All Posts by Mike Saif

0 Professional Youth Academy Training Sessions

We are excited to announce another one of our best-selling books in now available as a instant download as an eBook.  See below for a sample session from the book.

Professional Youth Academy Training Sessions, authored by Sam Saif (EUFA “A” License and F.A. Coach Educator/Tutor) who has coached in the Academies of English Premier League and First Division clubs for 20 years.  During that time he has had the chance to observe and learn from some of the most knowledgeable and creative soccer coaches in the game today.

0 Shooting - Small-Sided Games

Actual game situations provide the best training for shooting and finishing once a technical foundation has been established. I highlighted by favorite shooting game, Halfline, in a previous post. Here's a link to that post.

There are many ways to organize small-sided games so that the emphasis is on shooting. Here are a few from our book, 'Coaching Soccer Through Small-Sided Games.'

This game was from a session observed during pre-season training in Ft. Lauderdale, February 2000.

4 2v1 and 3v2 Attacking and Defending

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on 2 v 1 and 3 v 2 attacking and defending.  Attacking activities such as this one can be found in the book Training Creative Goalscorers. Start with a grid that is 50 x 40 with a midfield line.  There are full sized goals on

0 Play Fast But Don't Rush

Play fast but don’t rush. To some it might seem contradictory to say play fast but don’t rush but for me, this is one of the things that separates good players from great players. A good player plays full speed.  As soon as the ball comes to him he tries to get rid of it

2 A New Model for Game Speed in Soccer

In today’s club system it seems like every club has a different system or philosophical approach to player development.  Some focus on the technical development model in which they create aggressive, attacking players who have great “foot skills and confidence” taking players on 1v1. Other clubs focus on recruiting fast, powerful players that excel in their “kick and run” style. These players seem to take advantage of tactical mistakes, countering with long balls played over the top, in which their players simply out run the opposition for easy finishing opportunities. And some clubs stick to a style based on “possession and ball control”, spreading teams out with fluid, rhythmic movement looking to take advantages of mismatches and seems in the defense.

This post is not meant to question these styles, and at the SoccerFIT Academy we feel that each model has it’s advantages. But from a youth player development perspective, we feel it is important to provide each player with a very broad and stable foundation that can fill in any developmental gaps created by a clubs tactical philosophy.

To provide a clearer picture as to what this might look like, we use our pyramid of soccer mastery model and lump players into 3 general categories:

0 Preparing Player To Deal With Contact

Soccer is a contact sport.  Unfortunately we frequently forget about this in training so when the players do come up against contact in a game they aren’t prepared. Here is the beginning of a nice progression to prepare players to deal with contact, receive balls and react accordingly.  There is an excellent series on this

1 Shooting - Three and Four Line Exercises

One of my favorite books is, 'Training Creative Goalscorers'. The book is by Chelsea FC Academy Coach, Michael Beale. The focus of this book is on training shooting and finishing in functional situations that also involve an activity after shooting like defending the next player or playing a give-and-go with another player. These are the

3 Combining Technical Training With Fitness Work

Combining technical training with fitness work is a great way to be efficient in your training as well as to force the technical work to be done at speed and under pressure.

Here is a simple way to work on fitness while also doing technical training.

Start with 2 lines of 10 cones.  The lines are 5 yards apart and each cone is 5 yards apart (in the example below I’m only using 5 cones in each line due to space issues).  There is a player on the outside of one line and a server with a ball behind each of the opposite openings.

0 Selecting the Best Players OR the Best Team

When putting a team together or when picking a starting 11 one of the challenges is whether to pick the best players or the best team. This might seem to be the same thing because to some, the best team is the one with the best players on it but the reality is this rarely

0 Corner Kicks to Score More Goals

A corner kick is such a great way to create a scoring opportunity that is amazes me how little some coaches and teams emphasize these situations in their training. Below is one way to organize your team for attacking corner kicks..  There are many others but this should give some basic ideas to start. Player

0 Shooting - Two Lines on the Posts

This is the second in the July series of posts on shooting progressions. The exercises I'll discuss are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The exercises shown in the first post of of this series where mostly static so that the players would really

0 More Information - Simplify or Complicate?

Be careful with the amount of information being provided to players. One thing that frequently separates great players from good players is their ability to process information and to do so quickly. The great players can see a situation and see one two and even three passes ahead while the good player sees the same

0 The Purpose of Combination Play

Coaches like to talk about combination play but one thing to remember is the players MUST understand the purpose of combination play which is to beat the defenders.  While there might be a few occasions when the primary purpose of combinations is simply to maintain possession (an example might be at the end of the

0 Shooting Exercises - Wall Ball

During the month of June I highlighted my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. In July I'll thought I'd go through the progression I use for shooting. The exercises are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The first time I work on shooting

0 Off the Ball Movement

A big emphasis many teams need is to think more in terms of off the ball movement.  Too often all of the work is being done by the player with the ball while the rest of the players stand and watch.  Then, when one of the other players gets the ball, that player does all

1 Do You Overreact When Your Team Plays Well/Bad?

What a game! Your team played great.  Everything is PERFECT! Your team played poorly.  Everything SUCKS! The thing to remember is your team most likely isn’t as good as you think they are when they play well and most likely they aren’t as bad as you think they are when they play poorly. Coaches, players

0 Soccer Agility – ½ Ladder – One Foot

The ability to pick up and put down the feet in an efficient and controlled manner (footspeed) is a highly important component within a soccer player’s field conditioning. Simple drills allow a soccer player to develop the skills to be able to adapt to a specific situation on the field to give and receive the ball on the run or evade pressing defenders. One such footspeed drill is ½ Ladder – One Foot.

1 1 v 1 - Round Robin Evaluation

During the month of June I have been highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This final week focuses on 1 v 1 Round Robin Evaluation. The ultimate test of a player's 1 v 1 ability is to play a competitive game against a motivated defender. A number of coaches I know use

3 If you were starting a new youth club how would you do it?

If you were starting a new youth club and had the resources to do it the “right way” how would you do it? Plenty of fields? No cost for the player? High level coaching? Multiple teams in each age group? Specialized keeper training? Speed and Conditioning sessions? Medical trainers available at all sessions? Competitive leagues

0 Soccer Agility – Deceleration Ladder – One Foot

The ability to pick up and put down the feet in an efficient and controlled manner (footspeed) is a highly important component within a soccer player’s field conditioning. Simple drills allow a soccer player to develop the skills to be able to adapt to a specific situation on the field to give and receive the ball on the run or evade pressing defenders. One such footspeed drill is Deceleration Ladder – One Foot.

0 Soccer Stability – Lateral Jumps 2-2 Stick

Playing soccer places a lot of stress on a player’s body, therefore minimising this stress becomes a priority for both coach and player. Dynamic stability requires the player to maintain/hold an ‘ideal posture’ during a phase of movement. Decelerating, changing direction and landing from jumping places pressure on the ankle, knees & hips. Here is an exercise that will help to teach basic hip, knee & ankle stability through improved landing mechanics:  Lateral Jumps 2-2 Stick.

3 Don't Be Static When Attacking

One  of the problems with many teams attacks is players become static.  Midfielders stay behind the forwards, forwards stand and wait for the ball to be passed etc. This activity works on movement, penetration, anticipation and combination in getting to goal.  Start with three gates, each 3 yards apart around 25 yards from goal.  There

0 Ladder One Foot & Sprint - Soccer Agility

The ability to pick up and put down the feet in an efficient and controlled manner (footspeed) is a highly important component within a soccer player’s field conditioning. Simple drills allow a soccer player to develop the skills to be able to adapt to a specific situation on the field to either receive the ball on the run or evade pressing defenders. One such footspeed drill is Ladder One Foot & Sprint.

2 Change of Direction Technique (Injury Prevention as well as Performance Enhancement)

Over the past few years much research has been done on how to reduce the risk of injury in cutting and landing phases of athletic movement. Most researchers agree that the following have a significant effect on the occurrence of lower extremity (ankle and knee) injuries in soccer players.

• Physiologic differences (joint laxity)
• Anatomical differences (pelvic position and/or a narrow intercondylar notch and small ACL)
• Hormonal differences (particular point in a females cycle)
• Gender differences
• Fitness level differences, ect.

In this article, I am proposing something much simpler. Although all of the above may come into play at some point, I notice something else. Fast, healthy athletes change direction differently than slow or injured athletes!