We’ve all experienced it. In fact, most of us are probably guilty of it: doing everything we can with our youth team(s) to “keep them together.” Whether that be persuading some of the “better” players to stay instead of going to another team, or joining a new club because the previous one wanted to move some of the players to a higher or lower level team – we’ve all been there. This is dramatically unhealthy and detrimental to the development of youth soccer players. The

This post was originally published in three separate parts. Upon revamping our website, we decided to combine them into one fluid post. There are many sports in the world. All of them have merit. All of them offer some sort of positive influence on the people who play them. But just as in Lord of the Rings, there is one sport to rule them all: soccer (or football, as it was originally and appropriately named – but since I’m in the United States, I’ll call it “soccer”). There

Previously, I wrote about how your style of play is the most important factor in determining how your team plays, and that your system (or formation) doesn’t make much difference. However, once your team begins to understand and consistently, successfully implement your style of play, making adjustments to your system can create slight variations to your style’s effectiveness. There are two primary ways that systems affect style: 1. Player mentality 2. Dynamics of movemen

Goalkeeper. The one position that stands out from the rest. The one player that wears a different color and can use hands. The one player who is in the spotlight when goals get scored. The position that is considered by many to be occupied by crazy people. The position most often forgotten and neglected. Many players go through their entire careers without ever having played goalkeeper in a competitive match. When coaches make a point to rotate their players’ positions, the

Earlier this week, I wrote about how coaches can help their players by staying silent. This post explains why and how parents ought to use the same strategy. It’s been said by many experts: The parents’ role in youth sports is to support their child in their child’s experience. What does this actually mean? It means allowing our children to own the experience and doing what we need to do in order to allow them to have the most successful experience possible. To put it even