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...]
#204 A Coaching Conversation with Scott Moore
#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...]
#201 Formations for U13’s Transitioning to 11 v 11
I only had one team in the tournament last weekend so it was almost like having a weekend off. It was nice to focus on just one team for the whole weekend. It was my U12 team that is playing in the U13 11 v 11 division. They've really made the move to 11 v 11 must smoother than I thought they would. It's helped that half of our games have been against other U12 teams playing up so I'm sure it will get more challenging but it's been a good start. Today’s … [Read more...]
#200 Too Many Coaches
Wow! It's hard to believe that this is the 200th episode of the podcast. I'm so grateful to everyone who listens and supports the show by commenting, emailing a question or posting a link on social media. Even just mentioning the show to a fellow coach helps to spread the word. This was the first week of games for my teams. Early season games mean that we were missing a few players. That gave me a chance to bring in guest player to make up the numbers. It's … [Read more...]
#199 A Coaching Conversation with Ricardo Diaz
It was great to get back to training with my kids this week. I've missed being on the field with them. Everyday this week I've enjoyed taking a break from preparing for the rec season and running training sessions. The first session of the week for all of my teams used the Play - Practice - Play methodology. The second session involved some technical training mixed in with the game related activities. The kids really seemed to enjoy the sessions and it's … [Read more...]
#198 Should We Be Doing Isolated Technical Training?
It's great to have completed the Director of Coaching course. Last weekend I finished the revisions for my assignments and the reflections on each assignment. Now I'm just waiting to hear if everything I've turned in is satisfactory or not. Now my attention has turned to preparing for the recreational league season as well as my first week of training with our competitive teams. There's a lot to do in the next three weeks and then everything will be up and … [Read more...]
#197 Are Youth Soccer Championships a Good Thing?
The last week has been crazy as I continue to prepare for the fall season while also finishing the second in person meeting for the US Soccer Director of Coaching Course being held at the Pinnacle National Development Center. We still have a two week development period after the this week as well but the lions share of my work will be finished this weekend. I've learned so much about what should go into developing and operating a soccer club that is truly … [Read more...]
#196 Technical and Tactical Q&A
Last Sunday was one of my favorite days of this year. I called it, "Soccer Sunday". With the US Women's National Team in the World Cup Final in the morning and the US Men's National Team in the Gold Cup Final that night it provided a great day of soccer. The Women's World Cup Final was great. I thought we played very well and controlled the game. The use of VAR for the PK was perfect in my opinion. That is the kind of call it was meant to catch. The referee … [Read more...]
#195 Impacting Your Team’s Performance
With no coaching last week I could focus on preparing our recreational league for the fall season and take some time to watch World Cup and Gold Cup games. Something I noticed is how VAR was not just being used to correct, "Clear and Obvious Errors". In some games they seemed to be re-refereeing the game. Reviewing every close play looking for something small that couldn't be observed during the flow of the game. I'm not talking about deception or a poor … [Read more...]
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