DVD Review: SoccerU

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

(You have higher level experience than I do, but I took a look anyway.) I am not sure what you are looking for with "very detailed technical instructions." From the preview, it appeared to be taped demonstrations rather than a written description of techniques. In the past I had to deal with written discriptions of technique, and video demonstrations were more preferable. It appeared to me that the tapes were more comprehensive than detailed. In other words covered all skills rather than just dribbling or just moves. If the previews are an indication, I liked the quality of the videos and the content. I picked up a couple of ideas just from watching the first preview. It would be worth buying it for me, but I can't say about you.

As to your focus on technical training, I share your view. In the past (1980's and early 90's) I focused on technical training I thought, but my regret is that I did not focus on it even more so with the kids. If I had it to do over I would learn the Coerver method of coaching. Their materials are kind of the benchmark for judging coaching videos. The stuff I have seen dealt with ball skills in depth. That is what the method is famous for. I don't know if they are as comprehensive in scope as the Soccer U materials.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

I just came across this series too, and I'm also interested in any reviews. Anyone?

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Yes, I own the series and our club uses the series for coaches training. We also allow parents to check it out as well. It is by far the best series on the market for learning true technical form and skills. It is NOT a coaching DVD series so if that is what you are looking for I would not suggest it. However, if you are a parent, or coach that wants to TEACH the skills, it is by far the best on the market. We like it because it shows all levels working with the coach. It shows young players around 10 all the way up to the pro level. VERY SPECIFIC and VERY DETAILED.
I will warn you that most people think it is a "short" dvd to learn quickly. It is not. The entire series is like 10 hours long. My son and I have watched sections together and he really learns from it.
We have an "B" level coach that watched it and he said, "I wish they would use this to train the coaches at the USSF schools, because they really don't teach SKILLS, they teach coaching." I thought that was a GREAT comment.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

They key to improving a player is knowing the proper mechanics of a specific technical skill. When you can spot the technical breakdowns in soccer, it makes it much easier/simpler to be an effective coach.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Thanks for the replies. It seems like most of the stuff on it found via web searches are essentially advertisements without real third party independent reviews. Maybe cause its relatively new. I find it interesting I can't find out any concrete background info (playing, coaching experience) on "Coach V". Hopefully more reviews, including one from me if I decide to pull the trigger, will be posted.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

I don't think his coaching experience really matters. I knew guys that played high-level pro ball and couldn't teach correct technique to save their lives.

This is just a matter of researching/knowing what is correct and isn't It comes with a bit of focused coaching experience.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Agreed.
We have one former pro player and one former college coach who now coach at our club. Both are great "soccer guys" but as far as technical training they were not the best. They watched the series and both were very impressed. They both stated that they were taught "the game" and "coaching" during their careers, but neither had ever been through a true "technical" training program.
For years and years the technical side of soccer has been like the game "Operator". You watch others and mimic them the best you can. One coach shows another coach but no one really knows the true forms or best way to teach it. What the series has done for our club (and me) is get everyone on the same page when it comes to technical training. The only problem we have found is the amount of time. There is SO MUCH that the series covers, it is almost impossible to try and teach it all. That is why we recommend it for parents or older players to have at home and work on during the summer or off months. I read that the new revised series for 2010 / 2011 will be out soon and you might want to wait on that. They mentioned it on their twitter page I think.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Good point about "Operator". Often times, the best athletes can pick stuff up like that very easily. What it doesn't account for is the kids that can't.

If any club is serious about improving, it will work to set up a framework and education program to help their coaches teach technical skills.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

The majority of methods used by coaches to develop football skills in our young children consist primarily of skill drills with lots of repetition of the skill to be learned. This is done on the notion that as a child first attempts to learn a new skill, the body begins to lay down a neuromuscular or motor pattern of the movement that the player can access whenever he plays football. The young player, in terms of skill acquisition, is viewed as a motor pattern learner and so the theory goes, by repeating or practicing the movement or skill, the pattern eventually becomes engrained into the players neuromuscular football related arsenal of skills. Possibly the coach may have demonstrated the technique to be learned.

There are several problems with this very common approach. The first problem arises when the player has to use the skill in the ever changing environment of real football play. Techniques learned by the player on their own usually don’t transfer into effectiveness in match play or games. WHY? Because essentially the player has to relearn the skill (almost from scratch) within the ever exchanging context of playing the game.

Consequently it makes you wonder whether the skill would have been better developed within the game context in the first place in order to minimise the transfer time. Secondly and perhaps most importantly this motor programme approach grossly underestimates the abilities of children to learn highly complex movements quickly if given the correct environment & stimuli. Furthermore, by trying to duplicate the demonstrated movements of the coach, the player-learner will be less likely to experiment and find their own ways of manipulating their body (and the ball) in order to be successful on the pitch. History shows that the best players developed their own way of playing and being skilful.

By playing hours of conditioned ssg and the coach using Q&As,giving nuggets of information, the children develop a real understanding of the game. Physiologically, performing successful skills in football is a highly complex task involving coordination, strength, spatial awareness, body control in the context of the immediate challenge facing the player. To young players, each of these challenges is unique and the children need as much game play as possible to decipher game situations and find solutions using their new skills their own way. ( Rick Fenoglio, Sports scientist at Manchester University)

Problem with adults is they have forgotten what it is like to act and think like a child and so they expect them to behave and play like adults. In time children will become adults but let them grow in their own time. Jean Jacques Rousseau once said “Nature decrees that children should be children before they become adults. If we try to alter this natural order, we will reach adulthood prematurely but with neither substance nor strength.”

In football terms as an example, this could relate to adults always talking about passing and moving the ball, when infact a child under 10 still has problems with recognising space and movement. Young children will chase the ball around the pitch and that is fine, it helps to develop motor skills, fitness and the need to chase the ball which is exactly what they are after. A 6 yr old looks at the ball as his/her toy, children are selfish that’s normal, so best to let them chase the ball and in time with help from the coach, THEY discover that it not always up to them to chase the ball. Coaches spend loads of time trying to stop this natural way of playing, when 99% of the time the children wont stop because for them it is natural and if they have managed to stop them, what are the children doing, standing in fixed positions on the pitch not moving?

When there were not so many cars on the roads and children did not have msn or xbox, they played football with friends in parks or the streets. This not only helped them develop it also created a real long and lasting love for the game. In todays society we apply too much pressure, too many instructions that we have the highest drop out rate in Europe. Today children have many other activities to choose from and street football has more or less disappeared from the UK, so the time spent playing and learning football has certainly decreased over the years. So it is important that we provide them with fun coaching sessions that help them develop at their rate in their own way, this will help to keep them in the game for much longer, but will make better players in the long run. Developing players is a long term process, don’t try and rush it or you may burn out our promising young players.

You can take a lesson from history, it says that ALL our best players learnt their basic skills from street football, no adults coaching, but the freedom to be creative. Now that brings me onto the next point, I always get accused of not coaching. Let the game be the teacher is not something I completely agree with, there is a need for coaching if we want our players to improve its just how I go about coaching that maybe I differ from most. A guided Self discovery method is what I believe in. All I do is set up the questions to be answered, then the players have to answer them, this method is far more likely to help players learn for the long term. In studies it has shown that a player remembers 19% of what they have been told 3 months ago. Where as they remember 32% of what was demonstrated and explained. Yet in cases where they were given the opportunity to generate the information on their own, but with help from a coach, fully 65% of the information was remembered.

What is crucial in any type of learning is stimulating the mind. Think back to school and you will probably remember the really good teachers, they kept you interested and stimulated your mind. Football coaches need to do exactly that if you want to get the best out of players. This is not easy as you have a whole team with different likes, abilities etc.

Posing questions that make the players think about the answers, but are open ended questions, that would normally start with why, how, what. These questions make players discover the answers and quite often they find an answer to a problem they have not realized before. Let children experiment with the ball and without it, but don’t criticise mistakes or you may put them off trying again, instead encourage them to have another go and can you find another way of solving the problem.

Traditional methods give the answers to the players i.e. you should do it this way, but what if that way is not the best way for that player? Football has many roads to get to the same place, which road suits them best is the one that they take.

Repetition is important for a player to learn, but as a coach you need to find other games to coach the same topics, or your players will become bored. That is the beauty of using ssg, there are so many different games to choose from and in each game you can adapt the rules to help challenge your players.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

While your post makes some good points, I think it could be confusing.

I agree that today's youth players do not play "street soccer" or pickup games anymore, but that does not mean you take away technical training that is CRITICAL to their development.

Simply "playing the game" does not make a highly skilled player.

There are TONS of players that "play the game" for years and years and yet simply do not have the skills needed to take their game to the next level. Playing the game is important, but learning the SKILLS to play the game better is critical.

There are golfers that play golf 3 times a week and still are horrible. They lack the skills that the pro's work on, on a daily basis. They play the game, play the game, play the game, and never improve.
A proper mix of specific and targeted skills training, plus learning through small sided games, is what makes great soccer players great. Unfortunately, time is the critical factor missing for most.

When we added a "skill specific" training day to our program, we saw HUGE improvements in our youth players. We saw players that "played the game" over and over yet were unable to, or performed the skills the wrong way, improve greatly. The "skills days" have made them stop and think. "Oh yah, I have been doing that wrong all these years."

Average players don't work on skills; they play the game and have fun.
Good players work on their "skills" a lot.
Great players and pros work on refining their skills everyday.

I think your point is valid, let the kids play and let them learn within the game.
However, that should NOT take away from LOTS of specific technical skill training.
Simply add MORE game time and training time.

I can't tell you how many players I have watched "play the game" for years and years, but still are poorly skilled players. This happens all the time within our system. They get frustrated and quit the game. Many will tell you the "reason" so many quit is that they weren't having "fun", when in fact the level of play had passed them by, and they were now embarrassed by their peers. This will come more and more as they get older.

So, play LOTS of small sided games, but never give up the skill specific work.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

It always amuses me why some people think that you have to do one (repetitive exercises) or the other (games) exclusive from each other. Silly.

You can spend 1/3 of the time on technical training with increasing pressure. Then, you can spend another 1/3 of the time in small "guided" games. Then, you can spend 1/3 in a free play environment. This way, "techniques" are learned and turned into "skils" that can be performed under game pressure.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Very true Twenty26six...

A well balanced training program is what works with developing soccer players. Many coaches however, simply can't get that organized and some simply don't have the time.

The biggest problem most face in US Youth soccer is TIME.

Most coaches have 2 - 3 hours a week to work with players, and that lasts about 12 weeks in the spring and in the fall. Try and squeeze everything you need into that time frame and you'll go crazy.

That is why we added the technical training day to the schedule.
You'll be amazed at how many players go the entire season without practicing certain technical skills, the entire season.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

I agree, and a technical training day is a great asset as long as they get to play under pressure during that time.

However, I disagree that time is not the biggest obstacle. You just need to be economical.

A coach's ability to "prioritize" is his best attribute. Most of the time, the novice coach is trying to do much more than what is necessary.

I focused the majority of my time and effort on dribbling and receiving - with tackling and shielding as the secondary concern. I'd teach the technique and focus on getting the girls into game situations (mostly small 1s, 2s, 3s) where they had to employ the skills.

Of course, I can still teach tactics when the opportunity arises, but I am not planning sessions to develop tactical concepts.

If someone has limited time with kids that are novice (or young), you should be working almost exclusively on dribbling and receiving. Other stuff can be attached to a session, but the focus should always come back to the basic. This way, they have a shot at attaining the technical mastery they need to execute higher-level concepts.

I still maintain that a coach's first priority is to teach every player to receive the ball and maneuver it under great pressure with confidence and composure. And, if I was a house or rec coach, I don't think I'd worry about my kids doing much more than this and having fun.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Technique is obviously important, but if a child spends so much time learning technique they lose valuable time developing football memory. If a top player such as Lampard only has about 2 minutes on the ball in a game, then what a player does off the ball also becomes very important and the best way to understand the game is to play it.

In the UK the average team train for 60 minutes. If you get upto 3 hrs then you are lucky. Time is a big factor as you say, that is why I will never coach along the lines of coerver or socceru again. I have had more success since i changed my style of coaching away from a skill based programme to a games based learning style.

Kids above all want to play games, if the majority of children are having fun, then they are more open to learning. Playing hours of conditioned games builds football memory, which in turn makes better decision makers.
Spending hours practicing technique does not build football memory, but helps develop muscle memory. So you have trade offs with different styles of coaching.

You are right thousands of players have played many many matches and they only have basic skill, but many can read a game a lot better. But to say children have not developed from playing games is a ridiculous statement to make, just ask Joe Cole, Maradonna, Pele, Ronaldo, Gerrard, Rooney, Eusebio, Edgar Davids, Eddie Gray and so on , I could go on for ages. These players of course needed coaching, but they developed many techniques from the streeet which helped them develop into the players they became.
I come from the street football era, I played football most days with friends and I can say without a doubt that my generation produced more skillful players than those today, who go to these skill schools. I see kids with what seems like great dribbling skills, they can do scissors or step overs but have no clue what to do off the ball, when to make runs etc. as they do not recognise game situations, through lack of game time.

I ran a talent centre and I have had kids come from Coerver and brazilian soccer schools, both of which spend hours working on skills unoppossed and i have had lads of 12 who have only played a competitive school match, but spend time in their garden with a brother or down the road with friends, no coaching by adults just playing the game and they were better than the lads from the skill schools in matches.

This is not to say i only play competitive matches because we do practice technique, but I tend to make a game out of everything I do. Coaching dribbling for example in the old way such as the clips on socceru are not fun enough. The coach tells the children to do it this way, WHY? What if the child does it in another way, does it matter?
Teaching skills is important but coaching skills in such a way that breaks every detail down is Boring for many children. Put it this way I have never had a lad walk away from my 1st time with him, but when I took my lad to a Brazilian soccer school, he did not want to go back as they did not play enough football.

The English FA have new courses out now, they are really emphasising the importance of self empowerment/discovery and the advantages of a game based style over drill based exercises, but once again that is not to say you dont ever do any drills. These courses are different to the old UEFA B, as the instructor said they are out dated now.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

You only mentioned "along the lines of socceru" once in your posts. Since this thread asked for a info about the DVD, have you actually watched it?

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

26 and US have the right of it. I approached training the same way. To pack as much training into the time I had available I used detailed practice plans, and then stuck with the time schedule. It helps all around. I expected to start on time, and the parents expected me to end on time.

 

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Nope just watched the clips, it is nothing different to many other dvds out there.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

That's a bit LONG of a reply for a pretty simple question.

The answer is pretty simple.
If YOU, the teacher, can't demostrate the skills to the players by breaking them down STEP BY STEP, they will never learn them.
Again, we use the series to train VERY experienced coaches and beginners as well.
VERY detailed series and well worth it.
This is a good review of it.
http://www.socceru.com/socceru_dvd_review.htm

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

ussoccecoach, the most skilfull players of the last 10 yrs, Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldhino learnt there skills playing the game, not watching a dvd or having a coach tell them where to stick there right foot...

US & UK coaches are unfortunately unable to help create players with real flair. Your comments about if we cant break the techniques down step by step they will never learn them is so off the mark that I am surprised you are coaching.
Reality check, players who play the game will be able to do some turns, dribbles etc, now they wont always be able to perform those skills at the right time/place, thats where thre coach is needed. I dont need to learn 10 turns, I will have a couple that I prefer and be able to perform, I dont need a coach to teach me that, as I said its the when to perform those skills is the real skill.
Now I am not saying you should never prasctice of course children should, what I am saying is you can learn another way.

Personally having spoken to many many coaches at grassroot level, these dvds never reallyhave any effect, and from personal experience children dont like to learn that way.

SO I think the dvd is a waste of money...............

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

The DVD does not teach players. The DVD teaches coaches.

 

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In my opinion it does not teach it the best way though.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

It's just showing the coaches what to look for and how to build technical skills.

This video is a good representation of what you do in individual training or a technical warm-up for your team.

You _START_ with this - showing kids where to put their right foot. THEN, you go to play a game and reinforce the ideas.

Trust me. All coaches should take these things seriously. But, they should also know this is not heir practice. This is only the individual instruction segment.

 

Re: DVD Review - soccerU ????

Training (for coaches) like this is very valuable. New coaches either have playing experience or they don't. Even if they have playing experience, they may have bad technique in certain areas. Even if they had perfect technique as a player, analyzing a players technique and correcting thier technique is necessary. Being able to personnally demonstrate a technique goes only so far.