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...]
#191 The Techne App – Individual Training made Simple
I had a team play in a tournament that used grass fields last weekend. This is the first time any of my teams have played on grass this spring. In my opinion a good grass field is better than a turf field but it has to be a good grass field. The fields we played on this weekend were good in the past but aren't what they used to be. We're just not used to playing on grass anymore. It slows everything down so much that it's hard for the players to get their … [Read more...]
#190 Owning Your Development with Yael Averbuch
We're starting to wind down the 2018-19 soccer year. This is the last week of practice for one of my teams while the other two just have one tournament left for each of them. I'm always surprised at how fast the spring season goes. It's no shorter than the fall but it just seems to move so quickly. It may be because we're in the process of planning the tryouts and looking toward next fall already. During this time of year I do a lot of multi-themed … [Read more...]
#147 The Game-Based Approach to Training Sessions
We're finishing up our spring league season in the next couple of weeks. Then there are a couple of tournaments to end the season and we're back to tryout time again! This is also the time of year I set aside time to complete player evaluations for all of my teams. If you've listen to the podcast over the last three years you know that our club uses ZoomReports.com to communicate and save the evaluations for our teams. It's a great system and if you're still … [Read more...]
#102 Differentiated Coaching
The weather was so bad in the midwest last weekend that we weren't able to play most of our games. It rained pretty much non stop from Friday morning through Sunday morning. They had it even worse in St Louis where many of their fields are built in 100 year floodplains that flooded much more recently than that. These are photos of the St Louis Soccer Complex during the flooding. Obviously many people were impacted by the flooding and I don't mean to … [Read more...]
#089 The Coach / Player Relationship
I noticed a big improvement in my player's shooting balance and technique during our games last weekend. I talked about the session I did with them in Episode 88 - Balanced Shooting. We talked about the key points before the game so that they were fresh in the minds of the players. I think it's important to do this with my players in order to make more of a connection between what we do in training and what I'm looking for on game day. Coaches relate what … [Read more...]
#081 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1? Klopp or Mourinho? You Decide
Over the last couple of week's I've been completing referee re-certification courses for both outdoor and Futsal. We all complain about the quality and shortage of referees. I think it's important that coaches don't just talk about it but do something to correct the problem. I'm not able to referee a lot but I pick up games when I have a gap in my coaching schedule. If every coach in the area just did a couple of games each weekend then we'd be able to … [Read more...]
#077 Five Keys to Youth Soccer Success
Everything is easy when you're playing on good fields. Last week I had a game on an aweful field in a wicked wind. We started off the game trying to play our normal game but it quickly became apparent that it was going to be an exercise in frustration. I explain the change I made and why I was concerned if it was the right thing to do. This episode is a bit of a long one because I had a great discussion with Mike Saif, President and Founder of WORLD … [Read more...]
#074 An Overlooked Key Aspect of Skill
I'm Sorry, but I had to get some thoughts about sponsorships off of my chest. I think it matters who's sponsoring organizations and events. You may disagree but if you do I'd ask you where you draw the line? Which companies or products do you think would be inappropriate to have as sponsors for activities your son or daughter are involved in? In this episode I talk to Scott Moody of Soccer FIT about his recent blog post about the most overlooked aspect of … [Read more...]
#069 Coaching High School Soccer
I've always enjoyed having an early season tournament to get my teams three or four games over the course of a weekend. This allows us to work on things from one game to the next and see a marked improvement in a short period of time. During a regular league schedule you have to wait a week to come back and see if the corrections you've made help the team play more effectively. The teams all played well. There are obviously a lot of things for us to work on … [Read more...]