All Posts by Mike Saif

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.

0 Building a Better Athlete

When you start to seriously look at becoming a better athlete you must do things in the right order.  This systematic progression may seem to progress at a slower pace than what you had in mind, but you will notice positive changes in your speed, strength, power, and confidence every step of the way.

1 The Importance of Leadership

Leadership So many teams, coaches, organizations etc are looking for leaders.  It seems to be one of the biggest weaknesses in society (much more than just a soccer team problem) yet we, as coaches, frequently get rid of some of our leaders. Too often, we think of leaders as being the positive role models (some

1 Different Ways To Train Possession

Possession and combination play is such an important part of soccer that it’s important to find different ways to work on this.  There are many variations to a game such as this.  You can see some of them in the DVD Small-Sided Games to Improve Possession. One way to work on this is below. Start

1 Parent Your Best..

My post this week comes from our Soccer Conditioning Expert Scott Moody at SoccerFIT Academy. I thought you would find it interesting because it includes a survey that could gather some very useful information for coaches and parents alike. I will share the results in a future blog post. We are always looking for ways

4 Should we judge players based on their size or Speed

Should we judge players based on their size?  How about their speed?  What about their juggling ability. One effective way to judge players is based on their TIC Technique Insight Communication A player can be in the right spot at the right time and know what to do but without the technical ability to execute,

1 Small-Sided Game For Wing Play

Here is a great small sided game to work on using width while still looking to get to goal.  There are many small sided games that can be played such as this one.  To see others check out the DVD Small Sided Games of the World’s Top Teams. In this game, it’s a 40 x

3 Ways that Sports Nutrition Should be Different for Youth Athletes

In addition to being a youth soccer coach I'm also an avid runner. I listen to a lot podcasts and review blogs from a number of sources in a search for the latest training information. A recent post by Ben Greenfield of BenGreenfieldFitness.com focuseds on the different nutritional needs of young athletes as opposed to

1 What Is Mental Toughness?

It’s invaluable for a player to have mental toughness but the question one must ask yourself is “what is mental toughness?” There are three types of mental toughness Endurance Pressure Concentration While endurance is frequently thought of as a physical thing it’s also a mental thing.  Regardless of how fit a person might be there

1 Recovery Runs For Defensive Support

When teaching the recovery run to provide support defensively it’s important to teach the players to: Assess Cover Communicate This can be worked on using the following activity. Start with an attacking player 15 yards from the defending player.  There is a second defender beside the attacker.  The ball starts with a server on the

0 Technical Passing and Dribbling Session

The Technical Director for the club I coach with, Blue Valley Soccer Club, is Peter Vermes, who is also the Coach and Technical Director for Sporting Kansas City. Peter and the other directors of the club run sessions for the coaches two or three times a year. The sessions cover a variety of topics and

2 Player Evaluations

I thought I would share an evaluation I have used for many years with teams.  It’s one of the most effective tools I have used to get a better understanding of each player, the team and my relationship with the team.  It’s also a great way to encourage thought and communication.   I typically use it

0 A Shooter or a Scorer?

In basketball, some players are referred to as shooters while others are referred to as scorers. A shooter is someone who is fundamentally very sound.  If you give a shooter an open shot, they will typically score however, they usually struggle creating their own shots or scoring while under pressure. Scorers, on the other hand,