The following video is split in half. One half is conducive to high-level development, the other isn’t. One half is 1 in a 1000 in our country, the other is the norm. If you find yourself nitpicking and making arguments otherwise, it’s highly likely you are THE problem. The eternal question of course, is how […]
Philosophy
Why “Developing All Players to Their Potential” is a Lie
You can not be all things to all people. You have to pick. Let’s consider you have a single roster that you get to work with for a certain number of hours per week. I think we can all agree this roster is comprised of players with unique qualities and varying levels of talent (or […]
You Can’t Copy a Style of Play and What Mr. Sigi Schmid Said.
There are many fundamental issues with talk of ‘style of play’. I’ll state two (which are intimately linked): 1) You can’t ‘copy’ a style of play. (on the coaching front) A ‘style of play’ is a specialty – like neurosurgery or cardiovascular surgery. Yes, it’s all medicine, and yes there are overlapping competencies, but one […]
Stop Playing Up! Start Playing down.
Let’s suppose that a coach would like his team to consistently execute deliberately orchestrated possession-centered, attacking, attractive, and winning soccer during matches. But it’s just not happening. Here are the two main possibilities: 1) The players are not at the level of competition. This is the most cited reason. And it’s most often not true. […]
Set Tactical Training
We’ve mentioned the phrase ‘Set Tactical Work’ often, but I know this is a foreign notion to the American Soccer Community at all levels. So let me try to give a more familiar concept. Set Tactical Work is essentially Choreography. Here’s an example from the 3four3 curriculum. Now, Rich asked the following: I think for […]
Coaching Defined – The 3 Key Elements
What gets us in trouble is that anyone, absolutely anyone, can be a “coach”. Everyone’s got thoughts and a narrative about the game. And no matter how ill-developed, incoherent, or superficial they may be, that falls into the philosophy bucket. Everyone’s got activities. And everyone can take a player, or two, or 22, and […]
Chivas USA is a Lemon
In case you don’t follow us on Twitter or Facebook, we were in St. Louis, Ft. Lauderdale, and Indianapolis last week for the MAC Hermann award, MLS combine, and MLS superdraft, respectively. The most worthwhile thing to mention from the combine and draft is the comportment of Chivas USA. I think it’s safe to assume […]
Jose Mourinho Documentary
Because what we stand for is genuine passion, and the genuine pursuit and study of excellence. This is a man with the courage to expose his humanity. To expose his inner self even if it transcends what others have outlined as acceptable. And that not only makes him remarkable, but I believe is the enormous […]
Map to the Gold Standard (version 1) Infographic
This is going to be an iterative process. Here’s the base version containing fundamental requirements.
Truths in Soccer
Everything is not just a matter of opinion. Let’s go beyond the box scores… Let’s talk about the other truths: The probability of scoring from 40 yards, is lower than from 8 yards. The probability of dribbling by 1 defender is higher than dribbling by 2. The probability of connecting a 5 yard pass is […]