Two weeks ago three of my teams participated in a tournament. That meant that I had 10 games from Friday to Sunday. It's not a huge physical challenge to coach 10 games in a weekend. But it is a mental challenge because you're focused and intense for each of those games. It can be an emotional challenge to if you get too carried away. Last weekend one of my teams traveled to Omaha for NPL (National Premier League) games. They only play one game a day so I … [Read more...]
#249 Training Team Concepts with Young Players
My teams were back to a full schedule of games last weekend. On Friday evening my U12 goalkeeper broke her hip taking a goal kick. It was the strangest injury I've ever seen. I watched the replay on the Veo recording and it look like it happened when she landed on her right foot after striking the ball. She can be seen collapsing after landing. She's going to be out six to eight weeks which pretty much ends the outdoor season for her. I go through a … [Read more...]
#182 Teaching the Five Core Soccer Skills
We were finally able to play some early season games last weekend. With the stops and starts we've had to our training during the late winter and early spring seasons it was hard to know what to expect. Add to that the fact that we were missing a number of players from each of my teams because they got a head start on their Spring Break trips. That gave us the opportunity to bring in some guest players from the teams below ours. The players we brought up did … [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...]
#164 Training Combination Play to Score
Last weekend was another tournament weekend. It was local and it was nice to play a tournament close to home especially because the forecast was for rain all weekend. I had three teams in the tournament which may seem like a lot but it was manageable because it was spread out over three days. Friday was perfect, it was a great evening to play. The rain didn't start until overnight. Saturday morning was stormy. The earliest games were canceled and … [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...]
#148 Focus on Technique Before Speed
Last weekend I feel like I coached three great game and one awful one. The players weren't awful, it was me. I have a team that's playing up an age group and there were promoted to the first division after a very good fall season. The difference between DI and DII is substantial and it's been a difficult spring for the team. They played well in the first half this weekend and were up a goal at halftime. We talked about ways we could improve in the second … [Read more...]
#137 Attack vs Defense Game to Train Decision Making
This weekend is the US Youth Futsal National that are held here in the KC area. I have one team in the tournament and I’m looking forward to seeing how they do against some very good opposition. It’s great to finish up the season with an event like this. It lets me see how far we’ve come and gives me ideas on how to improve in the future. Last year we were down a goal and the other team packed it into a tight diamond. We couldn’t break them down. This year … [Read more...]
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