As a coach or parent don’t look for big changes and huge improvements. Strive for little improvements. Look for improvements in behavior.

For instance, getting ready for practice on their own is can be an excellent first step. Another one is to spend five minutes a day working on fitness.

A coach might use a timer to see how long it takes the team to hustle in for instruction. If it typically takes five minutes, having the team improve by two minutes is an excellent improvement.

While these steps won’t have a huge impact on their soccer skills, they will start them on the path. And once started on the path, it is easier to keep going.

The soccer kids learn that they can improve and that they are in charge of their future. Besides soccer, this knowledge can go a long way to other life skills.

By looking for small changes in behavior, eventually there will be big changes.

Start looking for small steps to help your child or team improve today.

A common theme among young players, especially girls, is to barely eat in an effort to be thin.  At the least it leads to poor performance in soccer and even at school. At the worst, it can lead to anorexia and bulimia.

This article talks about how one Olympic ice skater changed her diet and improved her performance. Coachs, parents and soccer players should read it to understand how important a good diet is for performance.

Teach your children how to eat healthy. Proteins, fats, and fruits and vegetables are required to compete on the pitch. Lots of water and little junk food. Your athletes will look better, play better and be healthy.

What do great quarterbacks and soccer have to do with each other? Well, a lot of it comes down to coaching and teaching. Great coaches are teachers.

And the LGHS coach besides being very knowledgeable with a lot of experience is also a teacher. But what sets him apart from everyone else is…

He admits he doesn’t know everything!

He sends his athletes to other camps and other coaches. There they learn skills, drills, ideas, workouts and concepts that they might not get just working out with him.

The coach isn’t threatened. In fact, he enjoys learning as much as possible himself.

And that is what makes him a great coach….which leads to great athletes.

And team success.

So coaches and parents don’t think you have to be the only source of knowledge for your kids and team. Look to other resources to help your child and team.

And if you’re looking on ways to improve their athletic ability, be sure to drop by my

Build An Athlete Program

to learn how to develop the athletic skills needed for soccer.

American football is known to be very hard on the brain. Many players have early symptoms of dementia and Alzheimers.  When doctors examine the brains of players who have died, the brains show huge amounts of trauma. This article explains a bit more about it.

But what about soccer? There are two main issues with head collisions in soccer. The first is when two players collide and knock their heads together. If this happens coaches and parents need to take it very seriously. The players should be taken out of the game and observed for at least 24 hours. They should refrain from any contact or potential contact for at least a week.

The second occasion is when heading balls. This is what really scares me because there is very little research on the damage that heading a soccer ball can do. My feeling is that it is more severe than we suspect.

A regulation sized soccer ball weighs almost one pound. If a player heads that ball when it’s traveling at 40 mph (an average speed) that is a lot of force that is being produced. Even though the ball yields and gives a lot of that energy must be directed to the players head.

For young players with undeveloped brains, the risk could be substantial.

Another concern is the daily practice of heading. It’s the repeated blows to the head which seem to cause the most damage.

What can coaches and parents do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Be very aware of the dangers of concussions. If there is an injury on field, take it seriously. Take the player out and keep him under observation. Take him to be examined by a doctor as soon as possible.

2. When practicing and learning headers, use a light ball. A foam or Nerf ball will give players the ability to track, trap and direct the ball with minimal risk of brain injury.

3. Do exercises to strengthen the neck and shoulders. Back and front bridges are ideal.

4. Practice heading every other day or every third day. This gives the brain time to heal itself.

If I come across any more information about soccer concussions I will be sure to post them up.

• Quick to set up
• Have a lot of movement
• Keep everyone involved
• Fun

Any drill that requires more than five minutes of explaining is lost on u8 players. Probably three minutes is ideal.

Keeping movement into the drills is important because it simulates game situations and improves fitness

I see so many teams working out where there are twenty kids and four balls. While four kids are dribbling, everyone else is just standing around. And they are not paying attention.

Here are three tips to keeping everyone involved:

1. Have enough soccer balls for everyone
2. Have an assignment for kids not doing the skill. For instance, they can count how many dribbles one player makes. Or they can exercise/move during their resting time.
3. Three kids in a group at the maximum. More kids and they will get squirrelly.

Look at your favorite drills next time you are at practice. Do they follow these guidelines? If not, change some things around until they do. Your team will improve faster and they will have more fun.

What a concept. Treating players with respect. Many college coaches only care about one thing…winning. And any athlete that they think can’t help them can suffer a lot of abuse.

I felt that many of the college coaches were abusive and really were good at recruiting. Some were able to push and inspire. Most just pushed to intimidate.

Coaches need to treat their athletes with respect at any age and at any level. I believe that this is the way to:

• Get the best performance from the athletes
• Have more athletes enjoy the sport for longer
• For athletes to learn the valuable life lessons that sport brings
• Have a positive influence on youth coaches
• Make sport, fitness and exercise a lifelong activity
• Probably save the hearts of the coaches themselves

Once again, this is a great article. I encourage you to read it here:

I would tend to agree. Most people do run with a heel plant and that plant causes a lot of trauma to the body. It is one reason why running might not be for overweight people. The heavier you are, the more force you land with. It also might be why sprinting is better for you than going slow.

When we sprint, we tend to run on our forefoot instead of the heels. When we sprint correctly by:

• Not over extending
• Good posture
• Slight lean at the ankles
• Strike on the forefoot

the problems of heel landing because of the shoe are reduced.

Soccer players have a shoe with very little heel support and cushioning. However, most soccer players will do additional running for conditioning and will tend to use more of a heel landing technique.

Coaches, parents and athletes need to encourage good form, keep the speed up and the distances short. This will create faster soccer players as well as reduce the likelihood of injury.

Here are my top five tips for Soccer Drills for Beginner Players.
1. Do a little each day and spread it out during the day. Most learning of soccer skills is neurological and the brain/nervous system learns best with easy repeated practice.

2. Have fun…make games. See how many juggles you can do, how far you can kick, etc. The more fun it is the more you’ll play and the better you’ll get.

3. Practice in groups. The more the merrier.

4. Always use progressions and modalities. You can find out more about them in previous posts.

5. Try to get more than one skill involved. Work on strength, speed and balance.

6. Use both feet and all sides of the foot when kicking.

7. Experiment. Try new things and new challenges.

My next post will go into detail on one soccer drill for beginners. Stay posted!

That is to do it in steps. For some, that might be big steps. For others very small ones. But either way, you most learn the skill in steps or progressions.

For instance here is a typical progression for learning how to kick a ball. This would be appropriate for a U8 soccer or U6 soccer player just learning the game.
1. Kick a stationary ball.
2. Kick a slowly rolled ball.
3. Kick a quickly rolled ball.
4. Run and kick a stationary ball.
5. Run and kick a moving ball.

However, for a player looking to improve her skills up to an elite level whose learning how to do a trick fake, it might look like this:
1. Learn move first without ball.
2. Learn move with the ball and no competition.
3. Practice move with easy defense.
4. Practice with rigorous defender.
5. Practice in small game/practice situation.
6. Use move in game situations.

While the skills themselves are very different the technique of breaking the skill up into smaller steps is the same. That skill takes practice, experimentation and experience. It is what makes coaching and teaching fun, challenging and rewarding. And it’s what a good coach does to make great players.

This article goes into details on the lack of PE programs in our schools. I believe it is one of the causes that is affecting our youth which ultimately affects your kids soccer conditioning.