With only one game last weekend it left me with a lot of time on my hands. Saturday consisted of work around the house to get it ready for the winter (which seems to have started already!). My game on Sunday was at 8 am but first I decided to get up early and watch the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final between Wales and South Africa. That started at 4 am my time. I love watching the knockout rounds of just about any sport. The intensity and drama are something that … [Read more...]
#210 Using the Play-Practice-Play Method in Practice
Last weekend was a busy one; I had six games between my four teams. The results were 3-2-1. The interesting thing was that the teams were 1-1-1 on Sunday and I LOVED the performance of my teams in every game. My approach was different with each group but I think it really matched with what they needed on the day a struck a balance between too much direction and not enough. Realizing that the balance needed by each team will be different and that sometimes even … [Read more...]
#209 Experiencing Different Soccer Cultures
Thanks to an email from listener Kevin I discovered how to allow iTunes to include up to 300 podcast episodes in the feed. I've made that adjustment so we have a couple of years before we have to worry about older episodes dropping off of the feed. Thanks Kevin! I don't usually use guest players for my teams unless we're very short on players. This weekend one of my teams really need a couple of guests because of illnesses but none were available to we had … [Read more...]
#208 Ways to Encourage Your Players to Compete
I followed up the out of town tournament two weeks ago with an in-town tournament last weekend with two different teams. One team played their own age group and the other was playing up. They both faced some good competition and didn't end up making the finals but they both had great experiences that will definitely help them continue to develop and build on a great start to the year. I talk more about their experience in the episode. There's a Grassroots … [Read more...]
#207 What’s in Your Coaching Toolkit?
I took one team to a tournament in St. Louis last weekend. This was my first trip to St. Louis in many years. In the past they just didn't have the same quality of fields that we could find by staying closer to home. The teams have always been very competitive but I just never wanted to play those teams on inferior fields. Now there are a number of good turf field complexes in St. Louis so I'm sure to be traveling that direction more in the future. We had … [Read more...]
#206 Choosing the Best Size Field for Your Small-Sided Games
It was a crazy wet weekend. I know this podcast sometimes sounds like a weather report but it has such an impact on the game and my coaching that it's an important factor. You can listen to the episode for the details. I'm continuing to experiment with not coaching during running play. I think it's having a very positive impact on most of my teams. However, one of the teams hasn't reacted as well to it as the others. I talk about the details more in this … [Read more...]
#205 Eight Different Coaches You See Every Weekend
It was another hot weekend on the soccer fields. I'm hoping that it was the last weekend we'll have like this before we start to get some relief. I really enjoy the fall season so I'm looking forward to some cooler temps. It also makes it a lot easier on the players. Three out of my four teams played really well. One just wasn't up for it on Sunday. I'm not sure if it was the temperature or if they were just a bit off. That's the great thing about coaching … [Read more...]
#204 A Coaching Conversation with Scott Moore
Last weekend I only had one game for each of my teams! It seemed like a weekend off :-) The great part about it is that the games were spread out; one on Friday, one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Even the games on Sunday were spread out by a couple of hours so it gave me some time in between. I've been trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) to only talk to the players on the field when there's a stoppage in play. My hope is that this leaves the decision making … [Read more...]
#203 Session Template Software
Last weekend I took one team to Omaha for a Labor Day tournament. This is a tournament hosted by Sporting Omaha that is played on a nice complex of grass fields. When we got to our first game we discovered that it was going to be played on a field that just had turf installed. Our players were very pleasantly surprised. We got off to a good start with a win and then came back in the afternoon to play a very physical team with one outstanding player. We were … [Read more...]
#202 The After Effects of the Heading Ban in Youth Soccer
I had three teams in a tournament last weekend. As with all early season tournaments in KC it was HOT. Two of my teams were playing in their own age group and one was playing up. The two playing on-age both made the final. One lost on PK's and the other won. I think the players learned some good lessons from the experience. You can listen to the episode for more details. The team that was playing up had an up and down weekend. At times we played great, at … [Read more...]
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