Hello everyone out there in soccer land. This is Kamal de Gregory back with another Move of the Moment. This one is called the Old School Neck Catch and it is demonstrated by Chamba Style himself Jason Utely at www.chambastyle.com

Most of us have the seen the Old School Neck Catch. This is where the ball is kicked a little above your head, then you position your head under the ball and lower your the neck down to catch it. This is a sweet move, that takes foot strength control, good timing and a restful sensation when receiving the ball.

If you have 6 Minute Soccer Skills Trapping, you would easily understanding the reason for this restful feel, for now though just feel it.

The biggest problem is when the ball is on its way down that you get your head down fast so there will be an open cushion for the ball.

You can practice by placing the ball on your neck with your hands, then dropping the ball on your neck as you make the cushioning movement.

That is the old school way, next month we will shift gears to the Nu Skool Way. To see the Old School Neck Catch demonstrated click here.

Good Luck and be on the look out for next move of the moment.

This issue of front volley we look at the role of being a substitute player on your soccer team. Now some of you might say, “I’m too good to be a sub. I always start.”

Wow, from that response it is easy to tell that you haven’t played soccer long or should I say long enough. Even if you have started for the last four years, still you have not played long enough. Whether it is tomorrow or five years from now, something will happen that will put you on the substitute’s bench. It doesn’t have to be because you are not good. What if you’re coming back from an injury and your coach decides to put you in at the end of the game to help regain your confidence and rhythm?” Circumstances can and will put you on the subs bench one time or another.

So once you’re on that bench, what should you think of? A sub must know how to be a factor! They must either know how to change the game or keep producing what the team is already doing without missing a beat. Why else are you there?

For sure it is not to bring the game down to a lower-level. Stop believing that the role of a sub is to receive a couple of mercy minutes at the end of each half. A subs job is to contribute with the skills and abilities that they have to continue the game moving in your teams favor. It is a positive contribution, maybe not at the rate of some of the other players, but positive none-the-less.

It is okay to ask yourself the question, “What if I am not as good as the player I’m replacing.” Well, since you are unique you will bring an aspect to the game that the player you replaced did not. It may just be with your effort, or it could be with your heading ability. It is your uniqueness that matters now, not what the team has just lost.

So, as you’re on the bench, find the spots in the game where you can contribute. Study the opponent that you are probably going to be playing against and find their weaknesses. Figure out how your talents can beat them. When you get on the field, execute your personal plan without hesitation. Of course if your coach has given you instructions you should carry those out, but at the same time you will need to overcome your competition as they appear.

With your plan and a focused mind you will play the role of a super sub not just a player who is being swept under the rug.

All Smiles on the Field,

Kamal de Gregory

Realize players how lucky you are to have a soccer field to play on. Real player’s take advantage of their time on the soccer field. The soccer field is there for you to enjoy, but it won’t remember the last time that you played, or what circumstances you are in on the day.
 
It doesn’t know if you are a prodigy, or a novice, and it treats both equally the same. The field is just simply there for you to fulfill your creativity and industry as a soccer player. Whether it has long grass, or short, or if it even has grass at all, you stand on a painter’s canvas, and you are the brush. 
 
Sometimes it’s bare and simple, but is still open to the limitlessness of your imagination–it remains there for you and your artistic freedom. Other times, it is crowded and controlled by your coach’s and teammates’ demands. You must recognize the difference in this situation, but know the canvas has not changed.
 
Understand this, there are certain things you will know about the field when you are a player. Certain situations are privilege to you only–plays that are just for you to create, or even destroy. Be aware though of your teammates, they have the same rights to paint as you!
 
Don’t underestimate the field. You might think that this is not a big deal, “it’s just a field,” but either in the personal or team environment, the field is there for you to learn soccer lessons that will help you to conduct yourself as a cooler, smoother, and more confident artist (player).
 
How do you treat this privilege?

Let’s approach purpose in the game two ways.

The 1st is immediately thinking of what you as a player do specifically during the game. The 2nd is understanding how that affects the bigger picture of the team.

At the base of being a good player is identifying with your personal purpose in the game. At this stage, players must be confident in their touch and ability to link with other players, regardless of positioning. When the player has this ability, then the player can easily identify with the 2nd purpose of effecting the team.

As a history lesson, being able to identify and play with personal purpose is reminiscent of what Cruyff and the Orange termed “total footballer” (total player), skilled and knowledgeable in attacking purposes throughout the field, yet disciplined to “hold” and exchange defensive responsibilities as they arise.

Please realize when you have taken the personal reigns, or responsibility, all you have to do is look up to see how it affects the team.

Without a “purpose” in the game, then players will not recognize and anticipate the game’s development, let alone build off the possible limitless ways to play soccer. Don’t let the purpose of play be lost on an individual or team basis. This will always cause frustration for all involved.

Good Luck, and play with purpose!

When you decide to play soccer for real, you must accept that it is work that is real—that it is your responsibility to prepare yourself to keep a high standard in the game. You will have to work to be better and definitely to win. How much work are you willing to throw down? Do you love to work hard? You must, if you want to make it! This is playing for real. 
 
Even if you’re a novice coach with beginning players, you can work to instill the concepts of training by having an organized session. Would it be surprising if you could do all that with “fun” activities? At the youngest ages, coaches must remember to emphasize the quality of the skill (in terms of ball control). The more physically demanding aspects of soccer, such as stamina, explosive movements and battles of strength, will be inevitably introduced as the player gets older.
 
For players to really improve, they need to see that they must decide to be better. Once you’ve decided, then this is where playing soccer really kicks in. If you are able to fuse the aspects of discipline with the enjoyment of playing for fun, even the youngest of ages can begin to open up an understanding of the flow of soccer. The love for the game is built and instilled, while you provide an environment to improve. Then work turns to play, and the play will start going through the roof!
 
Coaches, remember to go into your practices with a standard of discipline necessary for a training environment, but with a disposition of a fan. Put together sessions that address specific aspects of the game (obviously level and age will determine the topics). Try to remember that your player is a player in development, and needs to know this information if they want to tackle the challenge of going forward. So that is playing soccer for real!

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The part of the game that can’t be taught, only instructed. Don’t get us a wrong—it can be addressed in training and foundations can be constructed, but it is the player that ultimately makes these “decisions” in the game.

Of course fitness levels and levels of skill will always play a role in a player’s decision making process, so developing these areas of a player’s game will aid in making a player’s decision making skills more effective.

When you talk about soccer decisions you start to get into that 3rd realm of coaching where playing philosophies and tactical understandings come in to play—where a lack of vision, experience or ability from either the player or the coach, can hinder the overall decision making process of a player, who otherwise has the athletic talents to compete.  

When everybody on the team is working together and making the correct decisions on the field than the team will be able to maintain composure and continue playing their game. At this point, their decisions within the game are not due only to the opponent’s demands, but also to their own demands.

So the question still remains “how do you teach decision making?”  Having a seasoned and knowledgeable coach wouldn’t hurt! A mentor, or a player’s coach, that understands the game from a player’s point of view. Of course that is easier said than done.

So what can you do in the meantime? As a player or coach, you can take advantage of Virtual Soccer Trainer and educate yourself on certain soccer constants that every player must know and perform to keep progressing at their playing level.

The network capabilities of this online training facility will not only provide the nuts-and-bolts to training, but it also provides a unique communication element that can assist in the streamlining of your long term coaching methods. 

This will provide a higher level of communication between what coaches want and what players need to do. Proper decision making doesn’t come in an instant, or sometimes even after twenty practices. The more players are exposed to some standards and precepts of making decisions, the more immediate they will be able to make those decisions in the moment.

Click here to learn more about Virtual Soccer Trainer, or contact a soccer consultant at training@4skills.com to learn more about 4skills.com’s soccer training tools.

Have you ever felt in a rut? Have you ever felt that game preparation was just a kind of “going through the motions?”  Obviously, training has become stale with probably no place for reaching for improvement on the individual or team level.

Both coaches and players have a responsibility to keep things fresh. The coach must prepare practices with attainable agendas and relevant topics while players must approach practice with a focus for learning and application. So, you can imagine the results when both parties show up to practice without these things prepared or in mind.

These are the main points of the game that if taken care of, efficiency and production simply start to happen. So, coaches try to think of what your team needs to improve and search for help a day or two before training.

Players, come into training thinking that today you want to do better. You want to score two goals, or complete two passes. At this point, Players and Coaches are both taking it up a notch. Hey, a little effort on both parts begins to push your team forward; otherwise, practices will be the same-old-same-old with a lack of involvement from all parties, even the parents and administration, but when interest and industry is shown then everyone starts to want to take part. 

Whether you’re a coach or a player, there is help for you. Utilizing training programs like 4skills.com’s Virtual Soccer Trainer can provide you the tools to change for your challenges—looking for an individual skill or topic you need clarification for, looking to create a training module to focus on dribbling for a full team practice, or even aiming to build a curriculum for full club development—and to help you achieve your soccer visions.   

Remember every time the ball changes situations in a game it is a new challenge. Will you be ready?

Have you ever been to a soccer game, where the only thing that comes to mind is those parents who take the spotlight away from the players? These Parents place too much emphasis on themselves as a factor on the field. Well, anyway most of us can recall a time when a parent got over-involved with a game and disrupted its natural progression.

Adults! We are playing soccer, not hunting for food. Take the emphasis down a notch or two. The more you have an anxious, or over aggressive attitude toward the game, the more the game suffers (as well as your kids). So Chill! That is a technical word that every player knows.
 
I can understand knocking someone down and saying you didn’t do it if you are hungry and need nourishment, but if it is to say you won or lost a game that doesn’t mean anything for the first 16 years (only at the highest levels). 
 
Danger! We all get tense when it is our own son or daughter on the field, but let the intensity come from within the players in a fair manner. Don’t super-impose your ambitions of “winning” at all costs to dominate the mental thought processes of your players. If the coach has focused on the right training methods in practice, then the “winning” will take care of itself.

Teach and support players to be proactive, not vindictive. Remember that youth soccer should be kept fun, where the style and skills of the game should be stressed most, always above “winning.”

Parents, let’s leave the intense atmosphere for the High School games and beyond! Saturday fields, and youth soccer, are great places to have fun.

In this article we want to address a coaching issue that seems to run rampant on the training grounds—the coaching alpha ego that seems to always place itself before the real issue of player development.

Coaches beware of falling into one of these two coaching personalities: the first one being the “Stage Robber” and the second one, “The Imposter.”

The “Stage Robber” was a player that now hogs the field when coaching. With this type, the coach is too often the topic while the real question about player ability is overlooked, or ignored. This coach is more interested in a past heyday, then the actual achievements of the players. 
 
We understand that an incredible play and the light touches are necessary from time-to-time and fully encouraged, but remember your curtain has already fallen, so use it as a bridge to put the lime-light on your current crop of understudies. 

Next up is the “The Imposter.” This type of coach has never done it, yet still poses as the All-American and talks the big game. These coaches have never played soccer, but believe they have the only road map to soccer success. They have fooled themselves into believing they have already arrived, so they are closed mind and paranoid toward any assistance or support.  

Coaches keep these two identities in mind when preparing your next practice. Keep an open mind and take the calm road to instruction.
 
Allow for every opportunity to encourage open play. Model good soccer, but don’t steal the stage when your players are finding their own pulse within the game. Games and wins will take care of themselves if the spirit and right attitude is fostered in your team.

For access to additional soccer training topics and videos email us at training@4skills.com for free access to Virtual Soccer Trainer, which contains over 300 hundred soccer related topics and videos.

In our last few newsletters, we have been talking about things that make the sport of soccer “the beautiful game.” For this issue, we’ve decided to shift gears and address the nuts-and-bolts aspect of hard work. Yes that’s right! Hard Work! Not everybody can be a Romario and saunter around the field applying only one touch to the game, if necessary, to score a goal.

This article is for the little Makeleles, Gattusos and Armases out there, that put in all the heart and hard running for your teams. Without them there would be no Zidanes, Totties and Donavans to adorn the fields with their immaculate skills.

Sometimes we forget that without work rate, skills are often hidden. The skills are hidden beneath one hundred balls that were never received, because the player was too lazy or inexperienced to go get it. How can you show your skills if you never have the ball? Would you choose an excellent player who is lazy, with no work rate?

Most coaches would settle for a less technical player if they have the fitness base and work ethic to make up for their less-refined touch.

Do get us wrong! We’re not saying that work rate and work ethic is superior to being technically superb. We’re just reminding you that you can have all the skill in the world, but if you don’t work and hustle for your team, the only games you’ll be playing in are the pickup games on the weekends.

Obviously, the positions that most come under fire, when it comes to Soccer Industry, are the forward and attacking midfield roles. Be sure to remind and stress to your young players that defensive effort and focused running is essential to every position on the field. Without it we are only a fraction of the complete, total player. Even if you have incredible skill, fighting for the ball in your position whenever it comes close will give you more chances to display what you already have.

We recommend that every player develop an understanding of every positional role in the game. Don’t let your players specialize in only one aspect of the game, especially in training where no harm can be done when exposing players to other positions.

During this time of positional experimentation make sure that the players are working and making decisions as fast as they possibly can. At first it is enough to just get them to move constantly, but after that the real reward comes when they can make decisions while moving at that pace.

A final tip: when your players are good enough, possession games for 5 to 7 minute intervals will keep their work rate up. The reason is because there are no goals, except to keep possession for 7 to 10 passes. This will have your team playing more fluid and specific players will not be able to make any positional excuses up.

The industrious players will rise out of possession games, and the lazy will kick the ground.