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

Since I didn’t have a podcast last week I have to catch you up on what I’ve been up to. Two weeks ago I had my last outdoor tournament of the fall. Two teams played in the tournament and it was a great way to wrap up the season. I go into all of the...

With only one game last weekend it left me with a lot of time on my hands. Saturday consisted of work around the house to get it ready for the winter (which seems to have started already!). My game on Sunday was at 8 am but first I decided to get up early and watch...

Last weekend was a busy one; I had six games between my four teams. The results were 3-2-1. The interesting thing was that the teams were 1-1-1 on Sunday and I LOVED the performance of my teams in every game. My approach was different with each group but I think it really matched with what...

Thanks to an email from listener Kevin I discovered how to allow iTunes to include up to 300 podcast episodes in the feed. I’ve made that adjustment so we have a couple of years before we have to worry about older episodes dropping off of the feed. Thanks Kevin! I don’t usually use guest players...

I followed up the out of town tournament two weeks ago with an in-town tournament last weekend with two different teams. One team played their own age group and the other was playing up. They both faced some good competition and didn’t end up making the finals but they both had great experiences that will...

I took one team to a tournament in St. Louis last weekend. This was my first trip to St. Louis in many years. In the past they just didn’t have the same quality of fields that we could find by staying closer to home. The teams have always been very competitive but I just never...

It was a crazy wet weekend. I know this podcast sometimes sounds like a weather report but it has such an impact on the game and my coaching that it’s an important factor. You can listen to the episode for the details. I’m continuing to experiment with not coaching during running play. I think it’s...

It was another hot weekend on the soccer fields. I’m hoping that it was the last weekend we’ll have like this before we start to get some relief. I really enjoy the fall season so I’m looking forward to some cooler temps. It also makes it a lot easier on the players. Three out of...

Last weekend I only had one game for each of my teams! It seemed like a weekend off

Last weekend I took one team to Omaha for a Labor Day tournament. This is a tournament hosted by Sporting Omaha that is played on a nice complex of grass fields. When we got to our first game we discovered that it was going to be played on a field that just had turf installed....

I had three teams in a tournament last weekend. As with all early season tournaments in KC it was HOT. Two of my teams were playing in their own age group and one was playing up. The two playing on-age both made the final. One lost on PK’s and the other won. I think the...

I only had one team in the tournament last weekend so it was almost like having a weekend off. It was nice to focus on just one team for the whole weekend. It was my U12 team that is playing in the U13 11 v 11 division. They’ve really made the move to 11 v...

Wow! It’s hard to believe that this is the 200th episode of the podcast. I’m so grateful to everyone who listens and supports the show by commenting, emailing a question or posting a link on social media. Even just mentioning the show to a fellow coach helps to spread the word. This was the first...

It was great to get back to training with my kids this week. I’ve missed being on the field with them. Everyday this week I’ve enjoyed taking a break from preparing for the rec season and running training sessions. The first session of the week for all of my teams used the Play – Practice...

It’s great to have completed the Director of Coaching course. Last weekend I finished the revisions for my assignments and the reflections on each assignment. Now I’m just waiting to hear if everything I’ve turned in is satisfactory or not. Now my attention has turned to preparing for the recreational league season as well as...

The last week has been crazy as I continue to prepare for the fall season while also finishing the second in person meeting for the US Soccer Director of Coaching Course being held at the Pinnacle National Development Center. We still have a two week development period after the this week as well but the...

Last Sunday was one of my favorite days of this year. I called it, “Soccer Sunday”. With the US Women’s National Team in the World Cup Final in the morning and the US Men’s National Team in the Gold Cup Final that night it provided a great day of soccer. The Women’s World Cup Final...

With no coaching last week I could focus on preparing our recreational league for the fall season and take some time to watch World Cup and Gold Cup games. Something I noticed is how VAR was not just being used to correct, “Clear and Obvious Errors”. In some games they seemed to be re-refereeing the...

With tryouts behind me. The focus this week switched to preparing the recreational league for the fall season. We also have our preseason team meeting this weekend so I’m getting ready for that as well. The USYS Presidents Cup Midwest Regionals was hosted by the Scheels Overland Park Soccer Complex last week. That gave me...

There were so many things going on last week that there just wasn’t time to put the podcast together. I had every intention of doing it but by the time Wednesday came around I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Two weeks ago my U11’s participated in Jr State Cup. As you can see from...