Soccer Champions Grow In Your Backyard The common thread among great soccer players…. First, let’s take a look at Tiger Woods. Wait a minute, why a golf player? Because his name is known world wide and we can all relate to his story. For most of his developing life who was his coach and trainer? Who was his only putting coach as he progressed into the Pr...

Economy Takes Toll on All Youth Sports Mike Whitmore Youth Soccer News If you’re the new President of the United States, you might be just “tad” busy right now.  Hundreds, if not thousands, of issues on your plate and trust me, For the first time in many years some youth soccer clubs are predicting, if not already seeing, a drop in numbers rather than the ...

The Golden Years By Coach V – www.SoccerU.com Let me start by going to the “top” so I don’t lose many of you that think technical training doesn’t apply to advanced players.  I will start with two examples, one with a professional player and the second a college bound player. It goes all the way to the top. Last year, while working on Blast The Ball and SoccerU, I was fortunate eno...

Economy Taking Toll on Youth Soccer and Pro Soccer Is it ironic that the first world cup was played in 1930, the same year that the great depression was hitting the US hard? Most people don’t know that the first world cup was played in Uruguay in 1930, but they are aware that 1930 was the year that the great depression started to take hold of the US. Now with the US facing its greatest financial...

A funny thing seems to happen in youth soccer. At some point we forget about basic development and start focusing on being competitive. Unfortunately this often happens too early and the results are irreversible and often permanent. While different ages of youth soccer players learn differently, they all must be taught individual skills starting at the same place. It is a stepping process th...

A new website that just launched offering many tips, drills and a good section on soccer rules. Can be found here, How To Play Soccer. yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = "How to Play Soccer"; yahooBuzzArticleId = "http://www.youth-soccer-training.com/?p=81"; ...

How to Teach Soccer Positions I along with many soccer coaches / trainers teach to other coaches that focus on basic soccer skills is the essential The other day I received an email from a parent / volunteer soccer coach. He had attended one of my coaching clinics and during this clinic I stressed the importance of basic skill training and small sided games. After watching last year’s prac...

Somewhere along the way someone made two great comments about learning the game of soccer. The problem is that some how, some where, along the way they simply got misunderstood by many in youth soccer. 1) “Youth players learn the game of soccer by playing the game.” 2) “The game is the best teacher.” These are very true statement...

Soccer Coaches Get Rid of the Laps If you can understand why running laps in youth soccer is huge waste of time you will not only be a better coach, but a better all around youth soccer trainer. Last year I watched a youth soccer practice and by the time I got home I was still in shock.  Most of my thoughts were simply of renaming the coach to “old school” and I was also a bit angry. ...

“Winning is not everything? What a bunch of crap.” I remember uttering those words in my mind many, many years ago after listening to the usual coaches’ meeting before the season started. I thought to myself, “If winning isn’t everything then why do they keep score and why does this youth league have tournaments at the end of...