Coaching Soccer Weekly: Methods, Trends, Techniques And Tactics From World Class Coaching

Two weeks ago three of my teams participated in a tournament. That meant that I had 10 games from Friday to Sunday. It’s not a huge physical challenge to coach 10 games in a weekend. But it is a mental challenge because you’re focused and intense for each of those games. It can be an...

I had a pretty easy schedule last weekend. With just four games over three days. One game on Friday and Saturday as well as two more on Sunday. That’s almost a weekend off by my usual standards. One of the games was on a grass field. It’s the first game I’ve had on grass in...

What is it about round numbers that make them more meaningful to us? Getting to 200 episodes was huge and now 250 seems like another milestone. I suppose it is but I’m looking at it as being halfway to 500. That’s my goal at the moment. I had two teams in a tournament over the...

My teams were back to a full schedule of games last weekend. On Friday evening my U12 goalkeeper broke her hip taking a goal kick. It was the strangest injury I’ve ever seen. I watched the replay on the Veo recording and it look like it happened when she landed on her right foot after...

The season started quickly and we’ve packed a lot into the first six weeks. When I was planning the season I decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good one to take off for all of my teams. The break would be just as important for me as it for the players. Getting the...

As I write this post it’s Thursday evening which marks the end of another week of training for me and my teams. I feel very fortunate to be able to train with my teams on the field because I know where are some places in the U.S. that haven’t been able to start their fall...

I’ve been focusing my teams on a few key areas at the beginning of this season. Our attacking focus has been on finding 1v1’s, 2v1’s and through balls. I think you can break down just about every attacking situation into one of these. I want the  players to have a plan BEFORE they have the...

We had our first 11 v 11 games of the year. Two teams played in the preseason tournament. The first is a 2009 team that’s playing up with the 2008’s. These were their first games in the larger format. Luckily we were scheduled on one of the smaller full sized fields in the area. This...

Last weekend my teams were finally able to get back on the field and play games. My youngest two teams played three games each as a way to get a jump start on the season. There was definitely a lot of rust but they both played better and better throughout the weekend so it was...

Tonight was the end of my first week of training with my teams. My schedule is a bit crazy this fall. I’m at the fields every night until 9 pm expect Thursdays when I come home to record the podcast. Being on the field for three to five hours every night is going to take...

This was my last week of ‘Summer Training’. It’s been great to get the players back out on the field. I thought it was important to do something this summer to get them started. These sessions have also turned into a bit of a Pre Season for my teams. They gave the players a chance...

I’ve just finished my third week of ‘Social Distancing Practice’. To be honest, I’m really missing high fives and pats on the shoulder. I didn’t realize how much those simple acts helped me connect with players. Nothing can really replace those. We tried, ‘foot fives’ but those seem awkward and forced. It may not happen...

I’m sorry there wasn’t a podcast last week. I’d forgotten that it was the Fourth of July holiday. With family in town I didn’t have time to put the episode together. With everyday seeming like the day before I’d really lost track of where we are on the calendar.It was great to have a bit...

Our tryouts were last Friday. I don’t know of any coaches, players or parents who enjoy the necessary process of tryouts. Everything has been different this year and the same can be said for tryouts. We only had new players attending so there were a few times when there were only had slightly more players...

Well my voice is coming back slowly but it wasn’t helped by having Pre-Tryout Camp this week. It’s a four day camp that helps prepare new players to our club for tryouts and gives current players a chance to get together after not playing for a while. Our tryouts are tomorrow. None of our current...

I’ve been really struggling with my voice (as you’ll hear in this episode) so I decided save the Social Distance Training Session for another week. I have uploaded the printable show notes with all of the diagrams and descriptions of the activities to our Patreon site so that Members can view it or download. I’ll...

This week was the start of our tryout process for the 2020-21 season. We started by contacting parents and finding out if they were planning to return to the club and let them know what tryouts would look like this year. Since we decided not to move players down this summer, only up, then they...

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend. This is the first time in years I wasn’t in Chicago. With soccer being on hold I actually forgot that it was coming up. Who looks at a calendar anymore. I had planned for my teams to play in a local tournament and stay home anyway but I always...

The discussion I’ll share this week is pretty long, like last week, so I’ll give you a quick update and then get right into the conversation. I feel that my players are experiencing a lot of, ‘At Home’ training fatigue. It’s only natural since they’ve been stuck at home for two month without a chance...

We have a pretty long conversation that I want to share with you about VAR today so I’ll just give you a short recap of my week and skip our usually Q & A. My team meetings followed the same format we’ve been using. We reviewed the players progress on the Techne App and our...