My brother, Jason Dennis, has developed a powerful program that has the potential to change a player’s season, and even their life….it’s called Walk the Fire. It’s Mind Body Mastery Training camps on the Big Island of Hawaii for high school competitive athletes. Jason was a professional baseball player for the Anaheim Angels organization, a [...]

Sometimes young coaches feel they have to correct every little thing on the practice field, and all too often they take this approach at games too. “Be slow to correct and quick to commend.” – John Wooden I’ve seen coaches get frustrated with an 8 year old player that hit the ball with a karate [...]

Here is a little advice from an all-time great on the best training tool out there: Dennis Bergkamp, the great Dutch striker said that when he was a young player at Ajax, they had little three foot high walls. He would knock the ball against it for hours. Every time he hit the ball, he [...]

In order to create a positive learning environment on the soccer field, it is imperative that you take into consideration where your players are Developmentally (psychomotor, psychosocial and cognitive stages). Expecting too much from your 8 year old because they don’t understand the “theory of attacking” or the logic behind the “covering defender” only leads [...]

This past season I had put together a team of U-8 players comprised of approximately 50% girls and 50% boys to play in a co-ed indoor league at the Bladium in Alameda. The boys on the team were 6 years of age and the girls 7 years of age. I had one girl that was [...]

David Ferreira was injured last year in a game against Vancouver and missed the rest of the season. He’s been “healthy” physically and participating in drills, but hasn’t participated in scrimmages. Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said, “One of the problems he’s running into is the mind; he’s still worried about how strong he is, or [...]

Remember the movie Monster’s Inc.? The Monsters generate their city’s power by scaring children, but in the end they find that children’s laughs provide 10x the power. Creativity is the same… it is powered by joy and passion. Scaring children as a means to get them to not make mistakes only kills the passion, enjoyment [...]

As a coach and a parent, I get constant feedback on what works with children when giving feedback to them for performance on the soccer field or their behavior at practices. Unfortunately, many coaches fail at their ability to properly motivate and balance their criticism. I’ve seen coaches who constantly criticize their players (U9s) to [...]

By Dev K. Mishra, M.D., President, Sideline Sports Doc To recap: I don’t think there’s any better playing surface than a well-maintained grass field, but I’d prefer one of the newer varieties of turf fields over a poorly-maintained grass field any day.  Some people have also suggested that the interaction between the athlete’s shoe and [...]