Time to recalibrate! We’re not interested in player development here, we’re interested in soccer development. While related, they are not the same. 1) Player Development This is not the end all, be all, of this country’s issues. As conventionally discussed, and comparatively speaking, it’s irrelevant. It’s just a tiny speck of what’s going on. If […]
Problems
How to Execute: Who on Earth are You Learning From?
The figure breaks coaching down into 3 fundamental elements – all of which contain huge challenges. For instance, we’ve got over 4 years of philosophy-based content here, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. But now I think there’s enough of a base to start efforts in the other two elements – Activities & Execution. The […]
How Can You Take World Class Soccer Methods, and Apply Them In Your Environment?
I think we can all agree that taking what they do elsewhere in the soccer world and applying it here, is not easy. But the reasons behind that aren’t necessarily what you think. Perhaps the biggest and least understood reason for the difficulty is interpretation. You see, reading or witnessing something, and properly interpreting what […]
A Huge Mistake Well-Meaning Coaches are Making
They try a bunch of different activities. Doing this, creates no continuity in your training. Which means: Your players aren’t getting a simple digestible message (the philosophy). Your players can’t achieve a level of mastery in the skills associated with a particular activity. And you, the coach, aren’t achieving a level of mastery with a […]
Player Development Answered in 4 Minutes [video]
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 […]
Who are the American Soccer “Incumbents”?
I’ve used that term a lot on twitter, and was asked to define it. This was my response: Impossible in 140 chars. But here goes: The "incumbents" are those holding the power, their supporters, and their target demographic. — 3four3 (@3four3) July 27, 2013 Here I’ll go further … Traditionally the term is used for […]
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 […]