Soccer Toolbox

Gain an Advantage with Video Analysis

by

 

Watching the MLS season is a great reminder of the opportunities we have to gain extra advantages on our opponents through video analysis.

As technology evolves, so does soccer, with the importance of video analysis skyrocketing in the past 5 years. As coaches, we can now understand the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents through studying them.

We can identify weak players, spaces to exploit, and overall, the best way to approach the game. This gives us a significant advantage over our opponents before the game starts.

However, analyzing our opponents effectively is difficult as it not only requires a knowledge of soccer analysis but also an understanding of the software involved.

Coach Hamza El Kadioui’s expertise lies within soccer analysis. He provides courses for the more experienced, and novices in video analysis.

Coach Hamza breaks down the method of analysis into three pillars, what/ why, how, and who. His concept stems from the importance of understanding your goals before you move to analyze.

As coaches, we often use videos from our games or opponent’s games to teach our players about where we can improve. By selecting relevant snips from games, we can more effectively convey a message to our players to speed up their learning curve. Coach Hamza pairs this with freeze frames and annotations as well as commentary.(Click on the arrow to play videos).

Time is limited as a coach as we are responsible for numerous processes in the organization. Coach Hamza provides a foundation for how to integrate this into your busy schedule. To make this as effective as possible, it must be tailored to you. (Click on the arrow to play videos).

This visual skill will not only improve your performance on the field, but it will also allow your players and coaches staff to fully understand your message and tactical goals. (Click on the arrow to play videos).

In the modern game, the importance of having the skills to create an effective analysis can not be emphasized enough. 

If you liked the video clips above check out these 5-star courses from Coach Hamza:

#1 How to Analyze Football (Soccer)

#2 How to Create an Effective Football (Soccer)

 


Incorporating Goalkeepers in Team Training

by

Incorporating Goalkeepers in Team Training With Haley Carter,

Coach Carter is the current goalkeeping coach for Antigua and Barbuda Women’s National Team, offers her insight on goalkeeping, how to make the most out of training sessions to reflect on the modern trends she speaks in this course, and the importance of these current goalkeeping trends.

We are providing this drill to give you ideas on how to enhance your current practice drills. The idea is not to implement it exactly as is, but rather to tweak it to make it fit your system.

There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.

This is a Vimeo video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block Vimeo videos.
 

 
If you would like to see more information about Coach Carter’s entire presentation, click this link: Modern Trends in Goalkeeping


Five Ways to Level up Your Soccer Program Evaluation Remotely

by

Now is the perfect time to do an audit on your entire soccer program. Here are some ideas on getting the most out of your re-evaluation.

If there’s a silver lining to the difficulties this pandemic has thrust upon sports teams, it’s that it’s forced many to embrace a back-to-basics ethos.

“I don’t think any­body is rein­vent­ing the wheel,” says Florida Elite’s David Gough. ​“I think kids are out there kick­ing the ball against a wall for the first time in 20 years prob­a­bly. That can only be a good thing.”
 
 
 
 
 
That’s not reserved just for player development, though. Here’s a perfect opportunity to take a 10,000-foot view of your program and then dive deep on the details to make tweaks that can have great benefits long-term.

Here are some ideas:

(Re) Establish Your Foundations

 
You should take this time to re-establish the principles around how you want to play with regards to style, pressure, direction and formations. Document the framework for your team to work within. Build, find and compile resources that support these philosophies.

To get started, use Hudl to compile a library of video playlists showing:

  • How each position is expected to operate
  • How various formations exploit a defense or extinguish an attack
  • Advantages and disadvantages of different styles of play
  • Training sessions that new or veteran coaches can implement

From there, consider creating homework assignments for your players. It’s a great way to test their passion for the sport and how much they’re truly consuming the resources you’ve created. Need ideas on how this looks? Our Hudl reps have templates for you to use, such as this one.

 

Revisit your data to evaluate (or create) KPIs

 
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are being used more and more by top-performing professional and amateur clubs, as a way to measure efficiencies of both players and game models.

Some teams’ style of play is all about possession. Others might be more direct. Maybe you love building the attack by playing the ball out wide and swinging in crosses. Or maybe instead you like to bypass the midfield and play directly into your target. There are important data points you can use to match whatever style you fancy.

Possession data like what Hudl Assist offers is a great way to match data with the style you want to implement. At Kentucky girls soccer power Marshal County High, for instance, assistant coach Andy Pagel uses pass success rate stats to gauge how careful they are with the ball, and because he likes to play direct, he likes to keep his average pass strings under six.

In the soccer hotbed of Cincinnati, girls soccer juggernaut Loveland High uses pass string data tied to video to fine-tune the way they build their attack. They also find the data quite revealing for accurately scouting opponents.

“You have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to cre­ate all three of those things that are impor­tant in play­er devel­op­ment—phys­i­cal, visu­al, and the emo­tion­al belief.” Loveland coach Dan Donovan says. ​“That’s how they’re going to work hard at it, repeat it, and not let it become a bad habit again.”

 

Sign your coaches (and players) up for coaching webinars

 
The opportunity to learn from others has never been riper.

These past four months, we’ve found that coaches at all levels are much more eager to share ideas for how they run their program successfully. You can always check out the latest soccer content on our blog, or join our online Slack community to network with more than 2,000 coaches from around the nation.

Renowned Cincinnati-area coach David Robertson has compiled this spreadsheet full of free coaching resources for you to consume, from podcasts to ebooks, websites and Twitter accounts to follow. Consider this a “greatest hits” collection of some of the best work going on in the soccer coaching community.

But don’t stop there. Unite your coaching network by having guest speakers talk to your team over Zoom, or hosting webinars with other teams around the country you’re friendly with. Take it a step further and use our new shared session feature to host a video review and level up your own understanding of the game alongside the team.

 

Fine-Tune Your Players’ Highlight Reels

 
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen a significant uptick in the number of highlights being created across all sports in Hudl. Creating a great reel is harder than it looks, though.

In our webinar with Georgia Gwinnett College women’s soccer coach Mike Giuliano, he emphasized that your average college coach is so overwhelmed with highlight links from recruits that on average you have 60-90 seconds to catch their attention.

Make sure your athletes understand that every second counts. And more importantly, give them a roadmap for standing out from the crowd. Show the pretty goals, but show the one-on-one play and winning a ball in the air too. Show how you change the point of attack, move off the ball and precise passing.

“This isn’t some movie that builds and builds and builds, and there’s an amaz­ing cli­max at the end,” Giuliano said. ​“Don’t do that. Put your best moment forward.”

 

Work with your team on creating a shared identity

 
Re-branding can be expensive. But why not have your players work together on creating a new logo, or pick out new uniforms for when you return?

At Springfield (Mass.) Central High, Principal Tad Tokarz took two dynamic ideas from the wrestling and football coaches and combined them for a fierce-looking logo that has given the Golden Eagles an identity that’s instantly recognized across the state.

Those same Eagles, by the way, are among the New England region’s most dominant in football, wrestling, and boys and girls basketball. Coincidence?

The internet is an infinity pool for inspiration when it comes to design. Revered brand consultant Jeremy Darlow is a great follow on Twitter, for one. And individual branding is only going to be increasingly important for this next generation—check out, for instance, what University of Oklahoma football did for its 2020 signing class.

***

Seeing is believing. There’s never been a better time to recalibrate your program’s evaluation methods. Want to see how Hudl’s video analy­sis tools keep your team engaged while you wait to return to the field? Take a look at all our offerings, or talk to an expert about setting up a free demo.


7v7 Build vs. Press

by

7v7 Build vs. Press with Bobby Muuss,
Wake Forest University Head Men’s Soccer Coach;
2016 NCAA College Cup Runner-up;
3 straight appearances in the quarterfinals (2015-2017);
Muuss’ record in his first three years includes 55 wins – more than any other D I program in that same span.
3x ACC Coach of the Year;
former University of Denver Head Coach (2013 Summit League Coach of the Year);
former Assistant Coach at UConn (2000 NCAA Champions, 3x Big East Champions)

Bobby Muuss’ Wake Forest men’s soccer team has developed into a national powerhouse in his time on the sideline playing a modern, possession-based style of soccer. In this video, Coach Muuss elaborates on an element at the core of Wake Forest soccer – playing out of the back – and demonstrates 10 drills he uses regularly in his practices to prepare his team to successfully build out of the back when it counts. Each drill can be adapted to fit most age groups and/or skill levels as well as both three and four-back formations, and the tempo and intensity your players will face will help develop their technical skills and decision-making abilities with the ultimate goal of creating chances in the offensive third of the field.

We are providing this drill to give you ideas on how to enhance your current practice drills. The idea is not to implement it exactly as is, but rather to tweak it to make it fit your system.

There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.

This is a YouTube video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block YouTube videos.

For more information about Bobby Muuss: Building Out of the Back – ‘The Wake Way’, click here: Bobby Muuss: Building Out of the Back – ‘The Wake Way’ – Soccer — Championship Productions, Inc.


Changing Your Training Environment

by

In this video, Coach Lazaroe offers a unique perspective on running training sessions. At the end of the video, he also provided three exercises that he uses during his practice sessions.

Ryan Lazaroe is the Current Associate Head Coach with the New Orleans Jesters NPSL, U.S. Youth Soccer Region 3 Olympic Development Program coach, Director of Coaching for Slidell Youth Soccer Club, Women’s Head Soccer Coach at Northshore High School, U17 & U18 Boys Head Coach with the SuperClubs National Team, ODP Boys Director & State Coach for Louisiana Soccer Association, Former assistant coach at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee,

Former Head Men’s Coach at Northshore High School for 15 years, Coaching instructor with U.S. Soccer Federation, United Soccer Coaches & USASA, Head Coach of the South & Technical Committee for the NPSL Pro Combine.

We are providing this drill to give you ideas on how to enhance your current practice drills. The idea is not to implement it exactly as is, but rather to tweak it to make it fit your system.

There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.

This is a Vimeo video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block Vimeo videos.

If you would like to see more information about Coach Lazaroe’s entire presentation, click this link: Marginal Gains within a Soccer Program