[Tommy de JesusParticipant]

Hello everyone, my name is Tommy de Jesus, posting here for the first time. I signed up for this membership knowing that I wouldn’t be able to contribute that often, but I didn’t want to pass on the opportunity to have access to the material and to be a founding member.

I live in Tucson, AZ, and I coach my son’s U8 Rec team. But I am originally from Puerto Rico, and I grew up playing basketball, not soccer. Actually, I didn’t even follow soccer, just the World Cup, every 4 years like “everyone else”. As someone who played a high scoring sport (recreationally) , I couldn’t stand soccer and its low or no scoring games, and I definitely couldn’t stand the “ping pong”, “choppy” style that is prevalent on this side of the planet. I mean, coming from basketball, where taking care of the ball, keeping possession and reducing the amount of turnovers is key, I couldn’t understand why anyone would give the ball up so easily with long balls and bad passes. To me, possession just makes sense.

But all of that was before my son started playing a few years ago. Even though I didn’t like the game, it was one of two sports he could play at age 3, and after waiting for 3 looooong years after my son was born to be able to get him into sports, the choices were T-ball or soccer, so soccer won because it may not have more scoring, but definitely more action and movement than T-ball. So soccer it was, and on he goes to play and he showed to be a good player. Not because he was taller, stronger and faster (definitely not taller and not the strongest, but maybe one of the fastest), but because he showed some good technical skills, dribbling and ball control (for that age, when compared to other kids), and great game awareness (again, relative to that age). He is 6 now, and is playing U8 (mainly because there is no U7 around here), but he has already played U8, back in the Spring (when he was still 5) and held his own against bigger, stronger and faster kids, but not necessarily more technical than him. We keep exposing him to better leagues and better competition, raising the bar, pushing his limits (little by little), and he is so far keeping up with the curve. (and yes, I am aware that competition in this area may not be as good as in other parts of the country, but we will keep looking and exposing him to better environments, even if we eventually have to go somewhere else, until one of two things happen, either he makes it, or he finds his ceiling)

Anyway, long story to tell you how I got into coaching and how I became addicted to the beautiful game after so many years of not liking it. I think my son has some potential in this game so I decided to learn as much as I could about it, I started to read pretty much anything I could find, until one day I found the 3four3 blog and it has been eye opening in the soccer sense. I have followed since. It was then that I decided to coach his team, because I didn’t want to run the risk to have someone else coach him and teach him bad habits (boot the ball style of game), so I became a coach. I started watching games from Europe, Champions League, La Liga, Bundesliga and EPL mostly (although sometimes it is hard to stomach some of the EPL games, too similar to MLS in my opinion, too physical, not so much technical). And that is how I became addicted to the game, I was exposed to the best there is, and it is beautiful, and yes, open competition rocks, let everyone have a chance please. (Feel free to call me Eurosnob… ha). Sorry, I digress… I’ve been coaching his team since he was 4, and I have had the fortune to keep 6 to 8 kids together as a team and see them grow for 2 years. As I said, possession to me just makes senses, it is the only way to go in my eyes, take care of the ball, keep the ball on the ground as much as possible, connect passes with your teammates. And that is why I decided to be a part of this community, to learn as much as I can so I can teach my players how to play properly, to keep and move the ball, to play smarter. Also in a selfish way so I can teach my own kid how to be a better player, and to network with some of you so maybe one day my kid may be given a chance to prove himself and be part of a possession-oriented team/club.

And yes, I know, I know, you may be saying that I am biased, ’cause I am the dad, but let me tell you, I am as tough on him as I can be. I remember one game last Spring, he had scored two goals, but he also made a critical mistake that allow the other team to tie the score late into the game (but who is keeping track of scores and wins and losses at a Rec U8 game anyway?… OK, I am guilty as charged, but you know what, the kids are keeping score too, they know who is winning and losing and by how much, even though we adults sanitize it and try to take the competition piece out of the game, but I digress again). And as much as I wanted to celebrate his two goals at the end of that game, as his coach and dad, the one thing I immediately discussed with him when we got to the car was that mistake and how to correct it, how to identify that situation so he could make a better decision next time. And yes, I felt bad about picking on that first instead of his goals, so please do not judge my parenting or coaching style 😉 I eventually celebrated his goals.

Bottom line, I do want to learn more about the beautiful game, I do want to appreciate all the nuances, tactics and strategies, I do want to learn how to play it the right way so I can pass on as much good info to my kid and my players before they eventually move on to other coaches. It is a pleasure to be here…

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by  Tommy de Jesus.

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