Paul Gardner, a Soccer America columnist, recently wrote an article where he said, “We can only base our judgments on what we see from the coach’s team in action,” — Actions speak louder than words, so stop listening and start watching. If the coach says something but keeps getting the same result on the field, [...]

I’ve been able to watch a U12 girls team go through the trials and tribulations of injuries this year, from stress fractures to pulled quadriceps muscles to sprained ankles, hamstring strains, sprained ankles, plantar fascitis and fluid in the knee – all by different players. Girls’ physical and hormones start to change drastically at age [...]

Criteria: Soccer America selects the top 30 clubs based on success of their teams in national youth competitions over the last three years (2008-10) and the selection of their players to national teams in 2010. 2010 Top 30 Girls Clubs 1. Dallas Texans 2. Eclipse Select 3. So Cal Blues 4. Colorado Rush 5. Sting [...]

Youth soccer has been making the slow progression from volunteer coach to paid coach for awhile now. With the volunteer coach you may not have had the best coaching, but a good coach was one that made it a fun and enjoyable experience for all involved. With paid coaching, is the community and positive culture [...]

FC Gold pride has closed its doors after 2 years of operation, which is sad for women’s soccer and bay area soccer. We were season ticket holders this last year and enjoyed many games. The kids looked forward to going to them and as the season went on, they even began watching more of the [...]

Mike Woitalla interviewed Albertin Montoya, the FC Gold Pride head coach and MVLA technical directory, about the WPS Championship and about youth soccer. You can read the entire article here. But, for my take on things that he said, keep reading: I [Mike Woitalla] asked him [Montoya] why the USA isn’t producing Martas. After all, [...]

Our league is trying a “Silent Saturday,” which jabs a knife in the back of “the joy of soccer”. Here is an excerpt I received in an email from the Referee Coordinator: “This SATURDAY ONLY is “Silent Saturday”. No cheers, outbursts, talking of the sort on the sideline – applause only. Only the coach can [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]