After several severe beatings in our first games, we believed our main problem was defense. We gave our opponents too many break away opportunities, which put a huge burden on our under-sized Keeper. Moving one of our strongest players to Sweeper helped reduce our opponents scoring chances somewhat, but we still were not clearing the ball and most of the game was spent in our half of the field.

On Offense, when we were able to advance the ball, the boys were getting chances by either dribbling around our opponents or centering the ball to an open player. Unfortunately, we rarely put the ball into the back of the net. Most scoring opportunities were concluded with inaccurate and weak kicks that went wide or were easy to block. Many times, their Keeper would block or deflect the ball without securing it, giving us an opportunity for a follow up attempt at goal, but our Strikers had either fallen down or stopped after the initial kick.

We finished the season with a record of 0 Wins, 9 Losses, and 1 Tie. (GF-8 GA-38)

Later in the season we finally realized that we had an underlying problem that our boys were just not kicking the ball with any power. That’s why they had trouble clearing the ball out of their end or scoring when they had good opportunities.

We started doing some extra drills at practice that we thought would increase the power of their kicks, such as repetitively kicking the ball as hard as they could or doing exercises such as hopping on one foot to build up leg strength. But that didn’t help. We later learned that it was only reinforcing bad habits.

It wasn’t until late in the season that we realized that most of our boys had various problems with their basic kicking techniques. Several boys were putting their plant foot well behind the ball causing them to over extend and fall after the kick. Others had their plant foot too close or too far away (not hip width distance) or they were toe kicking the ball. And, almost all the boys were just pushing through the ball, not winding up, and therefore, not kicking with power.

We didn’t really know the best way to solve all of these problems and so I started doing Internet searches for any tips, tricks, or techniques that might help us. I soon discovered the Blast the Ball web site and after reading some of the success stories and watching the preview I thought it was exactly what we needed.

The coaches and I watched the video and decided to incorporate one or two of Coach V’s Blast the Ball lessons or drills into every one of our practices. We started at the very beginning and worked our way through most of the video. For example, for each boy we measured the distance between their hip bones and explained the theory behind using the natural swing path to get maximum power. We worked a lot on plant foot positioning and used a round ring to force the boys to step closer to the ball. And, of course, we practiced the soccer hop at the beginning of every practice.

Although parents and coaches of young boys will publicly state that the most important goal is for the kids to have fun and develop their skills, I strongly believe most parents (and kids) join a competitive soccer team to compete and win and failing to do so can cause low morale and anger in both the parents and kids.

After suffering through a season with no wins and several humiliating losses, we had about half of the parents bitterly complain about the coaching, the refereeing, and eventually pull their kids from the team. Even though the kids had developed quite a bit and had lots of fun at practices and most games.

On the other hand, in this recent spring season, I witnessed both parents and kids get energized and excited after winning their first few games. Parents were friendlier to each other, volunteered to help more, and wanted the get the team together outside of soccer. The boys were also nicer to each other and more forgiving of each others mistakes.

I am proud to say the Pacific Soccer Academy Boys U9 team took first place in the recent spring league scoring on average over 4 goals per game.

So winning may not be the only thing, but despite what many will say, winning is important.

I think the Blast the Ball video is a must-have tool for all coaches and parents interested in developing their kid’s soccer skills.

Even coaches with many years experience, like our own, may not realize that their players are not kicking with maximum efficiency or even if they do, they probably don’t know the right way to teach it. Most coaches would be wise to take advantage of the expertise and knowledge contained within the Blast the Ball video and use that information to improve the capabilities of their players.

And parents should not wait for coaches to teach proper kicking techniques to their children because it may or may not happen. I recently purchased my own copy of the video to have at home. I’m going to use it with my youngest son, who just turned 4 years old, to make sure he starts off kicking the ball properly.

I can’t give “Blast the Ball” 100% credit for our dramatic turn around because the boys worked really hard and received excellent coaching, but “Blast the Ball” certainly was a major factoring in helping the boys put the ball into the back of the net with greater accuracy and power.

Thank you very much Coach V for developing the “Blast the Ball” system!

Regards,