Shift Changing

Taken from the USYSA Blog site of Sam Snow

Here's a question from a parent of a young player:

"I have a relatively minor question regarding appropriate shift time, not playing time in my daughter's Under-10 Recreation Traveling team (6v6). My daughter will be nine shortly. With 10 players on the roster, each shift of five moving players is playing about 12 -15 minutes at a time and it seems as though the young ladies are becoming tired quickly. The last team we played changed shifts about every five to six minutes...By the way, our coach is new and has never coached any organized sport before though she has a local high school soccer player helping out...

Is there a recommended time-per-shift at this age?"

Shift changes can actually hinder the players learning how to play the game. Wholesale substitutions change the rhythm of the game and end up with the game being played at a helter skelter pace, often with little in the way of quality tactics. When the pace of the game is too fast the match deteriorates into kick and run soccer. For the beauty of the game and to put young players into an environment to learn the game it is better to substitute players one or two at a time. Since the Under-10 age group is playing halves for the first time (see the Modified Rules for Under-10 at /coaches/RulesSmallGames.asp) it is a learning experience for the players, coaches and parents. All of those folks now need to begin learning the rhythm of the game. The players are being asked for the first time to think about how to pace themselves. That of course may be impossible to do if the adults surrounding the field are yelling for the players to constantly run at full pace, something which professional teams do not do.

The children will naturally become tired, but learning when to run, jog, walk or stand is part of the tactics of the game. Shift changes do not allow players to learn this tactical part of soccer as they are told to run hard for ten to fifteen minutes and then come off. That approach can win matches at Under-10 but will cause you to lose them at older and higher levels of play. It may require a bit more work during the match for the coach to keep track of 50 percent playing time for each child at the game that day, but that is a bit more in tune with the coach's job during a match than telling the players on the field what to do.

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Infinity SC '92 Girls In Southern California Part 1: Unifying The Team

With the high school season coming to an end the U17 girls had four weeks (eight training sessions) to prepare for a very competitive tournament. Their preparation was focused on three things;
1) Unifying the team
2) Team Shape when transitioning to defense. Click Here for the team shape diagrams.
3) Attacking using combination play and unbalancing runs in to the final 3rd of the field.



The girls all arrived at Doheney State Beach in Dana Point, California. Coach Ginn's parents and aunt still live in San Juan Capistrano, CA so they played host and provided a thanksgiving dinner for the girls and their families. There was turkey, yams, stuffing...just enough for everyone to have a little. Also there were Hot Dogs and Hamburgers for the families to eat up if they remained hungry.



Unifying this group has not been a difficult task, as the girls have been open to the new teammates, coaches and parents. The girls had a lot of fun playing volleyball and hanging at the beach on Thanksgiving day.


After having fun at the beach the girls drove up to Irvine and went through a training session and some "walk throughs" to prepare them for the tournament the next morning. The girls shared rooms with assigned teammates. The teammates that attend high school together were all separated to allow the players a opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and get to know one another. A team rule for the girls is that the players are not allowed to wear anything representing their highs school when at Infinity activities. Even though High School soccer is important, being unified as a team and breaking down the boundaries that our valley has developed over its history is an important part of being successful, both as a team and as a club.



I will share their soccer tournament experience for part two and continue to focus on the team unity aspect for now. Friday night the girls were asked to perform skits for their teammates to perform. They groups of four grous were asked to present a skit. The topics: The Dating Game, A Talk Show, Home Shopping Network & A Game Show. When given the assignments the girls reluctantly went to their rooms and created ideas, and developed dialogue for their skits. Walking through the halls, the girls were giggling more than normal. The skits were performed and when Morgan Olsen's father, Gary Olsen, was asked to be the bachelor, the girls got to see a grown man blush when forced to asked pre-fabricated questions about the available girls. He asked the two girls questions like, "describe your belly button," and what their ideal dates would be. It was pure comedy to the girls and the parents. After the skits the girls played a game called, "The Animal Game." The girls had to act out animals with body movements and sounds or move down in the seating. It is a long time tradition for Coach Ginn to play this at every tournament he attends. it was fun, by the end the girls were tired and headed to bed to prepare for the next day of soccer.



When the tournament was over on Saturday the girls went to Laguna Beach, CA where they surrounded a pit fire on the beach, roasted marshmallows and played in the shore break. Taylor Anderson and Stacy Bair ended up drenched when Coach Ginn asked them to go stand on the rocks while the set of waves were small. They stood their, nearly bored because the water was just getting their feet. Getting anxious to play in the water a bit more, the team got closer to the shore break, Taylor hid behind a rock next to the edge.



I do not believe anyone will forget when Taylor got drenched when the shore break covered her so well that nobody could see her. The same wave got everyone else wet, but Stacy and Taylor got the worst of the group.



The girls went back to the fire pit and dried up. The team really had a fun time, it seemed as if these girls had all been playing together for years and years.

The experience was memorable and the unification process off of the field seems to have been successful.

The Ginn family and all of the players families made the trip stress free (except for the trips to Jamboree Rd.). Coaches Caleb Cowley and Jeff Ginn are very grateful for the girls discipline, punctuality and responsibility that they displayed during the entire trip.

-As more photos are gathered, we will post them. Part 2: Developing While Competing, will be up soon.