Author: Brandon Stemwedel

Beyond the Bench Podcast – Shannon Tanski Cornelius

This month’s podcast features Shannon Tanski Cornelius of the Duluth Heritage Foundation. Shannon shares best practices on how to be a good parent in youth sports!

Podcast – Beyond the Bench with Brandon Stemwedel

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Beyond the Bench is a MOTI Sports production that takes a deep dive on important youth sports topics each month. Each episode includes interviews with generous guests that share their perspectives on issues from a life “Beyond the Bench” as youth sports coaches, administrators, and more.

Watch another episode of Beyond the Bench – Alan Merrick Soccer Legend

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/

Beyond the Bench Podcast – Kyle Bakas

This month’s podcast features Kyle Bakas, Head Men’s Soccer Coach at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Kyle’s vast experience as a youth coach, high school coach, Director of Coaching at the club level, and now as a college coach has given him great insights into how to develop, retain and recruit players.

Podcast – Beyond the Bench with Brandon Stemwedel

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

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/

Why Do You Do It

Growing up in Elgin Illinois, I lived at the Elgin Sports Complex. I would hop on my bike and ride as fast as I could so I could to play a pickup game, watch a game, or do some training soccer myself. Soccer was and is my addiction! Fast forward to today and I wonder to myself what made me love the game as much as I do now? Where did it come from? Simple answer, my parents for signing me up in the first place. But no, it was way deeper than that. It was the energy that surrounded me which started from my coach. Coach Kari had this unique way of getting us fired up whether it was for games or practices. She created the atmosphere to fall in love with this beautiful game.

Why do you do it? I am sure that every player looks at themselves and wants to be a professional player. You work hard and you put extra minutes (more like hours) at the pitch and keep working. You get to the end of a chapter in your soccer playing career and you already have that next chapter to start. But what about when you are done? You want to write another chapter, but it does not happen?

When that day came for me, I reflected and thought “I want to give players the same chance and opportunity that I had.” With this new path and drive to help players develop in the game, there are so many ways to do it. How can I maximize my efforts and be there for as many as I can? I have put my efforts into MOTI Sports for the teams that I coach from my U11 boys, to my high school girls, and even bring it to my NPSL Duluth FC group! The players that can master the basics of the game will maximize their efforts on the field!

In short, we do what we do because we want to try and give the players the best opportunities to be the best versions of themselves. We look back at our competitive careers and take little bits and pieces from all the coaches that we had in our past that made us. Keep evolving and growing in your craft to keep the love of the game strong.

Safety Protocol

All we want is for everything be back to “normal” for soccer. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but there are safety steps that we need to take to keep our athletes safe and families safe as well. This is my safety protocol for my high school girls’ soccer program training.

Before a player even reports to the field, parents must take the players temperature as well as other family members. A staff member is at the gate and players must verify that family members do not have a temperature. We, as a staff, then proceed to do a touchless temp check at the gate to double check if the player has a fever. If the player has a fever, they do not enter the field and go home. Staff have a note pad that the staff record the players name and their temperatures on.

Along with the temperature checks, we have established that it is mandatory for the players and staff to wear masks upon arrival and can take them off when they are training.

Staff must get to the field 20 minutes early and setup 20×20 grids on the field. When the players are cleared from the gate, we tell the players to bring all their stuff with them to a specific grid where we have 7-8 players in a grid. They are required to bring their own water bottle and soccer ball for our training sessions. We as coaches do not enter the grids and expose them to other players that are there.

We then give the players direction on the skills and other technical techniques to execute. Coaches give players the freedom to dribble in their 20×20 grids and give corrections with personal demonstrations and verbal corrections.

After the training session, we excuse the girls’ grid by grid until each player is in their vehicles. After they leave their grid, they are required to wash their hands with hand sanitizer before leaving the field.

Even with these safety protocols, I have had players exposed to someone with Covid-19 and are now on a 14-day quarantine now. You can never be too safe!

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/

Social Distancing Training Sessions

As a coach, you are always looking for ways to be creative and to be better. In our current circumstance in the world, I needed to keep my players engaged to be ready for when our season can eventually start.

I begin by communicating with my assistant coaches.  Together we come up with ideas, working within the recommendations for safety and social distancing, to come up with competitive based sessions that are fun and will keep my players engaged.  We start with a theme.  Then we think of fun competitions designed around that theme. 

We like to use Apps to communicate with the players.  We put our themed session on our MOTI App so the players can practice and know what they will need for the setup.  Then we notify them through our Sports Engine platform and give the players 3-4 days to work out the theme.

After getting the content out to the players, we then send out a signup sheet so we can grade the players on their technical skills.  We give points to the players for proper execution on the technique, theme, or challenge.

We utilize Zoom, so I can not only see the players execute the technique, but I am also able to show them examples of perfect technique.  Perfect practice makes perfect, or so says a wise former coach of mine.

Once the player completes the challenges, we then give the player feedback on areas to work on before the next session and build them up on what they really excelled in. We have put together a point chart to keep the players competing. At the end of the individual sessions, we invite all the players to a Zoom team meeting to talk over the session and to see how everyone is doing.  It is fun, challenging, and encouraging all in a safe environment.

When I was a player, I was blessed with some amazing coaches that have been there for me on and off the field to help shape me and my development as a young man. Being a coach is a good platform to be a positive role model for these young athletes, even in this time of social distancing.