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...]
CSW Extra 5 – Double Rondo
There won't be a podcast for the next two weeks because I'll be spending some vacation time with my family and working on updates to our WORLD CLASS COACHING Training Center. There are some exciting changes coming that I all of our members will benefit from. Last week I interviewed Wayne Harrison. We discussed the common thread that goes through all game formats from 4 v 4 to 11 v 11. He has some very interesting methods that you should consider using with … [Read more...]
#056 It’s Not the Same as Dribbling
Our Instagram Account now has more than 900 followers. We've posted more than 100 images including exercises, drills and small-sided games. The posts from each week are from a section of one of our books. Sometimes they are a complete training session other times they're a number of activities from one section. If you haven't checked it out already I would suggest you take a look because there are more diagrams of exercises ,along with detail descriptions, … [Read more...]
#055 Should You Work on Free Kicks?
I made some great progress on several projects last week and I’m looking forward to sharing more about them in the coming weeks. We’re streamlining the way we share all of our information here at WORLD CLASS COACHING and I think it’s going to be great for coaches that listen to the podcast, read our blogs and watch our videos. Look for more info in the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone that gave the podcast a ranking or review in iTunes. I appreciate you … [Read more...]
CSW Extra 3 – All In One Exercise
I won't have a full podcast for this week because of the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the US. I planned to share one of my favorite exercises but I forgot that I included it in the Fourth of July episode earlier this year. If you missed that, here it is again. I like this exercise because it incorporates passing, receiving, change of direction moves, 1 v 1 moves and shooting in a competitive environment that the players really enjoy. The first player … [Read more...]
#038 Indoor Attacking Training Session
In the last week our State Association has announced that the changes to age groups and small-sided game formats will be implemented at the beginning of the 2016/2017 soccer year. This was not a surprise to most coaches and administrators but it this announcement makes the decision official. As part of the announcement US Youth Soccer provided a number of documents to help player, parents, coaches and administrators understand the reasons for these … [Read more...]
#035 11 Different Diamond Drill Variations
At the end of each season the coaches in our club complete evaluations on the players in their team. The evaluations focus on the four key areas of player development: technical, tactical, physical and psychological. We make comments in each area about the strengths and weaknesses of the player and give them feedback on their progress. We use a website called ZoomReports.com to complete evaluations for more than 60 teams in our club. The online format allows … [Read more...]
#033 Three Sessions to Teach Combination Play
Teaching your players the key elements involved in effective combination play will give them a framework to combine with their teammates in a free flowing game environment. Today I share three progressive training sessions that I've used to teach my players these key elements. These sessions represent a three-week MicroCycle that I used with a couple of my teams to teach them how to combine effectively. There are a wide variety of combination plays that can … [Read more...]