With so many spring Cup soccer games being played at this time of year, it gives me a chance to go out and see some teams play, but more importantly for me, to go see some players that I have coached and trained play.



So over the last 3 weeks I have watched 0ver 10 youth games being played. When I go to a game, I watch how both teams warm up, I watch how the soccer players conduct themselves during the pregame warm up, I watch for what soccer skills are being worked on before the game even starts.



I must say, while 1 or 2 teams did a good job in preparing for their match, most players and teams were unprepared for the soccer game to start. In most occassions these teams also didn't produce quality soccer either once the game started.



But one of the main problems that I saw over these last 3 weeks was that most players lacked technical soccer skills. It was apparent in their warmup and it certainly was apparent in the game.



I was talking about this point with a friend of mine who coaches a Division I College Women's program. His assessment was, players lack the technical skills to play the game at a higher level. For the better part of an hour, we discussed why is that, what can be done about it. I'll report those specific thoughts in a future post. But for now, the general comment was we need our players to have better soccer skills. Specifically:

• clean 1st touch


• ability to beat a defender 1v1


• properly weighted pass


• ball striking


• composure with the ball

So coaches, instead of rolling out the ball and yelling "play" at every practice, please start working on and ensuring that your soccer players have massive soccer skills.

Have a great day!

Gary

Soccer players need Active Dynamic Warm Up

Have you ever watched a soccer team start a game and within eight to ten minutes they are down by a goal or two? I see it all the time. It isn't always due to one team being superior to the other team. As a metter of fact, in many cases, these teams that go down early come back and win the game.

If teams would consider getting their soccer players warmed up more properly, this slow start could be avoided.

An active dynamic warm up first starts by getting the player to raise their core body temperature one to two degrees. For every degree that a soccer player can increase their core body temperature, they get one to three percent more power.

Just jogging around the field one time does not warm the core temperature up sufficiently. I see so many teams do just that however beforethey play their game.

Soccer players as well as other athletes, need to first raise their core temperature and then stretch dynamically. Doing this will help a soccer player avoid injury plus allow him or her to be ready to play at a high level as the game commences. Doing a proper active dynamic warm up will help all players and ultimately help the team be more successful.

Stay tuned for the next post as it will be on do youth players really need to be so technical with the ball?

Have a great day everyone!

Gary

Dynamic Warm Up for Soccer Players

Hey Everyone!



There are so many soccer players and teams still warming up improperly, it is scary!



I see too many soccer teams take a light jog around half the field and then go into the middle of the field, make a circle and stretch statically. A static stretch is basically a stationary stretch where you hold the stretch for maybe 10-15 seconds and then release the stretch. You do not want to statically stretch before a game or a practice, instead soccer players want to do an active dynamic warm up before the game or practice.



If your soccer team stretches statically before the game, stop it and introduce them to the active dynamic warm up. Here is why; when you stretch statically, you start to microscopically tear the muscles you are stretching. When that happens, your body starts to inhibit your neuro-muscular system. Your neuro-muscular system is the system soccer players need to use to be athletic. So instead of shutting it down, you will want to activate it. In other words, using an active dynamic warmup will activate your neuro-muscular sytem allowing the player to be more explosive and be more ready to play their soccer game.



In the next post, I'll talk about why to raise a soccer players core temperature up before dynamically stretching.



Gary Christopher

http://www.soccerandspeedcoach.com/