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...]
#235 The Great Debate – Direct Play vs Possession Play
Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. This is the first time in years I wasn’t in Chicago. With soccer being on hold I actually forgot that it was coming up. Who looks at a calendar anymore. I had planned for my teams to play in a local tournament and stay home anyway but I always look forward to tournaments on that weekend because it's the end of the soccer year for most teams and preparation for State Cup for others. The soccer league season officially … [Read more...]
#187 The Benefits of Building Out of the Back
With just one team in a tournament last weekend I was able to put all of my focus on them and not have a crazy schedule that had me going from one game to the next. Our first game was on Friday night. This team practices on Thursdays so we had a great preparation and came out flying. The team played great and won comfortably. We played two games on Saturday. The first one didn't start well but improved as the game went along. In the second game we played … [Read more...]
#158 Individual and Team Possession
This is the fourth week of training for the teams in our club. I'm finally getting into the flow of the season. Each team has had a number of games and I'm starting to learn more about the players and they're starting to understand what I'm look for from them. The recreational league games started last week as well so with that, the amount of time and energy I have to devote to that area of my job will become less and less just as my coaching and Age Group … [Read more...]
CSW Extra 8 – Rondo Session Show Notes
I wasn't able to schedule a time to talk with Scott Moody of SoccerFIT about their new soccer conditioning app this week. I decided I would spend my time putting the show notes together for last weeks show on directional rondos. So go back to episode 152 and you'll find a link to those notes. Nothing fancy here; I just put diagrams of the activities into my outline of the show. Hopefully they paint the picture of the activities well enough. With next … [Read more...]
#152 A Rondo Session with Direction
I had to take last week off from the podcast because it was our week for tryouts. I've described our tryout process in detail in a number of previous podcasts so you can do a search for, "Tryouts" and listen to those episodes if you're interested in more information on those. At the same time as tryouts are occuring we're also coming up on the deadline for the recreational soccer registration. That's a new role for me on top of everything else. I now have a … [Read more...]
#135 Training Players to Move Individually and as a Team
We're starting to wrap up our Futsal season. I'm continuing to work on technical skills that will help the players in Futsal but I'm starting to plan for the transition back to outdoor. I'll talk about that more in the coming weeks. We wrapped up a three week MicroCycle where we did a progression of fast footwork and change of direction moves. This last week we did mostly 1 v 1 between two dots. The dribbler tries to fake the defender and get to one 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...]
#079 Training Players to Communicate on the Field
The end of the fall outdoor season is a great time to evaluate the progress of your team. I had one of my teams finish the season 8-0. That might sound great but I think it also begs the question: Where they in the right division to maximize their development? There are many factors that go into the proper placement of a team in a league or tournament. If you put a team in a division below their ability they won't be challenged so they won't grow. If you … [Read more...]
#064 The One-Touch Mentality
I'm recording this episode a couple of days before its released. I've been splitting my time fairly evenly between family time and some exciting updates to WorldClassCoaching.com. The new format will make it SO much easier for you to find what you need for your next training session. Our Training Center will be your one stop for drills, videos and everything you need to coach your team. No more searching through thousands unrelated drills on Google or … [Read more...]