Once a year for my coaching staff and I at the Barcelona-USA Academy, it’s all about “THE TRIP!” The last four years I have been traveling to Barcelona to further my coaching education – all possible through our network of contacts and through Barcelona-USA. Full access to Barca’s youth Academy training sessions, Barca B (professional […]
Development
A Phenomenal Soccer Education in 12 Minutes [Video]
We’ve been talking on this blog. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Anyone can talk. And anyone does. Just look at all the garbage online, and the monkeys on TV (I guess you’d have to be able to identify it as such). Well, it’s time to do some show. First some things to keep in mind: […]
The Most Important Thing You Must Understand About Coaching
This is my response to reader John, who left an excellent set of comments. The last of which I’ll address here. Specifically: I’d love to see you talk about specific tactics, Gary. I have no doubt that you are a very bright guy, but I wish you’d share your knowledge with us. Tell us about […]
Youth Teams Playing Up: The Pre-teen Years
Oh how everyone talks as if they know what “development” is, and how to do it. Sigh … Let’s talk a little bit about “playing up” and whether it helps or not. This weekend our U11’s are going to play in a U12 tournament. This isn’t the first time competing up either. The last was […]
Progress
“We’ve made good progress in the last 20 years.” Yes we have, and we should all be happy for it. However, it’s easier going from 40% to 70%, than it is from 70% to 100%. The first jump involves broad strokes. You know, the “common sense” stuff. The second jump involves the details. You know, […]
A Letter to Our Players
We have several recently turned 20 year-olds from our first ever boys team that have true professional-level quality. Years ago, I predicted with 100% certainty that one kid in particular would go all the way. I actually have standing bets with people on this (most notable are $500 on one, and a lobster dinner every […]
Player Development: Accountable for What? And to Who?
I don’t know if real accountability for player development is possible. What are the metrics? Is it how many players you place in college? Is it the number that get called to youth national teams? Is it the number of professionals you’ve touched while they were amateur? Certainly these things are important. But we need […]
2 Fundamental and Objective Metrics to Judging a Coach’s Quality
How do you know a coach is any good at player development? I’m specifically addressing those coaches who are implicitly chartered with that goal. Well, here it is: 1) The coach must have a clearly possession-based style. 2) The coach must be a winning one. Metric 1 (possession) First and foremost, if the coach is not […]
American Invited to Join La Masia
This will go down as a mark in US Soccer history. Ben Lederman, a U-11, has been invited to join FC Barcelona’s youth Academy. He started his trial with the famed academy on April 11, 2011 and just 4 training sessions later, the Director of all 7 v 7 at the club, Andres Carrasco, had […]
The Recipe For World Class
A general outline not meant to capture exceptions: 1) Be obsessed with the game. 2) Put in your 10,000 hours. 3) Have coaches for many years at the youth level that can polish you. 4) Debut professionally as a teenager. Again, with a coach that has a clue. 5) Get transferred to a “big club”, […]