Have you ever watched youth soccer games and noticed a few players who really stood out as talented? Did you watch with amazement as they dribbled through the crowd of defenders and then finished with that perfect shot? The fact is that all sports, not just soccer, have certain athletes that just seem to amaze us. We as parents want out kids to develop as well, but how do we start? How do we get them to improve? The answer may be right outside your window in your backyard.

The common thread among great soccer players….

First, let’s take a look at Tiger Woods. Wait a minute, why a golf player? Because his name is known world wide and we can all relate to his story. For most of his developing life who was his coach and trainer? Who was his only putting coach as he progressed into the Pro years? The answer to both was his dad, Earl.
Was Earl Woods a professional golfer? Not at all, he was a career Army man that had a passion for the sport. He loved golf and he loved his son. He was able to blend time spent together and building a passion for the game, with learning and improving. Much of this time was right in their backyard “messing around”, having fun and exposing a child to new skills and thoughts. There were hours and hours of performing repetitive skills in the form of games and challenges. The same applies for so many great soccer players of our time and we as parents can learn from this example.

Parents are the key…

Ask any great soccer player who played a major role in their soccer growth and 90% of the time the answer will be “Mom or Dad”. When we developed the SoccerU series we specifically had this in mind. Whether it was the level of support or the time at night and weekends spent in the back yard just “messing around”, parents are often the engine behind developing talent, not the coach.

Each night I drive by our local public fields and sure enough there is a parent and child on the field working on skills or just “messing around” together. These small little sessions play such a major role in a youth player’s development, I can’t stress them enough. Last year I worked with several former Division One college players and the same was true. Their “parents” were the reason they were able to achieve such success. None of these parents were “pro soccer players” so how did they help that struggling child? I will explain.

Watch your next few soccer practices…

Let’s say that a young soccer player, over their development cycle, needs to learn and master 75 core skills. These will include everything from learning the difference between an offensive header and defensive header to receiving a pass under pressure and proper first touch. Whether the skill is basic like dribbling or advanced like performing a volley kick, each of these individual skills must be shown, taught and practiced repeatedly. However, you’ll notice that over the course of a soccer season players may only learn one to four new skills. Often after learning them, they seldom return to practice them in a repetitive session. At that pace they will hit the “competitive level” without ever really refining all the core skills.

Now, don’t go blaming the coach…

The first thing you realize when you become a soccer coach is that you are missing one thing, TIME. Working in the “group” means that all the players must be trained together. All their levels of skills, behavior and learning must be viewed as a whole, and one on one / individual training is almost never done. One to three hours a week for few weeks in the spring and fall is simply not enough time. You are also supposed to get this “motley crew” to play together as a team and hopefully win at least one game.

You will quickly see how many youth soccer players can hit the middle school and even high school level with very few refined technical skills. As players get older the focus switches to “competing”. We often see less and less time spent on core technical training which is a huge mistake.

1000’s of touches and hours of repetition…

Charlie Cook, the director of Coerver Training US, emailed me last year. He was reflecting on watching the national team and a player that received a long air pass. The player, with out any effort, gently touched the ball once and killed it into his path. “An amazing sight to see.” However he quickly pointed out that this was not a god given talent. This player was not born with this touch nor did he learn it by just “playing the game”. He learned it by practicing it over and over. Thousands of touches and repetition until this skill was a part of his nature, “instinctive”. His point was clearly made. To have a skill become “natural or instinctive” it must be repeated over and over until we no longer have to “think about it”. It becomes a habit that the player performs without thought.

This is where the back yard begins…

We, as parents must become teachers. We must be able to identify skills in their raw form and learn how to perform them correctly ourselves. We then must be able to tell and show a child visually how to properly perform the skill. After many short repetitive sessions it will eventually allow them to feel it and let it become part of their nature. Until we do this, it will never become an instinctive habit.

Parents however, sometimes feel “lost” and don’t know where to begin, how to progress or even how to teach these skills. You do not have to become a “professional soccer player”. You simply must learn to teach what your child will not be taught during the “normal development cycle” of their soccer career. Hence the 10 hours of skills breakdown on SoccerU.

Watch out for the frustration…

A simple warning for parents is to be aware that younger players often become frustrated easily. Our goal is to keep it fun and make sure the child feels like these are THEIR sessions and not forced on them. Keep them short and mix them in with what the child wants to do. Maybe they want to be goal keeper, maybe they want to take penalty shots on mom or dad. Whatever it is, keep the training divided in half. Half learning and repetition and half fun and games. Create challenges and even have fun goals to achieve. There is nothing better than a challenge between the child and parent.

There always is a parent…

In the US pickup games and free play soccer has almost become extinct. The extra hours of needed play and skill work now has to come from the parent. Parents often search for the “perfect soccer camp” spending hundreds even thousands of dollars on camps that might only last 2 – 5 days. These are great for social development but offer little improvement in what the players need.

When I meet a talented young soccer player I always ask them, “Who taught you how to play?” Every single player over the past two years has responded the same way, “My Mom / Dad.”

Make sure you realize the importance of “off program” training and make sure you understand the importance of the backyard. Cherish this time as not only soccer training, but bonding as well. Always remember that they are KIDS first, not soccer players, and nothing says “good work” like a stop for ice cream on the way home.

New Ultimate Youth Soccer Training Series Released

The new SoccerU® training series was finally released this month and many who previewed it have called it, “The best to ever hit the market.”

The SoccerU® series is a soccer technical skill training series that contains a total of five disks and over 10 hours of soccer skill training.  It has 4 SoccerU® disks and also includes the now worldwide renowned Blast The Ball DVD, making it the most extensive series ever released.

Blast The Ball is a two hour instructional DVD that focuses solely on the soccer kick and ball flight. It takes the coach, parent and player all the way through the evolution of the soccer kick, then through full step by step training all the way up to very advanced.

The SoccerU® series is said to be more of a “field work” series that takes the trainer or player through all the essential skills needed to become an advanced and skilled soccer player.

The nice thing about this series is the broad range of topics. Instead of buying a “soccer moves” instructional video, you simply go to disk 3, chapters 4,5 and 6 and there is over an hour of soccer moves training.   With over 70 chapters in the 5 disk series, there is little that is NOT covered.

They are also offering an affiliate / soccer club fundraising program which has been a huge success for Blast The Ball affiliates and soccer clubs around the world.

The package special is being offered for a limited time at their website www.SoccerU.com and they are also offering free world wide shipping. The series is available in DVD only and ships worldwide.

]]> http://www.soccer.hn/?feed=rss2&p=29 http://www.soccer.hn/?p=23 http://www.soccer.hn/?p=23#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:43:48 +0000 admin http://www.soccer.hn/?p=23 Working with youth soccer players is a challenge that many face every year. While many think there is a “magical” formula, it really comes down to knowledge and skills.

Learning how to pass down this knowledge and give visual examples of how to perform skills is a key element of any good soccer coach and trainer.

The new site Youth Soccer Training should help.

This is a question that all coaches, at all levels, should ask themselves and reflect on their soccer training sessions. For many years soccer coaches have used laps to “warm up” soccer players or increase their endurance. We should all reexamine this thinking.

Last month a friend of mine, Coach Mike, called me and he sounded a little upset. He knew my philosophy on soccer players running laps and we had a long discussion about it earlier in the year. Coach Mike is successful High School coach that holds a USSF “C” license and in years past has coached many youth academy teams. He is well respected and liked by players, parents and the soccer community. While developing both Blast The Ball and our new SoccerU series I would often sit in the bleachers watching his players practice and play.

His ten year son had a practice that night and he was appalled at what he saw. There were a total of ten teams on the filed ranging from 9 years old up to 16 year old players. A short while after the practices started he looked out at the fields and 9 out of 10 of then teams were running laps. Needless to say his jaw dropped as he watched this spectacle.

Finally he walked over to the club’s coaching director and said, “Hey Tom, nice running club you have here.” Of course Tom looked at him strangely and said, “What do you mean?” Mike proceeded to have an education session with him. “Look out at the fields Tom and tell me what you see. You have nine out of ten teams running laps. It looks like a cross country club rather than a soccer club. Don’t you think the coaches would have learned by now?” Tom the director shook his head in agreement and told Mike that he would address the issue at the next coaches meeting. Tom the director understood the problem but his coaches failed to truly grasp what they were doing.

One of the biggest challenges we face as youth coaches is the lack of time. We have one to two hours, twice a week for about 12 weeks to mold and shape young children and adults into well trained soccer players. There simply is not enough time. Using ANY of this valuable time on anything other than “soccer training” is simply insane. Every thing you do during your practice should be geared towards touches, control and improving “soccer skills”.

Here’s a great question for you. If you have “soccer players” running laps, why do they not have a soccer ball at their feet while running? Simply by adding a soccer ball at least we have incorporated something related to soccer. If you can’t break your old habit “cold turkey” at least change the method.

If you run laps to warm up players, why not have them pair up and run dribbling and passing grids?

10 minutes of this has the same cardio benefit as running laps, but they work on dribbling, moves, passing and receiving while exercising at the same time. This can be setup by the players and run as soon as they get to the field. This gives you, the coach, more time to set up your sessions. Also, guess what you can do before Saturday’s game to warm up? You got it, the same drills. The other team will be impressed that the players took control of their own warm up and looked like a truly organized team.

Are you using laps as a punitive measure? I won’t dig deep into this subject but it is VERY clear that running laps or associating running as punishment is a very stupid move.

Conditioning?
Let’s face it; soccer players don’t jog an entire soccer game. They have short bursts of sprinting speed followed by recovery running or walking. We should try and condition them for how they are going to play as well as increase their ball handing and general soccer skills.

One of the best ways to do this at any level, even the collegiate level, is the use of small side game drills or wave drills. Here is an example.

Set up two small goals with cones, 4 feet wide, or Pugg goals about 30 – 40 yards apart.

Have the players run 1 v 1 or 2 v 2 wave attacks.

As soon as the ball goes in the net or crosses the end line, the next wave begins.

You can also make players touch the goal after shooting and then have a race back to the other end. (My favorite for conditioning.)

Keep the numbers few. This makes sure players only have a short “recovery” time in between attacks.

If you have a lot of players set up several fields.

This wave format game is ABSOLUTLEY exhausting, teaches fast attack, 1 v 1 skills, and teaches players to recover quickly after a play is finished.

If you are a youth soccer coach I want you to remember this golden rule.

When you train young soccer players you are trying to teach them things that will STAY with them for a lifetime. Dribbling, receiving, shooting, passing, heading, trapping and moves are all skills that once learned and mastered, will stay with their mind and body forever. Conditioning leaves them once it stops.
Skills that are learned are long term, endurance is short lived.
Speed, endurance and strength are attributes we want to develop in mature competitive players, not a 10 year old that wants to have fun and learn the game

How to Kick a Soccer Ball Harder

By Coach V
Blast The Ball

I don’t care if you are 8 or 38 years old, a funny thing happens when we place a soccer ball on the grass in front of a goal. Something in our mind seems to ‘snap’ and we try and strike the ball as hard as we can. Most of us however don’t realize this actually slows down the soccer ball’s speed.

While creating Blast The Ball and Soccer U we had the pleasure of capturing literally hundreds of hours of soccer players and thousands of soccer kicks. This research showed some interesting results. Trying to kick a soccer ball ‘harder’ often slowed down the speed of the ball. Why you ask? Well let’s start with another sport that will help us understand.

Talk to the “long drive golf champs” and you will find a common thought among them. Swing at 80% of your top force. Now, why would a golf ball go farther at 80% vs. 100%? It comes down to the “speed of the club head” which is the last part of several body parts involved. Swinging, or “kicking”, at 100% of force often causes us to TENSE UP many of the muscles involved in the full “multifunction process” of the swinging / kicking motion. Think us this as a “whipping” motion. Staying slightly “loose” during the kick allows our foot to be at the end of an accelerating chain of events. Tighten up any of those events and you slow it down. Try throwing a baseball with a totally STIFF arm. The ball travels about half the speed. Keeping a loose arm with a whipping motion increases the speed greatly. The same applies to the soccer kick.

A couple of key points to a stronger, longer and faster soccer kick.

1) Relax.
Allow your entire body to go limp. Shake it out. Let your head, neck legs and every part of your body relax.
The only part of your body that will have tension is your ankle.

2) Large last stride / loading.
Make your last stride a long “forward hopping” load. Your heel should come close to your behind.

3) Allow your knee to come through first.
This is known as “storing the load”. Your lower leg will form a V shape. Keep that V shape as long as possible and at the last minute let it extent in a WHIPPING motion through the ball.

4) Kick with the big toe knuckle.
Approach the ball from a slight angle. The largest bone in your foot is the first metatarsal which is just above the big toe knuckle. This translates into FORCE or energy at impact.

5) Break the pane.
Pretend that the ball is sitting in front of a large pane of glass. You want to break the pane with your body, not just your leg or foot. This means that your forward momentum should continue through the shot. This will also cause you to land on your SHOOTING foot, not your plant foot.

6) Watch your foot contact the ball.
If you can see your foot strike the ball you are kicking properly. Doing this also keeps your body in a slightly “bent over” position. Straitening up will kill some of the power release.

To prove this point to younger players you should have them start VERY close to the goal. Have them move back little by little WITHOUT changing their kicking effort. When you see them “forcing” their shot, have them move back very close and feel the loose shot again a few times. Then have them move back out to a far point and use the same “close kick”. Both of you will be amazed.

On a final note I suggest you video tape the player kicking. You can even use digital cameras that have a video recorder. Try and set the “frames per second” as high as you can. This will allow you to slow the kick down to a frame by frame view. When we shot Blast The Ball, many of the cameras were set on 3000 frames per second. This allowed us to see EVERY detail of the kick. Younger players will be amazed at the footage and trust me, if you tell them they are doing something wrong they will disagree. Show them threw video and they will understand.