Congratulations to Japan on winning the women’s World Cup in soccer in a beautiful demonstration of what soccer can be. Both teams played to the highest level and played beautifully. The soccer gods were smiling on the Japanese and the Americans will be kicking themselves for their inability to convert their numerous chances in the […]
Tag: Soccer
Developing leadership in all our young athletes
Like anything involving kids, you want to make sure that you start with the absolute basics and set them up for success. That’s what you would do if you were teaching a new foot skill in soccer, and leadership shouldn’t be any different. Stay focused on the basics of leadership with your kids. Here are […]
Appreciative Coaching: The Power of Positive Self Talk
Image via Wikipedia One of the biggest challenges that young soccer players face is the issue of inner dialogue or self talk. By this I mean the inner narrative that goes through players had unconsciously or somewhat consciously as the game unfolds in front of them. A lot of things go into what a player […]
Youth soccer coaching: preparing your halftime speech
Image via Wikipedia It should be the goal of every soccer coach to develop players who take personal responsibility for their play and the play of their team throughout the game. In soccer, however, sometimes it is too easy for the adult coach to become the dominant personality on the side of the field and […]
Youth soccer coaching: improving the confidence of your individual players with 1000 touches a day
Image by Getty Images via Daylife There is a tendency in American youth soccer to emphasize winning and losing at all costs and at the earliest ages. This tendency should be combated in order to develop players who have the emotional reselling is to try things out and who have an innate love of the […]
Haitian Women’s national soccer team needs help
Image via Wikipedia This is a request for help to me that came from a close, personal friend of mine, Gaspard D’alexis, that I feel compelled to share with you. Gaspard is the coach of the Omega Soccer Club here in Kansas City, and he is a pure and gentle soul, who has answered the […]
Tournament complete
I thought we played our best game this morning until this evening when we faced our best rivals, Blue Valley Soccer Club. We lost 5-4 but were the better team for most of the game. They scored twice on goofy shots in the first minute and had one bounce in off 3 deflections in the […]
National Futsal tournament in Kansas City: Day 1 lessons
Well, the 2 Saturday games are over and we walked into a buzzsaw 😀 The first team was a travel team from Dallas that just finished winning a Disney sponsored 3v3 national tournament. 11-0 was the final, but we had long stretches where we played them even. The 2d game was against the best Division […]
Keep going!
There is a Moment in every closely contested MMA or judo match when both guys think they are losing and are almost lost. They have taken themselves right to the edge, and they can see what the other guy can do to win. It is not unusual for that moment to happen simultaneously in close matches. […]