All Posts by Mike Saif

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!

1 1 v 1 - Rotation

During the month of June I am highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This week's 1 v 1 exercise is 1 v 1 Rotation. The previous exercises in this series were very controlled. Soccer is not a linear or controlled game. Once the players have an understanding of the basic methods and

1 The Most Common Pass Exchange Statistic

In the recent Champions League final between FC Barcelona and Manchester United there was an interesting, and very telling, statistic which I had never seen tracked before.  The statistic was the “most common pass exchange”. The “most common pass exchange” (MCPE) is the two person combination that make the most passes between each other during

1 Soccer Conditioning With a Ball

“Everyone on the line, it’s time for conditioning” “Time to get in shape, go run 4 laps” “Go run 2 miles and we will start when you return” How many times have you heard these statements from coaches (or something similar)?  Is it really that difficult to build some, or all, of a teams fitness

0 1 v 1 - Team Competition

During the month of June I am highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This week's 1 v 1 drill is 'Team 1 v 1'. This builds on the 'Two Line 1 v 1' exercises from last week. The two lines are now placed on opposite posts of two goals as shown in

4 Law Changes Or Not?

In the past year I have read about or head about numerous law changes for the game of soccer.  These changes have been discussed by current coaches, former players etc. Some of the discussed changes include the following: Changing the offside law.  The ideas I have heard range from getting rid of it altogether, adding

0 NHPI Testing: An Asset for ACL Repair Return to Sport Testing

This article is in regards to the experience I had with the NHPI during the rehabilitation of one of my ACL repair clients. This client is high school female soccer player who is going on to play soccer at the collegiate level. This client suffered an ACL tear and had straight ACL PTG repair.

As a Physical Therapist who specializes in the rehabilitation of Soccer athletes, I have seen and used numerous "Functional Testing" programs to determine the capabilities of the involved vs. the uninvolved lower extremity of my patients. Where many of these tests are quite helpful they never left me in a position where I felt confident to answer "Yes" when the parent would inevitably ask "is my son/daughter ready to play again". This return to sport capability is something that a therapist should be able to answer, and answer based on objective data. This is where the NHPI (National Human Performance Institute) came in very handy.

5 Difference Between the Good Player and Great Player

How quick a player recognizes a situation and reacts accordingly is frequently the difference between the good player and the great player. One way to work on a players vision, decision making and reactions is a simple dribbling exercise.  If you have 14 players in your training session have them start around a 30 yard

0 Theory Behind Conditioning for Soccer Ball Agility

When conditioning for soccer players, the key to progressive development on the field is to keep challenging their skill, their speed, their strength, and their stamina.  If you let up in any of these areas, development in that area will be stunted.  Sometimes we don’t realize how a lack of development in one area might affect the development of another.  For instance, without the quick foot drills of speed ladders and agility drills, the athlete might not have the base quickness to perform the skilled moves that you are teaching.  A lack of skill training (moves) could result in the inability to separate from a defender.

2 1 v 1 - Two Lines

In the month of June I'm going to focus on my four favorite ways to train 1 v 1 attacking. These same exercises can also be used to train the defender but I only coach one side of the ball in each drill, exercises or small-sided game. I'll begin with the simplest progression and move

1 Exercise Progression: Bend But Don’t Break

Every off season we, as coaches and trainers, put together creative plans that we hope will peak our players performance throughout the next season.  We strategically weave together elaborate periodizations of meso and micro cycles, practice plans, progressions, etc until we feel we have the perfect plan.  We piece together the perfect mixture of conditioning and strength training, technical and tactical, skill and knowledge.  We plan each practice to successfully build upon the one before and peak our players at just the right time.  It’s perfect…

Then it rains out our first practice.  Two players go on vacation.  One of our tournaments gets rescheduled.  And 3 out of our 4 defenders get the flu.  Murphy’s Law – Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!

3 So You Want to Be a Better Soccer Coach

So you want to be a better soccer coach.  What is the best to accomplish this? You could read books on coaching (see https://wcctrainingcenter.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=2) You could watch videos (see https://wcctrainingcenter.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=3) You could watch as many games as possible (see http://www.beta.foxsoccer.tv/page/Home/0,,13138,00.html) You could attend seminars or conventions (see https://wcctrainingcenter.com/seminars.asp) You could attend coaching courses (see http://nscaa.com/rc.php)

3 Learn What You Already Know

Learn What You Already Know Have you ever been in a competition where it seemed as though everything you did went the right way? We often hear people refer to those moments as being "in the zone" or "on fire". You're in a state of heightened, yet calm sense of awareness. Maybe it's the game

1 Total Training for Advanced Players

This is an excerpt from one of our most popular recent books, 'Total Training for Advanced Players'. This section focuses on One v One Training. At the highest levels of the game essentially it is just one versus one all over the field. If your team can win the majority of individual match ups it

1 See - Dream - Do

See - Dream - Do It’s one in a million who can come up with something truly unique.  For most of us, coming up with a truly new move, skill, technique etc isn’t going to happen.  On the other hand, if we can see something done, we can then dream about how to do it

2 Possession Warm-Up

It’s easy to get in the habit of doing the same activities over and over again.  As an example, we want to do a possession warm up with 3 groups of 5. In the DVD Tactics and Drills for Training Forwards, Bob Warming, shows an interesting way to do this a bit differently. The first

2 Plyos at Practice - Part 1

Here is a good plyometric workout you can do on the field.

Plyometric drills are often misused and misunderstood by today’s athletes. I get the feeling from most of my players seem to be under the impression that exercises that do not “fatigue” or “exhaust” you, are not very beneficial. They seem to think that if their legs are not weak and wobbly as they get into their cars to leave practice, they’re not working hard enough. And, although there is a time and place for exhaustive exercise and conditioning protocols, plyometric training does not work that way.

3 Overtraining or Undertraining?

There have been many articles written over the past few years about youth overtraining. We have all read about too many games in the high school season, too many games in a weekend during the club season, too much speed and agility training during the season and too much participation in multiple sports during in the same season. This, we commonly refer to as, Overtraining. But as the fall season wages on, I am noticing a whole new problem that is beginning to emerge...Undertraining.

0 Improving Strength During the Season

There seems to be somewhat of a controversy on whether or not a coach should try and improve the strength of his or her athletes during the season. In this quick article we will mention some of the strategies that teams are implementing and the factors that will determine the success of each of those strategies.