I took last week off from the podcast to prepare for our 3rd Grade and older coaches meeting for the spring season. So I spent a lot of time getting the rosters and cards ready for our older recreational teams that play through our local league. That means that I didn't get to share my thoughts on the US Youth Futsal Youth National Finals that I had two teams in. You can listen to the episode to hear what I had to say about that. The weather continues to … [Read more...]
#172 Functional Shooting Activities
Last weekend I had just one game with each of my teams. Really not much to tell. The kids played well and are continuing to make steady progress in the areas we've focused on. Looking through my session plans I realized that I haven't done a shooting session in a while. Striking a Futsal ball is very unforgiving. If your technique is flawed in any way it's hard to generate any power. I decided this week was a good time to do a session that revolved around ball … [Read more...]
#165 Week 2 of Playing the 5 v 2 Game to Score
One of my teams had two interesting and very different challenges this week. During their first game of the weekend they played a team that they were clearly better than but were just coasting their way through the game. There was on urgency or intensity in their play. They knew they could get by on 50% effort so that's how they played. In the beginning I let them play and watched to see if they would pick it up. When they didn't I started to encourage them … [Read more...]
#161 Pattern Play to Develop Attacking Ideas
This was a pretty easy weekend for me. I had one game a day over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I almost didn't know what to do with all my extra time.! During these games I was thinking about the way I change the positions that players are in during games. The way I used to do it was to have everyone play the same position for the first four games of league play and then rotate the attackers and defenders. This was far to long between changes for a kid that … [Read more...]
#158 Individual and Team Possession
This is the fourth week of training for the teams in our club. I'm finally getting into the flow of the season. Each team has had a number of games and I'm starting to learn more about the players and they're starting to understand what I'm look for from them. The recreational league games started last week as well so with that, the amount of time and energy I have to devote to that area of my job will become less and less just as my coaching and Age Group … [Read more...]
#157 The First Games of the Season
I'm sorry for missing last week's podcast. Everything just piled up and I ran out of time. On top of a crazy week I also had three teams in a tournament so there was no time to get it done over the weekend as I've been planning to do. With all of that taken care of now I'm confident that I'll be able to get a new episode out to you each week from here on out. Thanks for your understanding and sticking with the show as I get through the busiest time of … [Read more...]
#152 A Rondo Session with Direction
I had to take last week off from the podcast because it was our week for tryouts. I've described our tryout process in detail in a number of previous podcasts so you can do a search for, "Tryouts" and listen to those episodes if you're interested in more information on those. At the same time as tryouts are occuring we're also coming up on the deadline for the recreational soccer registration. That's a new role for me on top of everything else. I now have a … [Read more...]
#096 Play Quicker!
Last week I talked about what you should and sometimes shouldn't say during your team talks. Planning that episode made me realize that most of my effective pregame, halftime and postgame team talks followed a similar pattern. If you didn't have a chance to listen to the show last week I'd suggest that you go back and listen if you can. This week’s question is from Tony Tony says: “One aspect with my team I've been having trouble finding consistency … [Read more...]
#088 Balanced Shooting
Last week's episode on the qualities and habits of the world's best coaches was the most popular episode we've had in a few months. If you missed it, I'd suggest that you go back and listen because there's some great food for thought there. We can all incorporate these qualities into our coaching and become much more effective and successful coaches. This week’s question is from Dennis and concerns how his team defends. Dennis gave me some background … [Read more...]
#084 How I Start My Season
With the indoor season in full swing it was a very busy week. I coach five different teams that are divided into eight Futsal teams. The smaller teams give the players a lot of playing time but it makes for a lot of games to coach. They've made great progress since the start of the season and some of them are incorporating great combination play along with excellent individual skills. It's fun to see them pick up the concepts of the game that we've been … [Read more...]