Girls, allowed

⏱️ Estimated read time: 5 minutes

by Maurice Moroney

3 years ago I found my camogie mad 9 year old daughter in the kitchen on a Saturday morning in sports gear and boots. Camogie was over, and my shock doubled down when I heard she was off to soccer, having never shown any interest in it before. Her return from first training was accompanied by a question: “they are training with the older girls, they need coaches for her age group, would you help?”. Having played competitive football right up to my 30s I thought my days of pulling on football boots were over, but the thought of giving something back to the game I love had me standing on St Annes pitch the following saturday morning

So now, 3 years in, the first year of competitive football is behind us (or almost),and I thought it would be useful to capture what I've learned about coaching girls specifically, and fair to say I feel like I've learned as much, if not more, than I feel I've thought the girls. Its probably all known to most, but may be useful to the coaches of the younger squads coming up to U10/11 ages

Planting the roots

We’ve grown a starting group of 10 or 12 from 2 age groups that started training together to a group of over 30 across the two age groups. Most of this growth has been friends telling friends “this is fun”. Most girls showing up have hardly ever kicked a ball before, have not spent every lunchtime/evening/weekend kicking a ball. Most didn’t come up through the academy. They came because of their friends. So expectations had to be set to zero. So, first learning was to:

Expect

• no first touch.
• extreme one footedness.
• heads down staring at the ball.

Forget

• Formations
• Drills that require accurate passing, immediate control
• Competitiveness - the most frequently heard word at younger girls training is “Sorry” if there is even the slightest touch

Convey

• Encouragement
• Reminders to keep the heads up
• Sense of fun.
• Lots and lots of patience

Ensure

• Lots of touches
• Understanding of why
• Lots of touches
• Enjoyment
• Lots of touches

It takes a while, but the rewards are there. It’s a journey, we’re not there yet, but the progress has rewarded the investment of our time many times over. A team of girls playing head ups football for each other trying to pass their way through teams.

Why would i want to be like Messi?

I've stood on the edge of the 3G and Clarisford and seen the boys of all ages trying to emulate their idols rather than do the simple thing. Sometimes its works, mostly it doesn’t. Every boy wants to be Messi, or Mbappe, or Haaland and they want to do what they see their idols do.

Not the girls. Most of them might know the famous names,often in an effort to fit in, but little beyond that. If you tell them to kick it into the corner of the goal, it's not preceded by 3 stepovers, there's no showboating, they just try to do what you ask. Which is great, but you need to be careful that they learn there is an element of freedom that they can push as well, rather than literally follow what you say every time.

The girls can be so good at listening to what you say and trying to do it that it can be too easy to have them rely on you to make decisions for them. The challenge we learned was that girls take what you say to heart and very literally, so you need to tailor the message to accommodate that.

A foreign language

This one took a while. Halfway through our first season one of the girls finally told us what we had never realised. Months of calling down the line, goalside, man on(woman on really, but old habits die hard) and we never realised the girls had no idea of what these terms meant. It was a big miss, and an obvious one. So lessons learned. Key terms were explained, and why they were important .Language simplified to make it clear what was being asked (remember how literally things are taken), but most of all making sure the reason why was understood to enable them to make their own decisions on the field.

Start loud, go quiet

Girls playing their first games, even in training, are bewildered, not sure where to stand, where to run, what to do. Its all new. So lots of positive guidance, simplifying the game for them, where to stand when the ball is elsewhere, what to look for. Help them in advance, don’t criticise afterwards.

But more importantly, we don’t want joystick players controlled by the coaches on the pitch. A lot of coaching from the sidelines at U9/10s has turned into encouragement at U12. Trying to help in advance has transitioned to recognising good play/effort. Loud directions from the sidelines during the match has been replaced by individual conversations at half time or during breaks in play.

How much we instruct goes down as the girls' comfort on the ball and most importantly understanding of the game has increased.

Level of investment

They might come late to the game, they may not live, think and breathe football, but don’t for a second doubt the level of investment or how much these girls care. One of the biggest changes we saw with our U12 girls this year was to see the emergence of the competitive nature in the girls.Tackle intensity, chasing down opponents, that opinion that “its my ball” all took off this year. Disappointment at a loss, leaving it all on the field, we’ve seen it in spades this year. A hugely disappointing cup final loss on sudden death in penalties when every girl left absolutely everything on the field said everything about how much these girls care about the game. Our responsibility is to nurture that.

Love of the game

I've left the most important till last. Everyone is aware, or should be, that the drop off in girls participation in sport from age 12 to 15, and sometimes younger, is a massive problem, and one not mirrored with the boys. The biggest success any coach involved with girls teams can claim is to keep the girls involved. Cups and leagues, trophies and medals are all great, but the real win is to have a group of young women still lacing up their boots in leaving cert and older and still loving the game and pulling on a jersey with their friends. Whether that’s Clarisford on a Sunday morning or the Bernabeu on a Tuesday, it doesn’t matter. Keep the girls loving and playing the game.

The rewards in coaching this team of girls, and being involved with the u13 girls above and with the U11 below in the past, has been huge, and I've loved every minute. The challenges in coaching girls teams are different to the boys, but it's so enjoyable. And on a personal level our house has transitioned from 1 soccer mad person to 2, which has lead to some amazing memories all on its own. Lets see if Alan will leave this pic in 😃