teacher – World of Soccer

Ranking 9-Year Old Soccer Players

October 23, 201307Coaching, Featured news, General, Youth SoccerTags: byte size coaching, coach, coaching, development, Everton FC, football, GotSoccer, John O'Sullivan, kids, let them play, practice, qualifications, soccer, soccer america, soccer drills, teacher, volunteer coach, volunteer soccer coach, Wayne Rooney, world of soccer, youth soccer, youth soccer player

I read an article on the Soccer America website by John O’Sullivan. He was very critical of an organization called GotSoccer, who have chosen to rank 9-year old soccer players. Mr. Sullivan was not impressed. For the moment, I am not going to join the argument. Instead I am going to provide the link to the article to allow you to make your own decisions and we would be really keen to hear your observations. More info

The Team Bubble

September 30, 201300Coaching, Featured news, General, Youth SoccerTags: bubble, byte size coaching, coach, football, leaders, leadership, player development, players, pro level, skill development, skills, soccer, soccer coach, teacher, team, Team Bubble, team development, team performance, volunteer coach, youth soccer

So what is the Team Bubble?

The Team Bubble is the inner sanctum within which a team produces the environment that affects the total team performance – negatively or positively. My main experience at that time was at the pro level and it was in that context I would discuss the factors that could affect the dynamics of the “Bubble.” More info

Soccer Coaching – Is the Game the Teacher?

September 12, 201300Coaching, Featured news, General, Youth SoccerTags: art of coaching, bobby howe, byte size coaching, coach, coaches, coaching, develop, development, game, international soccer, kids, play, skill improvement, soccer coach, soccer coaching, soccer environment, teacher, world of soccer, youth, youth soccer

Some time ago I wrote about a phrase that has really taken root in the soccer coaching … “Let the Game be the Teacher!”

Funny thing is that back in the late 80’s Bobby Howe, a very experienced international soccer coach, and myself, co-authored a series of soccer coaching manuals – predominantly for the North American market. We continually used the phrase, “Let the Game be the Teacher!” within the books as we implored the coaches not to take the game away from the kids. It was very obvious to both Bobby and I that children in this part of the world were over-coached – often by people who had not played the game and were using football, baseball and sometimes hockey, as their reference points.

So our phrase “Let the Game be the Teacher!” may have come back to bite us. More info

Tag: teacher