Posts Tagged ‘soccer’

January 19th 2011 by admin

A Super-Sized Lifestyle

The United Emirates love their sports. Whether it’s soccer, rugby, cricket, horse racing, Formula 1, Golf, or on this particular weekend in Dubai skydiving competitions, there is no lack of sports to watch on television or in person. Yet very few Emirates actually participate in sports, and that includes their youth. As a matter of fact you see very few working out in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Why this love for watching sport yet no desire to play or be active? Many people I spoke to here mention the heat as a reason a majority don’t engage in an active lifestyle. Granted summer brings average temperatures between 105 and 110 degree fahrenheit, combined with high humidity, and no real relief in the morning or evening, does present a problem for being outside. Yet that argument puzzled me with the beautiful weather (80 degrees , bright sunshine and low humidity) they were having now, and have approximately 6 months out of the year.

The other disturbing trend that many in Abu Dhabi have witnessed is the culture of laziness. Many kids sit at home with all the amenities of technology, and little desire to be active. Add to that the overall school system’s lack of emphasis on physical education, which has lead to over 50 percent of all people in the UAE considered to be overweight or obese.

Hmm…. sound familiar? We are trending in a very similar path.

Is there an answer to the obesity issue? Yes, but it doesn’t get solved through public service announcements on television or professional sports leagues telling kids to go and play 60 minutes every day. It happens by proactively updating the fitness industry and providing more creative alternatives for kids and families, de-emphasizing organized sports participation 12 months out the year, and rebuilding playgrounds and parks nationwide to appeal to kids of all ages.

So this trip to the Middle East got me thinking and inspired to make a difference in the lives of kids in our country. Let’s be the first country to actually do something about creating more access to an active lifestyle. Let’s begin super sizing our kids active lifestyle with less fast food and more creative thought and leisure products for the future.

My next destination – South Africa. Stay tuned.

September 28th 2010 by admin

How to Conduct the Perfect Practice – PART Three – A Practice Model for Any Sport

As a volunteer coach you have enough on your mind and things going on in your life (family responsibilities, your job, and your very own social life) that leave limited time to prepare for a well organized practice. Yet practices are the most important part of a young athletes sports experience. As a matter of fact, practices make up a majority of time your team spends together throughout the entire season in comparison to games played.

In order to make the most of this valuable time at practice, we have designed a template that can be used with any sport you coach. This practice blueprint provides a great way to create the proper flow of every practice. The flow of practice is as important as the skills being taught. It creates an energy level that keeps everyone engaged in the learning process, and provides you, the coach, the opportunity to control what and how skills are being taught.

A Multiple Sport Template
This template is not exclusive to any one sport. You must however fill in your own creative instruction/drills/& competitions. In future blogs we will provide suggested drills & competitions for specific sport fundamentals, this template is where a coach would place those drills and competitions they find useful. We also divide each practice template into individual, small group segments, with limited segments designed for the entire team. The reason: more can be achieved (more repetitions) over a shorter period of time when the team works in individual (players working in pairs) and small group segments. Of course sports with smaller rosters (basketball & ice hockey) are the exception, but should not disregard small group (3 player) training segments.

Practice set-up & use of skill stations
Set-up and coaching responsibilities are vital to a fast paced flow to any practice. Be sure to organized every training segment into stations with a coach assigned to that particular station. Multiple stations with an equal dispersion of players assigned to pairs is an essential ingredient to running a successful practice.

Place your practices on the clock
We strongly believe you should limit practices to 90 minutes. Anything longer becomes counter-productive. Over the 90 minutes a practice is broken down into 5,10, & 15 minute timed segments. The reason we recommend short segments is to keep the flow of practice moving quickly to maintain energy with the full engagement of every player. The other reason, kids cannot focus their attention for longer periods of time.

Establish a theme for every practice.
Themes are a powerful way to engage a team and remind them what their goals are, it’s an excellent way for coaches to focus on a particular point they observed was lacking in a past game or performance. A theme can be as simple as correctly holding onto the football to limit turnovers, more passing/less dribbling in soccer, limit mental errors in baseball, or more quickly covering your man after losing possession of the ball in basketball, etc. Start practice with the theme, have everyone remind each other throughout practice, and end practice by reviewing the theme. It will keep you and the team on point all practice.

Compete to Improve at Practice
A part of every practice should include time for multiple competitions. Competitions that measure each player’s individual progress and how well they can apply that as a team. I first designed competitive practices when I worked at the NFL and created a program called the NFL Junior Player Development Program. This program was actually an introductory season dedicated entirely to learning the fundamentals of tackle football. Since we did not include traditional games during this season it was important to provide ways to measure success and include the important element of competition, something every athlete craves.

Pete Carroll describes his first experience of witnessing this in his new book “Win Forever”, when I invited him to attend one of these sessions in the Bronx, NY, as the New England Patriots Head Coach. Pete describes how blown away he was to witness the emotion and passion the coaches and players had as they were learning and competing. That template we used that day is outlined below.

A Practice Blueprint for Any Sport

Segment One: Dynamic Warm-ups for 10 minutes.
A warm-up that provides continued movement that jump starts the flow of blood to the large muscles in the body (shoulders, hips, & legs) through creative drills and methods. Warm-ups should be conducted with high energy since it’s the way you begin and set the tone for the entire practice. Change up warm-ups every practice and rotate different activities throughout the season. Set-up an obstacle course that forces athletes to move (increase their heart rate) and challenges their basic athletic elements of agility, balance, coordination, & flexibility. Or create a free flowing game (ultimate frisbee) that focuses on the same athletic elements.

Segment Two: Individual Fundamental Skill Station for 10 minutes
Set-up three stations with one assigned coach that introduce different individual fundamental skills to pairs of players that rotate through every 15 minutes. For example a soccer practice may be working on ball control and crossing the ball this particular practice. The three stations of individual skill work would possibly be (left foot dribbling technique drills, right foot dribbling technique drills, left & right foot passing technique drills).

Segment Three: Individual Fundamental Competitions for 5 minutes
Follow every 10 minute skill development segment with a 5 minute competition that self-measures each players execution of that particular skill just taught. Record & track scores of every player, comparing scores over the course of the season.

Segments Four – Seven: for a total of 30 minutes
Repeat the individual fundamental skill sequence as the team continues to rotate through the three stations of different fundamental work with 10 minutes designated to skill repetitions, 5 minutes to competitions.

Segment Eight: 5 minute Halftime to review drills and practice theme

Segment Nine: Small Group Team Skill Station for 15 minutes
Divide team into two groups (i.e. offense & defense) of a equal number of sub-groups. Extend the fundamental training introduced during the individual segment into the small group segments. For example, extending upon the soccer drills suggested above, small group work would then focus on dribble out of trouble/pass cross field, dribble up field followed by give & go down the wings.

Segment Ten: Small Group Skill Station Competition for 15 minutes
Bring the two groups together, still keeping them in their small assigned sub-groups to compete against the other half of the team. Design competitions and a scoring system based on executing skills taught in their skill stations. Multiple competitions should take place at the same time, allowing every player to be active and moving with no downtime.

Practice Ends by reemphasizing the theme with a quick review of skills taught.

Note: this particular template was heavily weighted towards individual skill development, more appropriate for the beginning of the season. A coach can easily reverse the emphasis and weight a practice by assigning more small group training with a fewer amount of segments assigned to individual fundamental training. We do however recommend continuing individual skill work throughout the season.

March 26th 2010 by admin

The Most Overlooked Athletic Skill – BALANCE

BALANCE – THE KEY ELEMENT TO ATHLETIC SUCCESS

Balance is the most essential skill for an athlete to possess, and time needs to be spent on developing it. All sports rely heavily on balance. Think of a soccer player attempting to keep possession of a ball, a pitcher winding up and throwing to home plate, a basketball player taking a jump shot, a football lineman blocking a defender, or a tennis player playing serve and volley. In each case balance plays a key role in achieving the precise set of movements necessary for the skill to be performed correctly.

To develop balance, you need to develop “muscle memory”, an unconscious tensing and releasing of the right muscles in just the right increments that enables them to maintain their equilibrium in motion. It is through this process, for example, that people learn to ride a bike. When learning, the body sends signals to the brain to orient the body to where it should be positioned and maintained, allowing the body’s muscle memory to eventually take over and become what seems to be second nature.

A key element in athletics is the ability to maintain balance while in motion. Whether you are rapidly transferring body weight during a golf swing, swinging or hitting and getting out of the batter’s box (Seattle Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki), in baseball, snowboarding down a mountain (Olympic Half Pipe Gold Medalist, Shaun White), or maneuvering around an opponent in ice hockey (NHL Pittsburgh Penguins, SIDNEY CROSBY), soccer (former US Women’s National Soccer Team Player, Mia Hamm), or lacrosse (Mikey Powell Amazing Jumping Goal on YouTube), Balance allows the body to transfer weight while performing. Athletes need to be able to continue to execute while transitioning from a variety of body positions and movements. They often find themselves off balance before or after executing a play. To be in a position to finish a play, or to prepare for the next play, they must be able to adjust quickly to regain proper balance.

The following provides several drills that develop and improve overall balance for a variety of sports.

DRILL ONE – STEPPING STONES

Equipment: Five balance pods
Set-Up: Arrange the four balance pods in a diamond shape approximately 3 feet apart with one additional pod place three feet in front of the diamond. Think of all five-balance pods as stepping stones.
Description of Drill: Each athlete walks from one balance pod to the next until he has completely stepped and balanced himself on all five pods.

DRILL TWO – BALANCE BEAM


Equipment: Three to four half-foam rolls, two 12 inch hurdles
Set-Up: Arrange all three or four half foam rolls in a straight line touching at each end, place the two hurdles at the end of the first foam roll and the end of the second foam roll.
Description of Drill: Begin with each athlete walking on the half beams and stepping over each of the two hurdles without losing their balance.

DRILL THREE – OFF-BALANCE FOOTBALL CATCHES

Equipment: Three to four half-foam rolls, a football
Set-Up: Arrange all three or four half foam rolls in a straight line touching at each end.
Description of Drill: As each athlete walks the length of the rolls, toss a football where the athlete must reach out and catch the ball without losing balance. Throw balls to the right, left, over the head, below the waist, forcing the athletes to extend and catch while keeping their balance on the half foam rolls.

Please look for our continued series of articles and drills to develop overall and sport specific balance, developed by experts from action sports (snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding, etc.).

The attached video is one segment of several that I’ll post that demonstrates additional, creative methods to engage your team and athletes in the fun process of developing balance.

July 15th 2009 by admin

Stretching the Truth

Football and soccer seasons are rapidly approaching and soon we’ll be coaching, assisting or watching our sons and daughters take to the football and soccer fields.

As we find ourselves in the middle of summer I often find it’s a great time to revisit, address, and provide some advice for some of the mistakes I’ve witness on youth fields during the past season.  More times than not these mistakes are simply due to being unaware of the many updated and innovative methods that are now available to coaches at all levels.  Unfortunately many of the methods that we grew up with and experienced are outdated and are often not appropriate for today’s athletes.

One element of practices and pre-game warm-ups that I often observe is the static stretching routines many novice (and sometimes experienced) coaches require their players to execute.  Static stretching at the beginning of any activity can actually lead to more injuries than preventing them, and does nothing to warm the body up.  It is much more appropriate to conduct an active warm-up that gets the blood flowing to all the large muscle groups and joints (shoulders, arms, upper back, mid section, hip flexors, thighs, calves, ankles, etc.). This prepares these vital body parts to be able to fire when called upon during the course of practice or competition.

Static stretching is only appropriate at the end or during an activity after the body has had a chance to actually warm-up by moving and allowing the blood to circulate.  At this point the muscles, ligaments and joints are prepared to be stretched out, assisting in recovery rather than starting up.

HOW TO MOST EFFECTIVELY CONDUCT WARM-UPS

In order to begin a practice or prepare for a game, warming up is important.  At the same time you don’t want to start with a low key, low energy activity that does nothing to motivate and get your team fired up and prepared.  Typically warm-ups are presented in a low-key almost nonchalant fashion due to static stretching and a lack of importance placed on this portion of practice.  When in fact, this may be the most important part of practice or preparation for a game.

I like to get the group moving immediately with high-energy activities that motivate the team while warming up the entire body.  Preparing, choreographing, and setting up this station prior to the team’s arrival will help accomplish this goal.  The following provides a sample warm-up segment for a team practice for just about any sport.

Active Warm-up – 10 Minutes Mark – off an area with cones (10yard x 10 yards)

Keys to segment: keep every athlete moving (jogging) the entire 10 minutes while incorporating free range of motion (shoulders/back/hips/thighs/ham strings)

Equipment: Tennis ball for each athlete, cones to outline 10 x 10 yard area

Elements of Warm-up:

  • Jog counter clock wise around area for one lap (maintaining a good distance between each athlete)
  • Ask athletes to toss tennis balls with right hand in the air above their head while keeping right arm fully extended for one full lap – then repeat for one lap with left hand – followed by tossing the ball from hand to hand with both arms fully extended above head.
  • Ask athletes to backpedal while repeating above sequence of ball tosses for each lap of three total.
  • Have athletes jog clockwise while rotating ball around waist for two laps, followed by rotating ball through legs in a figure 8 rotation (should keep moving without stopping) for one full lap. Repeat backpedaling with same sequence of ball rotations around back and figure 8’s through legs
  • Ask athletes to roll ball with left hand about 3 feet in front of them & pick up immediately with right hand followed by picking up with left – rotating rolls and hands for one lap

6.Close the gap between athletes and ask the front jogger to roll the ball to his/her right followed by the last athlete in line retrieving the ball before it stops and running to the front of the line, repeat till everyone has retrieved a ball three times on both sides.

Follow this portion of the warm-up with small-sided (3 on 3) ultimate Frisbee games on multiple 20 x 15 yard areas, for a total of 5 minutes.

Equipment: One Football &/or Frisbee, four cones to mark off field – four additional cones to mark off

end zones

Execution: The objective is to score by catching a Football/Frisbee in a designated end zone, there are no designated positions. The Football/Frisbee can move in any direction around the field, and play is continuous. Change of possession occurs when the Football/Frisbee is thrown out of bounds, is dropped by the offense, is deflected by a defender to the ground, or after a score. When a change of possession occurs, the defense immediately goes on offense and begins play at the spot where the Football/Frisbee was dropped, thrown out of bounds, or scored in the end zone. Players may take two steps after receiving the Football/Frisbee and can transfer it only by throwing it to a teammate. The objective is to keep everyone moving, so divide your group into an even amount of teams and allow them all to play at the same time on different playing areas.

What have you accomplished?

  • Every athlete is fully engaged all major muscle groups (preparing their mental as well as physical skills), and broken a sweat.
  • Every athlete feels energized and excited to continue on with practice.
  • A complete team activity that promotes working and preparing together is a great way to start any practice or competition.