In the world of paid coaches at the youth level (U8-U19), how is a parent, league board or Director of Coaching suppose to constructively measure the performance of a coach. Many of these paid coaches use the “we want to win, but development is the most important aspect of what we are doing”, thereby taking [...]

Yesterday I had the great fortune of spending the day at a Playday Tournament. A Playday is a one day “tournament” where U8-U11 teams get to play three games on small fields (7 on the field and one in the goal). It is a great way to get teams together, have a great atmosphere and [...]

I love this poem and strive to get all of my players to play outside of their comfort zone and push their limits. So many of them have so much more in them than they think they do. “There was a very cautious man Who never laughed or played. He never risked, he never tried, [...]

Jozy Altidore, is critiqued by his manager for not being as intense in practice as he is in games, thereby missing critical experiences to push his game to the next level. How can players, parents and coaches make sure that they are always challenging the players to improve? Parents Prepare for practice like a game: [...]

A fellow coach and I were discussing fitness and training youth players, specifically at the U12 level. I’ve coached for a few years and have attended many of the coaching courses, similar to the coach I was speaking with. He wasn’t against fitness training, but as most coaches do question, was curious as to how [...]

As a player what do these things mean to you. Well, it means that you may want to have a conversation with your coach about where he thinks you stand in relation to being recommended to a program like ODP or US Club id2. You should be the best player on your team or, if [...]

Landon Donovan interview where he snaps the microphone apart due to dumb questions. Real or Joke? CLICK HERE to watch.

As a Berkeley grad, I’m not a big fan of Stanford, but sometimes they do good work . Below is a snippet of an article about learning and motivation that I find very interesting. As a soccer coach study  the game continuously, but the biggest challenge I’ve found is in motivating players to work hard [...]

U.S. Soccer will make all 180 D-2 Pro League matches available for fans to watch via streaming video free of charge on club websites. U.S. Soccer has partnered Ooyala, a leading provider of end-to-end video platform applications and services. For For more information, including local television coverage, fans should visit team web sites for the [...]

Women’s Professional Soccer announced the 18-player rosters for each of its eight teams for the 2010 season that begins April 10.  Teams are also allowed to carry four optional developmental players. The colleges that are most represented among the 18-player roster’s are: North Carolina (17) had the most alumnae making the 18-player rosters, followed by [...]