Passion and its fruit. How I can help win the world cup.

Sometimes people are lucky enough to feel complete and also be able to "have" exactly what it is that makes them feel great. Some people will never have that. To some the next sentence will be laughable. For me playing Football(soccer)makes me feel at peace and complete.

Passion comes in many forms and having a passion for something can often help ease people of the tensions surrounding the daily grind as well as generate positive energy.  Passion will very often create intended and unintended byproducts.  Some could be positive like happiness and some could be less positive like obsession.  The person who owns the passion may prefer to look at these byproducts in a positive way like fruit that can be sweet and delicious.  That fruit could in theory as well as practice, feed the passion of other people having a ripple affect on the bigger picture.

Over the past 14 years I have developed an insatiable appetite for the game.  My true hope, my bigger picture, is that along my journey to consume the game, I may be able to contribute in some small way to the overall growth of the sport in this country.  I would feel fulfilled of my passion if in my life time the U.S. mens' team wins the cup.  The way I see it, if my respect, passion and love for the game inspires a player to end up coaching a player 15 years down the road who goes on to inspire another player who wins the cup, I can die in peace.

Next to my family there has been nothing else that brings me true happiness like playing. Unlike any other sport, I believe soccer offers a truly complex and "journey like", personal experience. It all stems from your need to build a positive and real relationship with the ball. Once a players learns the thousands of ways he/she can interact with the ball, anything is possible. Playing in a game where all of the players are capable of seeing and playing the game is so satisfying to me.

I dream of the day when soccer in the U.S. becomes a deep part of our cultural fibre. I know we are on our way.

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Building a Relationship with the ball: A must happen in American Soccer

Far too often in the US, we lose many potentially fantastic players due to our inability to lead players into a relationship with the ball.  The players become frustrated and fear having the ball come their way because they "believe" they are not able to execute what is needed of them.  The speed of decision making is far too slow because they do not have tools to deal with pressure. They do not have "escapability" moves for relieving the pressure either through a possession pass or an attacking pass built off a fake or feint.  They either do not attack or they can not escape pressure.   When a player reaches a point where they are satisfied by simply swinging at the ball in order to get it away and hopefully to a teammate, this is when we need to rethink our approach.   This is the opposite of where we should be, instead we should be consistently providing them with tools and opportunities to be under pressure and learn how to embrace these moments.

Building a relationship with the ball is the crucial piece to the puzzle and means understanding how to deal with having the ball in a thousand different ways without giving it to the other team.  Many youth coaches (volunteer parents) in the U.S. have not played beyond the level that they are currently coaching which means they can not demonstrate the skills their players need in order to progess.  Some have played soccer and believe that we need to "run" the kids more and make them fit.  Soccer indeed needs fitness, but being able to move the ball effectively is the key.

I am currently experimenting with a "ball mastery" method that players can use at home in their room.
Consider a sequence of moves that will need to be repeated constantly (similar to Coerver Methods)  but with in a small 4 foot area.  Each move once mastered in the sequence can be explored independently under varying degrees of pressure and employed further in games.   After mastering the nuances of each move including body shape, exact placement of the foot on and around the ball, and reassure the players to explore the moves in games.  For example right now I am working with a few groups of players on a sequence with the ball that incorporates 5 moves in a row. Some moves are fakes for attacking space and some for "escapability". 
Phase I: The players will slowly learn each move until we can put them into the sequence.  They are given the moves and master them through practice and homework
Phase II: We put them into activities where they can use the move with simulated pressure/defense
Phase III: We use practice scrimmages with instructions to use the moves
Phase IV: The players use them in games and build confidence