FineSoccer Kids 42

Welcome to the FineSoccer Kids Newsletter.  Today’s subject deals with types of errors.

When I was young a coach told me that he could tolerate errors of commission but not those of omission (this came from someone else’s quote but I don’t know whose).  This is something that made so much sense to me that I try to teach it to all of my players.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, commission is the “act of committing something”.  Basically it means, “to do”.  Omission is defined as “something neglected or left undone”

An error of commission is an error where you have tried something and it did not work.  An error of omission is when you didn’t try or do anything

So what this coach was telling me was that if I were willing to try something and it didn’t work, he would be very supportive of me BUT if I wasn’t willing to try something, that would be unacceptable.  Once I understood this, it encouraged me to try things and take chances because as long as I was making the effort, he would back me all the way. 

If you are a forward, this would mean being willing to shoot knowing that you might not score because you know that if you don’t take the shot you definitely wont score.

If you are a midfielder, this might mean trying to chip the ball over a defender knowing that if it works you create a scoring opportunity and if it doesn’t work, it’s a loss of possession which if this was done in the offensive third of the field, is not too dangerous.

While you might think that if you don’t take chances you can’t fail, I believe that if you don’t take chances you will always fail.  Take a chance!

Any questions, comments or suggestions should be sent to kidscomments@finesoccer.com or they can be posted to the FineSoccer Forum at http://finesoccer.net

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Have a great day!

Lawrence