Teaching players to turn with the ball is an area that I don't see covered very often by coaches working with players from eight to 12. I'm not sure if it is because the coaches think the topic is difficult to teach young players or because they don't want to take time away from areas
Continue readingBrazilians learn the game by playing the game. In many countries training sessions are focused around drills and exercises that isolate techniques and tactics. Brazilian coaches spend most of their time creating playing environments with small-sided games that put an emphasis on the specific areas of the game but also train the player ‘globally’. One
Continue readingWe all want our players to be able to recognize certain situations and then choose the correct option to take advantage of it. One very effective way of showing players these situations is to set the attacking team up with an advantage and condition the defenders to play in a certain way. This allows the
Continue readingThis thought provoking post about whether or not you always need to have a ball included in every aspect of training is from our friends at Soccer Fit. The folks at Soccer Fit are on the cutting edge of the latest soccer conditioning science so their perspective is worth listening to. Today’s post is by
Continue readingThis is a game that I've used as a warm-up and in the main part of the session. I like it because of how many different things you can coach depending on your focus. As with most small-sided games, the kids really enjoy playing it so they get a lot out of it. Here is
Continue readingBasic passing exercises like the one below are great for focusing on the technical aspects of passing the ball but it's easy to get stuck in a rut of doing the same progressions over and over. I was playing with different ways to add movement as well as force the players to think about where
Continue reading
There are a number of high level coaches that use a lot of circle drills in their sessions including Barry Gorman (long time coach at Penn State) and David Williams (Manchester United Academy). I've had the opportunity to watch both of them run sessions at our International Coaching Seminar so I've used some of their
Continue readingThere are times that I'll have a practice on a Thursday when the team has a Friday game. This is a session that comes from our Brazilian Academy Journal that I have used. It provides a relaxed environment where the players can have some fun and express themselves. The small-sided games give the players a
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 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 reading
Most coaches I know use some variation of a 5 v 2 keep away game in a limited area. I've never liked 5 v 2 as a teaching tool because I have always felt that it was too static. Anson Dorrance did a great demonstration at our International Seminar a few years ago where he
Continue readingThere are a two main reasons (excuses) that England rarely do well in the World Cup or Euro Championships. I actually agree with both of them. Weather - The majority of the English season is spent in cool or cold temperatures with wind and rain. Obviously the training sessions are done in the same weather.
Continue readingWhile I was planning my sessions for this week I thought about how lucky I am to have access to a wide variety of goals. My club trains at the Overland Park Soccer Complex which will host the 2010 US Youth Soccer National Championship. There are 12 lighted Tiger Turf fields that each have as
Continue readingI feel that one of the most important responsibilities of a coach is to constantly evaluate WHAT they choose to teach their players, HOW they go about teaching it and most importantly, WHY they are choosing to focus on those topics. Without this kind of evaluation there is a real danger that we can fall
Continue readingI couldn't help posting this. I've given it some thought and I can't come up with a missed goal chance worse than this that I can remember. Check it out at about 1 min 25 seconds. I know there must have been other incredible goal line misses that you have seen over the years either
Continue readingWhen I work on shooting with my teams I like to create realistic situations that transfer easily into the real game. My favorite resource for these kind of exercises is a book by Chelsea Academy Coach, Michael Beale, called Training Creative Goalscorers. This is the best book or dvd I've seen for exercises that engage
Continue readingI always have a 'Fun Practice' with my teams after a tournament weekend. This break from the normal routine gives the players a chance to play some fun games and just enjoy being with their teammates. 'Fun' is defined differently depending on the age and competitive level of the team. My younger teams (U9 &
Continue readingComing out of a long winter of indoor practices and Futsal games, I'm always anxious to play our first outdoor league game of the spring. I was looking forward to it even more than usual this year because it had been more than a month since my U12 girls team had played their last Futsal
Continue reading