The first full weekend of Futsal for my teams is always interesting because it's first time some of my players have been in a Futsal game. Some are surprised how much they enjoy the new experience while others aren't as sure. It's just too different than what they were used to with arena soccer. I think most coaches would agree that they'd like to start the season with an easier game so that they can really work on the new skills and tactics that they've … [Read more...]
#128 Futsal Techniques and Tactics
My Thanksgiving holiday week was full of family, american football and too much food. It was a great break and chance to reset. I usually have my teams take the first week of Futsal off because that gives them a two-week break between the end of the outdoor season and our first Futsal game. This also gives me a chance to have more practice time with them before our first game. It also compresses our season so that we have fewer midseason breaks which … [Read more...]
#124 Adding Passive Pressure to Technical Training
Last week was our final weekend of league play which came just in time because the weather is due to get much colder this weekend. Since I don't have any games this weekend I scheduled my recertification courses for outdoor and Futsal refereeing. It's always interesting going into a room of referees as a local coach. There's an adversarial relationship between these two groups that can't be avoided. I think I'm pretty quiet when it comes to dealing with the … [Read more...]
#120 Don’t Look at the Ball
I had another tournament with some of my teams last weekend. It's been a crowded schedule lately which I think contributed to a slow start for a couple of teams. I could tell early on that they just weren't up for it the way that they usually are. They just weren't competing with the other team. They were trying to do the right things but the intensity level wasn't there. Once we talked about it at halftime I saw a steady improvement throughout the … [Read more...]
#119 Training Transition
Last weekend's tournament in Iowa went well despite some weather issues. The tournament did a good job of managing them but on the show I talk about the best way I've seen of dealing with weather delays. As I've said before I enjoy having my teams play multiple games over the course of a weekend and learning from one game to the next. We played on some beautiful grass fields but it did take us some time to adjust to the slower surface and smaller field … [Read more...]
#117 From Technical to Functional
Last weekend I had two teams in a tournament in Omaha. We travel with our teams that are U10 and above at least once a season. It's a great way to see some new competition, in a new environment. The fields were grass as opposed to the turf fields that we normally play on. They were good fields but provided their own challenges. In addition to the different on the field challenges, traveling also provides an opportunity for the players and their families to … [Read more...]
#113 Early Season Training Sessions
After two weeks of training my teams are getting ready for their first games. I'm starting to get an idea of how the teams fit together. The formations I use for small-sided soccer keep it pretty simple. I always use a 2-3-1 for teams playing 7 v 7 and 4-3-1 for playing 9 v 9 games. I've found that these formations are effective, easy to teach and create a great pathway to the 11-a-side game. They allow me to teach the principles that the players will use … [Read more...]
#104 From High Pressure to Goal Scoring
I had my teams in a tournament this last weekend. We enjoyed great weather and very good competition. These end of the season tournaments are great for me and the players. I can see how far they've progressed over the course of the year and the players have a chance to put all of our training into games against some very good teams. A couple of the teams played up into older divisions to challenge their ability to perform against even greater pressure … [Read more...]
#103 Why Your Players are Bored
Coaching my games this weekend and covering for a couple of other coaches the "kickball" being played by some of the teams we played against was killing me. It was hard to play against because anytime we build the play up if the opponent won the ball they just kicked it as far up the field as they could. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that my way of coaching the game is the only way. We've had coaches on this podcast that have a wide variety of methods … [Read more...]
#100 Double Box Training Environment
100 Episodes! When I started this podcast more than two years ago the idea of getting to 100 episodes seemed so far off. Just producing the first three was a huge challenge. Now thousands of coaches listening to each episode. There have been more than 690,000 downloads of the show since I started. I owe all of you, the listeners, a huge THANK YOU! I appreciate you listening each week and sharing your comments and suggestions online and directly to me … [Read more...]
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