The Coach's Game Card database helps a soccer coach balance the playing time each player spends in each position during a soccer season. It calculates the percentage playing time as well as goal totals. It is designed for recreational soccer, particularly AYSO programs, where a major goal is to have players learn and try all positions.
Coaches can use it to plan who is playing where in the next game and print out a copy to bring to games as well as an Official Lineup Form to give to referee(s). After the game, updates can be made in case unforseen changes occured.
This methodology is based on the AYSO philosophies of Everyone Plays and Balanced Teams (please see http://soccer.org/).
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- Tracks how much time players are Absent, Out, Goal Keeper, Forward, Mid, Back.
- Helps coaches plan who will play where for upcoming games.
- Prints Game Cards for coaches with the plan for that game -- who is playing where and the base statistics so coaches can more easily make decisions at the field about who should play what position at the last minute.
- Prints simple mini field maps to help visualize who is playing where.
- Prints a Game Lineup page with a larger version of the mini field maps so players can more easily see their playing position.
- Prints a Game Notes page so coaches can write down a few things that each player is doing well during each game and what to work on at the next practice.
- Prints clean Official Lineup Forms to give to referees.
- Allows coaches to keep notes and rank players to capture end of season information that can be used to balance teams for the next season.
- Keeps simple team win/loss records. This database focuses on player development and about kids learning and having fun but coaches sometimes do want to keep a game record.
- The database is designed for a single user (coach) to use for one team for one season. Multiple teams and seasons can be handled by using multiple copies of the database.
- Coach's Game Card is limited to 18 players on a team. There is no limit to the number of games.
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- Snack schedules (a simple list sent to parents should be sufficient)
- Roster with addresses & contact information (many leagues/regions already have systems to track and print out this information such that parents can update their own information).
- More advanced stats such as saves, etc. This database was designed to help recreational coaches circulate players among positions so that all players can learn how to play the different positions. Tracking at U6 is probably not needed but at U8, U10, and U12 it will probably work out well. For U14, U16, U19 players are likely to become more specialized and this Coach's Game Card system may be less useful.
- This database is not multiuser and does not track players across multiple teams or multiple seasons.
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Basically this software is free for you to use, distribute, and modify...
...subject to the terms contained in "license1.txt" and "license2.txt" that accompany this software. Please read these files to understand your full rights and responsibilities.
The files Game.OYO, GamePlayer.OYO, Player.OYO, Settings.OYO, and ReadMe.txt are:
Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Timothy S. Oey. All rights reserved.
Licensed under the Open Software License version 2.0
The files Game.OYO, GamePlayer.OYO, Player.OYO, Settings.OYO, and ReadMe.txt may be updated (using FileMaker Pro 6.0 for the .OYO files) and redistributed with the other files accopmanying them subject to the terms of license1.txt. Please share improved versions with others via OpenYouth.Org or any other means you wish.
The contents of the file "license1.txt" fall under the copyright listed within itself.
All other files are Copyright (c) 1994-2003, FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. These other files fall under the license terms covering "Bundled Solutions" as described within file "license2.txt".
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Hardware Requirements
Software Requirements
Hardware Requirements
Software Requirements
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Decompress the files from the appropriate archive and drag the contents into a folder at whatever location you wish to keep your copy(ies).
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1) Double click OYO.exe (Win), double click OYO (Mac OS X), or drag Game.OYO onto the FileMaker 6.0 application (Mac OS 9.x) to start up the system. The About, Game Card, Game Lineup, Game Notes, and Player List selections in the upper right of each window control what view you see.
2) Enter your list of players on the Player List (press the "Add Player" button for each one). Just names and position numbers are enough for now. At the end of the season you can work on player rankings. Please note that "Remove Player" removes the last player added, *not* the player you currently have selected. If you lose a player it is best to just mark them absent for the rest of the season. Note that names and jersey numbers can be changed at any time. An internal ID number not visible to the user is used to track all player information.
3) To create a new game go to the main "Game Card" Screen and press the "New Game" button. Other operations are available under the "Scripts" menu.
4) Fill in the positions each player has played or should play for each quarter (see Quarter Position Key on Game Card) as well as other game information as desired. All positions need not be filled, fill in only as many positions as needed (from 3 v 3 to 11 v 11). The field layouts are most naturally set up for a 4-3-3 lineup but you can play 3-3-4 or 3-4-3 by doubling up center or side positions. To play 2-2-2 or 3-3 or other small-sided game lineups just leave some positions empty.
5) The overall percentages spent in each position (Forward, Mid, Back, Goal -- adjusted for absences) calculate as you fill out the Game Card. Use this information to prepare for future games. X1 and X4 are a count of the number of 1st and 4th quarters the player has been out -- some players are sensitive to being out in either the 1st or last quarters.
Some position managing tips:
a) I've found it easiest to choose goalies for a game first, and have one team member play goalie for the first half (2 quarters) then another for the second half. This speeds quarter sub change over as you don't have to swap the goalie jersey and gloves every quarter -- only at half time.
b) Next I mark who is going to be out each quarter and try to keep a good mix of my best and "most challenged" players on the field so we don't have a really weak quarter or a really strong quarter. Also if we are down players and some can play the whole game, I favor goalies having no outs first, then other players (depending on how much out time they may have).
c) Finally I figure out all the other positions and try as much as possible for each player to play a single position for one half (with U8 & U10 players at least). For older players I may try to keep them playing a position for
6) Before each game, print out as many coach pages and referee cards as you need. It works well to keep the coach pages in a notebook. Fold the referee card in advance and give it to the referee at the game.
7) During the game, fill in player notes, game notes, and position changes. Immediately after the game it is good to have a game recap and congratulate each player on what they did well during the game.
8) After each game, enter changes that may have occured and game scores (in the Us and Them boxes if desired) in the main Game Card view. Note that for the Win-Loss-Tie statistic to update across all games you may need to click on the WLT field after entering a new set of scores for a game. You can enter the player notes and practice notes if you desire but these are just for your records. Leaving the paper versions in a notebook may be easier.
9) During and toward the end of the season update the player rankings and notes in the Player List view. This helps you assess each player in case the rankings are used by your region to balance teams for the next season or you wish to keep them for your own records.
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If you are starting with a copy of the database that already has information in it, press the "Start New Season" button in the "About" screen and continue with step 2 above.
If you want to keep a previous season, just duplicate the whole folder containing the Coach's Game Card System and rename the folder accordingly. This same technique can be used to manage multiple teams -- but please note that you should quit one copy before launching another. Trying to keep multiple copies open at the same time may produce errors.
To upgrade to a new version (and preserve existing data), click the "Prepare for new version" button in the About window and quit. Then copy the resulting Old Game, Old GamePlayer, and Old Player files into the folder containing the new version of Game Card. Finally launch the new version of Coach's Game Card, go to About, and click the "Import from old version" button.
On the about window there are some settings you can change to control how the names and jersey numbers display on the field lineup maps. If a name is too long to display all of it, the last "word" in it may not show up. You can choose to display less information or abbreviate the name to get it all to show.
The player note fields on the Player List window can contain up to 32,000 characters (about 5 pages of text) but only the 1st 2 lines will show up when you print the list.
The other rating fields in the Player List are for coach convenience and match what is used in AYSO Region 44 (http://ayso44.org) to rate players at the end of one season and help balance teams for the next season.
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All the files have been password protected so that menu options are limited for normal users. Using normal FileMaker menu commands instead of the defined buttons and scripts can create problems for users -- the buttons and scripts take care of house keeping issues automatically within the database whereas direct use of FileMaker commands may create problems.
If you wish to change this database:
1) You'll need to drag one of the .OYO files onto FileMaker Pro to have have FileMaker open it rather than the OYO FileMaker runtime application.
2) The master password that must be used to gain developer access to these files is "OYO". To enter the master password, hold down the Shift key (Windows) or the Option key (Mac OS) when opening the file using FileMaker Pro. The Password dialog box will appear and you can enter the master password and gain full access to all aspects of this database system.
3) Of course you'll need to know how to use FileMaker Pro and how the FileMaker Developer tool works.
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(everyone modifying this solution should add their contact information here)
Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Timothy S. Oey
Licensed under the Open Software License version 2.0
To contact Tim, see http://oeyweb.com/timoey/
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(everyone modifying this solution should add their change information here)
3.9.2 - 2007-09-15 - Tim Oey - Adjusted refernces to OpenYouth.org. Lengthend field length on Official Lineup Form (Referee Game Card) to accomodate longer team, coach, and assistant names.
3.9.1 - 2005-09-25 - Tim Oey - Adjusted some database field positions on lineup layouts. Fixed bug where Goals & Assists were swapped. Used a small font for Assists so it fits better.
3.9.0 - 2005-09-25 - Tim Oey - Added the tracking of Assists in addition to Goals. Added a field to enter the Opposing Team's name (Opponent). Changed the order of pages for the scripts "Print 3 Pages for a Game" and "Print All 4 Pages for a Game" -- now the large game lineup prints first, then notes, then game card, and finally the referee game card. In my 3 ring game binder, I find it handy to have first the lineup and then game notes with these two face to face -- I can write in changes to the lineup that may happen (unexpected absences or injuries) as well as notes into the notes area without flipping pages. The game card stats are behind the notes in case I want to reference them.
3.8.1 - 2004-09-19 - Tim Oey - Changed a setting to allow copy and paste (and a few other editing commands) to work. Added Us/Them score boxes and WLT (Win/Loss/Tie) stats to Game Lineup (field map). Added some position managing tips under step 5 in the "To use this database" section of this Readme and corrected system requirements.
3.8 - 2004-05-07 - Tim Oey - Removed version info from top of Read Me (so it can no longer be out of date). Fixed text alignment problem on Game Notes page. Split "Print All Pages" into "Print 3 Pages" and "Print All 4 Pages". My team at least has not needed the larger field page, so personally I prefer printing the minifield with statistics plus the notes page. I put these 2 face to face in my coach 3-ring binder so I can write notes, view lineups, and see the stats. Added team and game info to top of Game Lineup for those who like using
3.7 - 2004-04-07 - Tim Oey - Slightly adjusted larger field lineup views to better align edges and make names a bit longer. Corrected credits line on official lineup form. Made navigation buttons more uniform across system. Updated ReadMe with note that long names get word wrapped. Changed startup script such that if you have fewer than 2 players you'll be brought to the player list to start. Fixed other startup scripts such that if you click on the wrong OYO file everything will just work anyway.
3.6 - 2004-04-06 - Tim Oey - Created new larger view of lineups (simple field maps). Created plain black & white versions of all layouts that are now used to print (conserves ink on color printers). Removed many buttons, people will now need to use the scripts menu more. Added option to allow coaches to include or exclude the jersey number from the lineup game maps.
3.5 - 2004-03-27 - Tim Oey - Added a setting on "About" screen to allow a coach to choose whether to display first, last, firstlast, or lastfirst names on mini field maps. Improved next/previous game navigation with small buttons rather than textual "next" "previous" buttons. Added page to let coach write down notes about what each player did well in the game as well as what to work on as a team at the next practice. This notes page prints with the main coach Game Card -- leaving it as paper is fine although these notes can be entered back into the database if that is desired. Cleaned up a few other items. Added feature to track team scores, wins, losses, and ties.
3.1 - 2003-10-29 - Tim Oey - Enhanced the printed Referee Official Lineup Form (expanded key on form, streamlined some instructions, added Referee Report on back side). Added yet more information to ReadMe.txt. Added a variety of links to the About window.
3.0 - 2003-10-18 - Tim Oey - added ability to print an "Official Lineup Form" for the Game Card given to the referee. Added Home/Away field, moved Game # field, changed button arrangement. Fixed bug on Windows where 1st time New Game button was pushed it didn't work quite right. Added count of 1st and 4th quarters a player has been out (this matters sometimes to players, particularly older players). Added sorting (click on underlined header) and printing to Player List. Added links to open OpenYouth.Org and ReadMe.txt. Added simple security to prevent regular users from using most menu commands and potentially messing up the database in unknown ways. Established a comprehensive ReadMe.txt file to accompany the software as well as adding all the necessary license agreements to cover all aspects of the software.
2.0 - 2003-10-13 - Tim Oey - added left, right, center, and other positions (BL, BC, BR, ML, MC, MR, Bt, Bw) and added micro field positioning maps for each quarter to main GameCard window. This was a lot of work.
1.0 - 2003-10-02 - Tim Oey - created 1st stand alone verison.
0.95 - 2003-09-27 - Tim Oey - wrote import/export/upgrade routines, updated documentation, prepared for stand alone version.
0.9 - 2003-09-20 - Tim Oey - greatly enhanced by adding buttons and scripts for most functions. Simplified user interface and added more error checking.
0.5 - 2003-09-15 - Tim Oey - created 1st version.
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End of ReadMe