorporate the responsibilities of planning specific activities and the challenge of effectively organizing players there is a lot to consider!

My advice is always two fold: Firstly have a consistent practice theme that you adhere to on a weekly basis; Secondly plan specific activities to reinforce the general practice theme.  For example in a one hour practice theme I often structure 3 x 20 minute activities as follows:

• A fun and vigorous warm-up where all players are active without and with the ball
• A skill teaching activity focusing on a specific area of the game such as dribbling or shooting
• A game related activity or game, preferably in a small sided environment, with increased competition for the players 

For specific activities within each part of the practice use the Byte Size Coaching link on the CBAA website. Of course many coaches will also have their own ideas picked up from clinics or their own experience of the game.  As far as the skill teaching element of the practice younger players like, and have more success with, dribbling and shooting activities. Passing and receiving are more difficult parts of the game to master so coaches will find more success teaching those skills as players get older and become more confident and 'game aware'.

Remember, sometimes activities will not work as planned if that is the case do your best to adjust accordingly. Coaching young and developing players is often trial and error even the most experienced coaches will have to adjust their practice plan during a session that is one of the keys to effective coaching.

So in summary take some time to prepare your weekly practice sessions and always keep the FUN FACTOR at the top of your list of priorities. Plan a variety of activities even if these are the same basic organization but with one or two simple progressions to challenge your players. Progressions can often be the key to a successful practice.

These questions certainly demand more detail in reply, but hopefully there is enough information in this answer to get coaches thinking productively about their practice sessions.

As always thank-you for taking the time to read and I am always happy to reply to any questions or feedback on these articles.