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...]
#112 Youth National Championships
We started back to training this week. It seems earlier than usual but that's just how the calendar came together. There are still a lot of families on summer vacations so attendance has been spotty. That affects what I try to cover because I don't want to have to repeat myself once I have everyone back. I also want to give the players a chance to adapt to training again rather than throwing them straight into the deep end on day one. I'll talk more in next … [Read more...]
#111 Do Good Players Make Good Coaches?
This is the last week before our club starts training for the fall season. The weather in the midwest has been incredibly hot and humid. Fortunately, the heatwave is going break over the weekend and next week won't be as hot. The first few weeks of training are always inconsistent because families are taking the opportunity to travel before the summer is over. That means that I won't have everyone at training for the first week or so. Because of this, I … [Read more...]
#110 Playing with a Back Three
Last week provided a nice break over the 4th of July holiday. Stepping away from the field and not thinking about coaching for a bit is always a welcome change of pace. We now only have two weeks remaining in our summer break. It seems like it just started and now it's half over! Now I'm working on the plan for my team's first couple of months of training. I don't like to script out specific training sessions this early but I like to have an outline of … [Read more...]
#109 Four Favorite Possession Games
I continuing to enjoy my summer break from the field. The summer doesn't start for me until the team meetings are completed and that happened last weekend. I'm using the extra free time to work on the Fall Technical Training Curriculum for our U8 through U12 teams. Talked about that back in episode 18 Creating a Technical Training Plan. If you want to know why we do this and how it's put together you can listen to that episode. I’ve been interested in … [Read more...]
#108 Set the Tone for Your Season
With tryouts behind me I've had a nice break from coaching. It's given me more time to attend and watch some professional games. Unfortunately, the international leagues have finished but the Confederations Cup has had some good games. I was watching the Mexico v New Zealand game when an incident happened in the box that made me ask the question, "Who's responsibility is it to stop the game?" This follows up on my thoughts on dubious penalty kicks and how we … [Read more...]
#107 Train Fast to Play Fast
We completed our club tryouts last weekend. It's a crazy time for player, parents and coaches but an important one to make sure that our players are challenged at an appropriate level. I've talked about our process in previous episodes including Episode 105 just a couple of weeks ago. We're not working to prepare our teams for the preseason meetings that we hold each year. I'll talk more about that process on next week's podcast. This week’s question … [Read more...]
#106 Keeping Soccer Players Safe and Healthy
We concluded our State Cup tournament in Kansas this week. Each state holds it's own competition for U13 to U19 teams. The winner of each age group advances to one of four different regional championships where the winners earn the right to attend the US Youth Soccer National Championship. This is one of my favorite times of the soccer year because it showcases everything that the teams have learned. The competition between the best teams in each age group … [Read more...]
#105 Tryouts as a Tool for Development
I took last week off from the podcast to take some teams to Chicago for a Memorial Day weekend tournament. It was a great weekend and a fun way to wrap up the year for the teams. We played on grass fields which really slowed the game down compared to what we're used to when playing on our home turf fields. It was a different challenge for the players which they adapted to well. I love playing on grass but it's so seldom that you get to play on grass … [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...]
- Prev Page...
- 1
- …
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- …
- 40
- ...Next Page