Before we get into more details and start explaining concepts behind positional play, it’s important to clarify and give a brief overview about it, since there’s lots of misunderstanding and misconceptions. The most common misconception is confusing Positional Play with Possession Play. Although you can use both, they are not obligated to be used together….
From the stands, soccer may look like a single, 90-minute-long game that’s broken into 45-minute chunks by halftime. In reality, each soccer match consists a series of smaller plays involving groups of players. Soccer consists of ten basic tactical principles, originally developed by soccer tactician Allen Wade in 1967 called “The F.A. Guide to Training…
Learning Curve – What looks good on YouTube, may not be effective to your learning experience. Today, I decided to bring a subject that may be controversial and have some different points of view. That’s perfect for me, because I’m always looking into exchange some opinions/ideas (one friend mine call this exchange “gym for the…
Every practice, we start with a small conversation with the players, asking how was the day, how’s school… Basically, to break the ice and also know if there’s any issue that can affect the holistic development of the players, and together with team, parents or teaches we can help. This week, I decided to ask…
How can I recreate a better Learning Environment for my players to understand what I want from them in the game? This is the “million dollar question” that majority of the coaches ask themselves while planning practices. According with my beliefs and my experience, players learn better PLAYING. We need to recreate a Learning Environment…
First coined by the philosopher Aristotle, this phrase aptly defines the modern concept of synergy. For anyone who has played team sports, it echoes the T.E.A.M. acronym – Together, Everyone Achieves More. Coaching grassroots needs to be way more than just teach kicking the ball around, it’s a chance of teaching players that soccer is…
Since I created the Facebook page Canadian Soccer Coaches Network, very often coaches ask me about Unopposed vs Opposed exercises, how can they help develop “smarter players”? First of all (on a very simple way), I will simplify the concept of Soccer IQ in 3 sub-concepts: Awareness, Decision-making and Space-time. Awareness, Reading the game is…
I remember when I was a kid that playing in the street I found a soccer ball. It was full of mud, and barely could be found in the middle of the bush. I took it home, washed it, cleaned it up and that ball became my friend. We had lots of fun, we cried…
In this article I will (once again), give my opinion about my beliefs and the way that I like to work on the development. Share your thoughts and ideas on the comments below. Very often I hear coaches saying that they want their teams to “play like Barcelona, press like Liverpool, or counterattack like Napoli”,…
In this article I will (once again), give my opinion about my beliefs and the way that I like to work on the development. Share your thoughts and ideas on the comments below. Over this weekend, my team had a game. Normal game between two U9’s teams. The opponent team had very talented and smart…