Three Soccer Coaching Success Stories
Rec and Travel Soccer
35 Goals Scored and Only Allowed 3
Most Meaningful Soccer Drills Seen in 10 Years for Rec, Travel and High School

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See photos of our 29 kinds of iron on Motivational Soccer Patches

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Below are emails I received.

Rec & Travel Soccer Teams & League, U10 and U12, Boys & Girls

I have co-coached my daughter's soccer team for a few years now, and stumbled upon your site prior to our U10 travel soccer season last year. We were looking for a way to motivate the kids going into our travel season and thought your patches would be a great way to reward kids for various learned skills, showing up to practices, and extra training session offered by the league, and try to get them more excited about the game. We found that our patch program could not have worked out better. At the end of practice and games we would reward our players with the patches earned, and every player would enthusiastically gather to see who received a patch.

I again ran this program for our fall U12 town recreational league team. Again it was a success, even with the older "Jr High" players on our teams, (which I was a bit skeptical about how the older kids would receive it).

Our patch program had intrigued enough of our coaches that it was discussed at a Travel league meeting and I have been asked research the cost of instituting the program leaguewide for our U10 and U12 divisions for both boys and girls. I estimate it would be about 5,000 patches, and possibly more, depending on how the coaches utilize the program.

--Gene, MA

35 Goals Scored and Only Allowed 3
Most Meaningful Drills Seen in 10 Years for Rec, Travel and High School Soccer
(a recent letter and David's reply)

Hi David,

Your site and advice are the best. Have been using the advice and the patches in rec leagues for past couple of seasons with great success (last season we were 8-2 with 35 goals for and only 3 against). Dribble across the square, clearing the ball, and shoulder tackling have been highly successful and the girls really enjoy them. The "22 rules" have also been instrumental in their development.

Had a father come up to me after practice last Friday who was absolutely beside himself with joy. Said it was the best practice with the most meaningful drills he had seen in the past 10 years (whether for rec league, travel or high school - he has 4 kids that all play at varying levels).

Dan, Premium Member, GA

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Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for writing. I really appreciate you passing along the comment from the Dad. That is a huge compliment to you and to the Practice Games approach.

Wow! Only giving up 3 goals and scoring 35 is fantastic. The 2 teams that beat you must have been excellent and both games were obviously low scoring.

Dan, also check out "Quick Team Improvement Program" at www.soccerhelp.com/premium/Quick_Team_Improvement.shtml and "23 Of The Best SoccerHelp Tips & Tactics" at www.soccerhelp.com/premium/Best_Tips_Tactics.shtml.

The other 2 training games that quickly make a big difference are "Dribble Around A Cone & Pass Relay Race" (to teach Aggressive Receiving, kicking the ball while running and One-Touch Play) and "Win the 50/50 Ball or be the First Defender 1v1 Attacking and Defending".

SoccerHelp is by far the most visited soccer coaching site in the US. The SoccerHelp approach is based on the training ideas of the great Anson Dorrance who is the most successful college coach in history. We sell a great DVD by Anson - you can watch video clips from it at Watch VIDEO CLIPS from Anson Dorrance DVD

By the way, I have an article in this month's issue of NSCAA Soccer Journal, which is very prestigious.

Please let me know how you do and send any ideas or observations you have - that is how I learn.

Thanks,

David at SoccerHelp

First Year U10 Rec Soccer Coach Shares His Tips for Success

I'd like to thank David for this website and post a little story about my rookie year coaching co-ed recreational U-10 soccer.

I had so much fun with these kids. I am hooked on coaching. It was only about 8 weeks ago that I had no idea what to do or how to coach. SoccerHelp helped immensely. We ended the season 6-1 and I saw such a remarkable improvement in these kids that I just had to post here about it.

We played "Dribble across a square", "Dribble around a cone and pass relay race" and "Win the 50/50 ball" every practice. I had horrible problems with the kids bunching up at the beginning of the season but somehow beat it into their skulls to get open and run away from the teammate dribbling the ball.

Some of the most valuable things I learned here...

  1. Don't get thrown over. This little gem really is worth a couple goals a game. When we marked up properly , we easily won the ball 90% of the time. Super easy to teach, and super easy to coach from the sidelines.
  2. Stay strong in the center. I played 1-1-1-2 in 6v6 and it was really hard for the other team to get past my waves of defenders, we gave up very few goals.
  3. The patches really work. Kids really wanted one at the end of the game. I got about $100 into buying the dang things but I should have enough for Spring season and I'm going to see if I can get parents to chip in five bucks or so next season.

I'm just so proud of these kids. We played our last game today, and kids were staying open, raising their hand and calling for the ball. There was actually some passing going on and they were mostly staying in position. The improvement I saw in 8 weeks was just astounding, and I think I was a much more effective coach by devouring so much of the information in here.

Now I can't wait till Spring to do it all over again!

--Coach Bob, Premium Member

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