Coaching Soccer Weekly: Methods, Trends, Techniques and Tactics from WORLD CLASS COACHING

Learning to be Creative I believe that we need to teach our players a variety of individual fakes and moves in order to spark their imagination and encourage their creativity. By learning a few moves they will see what is possible and this will give them a framework for their own creativity. The same can...

Thanks! We continue to receive a lot of positive feedback on the podcast. A ‘Five Star’ review on iTunes from ‘Flying Dave’ says, “I’m thoroughly enjoying this podcast. I find it hard to talk soccer coaching with other coaches. My wife is tired of me bouncing ideas off of her. I’m super pleased to hear about...

In this Episode I look at the warm-up phase of your training session. This is what sets the tone for your entire session to follow. Having the warm-up relate to the session is important. But maybe more importantly it must engage your players and get them as ready psychologically and emotionally just as much as it does physically and...

Thanks for joining me for episode 10 of the podcast. Last week I asked for feedback and suggestions. I received a number of good responses. One of them is focused on how to use ‘Free Play’ Tim asks, “How do you set up free play?  Whenever you allow your players free play, how involved are you? I image...

In this episode I show you six practice environments that I use for 1v1 training. They focus on each of the key 1v1 situations that players will face in the game. Each of them gives you an opportunity to train both the attacker and defenders. They all allow the players to be very creative and free to try new...

As I mentioned last week our latest set of books was released this week called, Smedley’s Soccer Drills Volume 1 – 4. Many of you took advantage of the free eBook that was offered. If you did then you also received an email about release of the four volume set. If you didn’t then you can...

We’ve had a busy week here at WORLD CLASS COACHING. At the beginning of each month we release a new edition of our WORLD CLASS COACHING magazine. It includes training sessions, tactical analysis games professional games and condition activities that include a ball. You can click here for more information on the WORLD CLASS COACHING...

We’ve continued to get some great feedback on the podcast. Thousands of coaches are listening every week and it’s great to hear that they’re enjoying the show. Some have been sharing the episodes with their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to @precisionfutbol for helping to spread the word on Twitter. We’ve also continued to...

I’m really excited about the reaction we are receiving to the podcast! We’ve had some great emails and Tweets and Facebook mentions from coaches that are enjoying the interviews and training sessions. I especially appreciate the ‘Five Star’ iTunes reviews and comments: Grant77 said ‘A quality coaching education podcast’ – Thanks Grant! Briarwood said ‘...

When we’re working on a certain technique or tactic it’s important that we focus solely on that aspect of play. In my last training session I presented a practice that focused on turning. Once I began to add pressure to the turning attacker I didn’t tell the defender HOW to pressure or make any corrections...

I want to share a session on turning today.This is obviously an important skill for players at every position. Turning away from pressure and into space is one of the foundational skills required to possess the ball. Turning the ball with control also works on the first touch since you have to have a plan for where the ball will go and how you will get it there. It’s also important that the players know where the pressure is so awareness is a key element of turning successfully. Since you have to have good service to practice turning, passing technique is central to the success of the practice. This is a progressive session so it gradually adds pressure and complexity and ends by applying the skills in game situations. This ensures a transfer of training from the basic practice to a game I think you’ll find this session useful for teams of any age or experience level.

The exercises require the players to think about what they will do next so there's an aspect of transition that occurs in each phase. Your players will enjoy these shooting exercises because they're fast paced and give the players a lot of chances to do what they enjoy doing most…..scoring goals. In part two of today’s episode I talk about how you can use Twitter to help you in your coaching. I’ll talk about how I use Twitter. The groups and individuals I follow. What information you can expect to find. How I organize all of the information that is posted on Twitter and why you should considering sharing your ideas.

In this Episode we talk with a very well respected and successful trainer about one of the most important but overlooked aspects of training our teams…the warm-up. What’s the purpose of the warm-up? Should it be the same for training and games? The steps involved in a good warm-up. How long we should allocate to a warm-up? When we should alter the warm-up? And the most common mistakes coaches make with their warm-up. For the complete show notes visit www.coachingsoccerweekly.com