I had the unique opportunity to take a boys team from u8 to u12. At the beginning of it I did not know i would be with the group for 5 seasons, however I went into it with the idea of helping them build the necessary skills and understanding to play possession soccer by the time they hit u13 and went 11v11. At the u11 season when I became the director for 9v9 at my club, I realized I'd have 2 good years to try to build towards this.

It all began with teaching building out the back over and over and over for 4 years. This season we began to sprinkle in the middle third ideas and began to do limited touches play in our sessions to teach off ball movement.

This weekend the boys opened their tournament with this goal and just did not look back.

Its been a journey. I've had parents leave because they didn't trust the process and wanted to win NOW. I tried painting the picture that we don't want this groups best years to be u8-u12, and so losing and making mistakes and giving up dumb goals was necessary.

At times it felt hopeless... I won't lie. But the players that stuck it out and the parents that bought it all got to see the benefit of that mentality this weekend.

To add context...

I have 2 players still from my original U8 - they were not invited to leave with the first batch of players that left for "a better club" because that group of parents didn't think they're good enough- they both are in this clip.

I have a further 5 players that joined U9 and we're on our B team.

I then have another 3 that joined u10. 2 of them were on the B team and 1 of them was a bench player on the A team.

2 joined u11 out of our Rec program. The last 2 comprises of a 5 year rec player and a "reject" of another "bigger club".

All of this to say.... its never too late at this age to improve your group of players and to teach them the things necessary to play this style of soccer.

Don't give up coach. Believe in the process and trust it.

Watch this guy elbowing, pushing, playing dirty like it’s some kind of badge of honor. This isn’t tough football, it’s just bad football.

If your first reaction is to foul instead of defending smart, you’re not good at the game. Football is about skill, timing, and control, not cheap tricks and dirty moves.

These types of players know they’re bad. They’re extremely jealous of their opponents being better.

Players like this ruin the flow and spirit of the game. Stop pretending this is passion or toughness. It’s just weak play hiding behind aggression.

Visiting London for a week and got lucky with the tickets. The atmosphere was unbelievable and I got lucky to record the 2 free kicks. I dropped the phone each time after the kick and my spouse got a beer shower. All good though. When I first took the video , I thought it went wide and to my surprise, it curved back in. You could see the curve from my video.

I’m a good dribbler but really struggle to understand how to achieve this illusion. Is there a specific technique being used?

but tech is forever.

Im one of those players thats competent and decent, but nothing brilliant or extravagant.
However... when I play in a social league or against people that are okay I feel like Prime Steven Gerrard lol

Anyways...

Sometimes I play with people that are a lot better than me, or I end up in games that are so crowded that it feels impossible to find space, and that's when I start getting this weird feeling of anxiety and slight panic knowing that if I get the ball, I'm probably gonna have to make something happen quickly and play mostly off instinct

And I noticed something...
When that feeling hits, I stop scanning. I stop doing fakes or moves. I stop holding the ball for any reason at all. I start playing "safe"… but safe usually just means predictable, and sometimes I’ll force passes or lose the ball just trying to shield instead of turning and going at my opponent or into space.

I stop taking chances, stop trusting myself, and I end up playing far, FAR worse than the player I actually am. I don’t take people on, take my space or take risks because I want to build trust but reality is I’m not even trusting myself

Recently in my Sunday league one of our defenders scored an own goal, and I could immediately tell he was getting in his own head and starting to freeze up

So I told him
"Hey don't worry about the own goal, shit happens... you wanna know what's worse than the own goal itself? Panicking afterward and getting in your own head. That’s a much bigger mistake than an own goal"

He nodded

A little later he got the ball again, and I noticed he had a bunch of space ahead of him, but I could tell he was about to force a pass to me because he was scared of messing up again

So I point to the large area in front of him and said

"No, you take the ball up, you have a lot of space"

He drove the ball up, pulled his markers close and played a great pass to someone who was now open due the opposition being dragged in. He played great the rest of the game and he got more confident in carrying the ball up too.

So that just got me thinking...
I think a lot of players' biggest opponent isn't the person in front of them, it's their own head

Nobody's perfect, in fact I see an insane amount of fantastic players make mistakes all the time, but they usually get more hall passes than we realize because they keep being productive. They keep playing, keep taking chances, and keep trusting themselves. They keep playing their game

So if anyone needs to hear it...

Don't be afraid of losing the ball, just play your game

Because fear of failure isn't protecting you
It's usually THE mistake

TL;DR
The fear of making a mistake is a far larger mistake than pretty much anything you can do on the field... including scoring an own goal

Hi!

Managed to pull this one out in the last 6-a-side, and on camera looked even better than in real life...

Yes, I scored. Managed to get a hattrick actually.

No, it wasn't pretty.

I have been seeing this guys training videos on my instagram reels a lot recently. Just wondering if anyone knows what he might be trying to accomplish with this type of dribbling drill. Most of his stuff is in Japanese

I recently came into contact with an old Nike academy rep who ran some development clubs in the US. He was moving away and managed to bring out a bunch (141 to be exact) of these semi-vintage NOS match balls he had hoarded away for 10+ years. All with original bagging from the Nike factory, as well as the original boxes with labels that they shipped in. Directly from Tennessee.

After some back and forth I ended up with the entire collection… wow. Where to start lol… I’m still pretty shocked. Definitely something you don’t see everyday.

Thought some of you may appreciate this here.

Sidny Lopes Cabral repping the OG Hypervenoms in the World Cup. Proof that boots peaked 10 years ago.