It was an easy weekend of Futsal for me last week. I only had seven games (seems like more when I say it like that). Three on Saturday and four on Sunday. At this point in the season my players have hit their stride with Futsal; they all understand what we're trying to do and are working their hardest make it happen on the field. This is the time where I start changing things up a bit to challenge them in a different way. We change back and forth between a … [Read more...]
#261 The Role of the Assistant Coach
It was nice to have a break over the holidays. Although it was a strange time since we couldn't see our extended family in person. We kept it to just my wife and children. That's not the way we wanted it to be but it was the most responsible decision under the circumstances. It was a very "2020" holiday season; where Zoom meetings replaced family get-togethers. The extra time did give me a chance to catch up on administration of the recreational program. As … [Read more...]
#260 2020 Soccer Year Review
Last weekend I coached 18 Futsal games from Friday to Sunday. That made for a long weekend for me but it was great for the teams to get a chance to play four games each in one weekend. There is no better way to start the season than we a bunch of games one after the other so that the players can build from one game to the next. By the end of the weekend the kids were back in 'Futsal Mode' and really playing well. We had our first outdoor practices canceled … [Read more...]
#259 Technical Training in Game Like Environments
I had a fun weekend with my two older teams playing the last of their outdoor games for a while. The 2009's won one and lost two competitive games in another 2007 division. more important than the score, they played really well. They struggled a bit to score but that's to be expected against the bigger stronger players they faced. My 2005's had their first game since coming back from quarantine. They also played great but couldn't finish their chances. The … [Read more...]
#258 Effective Futsal Defending
After a very hectic fall season it was great to have break over the Thanksgiving week. As with everything in 2020, the holiday week was very different from the way it usually is. My extended family usually spends a lot of time together over this period but that wasn't possible this year so I had a lot of time to work on a number of projects. High on the list of 'Things to Do" was completing player evaluations for three of my teams. I do individual meetings … [Read more...]
#257 Activities in Small Spaces
The boys divisions of the final tournament of the fall were held last weekend so I didn't have any games on my calendar. For me the weekend was packed with home projects that have been neglected during the busy fall season. The one soccer activity I did have was the process of putting together my teams for the futsal season. Each of my four teams has entered two teams into the Futsal league. The rosters of each team range from 11 to 17. For each game I plan … [Read more...]
#256 Analyze your Opponent
Well, We had a tough three games in State Cup last weekend. The level of competition and athleticism was just two much for us. We didn't help ourselves with some unforced errors that cost us goals at key points in the game. We also didn't create as many chances as we needed to in order to give us a chance to stay in the games. It was a four team group and two of the team were clearly better than the others. We were very competitive with the third team in the … [Read more...]
#255 How to Prepare Meaningful Player Evaluations
My schedule has really slowed down in the last couple of weeks. The end of the fall always brings with it a much more relaxed pace. I'm grateful that we were able to complete our season. That was definitely not guaranteed when we started back in August. This weekend is State Cup for my 2005's. This is the one tournament all year that I focus on winning. If we're successful we have the opportunity to go to regionals and that will put the team in front of … [Read more...]
#254 Do You Need a Coaching License?
Last weekend should have been State Cup for my 2005 but it was moved to the November because the facility that was supposed to host it was closed to all non-professional sports. I had blocked out the whole weekend for my other teams so they didn't have any games scheduled. We ended up moving a reschedule game for my 2005's into the empty weekend. That gave me just one game last weekend and that one wasn't until Sunday afternoon. It gave me lots of extra time to … [Read more...]
#253 Encourage Creativity and Confidence in Your Players
One of the benefits of coaching as many teams as I do is that I see just about every situation you can imagine. Last weekend I had eight games from Friday through Sunday. Two games Friday, two Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Today I thought I'd pull out one takeaway that I had from each day. On Friday one of my teams had an opponent that relied almost exclusively on aggression and physicality to play the game. Their goal was to simply to force us into mistakes … [Read more...]
- Prev Page...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 28
- ...Next Page