There is another old saying "the game is the best teacher"
Coach is there to help the players like a tutor, they can inspire, teach, give advice but kids want to play more than practice no matter how good the coach is.
I agree that the best practice is playing the game. There is no better situation than real game time plays that help teach the skills kids need. I wish coaches did friendlies more and less of the drills and tournaments, especially where you end up playing the same teams over and over again. Why pay all that money when you can just pick up the phone and say hey we a have a field at this time, let's play. Even during practice most teams practice said by side with other age groups or boy teams from their club. Pull them together and let them play, if there's a huge skill difference split them 50/50 and play on. I wish we played more and drilled less. And played less structured. Just my two cents.
Scrimmages are great so that the girls can just play against another team, but both coaches can occasionally stop play to talk about positioning, movement without the ball, thought process behind what they are doing, playing support.
