Our tryouts were last Friday. I don't know of any coaches, players or parents who enjoy the necessary process of tryouts. Everything has been different this year and the same can be said for tryouts. We only had new players attending so there were a few times when there were only had slightly more players than coaches. It was difficult evaluate the new players in comparison to our current players but we just had to do the best we could. I'm sure that we made … [Read more...]
#239 Developing as a Coach
#238 Social Distance Training Session
Well my voice is coming back slowly but it wasn't helped by having Pre-Tryout Camp this week. It's a four day camp that helps prepare new players to our club for tryouts and gives current players a chance to get together after not playing for a while. Our tryouts are tomorrow. None of our current players are attending because we've already offered them places on teams for next year. Having only new players will allow us to focus on them but it will be … [Read more...]
#237 The Pros and Cons of Playing with a Back Four and a Back Three
I've been really struggling with my voice (as you'll hear in this episode) so I decided save the Social Distance Training Session for another week. I have uploaded the printable show notes with all of the diagrams and descriptions of the activities to our Patreon site so that Members can view it or download. I'll describe it in detail next week but for Members that would like a sneak peak, you can click the link below. In this Episode This is another … [Read more...]
#236 Coaching Conversation with Tim Wszalek
This week was the start of our tryout process for the 2020-21 season. We started by contacting parents and finding out if they were planning to return to the club and let them know what tryouts would look like this year. Since we decided not to move players down this summer, only up, then they knew that they would at least be at the same level as the previous year. This was meant to simplify things for the families, club and coaches. Then on Thursday the … [Read more...]
#235 The Great Debate – Direct Play vs Possession Play
Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. This is the first time in years I wasn’t in Chicago. With soccer being on hold I actually forgot that it was coming up. Who looks at a calendar anymore. I had planned for my teams to play in a local tournament and stay home anyway but I always look forward to tournaments on that weekend because it's the end of the soccer year for most teams and preparation for State Cup for others. The soccer league season officially … [Read more...]
#234 Using Play – Practice – Play vs. Progressive Training Method
The discussion I’ll share this week is pretty long, like last week, so I’ll give you a quick update and then get right into the conversation. I feel that my players are experiencing a lot of, 'At Home' training fatigue. It's only natural since they've been stuck at home for two month without a chance to play. Training without playing would get old pretty fast for anyone let alone youth players. The trick shot videos that I asked the girls to create last … [Read more...]
#233 What Should be Done with VAR?
We have a pretty long conversation that I want to share with you about VAR today so I’ll just give you a short recap of my week and skip our usually Q & A. My team meetings followed the same format we've been using. We reviewed the players progress on the Techne App and our Flipgrid videos. The challenge we gave the players was to juggle as many times as they could in one minute. If the ball hit the ground they picked it up and kept counting from where … [Read more...]
#232 Using Game Design in Training Sessions
One week is looking a lot like the last these days; lots of Zoom meetings with teams and coaches as well as a constant stream of webinars. I can feel my players starting to get a bit tired of isolated training at home. I'm trying to do everything I can to switch things up and come up with fresh ideas. This week I have my teams doing a juggling challenge. They're working on their juggling all week and then recording a video to upload to Flipgrid.com on … [Read more...]
#231 ‘Soccer in the City’ with Director Michael Holstein
It's week six of, 'Soccer Coaching through Social Distancing'. I don't have any practices or games to tell you about so I'll let you know how my team meetings went this week. We continue to use the Techne Futbol app for skill training and Flipgrid.com to complete assignments and share videos. These have been great tools for me and my players. While I was reviewing the assignments this week I noticed that there was a lack of intensity and speed in the … [Read more...]
#230 The Impact of Mindset on Performance
Welcome to Week Five of Coaching at Home! This week my son and I build a new computer because my old one just wasn't cutting it anymore. I've heard this described as, "Adult Legos". It was a bit cheaper and more specific to my needs to build it rather than buying one off the shelf. We’ll see if you notice a change in the production quality as I get used to using some new tools. It's certainly going to make reviewing video from my Veo easier! It's also going … [Read more...]
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