Youth Soccer Ages & Stages: What The Player Is Ready For - Putting the Mind and Body Together

You taught it on Monday. It went swimmingly — they had it, you drove home pleased with yourself. Wednesday you set the same thing up and it's like it never happened. They were listening. Teaching and learning are two different events, and Wednesday is the brutal truth of what you actually did. This is part three, and it closes out Ages & Stages. Part one was the mind - what they can think about. Part two was the body - what it can actually do. This one is the whole player: it isn't theirs until they can find it without you. What's in it: Why nothing sticks on first contact, and why six ideas in a session = zero ideas learned Remembering instead of re-teaching — asking them to pull it back rather than showing it again The awkward silence — the hardest and most important 15 seconds in a session Why the struggle to remember is where the really learning happens Letting it decay 24–48 hours before you bring it back "What did you see?" — the question that recalls the lesson and trains perception all at once The scissors/skill move in the middle of an empty field, and what it tells you What the research supports, what it doesn't, and why I teach it anyway 0:00 Kick-off 0:20 Taught Monday, gone Wednesday 1:08 It's not one and done 2:20 One or two ideas, not 6 4:04 Why it drains away 4:17 Retrieve - don't re-teach 4:22 The awkward silence 5:53 Asking the question the right way 6:59 The struggle is what does the work 8:16 Let it decay before you bring it back 8:31 The book: Doug Lemov 9:16 The scissors nobody needed 10:30 "What did you see?" 10:52 Windows, not walls 12:11 What the research actually says 12:37 Show, retrieve, repeat 13:37 Next: a season of 11v11 THE BOOK The Coach's Guide to Teaching — Doug Lemov https://amzn.to/4hGf1BP What great classroom teachers do is relevant to coaches in profound ways. After all, coaches are at their core teachers. Lemov knows that coaches face many of the same challenges found in the classroom, so the science of learning applies equally to them. Three ideas from it that changed how I run a session: Performance isn't learning - what they do today isn't evidence they've learned it Expertise is in the eyes - decisions come from perception Teaching is checking they learned, not checking you taught 📺 AGES & STAGES — the full set Part 1 — What Their Mind Is Ready For https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1axAf6DQYk Part 2 — What Their Body Is Ready For https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv_nJRMpSZA Part 3 — When the Player is Ready (this one) Also mentioned: One Session Plan That Works From U8 to U14 https://youtu.be/Zps5eK5bWjg https://soccercoachkw.com Buy an AI camera that doesn’t break the bank - and help out my town program at the same time! https://partner.reeplayer.com/soccercoachkw Join United Soccer Coaches: https://hub.unitedsoccercoaches.org/nc__createaccount?startURL=%2FNC__Login%3FstartUrl%3D%252FNC__joinrenew Amazon Coaching Items: Kwik Goal Digital Ball Pump: https://amzn.to/4blZmoK Small Tactics Board: https://amzn.to/48Ug0tP Small Magnets (Light): https://amzn.to/43iHk3S Small Magnets (Dark): https://amzn.to/3wUh6bM Big White Board: https://amzn.to/3x0NBoU Large Soccer Tactics Board: https://amzn.to/3VhzO7d Large Magnets: https://amzn.to/48RGiNv Large Magnets: https://amzn.to/3VfQxIc Waterproof Stickers: https://amzn.to/3Vfhn3b Folding Goals - High Quality: https://amzn.to/3AEITP7 As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It helps offset the gear I buy out of pocket to volunteer — it costs you nothing extra.