Why does US Soccer ignore teaching youth players soccer foot skills? I’ve spent many hours over the years watching and observing how youngsters learn to develop skills as they grow in their primary years. It amazes me that the US Soccer community turns a blind eye to their development until they reach the age of 10+ or become competitive (it’s always competitive in the kid’s eyes).

 It is amazing how quickly young children can absorb, master, and retain new skills they develop. They are eager to please parents and coaches alike, showing what they have learned.

I’ve always wondered why there is a complete lack of quality age-appropriate foot skills training provided to young youth soccer players in programs such as US Soccer organizations (AYSO is an exception). Ian Campbell also made the same observations after growing up in Dublin, Ireland. “Probably the biggest problem with youth soccer in America is that coaches are not qualified to be teaching kids the mechanics of the game,” Campbell says in his 2017 article “American Kids Stink At Soccer Because of Baseball“.

My associate, Alan Merrick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Merrick), who began playing soccer professionally in England in 1967 before coming to play professionally and coach in the USA in 1975, told me it’s been that way since US Soccer set the precedent many years ago. Merrick stated, “They used to teach the fundamentals, but not anymore, which creates several lost years for youth development“.

Another of my associates, Brad Carlson, who has been coaching soccer for over 40+ years, stated, “there is very little if any, foot skills training provided to young youth recreational players by organized soccer clubs in the USA“.

A while back, Alan and I were sitting and having lunch with an assistant DOC of a large soccer club. We showed them our MOTI 3D motion captured skills in our MOTI Soccer App and asked what they thought. They made the comment “if we use your 3D skills within your app with our players, we won’t be able to sell as many hours of private lessons to parents. It will cost trainers income!”.

We are aware of the limited attention spans of youth players, and of the limited soccer training skills available at the youth level. We are also aware that the vast majority of young youth players are coached by well-intentioned parents lacking the ability to perform the needed foot skills correctly. It is why MOTI Sports uses 3D motion-capture technology to create 24 soccer foot skills for young players and make the first seven (7) Foundation foot skills available free to anyone who will download our app.

The current thinking seems to be to let players mimic what they see other players doing. If players mimic foot skills improperly, they develop bad habits. When soccer becomes competitive at the age of 10+, lessons begin and players become disenfranchised, having to re-learn basic skills they’ve already been using in Recreational, In-Town, or In-House programs over the past 3-4 years. It can take thousands of repetitions to re-learn these basic skills.

We recognize that communities in the USA are more geographically dispersed than in other countries, resulting in a lack of easy access to community-based (neighborhood) play for young players.

3D motion-captured foot skills are an eloquent way of providing high-quality foot skill training anywhere and should begin with our young players, as early as the organized play begins.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Why does US Soccer ignore teaching youth players foot skills? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Struggling to have parents volunteer?

A board member mentioned to me they had over 300 kids sign up and were experiencing problems having parents volunteer to coach. They asked if our app could help guide their coaches through their season. Yes, our app can help their coaches coach.

However, you have to get the parents to say “Yes” to volunteering first. Thinking back, I remembered, “the most rewarding time I had as a parent” was volunteering to coach a group of kids.

Why did I Volunteer and say “Yes”?

Someone I knew and respected, told me I had the skills to do a good job, and that I would look back someday and remember how good it felt to contribute to the development of young people. They were right!

Cornered into volunteering? Sure!

Unless parents are given a deadline they make a decision, they won’t. Parents think they are too busy! In reality, they should invest the time with their kids!

Was I afraid I would mess up and blunder? Of Course!

Harry Houdini once said, “Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything.

Was I happy I volunteered? Yes, absolutely!

The rewards!

• Volunteering moved me out of my comfort zone. We all gravitate to thinking we’ve put in a long day and accomplished a lot. But who for?
  •  This was for the kids my kid played with and I could watch them grow and develop.
• This taught me how to educate, communicate, and motivate more effectively: How you keep kids engaged:
  • Being competitive
  • Winning & Losing
  • Working together as a team
  • Experiencing individual accomplishments
  • Feeling the accomplishment as a Team
  • That feeling of the team “giving back” to an individual or a community with no expectation of receiving anything in return.
• This was something I could do:
  • The interactions I had with the kids & parents were great fun
  • Watching them all grow and learn was priceless

In summary:

Looking back, I worked with amazing people, kids, parents, and families. It was great to see people and communities working together. I would not have thought that the rewards were as great as they were. The memories are amazing as well!

So, if you need some parents to step up and Volunteer, here are some suggestions:

1. Tell them they would be great at coaching youngsters.
2. Remind them you are here to support and guide them.
3. Make sure you get them a training platform to guide them along their way.
4. Show them they will make a difference in the kids and the community.
5. Mention they will have experiences they will remember for a lifetime!
6. Tell them here is your chance to lead, using your leadership skills.
7. Hand them a signup form with a pen and wait while they complete it! 😊

Learn more – Coaching Smarter saving Time

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Help Wanted!  –  Volunteering has its own rewards appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Players and coaches that are new to your organization need to learn your training system, and your training system needs to be able to adapt to their different learning needs and developmental rates.

There is a continuum of knowledge and skill that accumulates as both players and coaches gain experience, like that of an infant learning to crawl, walk & run stages of motor skill development.

Everyone experiences learning in all its forms at different rates: visually, auditory, physically (kinetically), reading & writing.

Your training system needs to allow the individual to experience the learning as often as needed so the individual understands what is being taught.

If your training system has too much information to learn before the learner is ready, this overloads their development process, and it can lead to deficiencies in the development of either the player or the coach.

Player Development: Player development occurs across 4 major areas:

• Developing Technical skills to play the game (ball mastery, shooting, passing/receiving, individual abilities)
• Developing Tactical game understanding (decision making, team/group play, positioning)
• Physical development (overall athleticism, speed/agility/quickness, strength/endurance/balance/flexibility/coordination)
• Social/ Psychological (coachability/willingness to learn, communication, leadership, work-ethic, interactions with others, teamwork, punctuality/attendance)

Coach Development:  Coach development occurs over a minimum of 5 major areas:

• Developing knowledge of the game
• Developing coaching communication skills
• Set-up of the ideal training environment
  • Understanding the structure of the session plan
    • Engage the players immediately with a fun warm up or game which will introduce the topic for the session.
    • Present activities or games with little or no pressure to help the players experience success with the topic, improve their technical ability, and increase their confidence.
    • Add pressure, gradually increasing to an equal strength small sided game to see if your topic has translated to the game.
  • Tactical area set-up of the practice area (skills, tactical)
• Coaching a Practice Session
• Coaching the Game

Training systems need to facilitate putting together session training plans for technical skill as well as tactical game development. Additional elements should be enabled to be incorporated into training.

What works when Training:

In researching writing this article I ran across the following pyramid defining player engagement and learning retention from the National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine.

What you should know: 90% of what is retained is done so because we had to teach it to another individual, 75% is learned because we did the activity or skill, only 50% is retained when we discuss something, 30% retained when we watch something being done, 20% watching a video is retained, 10% when we read something, and only 5% when we listen to a lecture.

Summary:

Training systems need to encourage, monitor, measure and report usage to be of real benefit.

Read part one of this series: Select a Soccer Training App and System that is right for your organization!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Player & Coach Development appeared first on MOTI Sports.

This article will guide you through a process for Selecting Soccer Training that is right for you and your organization.

Evaluating Soccer Training Apps & System(s):

I recently watched a YouTube video that evaluated a handful of Soccer Training Apps. Their evaluation criteria focused on the “glitz and glitter” of the apps vs the content quality and delivery methods of instruction.

Evaluate training Sports Apps and Systems, focus on the criteria, method & style of instruction as well as the  “what, where, when, and how” content is being presented to the coach or player. 

Goals for your Training System:

Write down the goals/expectations of what you want to achieve when purchasing the training system.

Goals may be different for coaches and players. Age and regional location may play a role in selection criteria. As an example, you would not want advanced skills being taught to an age group that is too young, or you would not want a series of activities that are games designed for 6-year-old players while training high school age players.

Is an integrated system required with your team management platform, or a nice to have?

You also know that people do not all learn the same way.

As a result, this will help you focus on what is important and what isn’t, as you walk through your evaluation. 

How do we learn?

Coaches and players learn by:

• 65-75% visual (seeing things for ourselves)
• 15-30% auditory (coaching points)
• 5-10% kinesthetic (a learning style in which learning takes place by carrying out physical activities or “doing it”). 

First, the app should use engaging visualizations that clearly define what is being learned. Second, it needs auditory coaching/teaching points that are easy to understand at the age group listening. Finally, exercises/activities & drill(s) are needed. Make sure all Coaching Points are clearly understood and presented at the same time with the visualization. 

Coaches should watch the visual movement of players within the activities/drills from the beginning to the end of the drill.

This results in teaching the transitions of the activity. Also, it helps the Coach understand that “what is being taught” is clearly understood.

Auditory coaching points need to be easily understood linking directly into the visualizations.

There are times when coaches need to physically Do the activity such as Mentoring, in order to understand the importance of it as well.

Players need to watch the visually engaging movements (skills or activities) of what is being taught.

They must clearly understand auditory coaching points in language that is easy to comprehend. 

Skills/Technique development requires the need to physically do the activity multiple times to train the brain and muscles to do the move in unison.

The app should have a method of recording analytics like “time on task” & “number of times” it’s been practiced. This will require thousands of repetitions of doing the move “correctly”.

Create a training matrix for the coaches and players:

1. What teaching/coaching methods, drills/activities, strategies, setups/set-plays, skills/techniques are being employed. Are the best training methods being used to insure coaches and players alike, understand, and quickly comprehend concepts, skills, setups and scenarios you want them to adopt into the game.
2. Where should the training process occur? At practice, home, games?
3. When, at what age is training content best learned? What age are skills, rules, strategy training most critical and best processed?
4. How training should be conducted and how often should different types of training occur?

Summary:

Soccer Training app(s) or system must monitor and measure what is being learned. This is critical to ensure coaches and players are learning and performing what you are expecting them to do.

Oversight is an important aspect often overlooked in training. A key phrase here is you can’t expect, what you don’t inspect.

Make sure you can monitor to see things are being done the way you anticipate they should be done, measure system usage as well as perform improvement.

Get the Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Select a Soccer Training App and System that is right for your organization! appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports, Inc. began as a project between an NFL Football Coach and an animator. The Coach was trying to solve the problem of “why are my players not looking at the X’s & O’s diagrams and studying them in their 3-ring notebooks”, but they will watch Madden Football.

We patented a 2D to 3D drawing tool that creates 3D animated drills/scenarios/activities for sports coaches and players to watch and gain understanding of the strategy presented.

MOTI used motion capture to record techniques and skills that players need to learn and master to be able to play the sport well.

We created 3D Animations to teach youth sports to coaches and players because of these benefits:

1. Players ages 6 to 9 relate to Animated Characters – because it is easy to see themselves as that character.
2. Animated stories can teach Empathy – as youth envision themselves as a character in the story, they attach their emotions to that character and learn how they feel in a situation.
3. Animations are a Multi Sensory teaching tool – players SEE and HEAR what the character is doing. 3D animation allows the player to sense this learning from any perspective.
4. Animations separate the youth’s behavior from their person – when comfortable with the animated character it is easy for youth to envision themselves as that character. If that character can do a technique or skill youth, they believe they can do the technique or skill,. Seeing a video of an adult doing the skill does not transfer that belief that the youth can do that skill..Youth know adults can do things they are not physically capable of.
5. Youth Imitate Character’s Behavior and Actions  – ever see youth acting out a cartoon character behavior or action? It happens all the time. Youth absorb sports skills the same way.
6. Animations are an effective way to Convey Information – as youth become comfortable with a character, they focus on the message or actions being conveyed vs the person or environment presented in a video. 
7. Animations are a way to Engage Youth –  when youth are entertained they are engaged. If youth are watching an animation and they see some movement by a character does not conform, but is later corrected, they become engaged with Empathy. They also learn that correcting movement is acceptable form of behavior. They will watch for it.
8. Animated Stories create a Shared Viewing Experience – when watched as a group or even individually, one of the best ways to teach is to have a common story everyone sees and can talk about. Animations provide that safe story where the actions of the characters can be taken about.
9. Animations are a Powerful Social Learning Platform – animated characters present a safe method of discussing actions and making corrections to them, without singling out an individual.
10. Animations provide time to coaches and players to transition – showing an animation of a drill / activity during a water break to youth is a great way to allow everyone to do a mental reset and visioning for the next activity.

Through the years with computer 3D animation we can now create the perfect movement or Skill/Technique for players to Imitate.

We have motion captured the primary, intermediate, and advanced Foot Skills/Techniques for Soccer for youth to train with. We have created 3D Animations of Activities for coaches to use themselves and with players creating a “reverse-classroom” on the pitch.

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Why Animation? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Soccer App – Sole Lateral Roll Skill

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Soccer App – Sole Lateral Roll appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports Soccer Training Platform Video featuring Jemma Merrick.

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Sports Soccer Training appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The buzz among soccer coaching directors, recreational directors, and organizational leadership  revolves around several questions regarding training, retaining and growing youth players in that 13+ age range.

• How do we increase the percentage of players in recreation moving up to competitive, to greater than 30%?
• How do we decrease the fall off of the 60-70% of the players at age 13+ that leave the game?
• Should we try the Play-Practice-Play methodology to increase the “Fun” factor in hopes of both retaining players and improving their soccer skill set?
• How do we continue to provide advanced skills, techniques and tactics to players as they grow past the “parent coach” expertise level?

Yet, the conclusion is as you walk around and listen to the conversations, nothing seems to be breaking this pattern.

At MOTI Sports, we believe young players in recreation need to begin learning a solid foundation of foot skills/techniques.  

As young players begin to learn basic ball handling techniques, it becomes apparent their confidence and self-esteem increases.  Success from maintaining possession grows proportionally with the close ball skill handling, passing lane awareness and increasing the rapid movement of the ball between team-mates.  They develop the skills to beat their opponent and learn to restrict the player movements of opposing players.  They experience success, and it continues to grow.

During this lull between seasons, consider making a change. Bringing in skills training at the lower level of recreational soccer really helps players (and their parents) get involved in their own development if they have a mind to do that.

Change the stigma, so success is measured on the players’ ability to play, and not on their family’s ability to travel and pay for experienced coaching. Create community opportunities for solid recreational league 13+ (non-traveling) play so that players who cannot afford or parents, who don’t have the spare time to drive everywhere, have a viable socially acceptable alternative.

Hey, bring players back into the community, don’t make them leave.

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post It’s Time To Make A Change appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports Diamond Passing Drill as viewed in the MOTI Soccer app. Get the MOTI Soccer app for Android | iOS.

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Diamond Passing Drill appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Aug. 11, 1976: Alan Merrick, captain of the Minnesota Kicks, hoisted his son, Adam, 4 years old, for a victory wave after the Kicks stomped the Los Angeles Aztecs 6-2 to win the western division championship in the North American Soccer League in …

Read the full Dec. 10th Star Tribune article

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
⚽ MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
⚽ MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Sorrowful in Seattle: Minnesota soccer fans have seen this one before appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports is hosting an online soccer conference and we want you to come. Join us on Wednesday, December 17th to watch demonstrations, follow discussions, and learn about staying relevant in the ever-changing sports environment.

Featured Speakers include; Skip Gilbert – CEO US Youth Soccer, Ian Barker – Director of Education United Soccer Coaches Association, Dr. Ben Schwamberger Associate Professor of Physical Education & School Health Program Department of Human Performance Minnesota State University.

SAVE THE DATE: Youth Soccer Summit

DATE: December 17, 2020 12:00-1:00pm (cst)

Register for the Summit

Visit the Official MOTI Soccer Summit 2020 page: https://motisports.com/soccer-summit.php

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Youth Soccer Summit 2020 appeared first on MOTI Sports.

As the season for playing soccer comes to an end and we enter the holidays, it is a great time to get players and students involved in the development of their foot skills. We all know if left alone a lot of sedentary time will occur around the house with players and students as they try to “relax”. Over the course of a few days, inactivity and lack of a routine to follow players and students will become irritable. Without steady exercise, it begins to affect family interactions as well. As humans, we are designed to be active. As parents, without activity, you can see firsthand the emotional effect on the players and students.

We are suggesting a solution that is working for youth.
Virtual Soccer Training allows youth in a small area to work on their foot skills in an internet video conference enhanced not only with a licensed coach, but also the MOTI Mobile App to provide those needed visual mental repetitions of how the skills are performed. 

Most internet training scenarios rely on a coach or player to demonstrate skills once or twice, maybe in a video. Our method allows youth to watch the skill on the MOTI Mobile App during the training session and as often as they desire on their own between classes.

If you are not able to afford our app (Skills begin free) or our class (costing about $8 per hour), we encourage you to have your player grab a ball for at least 20 minutes a day and go where they can practice and work on their foot skills and burn some calories.

It will improve their attitude and yours as a parent.

MOTI Sports Virtual Soccer Training is a coaching service that provides in-depth instruction to youth soccer players.

November sessions starting on the 30th (Mondays) are currently available. December sessions starting on the 7th (Mondays) and 14th are available. January sessions starting on the 11th & 13th, 12th & 14th and 16th & 17th are available. February sessions starting on the 22nd & 24th, 23rd & 25th, and 27th & 29th are available.

Learn more about MOTI Sports Virtual Soccer Training here

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Keeping Kids Active – Emotionally Satisfying for everyone appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports Virtual Soccer Training is a coaching service that provides in-depth instruction to youth soccer players.

MOTI Sports is offering MOTI Virtual Training for 15% off for a limited time. Use the promotional code VSTSOCCER15. Perfect for your fall and winter training.

Learn more about MOTI Sports Virtual Soccer Training here https://www.motisports.com/virtual

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post 15% Off – Virtual Soccer Training appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Parents or Players can now decide where and when they receive the needed instruction from inspired coaches to develop their foot skills or techniques via Interactive video conferencing.

Learn more about MOTI Sports Virtual Soccer Training here

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Virtual Soccer Training appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Families that Play together…Stay together

Most families that had “busy schedules” prior to the pandemic have slowed almost to a stop along with their physical activity levels.

Take the initiative playing “pickup soccer” as a family physical activity that is fun and rewarding. 

Parents, children, grandparents, close family members all benefit from not only physical activity but also from the competitive social interaction.

A soccer ball and a little space outside provide all the resources necessary to enjoy a simple family game of “pickup soccer.” 

Teaming one parent with one sibling against another parent with another sibling forms the basis of an aerobic activity that we all can use. Then change teams after 5 minutes.

It always amazes children as they see the competitiveness arise from parents outside of their typical parental roles as they compete with each other. 

The ability for parents or grandparents to impart those teachable moments and the skills needed to defend the ball, passing control, faking a move, and taking the shot when it is timely, is truly rewarding experiences.

If you are unsure of the proper foot skills to use or teach as a parent, we can help! 

• Download the MOTI Soccer app from your App Store for Free. 
• Touch “I am new to MOT Sports”, answer some simple questions indicating an interest in Player Skills
• You’re on a Practice Plan loaded with interactive 3D Foot Skills that you can watch listen to the coach and learn – for FREE.

Get the MOTI Soccer Training app:
MOTI Soccer for Android: https://motisports.com/google-soccer-app/
MOTI Soccer for iOS: https://motisports.com/apple-soccer-app/

You can practice inside in a tight space such as a garage or basement. As you gain confidence, then move to a larger area.

Now begin playing one vs. one with your child, showing them how you are controlling or trying to control the ball. 

You can play a game of “keep away” for fun. Change control from one person to the other, so defending the possession of the ball experienced is shared.

Passing the ball back and forth between two players for skill development. As your confidence progresses, then add another player. If you each have a ball, a simple game of soccer golf around the yard is a blast.

If four family members are available now, you can play as teams with 2 vs. 2.  Or for a short trip head to the tennis/pickleball court and play some soccer tennis!

In the end your entire family will enjoy the experience 

You’ll be glad you did!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Family that Plays Together appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Teachers Prepare: to teaching Soccer in three scenarios?

As August is here, so is the beginning of school, but now teachers need to prepare to be able to teach in three differing scenarios; traditional classroom (gym, or outside); remote learning, and or a combination.

This spring MOTI released our “OneTeacher:  system of soccer skills instruction.  Designed after articles published in Shape America (Society of Health and Physical Educators), we put the power of visual 3D learning affordably in the hands of educators like yourself.  Plus, we provided you with daily lesson plans to help you do your role in making sure the instruction meets the Power Standards and can be turned in to your Curriculum Manager.

To tryout out the OneTeacher system on our Free-to-Teach team, simply:

• Download the “MOTI Mobile” App from your iTunes or Google App Store (Free)
• Touch “I am new to MOTI Sports.”
• Select “Teacher / Educator” when prompted after entering your email and creating your password
• Review the “Announcements” and watch out Quick Start Video for Teachers
• Try out the system
• Select your Grade Level in our Subscription Menu for a simple, modest annual subscription

Classroom (Gym or Outside):

Selecting “MOTI Education Soccer Gr 3 – 8 Class Set-up” will launch our 3D Activity/Drill Player, and you can see interactively how to set up safe distancing grids that enable small groups of students to “play the game” while another group works on developing their foot skills.

Use your instructional Tablet to have students watch the 3D interactive motion-captured skills for the foot skills group to learn from and practice their skills.

Remote Learning:

Set-up: Have students download the MOTI Mobile App and obtain our Free-to-Play 3D Interactive Skills on their device for FREE. Simply do the following:

• Download the “MOTI Mobile” App from their iTunes or Google App Store (Free)
  • Press “I am new to MOTI Sports”
  • Select “Player” when prompted after entering your email and creating your password
  • Review the “Announcements” and watch out Quick Start Video for Players/Students
  • Students now have access to our Free-to-Play Foundation Skills used in our 3rd-grade class for FREE. Older students can have their parent upgrade to Advanced or Premier for $0.99 for a month, which is more than enough for the 2-week unit you’ll be leading them through.

Assign: Working with the daily Lesson plan, assign students the foot skills you want them to work on for 5 minutes each.

Review: Working with your video review, have the students demonstrate their skills development on the ball.

Note No matter the learning environment, whether it be an apartment or house, a ball is all that is needed for student materials.

Combination:

Use a combination of the two methods to work with your students.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Teachers Prepare appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Spend quality time with your kids this Father’s Day learning soccer moves and skills.  Use the FREE Foundation Soccer Skills available from MOTI Sports to help you teach soccer skills to your child while enjoying time with them.  Make this a Father’s Day to remember.    

·  Download the MOTI™ Soccer app Free from iTunes or Google Store

·  Press – I am new to MOTI Sports

·  Enter your email address and get on the Free Foundation Skills Team 

Thank you for learning Soccer and stay healthy!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post A Father’s Day to Remember for Soccer Loving Dads appeared first on MOTI Sports.

We recently updated the MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile) from 2.11 to 2.12 to improve the user experience.

Sign-In Experience

We added a “Remember Me” for the Alternative User Sign in credentials to remember your user for the alternative systems who are validating you as a user.

Additionally, we’ve moved the “Stay Signed In / Remember My Password” from the App-View Settings menu to the Password Screen.  Once a user has Signed In – they will be signing in with simply the Two Quick Touches. Additionally, for IOS or Android Users who killed their task vs signing out, we will auto-log you in once the app again is re-initiated, saving time. NOTE: Users with multiple usernames will need to Sign Out to effectively switch between users, as we are now remembering things with in the system.

Improving the User Experience

We’ve exposed some of the items available on the App-View now on the Web-View

• Exposed the Shopping Bag to the Web-View for easier access to our Subscriptions.

• The Overflow Menu on the Web-View has changed. We are now showing your which Username you are Signed In as. We’ve exposed access to the ScratchPad feature for easier access. Finally, you can “Restore Purchases” which will restore your Subscriptions to your device, should you change devices as a user.

• The Overflow Menu of the App-View has changed. We are now showing you which Username you are Signed In as. You can restore “In-App Purchases” which will restore your Subscriptions to your device, should you change devices as a user.

New Subscription Content Available for Physical Education Teachers – Lesson Plans

We added another menu for users to purchase subscriptions to content. Our Teacher menu available by touching our Shopping Bag is available with two (2) weeks of Physical Education Teacher Lesson Plans  for Grade levels 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8. The daily Lesson Plans cover the Power Standards, Learning Target(s), Lesson Introduction, Content Focus, Closure, Set-Up, Safety, Differentiating Instruction and Helpful Hints that you can “turn in” as Your Lesson Plan to your administration as needed, saving time.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI App – Updates appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The Past 90 days have changed the way we look at things.

Recent changes in social distancing have brought “the family unit” within many countries closer together.

Youth players are at home with their parents and trying to keep their heads in the game, their foot skills sharp and their physical conditioning up to pair. Parents are closer to their players now more than ever before and can now provide positive feedback communications their coaches used to provide on an in-person basis.

Parent’s providing that critical feedback mechanism need to be aware of the positive impact on self-esteem the player will feel with proper communication.

Externally, Coaches are using apps, such as MOTI Sports (MOTI Mobile) to rollout practice plans for youth players to focus on various Foot Skill development, while using Zoom (or like apps) to conduct a player review. Many groups have created video challenges among players to keep that competitive spirit going.

There are over 60 million children in the United States involved in youth sports.  As you know, sports help youth to develop self-confidence, skill development and friendships. Given the economic stress that families are experiencing, we need to keep sports non-exclusive, affordable, and safe.

Participation in recreational youth sports is increasing and the physical education our youth are receiving in our school systems is decreasing. This is leading to an increase in our reliance on volunteer coaches (usually parents). We need to provide affordable and effective means of educating those volunteer coaches so they can properly train youth in skill development, provide psychological support and encourage our young players while keeping the training in a safe environment.

Take a moment as a parent volunteer to obtain some self-development training in the following areas:

• SafeSport https://athletesafety.org/
• Concussion Training as a Coach https://www.cdc.gov/headsup/youthsports/coach.html
• Positive Coaching for Winning and Life Lessons  http://shopping.positivecoach.org/Courses

Slowly as it is safe to do so, players have migrated outside into open areas to begin, safely, passing the ball and dribbling around.

Remember every time someone picks up a ball, it becomes a source of infection, so besides practicing safe social distancing, wear gloves for ball handling and keep wipes handy to clean along the way.

If you need help with a Coaching curriculum, MOTI OneCoach is a place to turn for advice and having an app coaching you thru your season.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Going Forward – Managing our Expectations appeared first on MOTI Sports.

We recently updated the MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Soccer app) from 2.11 to 2.12 to improve the user experience.

Sign-In Experience

We added a “Remember Me” for the Alternative User Sign-in credentials to remember your user for the alternative systems who are validating you as a user.

Additionally, we’ve moved the “Stay Signed In / Remember My Password” from the App-View Settings menu to the Password Screen.  Once a user has Signed In – they will be signing in with simply the Two Quick Touches. Additionally, for IOS or Android Users who killed their task vs signing out, we will auto-log you in once the app again is re-initiated, saving time. NOTE: Users with multiple usernames will need to Sign Out to effectively switch between users, as we are now remembering things with in the system.

Improving the User Experience

We’ve exposed some of the items available on the App-View now on the Web-View

• Exposed the Shopping Bag to the Web-View for easier access to our Subscriptions.

• The Overflow Menu on the Web-View has changed. We are now showing your which Username you are Signed In as. We’ve exposed access to the ScratchPad feature for easier access. Finally, you can “Restore Purchases” which will restore your Subscriptions to your device, should you change devices as a user.

• The Overflow Menu of the App-View has changed. We are now showing you which Username you are Signed In as. You can restore “In-App Purchases” which will restore your Subscriptions to your device, should you change devices as a user.

New Subscription Content Available for Physical Education Teachers – Lesson Plans

We added another menu for users to purchase subscriptions to content. Our Teacher menu available by touching our Shopping Bag is available with two (2) weeks of Physical Education Teacher Lesson Plans for Grade Levels 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8. The daily Lesson Plans cover the Power Standards, Learning Target(s), Lesson Introduction, Content Focus, Closure, Set-Up, Safety, Differentiating Instruction, and Helpful Hints that you can “turn in” as Your Lesson Plan to your administration as needed, saving time.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI App – Updates appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI 3D Soccer Training App is helping young players learn the sport of soccer while developing their skill.

Alan Merrick was interviewed recently on KMSP FOX 9 TV about the MOTI Soccer (previously known as MOTI Mobile) 3D Soccer Training App. View the news story now.

WATCH ON FOX 9 TV

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post FOX 9: App helping burgeoning soccer stars keep their skill sharp appeared first on MOTI Sports.

We understand that kids have lots of energy. The MOTI Soccer Training App is here for you. Keep your kids busy learning Soccer skills. 

In this time of uncertainty and distancing, we have decided to offer our Foundation Soccer Skills package for FREE!

• Download the MOTI™ Soccer app free from iTunes or Google Store
• Touch I am new to MOTI Sports
• Enter your email address and get on the Foundation Skills Team 

This is for all children, so please pass this along. Thank you for learning Soccer and stay healthy!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Stuck At Home appeared first on MOTI Sports.

We all have seen how a carpenter can use tools, like a hammer to drive nails binding two pieces of wood together to create structures. 

But what happens when a carpenter does not have the skill or know how to use the hammer to drive the nails into the wood to bind two pieces together?

Youth Soccer Players often face the same dilemma. 

Parents signup players, players then come to practice and with the new Play-Practice-Play training methodology from US Soccer without any knowledge of foot skills. US Soccer assumes that players will learn them by watching other players. That eventually does occur. But in the meantime, what happens to that player? 

How long does that watching and learning take? What are the emotional challenges a new youth player faces when they cannot control the ball? Do self-esteem and respect issues arise when players mishandle a ball passed to them? Will other players trust that player and pass the ball to a player once they’ve shown they mishandle and lose it to their opponents? Is that player having fun?

At MOTI Sports, we believe that the “See it, Do it” method of learning does work, but it should not be at the expense of the player. Like a carpenter learning to drive a nail, instruction with visualization and practice can make the carpenter more productive much faster. Similarly,  a soccer player with a ball, visual and auditory instruction can develop the foundation of their foot skills easily without having emotional issues presented by other introductory coaching methods.

We know not all coaches helping coach youth soccer know how to instruct players on many of these Foundation Foot Skills, so MOTI Sports is here to help!

We are making our Foundation Foot Skills available through our App. We believe players can learn and have a great experience, because if they can “See it, they can Do It”, without the emotional challenges. 

As you sign up your player for youth Soccer this spring, don’t forget to put the skills they need to hammer through the season in their tool bag with MOTI Sports 3D Foundation Skills.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Fixing the problem – A Carpenter with no Hammer Skills? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

When MOTI engineers began collecting analytics at the inception of our system, the thought was that training systems should provide feedback to all levels of users.

It always amazes me when coaches say, “I can come up with my own videos for training”.

What they fail to realize is do they have a system to monitor and determine:

• Who is using the training content?
• How often is it being used?
• Is it being used effectively?
• How does one encourage usage of training content?

Over the past few years we’ve seen enormous amounts of energy spent by coaches creating their own video training and wondering at the end why it has not worked as effectively as they desired.

As with many change implementation methods, one needs to be able to measure what is being used and how it is being used. Then occasionally, manage by walking around to listen, see and hear what is happening on the practice field or pitch.

With MOTI it is easy for the player to monitor what skills they have worked on, and what they have not worked on as much. The coaches can do the same with reviewing the practice plans and the individual skills and drills contained in them. Finally, the administrators or coaching heads can pear into the system and view the teams to analyze how the entire system is being used.

Most people understand that if they are monitored there is an expectation of performance, just like on the pitch!

People work better and more effectively when the expectations are defined for them.

Have a great season!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post You get what you inspect, not what you expect appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Making it Easy for the Administrator

Most of the organizations or teams we work with have a team management system. MOTI has an interface for some of those team management systems to make using our system easy for administrators. SportsEngine is one of them.

We recently upgraded our SportsEngine interface and will be doing more very soon to simplify roster management between our 3D Sports Soccer Training Platform Rosters and SportsEngine.

Onboarding

Our SportsEngine Roster Interface for Roster Onboarding is done by the league administrator.

Now the league administrator can:

• login to MOTI
• drop down onto a team
• Go to the Roster
• Click Import and then select the team name from SportsEngine to import
• Go to the organization view
• Select the next team to drop onto to

Enabling one-button onboarding – Coming Soon

We are looking at improving this process and are working to implement a solution that will enable the league administrator to select the team(s) to onboard.  The league administrator will be able to:

• Create the Team Name from SportsEngine
  • Onboard the coaches and players to the respective team
  • Allow the league admin to select the type & style of Team Training content put on the team as it is created

One Button League Roster Refresh – Coming Soon

MOTI is working on developing a team roster “Refresh” function, so once a day while the season is starting up, the administrator after making their changes to the rosters can “refresh” the rosters on the MOTI teams. 

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Something New – Integration at work appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports joins SportsEngine Marketplace to Provide MOTI’s 3D Soccer Training Platform and MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile) to Coaches and Players.

MOTI Sports, Inc. joined the SportsEngine Marketplace to offer MOTI’s 3D Soccer Training solution to coaches and players via MOTI’s Soccer app. Successful soccer programs need volunteer coaches that are consistently training the players using appropriate techniques (foot skills) and activities (drills) for the players to have fun and thrive. This need makes MOTI Sports 3D Soccer Training & MOTI Soccer App the perfect complement for SportsEngine’s soccer organizations volunteer coaches & players. Using the MOTI Soccer App enables coaches to have a season’s practice session plans in their hands to follow, that are visually engaging, easy to understand, and are narrated with all the coaching points to follow.  Players using the MOTI Soccer App develop their techniques using the 3D motion-capture skills and quickly learn close ball control skills. Organizations now have a method to have different age/skill teams using the same 3D curriculum with analytics providing feedback to the organization, coach, and player.

MOTI Sports is an industry leader in using 3D animation in youth sports training, enabling coaches and players to watch and study techniques and activities from any perspective, increasing comprehension and speeding development.

“Many organizations struggle to recruit and staffing volunteer coaches, working to ensure they have a proper training curriculum in their hands that they understand how it works, and a way of walking the new coach through running a proper training session. MOTI provides organizations with a solution of putting that session plan in the hands of their coaches and player’s practice-by-practice, week-by-week supporting them through the entire season,” says Gordy Thomas, CEO of MOTI Sports. “Eliminating the guesswork of what practice sessions should consist of, MOTI provides proven choices of both Play-Practice-Play and Traditional Skill-Drill-Game-Development methods for the organization to choose from”.

Coaches will view and reference the session plans on average 30 times during the season. On average, coaches will see specific techniques 65 and activities 29 times for a total average viewing time of just under 2 hours per coach (depending on their experience).

• “This is a game-changer for us – many of our coaches at the younger ages have little to no training in soccer. MOTI allows us provide these coaches with a continuum of lesson plans they can see and understand and easily utilize. The coaches are now better prepared to meet needs of the players with developmentally appropriate soccer training, “says David Tarleton, President North Metro Soccer Association.

• Melonie Robran, Treasurer Corcoran Soccer remarked, “I am really glad we tried it. I think it was a phenomenal tool that provided our coaches something substantial that they could teach their players. We’re a rec league so we get some coaches, who may not take that opportunity, but the ones who are ready for it and the players who want to learn more certainly utilized it. We are very pleased with the first season results.” ”

• Steve Doimer, Director of Coaching for Wright County Soccer said “MOTI is giving us everything we need in our hand to run a decent session. We can run everything from an average session to a fantastic session, and that it just depends on where that coach is in their development as well. The difference being is that coach that is just running a decent session would be running a bad session without it.”

“We are excited to welcome MOTI Sports to the SportsEngine Marketplace,” said Jody Vogelaar, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Content, SportsEngine. “Providing coaches and volunteers with tools like the ones MOTI offers is part of our mission to help streamline processes and save coaches time so they can spend more time focused on their athletes.”

About MOTI™ Sports, Inc.

MOTI™ Sports Inc. is a software company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MOTI specializes in the development and delivery of software and 3D digital content for use by coaches, players, parents, and fans in youth sports  (6 – 12 years old).  MOTI™ Sports Inc. helps its customers by providing tools & subscriptions which enable coaches to utilize and or design and share plays with their team through a “3D Gaming” medium.  Coaches, teachers, players, students, and parents learn how to execute unique plays and movements associated with their individual sports. Fans can use the tools to engage in their favorite sport through a new medium.

To learn more, visit https://motisports.com, facebook.com/motisportsinc,  twitter.com/motisportsinc, instagram.com/motisports/?hl=en

About SportsEngine, Inc.

Helping the world play smarter and live more, SportsEngine, Inc., an NBC Sports Group company, is the leading software provider of sport life management solutions for 35MM coaches, parents, athletes, and sport relationship management applications for more than 1MM clubs, leagues, governing bodies, and associations. SportsEngine helps sports organizations around the globe reduce the time they spend on administrative tasks, and enables them to focus more on developing their athletes, providing safe experiences, and furthering the love of sport.

Learn more at: http://www.sportsengine.com, Facebook.com/sportsengine; or twitter.com/@sportsengine .

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Sports joins SportsEngine Marketplace appeared first on MOTI Sports.

During soccer season coaches and players are going non-stop to practices, clinics, training, and games. Hours of traveling, sitting at practices or games, added laundry,  meals on the go, and missed weekly chores are all part of the normal chaos that is part of the soccer season. All too often we take for granted the support we receive at home. Whether it is a parent driving us to practice/game, shopping for shoes, or a spouse that is taking on extra duties around the house so you can focus on coaching or playing, now we need to recognize our base of support and thank them!

I know from experience over the years and thousands of hours of volunteering in community-based activities, boards, and working with teams of youth, I could not have done it without my home base of support.

So, take a moment this season and thank those around you that provide you with encouragement and support, allowing you as a coach or player to have the time to work at this beautiful game.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Remember your most loyal supporter at home! appeared first on MOTI Sports.

November and early December allow most organizations to pause and reflect a bit.  Board meetings will bring up new topics, as new board members come on board and try to rejuvenate the organization’s leadership. High School awards banquets or Club banquets celebrate the players and coaching achievements, and often the parental involvement for being supporters of their players.  Many organizations are beginning to work hard to improve skills with their competitive players, and in some cases, that is in-doors.

The buzz among soccer coaching directors, recreational directors, and organizational leadership  revolves around several questions regarding training, retaining and growing youth players in that 13+ age range.

• How do we increase the percentage of players in recreation moving up to competitive, to greater than 30%?
• How do we decrease the fall off of the 60-70% of the players at age 13+ that leave the game?
• Should we try the Play-Practice-Play methodology to increase the “Fun” factor in hopes of both retaining players and improving their soccer skill set?
• How do we continue to provide advanced skills, techniques and tactics to players as they grow past the “parent coach” expertise level?

Yet, the conclusion is as you walk around and listen to the conversations, nothing seems to be breaking this pattern.

At MOTI Sports, we believe young players in recreation need to begin learning a solid foundation of foot skills/techniques.  

As young players begin to learn basic ball handling techniques, it becomes apparent their confidence and self-esteem increases.  Success from maintaining possession grows proportionally with the close ball skill handling, passing lane awareness and increasing the rapid movement of the ball between team-mates.  They develop the skills to beat their opponent and learn to restrict the player movements of opposing players.  They experience success, and it continues to grow.

During this lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas, consider making a change. Bringing in skills training at the lower level of recreational soccer really helps players (and their parents) get involved in their own development if they have a mind to do that.

Change the stigma, so success is measured on the players’ ability to play, and not on their family’s ability to travel and pay for experienced coaching. Create community opportunities for solid recreational league 13+ (non-traveling) play so that players who cannot afford or parents, who don’t have the spare time to drive everywhere, have a viable socially acceptable alternative.

Hey, bring players back into the community, don’t make them leave.

You don’t need to hire a coach, as in most cases you have a coach. They grew up with your players and have been developing their skills right along with the players.

When enjoying a quiet moment this Holiday season, ask yourself: “is it time to make a change?”  It just might be the perfect time to do just that.

Happy Holidays!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post It’s not time to make a change, just relax and take it easy? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

We are making our famous 3D Foot Skills available for youth soccer players in both boys and girls models. We have several development levels available:

• Foundation Foot Skills – contains eight (8) narrated 3D motion-captured skills and 2 exercise 3D drills for beginning players – Priced at $0.99 per month
• Advanced Foot Skills – contains nine (9) narrated 3D motion-captured skills and 2 exercise 3D drills for players who have mastered the Foundation Foot Skills – Priced at $1.49 per month
• Premier Foot Skills – contains eleven (11) narrated 3D motion capture skills and 2 exercises 3D drills for players who have mastered the Advanced Foot Skills – Priced at $1.99 per month

Users, who require Spanish, can change the language in the app user profile and on the display.

To subscribe to our 3D Skills, look for the Shopping Bag in the App (In-App Purchase) in either the App-View or soon in our next app release in Web-View.

If you haven’t already, download the MOTI Soccer App for FREE at the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Soccer App – In-App-Subscriptions for Foot Skills (Techniques) Available appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Across the USA soccer appears as the corner stone of attracting youth and their parents as one of the best team sports. From the ages of 5 up to 12 years old, soccer is played everywhere. While all the groups below have differing offerings, the idea and end results remain the same. Get the players on a team to:

• Have fun
• Exercise
• Learn skills
• Learn to work together as a team (team work)
• Build relationships
• Learn to communicate
• Develop self –confidence
• Develop empathy for others

Recently, in visiting with a several people, I learned that depending on the “level” of soccer parents sign their player up for, the cost can range from as low as $30 to $4,500 and beyond to be “on the team”.

While considering investing in their coaching and programming, parents may wish to ask themselves:

” Are my children benefiting greatly from a high cost program, or is the perception that because my children are in a high cost program, it is changing their or my status in the community?”

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Where are youth playing soccer in the USA? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Do you remember when they wouldn’t pass the ball to you?

 Do you remember? That “feeling” when as a youth player you first began playing the game; another player passed the ball to you, and you lost the ball to the other team because you misjudged how to handle the pass. Then later on in the game that “feeling” you experienced when, you were “open to receive,” and the other players would not pass the ball to you because they thought you’d lose the ball to the other team. 

Young players from the age of 4-5 years old upward, know when not to pass the ball to another player with a limited skill set. 

Youth players come from a variety of backgrounds. Some have family members, friends, or neighbors to work with them, guiding them in their skill set development; some do not. 

We believe, and it is our goal to provide every young person that has the desire to learn a skill, the opportunity to “See it, and Do it.” We understand that the vast majority of young players are visual learners. Other players require auditory instruction. Finally, there all players need to practice, so the kinetic mind-to-foot muscle eye-foot coordination becomes second nature. 

Many parent volunteer coaches or family members do not know how to square up and strike the ball accurately. Incorrectly learning a skill can become problematic, because if a skill mastered incorrectly, it can take several hundred repetitions to re-learn a skill correctly. 

Young players are sensitive to their standing among their peer group. It is essential to guide their skill development properly. 

Next time you see a player lose the ball because of improper handling of the ball, and you know what their feeling, suggest they spend some time with the MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI mobile) working on their close-quarter ball-handling skills. We’ve seen players as young as 5 years old be able to “watch and learn” these skills time and time again. 

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post They won’t pass the ball appeared first on MOTI Sports.

1. Set-up the App to save your password, so you do not need to enter it every time

a. Before signing in Check the box on the Sign-In saying “Remember Me”

b. Switch to APP VIEW from Web View, by pressing the button at the bottom of the Screen. If you see the “Gear” or Settings Button at the top of the Screen and the bottom button says “SWITCH TO WEB VIEW” – Then you are in APP VIEW.

c. Touch the “Gear” or Settings Menu to open it.

d. Slide the “Save Password” to Yes

e. Side the Switch for “Use Web as mobile UI” to YES

f. Now Sign Out and Sign back in once again entering your password. Now your Password  will be remembered as well as your Username

2. “What is the Hamburger Menu”, “Where are my Practice Plans”,” How to Schedule a Practice Plan”?

a. On the left is the position of the Hamburger Menu (3 horizontal lines), Once touched on the right the Navigation Menu will expand and appear.

b. Touching Titles listed in the Navigation Menu will cause those features (if optioned) to appear

c. Touch the Plan Library to see the Practice Plan Library

d. Touching a Plan Name allows you to View the plan

e. To Schedule a Plan for players to see (Players can only see Plans that are scheduled and when it is the next in chronological order to view, or previous plans where the date is in the past), Click the 3 DOTs to the Right of the Plan Name and Modify the Plan Date, Time & Location pressing SUBMIT when finished

3. “Have my players signed on to see the Plan”?

a. Select the Hamburger Menu and then touch the ROSTER on the Navigation Menu

b. Look them up in the ROSTER

c. You can ADD PLAYER here if necessary

d. If they have not logged in, touching the 3 DOTS Allows you to Resend Invitation

e. You can also touch ANALYTICS off the Navigation Menu as well and view how many times they have logged and more. This takes time to display as it is viewing history so be patient. Also some of these functions display better in a larger display such as a tablet or laptop, which is recommended

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Tips for Coaches using the MOTI App appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Why are youth above the age of 13-14 dropping out of youth soccer?

Players enter the soccer world at the age of 5 or 6 in recreational soccer.  They continue up the age and skill ladder having fun playing the game, and then the game becomes competitive at the age of 10-12 years old.  By the age of 13-14 years old, players are leaving the game of soccer, not because they are not enjoying themselves, but because there are no options for them to play.  We know that players physically develop at different rates, and not always by the cut-off dates with their birthdate (relative age effect). Recreational soccer literally disappears by age U14 from our soccer clubs, organizations, city park and recreation programming, only to return by the age of U18+ as an adult league.

Many of us know that the bread-n-butter of soccer organization is the infusion annually when youth ages 5-6 and their parents come into our organizations.  Talent and people are the fuel for these organizations.  While players are learning “how” to play the game, parents are also learning about the game, and many parents are learning “how” to coach the game while being a role model.  Parents are providing not only guidance during practice or a game, but also providing support for youth in their development as a young adult.

So why do organizations and clubs stop providing this avenue for your youth athletes beyond the age of 13 – 14 years old?

I know many of the players wish to continue to play but cannot afford the high price of being part of a traveling team.  Parents do not want to have to drive their kids from where they live locally to play two hours away.  Coaches have a similar problem with work and time commitments that do not allow them to drop everything and drive 2 hours one-way to coach a game or in a tournament setting.

Traveling teams require coaches who can travel, and are usually licensed and paid well to do this.  Fees rise to several thousands of dollars per player to participate.  Private lessons, camps,  academies . . . and it all adds up.  The stress on the parent or the player to perform and the associated expectations leads to “no fun”!

Clubs and organizations should provide an opportunity for players and coaches in that 13-18 years old void of recreational soccer.  Players could continue to play and coaches could continue to mentor their teams if a local option were made available in organizations or clubs. This local recreational option could all be done without the wear and tear on parents, cars, player expectations, etc.

So the answer as to why players are leaving organized soccer when they turn 13-14 years old may be because no one is providing a choice for them locally.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Youth Soccer Dropouts appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Small investment; huge payback – Why Wait?

Organizations use parent volunteer coaches in many recreational soccer programs and provide some training.  Training is often just mission-critical items.  In today’s environment, organizations are required to do:

• Background checks
• Provide Safety Training
  • An association-sponsored Safety course – dealing with keeping players and coaches safe
  • A Concussion awareness course
  • A Cardiac response course
• Emergency weather and response

But what about some formal training in the area of Soccer Coaching?

Often, the parent volunteer coach is provided with a 15-minute skills training along with maybe a 1-hour course on how to run a practice session. If the organization promotes it sometimes a course for Grass Roots Coaching is taught.

Now what?  Those fresh newly volunteered coaches are meeting at the field with 10 players accumulating around them and 15 – 20 parents observing them.  Where is the plan they are to follow?

MOTI™ Sports has a solution, our MOTI Mobile 3D Soccer Training App.  The MOTI Mobile App comes complete with 3D visually engaging, gender-specific, narrated, interactive materials that are curated into practice session plans to take away the “fear – uncertainty – and doubt” of coaching as a parent volunteer.  Whether you’re coaching in a Club, YMCA, a Park & Recreation District or just on your own and are looking for some help, MOTI Sports is here to help you.

The MOTI Mobile App is where you need it (in your pocket), with professionally configured 3D visually engaging content.   Need a Park & Rec format,  where your first 3 days are practice sessions followed from there on as Game – Practice – Game…etc.?  We have it.  Or you want Traditional or Play-Practice-Play content we have that as well.  U6 through U14, boys or girls animated models, we have it.  Teaching Grades K – 8 Physical Education Soccer Unit, we have it.

Your players visually learn soccer foot skills by watching our 3D full-motion media from any perspective while receiving expert technical coaching points.  They can practice foot skills at home and view your session plans in advance of your practice, so they understand visually what you want them to do and why.

Why Wait? Invest now!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post When is it best to Invest in training? appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI Youth Soccer 3D App is helping youngsters learn the sport of soccer while developing their skill.

Alan Merrick was interviewed recently on KSTP ABC 5 TV about the MOTI Sports 3D Soccer Training Platform & MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile). View the news story now.

WATCH ON ABC 5 TV

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post KSTP 5: Local company creates app to help soccer training appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Communicate so everyone hears your message!

You, as the Coach, should customize the Announcement as soon as you can.  Then remind players, coaches and parents to view the Announcements to obtain up-to-date information.  

Once players, coaches, and parents view the Announcement they will see the benefit of it.  No more email messages to hunt for in your email, trying to remember which email address they are coming to, or remembering which “category” your email provider shuffled your messages of to in their attempt to organize your life.

To change the Announcement Board:

1. Touch or click the “EDIT.”
2. Select the old message and delete it.
3. Type in your new message.
4. Touch or click “SAVE ANNOUNCEMENT.”

Besides communications on dates, locations of games, or changes in field locations, here are some ideas for keeping the messages Positive!

Great game last week, lots of passing and holding in your positions! It is Sue’s Birthday!

The footwork everyone did was evident in our previous game! Great to see everyone doing the Reverse V on the field in the game, it is helping us to keep possession. Caleb’s mom is bringing the Treats this week.

Rain out today. Fields are too wet! But remember to work on those two new skills at home. I will look and see who is working on them.

Practice tonight is at 6:45 pm. I hear that the team we played last week noticed our good team sportsmanship!

Remember to bring plenty of water tonight. It is REALLY HOT. We will be taking breaks as needed.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Making Communicating with your Team Simple! appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI Youth Soccer 3D App is helping youngsters learn the sport of soccer while developing their skill.

Alan Merrick was interviewed recently on KMSP FOX 9 TV about the MOTI Sports 3D Soccer Training Platform & MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile). View the news story now.

WATCH ON FOX 9 TV

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post FOX 9: 3D app developed by Minnesota company helps teach soccer skills appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Over the past 5 years, our dependence on internet access in our daily lives has grown exponentially.

Just a short 3-4 years ago communications between Coach and Player or Parent was simply by phone call.

Now we have come to rely on email, texts or team management systems, and we hope the communications are up to the minute.

Today with hot-spots on cell phones and wifi access points (almost) everywhere we’ve begun to forget about “not being connected”.

We at MOTI Sports, always want you to be able to access our 3D Training Content, where ever you are located.

Your time is important, especially when your team showing your young players a new Skill or Drill or Drawing out a Set Play. You cannot afford those pesky “wait-for-it” moments. Their attention span won’t last forever.

We’ve engineered our MOTI Soccer App so that if you are at a Soccer Tournament or in an airplane or backyard, you can still access the Practice Plan you just looked at then you were connected to the internet using our Web-View functionality.

Users (players or coaches) can in “Web-View” watch the 3D Session Plans and all the associated 3D media elements (3D Skill or 3D Drill) when the internet is available.

After the media elements of that practice session have been viewed in Web-View, you can either switch or login to work “Off-Line” in our App-View and go through the visual and auditory learning without concern over “being connected”.

MOTI Soccer (previously known as MOTI Mobile) – also allows you to use our ScratchPad function in App-Mode, as we assume when you are coaching on the side of the pitch, you cannot afford the “wait-for-it”.

Try it out by downloading MOTI Soccer and clicking “I am to MOTI Sports” and using out ScratchPad Feature https://motisports.com/video-moti-mobile-scratchpad-features.php

MOTI Sports “Learning to Play the Game from the Neck Up”

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Reliance on the Internet appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI Youth Soccer 3D App is helping youngsters learn the sport of soccer while developing their skill.

Alan Merrick was interviewed recently on WVLT TV about the MOTI Sports 3D Soccer Training Platform & MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile). View the news story now.

WATCH ON WVLT TV

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post WVLT: New age app helping teach kids the sport of soccer appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI Youth Soccer 3D App is helping youngsters learn the sport of soccer while developing their skill.

Alan Merrick was interviewed recently on WCCO TV about the MOTI Sports 3D Soccer Training Platform & MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile). View the news story now.

WATCH ON WCCO TV

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post WCCO: Minnesota Soccer Veteran Designs Soccer Coaching App appeared first on MOTI Sports.

It is up to the coach to put the schedule in the system. We have several ways for the Coach to communicate the upcoming activities:

As a document located in the schedule, if one was uploaded; Click on Schedule then Click View

As some text entered into your  Team page Announcement board. As a practice plan that is currently scheduled.

 2. As a parent with a player either on my team or another, why do we both need our own usernames to log in?

MOTI maintains statistics for every user action in the system: player or coach logs in & out, views a practice plan or a 3D skill or 3D drill. Usernames need to be unique for this to occur. So as a coach, you will have your own username, and your player will have their username to maintain the accuracy of statistics and time on viewing.

· If I am a coach and have two players, will I need 3 username(s)?

Yes.

· If I have a Sports Engine or Team Snap username can I log in with those credentials?

Yes if the team was set up in MOTI with the Sports Engine or Team Snap User Credentials. Click the Team Management Icon to login using their credentials for yourself.

You may be prompted to allow MOTI to work with the Team Management System.

3. Why can I not message the coach via your system?

Most organizations have a method in place for the player to coach communications. However, MOTI Sports has an internal messaging system for organizations that do not have an alternative resource, as an extra cost option

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Commonly asked questions appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Now that the season is underway, there are several methods of looking at your team’s usage of the system and increasing it. Remember even if players cannot practice every day, every time they watch and visualize in their head “the strike they are making on the ball and the form they are using” or the “movement and passing in an activity” the more they are learning the game.

Alan Merrick reminds coaches how easy and fun it can be to use the Announcement Board and create a small competition among players out of viewing and practicing the Foot Skills. Each practice there is a bottle of water given to the player with the most views and touches!

Some tips to use. Some are best viewed as a coach on a desk top or laptop.

·         Look at the Roster (Desktop viewing recommended ) – If someone has not signed in (as a coach you will see the dates and time of their last sign in), visit with them to see what problem they are experiencing. Once the parents see the foot skills, and they realize their player can learn from the app, they will make an effort to get their player on the system. A simple word with the player or coach not accessing the system is easy to do and lets them know “you’re watching them”, which means they are an important part of the team.

·         Look at the Analytics (Desktop viewing recommended) – This takes a moment, but it will show you “who” has used the system, “when” and “how” they used the system.

o   Players – This view shows roster members who have viewed plans, how often and the last one viewed 

o   Practice Plan – This shows which plans have been viewed and how

o   Plan Details – This shows which training media elements and been views, by whom and how often. Remember App Views are in 3D where other views are on the desktop.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Using Analytics appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Update May 24, 2019 – This issue has been corrected in our Android 2.9.10 release available in the Google Play Store as of May 24, 2019. Users should refresh their version of the MOTI Mobile App found in the Google Play Store.

In recent releases, Samsung users of Android 9 devices have wondered how to enter their USERNAME and PASSWORD.

Once the Box where you would expect to enter your Username is touched, the Input Area is activated, then once Input Area is activated then the Keyboard Appears.

2. You will notice at the bottom of the Login Screen towards the bottom, there is “Alternative Sign In” icons associated with various Team Management Systems. If your Organization as put you on the MOTI System using the interface provided for Team Management Systems, then you may log in via your Team Management username and password.

Sports Engine On-boarding Video

Team Snap On-boarding Video

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Logging in appeared first on MOTI Sports.

I recently stopped by a soccer practice with a group of parents who were beginning to use our MOTI Soccer App and our 3D Soccer Training Platform. While I walked thru the short question and answers a few of them had, parents were reaching out with questions they have regarding other apps used by their organization to support their players and coaches in soccer.

It is not uncommon to have to use one App for player registration and payments to the organization, another App for inter-team conversations (with possible concerns about bullying and inappropriate content), and now MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile) for player, coach and parent education alongside a coaching curriculum for the first time ever.

Organizations now can use Apps to allow player registration (any time day or night), order uniforms, obtain discount coupons on soccer cleats, provide instant notification of field closures, weather, and travel or scheduling issues, saving all of us time.

I was listening to parents discussing how their players, playing for differing organizations are managing multiple Apps and surf thru the endless string of notifications that are helping parents manage their time effectively. 

The purpose of this article is to clarify where MOTI Sports fits with the soccer organization, or team and players.

Registration or Team Management:

Most parents today register their players online via a system registration system. Some of these systems allow organizations to create and maintain the organization’s website, obtain the proper information on activities being offered, players, parents, registration fees, fee payment and make sure all the necessary information is provided to national organizations (such as US Soccer), their insurance carriers for coach or player coverage. Some of these systems also provide a storefront that enables the parents to purchase needed sporting goods for their players. Organizations can also use many of these systems to offer apps to player, parent and coach communications. Rosters are maintained, and schedules posted for practice and game schedules.  Notifications can be sent out to players, parents & coaches on weather, schedule changes, etc.

Training Management:

MOTI Sports provides organizations a method for establishing a curriculum of development for players and coaches’ development that utilizes App technology but also incorporates visually engaging 3D assets that allow players, coaches and parents to view what the coach wants the player to learn. Visual learning speeds the player and coach development process. 3D assets include specific techniques (foot skills) necessary to play the game well, and activities (drills) all in 3D in a mobile device, that is age, gender and often now language specific.  Training curriculum can then is shared to players and coaches, and analytics are provided as feedback to the players, coaches, and organizations to help improve development.

MOTI Sports interfaces with registration or team management systems to allow players, parents, and coaches to simplify onboarding of team player roster information and simplify the login in process.   Presently, we have integrated with Sports Engine and Team Snap. We will continue to integrate with other systems as the demand and other vendors provide an open interface.

Summary:

Today, if you have one or more players is playing soccer; you will soon be very proficient with these systems in your mobile device. The great news is the players enjoy this freedom to learn, where and when they have time.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Becoming a tech savvy Soccer Parent appeared first on MOTI Sports.

I recently attended a session “Boards of Directors: Minimizing Dysfunction to Get Stuff Done” at the US Soccer Urban conference in Washington D.C. presented by Ruth Nicholson. Ruth did an excellent job laying out roles and responsibilities of what Board vs Staff functions /responsibilities are in an organization. Over the past 40 years I’ve served on boards in varying capacities from board member, secretary, treasurer, board chair and in the staff or operating executive role.

As board members, we are advocates for continuous improvement within the organization. Board members are the public face of your organization, you should have passion for seeing improvement in the organization, and you should be connected at the grass roots level of the organization to see how policies are being implemented. Remember, it is not your job to enforce policies. That is the job of the executive director. Your role is oversight.

Board Governance

• The board’s role is to set
  • strategic direction
  • program priorities
  • major policies and procedures
  • financial management
  • personnel management (paid & volunteer staff)
• The membership of the board should be diverse. It is great to have board members with varying areas of specialty but with the common shared interest in the organization.
• Remember as a board member you have operating control over nothing in the organization, but are responsible for oversight over everything in the organization.  Good board members are not micro-managers. Let the staff manage the organization.
• Board members must advocate for the organization and its improvement. Bringing up ideas and passing them on to either the board chair or executive director or director of coaching (if appropriate, as some organizations do not have executive directors)  that will move the organization forward.
• If you’ve been on a board for a long period of time and don’t feel you have been contributing, talk to your board chair, maybe it’s time to step down and not re-run for that position again.
• Keep meetings moving; if you can contribute to the topic ask to be recognized. If you cannot contribute, be quiet. However, sometimes it is important for a board member to speak up and clarify the discussion, when you hear two “points of view” crossing in a discussion and not being heard by either party.
• If you have not had a board development session setting organizational goals or strategic direction (road map), it may be time. Remember your organization can’t go anywhere without a road map.

Board Chair / President

• Meet with the executive director or director of coaching (smaller organizations may not have an executive director, just a part-time or volunteer director of coaching) to set the next board meeting agenda well before the meeting. Have the agenda circulated with materials as necessary to the board members in advance of the meeting.
• Discuss with the executive director or director of coaching what is working and what isn’t. It is better to discuss some issues in private. Consider setting up a committee of the board to deal with finance or personnel issues as your organization grows.
• Run the meeting (don’t let the executive director or director of coaching do this) and keep to the agenda. Remember things can always be on the next meeting agenda.
• Have necessary staff available at the meeting so you know that the executive director or director of coaching can obtain input from them and let the staff members run their functions.
• Make sure to move the meeting along, but allow board members to ask questions and discuss as needed so they are making informed decisions.
• Keep order of your board members and of the meeting. Always take the high road. If there are issues that need to be discussed in a closed session for data privacy reasons, then schedule those meetings with the board members (or a committee of the board)  and executive director or director of coaching for a future date.
• Assign a member of the board to send a thank-you note to any staff member recognized for great performance by the executive director or director of coaching during the meeting. It builds awareness among staff that their efforts are being recognized.

Staff

In smaller organization you may be filling a board role, but also a staff role.

• Separate the two functions as you perform those roles.
• Don’t make policy changes in the role of a staff member. Stick to the policies.
• If you are volunteering in a staff and board role (as is the case in many smaller organizations) and you are contributing over 10 hours per week consistently, you may be doing too much.  Statistics show that volunteer burn out occurs when they are consistently contributing over 10 hours per week. If you find yourself in the situation, talk to the board chair and or executive director.

It was great listening to the executive directors, coaching directors, or board members discussing these topics and be able to contribute. Ruth did a great job facilitating. Contact Ruth@NicholsonFacilitation.com for more tips.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Getting the Board to Get Stuff Done appeared first on MOTI Sports.

In recent weeks I attended maybe 20 coaching clinics. I often wonder that takes place at these clinics really. Ever look around at a coaching clinic and ask yourself Why am I here, what and how am I learning?

The idea behind the coaching clinic is for a coach to visually see and experience “a fully developed model, which coaches can implement immediately within their organization to promote innovation and accelerate results”.  Coachinc.com

See it and Do it.

Similarly, both USSF and USC are now using on line training and YouTube videos to help train new to the game coaches and seasoned veterans alike.

Many of us have taken the advanced coaching courses.  Our own Alan Merrick not only has his USSF A License and USC Premier Diploma, he also has the Canadian A License, the English FA Coaching License and has coached professionally.  The value of continuing your coaching education cannot be overstated.  But how does our expertise translate to our Team, our Club, our State and our Nation?

What are we doing to help those new coaches and young players develop a desire to continue playing and coaching this game that we so love?  We know as coaches that it is all about having success and fun.

Today’s players and coaches learn visually.  For a player to have success at developing their foot skills they need repeated visualization, seeing and listening to the coaching points and practice over and over again for it to become a habit. Good coaching habits are studied and practiced becoming a natural act in our coaching technique.

See it and Do it.

So how can this occur if we only see it one or two days out of the year, and often out of context with our team or coaching environment? Here is what our customers say about using the MOTI Soccer App:

“[coaches] now know everything that we teach, they are able to teach it with all of the proper coaching points, and all the proper techniques and they are also able to access all the small sided work that is going to allow them to use those technical pieces in tactical applications“ – Steve Doimer, DOC Wright County Soccer

“MOTI is giving us everything that we need in our hand to run a decent session. We can run everything from an average session to a fantastic session and that all depends on where that coach is in their development as well.  That coach that is running a decent session would be running a bad session without it. As they continue to grow and see all the things that are available and work their way thru all the different aspects of the technical work and how it applies to the tactical work, they are going to be much better.” – Steve Doimer, DOC Wright County Soccer

“We send our coaches off to a licensing classes, it doesn’t come close to what they learn in application with the proper tools in their hand. A week of licensing doesn’t do it, a season with the proper tools they are way ahead of that”. – Steve Doimer DOC Wright County Soccer

See it and Do it.

Alan Merrick, while following up with a coach using the MOTI app discovered that she was repeatedly reviewing the session plans.  This experienced player and coach stated the following reason for watching and listening to the coaching points in the practice plans:

“it simplified and explained the skills that I never knew when I was growing up, so I was able to show the kids how to use them” – Morgan Niccum volunteer coach Wright County Soccer

See it and Do it.

Continuing our education is important.  Some of us have the desire to take advanced clinics and coaching courses.  But most coaches, especially at the entry level with our young player, have not had the chance to taste and see how great our game is.  MOTI provides a clinic in their hands both for the coach and player.

“I am seeing more coach re-assurance, structure and confidence, so players and parents are receiving full utilization of our program.” – Jenni Gallipo Recreation Director CR United Soccer

See it and Do it.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post See it and Do it. appeared first on MOTI Sports.

The MOTI Soccer App was designed to present a session/practice/lesson plan to the user visually and be easy to use and understand.

When you log into the MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile) you are presented with the

• Announcement Board
  This contains simple general information the Coach wants the team (players, parents and other coaches) to read immediately. It may contain simple information, such as reminders about clothing, equipment or location of practice, feedback about the previous contest, birthday wishes for a player, and alike.

• Practice Plan (Currently Scheduled)
  The heart of the system, this one item enables coaches to share with everyone what is expected to be accomplished at the next practice (session/lesson).

• 3D Skills   is the technique/foot skill to be studied and practiced. The beauty of this is allowing players and parents to practice these at home. With a single touch, the animation with a professionally narrated audio appears. A simple touch of the “>” Play button and the animation comes to life. Players, parents, and coaches use fingertip controls of the screen to view the animation from any perspective. Here is a brief video showing the controls. Touch here to view a brief video on controls of the Skills Player.

• 3D Drills    is the drill or activity presented to be studied prior to practice. The simplicity of this is that coaches can now see and listen to the activity to be performed, all the coaching points are there along with how the drill progresses and re-generates. Players can watch the drill so that when practice begins coaches don’t have to spend precious time on the practice area explaining what is to occur. Again a simple touch of the “>” Play button begins the animation. Players, parents, and coaches can use fingertips controls to view from any perspective. Touch here to view the controls for the Drills Player. A host of other viewing features from adding player & ball trails to watching from the 1^st person perspective can be found here on our website – https://motisports.com/category/mobile-app-tips/
• Optional materials such as documents, movies or links to other systems are easily added to enhance your plan for players, parents and coaches.

So with just a few touches on a phone or tablet, players, parents, and coaches can easily access the desired learning plan for the practice.

Benefits:

• Players always have access to the Practice Content
• Players can prepare in advance to actively engage in the practice
• Substitute coaches can fill seamlessly
• Players can work on their own to develop and fine-tune their skills
• Clubs can monitor usage to ensure coaching continuity across an age or skill group
• Develops a common vocabulary for coaches, players, and the organization
• Players progress, skilled players stay with the game
• A reliable system of education across the entire organization

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI App – Engineered for Learning Visually & Easily appeared first on MOTI Sports.

United Soccer Coaches Convention 2019
The soccer coaches convention starts January 9th in Chicago!
Visit us at booth 1052.

View the convention center floor plan here or download a pdf version here.

See you there!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post United Soccer Coaches Convention 2019 appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Coaching Directors and Coaches have great training materials they have used
successfully in the past they need to share training with coaches and
player(s). These next three articles will demonstrate the process used to
create media elements (videos, links to other systems, Images, Documents,
Audio) and incorporate them into your practice plans right along with the
MOTI 3D media elements.

Creating Organization or Team videos to share:

Directors and coaches depending on the system rights provided by
their subscription my upload and make videos available to other coaches and
or players.

There are several things you must be aware of while creating your media
elements for sharing with other coaches and players.

Make the Content Acceptable to all.

• In the MOTI Terms and Conditions you accepted when you signed in to our
  system.
• You are asserting you own or have permission to put the material on the
  web for public consumption of your coaches, parents and players and you
  are not violating any copyrights.
• The material you are putting on our system contains content you or your
  organization has approved of with respect to not being offensive to any
  parties accessing your content
• Does not violate any terms you’ve agreed to by signing into our system

Uploading a video:

MOTI provides for directors and coaches with permission to upload video
content.

We recommend this be accomplished via a laptop ot desktop browser as
addressing the media file location is much simpler.

ADD Media Screen:

The next few steps will involve completing the information about your media
element “video” for uploading and accessing in the system.

NOTE:
This will take some time to accomplish so be patient and watch the progress
indicator on your web browser. Once upload is successfully completed:

• the screen will refresh and change to the Edit Medias screen vs the Add
  Media screen
• the Media File name will display a reference number vs the file name
  and location on your system
• the Version level and upload date and time will be displayed of this
  media element.

Displaying the Media Library once again, will show your media element as a
video with your organization name or coach name displayed.

Clicking on the media element will display and play the video in a window
within either the browser or mobile app

To be continued…

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Personalizing Practice Plans – Part 1 of 3 appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Today young players and coaches are tethered to their smart devices. It just makes sense to have your training curriculum visually engaging and available on their devices.

In the past when a coach wanted to communicate the tactical activity or technique / skill they wanted the player or team to perform, they could:
• demonstrate the skill or walk the team thru the tactical activity
• use handouts with diagrams with a written explanation
• show a video with audio queues what is necessary to perform
• use the grease board with a verbal explanation

Today, with the smart cell phone or tablet, visual learning is at the fingertips of both coaches and players.

MOTI Sports’ 3D Mobile Soccer Training platform uses 3D Motion Capture with an audio track to explain technique /skill to player and coaches and we use 3D Animation with an audio track to explain a tactical activity. The 3D allows a player or coach to circle around either the technique or tactical activity to view it from any perspective. One can even view the tactical activity from the Player’s perspective on the playing field, so that they can pick up the visual references, as a Player would.

MOTI Sports attended a conference for Physical Education Educators in Minnesota and all the educators clearly understood the “See it, Do it” animation, and how it would work with young players learning to play the game of soccer.

Educators understand that what we were doing works well in the field of instruction as they have been using the “reverse classroom” process for years. It made me think about “how” we choose to communicate and the methods available to all of us these days made possible by technology.

In Rochester Minnesota, Alan explained how a digital Practice Plan works to a Park and Recreation Director for a local community. The Minnesota Parks and Recreation Association members have a number of local youth soccer programs they sponsor around the state and need a good solid method of communicating how to coach a recreational soccer team for parent volunteer coaches. Several communities have or are planning on using our system to help their coaches and players.

Earlier we attended the Florida Youth Soccer Association Annual General Meeting and made a presentation on how our 3D Motion Capture and 3D Tactical Activities work with both coaches and players in youth soccer teams. Our Spanish audio was well received by many club DOC(s) throughout the FYSA geographic area.

The 2018 USA CUP provided us an avenue for having our system viewed by over 1,100 teams from 28 different countries including Minnesota. There were a number of people that wanted Alan to explain the benefits of using our system.

MOTI Sports, Inc. is just starting up this past summer; we’ve had over 3,000 players, 750 coaches, from several states and countries benefiting using a new method of “How” to communicate with coaches and players.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Choosing How to Communicate appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTISports.com/app
Our old site coachespage.com is re-directing you to motisports.com/app which is under our motisports.com domain. We are doing our best to eliminate confusion for our customers and make it as simple as possible to access our system. So you can now access motisports.com and gain access to the website via the “SIGNIN” at the top of the screen to access the web based Team Pages, or “My Account” to access your subscription account, or simply use the MOTI Soccer app as a player or coach and enjoy the 3D Skills and 3D Drills as you always have.

New MOTI Soccer App (previously known as MOTI Mobile)
The MOTI Soccer mobile app is undergoing performance improvements which will enable MOTI to load up faster, operate smoother, and expands into other areas in the future while lowering overhead in your mobile device. As this release goes into the stores we will require you to upgrade to version 2.8.0. So just go to either iTunes or Google Store and conduct the upgrade. Thank you!

Sports Engine & Team Snap Integrations
Alternative Logins – This will allow coaches, whom are utilizing team management systems to login to MOTI Soccer App using their MOTI username, go to their rosters and IMPORT their team roster from their team management system using their access credentials to either Sports Engine or Team Snap. From that point on, coaches and players can simply click the ICON of their team management system and login with those credentials.

Here is a brief video on how the integration works –

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Sports Updates and Announcements appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Coaches often obtain knowledge of the game and how to work with players thru course work at the sports local club, state or national organizations. This knowledge transfer is gained thru “education”.

Coaches also learn thru direct visual observation of methods and experiencing and employing various methods with players to attempt to obtain the desired behavior. This knowledge transfer is gained thru “experience”.

In a similar manner, MOTI Sports offers through its MOTI Soccer App, 3D Foot Skills / Techniques, the ability for coaches and players to watch, understand and observe the proper foot technique. Auditory and visual references are provided so that the knowledge transfer of how each technique can and should be performed is provided to the coach or player in the form of “education”.

The role of the Coach is to observe and guide the player thru the process of learning how to do the Foot Skills / Technique and gain knowledge thru “experience”. Players can easily observe and begin performing the Foot Skill / Technique in a “See it, Do it” basis. The Coaches role is then to observe and guide the player’s performance of the movement providing observation and feedback to the player to enhance their knowledge and learning “experience”.

Coaches or parents need to employ various methods of verbal reinforcement (how do I get the player to do what I am telling them they should do) which are continued until success is achieved.

Learning the correct skill / technique is critical to mastery. Once accomplished th skill / technique needs to be performed hundreds of times until it comes naturally.

Operant Conditioning has two methods of behavior reinforcement that we are seeking to use as coaches. Positive reinforcement, we anticipate that a behavior will be continued. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating/reinforcing stimulus to the Player. Negative reinforcement should not be thought of as a punishment, but as a method of decreasing an undesired behavior so a behavior will stop. A simple example is providing a positive reinforcement like “nice push thru the equator of the ball” to the player will reinforce that behavior. A sample negative reinforcement would be saying something like “now let’s try that again, with…whatever movement you did not observe in the player’s technique”.

As coaches we need to be continuously verbalizing and providing both positive and negative reinforcements to the players until they succeed in the behavior we desire to see happen. Then we need to see that behavior in the form of practice continue time and time again. Whether in the backyard, or at the field watching your players practicing their technique, providing proper verbal coaching is critical to reinforcing behavior. Being “the strong silent type” in coaching is the wrong approach. Players not receiving any reinforcement either positive or negative on a continual basis are less likely to listen to you as a coach when you need them to.

Remember, coaching needs you to be involved with continuous verbal feedback to the player to make a difference. Remember, “I am watching you”, gets and reinforces results.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Technique / Skills Mastery – “I am watching you” appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Hi – Parent Volunteer Soccer Coaches and Soccer Players, we’ve been waiting for you!

Are you a “parent volunteer soccer coach” looking for training on “what”and “how” to coach soccer players?

Good! You’ve found us! That is what we do with our Mobile App!

We’ve developed a mobile application (App) to walk you “the parent volunteer coach” thru every practice session step-by-step, with a system that enables the Players to develop while you are developing.

Recreational soccer coaching requires guidance (practice/session plan) to run an educational, engaging and effective practice every evening. We’ve taken the guess work out of preparing for each practice, by providing a template (practice/session plan) for your soccer team to follow. We’ve taken the guess work out of “what” to do, and “when” to do it. Plus, while you the coach are developing as a coach, we know that players can certainly be part of the development process and be as engaged as you are! So our system is designed and tested to have players see and study right along with you. It works!

We’ve put together practice/session plans for U6, U8, U10 & U12 players that are age and skill developmentally appropriate. We provide these plans in 3D animation that is EASY to learn from, FUN to watch and gender specific.

Have you ever been driving to practice trying to run thru the list of what you’re supposed to do during practice, while balancing other priorities in your head? Solved! Each practice plan contains a visually engaging series of 3D segments you watch in sequence to run the practice. Each step of “what” activity to do and “how” to do it, is in 3D visually and fully explained. Finally all the “coaching points you need to focus on” for each step in the practice are covered.

Do you wish you could mention an activity during practice and the players knew what you were talking about? Solved! Our system is designed to have players and their parents see the practice “before practice” so they can come prepared to engage in their training. Players can watch, listen and visualize all the activities /drills you want them to do during practice in 3D engaging animation, saving you time in setting up, and providing you more time to encourage players.

Do you wish you could help Players develop techniques (foot skills) with the proper coaching points? Solved! Players can see and practice the techniques using our 3D Motion Capture Skills. These are developmentally selected for the age & skills groups to allow players to “See it & Do it” before or during practice.

We are glad you found us! We can help you, as a coach, and your players learn while having FUN in recreational soccer.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Opportunity for FUN in Recreational Soccer! appeared first on MOTI Sports.

A new Mobile APP version that will soon be available via the Stores will enable you the coach and player to login using the credentials of those team management systems will appear in the iTunes and Google Stores this month.

In the future when you as a coach your team roster changes, you simply re-import your roster on the roster screen and MOTI™ Sports 3D Soccer Training Platform will make the changes by importing onto your roster any player not yet there.

Here is a brief video on how it works. => MOTI Team Management System Integration(s).

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Sports Engine and Team Snap Integration(s) appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Alan Merrick has mentioned many times during presentations, that putting a inspirational quote like “, a positive remark about a game or practice, a mention of someones birthday, will help maintain that “can do” and “fun” attitude. Often distractions from the things that didn’t go as planned in a practice or game can be useful to help the players move ahead. Allowing a feeling or what went wrong to fester is unproductive for the team.

So as you move thru the season, if the fields are a bit soggy because of wet weather, remember to keep the announcement lite and spirited like saying “Players to bring their “Life Vests” in case the ball goes floating away on the south end of the field. But also a pair of dry socks for the end of the session / game would be a great idea. Oh and happy birthday to Ben. “.

Connecting with the Team is easy with the Announcement Board which every player and parent will see daily. Have fun with it!

As Alan always ends his emails with:

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Announcements – Bringing Spirit to the Team appeared first on MOTI Sports.

• Did I succeed on making an impact on the kids and improving their
  technical and tactical abilities?
• Did we improve our process of teaching / training methods?
• Do we know who used our system and how much it was used by users?
• What was effective and what wasn’t?
• What do we do next to increase our effectiveness?

Our Coachspage system can help you the Coach or Director of Coaching answer
some of those questions.

Our Team Analytics will show you by Roster Member or Practice Plan who used
which 3D Training Elements, from which medium (desktop or app) and the last
time they used the system. Coaches can evaluate this information and
decide, based on their observation how players progressed and where
improvements are needed in individual player skills. Directors of Coaching
can drill down to the team level and evaluate the same information.

User usage for the entire organization is available with the ↓ (download arrow) from the All users menu.

This will download an Excel spreadsheet providing a login summary by user,
team and season in your organization.

Remember that some of this is direct observation and some of it can be data
driven. Remember to ask your coaches, players and parents.

Remember we at MOTI are here to help you succeed. Have a restful break.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: End of Season Results appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Here you are presented with a choice of either the Sports Engine team management system or the Team Snap system. Select the desired system and click the “Import Players” button on the bottom right.

Note that when you give permission to the MOTI system to access your Sports Engine or Team Snap account, we are connecting in read-only mode.

For Sports Engine, you will see the following:

You need to provide your Sports Engine credentials to proceed and you might see the following screen authorizing the MOTI app:

For Team Snap, you will see the following:

You need to provide your Team Snap credentials to proceed and you might see the following screen authorizing the MOTI app:

After you successfully authenticate the MOTI app to your Sports Engine or Team Snap account, you will see a list of teams from which you can import players.

After you select the desired team, click the “Import Players” button in the lower right corner and your players will be added to the team.

Note that we only add new players to your team that do not already exist on your team. If you add more players in either Sports Engine or Team Snap, you can import players again and only the additional players will be added to the MOTI Roster.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Import Players appeared first on MOTI Sports.

It is recommended that you do the following actions from a desktop or
laptop computer, creating and editing are done best in those environments.

Adding & Creating a New Plan

1. Go your Plan Library
2. One the far upper right hand corner click the “+” (plus sign). This
   opens a new Plan
3. Fill in the Practice Plan Header

a. Fill in the ‘Practice Plan Title” with a new name

Suggestion: Use a prefix like abbreviated team name first followed by a name that is meaningful to you and players

b. Fill in the “Practice Plan Date” using the date picker (you can do this
later as well)

c. Fill in the “Practice Plan time” using the time picker (you can do this
later as well)

d. Fill in the “Practice Location” if desired

e. Fill in the “Practice Plan Description” up to 200 characters for more
communication to you players and coaches

f. Check the box to make this Plan Active (visible to others when
scheduled)

g. Organization – make sure your “organization” is visibly selected

h. Season – make sure your “season” is visibly selected

i. Team – make sure it is “your team” where you are adding the Practice
Plan

j. CLICK “SAVE PRACTICE PLAN” button

4. Filling the Practice Plan detail (Drop N Drag)

a. Using the slider bar, scroll down the list of All Media and find the media you desire to add to your plan – Say a warm-up activity

i. You can use the Spy Glass at the top of the “All Media” list and type in
warm-up to see a list of items related to warm-up

ii. You can click on any title to watch a “preview” video of what the activity is before moving it into your plan.

b. Click the blue “EDIT” button

to unlock “your Plan” to allow you to modify it.

c. Using a mouse “Click-Hold-N-Drag” the media to “Your Plan” list

d. Click on the Time “5 minutes” preceding the media item to adjust the
time in minutes up or down

e. Click on the “comment” feature and type in an additional comment (if
desired)

f. Repeat steps a – e until the practice plan looks as desired. Then click
“SAVE PRACTICE PLAN” button

5. Review “Your Plan”

a. Make adjustments as necessary

b. To Eliminate a media element, simply “Click-N-Drag” it off the screen

c. Schedule your plan when you are ready so your players can study it on
their own before they arrive at practice.

Example of “My Plan” for a U6 Practice

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Adding & Creating a New Practice Plan appeared first on MOTI Sports.

As a Coach or the Administrator Setting up the Practice Plans, you are responsible for making practice time on the pitch productive and fun!

Plan It

While not all of you have a role in the specifics of “Planning It” [Creating a Practice Plan], those that do may be:

Coaching Director or Recreational Director

Coach [Note some clubs have already done this work for the Coaches; if so, go to “Schedule It”]

Do this step via a Desktop or Laptop computer “NOT via a Mobile Device.”

Create a Practice Plan for the Team to Use

Select a Practice Plan or create a new one with the “Theme” and sequence of training steps you want to follow by.

1. Go to the Plan Library on either your planning team or your team
2. Open the existing Practice Plan, Copy the existing plan to a new name, or Create a new Practice Plan
   
3. Pick a “Theme” or select an existing practice plan with the theme you desire, such as dribbling, passing, attacking, defending, setting up a corner kick, throwing in, etc. This will be the focus of this training session.
4. Create or modify the Practice Plan Header information.

Practice Plan Title — You need to create a meaningful name for a new plan or a copied plan.

Practice Plan Date – Select a date or do this when scheduling

Practice Plan Time – Select a time or do this when scheduling

Plan Location – Enter this or later when scheduling

Practice Plan Description – Enter the description of this practice, Theme, global coaching points, and any special instructions for coaches and players to understand.

Is this plan active? – You can create plans that are not active. They will remain hidden from view until they are declared “active.” Inactive plans cannot be scheduled. This is a good way to work on a new plan and avoid accidentally scheduling it.

Organization / Team info – This can be the name of the club but also of a team in some sports

Season – This is the season defined for this organization. There can be many seasons defined by your Organization with beginning and ending dates. It is important to understand that a Team, its plans, and its players exist for a season. Next season, it will be a new team. Examples are:

2023 Spring

2023 Fall

2024Winter

2024 Spring

Team – A dropdown will be used to select the team for this practice plan. Note that there is only one team to choose from in some cases.

Save the Practice Plan Header

1. Create or Modify the Practice Plan Contents

• This is accomplished by using the Left Panel – “ALL MEDIA,” and the Right Panel – “Your Plan.”
• First, begin by clicking the “EDIT “ Your Plan button so you can edit it
• 
• Use the Spy Glass on the left, “ALL MEDIA,” to search for desired Skills and Drills, or scrolling down the list of activities, grab-N-drag them over to “YOUR PLAN” where you want it. Repeat this process until YOUR PLAN looks good to you.
• Change the “Time,” which is the duration you want to perform this activity
• Leave a comment in the “—“ to the right side of the media element as desired for communications
• Repeat this cycle until you have a complete plan. Remember to insert a “Small Sided Game” and several water breaks.
• Save the Plan   

Schedule It

While not all of you have a role in the specific of “Schedule It,” those that do

• DOC or Recreational Director
• Coach [Note some clubs have already done this work for the Coaches; if so, go to “Schedule It”]

You need to do this step via a Desktop or Laptop computer “NOT via a Mobile Device.”

Scheduling the Practice Plan for the Team to Use

• Select a Practice Plan from the Plan Library

• Go to the Plan Library on either your planning team or your team
• Select Schedule from the Overflow menu to the right of the Practice Plan you desire to schedule.
• Note: The scheduled date is when the plan will appear to the Player. If you schedule multiple plans, it will appear once a new date occurs where a plan is the “next” scheduled plan. If there is no plan scheduled, then any date scheduled in the future will appear as the next practice plan. You may schedule as many plans in advance. The next practice plan will appear to the player after the previous date & time have moved to the past.

• Select “Schedule”
• Complete the Date and Time and “SAVE Plan” 

See it

Everyone has the role of “See It,” meaning watching and learning the contents of the Practice Plan.

• DOC or Recreational Director
• Coach
• Player

For the best viewing, view this via the MOBILE App. Open the MOTI Mobile App (a free download from the iTunes Store or Google Play Store).

1. Read the Team Announcement Board

1. Open the Practice Plan by touching the Practice Plan Bar.

• View the entire Practice Plan

• Touch the practice element you wish to view.

 Pink Icons are Skills

 Green Icons are Drills

• View and listen to the practice element and perform the skill up to 200 times before practice.

Do it

Everyone is in the role to “Do It,” meaning the Practice Plan

• Coaching Director or Recreational Director
• Coach
• Player

Go to practice knowing you are prepared and ready to work on the skills you’ve seen and the drills as a team to become a unified group working together.

Coaches, encourage your players. Keep things upbeat and moving. Pause when necessary to review a skill or where it applies during game play in an activity/drill.

Players – remember your learning. Watch and listen. Work hard. You will have fun!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: The Practice Plan – Creating or Modifying appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Pressing the audio button will bring up the audio control panel (see
Controls Overview, directly below).

Controls Overview

Once the audio button is pressed, the audio control panel will be
displayed, as shown below.

Mute Button

The mute button (number 1, in the above image) allows the user to mute and
unmute the audio. The audio will continue to play, however, sound will not
be heard. This button has the two following states:

As a note, the mute setting will be remembered between viewing drills.

Volume Control Set

The volume control set (numbers 2, 3 and 4) allows the user to control the
volume level of playing audio. The parts of the volume control set are:

Restart-When-Done Button

The restart-when-done button (number 5) allows the user to select if the
audio will start again at the beginning once it is completed. This button
has the following states:

As a note, the restart-when-done setting will be remembered between viewing
drills.

Play/Pause Button

The play/pause button (number 6) allows the user to either play or pause
the audio. This button has the following two states:

Playing

Scrubbing Control Set

The “scrubbing” control set (numbers 7, 8 and 9) will allow the user view
and control the position of the audio. The parts of the scrubbing control
set are:

In conclusion, the Audio Controls give the user complete control of every
aspect of audio playback in the MOTI Soccer solution.

View information about App Camera Control here.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Audio Controls appeared first on MOTI Sports.

As we head into spring it is often important to keep the entire Team informed. As a coach, you simply need to update the Announcement board if you don’t have a access to a team management app. It is simple and you can do it from your mobile phone.

As a reminder, you should put up any changes to your schedule or specific instructions for the upcoming practice or game.

Also keep in mind you can put in a simple weather statement and or link to the US Weather service like this https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=43.6797&lon=-114.3677#.Wpc9tmrwaUk (this can be obtained by going to https://www.weather.gov/ putting in a city name or zipcode and then copying and pasting the result in the link (see insert)CV

Then consider a statement about dressing for the weather

Message Emoji available now 

When sending a brief message to a player or the entire team or another coach you can now brighten up everyone’s day with an emoji.

Remember everyone responds to recognition and a simple message of re-enforcement is an easy thing to do and means a lot to the person on the other end.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tips: Announcements & Message Emoji appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Using the MOTI Soccer App can be fun for young players.  There are controls available to enhance or simplify their user experience. I encourage you as parents or older brothers and sisters to help adjust these controls for the age of the player.

The Sensitivity Controls for the 3D player of either the 3D Skill or 3D Drill are located under the “Settings” Button.

This is available on the 3D Skills and 3D Drills player at the top of the screen. Touching this opens up the Sensitivity Menu.

This menu allows the user to adjust the controls. For younger players under the age of  7 years old, the sensitivities should be turned down since their motor skills are not yet as refined as older players (ages 7+ to 50). Older players 50+ may want then less sensitivity as well, so they can move and track around on the view without going hay-wire.

If you see a user having difficulty using the screen punch and zoom or rotation, odds are it can be cured by adjusting the “Sensitivity” of the action they are using.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Screen Sensitivity appeared first on MOTI Sports.

To use this feature:

• Click the “View” Icon
• Menu of Points-of-View appear
• Select the View you wish to see and the Camera view will change instantly

Sample POV – RightLower

 Controls Transparency:

During the USC Convention in Philadelphia, some users brought to our attention that some of the Coaches using our system mentioned how the Joy-Stick and Elevation controls on the Soccer App can get in the way of viewing at times.  During our development meeting our engineers reminded us of the user’s ability to change the “Controls Transparency”. They demonstrated the change to us and we thought it would be good to pass along. As you are viewing a 3D Drill you’ll notice the “Gear” in the upper right hand corner of the screen.   To change the Transparency – which on most devices will lighten up the Joy-Stick and Elevation controls just do the following:

• Touch the “Settings” Control in the upper right hand corner
• A drop down box will appear of Controls
• Slide the or press the minus “-“ by the “Controls Transparency” to the desired state

Most users will find the lighter transparency better.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip: Point-of-View & Transparency appeared first on MOTI Sports.

As your players and coaches look at their profile, they can choose a favored language. Until we have those audio tracks completed, they will continue to receive the English audio track. However, we are working at adding Spanish and Portuguese audio tracks for all of our 3D media, both 3D Drills and 3D
Skills.

As a coach editing a practice plan, you can now ignore moving in audio tracks
completely as we handle that under the covers!

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Adding User Language Choice appeared first on MOTI Sports.

United Soccer Coaches Convention
The soccer coaches convention starts today! Visit us at booth 1249.
View the Philadelphia convention center floor plan here.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post United Soccer Coaches Convention Begins appeared first on MOTI Sports.

Users – Coaches Recently, MOTI enhanced the process for coaches to view practice plans. In the past when the coach viewed the list of practice plans and opened one, we assumed that the coach was going to “edit” the practice plan. We’ve changed this assumption that Coaches want to view a plan, We’ve added an option to the Menu of Actions you can take with any Practice Plan as a Coach, you can “view” it. If you click the name, you will go to view it vs edit it as in the past.

Now when you view the Practice Plan List and click on the name of the Practice Plan.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Website Tip: Users appeared first on MOTI Sports.

App View also has a few controls at top of the screen. The Settings icon  allows you to view some settings and status of the app itself and the 3 dots (menu) allow you to log out of the system.

If you touch the Settings icon you will see the following display:

User Web as mobile UI

The slide switch allows one to move back to Web View (UI means User Interface). Simply slide the switch and touch the Settings icon and you will be prompted if you would like to return to Web View mode.

Current Storage Usage

0 MB – This is displaying the amount of storage the app has used downloading assets for display to the user, 3D drills and 3D skills.

App Storage Clearing

Empty Storage & Reset Storage – Both of these allow the user to erase the contents of 3D elements that have been uploaded.

Maximum Storage

Maximum Storage Usage – Allows the user to set a maximum size for the app to download into.

Reset Application

This will reset the application to the default state, all user information and download data will be deleted.

Settings Icon 

Touching the “Settings” icon closes the settings menu.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post MOTI Tip : Web & App View Modes appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports Soccer Training – Keeping Practice Fun and Effective – October 2017 Newsletter.  Check out the October Newsletter here.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Keeping Practice Fun and Effective – October 2017 Newsletter appeared first on MOTI Sports.

MOTI Sports Soccer Training – Coach, what do You do when words are not enough? – August 2017 Newsletter.  Check out the August Newsletter here.

Gordy

I have served in the capacity of the board-appointed leadership role (since 2014), and on the board since 2010.  I farm in west-central Minnesota. My prior business background includes co-founder and owner of Davis, Thomas & Associates, Inc. (DTA) with offices in Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, and Bangalore India.  I was a former systems programmer in the banking, hospital, and transportation industries.

The post Coach, what do you do when words are not enough? – August 2017 Newsletter appeared first on MOTI Sports.