Sci 6 internet editie

SOCCER COACHING The complete soccer coaching experience

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International

www.soccercoachinginternational.com

Editorial

Contents Various

December 2004 Internet edition SoccerCoachingInternational is a magazine for soccer coaches all over the world from the publisher of TrainersMagazine, the Dutch magazine for soccer coaches. The Magazine will be released six times a year.

Chief editor Paul van Veen Beatrixlaan 21, 2811 LZ REEUWIJK THE NETHERLANDS E-mail: paulvanveen@sportfacilities.com

From the Editor

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VASA ORLOVIC, HEAD COACH FC NOVI SAD, “We are trying to produce top quality midfield players, like we had before”

Internet edition

The ultimate penalty

FC Novi Sad, from Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro has one of the best youth academies in Serbia. Within their 6 youth selections, FC Novi Sad

Coach questions call, shot to death on field by referee

has 5 national team players, 2 players play for the U21 national team and Publisher Sportfacilities & Media BV Visiting Address: Steynlaan 19H ZEIST THE NETHERLANDS Postal Address: Postbus 952, 3700 AZ ZEIST THE NETHERLANDS E-mail: sci@sportfacilities.com Phone: +31-(0)30 - 697 77 10 Fax: +31-(0)030 - 697 77 20

2 more players are candidates for this same U21 squad. 9 youth players play in the national teams, this is great success for a small second division team like FC Novi Sad. SoccerCoachingInternational spoke with Vasa Orlovic, head coach of FC Novi Sad, who has spent his entire career coaching this club’s youth teams.

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WHAT U-LITTLES LEARN FROM THE SIDELINE What a five year old child sees and hears on the field Organized youth soccer continues to grow in popularity, with parents enrol-

Project Manager Floris Schmitz E-mail: f.schmitz@sportfacilities.com

ling their prospective prodigies at ever younger ages. While many of the same eager adults diligently signed up for prenatal classes, infant development workshops and preschool behavior trainings, they are seldom asked

Editorial staff: Chris Apple, Paul Cooper,Maaike Denkers Anton Gouverneur, Alwin Jolliffe, Melinda Parris Dusan Petrovic, Hans Slender, Paul van Veen Subscription Rates You can subscribe to this magazine at the website: www.soccercoachinginternational.com. The subscription rate is € 47,70/year for UK/USA subscribers and € 59,90/year for subscribers from the rest of the world. You will receive six magazines per year and you will be able to register to the website www.soccercoachinginternational.com This publication is purchased with the understanding that information presented is from many sources for which there can be no warranty or responsibility by the publisher as to accuracy, originality or completeness. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering product endorsements or providing instruction as a substitue for appropriate training by qualified sources.

SoccerCoachingInternational assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

to attend an orientation session for u-little soccer. Maybe it’s time that you as a coach, or even better, your entire league, considers developing just

Your in soccer, Maaike Denkers Editor

Melinda Parris, AKA Coach Mom, AZ, helps us take a look at adult sideline behavior through the eyes of a 5 year old.

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CHRIS APPLE MEN’S SOCCER COACH –UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER High expectations in terms of effort, concentration and attitude Chris Apple returned to his Alma Mater in the spring of 2001 to take over the Men’s Soccer program of the University of Rochester and became the 10th head coach at the River Campus. In his three years at the University, Apple has won three ECAC Northeast Regional Championships. In addition, he has guided the Yellowjackets to a combined 41-12-7 record over the past three seasons. In his first season as Head Coach at the University, Apple helped the Yellowjackets to a 13-4-2 finish and an ECAC championship. Along with 2003 campaign was another successful one. Apple led his team to second place in the UAA and won a third consecutive ECAC championship. He was named the NSCAA/adidas Northeast Regional Coach of the Year. The team

ISSN 1571 - 8794

We would also like to inform our readers that SoccerCoachingInternational will be present at the NSCAA convention in Baltimore, January 1215, 2005. If you are in the neighborhood please with us at the Reedswain booth (# 1043). We hope to see you there!

such a class.

his assistant coaches, he received the UAA Coach of the Year Award. The Copyright All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted or otherwise reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

A South African soccer referee pulled a gun and shot dead a coach who questioned one of his rulings, police said on Sunday. Inspector Mali Govender of the Grahamstown police in the Eastern Cape province said a fight broke out after the referee gave a yellow warning card to a player in a local match on Saturday.

"There was an altercation...and the referee became threatened when the other team approached him because they were angry," Govender said. "So he pulled out a gun and killed the coach of the visiting team."

Govender said the coach died on the field while two players were injured, the referee fled the scene. Police were confident of making an arrest soon, she added. South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates with an alarming 47.4 murders per 100,000 people, or eight times the figure for the United States.

In this special edition of SoccerCoachingInternational we bring you 16 additional pages packed with soccer coaching information. In addition to our 48 page SoccerCoachingInternational magazine, we will feature 3 articles with soccer coaching information brought to you in the SoccerCoachingInternational style and format.

posted a final record of 14-4-3. Additionally, he coached his first ever AllAmerican (Nate Micklos). Apple considers himself to be a demanding coach and has very high expectations in terms of effort, concentration and attitude.

The end of the short corner?

In the past few weeks Feyenoord (Holland, first division) has twice been fooled into the offside trap by their opponents, while taking the short corner. The problem exits when the opponent does not place any players at the goal posts. At the moment when player 2 stops the ball for player 1 to pass is into the penalty area, player 1 will be in offside position (see diagram). In this case it does not matter whether player 2 stops the ball or passes it back to player 1, either way its offside. The direction of the pass is not relevant, it’s the position of the player receiving the pass which decides whether or not it is offside or not. Whether this is the definite end of the short corner remains to be the question. Some possible solutions are for player 2 to directly turn and give the assist himself. Another solution could be the inclusion of a third player, who is not positioned offside, and can therefore pass the ball into the penalty area. So far, however, the coaches from Ferencvaros and Ajax outsmarted Feyenoord coach Ruud Gullit.

He shares his view on how he coaches on those aspects with the readers of SoccerCoachingInternational.

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FC Novi Sad, from Novi Sad, Serbia & Montenegro has one of the best youth academies in Serbia. Within their 6 youth selections, FC Novi Sad has 5 national team players, 2 players play for the U21 national team and 2 more players are candidates for this same U21 squad. 9 youth players play in the national teams, this is great success for a small second division team like FC Novi Sad. SoccerCoachingInternational spoke with Vasa Orlovic, head coach of FC Novi Sad, who has spent his entire career coaching this club’s youth teams.

Vasa Orlovic, head coach FC Novi Sad,

By: Dusan Petrovic

Offensive midfielders

him in every situation during the match. We see that many top clubs in Europe have universal midfielders who can partake in defense, overall organization and offense. They sometimes really look like ‘supermen’, but this takes hard work, natural talent as well as technical and tactical knowledge.

“After winning the ball from the opponent the midfielders immediately switch from defense to offense. Starting with demarcation and fast moving through the free space of field. Their task is to confuse the opponent. In this phase it is very important that all midfielders change positions. This will be discussed and practiced before the game. Passing the ball must be very precise but fast, moving a lot and creating more space and more passing options.

From this phase of the organization the midfielders will go into the next phase: offense.”

Midfielders in offense

“We are trying to produce top quality midfield players, like we had before” “Within the past 12 years my country has lost more than 5000 of its best youth players to clubs abroad. Yes, I think that we lost them, because they were not ready to go abroad.

They try to find a better future, but many of them just get lost.

Only some of these players, who made their first football steps on the grounds of FC Novi Sad, like Jokanovic (ex. player of FC Partizan Belgrade, FC Tenerife Spain, FC Deportivo La Corunia, Spain and FC Chelsea, England) and Zagorcic, (Bulgarian National Team player) could find a better life at foreign clubs.

FC Novi Sad is not the only club in Serbia & Montenegro, who has experienced this trend. Other clubs are confronted with similar situations. I always tried to keep our youth players in Novi Sad and I have 4 youth players who play for the national team.”

4: 4: 2 “From the start of my coaching career I have always used the 4:4:2 system. This system asks a lot of strength and insight from the midfielders. A midfield player in this kind of system has to be more universal because he must partake in defense as well as offense. This asks tactical and technical knowledge, speed, aggressiveness, durability, and stability with high concentration during the entire length of the game.

Characteristically a 4:4:2 system is a very shallow formation, only 40 meters from defense to offense. In this formation midfielders have to react quickly and precisely by constantly moving and helping in defense as well as offense. If a coach has universal midfielders in his team he can change his system of play during the game using many different tactical variations to adjust to the situation on the field.”

Midfielders “Midfielders are hardest to keep. I have watched our best midfielders transfer to clubs abroad. FC Novi Sad has been trying to actively produce top quality midfielders again just like we have in the past”, says Orlovic. Vasa Orlovic has had many successes in his coaching career with several different youth teams and reached the Yugoslavian cup final in 2001 with his U18 squad. Many of the players from that generation are now playing in FC Novi Sad’s first team, but a lot of players have transferred too much bigger and richer clubs in Yugoslavia or abroad.

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do not switch amongst each other. They have to stay back and cover their position. The two central midfielders could change positions and try to confuse the opponent.”

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Defensive midfielders “When the team is defending all midfielders have to try to take the ball from the opposition in the early phase of their attack, if possible in the beginning and on the opponents side of the field. Aggressive defending and reacting to the ball or the opponent will help to attain the results. When it is impossible to take the ball the midfielder has to initiate a duel and try to stop the opponent while giving his teammates time to get back to their defending positions. It is very important that the defensive midfielders retain their positions in this phase and

“Precise passing, quickly moving around while changing positions, creating opportunities for good cooperation with the offensive players and in turn a successful finish from the attack. For a desired result two attackers are not enough to finish the attack. Two, sometimes three midfielders have to join the attack to support the attackers. In order to attain the desired results they need fast and precise reactions in the transition from defense to offense. We sometimes ask a lot from our midfielders, its like they have to become ‘superman’, but this is only possible with hard work during practice. The player must be well prepared for every game. He must know what the coach expects from

PASSPORT Date of birth: 15.02.65 (Novi Sad, Yugoslavia) Education: High school for football coaches UEFA “A” license for football Playing career: •FC Vojvodina, Novi Sad •FC Kabel, Novi Sad •FC AIK, Backa Topola •FC Novi Sad, Novi Sad •FC Mladost, B.Jarak

VASA ORLOVIC •VFR AALEN, Germany •FC Hibernians, Malta •FC Cement, Beocin Coaching career: 2001 U-18 FC Novi Sad Yugoslavia Cup finalist 2004 FC Novi Sad Head Coach of senior team

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SoccerCoachingInternational presents

Three colors Organization - 3 + 3 against 3 in narrow area of 20 meters or 4 + 4 against 4 in narrow area of 25 meters - The 3 players from the same color try to take the ball from the 6 players

‘Improve Your Move’ Technique training for youth players

who are wearing the other 2 colors - One or two touches, or a combination: first player one touch, second player two touches - Players with the ball must concentrate to make triangles - One or two players in the middle of the space, others moving outside near the lines inside of area - 2 x 8 minutes, or 3 x 6 minutes with 2 minutes rest

Coaching - Technical: staying outside of 20 m, feeding new balls

Below you will find the first of three infamous moves by 3 of the greatest soccer players of their time. SoccerCoachingInternational presents them to you in a step by step illustration.

Move 1: The Cruijff

- Stimulate action to achieve higher level and get players move and pass faster - Control and fix mistakes

Team in attack, team in defense Organization

Step 1: Place your standing leg besides the ball, make sure you have enough space behind you and pretend to be shooting the ball

Step 2: Instead of shooting place your foot behind the ball

- Play 5v5v5 with 2 goalkeepers - We have 3 teams with 5 players, 2 goalkeepers (team “A”, team “B” and team “C”) - Field divided into three zones (zone “A”, zone “B” and zone “C”) - Team “A” attacking - Team “B” defense - When team B takes the ball, they are in attack; team A will be defending.

When team B passes the ball team A’s area they are resting. Team B is now attacking and team C is now defending until they take the ball from team B. Team C will be attacking and team B will be defending - 2 x 10 minutes or 2 x 12 minutes with 2 minutes rest

Coaching - Technical: staying outside the field and feeding new balls - Stimulate action, give advice - Control and fix mistakes

Three zones Organization - Two teams with goalkeepers full size field - 3-4-3 system - Field divided into three zones (zone “A”, zone “B” and zone “C”) - Two teams with goalkeepers in 3-4-3 - Zone A: 4 players, zones B and C have 3 players each - 2 midfielders from zone A can go in offensive zone and 1 player from this zone can go in defending zone - 2 x 10 minutes, or 2 x 12 minutes with 2 minutes rest.

Coaching - Technical: staying outside the field and feeding new balls - Stimulate action and give advice - Control and fix mistakes

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The Cruijff

- Area: full size field

Step 3: Use this foot to tap the ball behind your standing leg

Step 4: Take the ball with the outside of standing leg (foot) and take the ball towards the other side

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What a child sees and hears on the field What U-Littles learn from the sideline Organized youth soccer continues to grow in popularity, with parents enrolling their prospective prodigies at ever younger ages. While many of the same eager adults dili-gently signed up for prenatal classes, infant development workshops and preschool behavior trainings, they are seldom asked to attend an orientation session for u-little soccer. Maybe it’s time that you as a coach, or even better, your entire league, consid-ers developing just such a class.

Melinda Parris, AKA Coach Mom, AZ, helps us take a look at adult sideline behavior through the eyes of a 5 year old.

It’s Saturday morning and the parking lot is full at the neighborhood elementary school, where the playground has been laid out with pop-up soccer goals scattered among a checkerboard of chalked squares lining the grass. It’s a beautiful autumn day, with fresh breezes and warm sun shining on the faces of dozens of sweet youngsters, all wearing jelly bean colored jerseys and tiny soccer cleats. Parents are gathered on the sideline to watch their youngsters, proudly clustered in their lawn chairs around gently waving team banners. They chat amiably about this and that while sipping from steaming thermal mugs of take-out coffee and cocoa. Even though we can’t hear their conversation, we know it centers around their little angels: how eager little James is to be on his first soccer team, how brilliant Latisha was to come up with the team’s catchy name, and how precious it was when Annie insisted on sleeping in her uniform for the last three nights.

This is u-little soccer in the local mini-league, and the idyllic picture is entrancing. The children are adorable as they scamper to their coaches, now gathering their teams in preparation for the first match of the season. Finally the teenager from next door, looking sharp in her new referee uniform and with the official badge attached to the front, steps briskly to the center of the field, pauses to make sure all the tots are ready,

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and blows her whistle for the game to begin.

Ideally, what happens next will be a continuation of the sweet storybook we’ve be-gun, complete with a happy ending of yummy snacks and all the children eager to return for their next session. But at the opposite extreme, that beautiful morning can instead turn into a lurid mob scene, with adult behavior resembling one of those late night cable talk-shows that features embarrassing people you never wanted to know about. It’s the latter situation we will address today.

How children think and what affects that thinking…

Let’s take a look at the scene from inside the mind of a u-6 player. The emotional and social level of 4 and 5 year old development is egocentric. Although they are now capable of learning how to play and work cooperatively with others, the context in which they continue to perceive every moment of the day, is that everything revolves around “me”. When will it be MY turn? He took MY ball! Where’s MY mommy? So when almost anything happens in their lives, a U-6 player views it in terms of them-selves – how it’s caused by them and how it affects them and how it makes them feel, and most important of all, how it makes them feel about themselves.

If what happens is upsetting or unusual, it can cause varying

levels of trauma to a child still incapable of understanding that it wasn’t their fault.

This is why schools provide counselors when a trauma or crisis occurs, and why police departments have social workers on staff to help children who have been victimized by crime. We hear and read daily how everything we do affects our children; for example, how a child frequently feels responsible for mommy and daddy fighting or divorcing, how they feel they’ve caused it and they can in turn “fix” it. I once heard a 60 year old woman sobbing that until the day her father died, she could not give up hope that she could reunite her parents who’d divorced more than 50 years prior!

This is also an age when children are highly imaginative, and may develop fears of all sorts: the dark, monsters, strangers, water and dogs are common fears for many little ones.

We have learned that there is no such thing as an “irrational” fear, and that we must not ignore children’s fears or ridicule them, we should instead support them in developing ways to cope and overcome their fears. But first we have to recognize that fearful feelings exist. If our child cries and clings to us, we know something is wrong, but how often does it occur to us that WE might be the cause?

Good things happen, bad things happen, questionable things happen, and all of it af-fects our darlings. How it affects them

is not always so easy to anticipate or decipher – but one thing we’ve learned from experience, is that when problems arise, parents are the prime suspects. If Johnny is having trouble at school, the first thing the teacher asks will be “Is Johnny having trouble at home?”

The morning talk shows and evening news shows bring on experts that tell us how our children are affected by family fights and sibling rivalry and the everyday stress of modern life. These days, we can’t help but know that we should take great care with how our daily activities and interactions affect our children.

But sometimes adults forget to act adult…

Somehow on the sideline of the soccer field, in normally levelheaded adults, their judgment becomes impaired and love for their child is forgotten. It seems there is one final frontier of socially acceptable unchecked behavior – the right of the sports fan to get as wild and crazy as possible, in the name of supporting their team. Ordinarily we are quite considerate that loud or sudden noise can be startling to young children; indeed, to many of us. We caution each other to be careful with balloons or firecrackers or loud music, for example. But when it comes to athletics, parents who are usually very protective of their children’s welfare are now the ones who are making all the racket, and it can be very frightening and confusing to little ones. They may have never seen mom and dad behave in this way before.

It seems some parents and coaches get confused about their roles once that starting whistle blows. They arrive at the field caring, sensible adults, eager to join together and enjoy a pleasant hour encouraging their treasured progeny to develop a love of the outdoors and for physical activity. But once the game begins, they forget they are caring parents, and become rabid sports fans instead. Overwhelmed by their sublimated competitive drive, suddenly not only do they want “their” team to win, they want their own little namesake to be the force behind the

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win. They ignore any poten-tial impact upon their own child, and it doesn’t seem to occur to them that they might traumatize other little ones, too. While we may observe from afar and wonder “what on earth are they thinking?” on second observation it’s clear that they’re not. This is one of those times that only a bolt of enlightenment from the heavens – or perhaps another parent’s videotape of our behavior – can reveal to us what’s obvious to the casual onlooker but not to ourselves.

We need to think like 5year olds to truly understand…

In the absence of that revealing video, the next best self-evaluation tool that parents can use is the old trick of walking in the shoes of another – or in this case – in the tiny cleats of your u-little player. Just try to imagine from their point of view, what kind of experience their first organized soccer games might be: “Oh, goody, I’m so happy I get to wear my beautiful new uniform today! I’ve been waiting forever to wear it! All my friends are here and they’re all wearing uniforms just like mine. But there are lots of other kids here, too, just like school, and they’re all wearing different uniforms! I wonder why theirs are different? There’s my coach, he says we’re going to play soccer now. I hope I don’t get my uniform dirty. I hope Mommy and Daddy don’t get mad at me if I get it dirty. I better see if it’s okay. Oh, they say hurry up and go play soccer! They say my green shirt is so everyone can tell what team I’m on. I don’t understand because it doesn’t say “Gators” on it, so how can they tell?

Anyway how can we play soccer if that boy in the yellow shirt is kicking the ball? I’m going to tell the coach to make those kids in yellow shirts leave us alone so we can play soccer. Oh, he says we are going to play with them, too! But I don’t know how to play with them. At our soccer practice we play with our friends and those kids are not my friends. I don’t even know their names. I’m going to ask the coach their names. He says it doesn’t matter! I’ve never played with strangers before. I thought Mommy said not to play with strangers! Where’s my mommy? I’m going to ask her if it’s okay.

Why is Mommy yelling at me? Mommy never yells like that even when I dawdle while getting ready for school…She must

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be really mad She always helps me fix whatever’s wrong but now she says go and play. No, now she’s smiling, I’ll go back over to see what she’s saying. Oh, she says I’m doing a good job and I should kick the ball some more! Where is it? Wait, now Clarissa’s mom is yelling. I don’t see Clarissa so she must be yelling at me. Why is everybody YELLING at me? I can’t find the ball or my mom and everyone is yelling again.

I’m just going to stop here like my mommy always told me to do if I’m lost, and wait for her to find me and help me. Maybe if I cry she will hear me and find me quick!

Coach said to just have fun and don’t cry but I don’t think I know how. He said try to kick the ball but everybody’s kicking it already so how can I kick it?

Now my Daddy is pacing up and down the line like that tiger in the cage at the zoo. He looks mad, too. I wonder what he’s mad about? Maybe I’m in trouble, I better find out what he wants. What’s he saying? There’s so much noise, I can’t hear him. Oh, he’s saying “Don’t stop, keep running!” Why is he waving his arms like that? It looks like when we play monster and he’s chasing me and then he tickles me. But he’s not chasing me, maybe I’m supposed to… oh, he wants me to play soccer. That’s what I was trying to do! But why are all the other kids leaving? Why aren’t they chasing the ball any more?

Wait, I didn’t get to kick the ball, I want to play some more!”

So what can adults do to really help children enjoy the game?

While different children react differently and most will have no difficulty at all, still it’s worth taking a look at the game from their miniature perspective, at the sideline as well as the field.

Try those tiny little cleats on your own feet, and ask yourself, what’s the scene at your field?

Chris Apple returned to his Alma Mater in the spring of 2001 to take over the Men’s Soccer program of the University of Rochester and became the 10th head coach at the River Campus. In his three years at the University, Apple has won three ECAC Northeast Regional Championships. In addition, he has guided the Yellowjackets to a combined 41-12-7 record over the past three seasons. In his first season as Head Coach at the University, Apple helped the Yellowjackets to a 13-4-2 finish and an ECAC championship.

Along with his assistant coaches, he received the UAA Coach of the Year Award. The 2003 campaign was another successful one. Apple led his team to second place in the UAA and won a third consecutive ECAC championship. He was named the NSCAA/adidas Northeast Regional Coach of the Year. The team posted a final record of 14-4-3.

Additionally, he coached his first ever All-American (Nate Micklos). Apple considers himself to be a demanding coach and has very high expectations in terms of effort, concentration and attitude. He shares his view on how he coaches on those aspects with the readers of SoccerCoachingInternational.

By: Paul van Veen

High expectations in terms of effort,concentration and attitude

Chris Apple Men’s Soccer Coach –University of Rochester “After graduating from college and a short playing career, I worked as a volunteer at Harvard. Then I spent 2 years at NC Wesleyan College as the head coach before going to Notre Dame as an assistant coach. After 5 years at ND I moved to Rochester where I have been coaching at the U of R for the last 3 _ years. I've been fortunate to have worked with quality coaches at every stop along the way and have learned from each of them. I also started coaching youth players when I was in college and have continued coaching youth teams at every stop along the way.”

Demanding “I consider myself to be a demanding coach. I have very high expectations in terms of effort, concentration and attitude. I believe that by putting players in an intensely competitive and

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challenging training environment, they will learn to push themselves to reach their potential. I also believe in using sport to teach life skills like leadership, cooperation, conflict resolution, etc. I try to balance my seriousness with fun team activities, laughter and assistant coaches who know when to lighten the mood!”

Effort “In terms of effort, we expect players to train and compete with an extremely high work rate. Sprinting to get behind the ball on defense, running hard for loose balls, sprinting into the penalty box to make a near post run. These are all examples of the effort our players are expected to give. Some players will work at their maximum intensity whether the coach is watching or not. That's just who they are. Other players coast a

little when the coach turns his back. I try to reward players whose work rate is high with praise and playing time whenever possible. Players who tend to coast are constantly reminded and encouraged to push themselves beyond their comfort level as part of their development. I think our results are positive.

One of our team strengths is work rate and fitness level. By the time players are sophomores even the ones who were a bit lazy as freshmen are now pushing their teammates to work hard. I also make sure practices and even the exercises within practices do not run too long. You cannot expect players to perform at maximum intensity for extended periods of time without the quality or the effort dropping.”

Concentration “In terms of concentration, we expect players to be able to tune out distractions and focus their complete attention on the matter at hand. We ask players to leave their academic, social and personal issues in their locker before they come out to train or compete. Concentration also includes the ability to sift through tons of information that the brain is taking in all the time and focus on the relevant issues at that moment. We put players in complex environments in training that challenge them to read the game and make decisions based on the input the game is giving them. For example we use a simple possession game to get players to deal with the ever changing space and time demands of the game. We will play 9v9 possession from the top of the penalty box to midfield. On command the space shifts to inside the penalty box only. We shift the space back and forth several times. If we break it is only briefly to ask them how they should play in the different spaces, what is working, what isn’t. We also look for signs of lapses in concentration and teach the players to be alert for these signs and correct the problem immediately. Some examples are excessive fouling, loose marking, inaccurate passing, a quiet field - lack of communication, not performing a duty on a set piece, etc. If a coach or team leader spots any of these red flags, they call out to the team to regain their focus. (Of course physical fatigue could cause these mistakes too, so you have to be aware of whether the team is mentally tired, physically tired or both).”

Attitude (1) In terms of attitude, we expect players to be positive and motivated. Specifically we want players who are happy positive people who channel their intensity and emotion in productive ways. That means encouraging teammates, talking and thinking positively about themselves and others and generally being excited about the team and our mission. This becomes most important in the face of adversity. When a team loses, has injuries or internal conflict, these are the moments when attitude becomes most critical. Feeling sorry for oneself or criticizing others will only prolong the recovery from a setback.

Players and especially team leaders who know how to regroup, stay positive and move on will find a way to get through any adversity. We put players in adverse situations in training so they are accustomed to it and so they learn how to overcome.

For example we will force players to play in numbers down situations or goal down situations. We also time a lot of our exercises and training games so the players are dealing with the pressure of the clock. One of the best ways to put players in pressure situations is to have 3 teams compete. The winning team stays on the field, the losing team watches or does fitness and the team that was off comes back on, hopefully having regrouped and found additional resolve to compete and win. In these situations, you will see your players challenging each other and putting each other under immense pressure.”

Attitude (2) “We also try to make training fresh, intense and competitive so the players are positive about being there. We also meet individually with all of our players to discuss how they are doing and try to pre-empt any potential conflicts or emotional problems. Maybe the most important thing we do is to work with our team leaders in the off-season to establish team expectations in terms of attitude. We try to empower the leaders to both set the example and to work with the younger players on attitude issues When you work on attitude, the first and most important part of this is making sure the players know what you expect. We are very clear in our communication

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Groups of 3 passing in a triangle Organization - 1 player (a) initiates a give and go by dribbling at the 2nd player (b), the 3rd player (c) moves into a support position to play the wall pass.

- Restart by inter-passing in the triangle with a new player initiating the give and go. varation 1

Variations 1) Same as above, except now the first player (a) initiates an overlap by playing the ball to (b), calling “hold” and running behind (b). (b) dribbles at (c) and passes to the overlapping (a). Restart again with a new player initiating the overlap.

varation 2

2) Same as above, except now a,b and c combine together for a 3man combination. (a) plays target player (c), who lays back to (b), who plays (a) running through. Restart as above.

Possession game: 6v6+ 1 neutral player.

Organization - The only restriction is that players must run/sprint after they make a pass.

- This movement off the ball after a pass encouraged lots of combination play.

- The size of the grid will vary based on the skill level of the players.

- Our grid was 35 yards wide by 40 regarding behavior, language and attitude. If we see a player not acting appropriately we meet with him and ask him if there is something going on in his life that is causing him to be unhappy, angry, whatever. We make him aware of what we are perceiving in terms of his attitude and we try to get him to give us his perspective. Ultimately we ask him to work on improving in specific ways and show him how this will be to his and the team’s advantage.”

Influence “I think any leader can have a profound influence on the attitude of the organization. First of all you try to add people to the team who are motivated and positive. Then you set a positive example and encourage the other team leaders to do the same. Ultimately it becomes part of the culture to have a positive attitude and the new comers will adapt to the norm or leave the team.”

fringes of training never really putting themselves in a position to make a mistake. These players have something going on that may need to be addressed. It could be a confidence issue, a personal or academic issue, burn-out, etc. If the entire team is at each other’s throats and tempers are short, it may be time to ease off the throttle as a coach and do something fun. If things are getting tense or flat I want to know it early and inject some fun activities into training like soccer tennis or team handball. Sometimes non-soccer activities are great for morale. Things like a day in the pool or going to watch another team on campus compete or having the team over to the house for a cook-out. As for day to day activities to keep training enjoyable, I think anytime you put 2 big goals close together and play small-sided games to goal, you are going to see the players having a lot of fun. Another way to keep it fun is to avoid day to day redundancy. By keeping training new, interesting and challenging the players will enjoy it more.

Reading “I listen to the team leaders and assistant coaches and try to read the players emotions, body language and communication.

You can learn a lot from watching the team arrive at practice and warm-up. Players who laugh and smile are usually enjoying the team process. They are confident and motivated. The red flags to look for are players walking with hunched shoulders with their head down, players who rarely smile, berate themselves when they make a mistake, scream at their teammates in a negative way, foul teammates in a nasty way, or stay on the

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Relationships “The relationships that can be built through soccer are the most important aspects of the game. I also believe that as coaches we have a monumental responsibility to be quality role models and mentors for our players. At the end of a season, or at the end of a career I believe there has to be something more than wins and losses. The things that last long after the final whistle are the relationships we made and the lives we touched.

8v8 (plus GK’s) match-like game.

Organization - We had 3 teams of 8 and goals were placed on the top of each penalty box.

- A normal goal counted for 1 point, a goal following combination play counted for 2 points.

- We played 3 point games and winners stayed.

- Losing team did a fitness activity and then shagged balls while waiting to go back on the field.

- If games lasted 7 minutes without a winner, the team that had been on longest went off.

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