All Posts by Tom Mura

0 Different Coaching and Teaching Methods

This is the second part of an article that will appear in the October issue of WORLD CLASS COACHING that is available to Member Drills Database subscribers. Here is a link to the first part that was in our Coaching Advanced Players blog post last week. This is the way a session would be organized

1 Just Let Them Play

I sat down to plan my U8 and U10 practices the other day and while going through my old sessions and thinking about previous games I realized that it would be a great day to just let them play. We didn't have any games the following weekend and there hadn't been a practice this season that I just let them go at it.

I regularly have the boys play various 1v1 games and we always finish with a small-sided game at the end of training but every once in a while I like to plan an entire session around playing competitive 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 games. This gives the players a break from the usual format and gives them a chance to use all of the skills that we've been working to improve. They love it because

1 Finding the Motivation to Try

This post is a follow up to a previous post called, "Developing Confidence in Young Players" from our Soccer Conditioning Experts at SoccerFITAcademy.com. This post advances on those ideas.

“Things are hard when you HAVE TO…but become easy if you WANT TO…”
- Alan Stein

What motivates younger players? Not surprisingly it is the same things that motivate all of us when we are placed in an unfamiliar position or situation. In the beginning, it all comes down to three simple things that have total control on our confidence to get involved…

9 Should Coaches Appeal for Decisions in Youth Soccer?

Every weekend you can go to a soccer complex and stand in between the fields while games are being played and just wait. It won't take long and you'll hear, "Heeeeyyy!" or "Refereeeee!" It's not coming from the player or the parents (although you'll hear it from them but that's another post) but from the coach. I'm as guilty of this as the next coach. It's almost a reflex for me by now. This weekend I caught myself and started really thinking about it.

I can shout quicker than the referee can get his whistle to his lips so it's a bit unfair because if the referee calls the foul there will be someone that says he gave it just because I shouted. If he doesn't then he knows I'm going to be upset because I've already indicated that I thought it was a foul.

At a certain level of play with experienced, adult referees then I don't

1 Something Must Be Done to Stop Diving in Soccer

When you talk about soccer to someone who is not a fan at some point they will point out how soccer players dive and pretend that they've been fouled. This is the first and only thing that some people know about soccer. This is a black eye on our sport and something must be done to punish it with the goal of stopping it.

This form of cheating has made it's way into other sports like basketball where it is called, 'flopping'. Fines are being handed out to players like Chris Bosh during last year's playoffs. The first comment on the story says,

"This is what we get for trying [to] make soccer a more televised and popular sport in the US.
Soccer brought the playbook on flopping to America and it has spread rampantly through the
NBA and is starting to now even trickle into the NHL."

Last year eight players in the NBA were fined for flopping, the most common fine

0 Changing the Game

When the game isn't going our way and what we're trying to do just isn't working, I look for ways to change the game. There are a few things that I look at and will discuss here but there are countless ways that changes the coach and players make can alter the game.

The first thing I look at is tempo. Is the other team stopping us and creating attacks of their own because they are playing more quickly than we are? Are they putting us under pressure because they are keeping possession longer and building up against us? Are there one or two areas on the field where they are just quicker than we are and we need to change who is playing in those areas?

If the other team is just working harder than we are and investing more into the game we need to raise our game match their intensity. I don't believe this is often the whole problem. Coaches who just

0 Three Line Shooting

I usually end each session with a shooting exercise that incorporates aspects of the practice theme. One of the formats I often us is a simple three line set-up. I like this because you can do a wide variety of things from these basic starting position. The players are comfortable because we use this set-up often but I can make adjustments to place the emphasis where I want it.

I started using this as a regular part of my practices after

10 Playing Out of the Back

The year our club is emphasizing the need for our teams to learn to play out of the back from goal kicks and goalkeeper possessions. It will take time for the players to learn how to maintain possession under pressure and build up an attack. There will also be times when we give up goals because of mistakes by the goalkeeper and defenders. However, the long term up-side far out weight the loss of a goal or even a game. If we train our players to deal with pressure and play around it from the back, they will be better able to do this all over the field.

This starts with our youngest teams. Here is how we want our U8, U9 and U10 teams to take goal kicks:

0 The False 9

Our latest book explores how some of the best teams in the world play with a withdrawn forward, also known as a False 9. The number 9 relate to the classic number given a the striker.

The most famous example of this method being used is Spain during the 2010 World Cup. When Fernando Torres was not playing Spain would play without a true forward and only have Cesc Fabregas playing a little higher up the field than

2 The Most Important Age Group

When I visited the Ajax Academy they were in the final phase of selection their U8 Academy team. The process began with more than a hundred players and they had narrowed this down to the final 30. When we spoke to the coaches they emphasized that this was their most important age group. They said that this was the future of Ajax and they took great care to make sure that they selected players carefully and then assigned excellent coaches to look after their development.

The U8 teams are the foundation of any club. Without a strong development plan and coaching structure the future of the club is in jeopardy. I think that most people would agree with this. Why then

0 US Youth Soccer Nationals Come to Kansas

Each year there are 55 state championships (Ohio, Pennsylvanian and Texas are divided into two states for soccer) are held that lead to four Regional Championships. The winners of the U13 through U19 age groups for boys and girls advance to the USYS National Finals along with the winners and runners-up of their Nationals League division. This brings a total 0f

0 A New Format for Coaching Education Materials

When I was starting out as a coach I was looking for information on coaching methods my only option were books. Some were interesting and educational but there is only so much I could really understand from a book. I have always been more of a visual learner. I learn much more quickly and completely

4 Ball Orientated Conditioning

During the summer I spend some time combing through new training ideas for the upcoming year. As I begin to assemble my training calendar for the fall I'm always on the lookout for economical drills and exercises that incorporate conditioning aspects along with technical and tactical elements. With only two days of training per week, I don't want to spend 30 minutes just training conditioning to get my players fit for soccer again after the summer break.

With my older teams (U13 to U18) I hold a series of preseason conditioning sessions to give the players a base of fitness that we can work from. With my younger teams (U8 to U12)

0 Preparing for 2013 Midwest Regionals

It's been a year since I wrote about the preparation my U13 girls went through to attend the Midwest Regionals for the first time. It was also my first experience with Regionals and I learned as much as the girls did. We were fortunate enough to win State Cup again this year so we're headed to Des Moines, IA.

Last year we played the eventual Regional Chamions, Michigan Hawks, in the first game. We played so tight and scared it was obvious that the occasion was just too much for us. I'm a firm believer that

1 Developing a Style of Play

There are three thinks that I think contribute to the formation and system that coaches choose to play with. The qualities and personalities of the players on the team is most important. If you have a lot of attacking personalities then a system like the 4-3-3 makes sense. If you have a forward who holds the ball well and can play with their back to goal then you could use a 4-5-1 effectively. But each system can be played with a different style; possession, direct attacking, counter attack, etc.

The second contributing factor is the coaches preference. Most coaches

0 Beating the 4-2-3-1

More and more teams at every level from youth to professional are playing with a 4-2-3-1 system. The first stage in the process has coaches trying to figure out how to play with formation and how to teach it to their players. The second stage is for coaches to break down its strengths and weaknesses so they can decide how to defend it.

This latest book from Stevie Grieve breaks down the 4-2-3-1 in all

1 Attacking in the Final Third

The June edition of the WORLD CLASS COACHING magazine that is part of the Member Drills Database will have a session from Elmar Bolowich, Head Men's Coach at Creighton University. He presented it during the 2013 Nebraska WORLD CLASS COACHING International Seminar. The focus is on

1 The Triangle Midfield

The two most popular systems of play in the world at the moment are the 4-3-3 and the 4-2-3-1. Both are predicated on creating a connection between a group of three midfielders. Getting these players to understand their roles and work together are the key factors that will contribute to the success or failure of the team.

Our latest book, Triangle Midfield tells you everything you need to know about

1 Recovery Session

We've had a lot of games rescheduled this season because of the crazy weather had. We even had snow the first weekend in May that caused the fields to be closed.

My U14 girls play in a local league as well as the Midwest Regional League (MRL) in addition to the occasional tournament. But all of that leads up to the most important tournament of the year, State Cup. The winner of State Cup goes to Regionals to play the 21 State Cup Champions from our Region. The winners of each of the four Regions in the U.S. progress to the USYS National Championship which will be held at the Overland Park Soccer Complex this summer.

I originally arranged our schedule so that the games were spaced nicely with sufficient time for training, rest and recovery but the rained out games have piled up and now we're looking at about 15 games in 27 days. Warm-ups, cool-downs and

1 "Silent" Coaching Weekend

A recent email from a local club renewed an ongoing discussion in our community about over-coaching. The email discussed the upcoming, "Silent" Coaching Weekend. Here' the email that the Director of Coaching sent to coaches and parents in the club:

"Silent" Coaching Weekend this spring is May 11 and 12. This is our second weekend after a successful effort in the Fall.

 The goals we had for the Fall were to empower the players to make decisions for themselves without being micro-managed by the coaches (and parents) for every decision throughout the game. We want to continue that theme and provide another weekend to give the game to players.

Our expectations for coaches are that they will