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Coach Dean Wurzberger, Part 1, soccer coaching and practices

Tips and Advice for coaching soccer and running soccer practices from Coach Dean Wurzberger.

10 Responses to “Coach Dean Wurzberger, Part 1, soccer coaching and practices”

  1. Good interview with Coach Dean!

  2. Thanks Jared, I have just finished Part 3 on Recruitment. I think it may be useful for your site http://collegerecruitingwebsite.com/

    I will let you know as soon as it is posted.

    Cheers!

  3. Good work on this website. What a great idea to feature interviews with experienced coaches too. Maybe you can find an interview opportunity with someone who would be experienced with younger age players too. Coach Dean has some great points but there are differences between college / university age players and, say, 5-11 year olds or 11-14 etc keep up the good work.
    Steve

  4. Thanks for the feedback Steve. I hope to be able to interview coaches involved with players of all ages and abilities.

    I have coached at all ages and I will do my best to pass on my experience, however, I don’t have all the answers, so that is why I am trying to build this soccer coaching community so that we can all learn from each other.

    What is your coaching background? Do you have any specific questions that I can attempt to help you with?

    Please spread the word about the blog so that we can really build a fantastic coaching resource for all of us.

    Let’s Talk Soccer!

    Cheers.

  5. Good stuff from Dean. He’s a great resource and I’m glad you were able to get him on the site. Always good to stand on the shoulders of giants.

  6. Thanks Jeremy for visiting the blog.

    I will be posting two more parts of the interview with coach Wurzberger, one covering recruitment and the other talking about game day management.

    I am very honored and grateful that coach Wurzberger agreed to the interview. I am hoping to be able to interview more coaches of similar stature.

    Please continue to visit the blog and spread the word.

    Let’s Talk Soccer!

  7. I agree with steve, having a featured interview with coach dean was a great idea. It was really informative. Two thumbs up!!

  8. Thanks David for the positive comment. I plan to continue interviewing further top class coaches, please be a regular contributor to the blog.

    Cheers!

  9. Hi Paul, interested in your reference on the latest vid to the new US Curriculum and especially your reference to development over winning. My absolute belief is that if we work on performance, then when that comes together, the results will, eventually, look after themselves.
    A recent quote by Jose Mourinho, sums up what is wrong in youth football in England:

    “In England, you teach your kids to win. In Portugal and Spain they teach their kids to play.”

    However, there is a sea change happening in England – not quick enough maybe, but it is happening.

    Also, we absolutely HAVE to get away from this question of drills. We have to provide practices that develop the skills of the game. This is different from technique, which is what drills generally make players better at. The trouble is, it doesn’t transfer well to a game. Check my blog on TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding). This is an approach which teaches the game through practices which replicate the challenges of the game itself.

    http://afanwithabadge.blogspot.com/2010/05/teaching-games-for-understanding-tgfu.html

    However, you can ‘scaffold’ players learning by gradual introduction to challenges, ‘interference’ by other players doing similar or different things before moving to an overload game to generate a level of success and then, ultimately, introducing full opposition.

    The new FA Youth Awards here in England embrace this approach and the new generation of courses are specifically constructed to help those who coach young players. Even the professional club academies and centres of excellence are requiring their coaches to do these courses.

    Keep up the good work on the blog and the vids.

    Kind Regards

    Steve

  10. Thanks Steve for this post and it is defintiely a move forward.

    My blog focuses coaches on using drills as little as possible, yet when they have to use a drill I teach them how to actually coach using the drill. Coaching is not merely running a very organized drill, but I agree it looks good for onlooking parents and I am sure the coach gains some satisfaction from it.

    I remember as a player looking and feeling great at practice, but often when the game began feeling lost and lacking confidence because the game was much harder than practice.

    The more we can just provide a framework for players to come to practice and just play the game with a little bit of help from the coach the better. Let them play!

    By the way, I tried to leave a couple of comments on your blog but it is difficult due to having to choose a profile.

    Cheers.

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