COACHS CORNER: Parent Coach Seeking a Good Therapist!

It doesn’t matter what age group I have coached, there inevitably comes a time when I need to seek a little “coaching therapy.” To me, this means consulting with my coaching peers and mentors to discuss the different triumphs and pitfalls I have encountered in a certain practice, at a game or throughout a season.

It doesn’t matter that it is “just a recreational league” – kids emotions…parental expectations…player development…practice plans…the general energy it requires to try and give everyone a positive experience can, at times, leave a coach needing a friend to lean on! So don’t go it alone. Find your people that are in the know who you can celebrate the little victories with and who can give you the perspective you need to re-energize you for your next round. READ MORE

MOTI Tip: Camera Controls for Drills – Part 4 of 4

Welcome back to the 4-part series on MOTI Soccer Camera Controls for Drills.  In this article the Top Down Perspective camera mode will be reviewed and explained.  This camera mode is very similar to popular real-time strategy games.

To recap, the review of the camera modes are divided into 4 parts.  Topics for the 4 parts are:

  • Overview – Part 1 introduced basic motion options (finger-gestures and on-screen joysticks) and provided a high-level overview of each of the camera modes.
  • Pivot-In-Place and Rotate-Around-Location– Part 2 was a detailed overview of two modes that provide a very flexible overview of the drill. As a note, Pivot-In-Place is the default mode when a drill starts.
  • Follow-Player, Follow-Ball, Track-Player and Track-Ball (this article) – Part 3 explored the ‘follow’ and ‘tracking’ options. These modes facilitate focusing on specific player/ball in a complex drill.
  • Top-Down Perspective (this article) – Part 4 will cover a viewing the field in a way that will be very familiar with players of some of the most popular real-time strategy games.

 Review

The first article introduced the mechanisms available to move the camera (section Motion Controls), the way to access the camera modes (section Camera Modes Menu) and a high-level overview of the camera modes (section Camera Modes).  The content of these sections will be used as a basis of this article.  Read the first article if these concepts are unfamiliar or a refresher is needed.

The second article reviewed the functionality and operation of the Pivot In Place and Rotate Around Location camera modes.  Read the second article if these concepts are unfamiliar or a refresher is needed.

The third article reviewed the functionality and operation of the Follow-Player, Follow-Ball, Track-Player and Track-Ball camera modes.  Read the third article if these concepts are unfamiliar or a refresher is needed.

Camera Modes Menu (shown as activated)

Pressing the Top Down Perspective (see below, yellow #1) button will immediately change the camera mode.  As a result, the camera will adjust the direction it is facing to be “north” (towards the end of the field) and will adjust itself to look down towards the field at a predefined angle.

Top Down Perspective

This camera mode allows the user look down at a constant angle and move around the field.  In addition to the default camera direction, the user is able to choose the direction the camera is facing.

Activating

Activating this mode is accomplished by selecting the Top Down Perspective icon from the Camera Modes Menu.  Once selected, the Camera Direction icon will appear on the right-hand side of the screen (see below, yellow #1).  This icon displays the current direction that the camera is facing.

In addition to displaying the current camera direction, the Camera Direction icon is an activation button for selecting different directions.  Once the Camera Direction button is pressed the Camera Direction Menu will appear. READ MORE

Ignoring Recreational Training?

Why does US Soccer ignore “Recreational Soccer” training, their largest talent pool?

Recreational soccer (6 – 12 year old players) typically is organized and run by parent volunteer coaches whom receive an hour or two training at the initiation of the season. Often training involves reminders of how to handle medical, or weather emergencies as well as concussion detection and having the “two” adults at all times policy for parent and player safety. Ball handing techniques are relegated to 30 minutes of orientation for the parent coaches and sometimes 1 practice for players. This is almost universal across the US. READ MORE

COACHS CORNER: Learn the Game Together


For the recreational coach and parent Learn the Game Together

I was recently in my friend’s backyard and the conversation turned to her 8-year old daughter’s blossoming love of soccer. Before I knew it, I was up and teaching her “The Maradona,” just for fun. My friend and her older daughter soon joined us. Later, I received a text informing me that the three of them had spent a significant portion of their evening continuing to try the move together and that her youngest couldn’t wait to show dad “The MADONNA” (her version of this famous turn). READ MORE

Opportunity for FUN in Recreational Soccer!

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! READ MORE

MOTI Website Tip: Announcements – Bringing Spirit to the Team

As the season starts, spirits among players and coaches are high, and the Announcement Board on your Team Page is one way of keeping that positive attitude among your players and parents. If you make the announcement fun and interesting at the beginning of the season and change it daily, it becomes a connection point with your players and parents. The Announcement Board great communication tool that is easy to use.

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

MOTI Website Tip: End of Season Results

As the season closes for most spring soccer programs, the most pressing
questions for a Coach or Director of Coaching are:

  • 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.