Soccer Playing Tip: Attacking 1 v 1

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the importance of winning your individual battles/matchups and how doing so help you stand apart from other players and help your team win games. That week, I looked at things from the defensive side of the ball (you can read that article by clicking here). This week, I want to shift our perspective to the attacking side of the ball and teach you how to win your 1 v 1 attacking matchups.

First things first is knowing when to attack and when to maintain possession for your team. Attacking 1 v 1 is a risk, but it’s a risk that pays dividends if it pays off as it leads to high-quality scoring chances. My general rule of thumb is this:

If you can read the numbers on the back of the closest defender, then you have the right to go forward.

If this is the case, it means you are already beyond the closest defender and can likely attack open space and isolate one of the defenders. This means moving smartly before you get the ball to put yourself in a dangerous position when you receive it.

Now, once you do receive the ball, here’s how you win your matchup:

1.       Drive with speed. Speed kills in soccer and is lethal in 1 v 1 situations. Particularly if you have an outside back isolated, being able to get that player moving backwards puts you at a significant competitive advantage when you are attacking 1 v 1.

2.       Push the ball past the defender. This is where a scissor or shoulder fake may come in handy to get the defender off-balance, but at the end of the day, we are trying to get both the ball and our body beyond the defender so that they are no longer involved in the play, or are forced to pull you down and concede a free-kick.

3.       Take a big touch into the open space and change your pace. Once you are past the defender, you cannot let them back into the play. If you drove with speed, they are already on their heels, if you put them off balance, then you are already past them with them facing the wrong direction, so now you just have to make it a footrace to the ball that you can easily win.

There you have it. Your step-by-step guide to winning your attacking matchups. Move proactively to put yourself into a dangerous position when you receive the ball, drive with speed to get the defender on their heels, get them off balance and push the ball past them, then take a big touch to make it a footrace that you will win.

A Solid Foundation is Key to Success in Sports

Parents will often approach me and ask what their son/daughter can do to get better at sports. Success in sports requires proficiency and eventually mastery of 3 main skills:

1.       Sport-Specific Technical Skills

2.       Athleticism

3.       Tactical Understanding/IQ

Of course, there are other elements at play, but the systematic development of these three skills will drive a player’s success in sports.

In this country, I don’t think we do a particularly great job developing any of these skills at our youth levels. I’m going to use soccer as an example because it’s the sport I’m most comfortable with, but the concepts apply to all team-sports.

If we want to develop mastery of these three skills, we must start by building a strong foundation.

For technical skills, this means starting with mastery on the ball. Young kids should spend the majority of practice with a ball on their foot. The more touches they get at an early age, the more comfortable they will get, the more confident they will become, and the more success they will have as they grow and develop higher-level skills.

For athletic skills, our focus should be on developing fundamental movement skills through play. With early specialization running rampant and physical education continuing to be cut from schools, this responsibility now falls on the sport-coach. Every practice, kids should be jumping, skipping, hoping, crawling, balancing, rolling, and developing the foundational skills they will need to have future sporting success.

Lastly, tactical skill development comes down to practice design. Drills should be designed in ways where kids develop foundational tactical skills while developing their fundamental technical skills. For example, simply having players dribble in space while playing red light/green light rather than dribbling through cones will teach players how to find open space, become aware of their surroundings, and react to a constantly changing environment, just like they will have to in the game.

If you are a parent who is coaching your child’s soccer team, and would like help designing impactful practices that will build a strong foundation for the players, email us and we’ll set up a time to chat.

Soccer Training Tip: Practice at Game Speed

One of the keys to having success on gameday is practicing like you want to play. This starts with the coach by choosing exercises that actually translate to the game, but it then trickles down to the players to practice at game speed. While this seems apparently obvious, it happens far less than you think.

In my 10 years of coaching, I’ve had very few players who bring the “game-like” intensity on their own without needing to be pushed, and I’ve been there too. Unsurprisingly, these players have been the ones who have had the best careers because every time they step on the field to practice, they aren’t just going through the motions, they are actually preparing themselves for what’s going to happen in the game.

At the highest level, practices often become faster and more intense than the game itself. Bill Walton once said that when he played for John Wooden, the game was actually significantly slower than what they had been doing at practice.

So my challenge to you is this: if you want to become the best player you can be, come to training with a new mentality. Come out with the intention to practice at game speed. Move hard off the ball, talk relentlessly, play firm passes, defend like an animal; play at practice like you want to play in the game. Do this for one season, and I promise you you’re going to get noticed, you’re going to improve, and you’re going to do better on gameday.

If you want help developing skills like this that will take your game to the next level and the coaching to accelerate the process, then check out our Soccer Academies. Our academies are the perfect complement to your school training as we help you maximize your potential and become an impactful player on the field.

Practice like this:

Your Fall Season’s Over…So Now What?

As the weather gets colder and fall seasons come to a close, I want to take a few minutes to discuss some viable next-steps for the winter depending on your age, goals, and ability level, to improve at your craft and come back next fall ready to take the world by storm.

First, let me make something extremely clear. I am adamantly against early specialization. For those that don’t know, early specialization is exactly what it sounds like, specializing in one sport at an early age/early in athlete’s development. Early specialization has become a huge problem in this country for many reasons, and is far too expansive a topic to dive into in this blog, but be on the lookout for deceptive coaches pushing athletes to specialize early for their own financial gain. Without going too deep, early specialization leads to overuse injuries, a lack of physical literacy, coordination, and movement development in children, and early burnout.

With that in mind, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact age or ability that children should begin to specialize in one sport, because in an ideal world, they never would. Playing multiple sports allows them to develop their athleticism safely, utilize different muscles/movement patterns, and be introduced to a plethora of different stimuli that force them to solve new problems. Not the mention they will develop great social and character skills by playing multiple sports.

With all that being said, in today’s cut-throat sporting landscape, it’s hard to feel like you child isn’t falling behind if they aren’t investing copious amounts of time/energy to their sport, and it sort of makes sense. At the end of the day, consistent effort will most likely breed success, so the more consistently an athlete invests effort into their sport, the more they will develop. While this principle bears out, an athlete must train smartly to ensure that he/she is developing appropriately and avoiding the common errors of early specialization and winter training.

So, with that context established, let me give you some viable options for this winter to continue to develop without worrying about putting your child at risk or in harms way.

1. If your child is younger than 14 years old, get them in some sort of movement-based program, martial arts, or gymnastic-type training to compliment their primary sport. The components of these kinds of activities will build the fundamental movement skills and coordination athletes need to have success in their sporting endeavors, while doing so in a fun, exciting, and safe environment. Putting your child in a program like this is far and away the best thing you can do as a parent for their long-term athletic development.

2. If your child is 14 or older, get them in some sort of formal strength and conditioning/athletic development program. Do NOT allow them to join the gym on their own, where they will develop bad habits, put themselves at risk to be injured, and most likely set back their athletic development, making them worse at their primary sport. At this age, training harder is not always the best option because athletes typically don’t know what they are doing. Training with smart coaches who will keep them safe, teach them lifting principles, and get them comfortable in the weight room, is a much better option.

3. Look for a 1-2 day/week sport-specific program. Here’s where the magic of balance truly happens. Once your child is playing a different sport/enrolled in some sort of movement/athletic development program, find a program where they can work with a coach 1-2 days/week for sport-specific development. I would steer clear of anything more than 2 days/week, and 1 day/week truly is the sweet spot. It’s the spot where athletes can continue to invest effort and improve in their primary sport, without being subjected to the risks of early specialization.

There you have it. Hopefully you now have a clear picture of what to look for this winter, and what to steer clear of, if you hope to continue your child’s development in their primary sport. As a conclusion, I want to give you as a parent a quick checklist to follow to simplify this process:

1. Enroll child in secondary sport.

2. Depending on age, enroll child in some sort of movement development/athletic development program with a coach who will keep them safe and develop them properly.

3. Enroll child in 1-2 day/week sport-specific development program.

If you want to inquire about working with us for any of these services, please do so HERE.

Thanks for reading, we hope to work with you soon to safely develop your child and allow them to reach their athletic potential and dominate their sporting endeavors.

Until next time,

-JL

Playing Tip: Movement off the Ball

Movement off the ball. A skill that is underappreciated, underdeveloped, and incredibly impactful. When we spectate soccer, we tend to follow the ball. We see the magnificent shots, breathtaking passes, and extraordinary dribbles. What we often don’t see is the player’s movement prior to receiving the ball to properly position him or herself in a dangerous spot to make those game-changing plays when they get the ball, nor their teammates’ movement that opens up the space that allows them to get into those dangerous positions.

I think Kevin De Bruyne and Man City do this as well as anyone or any team I’ve ever seen. Sure, De Bruyne is sensational to watch with the ball at his feet, hardly ever making the wrong play and often leaving the audience breathless, but his movement, and his teammates movement without the ball, pretty much never stops. He’s constantly moving to better position himself to make game-changing plays when he does receive the ball, and his teammates are constantly moving to open up that space for him.

With this picture painted, we can begin to understand that smart movement typically precedes breathtaking play, and all players have the potential to dramatically impact the game without ever even touching the ball. With this in mind, I’d love to share a few tips that will improve a player’s movement right away.

1. Move frequently behind defenders. The more you move, the more defenders have to account for you and the higher the likelihood they lose track of you. This becomes infinitely harder if you build the habit of moving behind defenders. Don’t run in their field of vision, run behind them, where they have to physically turn their head to see you, drop to cover you, or let you go free, trusting another teammate to pick you up. The rule I tell my players is this: if you receive the ball and can read the number of the closest defender, you have the freedom to go forward, if you can’t read the number, you are probably going to be under pressure and can’t move forward. Thinking this way forces players to move smartly prior to receiving the ball so that they can attack when they receive it.

2. Don’t suffocate the ball. When a teammate has time and space on the ball, move AWAY from the teammate. Doing this allows you to break a line of defensive pressure, and puts you in a dangerous position when you receive it. On the other hand, if your teammate is under intense pressure, move TOWARDS the ball to become an easy outlet/passing option to relieve the pressure.

3. Run in behind. The more the defense becomes stretched, the more space for your teammates to work. One easy way to stretch the defense is to make frequent runs behind the oppositions’ back line. Like the first tip, it forces the defense to account for you and makes it significantly harder on them to stay organized. It also pushes them backwards, creating more space for your teammates to move into. Lastly, when you do receive the ball, it leads to great goal scoring opportunities. It’s a high effort to low reward ratio, meaning you may have to make 10 hard runs behind the opposition before you even receive the ball, however, when you do receive that ball, you are going to receive it in a position to make a game-changing play.

Hopefully I’ve painted a picture of the importance of movement off the ball, and given the reader a few quick tips to become a better mover.

Want to work with us to improve this skill (and others) to maximize your ability? Contact us to schedule your initial consultation. We hope to hear from you soon!

-JL

What Makes a Good Athletic Development Program?

Like coaching, strength and conditioning is an industry without best practices or professional standards. It’s riddled with different beliefs and opinions on the best ways to get results, and contradicting information runs rampant. Everyone from the 30 year veteran still writing programs like it’s 1980, to the unqualified fitness influencer citing sources from 1912 explaining how water is inherently bad for athletic development (yes, that actually happened), puts out information, muddying the water for those of us trying to simply do what’s best for our athletes. With that in mind, I want to lay out a few components that make a good (and safe) athletic development program, so that the reader can begin to understand what they should look for.

1. The program keeps athletes safe. As crazy as it sounds, this isn’t the first thing many coaches think of when building/designing their programs. Far too often, coaches have other priorities that supersede the athletes’ safety. Look no further than coaches who use fitness as a punishment to see that this mindset still exists. A safe program will be extremely simple and will feel like it’s building you up rather than breaking you down. Beyond that, safe programs won’t ask you to do anything you can’t currently do. They will meet you where you’re at and progress from there, rather than asking you to start from a level you aren’t ready for.

2. Speaking of progression, a good athletic development program will slowly and appropriately progress athletes. The idea behind a great program isn’t to crush athletes, it’s to apply just enough stress to stimulate adaptation so that their bodies can adapt at an appropriate rate. Over time, a good program will slowly apply more stress after the body has adapted to continue this progressive adaptation process, a process aptly named, “progressive overload.”

3. With that in mind, a good athletic development program will always feel manageable/attainable. Sure, it may be challenging, but it will never feel overwhelming. If you feel like it’s asking you to do too much, it probably is.

4. Check your sourcing. Avoid programs or tips that come from people who are not qualified to give them. Instead, look for tips and programs from people who develop athletes similar to you for a living and have a collection of success stories.

5. Lastly, and most importantly, a good program will put the athlete first. It doesn’t necessarily need to be personalized to you, but it needs to fit your needs. Make sure that the program you complete will actually help you reach your goals and improve your performance on the field/court/ice/etc.

Hopefully, sticking to these tips will help you weed out the bad information/programs from the good ones, and will allow you to reach your goals and have success in your sporting endeavors. If you want to avoid wading through the weeds all-together, simply contact us, and let us work with you reach your athletic potential.

Three Easy Recovery Tips That Few Do to Improve Performance

Recovery. Something that everyone knows is beneficial yet most people completely ignore, or at best, have at the bottom of their priority list. I get it. Life is stressful, there’s so much going on. We all have social lives and other responsibilities outside of athletics. With the hectic nature of daily life in mind, I wanted to give you three easy tips to increase your recovery with the end goal of improving your performance.

First, a super brief overview. I look at recovery as the process of maximizing adaptation (physiological development), and returning the body to an appropriate level to perform or train again. Recovery methods, therefore, are any focused, intentional, or deliberate implement we use to increase adaptation or speed up the time it takes to reach that level where we can train/perform optimally again. With this definition in mind, there are a ton of recovery methods we utilize to reach this appropriate level, however, I want to give you three incredibly simple ones that you can do on your own that are habitual in nature and can become a part of your daily routine.

1. Drink more water. Obvious, of course, but something that few do. We all know that hydrating properly will improve performance on the field. What many fail to realize is that proper hydration will also increase recovery post game/workout. Here’s my recommendation to build the habit: track your water intake and shoot for a gallon a day. Simply tracking the amount of water consumed will force you to become aware and deliberately focus on the goal. To make it even easier on yourself, invest in a 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon bottle and set the goal of drinking it (2 in the case of the 1/2 gallon) by the end of the day. Start early and sip frequently. By the end of your first week, it will become habitual and you won’t even be thinking about water intake anymore, simply reaping the recovery/performance benefits.

2. SLEEP. The achilleas heel of most high school or college athletes, sleeping is the almost always the best investment they can make. There is no greater habit change these athletes could make that will reap more benefits than improving the duration and quality of sleep. I get it. I’ve been there. With the obligation of life, sleep is very often pushed to the bottom of the priority list, and we almost celebrate those who function on less sleep. We paint an unrealistic picture that we must sacrifice sleep in order to achieve our goals. This is pretty silly and idiotic since sleep enhances pretty much every physiological and neurological function, allowing us greater opportunity to achieve our goals. Adequate sleep allow us to function optimally and enhance our recovery and performance more than just about anything else. Here’s my tip: PUT THE PHONE AWAY. Set an alarm for 30-45 minutes before you want to go to sleep, and when that timer goes off, put your phone on a charger outside your bedroom and leave it. I promise you, your social life will be fine, and your quality of life, recovery, and performance will increase exponentially. This little strategy will not only force you to close your eyes and go to sleep, it will also start the habit of a nighttime routine, which is a great way to fall asleep faster and increase the quality of sleep.

3. MOVE. At the end of the day, all our deliberate recovery methods come down to one main goal: push blood through the body. Blood is what carries the fresh oxygen and amino acids we need to recover throughout the body, as well as carrying away the waste products that leave us unable to perform. The best way to speed that process up is to move. Cal Dietz, who is known as one of the greatest strength and conditioning coaches of all time uses one method: 2-5 hours post game, go for a 30 minute walk at a brisk pace. That’s it. That’s his main method of recovery for his athletes, and it makes perfect sense. Think about what most of us do post-game. We crash. Completely. We left it all on the field and are totally spent. However, doing this does not push the blood throughout the body and slows down the recovery process. Here’s my tip: build the habit of walking into your post-game routine. The trick with this one is it has to come at least 2 hours after the game so that your body is already in a recovery state and you can just enhance it. Sooner than that, and your body thinks you’re still performing. Bonus tip for this one: build an actual post-game routine. One that truly sets you up to recover. Here’s what I would do if I were in your shoes: I’d drive home, shower, rollout, drink a protein shake, eat a nutritious post-game meal, relax or nap, depending on the time, then go for a brisk 30 minute walk and reflect on the game while I do so (walking is great time for focused thinking, the psychology is over my head but essentially your brain is optimized to think and reflect while you walk).

There you have it. Three simple habits that you can implement right away to increase your recovery and as a result, your performance on the field.

Happy recovering!

-Jer

Do We Have Practice Design All Wrong?

In a previous post, I wrote about the power of consistent effort and the impact it can have on achieving success in any endeavor. In this post, I’d like to further explore that topic as it relates to practice design and player development.

I’ve had the good fortune of observing and learning from many different coaches with many different philosophies and ways of planning and conducting practices. These experiences have helped to shape my perspective and philosophy on practice design, and have shown me that some ways to design practice are far more effective, and lead to far better outcomes, than others.

Traditionally, I find practice design falls into one of two categories: fully random or systematic. Fully random practice design follows no clear system of design, whereas a systematic practice design follows some sort of pre-set template. For example, in a fully random setting, no two practices will look alike and there will be little to no distinguishable patterns that emerge. In a systematic practice design, each day clearly follows a similar pattern, let’s call it a “template,” with small variances dedicated to specific situations. While coaches have certainly had success with both methods, in my experience, those with pre-conceived templates typically have far more success than those with a fully random design. Let’s dive a little deeper.

I’ve found that coaches who follow a systematic design have a clear vision for their style of play, what it should look like, and know what they need to consistently practice to achieve it. Relating this back to my previous post, it makes a lot of sense. A systematic design simply holds coaches accountable to consistently invest effort into the areas they want to improve. Beyond that, it streamlines and speeds up the practice design process, leaving more time and energy to focus on other areas that lead to success, such as recruiting, scouting, or player management.

Now that’s not to say that a systematic approach will always work, because it won’t. I’ve been around a couple of coaches who follow a systematic approach, but invest their time and energy into the wrong areas; they invest practice time to drills and exercises that don’t actually lead to or translate to success on the field. Beyond that, a systematic approach to practice design doesn’t account for HOW a coach may coach, HOW they treat their players, HOW well they prepare for the upcoming opponent, and many other important aspects that lead to success on game day. All this is to emphasize that while a systematic approach will help streamline the process, it doesn’t guarantee success.

Let’s take a look at a couple of templates from coaches who have had a ton of success at the collegiate level:

Template 1:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Warmup
Transition Activity
Competition
Finishing

Templates 2:
Dynamic Warmup
Technical Exercise
Positional Work with Positional Coaches
Group/Team Activity
Competition

When we compare these two templates, a few similarities stand out:

1. Both coaches invest in a proper warmup at the start of practice. While this seems strikingly obvious, it’s not something to take for granted. I’ve been around a few coaches, who even at the highest level, don’t believe in the values of properly warming a team up. A proper warmup not only reduces the risk/occurrence of injuries and physically prepares the body to train at it’s highest level, it also mentally prepares the athletes for training and gives them the time they need to mentally transition into the session. Both coaches essentially spend 20 minutes physically, mentally, and technically warming their players up so that they are firing on all cylinders when they get into the meat of their practice. Also, having been around these coaches, I can tell you that the warmup truly sets the tone for practice. The dynamic warmup is taken seriously and the technical warmup is done at game speed.

2. Both coaches emphasize competition. Competition is prevalent and is clearly a priority for both coaches. This competitive mindset is imperative to the culture of their programs and is part of the reason for their overwhelming success.

There is also one major difference to analyze:

1. One coach chooses to invest in the transition phase of the game, the other into positional development. I think this comes down to their philosophies/beliefs as coaches, and it’s seen in their style of play. One program is dynamic in transition and puts their chances away (they invest in finishing at the end of each session), while the other program is extremely organized and positionally strong. The way each team plays really showcases what they invest in at practice. Both are equally effective, but a great example of different styles.

I think what this shows is that there are certain principles that should be included in your practice design, and certain principles that you should include based on your own beliefs and philosophies. It’s also important to note that these coaches don’t follow these templates to the letter each and every day, but they serve as strong guidelines as they design their practices.

For me, my template pulls aspects from both of these, while including categories that are entirely my own. It’s important for me to properly warm my players up, get their hands on one another (to get comfortable with physicality), to compete, and to be dynamic in transition. As such, my practice design reflects that. I also want to bury our chances, so we work on finishing at the end of each session. Lastly, I think it’s important to develop composure on the ball for when we can’t go forward right away, as well as to let the game teach, so my general template looks like this:

Dynamic Warmup with “Hands On” Partner Work
Technical Warmup with Competition
Transition Activity
Functional Work/Tactics/Rondos
Open Play/Large Sided Game
Finishing

Doing the same thing consistently also allows players to develop a rhythm and know what to expect. There are no surprises which really streamlines their development because they aren’t worrying about what’s coming at practice; they know what’s coming and can focus on getting better.

Lastly, practicing this way allows coaches to properly evaluate the effectiveness of their training. Because of the consistent approach, coaches can make small changes, and properly measure their impact. If what they are consistently doing is not leading to success on gameday, then they are able to properly pinpoint exactly what’s not working, whereas with a random approach, there are far too many variables to consider.

I’d like to leave the reader with one last thought. It’s very common in the athletics world to take a “there are many ways to skin a cat” approach to coaching. While I understand the intention behind this belief, I personally think it’s led to catastrophic outcomes for our field at large. When we unpack this catchy little phrase, we realize that the intention behind it is that nobody cares how we get there so long as we get results. However, with this mindset in place, best practices in our field will never form and coaches will always have a built-in excuse for their poor coaching. Other professions have extremely clear guidelines in place that not only keep their people safe, but also help to move the field forward. I strongly believe that eventually, systemized practice design will be the expectation. The benefits are too immense and it’s too common across the top performers in our field, however it won’t take hold until the field “professionalizes,” but that’s a topic for another day.

Thanks for reading,

-JL

Consistent Effort

You are what you do consistently. Those who know me know me well know me as a lively, energetic, and passionate guy. While I certainly consider myself as all those things, I feel like my personality has matured and settled down to the point where it’s brought a new found sense of peace and clarity. This clarity has given me the mental bandwidth and energy needed to deeply reflect, and doing so has provided me with a lot of life lessons. The biggest one that keeps presenting itself is the power of consistent effort.

Consistent effort is key to achieving success in most endeavors. Whether it’s athletic, academic, career, wellness, business, or anything else we take on, consistent effort will breed success. While this may seem bluntly obvious, how many people actually do it? Most people go “all-in” for a short stretch of time, investing constant and unsustainable effort up front in an attempt to see results as quickly as possible, only to burn out and quit before they make any substantial progress. This type of binging effort does not lead to success and isn’t realistic, practical, or maintainable. I’ve come to realize that putting in focused effort in short bursts more frequently has allowed me to achieve so much more than my previous binge, crash, repeat effort cycle, to the point where I now believe I can use it to achieve success in anything I take on.

Relating this to soccer/training, stop worrying about the perfect plan and simply invest in the things that matter to you. Figure out what you want to develop in your players (physically, technically, and tactically), and consistently invest effort into those areas. For example, if playing in transition is important to you, dedicate time each session to working on the transition phase of the game. This applies to skill and athletic development as well. Consistently invest effort into the skills and physical attributes you want to develop. The immediate results won’t be as profound as pouring copious amounts of effort into it up front, however, it will far out-produce that short burst in the long run as your team/players continue to revisit the concepts you want to instill and the skills you want to develop.

The lesson in all of this is to change how you are putting in effort. Put in shorter, more focused, more frequent bouts over a long period of time. Doing this will lead to far greater results in the long run and will eventually instill habits of success.

Thanks for reading,

-JL

My Thoughts on Style of Play

One of the many things that makes team sports so exciting is that teams can adopt a plethora of different identities and styles of play and still have success. Sticking to soccer, if we look at (in my opinion) the three best club teams in the world currently (Real Madrid, Man City, and Liverpool), we can very quickly see that they all have different styles of play and philosophies, as well as different personalities and ways of doing things from a coaching perspective, but are all equally successful in their own right.

Real Madrid is the perfect balance between system and players. Defensively, they are as stout as it comes, allowing players like Casemiro and Alaba to dominate and only giving up opportunities that trickle into their goalkeeper. When they win the ball, they play bravely in possession and allow their game-changing players like Karim Benzema, Luka Modric, and Vinicius Junior, among others, the creative freedom to attack with no consequences. They also tend to heavily adopt their system and style of play to the opponent they are facing, and are much more game-plan oriented than the other two (thank you Carlo Ancelotti). Man City on the other hand is a methodical system. Their possession will literally take your breath away, always making the safe play and relying on teamwork and moments of brilliance from Kevin De Bruyne to provide their goal scoring opportunities. As a side note, I personally believe that they have lost the balance between system and creative freedom, and have actually stifled players like Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden, which is why I believe they haven’t won as much as they should; they don’t allow their best players the creative freedom to make plays that win them games and are actually a little too system-oriented. Hopefully this will change with the Haaland signing. Lastly, Liverpool is a complete and utter machine. Every decision is made with efficiency in mind. They look to move the ball into the final third and create a goal scoring opportunity as quickly as possible while gegenpressing relentlessly the second they lose it. Ironically, it is this high-pressure high-efficiency system that ended up being their downfall because their style of play is extremely physically and mentally demanding, and the players just ran out of gas by the end of the season.

While the many different styles of play lead to some extremely entertaining soccer for the viewer, what’s important to take away from a coaching perspective is simply that the best teams have a defined system and style of play. I do think there are styles that tend to have more success than others, however, it’s extremely important to have that style defined (and hopefully pick one that leads to results on the field). If coaches fail to define their style of play, then they will have no way in which to judge progress for their team, and no guidelines from which to run their practices. They will end up scattered, throwing practices together in the hopes of chasing results that don’t actually build towards anything, and ultimately letting their team down on gameday.

So how do coaches define their style of play? The first thing any coach should do is figure out what they personally believe in. Envision the “perfect” soccer team. What would they look like, how would they press, how would they attack, would they be big and physical, would they be master technicians, etc., and then decide on what’s realistic for your current group. Of course, the end goal should always be to achieve that perfect style, but what does a realistic end goal look like for this team. From there, you can then design your season objectives around reaching that style and use it to guide your practice planning.

For me, the perfect team is the hardest team to play against in the country. Of course, that isn’t realistic, so I’m constantly chasing the goal of making my team excruciatingly difficult to play against; a team that other teams hate to play because we take the fun out of the game. Tactically, this means we gegenpress relentlessly and look to go forward right away as soon as we win the ball, but if it’s not on, then we maintain possession and look to move the ball into the final third as quickly as possible. It means allowing our best players the creative freedom to make plays (and as a consequence, mistakes), that effect the outcome of the game. It means a team that only worries about what they can control, don’t argue with the refs, and takes advantage when the other team reacts negatively. Lastly, for me, being a team that’s hard to play against means having physically dominant players. My teams should be athletically dominant and not afraid of contact. They should win every ball and go in hard to everything.

While some of this may sound like an oversimplification, I believe that if we consistently practice the aspects we want to replicate in a way that transfers to the game, then over time we will begin to embody those characteristics. Maybe your style is different, but define it, figure out what’s realistic, and practice it consistently in a way that translates to the game, and in time, your team will begin to resemble your vision of the perfect team.

Please feel free to weigh in,

Until next time,

-Jer

Catering Your Training and Tactics to Your Best Athletes

I wanted to write a brief blog entry after listening to a podcast that brought a good concept back to the top of my mind. A couple of years ago, I listened to a podcast by Mike Boyle where he talked about how we tend to ruin our “superelite” athletes by trying to fit them into our training boxes and systems. Boyle explained how these athletes often get mislabeled as “soft,” or “injury-prone” when in reality, our programs and training models are what cause the injuries. Today, I was listening to the Pacey Performance Podcast with Cam Josse (strength and conditioning coach at Indiana University, works with football), where he talked about this same concept and it made me think back to the Boyle podcast from a few years ago.

As a general rule of thumb, I try to steal information and practices from people who are smarter than me, and figure out how the underlying concepts fit within my system. When multiple experts share a particular view on the topic, it means I should probably listen.

I thought a little bit deeper about it and want to share my thoughts. First, when Mike Boyle talks about “superelite” athletes, he’s referring to the 1% of the 1%. The athletes who are physically breath taking to watch perform, and transcend even the most elite athletes (think Adama Traore, pictured left). Most coaches will never be in the position where they will get to work with these athletes on a regular basis. In my entire career, I’ve only been fortunate enough to work with one of these athletes, and he was genuinely a walking type II muscle fiber. Due to their physiological makeup, these athletes are more prone to injury than your “average” high-level athlete. Boyle argues that we should be individualizing our training programs around these players, and Josse takes it one step further when he claims we should be building our team tactics around these players. I think they are right.

The player I had the short opportunity to coach was a game-breaking player in 15 minute bursts. When utilized correctly (such as during the last 15 minutes of each half), he was devastating for the opposition, averaging a goal a game playing 1/3 the amount of minutes of his peers. If I had tried to make him into a 90 minute player, then I would have taken away the rare ability that made him so special, and frankly, I probably would have gotten him hurt.

Now obviously, when you have an athlete of this caliber, the answer should be simple, unfortunately, it’s just not. Our most elite, game-changing athletes are still getting mislabeled and injured in our care. David Epstein wrote a brilliant little book called, “The Sports Gene,” where he references and explains this phenomenon. And even if it was simple, the question gets a little more challenging when the athlete becomes less athletically-gifted. Josse argues that in this case, your tactics should reflect the athletic strength of your players, and I would agree, to an extent.

I think that our jobs as coaches are to put our players in the best position to succeed, which would include athletically, while simultaneously building a system of play where everyone is bought in and pulling in the same direction. I think your team has to have general principles of play, but are principles that allow for your best and most athletically gifted players to have the freedom to impact he game when the time calls for it. If you want an example of a professional team that balances this brilliantly, watch Real Madrid play. I think they are the perfect balance of system and freedom, with all of their players being put in positions that accentuate their strengths, but their impactful players still having the freedom to make plays to win them games.

This post turned into a little bit of a brain dump, but I think that’s OK. Part of my vision for this blog is to throw ideas out that stimulate thought and spur action. What I really wanted to throw out was the idea of building your training programs and style of play around your most athletically-gifted players, rather than trying to fit those players into a predefined system, and I think I’ve done so. I also wanted to get across that our most athletically-gifted athletes should not be getting injured in our care. I hope this idea spurs thought and leads to action for some people.

Thanks for reading,

-Jer

The Importance of Unilateral Load

In a previous post, I highlighted some of the benefits of a high-quality strength and conditioning program for soccer players. In this one, I’d like to explain one of the core principles of my training approach/philosophy: Pushing Unilateral Load.

Soccer players tend to be averse to loading heavy. This stereotype stems from the professional level, where the focus is on fitness, and the fear of loading is widespread. These players (and coaches) have a lack of understanding of what load is and worry that loading heavy will make them slower and lead to injury. They perceive load as lifting as much weight as possible in the “big three” lifts (barbell squatting, deadlifting, and bench pressing), and I would agree. Lifting like a power-lifter will likely diminish their performance and lead to injury, as they are not replicating the demands of their sport. We have thankfully evolved from the early-ages of strength and conditioning, and when I say “pushing unilateral load,” I mean something entirely different than what they think.

I want my players to lift in a way that replicates the demands of the sport, thereby leading to an increase in transferability, and actually impacting and improving their performance on the field. Soccer players (and all athletes with the exception of rowers), “play” on one leg. Running, jumping, cutting, passing, shooting, etc., all occur on one leg and under intense force. Therefore, in order to reduce the rate of injury and improve performance on the field, we should safely and progressively replicate this off the field. The best way to accomplish this is through sprinting (which also occurs on one leg), and pushing unilateral load.

With this in mind, I shifted my programming, eliminating most bilateral lower lifts, and making unilateral lifts primary exercises rather than accessory exercises. This change has made a tremendous impact on the health and performance of the athletes I serve, and has become a staple of my programming approach/philosophy. My athletes get all the benefits of lifting heavy, without the wear and tear, risk, and other drawbacks of bilateral lifting.

Interested in experiencing this for yourself? Try replacing your lower bilateral primary lift with a unilateral equivalent for a month, and I guarantee you will feel an immediate difference and reap the benefits it provides. Better yet, schedule a meeting with us and start training in a way that will actually make a difference to your performance on the field.

Until next time,

-Jer

Transferability: What it is, and Why it’s Important in Sport

In today’s post, I’d like to explain the concept of transferability and it’s importance in sport. Transferability generally describes how well skills in one area of life or work translate and impact another area of life or work. For example, communication or leadership are skills that generally transfer to all areas of life. In sport, transferability refers to how well your training translates and impacts your performance on the field. In other words, how well the drills and exercises you do off the field or at practice actually impact what happens on gameday. This is a great question for coaches to ponder when reflecting on their training programs, and is something that has dramatically influenced my philosophy and approach.

This concept of transferability encompasses all facets of your holistic development program, from the practice field, to the weight room, and everything in between. To answer the aforementioned question, the factor coaches should analyze is whether or not what they do at practice or in the weight room actually looks like what their athletes are doing on the field. If the answer is no, then coaches must ask themselves why they are doing it. With this approach, coaches will be able to improve upon their programming, and eliminate the exercises that don’t actually impact the outcome of the game.

On the flip side, there are also plenty of exercises (particularly in the weight room), that at first glance may not necessarily look like what the athlete does on the field, but still translates to and positively impacts performance. This is because these exercises still mimic the demands of the game. For example, loaded plymotrics and Olympic lifts are not exercises that you will ever see occur in the run of play, however, these exercises develop power, which is a fundamental pillar of success in pretty much any team sport. Coaches must be able to identify how their programming actually translates to gameday, and logically explain why they are including that exercise within their programming.

On the practice field, this concept gets a little more gray. Soccer is notorious for running players through low-intensity repetitive technical exercises, beginning at a very early age. The problem with this approach is that while the skills being executed may occur in the game, they do not occur at the speed or intensity that the game demands, and are occurring without any involvement in decision making, meaning that they don’t actually look like what is occurring on the field. Repetition is great to build confidence, and pretty much anything has a place if implemented soundly and with good reasoning/intentions, however, it often doesn’t lead to the skills translating to the game when the whistle blows and bullets start flying.

So what’s the solution? How do we train soccer players in a systematic and organized way where they develop skills that will actually translate to the game? In the weight room or in your physical preparation, it comes down to understanding the physical demands of the sport, and making sure your training program prepares athletes to meet those demands. On the field, it means going against the norm, and reducing the time spent on low-intensity repetitive exercises. These exercises work great as a technical warmup, or for players to use on their own to develop their technique and confidence, however, in order for them to actually translate to the game, they have to be practiced at game speed.

When you do incorporate a traditional technical warmup, try to use it as a teaching tool. Rather than having players pass in a diamond, I like to make the warmup a little more functional, and have them pass in sequences that they may see on the field in an attempt to stimulate thought or ideas for when we progress past the technical warmup.

Lastly, “gamifying” the technical warmup (for example, using passing sequence relay race), will lead to an immediate improvement in transferability. Doing this still allows for players to get many touches on the ball to prepare for practice while simultaneously increasing their speed of play and staying mentally checked in.

With all that being said, if I do choose to go with a more traditional technical warmup, I make sure to limit it to no more than 10 minutes, because I do not want to waste valuable practice time doing something that doesn’t actually translate to the game.

So, in conclusion, coaches should begin to reflect on their practice design and programming to ensure that what they are spending time doing actually translates to the game. This means mimicking both the movements and demands of the sport, and practicing at a speed and in situations that will lead to better results on gameday.

If you are interested in learning more about me, then you can do so by clicking HERE.

Playing Tip: Body Positioning/Receiving the Ball on the Half Turn

Soccer is a game played at an incredibly high pace. Decisions are made quickly, forcing players to often react rather than think about and calculate their next move. While soccer isn’t black or white, and there is no “one size fits all” solution to every situation, there are certain fundamental skills that should become habitual and automatic in order to slow the game down and take the decision making out of it. One of those skills is a player’s body position when he or she receives the ball, which should (almost) always be on the half turn.

Receiving the ball on the half turn means receiving it in a position where half the player’s body is turned towards the field of play. Doing so allows the player an extra heartbeat of time before being pressed (an eternity in soccer), gives the player more options (making it harder for the defender), and lets the player to see the entire field (helping them make the best decision). Start to look for this as you watch professional soccer. Pep’s teams do this the best, however, it’s a foundational pillar of all the elite teams because receiving the ball on the half turn is imperative to building in possession.

Building this habit requires a lot of hard work. The technical skill itself is not hard to work on: Simply find a partner or a wall and pass the ball back and forth receiving the ball with your hips and body half opened towards the field of play. Translating the skill to the game requires a little more focus and hard work. It requires players to both think and move proactively; to move early and often to put themselves in a position where they can get on the half turn before receiving the ball. Eventually, the skill will become automatic and the benefits will be immense, giving players a competitive advantage over their opponents and helping them stand out amongst their peers.

If you’re interested in working with us to build this game-changing skill (and others) into your game, then please contact us HERE.

3 Strength Training Benefits for Soccer

Historically, strength training in professional soccer has been looked at as detrimental to performance. Aerobic fitness is king, and myths such as, “strength training makes you slower,” “strength training leads to injury,” and “I never strength trained and I had a successful career,” prevail across the culture in the professional world. While these are just myths, and the history of this issue deserves a blog post in it of itself, thankfully the professional level is slowly crawling out of the stone ages, and the benefits of this shift in mindset is trickling down to the high school and college levels. With that in mind, I wanted to share three benefits of strength training for soccer players, particularly at the high school, college, or even older middle-school level, as this is a prime time for development where strength training can be extremely advantageous.

1. Resiliency. No, I’m not talking about mental toughness. Philosophically, I don’t believe in using exercise as a way to build mental fortitude, as exercise should be used as a tool to spur physiological adaptation. One of the best adaptations strength training provides is an increased muscular resiliency, which leads to a decreased risk of injury. Think about it logically, when an athlete plays soccer (or any sport), he or she is putting his or her body under immense stress. A proper strength training program will slowly and progressively apply stress to prepare the body for the stresses that it will endure during play, and should eventually surpass those forces, leading to a substantially lower risk of injury.

2. Improved Movement. A proper strength training program will be built upon fundamental movement patterns, which will both teach athletes how to move properly, and also increase how smoothly/seamlessly they move; it becomes automatic. Consider how complex a sport like soccer is. Athletes are asked to jump, sprint, run, shuffle, jockey, dribble, shoot, pass, tackle, and cut (just to name a few), and are asked to do all of this across a 90 minute game while making the appropriate decisions, it’s pretty neurologically taxing. What a good strength program will do, is take the fundamental movements associated with those maneuvers, and practice them over and over again, to the point where those movements become automatic and no longer have to be thought about. Next time you are at a high school or college soccer game, observe which athletes are smooth and seamless with their movements, and which athletes are clumsy and clunky with their movements, I’d be willing to bet that one is practicing those movement patterns in a strength training program, and one is not.

3. Improved Performance. An athletic player and team will always have a competitive advantage against a less athletic player and team. Strength training is a core component to any holistic athletic development program. Beyond the aforementioned movement and resilient benefits, a proper strength training program will also develop muscle mass, make an athlete stronger (obviously), and teach them how to properly engage.

As you can see, proper strength training should be integrated into any training program where the goal is to maximize athletic performance. I think strength training gets a bad wrap because it is so often done improperly. Yes, a BAD strength program will lead to injury. Yes, a BAD strength program will make you slower. Yes, a BAD strength program will be detrimental to your performance. Thankfully, the bad programs are becoming easier and easier to spot, and you’ll never have to worry about that if you train with us.

Until next time,

-Jer

3 Quick Tips to Improve Dramatically

Yesterday, I was asked by one of my players if I could provide him with three tips for players who want to improve rapidly and give themselves the best opportunity to play at the next level. I thought about it for a minute and wanted to share what I shared with him.

My first tip is to compete. Of course, we want to have fun and we want to enjoy playing soccer, but if you want to improve quickly and give yourself the best opportunity to play at the next level, then you have to shift your mindset to a competitive one. You have to compete in every game, compete at every practice, compete in every exercise, and compete on every play. Truly competitive players, players who will sacrifice anything to win, are rare. These players stand out amongst their peers and a team full of competitive players will wreck havoc in any league, regardless of the level.

My second tip is to watch soccer. Many of the players I coach do not actually watch soccer, and it shows. Watching soccer allows you to gain a perspective and understanding about what you should do whilst you are on the field. And while you’re at it, don’t just watch, analyze it. Don’t just follow the ball or watch highlights, watch the players who play the same position as you, and analyze what they do when the ball is in a certain part of the field, or with a certain player. Watch how they move, watch when they step, watch when they drop, watch when they attack, watch when they defend, when they take players on, and when they move the ball around, you get the idea. Doing so will improve your knowledge of the game, and will dramatically improve your movement, decision making, and positioning on the field. In fact, we have brain cells called “mirror neurons” that fire both when we watch someone perform an act, and then when we perform it ourselves, physiologically indicating that we can improve at something by simply watching it.

My last tip for rapid improvement is to practice the skills you are able to outside of practice, outside of practice, and practice them at game speed. Doing so will allow you to maximize the time you spend at practice learning and competing. It will also help you stand out to your coaches and earn more playing time. Practices should not be spent working on the technical skills that are within your control, those skills are your responsibility to develop on your own. Skills like passing, receiving, shooting, pulling the ball out of the air, dribbling, etc., are all simple to train on your own and should be habitual actions at practice. And practice them at game speed. Doing so will increase the likelihood of the skills translating when you are under pressure on the field. Improving these skills on your own will maximize your ability, and allow you to use practice to improve the skills that are a little harder to work on yourself, such as tactics or decision making.

So, in summary, if you are trying to improve dramatically, and give yourself the best opportunity to play at the next level, my three best tips (at this time) are to compete, watch soccer, and develop your technical skills outside of practice.

Thanks for reading,

-Jer

Introduction/Pilot

Hello LPC Visitors,

Thank you for taking the time to view my site and read this blog. Welcome to entry 1, Introduction/Pilot. In this blog, I hope to share a little bit about me, my vision for LPC Soccer, and what to expect out of this blog going forward.

First, a little about me. My name is Jeremy Longchamp, I’m 26 years old, and I live in beautiful coastal Maine, in a soon-to-be not so little town called Biddeford. I graduated from the University of New England in 2018 (which is also located in Biddeford), where I was a member of the varsity soccer program, and studied Applied Exercise Science with a minor in Coaching. While at UNE, I was lucky enough to obtain a couple of very high level internships, one at a local performance center, and one at an atypical small-group training gym. These internships sparked my passion for maximizing athletic development, and showed me the impact a coach can make on his/her clients or athletes. This discovery was eye-opening for me, and steered me away from a career in medicine, and towards a career in athletics. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a plethora of athletes across a multitude of settings. I’ve worked full-time in the collegiate setting, at both a high and low level, coaching athletes on the field and in the weight-room. I’ve coached soccer at the club and Olympic Development level, with the ages of my athletes spanning from 10-18 years old. And all the while, I’ve even been able to obtain my master’s degree in Sport Coaching, allowing me to focus less on WHAT I’m coaching, and analyze HOW I’m coaching and WHY I’m choosing to do so. All of this information is shared to paint a picture of who I am and the experiences I’ve had. I am by no means an expert in my field, but I hope to be so one day, and am learning a little more each day.

I started LPC Soccer with the intention of providing high-level soccer camps to the Southern Maine youth. There are about 15 towns within easy driving distance from Biddeford, and not a ton of options for the local community. I hope to be the go-to person for soccer and soccer-specific strength and conditioning in this little bubble. In the future, I’d also like to provide this same area with high-level club soccer opportunities. Each town offers some sort of travel team, but my hope is to unite these areas to bring them all under one club with a systemized approach and holistic philosophy. For this club, my goal is to get every single player recruited to play at the college level. I’d like to be the club in the Maine area that college coaches go out of their way to see, and send my players all over the country to play competitively.

Lastly, I’d like to share my thoughts and expectations for this blog itself. I hope to use this blog as a way to express my thoughts and ideas in a formal and permanent manner. I have ideas constantly running through my head, and felt like this would be a good medium to get them out and develop some clarity about them. I hope that in doing so, I’ll be able to look back in 5, 10, 15, 20 years, and reflect on how far I’ve come. I also hope that by throwing my thoughts out to the world, that others may learn a thing or two, or it may spark their creative gene and provide the inspiration they need to take action or cultivate their own ideas. I have no idea when or how often I’ll be posting, but I hope to do so on a fairly consistent basis.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this blog entry.

All the best,

-Jer