I wrote a blog post last week about whether the EPL title race was over already. Chelsea had won all five of their games and by big margins. I guess it was a reasonable question to ask. But, in my excitement at how well Chelsea had started, I didn't give enough attention to the teams
Continue readingGrowing up I was always impressed by Liverpool. It was hard not to be I suppose. They were the team to beat every year for most of the 70's and 80's and for a spell practically dominated the league and Europe. Liverpool are the most successful club in the history of English football, having won
Continue readingWe received an excellent DVD recently and I’ve found the information very useful with my team so I thought others might as well. In my opinion, one of the most under-coached aspects of youth soccer is awareness. We do a good job teaching the techniques of the game as well as the basic tactics of
Continue readingToday's blog is a simple question. After just five games, is the EPL title race over? Are Chelsea a step ahead of the others - Man U, Arsenal, Man City, Spurs, etc. Yes, I know it's ridiculously early to even think about this, but I can't help it. Chelsea are producing some good performances and
Continue readingDo you continue to rotate player through the different positions as they get older? What is 'older'? I have always made sure to give my players experiences in a number of different positions during the season. Sometimes in positions that they weren't well suited to but I wanted them to have a chance to play
Continue readingGerard Houllier is now back in the EPL where he takes the reigns of Aston Villa starting next week. I must admit, I liked Houllier. I met him when I went to watch Liverpool train many years ago. He was very pleasant and made me feel comfortable while there. I also thought he did a
Continue readingIn the next few weeks we will release our latest book - Formation Based Soccer Training. Earlier in the year, we published some training sessions from the manuscript of this book in our email newsletters and received an incredible amount of questions, interest and feedback. Without a doubt, it looks like being our most sought
Continue readingJustin Neese is the winner of the $100 worth of books and DVDs for posting a comment on the WCC Blog. We will draw out a winner every few weeks. All you need to do is visit the WCC Blog and post a comment and you could win $100 of books and DVDs from our
Continue readingOver the first few weeks of the season my team has played in two events. The first was a tournament put on by our club and the second was billed as a ‘Friendlies’. In both cases we played two games a day on Saturday and Sunday. I could, and probably will, do a post that
Continue readingClub or country? Players wishes or clubs wishes? What is your take on this? The FA were told by Spurs that Defoe wouldn't be available for this weekends European Champions qualifying games against Bulgaria and Switzerland. They were told that he was injured and was scheduled to have surgery on his groin. However, when Defoe
Continue readingIn the past we have taken groups of coaches to Brazil, Holland, Scotland and a few times to England. These tours have given the coaches an up close and in depth look at the coaching methods of various clubs and countries. Well, because of the poor economy, we haven't arranged a tour for the last
Continue readingThis is a passing practice session that I have run with various age groups. I like it because you can coach just the basic technique or you can go into great detail depending on the age and ability of the players in the group your working with. Each phase can also be made competitive which
Continue readingToday is an article by guest blogger, Andy Barney. Barney is the president of Legends Soccer Club and Happy feet and is the coach behind the two best-selling DVDs, Legendary 1v1 Moves and TRAINING Legendary 1v1 Moves. In the next few decades I believe that competitive youth sports will ditch its “win at all costs”
Continue readingThought I would have a change of pace today and leave the pro game alone for a while. I have coached youth teams here in the U.S. for 19 years now and I one thing that has been consistent with just about all players on all of the teams I have coached, is the lack
Continue readingIt's that time of year again to figure out who will take the top four spots in the English Premier League. Let's start with a few questions. 1. Will Totenham repeat their feat of last season with a fourth place spot? 2. Can Liverpool be considered one of the Big Four anymore? 3. Are Man
Continue readingThis is a post by Scott Moody of Soccer F.I.T Academy. It is re-posted here with his permission because I thought he made some excellent points that you might enjoy reading and discussing. I commented on a post in a soccer forum last night and I thought I would also share the post here. The
Continue readingThe future of Bob Bradley with the U.S. National Team is still uncertain. His contract is up at the end of the year and although it seems like Bradley has met with US Soccer about the future, nothing has happened yet. Personally I like Bob Bradley. I observed a few of his training sessions during
Continue readingHolding practice during the late summer in preparation for the fall league and tournament season means that you’re dealing with the potential of extreme heat and humidity. As adults we have to be careful about being outside when the combination of heat and humidity drive the heat index above 100 degrees. Children are particularly vulnerable
Continue readingToday's post is from guest blogger, Lawrence Fine. Fine is the author of four of our weekly email newsletters and a number of top selling coaching books. I was a good patient and therefore I can be a doctor. I can drive a car and therefore I can manufacture an automobile. I like to eat
Continue readingFirst, I wanted to announce that Bill Arrandale, is the latest winner of our $100 books/DVDs prize. Bill, if you contact me by email, I will give you the details of how you can claim your prize. Remember, don't just read the blog, post a comment. If you post a comment, you are automatically entered
Continue readingI've always liked the way that Anson Dorrance attempts to quantify everything that his teams do in practice. Keeping score creates motivation and encourages a competitive attitude better than anything else. This also creates a benchmark that you can test against later in the season to gauge how effective your training sessions have been in
Continue readingI have thought for years that the games top players play too many games. As a young kid, I used to follow Leeds United in the 70's and they used to have the same line up pretty much week in week out, unless there was an injury. Now with the additional European games, more international
Continue readingYears ago, a contract was a contract. If a player was in the middle of a contract with his team, he stayed there. If he wanted to leave and go elsewhere, it only happened if his team allowed it or wanted it to happen. But over time, things have gradually changed to a point where
Continue readingAs August approaches many teams in the Midwest United States are starting their preseason program, including my U12 girls. At this age I think it’s important for the kids to have a break during the summer months and have time to just be a kid. This makes preseason even more important because I need to
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