Do you remember when most all Americans, coaches included, thought ‘rondo’ meant this: Now we’re a bit more educated, but still have a long way to go on the rondo front. Today I want to introduce another topic, that of ‘checking your shoulder‘. Many have been saying that phrase quite often but, much like the rondo, […]
Practical
The 5 Key Player Development Components
Player development can be broken into 5 major components: The household/parent/family influence. The playing on your own influence. The pickup game influence. The structured club training influence. The personal training influence. Each taps into a piece of the puzzle. Some may be more important than others. There’s definitely overlap between each. And finally, in the end, there […]
A Huge Deficiency in the Suburban American Soccer Player
It’s well known one of the advantages players outside the US have is pickup ball. Across the globe, players of all ages from 7 year olds to adults benefit from the street game – that informal pickup culture the American player lacks. The barrio, as hispanic/latino cultures call it, is where strong mentalities, ball skills […]
An “All Value, No Fluff” Soccer Education
For the impatient, you can sign up to this free education here. But it would be awesome if you read this article first. There’s no question we need better soccer education in our country. So over the past 7 years, Brian and I have taken on that challenge. Of course it’s been much longer if […]
The Best Coaching Advice You’ll Ever Get, and Probably Ignore
Go master how to properly train 10 different rondos. Stop making forays into exotic topics like ‘guided discovery’ or some academic neurological studies on learning. Stop it with the hundreds of sport session planner diagrams, and your buffet of drills. Stop it with buying a new soccer book every week, thinking somehow your art will […]
Come Join 3four3 in Vegas or San Diego this Summer
You told us in person, you told us via emails … and you better believe we’ve been listening. So here we go, we’ve started working on launching two events this summer: A coaching conference / summit A player camp Coaching summit Location: Las Vegas, NV Date: July 25, 26 or August 1, 2 3four3 contact: […]
How NOT to Coach Playing out of the Back
It’s like everywhere I look in American soccer media, and to quite an extent, the English as well, the advice being thrown around on player development is the worst thing you can follow. The inspiration for this article came from Twitter via a coach posting the following activity he runs (& recommends). I saw the […]
What Coaches Can Learn from Louis van Gaal’s Recent Statement
Newly appointed Manchester United coach, Louis van Gaal, recently stated it’ll take him at least 3 months to get his team to start executing the way he wants to play. 3 months! And he’s got a whole staff behind him working around the clock. 3 months! And he’s got all international level players. 3 months! And the […]
6 Points that Improve Top Level Talent Assessment through Video
The Bottom Line Capture the ‘WOW factor’ with a short video (the shorter the better) to peak interest. In-person talent assessment is hard enough, so your video(s) need to kick ass. Video must be good quality, or your audience will leave after 5 seconds. In a long-form video, try to capture all 4 player properties […]
How to Spot a Likely Soccer Hack
OH MAN … be careful who you listen to. 3 Spanish, and 1 Portuguese team That’s the makeup of this year’s Champions League, and Europa League finals. Together, they offer a nice backdrop to highlight the need for perspective. So here we go… After every season, it seems broad conclusions on the state of the […]