GESC
Elite Newsletter
August 2020
August 2020 Newsletter Outline
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Fall Soccer is a Go!
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Summer Soccer Wrap Up
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GESC Updated Player Development Model and Style of Play
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Between 2 Fields
FALL SOCCER IS ON!!!
COMPETITIVE/ACADEMY TRAVEL SOCCER SCHEDULED TO START TRAINING AUGUST 17TH. Register now to secure your spot!
REC/DEVELOPMENTAL EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION ENDS AUGUST 4TH! Register now to play for only $65! Registration goes up to $85 starting August 5th.
SUMMER WRAP UP
Back when we were still under stay-at-home orders, quite a few discussions were had between our competitive and academy coaches about training and playing over the summer and what that would look like. We knew it would come with some more work, along with a lot of uncertainty depending on which direction the pandemic headed, and that even beyond Covid, would require a lot of flexibility from coaches, kids, and parents with vacations and camps, and of course the unpredictable Montana weather. However, we thankfully never balked at the prospect of soccer this summer and instead moved forward, and I'm so very glad that we did.
It was awesome to see the kids back on the field and to see them be able to play with their friends and teammates in a safe environment with smiles on their faces, and ultimately to have even a small return to a semblance of normalcy in all of our lives.
A huge thank you to all of our coaches for being willing to put in extra work during a time when you are usually off, to all of the players for showing up when you could and for putting smiles on our faces through your work and laughter, and to the parents and families for being so flexible and understanding of everything going on. If there is a lesson learned and that we should remember from this summer, it is that together we will always be able to accomplish more.
Thank you!
Joel
GESC Club Founder and Director
WHY DO WE DO
WHAT WE DO?
THE UPDATED GESC STYLE OF PLAY
When GESC first started the coaches talked a lot about our club style of play. ie. How would we want all of our teams to play? What do we want it to look like, sound like, feel like? We did not want each team to be an island but instead wanted to be a collective. So we came up with our initial club style of play that all coaches and teams have been utilizing.
This way, as players get older there is no need to teach everything brand new again every year or season. Each coach can instead reinforce previous concepts making them more ingrained and also introduce more complexity and details with each concept. Retention and learning of something new is superior when connecting it with information that one already knows. This also helps with consistency as players understand what is expected of them, and allows for more consistent coaching throughout the club.
We understand too the importance of constantly reflecting and in keeping up with modern trends. The game continues to change. Kids continue to change. We need to continue to change with everything or we could get left behind. So the coaches spent a lot of time on zoom calls this spring updating our style of play and adding more details.
What we have now we call our club Player Development Model. It consists of our updated Style of Play, as well as what drives that style: our core values, our holistic player development plan and goals, and specific key qualities we want to develop in our players. Then we went a step further: based on all of that, how could we maximize the connection between what we want to accomplish and how we go about it? This led us to our training methodology and training format for different age groups based on their developmental needs.
We know that we always want to develop players holistically with good character, confidence, competence, connection, and cognition. We want players that will try to solve problems and make decisions on their own based on what they are seeing on the field. As a result, we now model our training sessions to replicate soccer problems that kids experience in games, and then through coaching interventions, help guide players to solutions that fit within the club style of play.
Presenting a problem in a training setting gets players to focus on what they need to learn in order to solve that problem and gives them something that they can see the practical use of come game day.
Anyway, I can talk for hours about this, and we are going to make an effort to try to dissect some of it further in our new video series Between 2 Fields (see next article), but if you want to read more about what we do and why we do it, read more at the link below. We have nothing to hide!
BETWEEN 2 FIELDS
Between 2 fields is our go at a video series where we take the opportunity to talk all things GESC, soccer in Montana, coaching, or whatever we want really.
In this first episode, we visit with recent graduate Zach Springer, 2019/2020 Gatorade MT Boys Soccer Player of the Year, MT HS's all-time leading goal scorer and 2nd all-time leading assist giver, who is going on to play at Carroll College next year, and who was coached by coach Nathaniel when he was 10-12 years old, and by coach Hunter from 13-14 years old and throughout his high school career.
Things we discuss this episode:
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Ghost peppers
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Youth soccer / HS soccer memories of being coached by Hunter and Nathaniel
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What is was like breaking the MT all-time scoring record
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Pop music hits of 2014
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Zach's brief life as a goalkeeper
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And his experience going to train in Southern California
We hope you enjoy it! Find us on youtube and hit subscribe to see future videos and be sure to let us know if there is anything else you want see and hear us talk about.
