The Guardian has a great page up that lets readers rate the goal of the year. Make sure to check out Cristiano Ronaldo's, Grafite's, & Zlatan Ibrahimovic's. My choice is Yoann Gourcuff: My favorite part, besides the incredible skill, is listening to the crowd react after seeing the replay of what they just witnessed. Make sure to stick with it till 0:50!!
Goal of the Year?
More Freestyle Juggling
The development of your juggling ability can improve touch, balance, and coordination/agility. This develops a quality touch, you can weight their passes more accurately, have more confidence dribbling and controlling the ball under pressure and strike balls with various surfaces with precision. Like soccer girl here.
Practice. Practice. Practice. The only way to get better.
Thanks soccer girl! And as always, it pays to be creative & visualize that you can accomplish your goals.
Summer Reading
With summer rapidly approaching, I thought I'd put together a list of soccer reading for the players and the parents.
Recommended Reading List:
Parents:
- 101 Ways To Be A Terrific Sports Parent by Dr. Joel Fish
- The Sports Parenting Edge by Rick Wolff
- Brilliant Orange, The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football by David Winner
- The Coaching Philosophies of Louis Van Gaal and The Ajax Coaches by Henny Komeklink and Tjeu Seeverens
Players:
- Playing Out of Your Mind, Developing Mental Toughness by Dr. Alan Goldberg
- The Vision of A Champion by Anson Dorrance
- The Champion Within, Developing Women Soccer Players by Lauren Gregg
10 Types of Speed
If one of your soccer goals involves speed (i.e. - being a more explosive dribbler, improving passing range, improve services from the outside, being more competitive winning 50/50's ) or you just want to be faster, THIS is a great article about the different types of speed from World Class Coaching.
Make sure to check out Part 2 - Neuromuscular or Physical Speed for stuff you can do at home to become faster.
Here is a quick rundown:
- Anticipation (understanding the game, preparing mentally, being ready, preparedness, pre-calculation of trajectory, speed, force…)
- Recognition (seeing a situation develop and knowing what to do, decision making speed, sensing changes in touch, sight and sound (tactile, visual and auditory indicators), cued by recognizing sequences or preparatory movements)
- Reaction (response time, neuromuscular, motor reaction sequencing, sensing time and decision time, improved by repetition of various neuromuscular skill work, efficiency in execution of specific motor patterns, “time between stimulus and response”, specific reaction times…)
- Acceleration (factor of strength, power, starting explosive strength, resistance to fatigue, genetic factors, mechanics of movement…)
- Deceleration (strength, understanding of movement, positioning, center of gravity, body control…)
- Transition (the point in which you transition from deceleration to acceleration – agility, core strength, proprioception, plyometric, neuromuscular efficiency in generating explosive force, stretch shortening cycle…)
- Speed Endurance – Max Speed (genetic factors, ability to relax, combination of V=S(L) x S(F), running economy and energy expenditure, also seen as a combination of horizontal thrust and vertical oscillation of the athletes center of gravity, rarely comes into play in team sports…)
- Speed Against an Opponent (combination of the 4 physical (neuromuscular) speed characteristics with the 3 mental (cognitive) characteristics, seeing changes in an opponent’s position, and reacting subconsciously to those, then possessing the physical ability to adjust or alter your speed to get the advantage…)
- Speed with a Ball/Bat/Racket (combination of the 4 physical speed characteristics and technical ball handling ability or skill, requires many repetitions to fine tune the precise motor skills, timing, tracking, trajectories,…)
- Speed with the Ball, Against and Opponent (This is the ultimate goal, it requires an broad understanding of the game and its limits, rules, and expectations: it also requires an awareness of your opponent (tactile, visual, auditory, etc), then the repetitions of skill
Close Control : Dembele
Moussa Dembele is what the Dutch would call "balvast" (difficult to get off the ball).
Notice how he never does anything super tricky. He just has close control.
LA Sol 2 - 0 FC Gold Pride
Gold Pride beaten. Marta is silly good. Samba beats everywhere. The Sol are super good and they are super organized defensively. Lots of skill and determination on display.
It was a great time out & well worth it.
Thanks to the players and families for making the trip.
See everybody on Wednesday.
FC Gold Pride vs LA Sol :: Sunday 4pm :: FSC /Internet
Make sure to watch the WPS this sunday.
FC Gold Pride vs LA Sol
Fox Soccer Channel @ 4pm or for those without FSC try Veetle.
Make sure to watch the stands for the Sac United crew.
See you there.
Time to Get Down To Business
Practice Next Week:
Wednesday: Principles of Attack
Thursday: Group Defending
As we reach the business end of the season, it's time time to earn your spot.
Come to practice and come to compete. Playing time from this point on in the season is earned in practice.
Freekicks = Be Creative
The key to a successful freekick is deception & creativity.
I would be willing to stay after practice to work with group who
wants to work on their freekicks. Just let me know.
Juggling
The development of a player's juggling ability can improve touch, balance, and coordination/agility. Developing a quality touch, players can weight their passes more accurately, have more confidence dribbling and controlling the ball under pressure and strike balls with various surface with precision.
Here are two U-20 WNT members doing a trick off competition --
(provide your own Music Of Choice :)
Goal!!!!!
I just found my favorite new soccer site: 101greatgoals.com
They have a recap of all the games played that day and have video highlights of all the goals.
Par example: Here is the highlights of Manchester United's win over Wigan on Wednesday that moves them 1 point from the English Premier League Championship.
And this is what it looks like when Barcelona wins the Copa Del Rey (puma prize to any player who can tell me what "Copa Del Rey" means)
It has become a site a visit daily.
Enjoy.
Word of the weekend Hydrate
With temperatures close to 100, it is important to prepare for Sunday's game by hydrating on Saturday.
Make sure to drink plenty of water.
Here is US Soccer's recommendations for hydration (pdf file: skip to "Fluid Guidelines" on page 3).
Start on Saturday and drink even if you aren't thirsty.
Staying on top of your hydration will let you perform better on Sunday.
HowTo: Defend in Midfield
Here is a video for all the players who have aspirations to play anywhere in the middle of the park or any players wanting to be better at defending.
This is Darren Fletcher. He plays for Manchester United and is what could be called an unsung hero.
Watch this 2 minute clip of him and this teammates defend as a team. It's from the BBC Match of the Day program.
Check out how Darren and his teammates communicate (talk, point) and work with each other to mark and defend.
BTW - if you want to watch the whole Match Of The Day, let me know and I'll bring you a copy.
This weeks Schedule
Monday:
1v1 back to goal, fitness, comp
Wednesday:
Principles of play - How defend as a group, speed & agility
Thursday:
Possession to score, freekicks and corners
#1
Robin van Persie bundles over Cristiano Ronaldo 40 yards out and the referee awards Manchester United a free kick
#2
Cristiano Ronaldo gets up after the foul to take the free kick. He takes his trademark stance before unleashing a powerful strike that starts outside the right-hand post but bends just inside at the last moment - and into the net.
#3
Practice Schedule
Practices this week are on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday
Monday: 1v1, fitness, goals, captains
Wednesday: Tactical awareness: Visual queues for possession soccer, fitness, goals
Thursday: Speed & Coordination, Team shape, set pieces, crossing & finishing
Soccer TV - Champions League - ESPN2 11:45 Tues & Wed
The odds are against Arsenal after the 1–0 defeat at Old Trafford. In their last five away matches in the knock-out phase of the Champions League, United have conceded a single goal, and that was in the last-16 tie with Lyon in February 2008. This does not perturb Wenger, who is emboldened by the steep improvement of his squad. More.
Wednesday: ESPN2 11:45 kick-off -- "The Big One" Barcelona vs Chelsea
Last week Chelsea played the most destructive soccer with their initiative 1-9-0-1 formation. Now playing at home they will have to come out to play. The last team Barcelona played had the same predicament and it didn't turn out so well for them.
Don't miss it.
Soccer Nutrition Information
There are many advantages to being a Sac United member. One is the wealth of soccer resources provided by the coaching staff and the connections they have.
The following is Nutritional Information provided by Sonoma State Soccer for their soccer athletes.
It is important that we keep these nutritional guidelines for the players around competition times like tournaments.
Spring Evaluations
We will have 3 sets of evaluations this season: Spring, Fall, Winter.
Evaluations help players to identify areas of improvement and to get feedback on their soccer progress.
This is an important step in helping players achieve their soccer goals.
Game Time
Time to get focused, set your goals, and get pumped up.
To help, I give you the highlights of last weeks best WPS game.
Who wants to go watch FC Gold Pride play the LA Sol on May 24th?
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