|
A
Recent Interview with Coach V
By Mike Whitmore
Soccer News
(Coach V is the "midget" between the two giants, Dan and Mac, both now
playing pro soccer.)
Mike:
Thanks for taking the time to meet with me today.
Coach V:
Glad to do it.
---
Mike:
What started you down this road to produce both BTB and SU?
Coach V:
I think it was frustration more than anything. I spent a lot of
time volunteering at youth coaching clinics training new soccer
coaches and parents. I also spent a lot of time working with
both young and advancing players teaching them skills. I started
having to say no to people and that was not a good feeling and
was frustrating because I truly loved to help. I figured I
would do this project and be able to help anyone that wanted it
anywhere in the world.
---
Mike:
How are BTB and SU different?
Coach V:
BTB is totally committed to the soccer kick and ball flight.
It really is designed to teach the teacher and even coaches at
the highest levels learn from it. However, it‘s a video that
everyone enjoys and surprisingly even young kids will watch it
over and over.
SU is more
like sending your kid to a soccer skills camp for a week and
watching them learn. That is how we learn to teach as a teacher.
I didn’t make this stuff up. I learned from some of the world’s
greatest soccer teachers. The same applies to all teaching
others. You learn how to teach by watching others teach. You get
to watch players at all levels learning raw skills.
---
Mike:
The series is 10 hours long. Was that your intention?
Coach V:
No, I never really knew how long the series would be, but I
knew it would be a long one. Trying to put the majority of
technical skills on video was quite the task and I wanted to
make sure that we covered most of the core skills. I also wanted
to make sure that plenty of field footage was included. Often I
have heard comments that people stopped and replayed training
videos because it went too fast. On the other hand spending too
much time on one skill gets a little boring. It is a hard
balance to achieve, but I think we did a pretty job of it.
People need to watch it little by little.
---
Mike:
Who is the series designed for? Coach, parent, player?
Coach V:
It’s funny you ask that because I think that is one of the
hardest issues to deal with. With both BTB and SU I always kept
in mind that I had three people watching. The soccer coach, the
soccer parent and the soccer player. So, when people watch this
video series they need to do the same. They can’t sit down and
watch it as just a ‘coach’ only. They need to accept the fact
that all three groups are watching. So there might be something
that an advanced coach already knows, but there again, there
will be many points that they didn’t know. The same
applies to the player. Much of the video is about 'teaching' the
skill. However, a player must realize that they are their own
teacher. They are trying to teach themselves.
---
Mike:
What is the best way for someone to use this series?
Coach V:
I’ve always said that if you’re going to teach a skill, you
first have to learn the skill. If you learn it and teach it the
wrong way, or even incompletely, then your students will learn
that way. Parents and coaches should watch the series a little
at a time. Then go out in the back yard and practice what we
teach. They don’t have to be experts, but they have to learn to
at least perform the skill properly. Then they can teach it.
I get emails all the time from people with funny stories about
breaking things in their living rooms while trying many of the
methods. I think it is critical though, that people take it a
step at a time. There is so much info in the series that people
will often get overwhelmed. That is normal, but don’t try and
teach all the info so quickly. Use it a little at a time, year
after year.
---
Mike:
How long does it take to teach the skills in both series?
Coach V:
A lifetime, and I’m serious about that. I would like to see
parents and coaches start at young ages, but I work with a lot
of older players as well. People often think that I 'm working
on advanced skills with older players, but just the opposite is
true. I take all ages back to step one and work on ball control
and dribbling. Most older players were never given specific
lessons on how to dribble correctly, and if they were, it was
often years ago. I want to make sure that we visit every skill
and refresh the core essentials in every player’s mind and
body.
---
Mike:
I heard you say that youth soccer in the US and many other
countries is improving, but at the same time we have a long way
to go. First, tell me what you think is good about the
direction of youth soccer.
Coach V:
I think the push is on to focus younger players on development,
and not competition. I think that is a key message that not only
needs to be continually delivered to youth associations but also
the parents. I also think that we are doing a better job
educating our coaches at many levels.
---
Mike:
Where do you think we are hurting right now?
Coach V:
I think that same message is not getting deep enough into the
outer branches. This includes older coaches who are kind of
stuck in their ways and parents that are new to the sport. We
often are ‘playing for the team’ or trying to ‘achieve results’
too young. Winning, losing and competing are all good, but they
are not the core of development.
Look at the
FA, AJAX, and other youth programs or full time academies around
the world. They play very few competition matches. Players are
not ‘designated positions’ at the age of 12. The focus is on
developing the overall player as a person, player and athlete.
Very little attention is devoted to ‘results’. Parents should
not be looking for the ‘winning or best team’. They should be
looking for a program that sends a strong message to all
involved. If you’re here to win, then you should go somewhere
else. If you’re here because you want your child to develop and
have fun, then stick around.
---
Mike:
I recently read your article The Golden Years, and it seems
that you really emphasized core technical development, even out
to older players. Why do think this is so important?
Coach V:
Just go to any middle school soccer game or high school game.
You can also see it at the collegiate level. You see players
that have been ‘playing the game’ for years and years, but still
lack quality core technical skills. The sad part is that if they
are at this level, there is a pretty good chance they will never
refine them, and just keep ‘playing’.
---
Mike:
When does ‘technical’ training stop?
Coach V:
Tough question to answer, but I’ll do my best. It really never
stops but does change. Of course when we start to play on the
competitive level the focus is put more on conditioning and
tactics. However, even the pros still re-visit technical from
time to time. I do believe there is a point where players are
mature enough to understand the theory of hard work. That is
when I really like to work with players. These are the kids or
young adults that realize they want to be the best they can be
and are willing to go ‘backward’ and relearn and refine their
technical skills.
A good
example is this summer. I worked with two players for a week
that were going to college to for their first year of play.
Most would think I worked with them on striking and advanced
skills. They thought that as well. I spent the entire week
taking them back over all the core essential skills. Ball
control, dribbling, receiving, defending, trapping and more. By
the end of the week they were amazed at how much they didn’t
know about these core skills.
---
Mike:
I have heard you say that you are not a big fan of juggling,
can you explain?
Coach V:
I get that a lot, so follow me. Some coaches and parents are
juggling freaks. They have their players practice juggling 20
minutes a day, every day. They hold juggling contests and even
use it as a skills evaluation. I have seen a lot of great
‘jugglers’ that can’t dribble a soccer ball through even one
defender.
I think
juggling is good to practice a few times a month. It helps you
‘center’ on the ball and get your feet moving. Players that
stand on their heels a lot get more on their toes after
juggling.
The problem is that juggling teaches us to take a ball that is
in the air and then touch it back up into the air. If that is
what we practice in the back yard all the time, that is what we
will do in a game. This gives defenders more time to close us
down.
I would
much rather see players spend 20 minutes a day taking air balls
and settling them as quickly as they can. That is taking a
bouncing or air ball and turning it into a ball rolling on the
ground rolling away from incoming defenders. If you’ve ever
seen great settlers of the ball vs. great jugglers of the ball,
you’ll understand my point. We devote a whole chapter to this.
Again, am I not ‘anti-juggling’ I just think you should focus
your time on what is important and actually used in a game.
---
Mike:
I noticed that you are offering a package special with free
shipping. Tell me why you went this route.
Coach V:
Sure. SU doesn’t cover kicking the ball, BTB does and vice
versa. So I think people definitely need both. Combining the
two makes it a five disk series that is over 10 hours long. It
covers every technical skill developing players need.
If we broke
it down disk by disk, and charged for shipping it would cost
around $160. We put it all in a package and offer free world
wide shipping. Savings on the shipping alone is huge, so
getting it all, including shipping for $89, is a really good
deal. If you take shipping and handling out of the price, you
are getting 5 DVDs for about $69 or so.
I think it is important that people realize the value.
---
Mike:
Who do you think will appreciate the series the most?
Coach V:
Tough question…. I think there are two types of people that
will really appreciate the series. The first is the soccer
parent. More and more parents are working with their kids in
their spare time at home. However, most parents were not ‘soccer
players’. They struggle teaching because they don’t know the
skills themselves. I think every soccer parent should watch
both series. The difference in their child’s skills and their
own teaching ability will be noticed quickly.
Next is the
soccer coach that didn’t grow up in a ‘soccer environment’.
Most coaches get involved in coaching not because they are
soccer players, but because their kid’s team needed a coach.
They learn ‘how to coach’ but often not ‘what to coach’. This
series will let the average soccer coach teach a new skill at
every practice. Over the season a team can learn 12 – 16 new
skills. Do that for several years and you produce quality
players.
---
Mike:
A lot of parents have the dream or wish their kids could go
on to play at college. What advice would you give them?
Coach V:
I would focus
on residual training. Let me explain.
Residual training is training that has residual benefits. It
stays with us many times for the rest of our lives. As an
example, I am not a big fan of youth players running laps and
doing a lot of conditioning. The benefits go away in a few weeks
after we stop.
However, technical skills stay with us for a long time.
Learn the difference between an offensive header and defensive
header, and you simply won't forget it. Many schools hold
open tryouts. They really could care less about the number of
games you have won, goals you have scored, or the fact that you
are in top condition. They are looking at your skills and
touch. What are you bringing to their program? You can have all
the trophies you want at home in your bedroom, but you're not
allowed to bring them to tryouts.
|
