OK, so if you have read Tip #1 regarding equipment and Tip #2 regarding the Warm Up, your players should be organized, in the right gear and warmed up ready to go. Now if you are coaching club players, high school, college etc, you will then go into the “meat” of the practice and work [...]

OK, I have written 5 Tips for a new coach about to carry out the first soccer practice. I know that it is a daunting task running a soccer practice for the first time, I ran my first practice 26 years ago! Tip #1 concerned equipment and also covered a couple of ways of taking [...]

I have put together a very simple survey which will take you 60 seconds to complete. The theme of the survey is about planning soccer practices. Please click on the link and take 60 seconds of your life to answer 6 basic questions. Click here to take survey The results will be analysed and it [...]

My assistant coach who is responsible for conditioning as well as the goalkeeper training has asked me to order some new equipment for next season. He does an incredible job of not only getting our players fit, but he does it in a way that is both challenging and fun for the players. Although the [...]

Last night at practice I put together a drill that worked on 10 different topics: 1. Side foot driven pass 2. Sprint 3. Body shape 4. First time lay off 5. Movement after the lay off to follow up 6. First touch 7. Driven shot 8. Rebounds and first time finishing 9. Communication 10. Runs [...]

Wow, we are having a great season. The stats show this is the best season for this team since 1995! We are currently enjoying a 6 game unbeaten run with 4 wins and 2 ties. I have learned a tremendous amount this season so far and I am sure over the remaining 5 games of [...]

Saturday saw my college players win 7-0 against conference rivals. We made the decision over a week ago to devote at least half of each practice to finishing and set plays. As a result we have scored 12 goals and conceded 4 in our last three games. I have a number of effective and demanding [...]

After losing on Wednesday 1-0 away from home, we decided to dedicate Thursday and Friday’s practices to shooting and finishing…boy did that idea pay off!!! We played away against a school who had a record of 19 wins and 1 loss against us over the last 10 years. In that time we only scored a [...]

In order to control the soccer ball successfully every time here are the 5 Easy Steps: 1. DECISIONS: TO CONTROL OR NOT TO CONTROL? Before you attempt to control the soccer ball, decide if you even need to control the ball in the first place. Sometimes you can actually fake that you are going to [...]

Here are the 5 important steps to beating a player in soccer: 1. ANGLE OF APPROACH As the player with the ball approaches the defender, he needs to look for the space he wants to exploit. Remember to dribble with the head up. Then the player attacks the defender with such an angle of approach [...]