Mike Saif, Author at WORLD CLASS COACHING Training Center

0 Goalkeeper and Team Warm-Up

Integrating goalkeepers into team sessions is often a challenge for coaches who have experience playing or coaching the position. John Murphy deals with this subject in his excellent book, " Team Training for the Goalkeeper". Below is an excerpt from this book. It is from the Goalkeeper and Team Warm-Up Chapter. If the goal is

2 Is it bad for your team to be predictable?

Is it bad for your team to be predictable? A lot of people talk about creativity in soccer and how if you can make the opponent predictable it’s much easier to defend against them. My question is, is it really that bad to be predictable? To me, being predictable doesn’t necessarily mean making the same

1 When In Doubt, Kick It Out?

I was reading the book, Coaching Soccer Tactics recently and it got me thinking about the long time rule of thumb for soccer in the defensive part of the field has been “If in doubt, kick it out”. The logic for this rule of thumb is when the ball is in the defensive part of

2 Rhythm and Soccer

This post comes from our official Soccer Conditioning experts at SoccerFIT Academy. I found it interesting and thought you might too. Rhythm and Soccer: a theoretical coaching approach to effective movement February 17, 2011 By Scott Today’s post is written by John Lytton, a sports performance coach and former pro-soccer player with a facility in

0 "I Need a Good Drill"

* “I need a good drill” * “Do you know a good practice to work on shooting?” * “I saw a professional team training and was wondering if it would be good for my U14 team” These are some of the most frequent things I see in emails from subscribers. While I appreciate them wanting

2 Why a Dynamic Warm-Up Is Vital

A dynamic warm up is vital to a successful training session. There are many different versions and mixed feelings regarding whether there needs to be a ball involved or not. Many feel any time in training that doesn’t utilize a ball is wasted time. I, and others, feel it’s more important to get a good

0 Brazilian Transition Games

Brazilians learn the game by playing the game. In many countries training sessions are focused around drills and exercises that isolate techniques and tactics. Brazilian coaches spend most of their time creating playing environments with small-sided games that put an emphasis on the specific areas of the game but also train the player ‘globally’. One

0 The Importance of Safety

Safety is such an important part of youth soccer but it gets a lot more lip service than actual service. The one topic that is mentioned most often is goal safety. We all know how important it is to make sure goals are secured but how many are actually doing it? Sadly a recent event

0 Sweeper/Keeper

Incorporating the keeper into team training is vital to do but so often neglected. Those teams “fortunate” enough to have a designated keeper coach tend to have the keepers go with this coach for part, if not all, of the team training. The reason for doing this is because the skills, techniques and tactics in

0 2 v 1 Exercises

We all want our players to be able to recognize certain situations and then choose the correct option to take advantage of it. One very effective way of showing players these situations is to set the attacking team up with an advantage and condition the defenders to play in a certain way. This allows the

3 A Brazilian Legend Retires

SAO PAULO - Brazilian football legend Ronaldo, who helped his country to two World Cup trophies and is still the tournament’s top scorer, retired yesterday, Brazilian media reported. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo (known as ‘El Fenomeno’ during his prime), had held out hopes of one last World

0 Wayne Rooney Goal - Any Others?

Wayne Rooney's goal against Man City was pretty impressive to say the least. This got me thinking, what other great goals have been scored "inside the box"? There are plenty of great goals from 25 yards out but what about the great goals that were scored inside the box. Here is Rooney's goal. Send details

1 Ball or No Ball-THAT is the Question

This thought provoking post about whether or not you always need to have a ball included in every aspect of training is from our friends at Soccer Fit. The folks at Soccer Fit are on the cutting edge of the latest soccer conditioning science so their perspective is worth listening to. Today’s post is by

0 February Issue Just Out

The February, 2011 issue of the WORLD CLASS COACHING Digital Magazine has been uploaded to the Member Drills Database. It has some great material. Below is a short movie that gives a preview of the February issue. And don't forget, the Member Drills Database not only gets updated every month with a digital issue of

0 WCC Facebook Page

I have spent many hours over the last week or so, setting up the WORLD CLASS COACHING Fan Page. It's incredible how fast technology moves. Just 6 months ago, I didn't see an urgent need for a WCC Facebook page, but now it's a "must". Many people now use Facebook on a daily basis and

3 Player Evaluations

The winter is a natural time for coaches to evaluate the progress of their players during the first half of the year. We are always 'evaluating' our players but most of the time this is information we use to make decisions about where to play one kid or another and what we need to work

1 NSCAA Convention

I have mentioned the NSCAA Convention before and I thought I would follow up after this years Convention in Baltimore. But rather than give the usual report of how the Convention went and all the great field sessions put on by the clinicians, all the fine lectures and the usual business that was done, I

1 Who Would Be Your Pick For Best Player?

Lionel Messi was just named as the FiFA world player of the year. The awards were based on the votes of the coaches and captains of national teams as well as global journalists. Messi scored more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues in 2010, with 42 goals in 36 La Liga games,

0 Five Goal Game

This is a game that I've used as a warm-up and in the main part of the session. I like it because of how many different things you can coach depending on your focus. As with most small-sided games, the kids really enjoy playing it so they get a lot out of it. Here is

0 NSCAA Convention

The NSCAA Convention is an incredible event. It is a happening where thousands of coaches get together at this time every year. As usual, WORLD CLASS COACHING will be there and have a booth in the exhibition hall. It's something we never miss. We look forward to seeing lots of our customers. Every year, we

0 $50 Off Your Next Purchase

Warning. This blog includes a blatant plug for a $50 coupon. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Member Drills Database is now fully operational. And we've been getting tons of great feedback. We've also had lots of questions so let me try my best to break it down. The printed WORLD CLASS COACHING

0 Can faliure be a good thing

We came across an article recently that points out that we often do our children a disservice by protecting them from distress or difficulties. Allowing our children to fail, and learn from that experience can be the best thing for them. Why allowing failure can raise successful children By Gregory Ramey, Ph.D. 2:29 PM Friday,

0 Here's To a Great 2011 Both On and Off the Field

It's a few days late, but happy New Year to everyone. I hope it is successful on and off the field for you. We here at WORLD CLASS COACHING have a lot going on to start the year. 1. First and foremost we are getting lots of customer questions about our new Member Drills Database.

0 Happy Holidays

Well, it has taken plenty of time and effort, but we have finally got our new Member Drills Database up and running. I wrote about this in last Friday's blog. If you subscribe to the printed version of the WORLD CLASS COACHING Magazine, you already have instant access to the Member Drills Database, so take

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