Planning Training Sessions with Coach Patrick Ouckama: Current Director of Coaching for New England Revolution Academy, U17 head coach. Played 4 years as a starter at Ithaca College with multiple collegiate athletic awards.

Training sessions are a concept most coaches do not necessarily think about when it comes to game performance. Coach Patrick Ouckama from New England Revolution Academy speaks on the importance of training sessions and some tips and tricks on how to develop your training sessions.

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 Ouckama’s entire presentation, click this link: Planning Training Sessions

The post was provided by Coaches Network

by Chris Wellman

Productive coaches spend 75 percent of their time teaching the sport to their players, and the other 25 percent of the time coaching. With younger athletes, this gap increases with teaching becoming more important.

The problem is that many coaches don’t understand how to teach athletics effectively. Plus, some coaches don’t take the time to grasp how athletes learn. Here are nine proven steps to becoming a better teacher and a better coach.

1. Understanding your passion for the sport first.

Before jumping into coaching, coaches first must understand their passion for the game. Having a high level of passion for the sport tremendously influences your energy, creativity and ability to motivate players. Passion is contagious. If one player or one assistant coach comes to practice excited and fired up, that emotion and passion easily is passed to every other member of the team.

2. Setting the stage for teaching.

Prior to the first practice, meet with your athletes and explain your role as a coach and teacher of the game. Let them know your purpose is to help improve their athletic skills. Impress upon them that you care about them as people, and that you are concerned about their lives even beyond athletics. Feeling cared about makes a player more coachable — effort and concentration increases. If you care enough about them, they’ll walk through walls for you.

Part of you caring is to work through players’ mistakes. Tell them mistakes are part of the learning process, and the only true mistakes are ones of lack of effort or concentration — both of which easily are corrected.

3. The importance of why.

Don’t assume players know why you are asking them to practice a certain technique or to perform a skill drill. Explain how everything has a positive effect on their ability to play. Be as detailed as possible, because it’s important that they understand why you’re doing certain things.

4. Fundamentals first, then complex.

Know the fundamentals of the sport you teach. This enables you to design practices for your players’ appropriate skill level. It also becomes easier to assist an athlete who cannot perform a certain skill. After grasping the fundamentals, players move on to practice drills focusing on more than one skill at a time. Don’t expect to teach complex skills to players who have not mastered the basics.

5. Use the whole-part method.

Oftentimes, it’s necessary to teach skills in parts or steps. Once again, in-depth knowledge of fundamentals gives you an advantage. Teaching a skill in part keeps the player motivated, because they are forming a mental checklist for performing the skill correctly. Educators refer to this as “task-analysis.”

Moving from one step to the next puts the focus on progress, which allows you to praise the player for grasping a skill and working with the player in areas that need more practice. A good barometer to know if a player is mastering a certain skill is to see if that player is teaching the skill to another teammate.

6. Effective motivation.

Find something positive to say to every athlete at every practice. This satisfies the athlete’s need for attention, recognition and appreciation. Be specific with your praise — specific praise is used to reinforce the why of practice. Always attempt to find more positives than negatives while constantly praising effort.

7. The hoopla of success.

When an athlete or team finally masters a skill or concept, don’t hesitate to momentarily stop practice to recognize the achievement. Praise their effort, and remind your players why mastery of the skill is so critical.

8. Model what you preach.

Most coaches talk to players about certain values and characteristics they hope to see in all team members. Coaches really are the best positive role models for these values. When stressing good sportsmanship, talk about coaching with honor, respect for the game and attitude toward officials. When stressing tenacity, never give up on yourself with your athletes. And, when stressing organization, conduct practices that are structured.

Players look to you for guidance, so don’t say one thing and do the opposite.

9. Encourage crossover athletes.

Coaches who are overzealous sometimes encourage their athletes to play one sport on a year-round basis. This can leads to overuse injuries and burnout. Participating in other sports improves the way the athletes play your sport. The movements and skills required for many sports are similar. Consider the footwork necessary for soccer and basketball are almost identical.

Productive coaching is highly dependent on the coach’s ability to teach their sport. Teaching isn’t just blowing a whistle, barking out orders and heading home after a couple of hours. Being a good teacher takes time, effort, practice, patience and a passion to make a difference in the lives of your players.

Recommended Coaching Resource:

This article was provided by Coaches Network

To be successful, coaches must evolve and grow over time. Not only do sports change, but there are also countless lessons to learn from athletes, other coaches, and experiences that you have. As you add new pieces to your coaching philosophy and develop your own style, you will graduate from one stage to the next. Recognizing where you are in your coaching evolution will help you understand what you need to do to keep moving forward.

According to an article written by Sam Snow on the U.S. Youth Soccer website, the first phase of coaching is about validation. For those just starting out, the goal is usually to look for proof that you can actually coach, whether that’s by looking at the win-loss record or getting feedback from players, parents, and peers. This can be a difficult time because many people want to have success right away. Getting over some of the initial hurdles is key if you are going to continue coaching. Eventually the validation will come, but you have to be patient.

For those who continue coaching, the next stage involves education. That’s when you start to recognize where you can do better and you take steps towards improving, such as going to camps and clinics, watching tapes, and reading books and helpful articles. The goal is to gain as many coaching tools as possible so that you can help your team be more successful. Coaches in this phase are often still very concerned with validation, but they are excited about the prospect of getting better. For many successful coaches, this desire to remain educated and continuously improve has proven key to their longevity.

Explanation comes next, according to Snow. As coaches improve they will start to feel more confident as an authority figure. They will speak up and instruct players and peers more than they did before. Much of this comes from being able to recognize what isn’t working and explaining to others how it can be fixed.

The edification phase is similar to the explanation phase, with the difference being that coaches are no longer concerned about validation but are mainly focused on instructing others just for the sake of helping them. When coaches get to this point, they are happy to help those around them, regardless of whether they’re a kid or coach on another team or someone in their own program. They are more open to sharing ideas even though they still have a competitive edge. They also shift their focus from pointing out what others are doing wrong to encouraging others to do things right.

Another major step in a coach’s growth is the realization of their true mission. As a coach starts to recognize how sports can impact athletes in all aspects of life, they start to emphasize developing character traits, treating every athlete on the team equally, and teaching life lessons. They are still very competitive and still want to win, but now it is done by developing people before players and training the mind as well as the body. This is when coaching becomes much more than just a job.

With the right opportunity, coaches will move onto implementation. This is when you get to truly build your own program and develop a culture that fosters the type of people and players you want to develop. It can be difficult to get to this point and it might take a while for the right opportunity to come along, but Snow assures that he has seen many people build their own systems after starting with humble beginnings.

According to Snow, the final step on the evolutionary ladder is compensation. He doesn’t mean money, though. Instead, he is referring to the compensation coaches get when they have been around long enough to see players they have mentored grow into successful adults. That’s when you know that you have truly contributed to the bigger picture and have passed on important lessons that will continue to be taught.

Click here to read the full article.

Change is inevitable in coaching. Great coaches must be willing to embrace it.

This article was provided by Changing the Game Project

Have you ever heard of Blockbuster Video? Have you seen one lately? There is a reason only one Blockbuster store remains today. Let me explain.

In 1992 I was a senior in High School playing for one of the top high school soccer teams in the state. We were successful because our coach was one of those “curious coaches”. He sought new knowledge, learned new methods, and pushed the envelope of conventional coaching to find what would work next.

It was the opening game of tournament play. We were the number one seed in the area and drew a lower seed. This gave coach a chance to try one of his crazy new ideas. Our warm-up was not your typical pre-game routine. We didn’t line up and run laps, or do static stretches in a circle. We didn’t get in 3 lines and pass/dribble on goal.

Coach tossed out jerseys and had us play small sided games with “neutral” players to create numbers up situations. Then coach rearranged teams and had all of our “attacking players” playing against our “defending players”. Attacking players played toward the goal and the defenders played to small goals at midfield. Our keep away game became directional with purpose. Finally, we played small-sided games focused on scoring goals off crosses and loose balls in the box, with targets at the top of the box who could receive a “drop” for longer range shots.

When captains were called, we sprinted to midfield. We were ready to play. We were out of breath, we were amped up, we were chomping at the bit to attack someone else. A club teammate of mine was captain for our opponent. I still recall his expression of disbelief.

“What is that crazy warm-up? No runs. No stretches. Playing keep away and getting worn out. Who does that?”

I told him coach said it gets us into a game mindset, is game specific, and will have us ready to start quickly. My counterpart said his coach laughed at us. Was our coach crazy for his unconventional pre-game routine? Should we have stuck with tradition and kept doing it the way everyone else had for all those years?

I’ll let you be the judge. We deferred kick off and immediately pounced on the typical back pass to the center back (I am so old we called it a “sweeper”). He didn’t get a chance to touch the ball before I had intercepted the pass and slipped into the box undefended. We started like a drag race car who had been revving the engine and spinning the wheels long before the green light. They took 10 minutes to get the engine cranking. We had a 2 goal lead and full control of the match by then. We played fast, we played high pressure, we played with passion. The same way we had warmed up that night. Our opponent was slow, unengaged, and sleepy.

Today, we see this kind of warm-up all over the world. Teams prepare for a match by simulating match conditions. No static stretches, no laps, and lines. Back then coach was laughed at for getting us ready for the game that way. Today he would be laughed at for not preparing us this way.

Change is inevitable in coaching. Great coaches must be willing to embrace it. Our knowledge will change. The sport will evolve. Our players will be different. The best coaches are always trying new things. We must be willing to see opportunities to adapt and add to our game too.

This is how the world’s best coaches lead their teams. Pep Guardiola did it at Barcelona and is doing it again at Manchester City (check out this great new book The Barcelona Way: Unlocking the DNA of a Winning Culture by Damien Hughes). Steve Kerr took everything he learned from coaches such as Phil Jackson and Pete Carroll, and layered in his own principles and style, adding his twist to things that were working and making them better. We cannot be so set in our ways we miss the chance to make adjustments in the way we engage, educate, and empower our athletes or we could completely miss the mark. If we are not ready to change, the world will pass us by, just like it did to Blockbuster Video.

In 1998, Blockbuster Video had a market value of $4 Billion. At its peak, it had 9,100 retail stores. You couldn’t drive a few blocks in most US cities without seeing the big blue and yellow sign. In 2000, fledgling video-by-mail company Netflix approached Blockbuster with a crazy idea. Netflix wanted Blockbuster to buy them for $50 million. Blockbuster could promote Netflix’s online subscription service in their stores, and Netflix would run Blockbuster’s online presence. Why would a $4 billion dollar giant allow an unknown upstart to run its brand? Furthermore, why would Blockbuster even consider a business model that shunned late fees, since late fees made up $800 million in revenues?

Netflix was laughed out of the room. Blockbuster stuck to what they’ve always done, even though the market was changing, the consumer was different and the model was evolving. By the time Blockbuster realized they needed to adapt, the proverbial ship had sailed. They never recovered.

Only one Blockbuster remains open today (it’s in Bend Oregon, home of Changing the Game Project!).

While Blockbuster has gone bankrupt, Netflix has continued to zig when the world wants to zag. It didn’t stop at eliminating late fees. When the market and consumers needed to “rent now” (one of the advantages Blockbuster brick and mortar stores offered), they adapted and shifted to a streaming model. When it called for renting movies anywhere, they shifted to a “stream to any device, anywhere there is an internet connection” model. Finally, when the market demanded original content (an advantage the big movie houses and television operators offered), Netflix started creating curated content tailored to consumers.

What started as a small player is now a category killer across multiple markets and is threatening even the oldest and largest media companies who have been creating and delivering content to consumers for over a century. Netflix’s current market capitalization is over $152 billion (more than Disney and Comcast) because they listened, they adapted, and they made small changes.

As coaches, we don’t need to give up all we know about coaching. We shouldn’t abandon all that has shaped who we are today and built the resume we hold. We aren’t required to completely change how we coach if that has brought us success.

But shouldn’t we at least take caution from the lesson of Blockbuster and celebrate Netflix by looking for opportunities to adapt to the current needs of the market (the game), the makeup of our consumers (athletes), and the demands of an industry? If we are not willing to realize that the game is evolving and the players are different, we may end up going the way of Blockbuster.

Sports has evolved. We have more data and science about youth sports today than the last 50 years combined. The way sports are being played across the globe is changing faster than ever. The kids who play sport are vastly different than the kids were a generation ago. The excuse for why our coaching is not working, “kids these days,” is not an excuse. It is a cop-out. Seek to understand them, and meet them on their turf. Teach them in meaningful ways so they actually learn what is taught. Instead of blaming them for our own failure, adapt what we are doing for the sake of their success.

Are we “Blockbuster Coaches”? Are we refusing to change, even a little, in order to remain relevant?

Or are we Netflix coaches, ready to shift, adapt, reexamine, and disrupt in order to ensure we are on the cutting edge of effective coaching?

Here are 5 easy ways to be more like Netflix and continue to evolve your coaching alongside the changing athlete landscape:

• Heed the advice of Simon Sinek and Start with Why! You need a solid foundation to build your coaching philosophy upon. What is your why? Your tactics and strategy can change, but your core values, the things you hold dear about your teams such as integrity, sportsmanship, competitiveness, etc., those are unwavering. As Joe Ehrmann suggests in InsideOut Coaching, write out your coaching purpose statement, and stick to it. Layer in new tactics and techniques, but get your foundation right.

• Study and learn – The biggest problem with being at the top of the heap is a belief that what got you there will keep you there. The New Zealand All Blacks have a saying, “When you are on top of your game, change your game”. All the other competitors around you, and below you, are adapting to catch up and surpass you. If everyone around you is doing their homework, it does not matter how good you are, they will surpass you if you are standing still. Is there a little change that could keep you relevant?

• Understand your biggest competitors – This can be both inside and outside the sports world. Who is succeeding at better engagement, lower attrition rates, and higher development success rates? What are they doing differently to achieve this? Is there a competitor you should be watching more closely for clues? (I’ll give you a hint…video games are growing exponentially compared to youth sports)

• Find the biggest pain points your players face and help them to solve them – Ask yourself what obstacles are in the way of your athletes ability to perform. Ask them what keeps them from fully engaging and learning. Those who seek to solve other’s pain points and reduce their barriers to success end up having the most impact. Is there something you are ignoring that is keeping you from being the best coach you can be?

• Try it. If it doesn’t work, move on – This is difficult for all coaches. We don’t want to appear to fail or make mistakes in front of our athletes, but it may be the best gift we give them. Showing vulnerability, self-awareness, and resilience in the face of failure is a massive modeling opportunity for your athletes. Our willingness to try new things and our readiness to admit and recover is a lesson athletes carry into life. Netflix is not without their share of mistakes. They launched Qwikster and tried to separate the streaming service from the DVD rental service, and almost spelled doom for the company. They recovered by admitting a mistake and remedying it with the consumer. Netflix now has no fear of trying new things and pivoting when they don’t work. Is there something you could try tomorrow that might create a better learning environment with your team?

So, are you a Blockbuster coach, or are you a Netflix coach? Are you still relevant, or doing it the way it has always been done? Would this be OK in any other “profession?”

We think not.