Each of my teams only had one game last weekend. They all played really well despite only one of them winning their game. One of the hardest things for me to get some parents to understand is that we can play really well and still lose the game. We had worked hard on playing our way out of pressure in tight spaces during the week and did this very well in the games. That was the objective for the week and we accomplished it regardless of the score of the … [Read more...]
#188 Why Your Session Isn’t Working
#184 Three Ways to Structure Your Training Session
I finally had a normal week of training and games! A few more like this we'll be able get into the flow of the season. Two of my three teams are playing up an age group this season. The speed and physicality of the opponents is something that is going to take time to get used to. My goal is for us to be able to play our game against the increased pressure which should help us take a big step forward in our development this spring. There were two games for … [Read more...]
#174 Coming Back to Training After a Break
It was great to get back to training this week. The break was fun but I've missed my teams and working with the kids. There was an interesting comment on last week's podcast. John said, "The US has not and will never produce a world class talent because of lack of culture, the fear of over training (even though the kids are having fun and doing what they love), the need to dabble in other sports Because “it benefits athletic development” , and the coddling … [Read more...]
#172 Functional Shooting Activities
Last weekend I had just one game with each of my teams. Really not much to tell. The kids played well and are continuing to make steady progress in the areas we've focused on. Looking through my session plans I realized that I haven't done a shooting session in a while. Striking a Futsal ball is very unforgiving. If your technique is flawed in any way it's hard to generate any power. I decided this week was a good time to do a session that revolved around ball … [Read more...]
#171 Training the Key Elements of Attacking
My teams had their first Futsal games last weekend. I love the change in to a different form of soccer during the winter. What's the old saying, "A change is as good as a rest."? We'll I had a rest over Thanksgiving and now a change to Futsal from outdoor soccer. I'm very happy with the way my teams started the season. I'm fortunate this year because almost all of my players have played Futsal in the past so it's really been easy for me to build on top of what … [Read more...]
#170 Training Defensive Compactness
I really enjoyed my Thanksgiving holiday break this year. It was a great opportunity to recharge my batteries and get ready for the start of the winter Futsal season. The extra time I had gave me the opportunity to observed SPORTING KC Academy Sessions but on by their Technical Coach. The quality of the players is obviously very high but what struck me most was the attention to detail from the coaching staff and the high expectations they held the players … [Read more...]
#169 Don’t Just Follow Your Pass
My teams didn't have any games this weekend fortunately because the weather in KC was more like winter than fall. I took the extra time I had to start my player evaluations. I spread them out over two weekends so that I can take the time to focus on each player. The way I plan the transition between the fall outdoor season and winter Futsal season indoor is to make sure that my teams don't play for the first week so that we have time to prepare for the … [Read more...]
#166 Week 3 of Decision Making MicroCycle
We had our last league games of the fall season last weekend. It was great to see so much of what we had been working on come together in those games. We still have a lot to improve but we're definitely headed in the right direction. I had an encounter with a parent from one of the teams we played against over the weekend. This kind of thing doesn't happen often but I thought I'd share it in hopes that it might help someone else that is faced with this … [Read more...]
#165 Week 2 of Playing the 5 v 2 Game to Score
One of my teams had two interesting and very different challenges this week. During their first game of the weekend they played a team that they were clearly better than but were just coasting their way through the game. There was on urgency or intensity in their play. They knew they could get by on 50% effort so that's how they played. In the beginning I let them play and watched to see if they would pick it up. When they didn't I started to encourage them … [Read more...]
#161 Pattern Play to Develop Attacking Ideas
This was a pretty easy weekend for me. I had one game a day over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I almost didn't know what to do with all my extra time.! During these games I was thinking about the way I change the positions that players are in during games. The way I used to do it was to have everyone play the same position for the first four games of league play and then rotate the attackers and defenders. This was far to long between changes for a kid that … [Read more...]
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