How to Develop Leaders

Posted on May 1, 2015May 2, 2015 by Ole Soccer

How do you choose captains for your teams? Do you mold a player into a leader of their team?

Leadership qualities are taught by the coach of each team. The saying goes, “in order to lead, you must first be a great follower.”

Learn how to develop leaders

We have all followed a coach at one point of our lives and we continue to follow even if we are leaders in our own way. I am a father and husband who believes he is leading his daughter down the right path. Same goes for my soccer teams, I need to make sure I give my players the correct advice in order for them to make their own decisions on the field.

Visual Learners

I think it is safe to say that most people are visual learners. We must see something first in order to understand it better. I am of the belief that if you have players on your team that are not doing a drill or executing your instructions correctly, you must be able to show them yourself.

If you are a coach, be sure to raise the bar of expectations for each drill a little more each time. This may be doing a certain drill quicker, more accurate, stronger, or just limiting mistakes. What I like to do at my sessions is have a contest to see who finishes the drill the quickest.

Example – First one to 50 bells, toe taps, scissors, etc.

If you are a parent, be sure to ask your child if they enjoy the challenges their coach provides or if their coach challenges them enough. We all know our kids best so if you think your child has leadership qualities be sure to ask them questions.

Keep the drills fresh

Players tend to get complacent after doing the same drills over and over. It is the coach’s job to keep the training sessions fresh and exciting to bring about the best in each player.

A great way to see who your team leaders are is to put them in tough situations. A great drill I use is playing 3 v 2 or a keep away game of 8 v 4. The team with the least amount of players is forced to work together to win the ball if they lose it and work hard to maintain possession as well. You will see right away if there are leadership qualities in each player when they are up against the wall.

Who is hungry for the ball? Who talks and helps their teammates?

Everyone is a leader

Each player is their own leader and must learn to lead themselves first in order to lead their team. Once your players understand to push themselves first and lead by example, they will in turn push each other to become their best.

As a coach and player myself, I know what good leadership is on and off the field. Before you step on the pitch, you must make sure you are focused. If your mind is on something other than the task at hand, you have already failed.

Kids can be all taught to be leaders and it is vital that the coach reiterates this message to everyone. Parents must also instill the belief of leadership in their child to perform at their highest level.

Here are a few ways we found help improve leadership in our players

Who is your favorite player?

What does your favorite player do best?

What can you improve on the most?

This will have them analyze themselves and realize they need to push themselves

How good do you want to be?

You may get mixed answers but most young players will say, “be a professional soccer player!”
Here you explain that in order for them to get there they need to improve themselves and their teammates

Are you giving it your all?

From 1-10, how hard are you working right now? Can you work harder?
This tells them they can and should work harder

Are you a good teammate?

Is this a team sport or individual sport?
Explain that the objective of the game is to be a team in order to win
Win and lose as a team

Learn to analyze

These are a few questions you can ask your players or child in order to get them thinking differently. The important thing to remember is that they need to realize where they can go by first leading themselves.

The beautiful game is beautiful for many reasons but one of my favorite reasons is to watch kids learn about themselves and grow as human beings. It is rewarding to have a great impact on futures of the children and how they can become leaders on and off the field.

Join the Community

Share your thoughts and ways you lead your team or players. We would love to learn from everyone who shares the love of the game. Please comment and connect with us to create a great learning community for improvement and development!

Network with Coaches | Ole Soccer

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Ole Soccer

There are few better feelings than watching your players develop through your training. Whether this is recreation, YMCA, AYSO, or at the club level. We all believe we are doing the right things for our players (I hope), but are we really the best coach for them?

How do you know when you need to let a player go to a better team? This is a tough question but here are a few reasons why it is so important to network with coaches.

Network to learn

Amy has been training with your team for 2 years now and she is your best player on the team. You know that she is the go to player for your team and without her you are just an average to below average team. What do you do when she can not make the games? How do you feel when you see other coaches talking to her parents trying to recruit her? This is a very common situation in the youth soccer world nowadays. You see coaches from other teams trying to hand their cards or swap contact info sweet talking the parents all the time.

Learn to let go

I have been in this position myself and the fact of the matter is that if your player is too good for your team, you need to let them spread their wings. There is no shame in letting your best player go to a better team where he or she will develop with better players. As coaches it is our duty to make sure they learn as much as they can when they train with us. If you are truly there to help the players, you know when to let a player go. But where do you recommend them to? Where can you both part ways and leave on good terms? This is where networking with other coaches comes in.

If you had been building relationships with other coaches, you would be able to point them in the right direction. I think this is a common mistake many coaches make in being selfish when it comes to giving their players a better opportunity. As a coach myself, I know when a child is ready for a new challenge and try to give the parents all the tools to have their child improve. There will be a point where you can no longer teach them, they need a new coach.

Be yourself

What I have found out is that if you are to genuinely be outgoing and learn from other coaches, exchange contact info and just be friendly, you will be able to become a better coach. You will feel comfortable having your best player go tryout for a better team when you know the type of coach who is in charge of that team.

Last thing a coach wants to do is find out that their player has been secretly training with their rivals for weeks and one day breaks the news to the coach that they will no longer be with the team. This is a bad feeling, situations like this lead to bad relationships which is the last thing you want as a coach or parent.

Here are a few ways to avoid a bad break up:

Network with other coaches – this will allow you to refer a team or coach to a player if they decide to move on
Have great communication with the player and parents – ask the right questions to make sure they are happy with your coaching
Ask the player and parents what goals they have – know whether your team/coaching can be the vehicle to their goals
Be constantly improving your team with better players or better training to improve your players – work on your coaching education, recruiting, webinars, licenses, videos, communication, etc.

These are just a few ways to make sure you’re doing the right things for your teams and also for your reputation as a coach. Know when to take a step back and put yourself in the player’s shoes as well as their parents shoes to see what would be best.

Letting your best player go is one of the hardest things because as a coach you feel a sense of responsibility for having them achieve their potential so far. We need to remember that it is never about us, it is always about the best interest of our players.

If you have some good tips on what you can do to help your players move on or suggestions on networking with other coaches, please share your comments below!

Ready for Club Soccer

Posted on April 7, 2015February 7, 2018 by Ole Soccer

Picture this, your son or daughter has just played their first season of soccer with a recreation league. He or she is scoring lots of goals, is faster than the other players, and even kicks harder than most of the other kids. You get excited and see more and more parents compliment your child’s skills. Does this mean that they are ready for a higher level of competition?

Are they ready for Club Soccer?

This is a tough question for many parents. It basically comes down to the child, whether they enjoy the sport enough to continue and compete.

As a parent myself to a one year old baby girl, I hope my daughter grows and shares the same passion for soccer the way I do one day. Throughout my experience as a player and coach, I have witnessed parents push their child to compete and train to a point of discontent. The child grows to dislike the sport and only participates by force. There should be constant communication between the parent and child on how things are going and what their goals are.

These types of conversations should be every few weeks to make sure there is a balance.

When your child gets scouted, or when you the parent thinks they are ready for academy or club level training do your research. Parents need to do their homework and see if they are able to really commit to that level of training. Lots of parents have the mentality of treating club soccer like a recreation level team and show up to training or games when its convenient.

Willing to go the Extra Mile?

There are a ton of “sacrifices” on the parent’s end as well as the child’s effort and commitment to the team to be there. Parents must really ask themselves can they make 2 practices minimum a week and possibly 1 or 2 games each weekend as well as traveling long distances for the games. Am I ready for club soccer as a parent?

This takes a toll financially as well as sacrificing time away from the seasonal lifestyle you might have if you have had your child in a rec league. Are you willing to commit? If you and your family have said yes so far, then that’s awesome! If not, you may want to evaluate your current position and give it some time.

Once again, am I ready for club soccer?

How young is too young?

How young can my child start playing at a club level? Nowadays, there are some clubs or academies that start playing as young as U7 (6/7 year olds). I have personally seen some U7 teams play better than some U15 teams, the talent is amazing!

This is not the norm but the chances are much better for your child to becoming a well rounded player if they start playing at a high level very young. The best thing to do is to have them start playing organized soccer at a young age, maybe AYSO, the YMCA or at your local recreational park. The cost is much lower than club training and the kids just go out there and run around together burning some energy. But if you are looking to have them start training and learning the game much sooner there are clinics club teams offer so they can start learning.

Great Coaching

I have the philosophy of educating the youngest players on my U6 team to know the fundamentals. If you have a great coach that knows what he or she is doing and you are seeing results in your child, stay where you are at. But if you feel that your child could be learning more and the coach is not as qualified to develop your child, by all means please find a new coach for your child.

If your child does not develop into a great player after playing youth soccer after 4-5 years, you can not blame the coach, you must blame yourself for not looking for better training.

Where do I look?

How do you really know your child is ready for club soccer? The only way to find out is to have them go and tryout for a local club team. There are multiple levels where your child can play at. For example in Southern California, there is the Coast Soccer League where they have Bronze, Silver, Gold and Premier.

There is a higher level league focused on more of a developmental approach called Southern California Developmental Soccer League or SCDSL that has 3 tiers. You have flight 1 which is the best, flight 2 which is pretty competitive and flight 3 which is also pretty competitive but focused much more on making the team competitive.

Now if your child does not make the cut for a local club, ask if they can be a practice player for the time being until they improve to possibly make that team or prepare for another tryout with a different club team. The most important thing is to get your foot in the door, if you and your child want to really improve and compete you must be willing to put in the work to see results. Some kids are extremely talented, but most of the professional players you see today just worked harder than the most talented players growing up to get where they are at today.

Make sure they are happy

I will leave you with this, finding a club team is not easy. Find a team and club where your child is happy. Make sure the coach does a good job to keep the team chemistry and develops your child. There will always be a better coach, but what are you willing to sacrifice for your child to be on that team? It always comes down to sacrifice, I am truly grateful for my parents who did make this sacrifice for my brother and I that gave us the opportunity to play club soccer. Not sure how they did it, but they made it happen for us and thank them for everything they continue to do.

Join us!

If you live in the Los Angeles area and looking for club level training for your child, let us help you. Ole Soccer can help find you a team or if your child is between the ages of 3-13 we do have teams available for them to come out and develop with. Our focus is on the youngest ones starting at age 3 to show them the fundamentals that go a long way.

Contact us and share your thoughts below on what else parents can do to make sure their child is ready for club soccer.

How to Pass a Soccer Ball

Posted on March 26, 2015May 15, 2015 by Ole Soccer

We see you passing that soccer ball around with your child and friends, but are you doing it correctly?

Want to know how do you improve your technique?
Want to correctly pass and receive a soccer ball?
What is the correct way of passing and receiving the ball?

In this article on how to pass a soccer ball, we answer all these questions and challenge you to improve!

First off, warming up is extremely important before any game or training. A warm-up with a soccer ball does two important things:

Warm-Up

1. Gets your body loose and muscles ready for a workout

2. Gives you a feel for the ball to practice your passing accuracy and touch

Next, are you looking to be a bit more precise with those short or longer passes? Do you use the inside of your foot, laces or your toe (not recommended)? If you are passing the ball short distances we advise on using the inside of either foot. What is important is the way you strike the ball with the internal area of your foot.

Please see photo below to see what the internal part of the foot looks like.

inside pass technique — How to pass a soccer ball

Now that we have explained what part of the foot you strike the ball with you must now lock your ankle to get a firm touch. If you have ever seen a golfer swing the club and notice how accurate he/she is or seen a basketball player have a sweet jumper, soccer is very similar because you must constantly practice the stroke/technique of striking the ball correctly locking your ankle.

Next Steps

See instructions and photos below.

1. Put your heel down and point your toe up so the ball strikes the center of your foot

2. Lock that position and make the ankle firm so when striking the ball you get power and accuracy

3. Position your hips to your target and swing your foot with the technique from 1 & 2 above for best results

XA Passing inside of foot — How to pass a soccer ball

Do you think you mastered it?

Once you practice this and feel comfortable with short passes, you can take a few steps back and practice from a further distance challenging yourself with 2 touch or 1 touch passes directly to your partners feet. Continue to practice accuracy with short and long distances using both left and right foot to improve your overall game.

How do you improve your passing? What are a few ways you can improve your accuracy? Please share below and let us know what else players can do to develop.

Learning and Development

Posted on March 26, 2015May 15, 2015 by Ole Soccer

Soccer Fundamentals for Kids

Is winning everything? Why do we emphasize winning to our kids other than teaching them to play correctly? Does losing only consist of failure?

Ole Soccer Camps believes that in order to excel and perform on the field it is important to learn the fundamentals of the game first. Understanding the game is essential early on. It helps a player analyze and make quick decisions. Although winning is rewarding, playing correctly, being able to complete a pass and engaging in teamwork is the essence of the game of soccer. What would a player gain if they learned to score but not to dribble or pass the ball? This in turn would be progressing backwards and lead to poor results.

Positions

As each coach’s training style varies, introducing and constantly emphasizing the rules, formation and positions is very important. It strengthens their confidence on the field. What parents would oppose to having their child(ren) stand out and execute their position, if not multiple positions? None. Instead of always passing the ball to Johnny to score, other players could get a chance to dribble, pass and shoot.

Let’s take a look at two examples of how learning to play multiple positions helps development.

One Dimensional

Little Johnny is a super star as striker scoring multiple goals every game but since he is a goal machine his coach and parents only want him to play striker. As little Johnny gets a little older his speed and skill plateaus. He now becomes an average striker. Johnny joins a new soccer team. He is great at running fast and shooting but his new team wants him to play defense. At his first game Johnny looks confused on the field. He can run fast, but does not recognize the position or whether he is being double teamed. Johnny’s self-esteem and confidence lowers. It becomes obvious that he is not comfortable on the field. The coach subs him out the rest of the game.

This example shows the importance of playing multiple positions to develop and continue to grow overall in the sport. Some of the best defenders at the highest level were once forwards at the youth level, converted left or right backs now at the professional level. A great example is Spain and FC Barcelona left back, Jordi Alba who came through FC Barcelona Masia as a leading goal scorer.

Let’s take a look at the next example below:

Multidimensional

When Nancy began to play soccer, she was taught to play all eleven positions. As a matter of fact, she would even volunteer for the positions kids on her team didn’t want to play. Her parents and coach understood the importance of having each child rotate to learn a different position every few games for the team’s development. As Nancy started to get a little older she became the most versatile player on the team and played each position effectively. Nancy was able to score goals, block goals, slide tackle, win headers, etc. When Nancy turned seventeen she was playing at the highest academy level in Southern California. College scouts reach out to the coach and Director of Coaching trying to recruit her. Nancy’s coach, her parents and her drive to learn at a young age boosted her development in soccer. It opened doors to multiple opportunities.

To recap both examples, Johnny and Nancy are obviously fictitious but, the realities of the events happen. Ole Soccer Camps believes in learning the fundamentals of soccer early on. Learning to trap and receive effectively as well as carrying out multiple positions helps the youth progress in their soccer careers. It reinforces their understanding of the game and builds their confidence to one day compete at the highest level globally.

Ole Soccer Camps challenges you to join the soccer revolution and share the importance of learning and development. Share this article with friends and family. Leave a comment below and let us know how you are developing soccer and how you are going to change the sport for the youth!

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Thanks again for reading!

How to Receive a Pass

Posted on March 26, 2015May 15, 2015 by Ole Soccer

Now that you know how to correctly pass the ball, the most important thing when playing soccer would be your first touch! Can you correctly receive a pass?? The best soccer players in all positions master this skill and constantly try and improve on a daily basis.

What is the easiest way of receiving the ball? That is tough to answer because it depends on how the ball is heading your way, in the air, bouncing, on the ground…just to name a few. What we do know is that you must be ready and know what you will do with your first touch before receiving the ball. If it takes you 2, 3 touches to control the ball that should be a red flag!

You must master your first touch receiving the ball in different ways before moving on to other areas of improvement.

What are a few ways of receiving a pass? Let’s take a look at the Do’s and Don’ts:

Do’s –

1. Receive with the internal part of your foot with your heel down and toe up just like you would give a solid pass (This prevents the ball from going under your foot if your foot was flat)

2. If the ball is bouncing in the air, point your toe out and guide the ball down gently, so the ball does not bounce off your foot and go to the opposing player

3. Inside or outside first time touches into space using internal or external part of your foot

Advanced

4. Outside part of the foot is recommended for advanced players and NOT beginners that are just learning. Inside of the foot must be mastered first at a young age that allows them to face the field

5. Use the sole of your foot to stop and drag any direction (used often in Futsal) usually when pass comes to you on the ground

Don’ts –

1. Use the sole/bottom of your foot (for beginners)

2. Stop the ball with your shins putting your feet together to prevent it from getting by you

3. Stomp/step on the ball when the ball is bouncing, you are less likely to fully control it this way

4. Use the outside part of your foot. This is a very bad habit at a young age if you have not mastered the inside first

Now that you know the Do’s and Don’ts of trapping the ball, you can master your first touch! There are no excuses on not having anyone to pass the ball with…use a wall and the wall will give you a pass right back helping you improve. If you do have friends who would like to pass the ball around, be sure to remember these steps above. The more your practice the sooner your first touch will improve.

If you have some better tips on how to receive the ball, please share. We love to learn from everyone and that way our viewers get to more value from sharing your opinions.