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Before each athletic competition most people will wish the athletes “good luck”. I ask why?
Is it really about luck? Are there variables that are beyond the athlete’s control and left to luck? When you buy a lottery ticket you have no control of the outcome. There is no preparation that will be able to change your odds at winning. That is my definition of luck. Not being able to prepare to change or influence the chances of altering an outcome. So how is luck going to change an athletic competition? Is it a lucky bounce of the ball? A lucky shot? A lucky rebound? All these things mentioned can be actually prevented. If a player watches the ball has proper body shape and is actively engaged in the game, not just being in the game, he will be prepared to handle a crazy bounce of the ball therefore not making it a “lucky bounce of the ball”. If he marks properly, hustles and defends with vigor a shot will not be allowed. If a shot is not allowed there will be no chance of a rebound. Does this make sense? A player takes a toe shot or just miss kicks the ball from 25 yards out of the goal, no one is expecting that shot, the wind takes it and before you know it is in the back of the net. Coach yells “unlucky”, let’s get it back”. Was it really unlucky? Let’s examine the situation. First of all if the player who miskicked the ball was actively tracked and marked in a reasonable amount of time and had not been given the time to just kick the ball the miss kicked shot would have never happened. Secondly if all the players including the goalkeeper were always ready to expect the unexpected by utilizing their agility and reaction skills the ball would have never sailed into the goal. Do you see the point here? So when does all this preparation start? Is it after the warm up as soon as the referee blows the whistle for the game to begin? I think not. Preparation starts at training, at home, in the back yard, every time a player has a ball, every time a player watches a game every time a player thinks about the sport. Now we cannot expect most youth players to feel like this about the game in the early years with the few exceptions but we can teach them about it. We can teach them about effort, working hard and not just going through the motions. But first we have to get them to fall in love with the game. Human nature dictates that most people will give it their all if they love something. It is no different here, if they love it they will try harder. “Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Is Not Working Hard” By the way most people’s definition of talent is a player’s skill ability. My definition of talent is a player’s total outlook of the game. Does he love the game, is he able to read the game, does he always give 100% effort, always puts himself in a situation to make the best possible play as well as make the players around him better, and lastly how are his skills? Yes skills are last in my book. I have met and played against some great skilled players. But that’s all they were; great with the ball at their feet. They only performed when the ball was given to them at their feet. They never worked to get to the ball or put themselves in a good situation to receive the ball. They never looked to share the ball or make the players around them better, it was always about them. They had no team vision and could not read the game. But they had great ball skills. That is every knowledgeable coach’s nightmare “a selfish player”. Those players never worked hard and always lost to hard work from their opponents, those players never prepared themselves in training or elsewhere. They only depended on their ball skills. Some players are great athletes, they have great speed, size and mental ability. They have been given some great tools to begin with, but it’s what they do with those tools that is important. It is not luck that will make them better but the love for the game, hard work and determination. Please do not misunderstand me here; Fundamentals are the basis of all, no matter what you do, in sport and in life. One must have sound fundamentals and always work on those fundamentals, but the key here is the word “work” not luck. They have to put in the effort and commitment to get better at it and then maintain it. Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Is Not Working Hard, not Luck. Learning to prepare yourself for any situation, being willing to commit to work hard and will give the best chance at being successful. One does not have to love the hard work but he must crave the end result of success.
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It may sound like an easy question and depending on who you ask you will get a different reply. But think this for a minute; If you like to be told what to do all the time you will never grow and develop in anything that you attempt. If you are spoon fed information and decisions all the time your brain will never learn to think on its own, become lazy and actually become counterproductive regressing in its learning and developing. Well, at any given day on any given youth soccer field that is what’s going on. Every game has 16 or 22 players on the field, (depending if you are playing small or large side), and tens or hundreds coaches/parents around the field screaming directions and what to do at every moment of the game to the players. I realize that everyone wants the best for the players and truly want to help them but in actuality they are doing just harm to them. There are coaches on the sidelines that give instructions to the players and it’s the players’ job to execute them. Furthermore often the directions that come from all the parent/coaches are inaccurate. The team coach has given certain directions that apply to a strategy, plan, development that the team is using and the parent/coach is yelling something totally different. The player gets confused, does not want to make either coach upset, does not learn how to make his own decisions, his play ability slowly declines while his frustration increases. A player just kicks the ball to nowhere and the parent/coach cheers: “Great kick awesome job”. Maybe the situation didn’t not warrant a kick to nowhere at that particular moment of the game. Maybe the player needed to maintain control of the ball and keep possession instead of just kicking it away. Knowing how to cheer and when to cheer is another way of supporting the players and it comes from properly learning and understanding the game. The best part about the game of soccer is that it is a “PLAYER’S GAME”. It is a game where the best players make up their own minds by reading the game and constantly adjusting to situations. The fastest a player can read the game, think, prepare and adjust to situations the better he will be. The players learn from making both good and bad choices. “SILENT PLAY/” is a way that SoccerSkillz Training helps the players accomplish their development. After an instructional training session players will be asked to play in small sided games, varying from 3v3, 5v5 or 8v8, where they will have to make up their own team shape, line up and substitutions. They run the teams as if they are in the school playground with no adult supervision. You will be amazed at how much more they communicate, help and create situations. As coaches, parents and spectators, we can help the players more by giving them a chance to play on their own and make their own decisions. There is a right time for teaching a better way and a right time to enjoy watching them play.   When coaching kids soccer, one quickly realizes how it can be difficult, because young soccer players seem to always be wandering in a different direction! How can a coach keep his/her players’ attentions and keep control of their practices? By mixing up activities and using as many senses as possible, a coach can give players an outlet for their energy while still teaching them. By keeping lessons short and focused, a coach also encourages players to pay attention before being let loose.
Mix it Up In my youth coaching career I have seen coaches be all fired up and full of creativity after they first get their coaching licenses but soon they fall pray to the weekly training boredom blues. A lot of coaches show up at the field, sometimes late because of their daily routines, not properly prepared with a coaching session plan for the day. They try to wing a training session and at times forget that their key subjects are youth soccer players that they might have had a long day at school and might want a bit of release of energy in the soccer pitch. Coaching kids soccer requires one to be innovative and always engaging and mostly to be always using their creativity and imagination. Kids do not stay focused for long, so coaches must constantly invent new ideas, games and techniques for keeping their young soccer players excited about participating in soccer and learning. To do this, I personally have had plenty of wacky, creative ideas from time to time…crazy hat day, golf soccer, hula soccer, for the younger soccer players, daily player game creation and favorite exercise, or player run training session for the older ones… Keep it Short Coaches do not have much time with youth soccer players before their minds will begin to wander. To stretch out this time and get more undivided attention from young soccer players, coaches should work to involve players by asking them questions, asking them to repeat things just said, summarizing important lessons, and making the session interactive. Because of short attention spans, coaches should keep lessons concise and very focused. By encouraging players to pay attention to one lesson at a time, broken up by periods of physical activity and reviews of material covered earlier in the practice, coaches lengthen the amount of serious time they have with young athletes. Increase Interactivity When Coaching Kids Soccer Youth soccer players today are not as able to sit and absorb information as previous generations because of the readily available media streams. They are now able to process multiple inputs at once and often get bored or restless if they are simply listening to someone talk at them. To reach young soccer players on their level, I incorporate videotaping of training sessions, with the aid of a parent and then email all kids that training session with comments and remarks. Kids love to watch themselves and realize much better what the coach was talking about when they see themselves participate in that particular training session. Skills that were explained or mistakes and adjustments that were discussed in a training session, all of sudden become understood by watching the video playback. Coaches should remember that any internet usage by young players needs to be heavily monitored by responsible adults to prevent athletes from wandering to inappropriate sites or accessing unapproved material. Those coaching kids soccer can also provide written material or charts for older athletes who can read and write. Charts could contain a list of what skills have been taught, when they were first introduced, and the coach’s assessment of how well the athletes perform that skill. For written material, coaches can pass out brief instructions about skills or a one-page review of what has been taught to that point in the season. The use of different soccer aids that are fun and engaging is another great way to teach and improve their skills while holding their attention and always have them ask for more. Lastly one of my least favorite methods of training is “LAPS”. I see kids running laps, either for warm up or cool down or for punishment. My philosophy is that soccer is a game or quick short sprints. Running nonstop for a prolonged period of time is called cross-country or long distance running. A soccer player’s heartbeat is different from the one of the long distance runner. Why not develop and strengthen that heartbeat with proper sport appropriate exercises. I have found some fun engaging videos of great ideas on these sites: www.futworkz.com - www.soccertoplay.com Tip of increasing your youth teams footwork: A Surprising New Way to do it Quickly with FUN3/16/2012 Getting youth soccer players to work on increasing their footwork, agility, speed, timing and stamina often feels like an impossible challenge. I have evaluated numerous programs over time. All too frequently their results are just shy of painfully disappointing. The number one issue I always find with different programs is that they pretty much are all the same at the core. First of all the kids using a ball to work on their footwork, at the early stages are always miss- kicking the ball and have to constantly chase it. That cuts into the actual time they spend performing the actual task and sooner than later they get bored and tired of constantly retrieving the ball, resulting in performance and focus decline. Another issue is that once they leave the training facility very few actually go home and practice. There is no real FUN motivation to practice at home. Kids rather play with their friends or video games. Until now! Kids love to show their friends of their skills or something they can do better than their friends. Better yet, how about show their friends of a toy, something FUN that they have. FutPro can fit right in there. Kids will not only love training with it but also actually use it at home so that they can get better and then compete with their friends. Off course all the time that they are spending having FUN with their friends and using the FutPro, they are actually touching the ball 1000s of times and increasing their footwork, agility, speed, timing and stamina. It is a win win situation for the coaches, trainers and players. So my Tip for increasing footwork is to be able to have the kids do something FUN, competitive, be able to share it with their friends on and off the training facility. Something that they can see the results as they get better, just like a video game’s progress. Something they can enjoy doing without the coach’s/trainer’s supervision. Take a look at it HERE  Everyday I that I train kids, various ages and skill levels, one thing that is always constant is their inability to sustain and focus on the tasks at hand. I have come to realize that although they love to play sports they cannot maintain non-stop playing for an extended time. They are always stopping, huffing and puffing. I remember when I was a young lad, say 8 or 9, you could not get me to stop or stand still. Today although kids are always fidgeting, not standing still or not focusing it is not because their high fitness energy level. It is mainly because of their diet. High on sugars, bad carbs, and preservatives. But given the task of actually maintaining a playing scenario of a prolong period of time, most of them cannot do it. Even the kids that their coaches have them doing laps before every practice and have developed a somewhat higher level of fitness; they cannot maintain a period of extended play with many different speeds and agility tasks.
In every sport developing speeds of quick 5-10 yards bursts is critical. These quick bursts or first steps can separate a player from beating a competitor to a lose ball, getting a rebound or making a strong defensive play. Developing a young player/athlete to have quicker footwork, timing, speed, agility, stamina and power to move in small places will not only help them to become a better athlete but also prevent injuries. Another area in youth sports that is greatly overlooked. We tend to think that they are kids, they are young, and they do not any of this. In actuality developing healthy habits is a must at all ages. So how do we start with accomplishing this developmental task? Simple, yet not known by many: Increasing speed is as simple as training an athlete to minimize their contact with the ground. It makes sense right? The less time you spend touching the ground the faster you will move. Simple theory applied by sprinters. When doing agility training the lighter and faster an athlete is on his/her feet the quicker they will accomplish the given task. Doing repetitive jumping drills may seem pointless, but what they are doing is teaching the athlete to spend less time with their feet on the ground. Doing an agility session and building it into sprint work, the athlete’s muscle memory takes over and they begin to apply what they learned in the leaping tasks, therefore creating a quicker first step. Coordination and balance are always part of the mix. As I said earlier there are kids that may have a higher fitness level but their coordination and balance is lacking, making it harder to perform on the field. Here are some other things that I do on my trainings that you should consider: Injury Prevention Developing strength Speed Agility And Conditioning Building Confidence Being More Powerful In Your Sport Developing A Faster First Step Being Able To Jump Higher Perfecting Techniques Through FUN Quality Repetitions Read more and watch videos HERE Footwork is one of the key elements in all sports. Professional teams of all sports have a physical trainer that does agility, footwork, stamina, conditioning, speed and timing workouts. In youth sports especially at the U8-U12 levels teaching the kids proper body movement and techniques, agility and footwork is essential if the kids are going to develop into total athlete/players. At that age one of the hardest things to maintain is focus and as a youth coach you are always battling the boredom syndrome. With FutPro and the Futwork training system you are not only teaching the kids the necessary, footwork, agility and body motion essentials but you are making it FUN for them as they love to use the FutPro. The 30second challenges add excitement and FUN in their workouts.
See for yourself what the fuss is all about by clicking here: http://www.soccertoplay.com/futworks.html As I was training one of my teams at yesterdays practice using FutPro, I was lost in the laughter and fun my girls were having while using it and doing their footwork. Prior to getting the FutPro I would have them touch the ball off the wall in our indoor facility at the start of every practice. As the weeks passed I noticed a few things. First of all after a few reps they would get bored with it and their technique would go down hill. Because of the same reason their timing would be off, they would not stay on their toes as I always instruct them and their effort would not be there after a few reps. Most importantly as all of the above would happen they would have to start chasing the ball, because their focus and concentration would not be there any more causing them to mishandle the ball and have it roll away from them. As a result of that we would waste quite a bit of time to get the ball, get back in position start all over again and have it happen again and again.
Well since we started using FutPro I do not have to say anything anymore. In fact they fight over who is going to go first. They have a great time while doing it, their footwork has gotten much better and we do not waste as much time any longer. We just ordered one for each player so everyone has one. They use it at home and bring it at practice. Best of all they show off to their friends not realizing, that as they do that they are always working on their footwork. I asked them why they like using it so much and based on their answers I compiled a list of 10 things why one should use FutPro in their training as well as home. 1 Have Fun With An Easy To Do Game Like Unit and Training System 2 Increase Touches On The Ball, Build Better Footwork 3 Work On Every Surface Of Your Foot, Inside, Outside, Laces 4 Better Body Movement, Build Agility 5 Increase Cardio, Build Your Stamina 6 Better Your Technique On The Ball 7 Build Muscle Memory 8 Increase You Aerobic Workout 9 Great For Every Sport Footwork And Body Movement 10 Separate Yourself From The 80% That Lack Footwork To watch videos of players in action using the FutPro clickHERE |
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