Ballinger AFC September 06 newsletter

Welcome to the first monthly news letter. Having survived my first training session, I’d thought I’d try and explain to you what we are trying to do with the club and how we are going to select the teams going forward, amongst other things.

Website & behaviours

Please can I encourage you to look at the website, www.ballinger-bombers.co.uk. The fixture list is up there as well as the code of conduct for the player and parents! At the end of each match the opposition team has to send a report in on the behaviour of the club, players, supporters and coaches. The best team at the end of the season wins the Fair play award, and is presented with a trophy at Wycombe Wanders match. Well worth winning especially for the kids. A big thank you to Andy White who did the website, and the continuing running of it for free.

Coaches:

We are fortunate to have 5 coaches. This means that from time to time, one coach can have a weekend off!
They are:-

Mark Brindley
Nigel Honey
Jamie Tuffney
Graham Hall
Simon Hughes

(From time to time, we may ask a parent to help out, or if really desperate I will drag the Mrs back on to the pitch!)

Training:

There is some structure around the training- no really! We are trying to ensure the basic principals of football are taught. These are passing, tackling, shooting, dribbling, heading. Each week we will continue to develop these themes so that the players ultimately improve in all facets of the game. Before each training drill we will explain to the boys what they will hopefully learn and after a quick chat about whether they think they did. Below is the structure of each training session, just so that you can act intelligently when “little Jonnie” tells you what he did today!

Quick chat about the what is being taught today.
10 minutes warm up
15 minute drill including all the squad – enables them to get to know each other, and understand each others style of play
Split squad into 2 x 10 or 4 x 5 and taken on 2 further drills. Splitting them up allows us to give more one on one training. They are not split up on ability.
2 v 2 games, for 5-10 minutes. This will enable the players to learn to move into space etc. It will also improve fitness. While this is happening, goalkeepers will have a separate training session.
10 v 10 or 5 v 5. This will allow the boys to put into practice what they have learnt and assist us in getting them to play in a certain formation. We will be trying to ensure that all the teams are equal, difficult to start with until we all get to know each other.
Sit with the boys for two minutes recapping what we did.
Finally, Jamie will take the boys on a two minute warm down.

In between all drills the boys will have a water break. We are contemplating that during this water break, Jamie will show them a football trick and during another one Nigel will explain to them one football rule or a fascinating football fact – if anyone has any please let me know or they will all be Liverpool ones!

Team Selection.

There are two teams: Ballinger A and Ballinger1.

Matches take place on a Sunday, and every boy is selected that joined Ballinger up to the maximum of 20 that I agreed to. There is an availability list attached which I would be grateful if you could return as soon as possible. There is no difference between the two squads, and we will rotate players between the two. We have one or two children that asked to join after we reached our maximum. I have said that they are more than welcome to come to training, but, given the values and principals of the club, I will not be able to play them in matches unless one of the original 20 players is away or wishes not to continue.

On match days there are 2 matches for each team lasting 30 minutes (15 each way) they are 7 v 7 or 6 v 6 Every player bar the goalkeeper will be subbed for 10 minutes per game in the 7 v 7 matches. In the 6 v 6 games I will do my best to ensure that I have worked the subs out – one player may not be subbed, please don’t hang me out to dry on this!

I am the idiot that will referee the games, and Nigel & Mark will manage one team and Jamie & Graham the other when they are available. It is possible that this is an area I might need help on, so if you can help let me know.

There are 13 games this season please don’t feel under pressure for your child to play every one. We will arrange a friendly or two, and in May enter a tournament. At this stage we would probably enter 3 teams.

Trophies

We will not be doing a weekly trophy. We feel that words of encouragement for all are better than the anticipation and disappointment that can happen with the weekly awards.

There will, however, be end of season awards as follows:

Players player of the Year – voted by the boys
Fans player of the Year – as voted by you, and you cannot vote for your son. One vote per household, so please watch all the players not just your son!
Most improved player of the Year – Coaches
Ballinger Footballer of the Year – voted by Mark, Jamie and Nigel. Graham and I will abstain so that there is no favouritism shown to our two.

Wycombe Wanders

The half time penalty shoot out is at 7.45 on Tuesday 24th September. If you have room in your car for a little ‘un please let me know. So far all the kids are coming, about 30 parents and 10 younger children. I really hope that everyone enjoys it. Just in case there is any doubt the children will be shooting penalties against their own goal keeper, not Wycombe’s or Swindon’s!

Pippa Hart

Pippa Hart has kindly agreed to take photos of our first home match. If you are in agreement I will post some of the photos on the website. To purchase any photos please see Pippa. Her website is Pippa Hart photography if you want to have a look at what she does.

Communication

Can I ask that you check your email and get back to me as quickly as possible on relevant issues. I don’t have the spare hours to make lots of phone calls, so for me this is the best way of getting to you. If this is a particular problem for you, please let me know.

And finally……thank you to all of you for turning up, hopefully we are going to have a great season and the children will learn lots of new skill, about winning and loosing and more importantly about being in a team and having fun.

Best wishes

Simon