Academic requirements of admission get tougher each year. Contact the NCAA for a free copy of the latest “College Bound Student Athlete Guide” http://www.ncaastudent.org/NCAA_Guide.pdf to make sure you are well informed. The guide details the courses you must complete and the GPA you must attain to be eligible for collegiate athletes at NCAA Division I, II and III colleges. Honors courses help. The guide also defines the rules of conduct during recruiting.

You should take the SAT or ACT exams early and often. You may submit your highest scores. Coaches will often ask your SAT score, generally expressed as the sum of your math and reading scores. A 500 in reading and a 600 in math will create an 1100 SAT score; pretty average scores for soccer players today.

Participation in extracurricular activities is important. Volunteering for key clubs and charity events helps build character and shows college admissions officers that you are well rounded. Why not get involved in your community as a volunteer assistant coach with a lower age group team. It will look good on your resume and might actually help you develop into a better player!

College coaches look for serious players. This doesn’t mean you have to be the best player on the team. Now is the time to get serious. This entails taking care of your body, i.e. making sure you maintain a balanced diet, undertaking a strength and fitness program (including sprint training and plyometrics) and getting the proper amount of sleep.

Show the proper respect for yourself, your teammates, referees, fans, and most important, the game…especially when you are in the public’s eye. A coach watching you perform will give you negative points in his book if you look sloppy or act like a bum on the field. This means: tuck in your shirt, walk with an air of confidence, no weird haircuts, and watch your mouth. First impressions are lasting impressions. Last impressions are equally important. Don’t throw away all you hard work in the last 10 minutes of a game by doing something stupid.

Recently I asked several major college coaches what they thought of one of the top senior players in a high school tournament. All said they liked his playing ability, but all had crossed him off their lists because of his poor attitude. First and last impressions…

Seek out a good learning environment. Find clubs with experienced coaches who will help you develop, not coaches that just want to win games. My own definition of a good coach is that individual who develops you to be successful at the next level of your career. Good competition during leagues and tournaments is a must. It is vital that you train and play year round. Ask your high school coach and club coaches to constantly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. Continue to develop your strengths and ask them for a program to eliminate your weaknesses. Remember that even the professional players in every sport seek advice and spend lots of time relearning the fundamentals. Also play in good club tournaments; if your team doesn’t go often, try to be a guest player on a good team.

Participate in ODP if you can. It is a good program and should provide you with good competition, an honest evaluation, and if you progress, a chance to be seen by an enormous amount of college coaches. Take the case of Danielle Bordman of Cincinnati. She never was involved in ODP because she heard negative things about how political it is (it usually is only if you aren’t selected). She finally tried out her sophomore year in school and progressed from district, to state, to regional, all the way to the U-16 National Team. She has been a constant fixture at the last two U-20 national team camps and will be attending perennial national champions University of North Carolina. All because she took a chance! A great example of my motto – HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD. Of the 85 players currently on our U-23, U-21, U-18, and U-17 men’ s national team squads, 78 came through the state ODP program.

During the summer, find a good training center to attend. Do your homework and find an environment that challenges you mentally, physically, technically and tactically. Not just one that plays a lot of games. This is a good time to develop your master plan. Your staff coach will love to help you with it.

Far too many players and parents think that being a good player is enough. IT’S NOT! Start today developing your master plan, a road map to take you where you want to go.

CLOSE YOUR EYES, FEEL IT, SMELL IT, HEAR IT. YOUR MIND IS LIKE A GUIDED MISSLE. WHEN YOU PROPERLY PROGRAM IT,
YOU CAN’T HELP BUT HIT THE TARGET!
thestrikerschool.com

From http://thestrikerschool.com/

· Above all, remember that you are the student. Seek to gain as much knowledge from the coach as he can give you.

· Listen carefully. Hear in depth what the coach is actually saying. Don’t assume things. A successful person is usually a good listener.

· Visually and verbally demonstrate to the coach that you are interested in learning and improving. Don’t be a know-it-all.

· Follow the coach’s dress code on and off the field. It’s OK to assert your individuality, but don’t show a lack of respect for the coach’s authority.

· Learn not to “take things personal “. Good coaches separate your performance on the field from you as the worthwhile individual. When they criticize your play, remember they are talking about you as the player not you as the human being.

· Practice self-discipline. This allows the coach to become a better teacher for you. And that is what he wants to be.

· Come to soccer training early and be prepared. If you really want to be the best, stay late.

· Hear the coach’s instructions during games. He is the one who spent practice time with you formulating the game plan. Learn to tune out the outside influences, i.e., fans, friends and parents. They all love you, but tend to deal strictly on emotion.

· Coaches usually ask you to do things that are best for your development. If you don’t agree, show them common courtesy by speaking to them directly. They will respond positively and have a higher regard for your position. Don’t ever challenge their authority in front of the group. Team matters also stay within the team.

· Learning to calmly and naturally handle a dispute is one mark of a good leader. This is a part of growing up.

· Coaches are just like you. They want to be liked. They generally don’t do things to hurt people. Remember they must decide: a) what is best for the team, b) what is best for the individual. Your coach has a lot to do with your success, in the present and the future. Treat him exactly the way you would like to be treated. He does have the ability and the contacts to “make or break you”. Provide your coach with lots of positive reasons to help you.

Above all…remember the golden rule…the man with the gold makes the rules!

1. Fast footwork, should be trained in three ways A) Within the comfort zone (slow and smooth).B) Fast as can be done. On the cutting edge of losing control!C) With penetration. This means pushing the ball 5-10 yards out and sprinting after it. A good method of teaching penetration is to put the players in a series of five-yard grids. On the command, they must execute the desired technique, push the ball out of their grid into another and sprint to regain possession, without contacting another player (also increases their awareness of space).

2. Speed Wheel with the ball:On the coaches’ command, the player begins dribbling the ball toward cones, stopping at the first cone, second cone, third cone, turning and repeating coming back. The emphasis is not only on acceleration but also on deceleration. The coach can give the player directions on how to navigate the course, emphasizing stopping, feinting and going to a side cone, acceleration, twisting, turning, and what techniques to use.

Here the Three- point flexion is crucial.

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3. Technique on Demand:

Twenty yards in length between cones. Player starts build-up run, attaining full speed by first cone. Coach serves ball from the side into player’s path, player must control without losing speed, sprinting to designated cone. Coach should give each player a few chances to perform new exercise within their comfort zone.

Start service on ground, demanding player takes ball with left foot, right foot, etc. Build up to bouncing balls, air balls for thigh, foot, chest, and head. Coach observes speed, technique, and the proper distance that the ball is played away from receiver on first touch. It will be normal for players to lose control at beginning of activity.The coach is looking for quality, not quantity in this type of training activity. In order to maximize effectiveness; allow the proper work-to-rest ratio.

By arranging the activity with ten players in each line (two-three areas might be necessary), and allowing each player to walk slowly back to the end of the line after a full-out sprint with the ball, this should be accomplished. Each player completes 10-12 repetitions. Distance between cones should be varied weekly.

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                         Coach

SUMMARY:
The coach will notice that the players tend to lose control of the ball when first attempting these activities. This is normal. They also will show a great deal of frustration. This will lessen, as they become more proficient in speed training with the ball.As the players return to training activities (small sided games), they will normally revert back into their comfort zone. Here the coach must constantly be on the outlook for that moment to reinforce their ability to play at top speed. See a clip from the Soccer Speed DVD here.

Here is a great article I found on the Ohio Youth Soccer Association North site about stretching (thanks Dr. Tom Turner). If you are a parent of or are a female athlete you will want to go to the ACL injury reduction web page site in the article and get started on their PEP program. The program is written and endorsed by Dr. Bert Mandlebaum the preeminent knee specialist certainly in the US and perhaps the world. He has been a key ingredient in the development of prehab/rehab in his field with the US National Teams programs. I think that as coaches we have a greater responsibility to educate our players in how thye should training themselves away from us. I believe if we are not teaching our players how to prevent injuries then we are actually promoting injuries (give that one some thought.)

Stretching: The Truth
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
WHEN DUANE KNUDSON, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Chico, looks around campus at athletes warming up before practice, he sees one dangerous mistake after another. “They’re stretching, touching their toes. . . . ” He sighs. “It’s discouraging.”

If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds – known as static stretching – primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated
less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg’s muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.

“There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching,” says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The straining muscle becomes less responsive and stays weakened for up to 30 minutes after stretching, which is not how an athlete wants to begin a workout.

THE RIGHT WARM-UP should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you’re at rest, there’s less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. “You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise,” Knudson says.

A well-designed warm-up starts by increasing body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles and dilated blood vessels pull oxygen from the bloodstream more efficiently and use stored muscle fuel more effectively. They also withstand loads better. One significant if gruesome study found that the leg-muscle tissue of laboratory rabbits could be stretched farther before ripping if it had been electronically stimulated – that is, warmed up.

To raise the body’s temperature, a warm-up must begin with aerobic activity, usually light jogging. Most coaches and athletes have known this for years. That’s why tennis players run around the court four or five times before a match and marathoners stride in front of the starting line. But many athletes do this portion of their warm-up too intensely or too early. A 2002 study of collegiate volleyball players found that those who’d warmed up and then sat on the bench for 30 minutes had lower backs that were stiffer than they had been before the warm-up. And a number of recent studies have demonstrated that an overly vigorous aerobic warm-up simply makes you tired. Most experts advise starting your warm-up jog at about 40 percent of your maximum heart rate (a very easy pace) and progressing to about 60 percent. The aerobic warm-up should take only 5 to 10 minutes, with a 5-minute recovery. (Sprinters require longer warm-ups, because the loads exerted on their muscles are so extreme.) Then it’s time for the most important and unorthodox part of a proper warm-up regimen, the Spider-Man and its counterparts.

“TOWARDS THE end of my playing career, in about 2000, I started seeing some of the other guys out on the court doing these strange things before a match and thinking, What in the world is that?” says Mark Merklein, 36, once a highly ranked tennis player and now a national coach for the United States Tennis Association. The players were
lunging, kicking and occasionally skittering, spider-like, along the sidelines. They were early adopters of a new approach to stretching.

While static stretching is still almost universally practiced among amateur athletes – watch your child’s soccer team next weekend – it doesn’t improve the muscles’ ability to perform with more power, physiologists now agree. “You may feel as if you’re able to stretch farther after holding a stretch for 30 seconds,” McHugh says, “so you
think you’ve increased that muscle’s readiness.” But typically you’ve increased only your mental tolerance for the discomfort of the stretch. The muscle is actually weaker.

Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion. Muscles in motion don’t experience that insidious inhibitory response. They instead get what McHugh calls “an excitatory message” to perform.

Dynamic stretching is at its most effective when it’s relatively sports specific. “You need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead,” says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA, home to the Olympic marathoners Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor. For runners, an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and “form drills” like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Athletes who need to move rapidly in different
directions, like soccer, tennis or basketball players, should do dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. “Spider-Man” is a particularly good drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall. (For other dynamic stretches, see the sidebar below.)

Even golfers, notoriously nonchalant about warming up (a recent survey of 304 recreational golfers found that two-thirds seldom or never bother), would benefit from exerting themselves a bit before teeing off. In one 2004 study, golfers who did dynamic warm- up exercises and practice swings increased their clubhead speed and were projected to have dropped their handicaps by seven strokes over seven weeks.

Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. A major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, on the other hand, found that knee injuries were cut nearly in half among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.) And in golf, new research by Andrea Fradkin, an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured. “It was eye-opening,” says Fradkin, formerly a feckless golfer herself. “I used to not really warm up. I do now.” You’re Getting Warmer: The Best Dynamic Stretches

These exercises- as taught by the United States Tennis Association’s player-development program – are good for many athletes, even golfers. Do them immediately after your aerobic warm-up and as soon as possible before your workout.

STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH

(for the hamstrings and gluteus muscles)

Kick one leg straight out in front of you, with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to the upturned toes. Drop the leg and repeat with the opposite limbs. Continue the sequence for at least six or seven repetitions.

SCORPION

(for the lower back, hip flexors and gluteus muscles) Lie on your stomach, with your arms outstretched and your feet flexed so that only your toes are touching the ground. Kick your right foot toward your left arm, then kick your leftfoot toward your right arm. Since this is an advanced exercise, begin slowly, and repeat up to 12 times.

HANDWALKS

(for the shoulders, core muscles, and hamstrings)

Stand straight, with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. “Walk” with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Repeat five or six times.

Well, once again the ugly side of parents getting involved in youth sports has reared its ugly head this time close to home on my own son’s soccer team. I do not coach them as they have an outstanding coach who also is a teacher by profession, a good role model and due to the fact that I just want to be a good dad and watch him have the opportunity to grow on his own. In fact all I ever ask is that he plays hard and has fun. I then add the subliminal message, that when I played, working hard was the fun. I am also careful to ask him probing questions about his role in the game and how he thinks he played. We see too many parents who instead of using the car ride home as a chance to bond and use it as an educational experience say thinks like, “The coach should not have played Jimmy in that position”, “The goalkeeper cost us the game”, “You only played 30 minutes and Sam played 35″ , or my personal favorite “The coach cost us the game”. I recognize the my son’s team is not the top in the area but they have improved by leaps and bounds and the players are becoming proficient in the age-group appropriate techniques I believe in for long term development. So what is the problem? Obviously the team is not winning enough! So now emails have been flying around until I could not stand it anymore.

But there is an silver lining. Since I was observing my 24-48 hour rule of not responding to things that upset me in regards to coaching, player/parental behavior, etc. I was rewarded with an excellent download from US Youth Soccer regarding their vision toward the development of soccer in this country. Funny how things come out of nowhere when you need them most. Please download this document and feel free to pass it along:

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/news/story.asp?story_id=3974

Anyway it was time to get involved and if you know me I did. In the following you will read my response. In the 26 minutes following my email I heard from over 95% of the team parents all saying thank you. I have learned in coaching and business over the past thirty years that most people allow that 5% to upset the apple cart… not on my watch! I have a saying on my office door…Illegitimus Non Corborundum…Don’t Let The Bastards Wear You Down! Live it!

Parents:

I am going to stick my nose into this situation after watching the emails fly back and forth. I am not sure what happened at the end of the season with regards to the end of the season in-house tournament but in regard to things I have read I am disappointed with the lack of respect you are showing in to Coach ___ _____ and team Administrator ___ ___who both have done an outstanding job for your child. I know in speaking with many of you, you have echoed my comments. maybe a mistake was made in terms of the end of season shielding but so what? The only people effected by this seem to be a few parents. Personally my son doesn’t care about such things and he is happy to get to play a few more games at the end of the season. Maybe that’s because his parents don’t try to live out out sports fantasies through him.

As a parent I am more than happy with what the club is doing to further educate my son. He will stay wih this team as long as he is able to make the grade. Coach ___ _____ spends more that the required time thinking and researching ways to become a better teacher and how to enhance the performance of your son. Team administrator ____ _____ has volunteered when many of us have not and she has made it easy for me as a parent to enjoy his games without a word of thanks from most of us.

As a person who is a professional soccer educator and makes my living from this sport I am completely satisfied with the progress this team has made this year. The are learning age-group appropriate techniques and things they would not learn at other clubs. But then I see the big picture, the road map in how you have to go A-B, B-C, etc. , until the player finally reaches Z in terms of physical, emotional, technical and tactical development. I like the quotes from the college coaches but they have no meaning in terms of relevance in terms of relevance to this situation nor this team. These are not collegiate nor professional athletes. I have trained many players who have gone on to win two FIFA World Championships, several Olympic Gold Medals, MLS and national club championships. The criteria we have always had was how did I perform today, regardless of the result of the game over which they may not have control. Their performance was measurement of themselves on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest. If the team won but they measured their performance as a 5 they were not performing up to their own standards yet were happy for the team win. Likewise when the team lost and they rated as a 8 they were happy with their own performance but nit with the team result.

I would like you to take the time to read an article I received from US Youth Soccer this morning, “Youth Soccer in America, How Do We Measure Success?”

http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/news/story.asp?story_id=3974

I would also encourage you if you are unhappy to “man up” as Coach ____ ______ tells the boys when teaching them to take responsibility and talk to Coach ____ personally rather than hide behind letters. Interesting in that one case one of the fathers writing letters has already arranged for a tryout with another team at season’s end. Remember that a have a good relationship with all the other club directors and have heard directly from him. If you want to leave KSA fine but leave the rest of us alone! Be careful in what you wish for because it just might come true!

Roby

I bring this up because last week one of my Cincinnati Kings (PDL) players, Branden Stelmak, invited me for lunch down near the University of Cincinnati campus where he plays for the Bearcats soccer team. He is very frustrated because the Bearcats are having a season not up to par for their past accomplishments. He is feeling the pressure and feels he needs to carry the team on his back. Admirable traits but perhaps not realistic for the situation. You see UC has only one senior and 14 freshman, many of whom are starting, competing in the powerhouse Big East. Although all these players are very talented it is a big step up from playing high school and club soccer one month and then playing against players who are not only four years older but might have expectations to play in the MLS or even abroad the next.

Branden and I have a good relationship if in nothing more that we both grew up in Cleveland, Ohio on the same street and share many of the same high school/club experiences. He is a goalscorer and I always thought I was fairly useful around the goal and we both are hard workers. Probably has something to do with the fact that our area was ethnic blue-collar and you are expected to do a day’s work for a day’s pay. Branden is not one to shy out of putting his face in front of someone’s boot if it means scoring a goal for the team to win. In fact the picture on the front page of the web site in the upper right hand corner is one of him (#15) scoring an important goal for the Kings in which he collided with the opponent’s goalkeeper, sweeper and one of his teammates in a vicious collision leaving all four in heap and injured. We literally had to carry him off the field yet there he was at training the next day ready to continue. It was only after the season that he shared with me that he had a groin injury the entire season.

We talked about how he could best serve his team and coaching staff and reference was made to the above Nietzsche quote which he had never heard. We agreed he could adhere to it. Having to struggle this year will make him a stronger player, a more competent competitor and a better person. That would be easy for him. You see Branden is a survivor (well not technically for another year) of childhood Leukemia. He contacted it when he was seven years old and battled the treatments for three years. During that time he missed no school as his mother was determined that he would not miss being a normal child or use his illness as a crutch. He was so weak from the treatments that he was not able to play soccer but he used it as a motivation to get his strength back. When he had minimal strength but not enough to play in the field he became the goalkeeper so he could stay in the game he loved and be with his teammates. You see Brandon is a living example of “That which does not destroy us makes us stronger”! Think about him the next time your son/daughter says”It’s too hard” or the “Coach is not fair” or blame someone else for the team’s shortcomings! I think “that which we make excuses for makes us weaker!”

My name is Paul Cacolice and thanks to the good people at Soccer Learning Systems, I’ll be blogging my soccer fitness opinions in this space.

Roby Stahl posted how he has been involved with SLS, let me tell my story:

In 1996, I took a trip to Milton Keynes in England to present at an AFCAT coaches’ course. My roommate? Andrew from SLS ~ one of the few Americans there. He gives me a LA Galaxy hat that I have (and occasionally wear) to this day. I’ve stayed in touch with the SLS crew since then even if I haven’t fully supported the Galaxy .

OK, first, full disclosure:

All opinions are biased in some way, shape or form, so let me show you mine up front: I’m a certified athletic trainer (ATC) since 1986; a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) since 1991; and to a much lesser extent youth and teen coach since 1999 (ice hockey and soccer). My playing experience never got farther than as a U-19 travel team goalkeeper in Western Pennsylvania in the 1970’s and early 80’s. That is really saying even less than it seems. We were awful and never really developed technically or tactically. Basically, we played kick-around in matching jerseys. So, as far as being a high level soccer player? I can’t relate to that. At the time of this blog entry at 44 years of age, I am still a mid-distance trail racer here in the northeast US – so I do still train and compete at a pretty high level in 7-10 half-marathons and longer races over mountain ranges and in dense woods 8 months out of every year. There are some that would still classify this as an athlete.

Most times, my opinions arrive in that order ~ ATC, CSCS, Coach and Athlete. Sometimes, they do not. Rather than discordance, I look for areas of overlap and agreement within those viewpoints both in my own fitness practice (NoMagicBean.com) and in my work with Tony DiCicco’s SoccerPlus Camps.

The thoughts that are posted on this blog will typically follow these areas of overlap and how they benefit all athletes, coaches, sports medicine providers and fitness people.

The first point of discussion:

Every soccer player must take time off each training cycle ~ I won’t accept any answer outside of that and if you have argument with that, go read the significant body or research on overtraining, restoration and periodization. You’re already decades behind the current knowledge base.

For most of the players (hopefully), there are two training cycles in each calendar year. For a few, it is one. For the most misfortunate souls, they receive less than 4 weeks off from sport competition each year.

So, for discussion’s sake, let us hypothesize that your mid teen (14-17 year old) male or female is approaching their off-season of 4 weeks’ duration.

What would provide the greatest benefit to this young person’s overall long-term development as an athlete and a person: 4 weeks of an injury prevention program such as an ACL Prevention training; 4 weeks of speed, strength & fitness training; 4 weeks of soccer-specific technical training or 4 weeks of no training (i.e.: being a teen).

Or something else?

There may or may not be one answer for that.

I’ll blog on that shortly.