football

Goalkeeping · News

Coaching The Individual Goalkeeper

This article was written by Sean Connors, Rush Soccer’s Global Goalkeeping Director.

“T.E.A.M. – Together Everyone Achieves More!”.

“There is no I in Team!”.

However, there is only one player on the field for each team that can use their hands.

Everyone can recognize that the goalkeeper position is unique to the game of soccer. The uniform is different. The equipment is different. Clearly the rules are different, and what it takes to be successful in the position is different to that of every other player on the field.

To be the best goalkeeper coach you have to balance the individual needs of each goalkeeper on a team, or the individual needs within a training group. There is no “one size fits all” approach that will give you as much success as being aware that each goalkeeper is different and needs to be treated as such.

Recently I had the chance to speak with Goalkeeping Director Mike Kappas from Virginia Rush, and Goalkeeping Director Matt Stueckle from Washington Rush where we spoke about this exact situation.

“Making an individual connection starts when the GKs arrive at training. Taking time to greet each GK, handshake/fist bump, and checking in to see how they are doing. How is school? How is your family? How were your games this weekend?”.
Mike Kappas – GK Director at Virginia Rush.

These individual meetings allow Mike to get a read on how they are doing at that exact moment and gaige what they need from the training session. Learning the needs of the player encompasses both emotional and physical needs. Maybe the GK did poorly at school, or took a bit of an injury from the weekend.

Coaches must make these types of connections to best know how to meet the needs of their players.

“Within a training session the coach must be aware of individual struggles. It might be with a certain technique, or making a save from a particular position on the field. What if during the session the GK is in the same position over and over again trying to get reps to improve but the ball keeps going in the net? The risk is it can reach a point where mentally it is crushing the player making them think they are terrible and can’t stop the ball”.
Matt Stueckle – GK Director at Washington Rush.

In these cases what can a coach do?

Coach to the individual! Try to change how you are teaching them. Can you demonstrate the technique differently? Can you change the language used? Have a fellow GK try to explain it to them. In some cases the GK needs to be pushed further and can handle being challenged. Other GKs will need to move on from the situation and come back to it at another time.

Get to know the Goalkeepers and work to teach them at their level! The better you can address each individual the more success they will have.

March 29, 2023

News · Rush Way

Rush Way: Player First, Team Second

This article was written by Pablo Toledo, Rush Soccer’s Sporting Project Director.

We have spoken about this before, clubs almost always declare that their goal is to develop players. Now, in my experience, that doesn’t normally make it far from beautiful words and sentences full of coaching education cliches. Maybe I’m pessimistic and/or overcritical. Moreover, I think most of the time clubs and coaches can’t even express in pragmatic terms and actions how a club would specifically behave and operate in certain areas if that is the true objective pursued (I must be pessimistic…).

We, the Rush, do know, and that’s a statement we can stand behind. Our Rush Way Player First, Team Second philosophy is one of those areas that specifically guides the way we operate towards prioritizing in player development. Read below:

PLAYER FIRST, TEAM SECOND

Similar to the European youth club structure, Rush encourages the player to be first before his or her individual team. For example, we encourage:

The player to play with the adult team before his own team’s game.
The player to train with older, experienced teams in place of his own teams.
The player to guest play with an older team in place of their own game.
The player to attend national team events, college showcases, international tours, select events.

This enables players to be comfortable playing on teams that are in line with their ability regardless of age but based on performance in training and game days. Players are encouraged to train with higher level teams to accelerate their development.

– “But Pablo, don’t take away my best player, we are fighting for the league”.

– I don’t care.

Have you ever self reflected on how you and your club would operate in the following areas if the objective and the priority is truly to develop players? I think you’ll find the following graph interesting. Enjoy.

March 14, 2023

News

USC 2023 – Design & Development Of A Club’s Sporting Project.

This article was written by Pablo Toledo, Rush’s Sporting Project Director.

When I was proudly invited to present at the USC Convention 2022, the first thing I told the audience was that I had no formula as far as how to design and develop a successful sporting project for their clubs, and that all I was going to do was share what I did and what I’m still doing for my club, Rush Soccer, which has very particular characteristics, given our size, geographical distribution, and type of club that integrates our network. Solutions are always tailored to the specific problem that you face. There are concepts and methods but hardly ever we get to apply any of these exactly by the book. No secret sauces in life, nor in coaching, I guess.

One year later, framed by the 2023 United Soccer Coaches Convention, I’m meeting with the leaders of over 50 Rush clubs and I can tell you that my feelings are of pride and enthusiasm as I insinuate to the audience that ‘today, you won’t hear anything from me that you haven’t heard before, this is more of an update about the progress that we’ve made in our project and the progress that we’ll make in 2023‘

The objective of my department and the sporting project we lead can be simply summarized as ‘unite and improve’. Unite our clubs under the same culture and methodological approach, and improve the way we develop players, and to do that the first step, as obvious as it sounds, is to be really sure of who you are and what you want. You need to find the essence of your club, the non negotiables, and then do the very hard exercise of not only formalizing it in a fancy document or a statement on a website, but to ensure these instrumental aspects of your culture and approach are present in everything that you do, and that implies the way we behave, the way we play, what we teach, how we teach it, etc.

Let me give you an example: In our club, we consider competitiveness a key characteristic of our organization. We like to compete, we want to compete, and we want to nurture that competitiveness in our players. Therefore, when we designed our curriculum and/or we run coaching education courses, we mandate our coaches to make every single training activity a competition in which (per definition) has to be a way of winning and a way of losing.

This might look like a simple detail, but a culture is actually not a lot more than the sum of hundreds of little details that are shared, valued, and respected by a group of people, so it matters to us.

Defining and sharing these layers in our culture and our player development approach is what I’ve been calling ‘Stage 1‘ of the project. Stage 2 was about finding ways to implement them in the 100+ Rush clubs in the world. This is an equally challenging stage that resulted in the creation of several services that we are providing our clubs (Mental Health, Video Analysis, among others) and the development of tools to learn and implement this culture and player development approach locally.

Among these last, we managed to develop a tool that we call Rush Coaching Manual (a white label product of The Coaching Manual) in which we designed every session and activity of our curriculum in detail, gave access to every Rush coach in the world, and developed a feature that allows coaches and clubs to create fully Rush customized season plans for their teams.

Another tool was our Train @ Home Program, which supplements on the field training with follow along video sessions in ball skills, passing, receiving, and fitness, among others, in pursuance of increasing our players weekly hours on the ball.

Now here is where you could think “easy, I get Coaching Manual for everybody in my club and a Techne subscription for my players and problem solved, I caught up already” but you haven’t. All you did was provide a service, but where’s the imprint from your club? Techne teaches Techne Way, not The Rush Way. We care about integrating each of these programs with our culture and approach in specific ways, so for example when including in Train @ Home a certain skill for any age group / ability level, we explained it and demonstrated it in the same way we added it to the training session that coaches are reading and delivering to those groups, so it’s aligned not only in topics but also in language.

A third tool that is of vital importance for our organization is what we call RSD University This is an online learning platform in which, apart from other courses we provide for players, parents, and coaches, we developed our own coaching education certification pathway, which we made mandatory for our coaching staff globally.

This was a foundational step for our club as it related to what we consider Stage 3 of the project, that is about finding ways to Assess and Develop Our Clubs & Coaches. In other words, knowing what you want and developing the layers of it and even the tools to implement it loses it’s purpose if you don’t have a system with checks and balances, in which you can assess what’s done right and wrong by your clubs and assist towards progressing, as well as highlighting the top performers. This might sound obvious but when we stated the objective of the project we phrased Unite and Improve, not do and use whatever you want and hopefully improve.

This is the stage where we are now, Assessing & Developing, in which as I mentioned before the RSD University marks the first step of progress as we have the capacity and are already tracking the percentages of Rush Way certifications in each of our clubs, with the goal and requisite of reaching 75% of Rush Way LII certifications and sustaining that minimal in each club at all times.

The statuses of this request are currently tracked and soon to be publicly posted to our network, ranking the clubs per its performance and giving awards and penalties based on it. This is the path for progress for us and the type of setting and indicators we defined for other areas that affect player development and cultural representation, as well as facilitate the long term measurement of player production.

Several of our current projects relate to this development of mechanisms to assess and develop our clubs, including the formation of a pool of ‘Club Technical Directors’, the figure that we use to refer to a team of highly experienced professionals with the capacity to conduct purposeful visits to our clubs, run assessments, and correlate these last with developmental periods.

To build a global, real-time dashboard in which we transparently reflect the performances of our clubs in these areas is the pinnacle of the project.

This, at Rush Soccer, is the engine for progress.

Give me one more year coach, and I’ll give you another update. Thanks for reading.

Watch full presentation!

February 10, 2023

Players

Development Approach To Your Player’s Objectives.

The United Soccer Coaches Convention is known as the “The World’s Largest Annual Gathering of Soccer Coaches”. The five-day event attracts more than 12,000 attendees for live field demonstration, training classes and lecture sessions. The 2022 USC Convention was held in Kansas City, in which Rush Soccer was invited through Sporting Project Director Pablo Toledo to present to the attendees. After that, himself and National CAP Director Josh Tyler met and discussed player development approaches with Culver-Stockton College Head Women’s Soccer Coach Tyler Tomlinson.

Josh Tyler-Hi Pablo, so you were invited to present to the public at the USC Convention. What did you present on?

Pablo Toledo- We presented on how to design and implement a player development approach in your club, but we did from an experience standpoint. In other words, we explained what we do, how we started, where we are, what we plan for the future…

J- Is it hard for a club to develop that?

P- Well, I don’t know, but I think solutions are always specific to the context where you work. That’s why our opening statement was “I’m not going to give you the secret sauce to anything”, simply because I don’t have it, and I don’t believe there is one. I will tell you our story, and maybe you can steal some ideas from it that you think would work in your context.

J: What challenges do you think clubs have when trying to do this? How do we struggle here?

P- I think the big question for any sporting organizations is “How do we transform thoughts and words into real, everyday actions?” Because we make a lot of beautiful statements, we stand for all these core values… but what if we went to a club, and had no logos, no banners…is there anything that you would see at the field that would allow you to say “Yes this is a Rush team, or that’s a Rush coach”…See that’s what we want to do, what we work on every day. I think that’s the greater challenge (or one of the greater).

J- Well if you ask me, what stands out from us…I would say the handshake.

P- That’s one of these things, and it sounds minuscule but it matters. I think cultures are built over people sharing a lot of little habits. At Rush, we are not reinventing the wheel, we have this: A lot of common habits on and off the field that we need to make sure they don’t dilute as the club grows and expands.

J- One of the things I hear about coaches is “I like recruiting Rush players because they are well rounded, more respectful and have good knowledge of the game”. The core values you have, which have a consistency across Rush, generates a mindset which differentiates us from other clubs…and we start that at such a young age…at fest when they are 12 years old…and that helps when you are on the field. My son is 9 and he shakes hands. I think that differentiates us.

P- I agree. Our culture is easily observable. It’s harder to see the difference in our training sessions or games. That’s what we are constantly working on. I find that more challenging to implement.

J- What are the things you are trying to implement that make it a Rush Training Session, for example?

P- That was the core of the presentation, we basically showed the lawyers and tools we built to go from the words into the everyday actions. For sessions, for example, we concluded this process with something that we call the Blue Thread, which is a simple set of principles that we pursue in every session but in its simplicity it is one of the most impactful things we have from a technical aspect because it’s common to all sessions, no matter the topic of your training, the age group, or where you do it. We think this is a vital, almost strategic aspect of how we connect our clubs and coaches around the globe because it is not invasive, it doesn’t attempt to robotize a person or apply a one size fits all. It’s flexible enough where we can say we have these 8 non negotiables that represent our identity but from here, be yourself.

J- So talking about identity. What are your challenges when saying “this is how an official Rush session should look like?”

P- Well that’s a massive challenge. We are huge. More than 2000 coaches, 40.000 players approximately. It’s huge. And it’s not like we have unlimited resources. In my team we have 3 full time staff members and 2 part timers. So how do you share and address all of these topics with everybody while still keeping an individual approach, which is obviously key as well, that for us is a huge challenge, so we think technology, if used wisely, is a huge ally for us. That’s why we develop tools like the Rush Soccer Development platform to deliver online coaching, player, parent education site to our membership and the Rush Coaching Manual for curriculum implementation. This last one, going back to your point about Rush Sessions, is really important because we developed a season planner feature within it that allows you to create a Rush customized training plan for your by simply responding to six questions. That’s huge because as long as you are using it, we know you are at least half way into coaching the Rush Way.

J- We now welcome Tyler Thomson! Thanks for joining us, Tyler.

Tyler Tomlinson -Thank you guys.

J-So Tyler, from a college perspective, how much of the season do you have planned out training wise? Like “this is where we need to be at this point”.

T- Once you start the season so much of it is twofold. One would be reactionary to the game you just played; the other side of the fold is opposition analysis of the team you are going to play next. I think that the biggest alignment of the club model in approach to a season planning would be our preseason. Because there you have so much time to implement what you want to implement before you perform. For a club you can use the whole year to evolve. For us, we only have 2 weeks to figure out “this is going to be our identity”. I do think it’s important for a college to have a playing identity. For example, we changed the way we play 2 years ago. And I believe this year we reap the benefits of being able to play under the same system and learning about it.

J- And Tyler, let me ask you, when it comes to recruiting and you look at Rush clubs, do you go like “I bet I will find this type of player”? In other words, do you judge what sort of players you will get according to the clubs they come from?

T- Well, I will answer and then I’ll ask you guys. My overall answer would be no. I don’t really recruit from a club standpoint. It’s more of a relationship standpoint. And here’s where I ask you guys, do you want to be identified as that type of club? Do you want everyone to take players from your club? Or is it a relationship thing where you say “hey we are going to create the right relationship regardless of title”?

J- That is a tough question, but I believe you are right Tyler on the relationship style. We do want to develop an idea of a player, and we can instill certain aspects of a player. I want college coaches looking at Rush players and saying “Hey they know the game. They are Rush players, I don’t have to teach them…” or “Hey, it’s ten yards on a free kick”. We want them to know, Rush players are pretty technical-attacking minded people. Of course, you will find better or different players across the clubs in our country but we should be producing consistency in certain levels.

T-It would be great if I could get a lot of players that played for Rush, with a similar style, similar mentality and have them, then my job would be a lot easier. But that’s not the real world. I have to take players from “a,b,c,d,e & f” and they all play differently and I have to restart… but I hope that the things you have instilled like the core values of play, effort and character, are there and I don’t have to worry about those things and I can work off more on what the club has produced as a player.

P-That’s what we aim for with our department. We develop players and we know that the larger percentage of them aim to play in college so we take that into account as far as their preparation. We want to develop certain characteristics that will favor the college process. For example, since we know they will end up in different colleges, we pursue to develop versatile players. If you were Barcelona in which you know the first team will play in a certain way and every player aspires to play for that team, maybe you would do things differently, but in our case that is different.

J-Exactly. Developing soccer players, and not just a “right back”.

P-Yes. We want that versatility. We are purposely doing this through our curriculum and youth development because we know they are going to need it, and as silly as this might sound, you have to be very cognizant of what the objective is, and from there all the layers that you build change. The solution will always be specific to your context.

WATCH USC Convention – Sporting Project Director Pablo Toledo, National CAP Director Josh Tyler and Culver-Stockton College Head Women’s Soccer Coach Tyler Tomlinson

July 21, 2022

Goalkeeping

GOALKEEPING – What do coaches look for in tryouts?

This article was written by Sean Connors, Global Goalkeeping Director

Every year, tryouts bring out emotion for players, parents, coaches and clubs. Excitement! Fear! Anxiety! All parties involved are heightened to the importance of tryouts.

Goalkeepers are a unique position to the sport, and with that also have unique requirements when it comes to tryouts! To gain some insight I asked Head Coaches the following question:

As a head coach, what do you look for from a goalkeeper during a tryout? How do you select a GK?

“I think first is what they show they CAN do right now. Then what you think they are CAPABLE of in the future. And for me their ‘presence’, how they carry themselves, how their teammates respond to them AND how their opponents respond to them.”

~ Arby Busey, Head Coach: Seattle Pacific University Women’s Soccer ~

“Because of the way we want to play, we put a high priority on a goalkeeper’s ability to build from the back so we look for goalkeepers that are comfortable on the ball, have a wide range of passing, and are comfortable executing under pressure. We look for guys that have a command of the box and communicate. Guys who are leaders and organize their teammates. Ultimately, goalkeepers are always judged on their ability to keep the ball out of the goal so that will always be an important piece of what we look for – Does he save the ones he should save consistently? Can he come up with a big save when the team needs it?”

~ Kevin Sakuda, Head Coach: Seattle Pacific University Men’s Soccer ~

“If I had the perfect scenario then I would prefer an athletic and strong goalkeeper, able to react and reach the edges of the goal with great reaction speed. Willing to dominate the box in the air and remain patient and big while confronting 1v1 situations“
~ Arian Hoxha, NTD Rush Soccer ~

A goalkeeper -continues Arian- “should be willing to dominate the box in the air and remain patient and big while confronting 1v1 situations. Must be comfortable with both feet and able to remain calm while playing out from pressure. Able to distribute from restarts and in the flow of play and able to start counters safely. Obviously understand how to set up for free kicks and all other restarts. Finally, become part of the game and help the defenders with information and caution them about undetected movement from opponents”

“As quickly as possible I put them in big goals in a 5v5 setting. Here, I look for all the attributes needed, confidence, ration, moving on to the next play, reading of the play. Not much can be hidden during this scenario.”
~ Tim Schulz, CEO Rush Soccer ~

As a coach, go into your tryout with a clear understanding of the needs and player profile your team requires of the goalkeeper. Of course the GK needs to keep the ball out of the goal, but what else does your team require? What are the non-negotiables for your team?

As a player, focus on what you can control during the tryout. You may or may not get a lot of action on the goal. Some shots may not be saveable. But the GK can always control how they communicate and interact with the team. Focus on being clean in possession and making good decisions as often as possible.

When evaluating a goalkeeper, use the game! Goalkeepers can trick head coaches in evaluation if they only base the decision off, of a GK training session. Sometimes GKs have great hands and footwork, but when placed in a pressure situation wilt. Use the game to see how they can protect the goal, communicate, distribute, and handle pressure!

May 26, 2022

Coaching · News

Tryouts:”Should we just split them up and play?”

This article was written by Pablo Toledo, Rush Soccer’s Sporting Project Director.

Over the years I’ve seen two sorts of tryouts. The first one had a battery of irrelevant training activities and the second one was the ‘let’s split up and play because ultimately I want to see what you’re capable of doing in the real game’.
I’m personally quite against the first one and until a few years ago, to be fairly honest, I would have been a strong supporter of the second type, but now I’ve realized that there is a third option that actually works best, but first things first, it is worth mentioning that a common mistake in tryouts is that we observe but we don’t know what we are looking for. This needs to be put in context. Which is the developmental stage we are looking at? Everything you need to consider, in that sense, is straightforwardly expressed in Rush’s Development Blueprint.

Now let’s imagine that I’m running tryouts for a U9-12 segment. What am I looking for? Skill. Do I actually care too much about the tactical understanding of the player? Not really, if it’s there I’ll think that is great, but it is not a priority to me. In other words, I would way rather find a tactically deficient U11 that has great skills than the opposite.

Then, if I want to assess skills, I’ll definitely need to play a real 7v7 or 9v9 game and observe that, as there is only one fully realistic situation that is the game itself, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use other activities in brief intervals to ‘get a quick glance’ at more specific areas, so in this case and to over simplify the approach, I would want to know as soon as I can who’s good at Dribbling, Passing, Receiving, Shooting, Heading (if possible, second priority), and 1v1 Defending. How can I accomplish that? Simply running some short activities and finishing with a scrimmage. Here’s an example of a tryouts session I’ll be running.

Bantam Division: 2-3 Touches 3v3 + 2 Neutrals Keep Away

In 30 x 20 fields play 3v3 + 2 Neutrals keep aways in 2-3 touches max (adjust depending on the level of the players: the less touches, the more complicated). Teams can score by completing 10 passes.
This simple keep away, played for 15 minutes, might be all you need to quickly perceive who’s good at Passing and Receiving. Plus, you might get to recognize who has a basic understanding already of utilizing space.

Bantam Division: Finishing 1v0, 1v1, 2v1

This is another extremely simple activity you can run for 15 minutes. These repetitions of 1v0, 1v1, and 2v1 situations will quickly allow you to get an idea about who is good at Finishing, Dribbling, and 1v1 Defending. Place three parallel cones close to the center circle and line players up in three teams, having the first line in one color and the other two in a different one. This is a finishing activity in double roles.

The first line starts by going to goal 1v0 (you can add a condition or a line to have them shoot from outside the box, for example). As soon as that player shoots, he turns around to become a defender. Then, the player in the second line goes 1v1 against this defender. Once he/she finishes, the second player becomes a supporting attacker for the player in the third line, and the first player continues to defend one more ball.

Bantam Division: Attacking – 4v4 + GK’s Scrimmage (Or 7v7 or 9v9)

Now that you have a base idea of the skills you are looking for, make them play a scrimmage and try to check if your initial observations were accurate. If you followed the session so far, you’ll probably have 45 minutes to play so you can always use simple conditions to create more repetitions of the skill you are trying to ‘double check’.

Example:

You need five passes to score or teams can also score goals by making 5-10 passes (Passing & Receiving)
Everybody plays man to man marks for 5 minutes (Can help observing defending behaviors, dribbling, and receiving)
Teams need to shoot to goal every 10 seconds max (Finishing).
You need to dribble at least one opponent to be allowed to score (Dribbling).

These are just some of the many conditions you could use.

Tip for observing: Do it alone during the session. Don’t assess players with another coach, in fact try to stay away and not observe one another, so your analysis remains objective and is not influenced by someone else’s thoughts. After the session, get together and discuss what you’ve seen.

Hope this helps, Coach! Good luck on tryouts! Go Rush!

May 3, 2022

Goalkeeping

“What are you doing?! Don’t you know you have to catch the ball?!”

This article was written by Sean Connors, Rush Soccer’s Global Goalkeeping Director

One of the Rush GK Program Standards is that coaches must work to create a safe environment for the goalkeepers. This is specific to the GK Coach but also holds true for the team coach as their interactions with the goalkeeper carry significant weight. The team coach is there on game day and typically makes decisions about play time. Interactions on game day, and managing the emotions highs and lows, can impact the GK’s performance in both the short and long run.

The following excerpt is from the Rush Goalkeeping Curriculum:

Coach must show constant unwavering support
Coach must communicate every day
Coach must be honest – good and bad news
Coach must care for them as human beings
Coach must be strong for them in the bad times

The reality is that every Goalkeeper will make a mistake. Every Goalkeeper will let a ball in their goal. How Goalkeepers handle this setback will define their success. Work with each Goalkeeper to handle their emotions and work to be as even as possible. Never allow the Goalkeeper to get too high or too low. Instead ALWAYS focus on learning from the movement and moving on to the next save.

Game day is special to the players, coaches and fans and what we do and say as coaches can have a direct impact on all participants. Here are some tips to help you and your GK have a successful game day:

Create a routine. This starts with consistent communication. If there are two GKs on the team, establish how play time will be decided, and if it changes game to game, establish when, where, and how they will be told.
Warm up. Ideally there is a GK coach available to take the GK through their game day warm up. If not, work to figure out how the GK will be properly warmed up. Is it the head coach stepping away from the team? Is it the other GK on the team? Is it one of the bench players? There are pros and cons to each scenario. The key is to make it consistent so the GK knows exactly what is coming their way game to game.
Coaching the GK during the game. There is no special formula for speaking to a GK during the game. They are players just like everyone else. However you have to take into account key physiological information into consideration:

They are special to coach
They define the game – Win or Lose
They are always under pressure
They emotionally crave success
Their mistakes are easily observed
They are an easy target for criticism
Their life has Highs and Lows
They suffer constantly Changing Self-Esteem

When coaching the GK during the game try to stay positive. Reinforce the next save mentality. Help the GK to diagnose what went wrong for them, how they can improve for the next action, and give them continued support and belief.

Common coaching language myths!

“If you can get two hands on the ball, you should catch it.”

Yes and no. Being able to get two hands on a ball gives the GK the opportunity to catch the ball. Take into account the pace of the ball, the movement/knuckling of the ball or even the GKs ability to see the ball. Also take into account the skill of the goalkeeper. Are they able to catch the ball consistently to start with? If not then there should not be an expectation to execute the skill consistently during a game.

“You need to catch every ball if it goes into the six yard box.”

This is not a realistic expectation. The statement doesn’t take into account the pace of the ball, type of service, traffic in the box, skill level, and most importantly exact location of the service. There is a big difference between a ball floated middle six and a ball whipped near post with pace. Be mindful of those differences when speaking with your goalkeeper and setting unrealistic expectations.

“You can never get beat near post.”

Hate to say it, but getting scored on near post will happen to all GKs even at the highest level. The real issue is about the GKs starting position making sure they are in the ball line to protect the goal. Then the GK must be disciplined to protect the goal first and not cheat to defend a potential cross. If the GK moves early to defend the cross and then is scored on at the near post, the GK must be taught to be patient.

To wrap it up, I believe the Rush Goalkeeping Curriculum says it best: “The coach must work to create an environment that is safe for the GK to train and make mistakes. The reality is all Goalkeepers will let in goals, especially during training when they see shot after shot. Work with them to be ok in those moments by focusing on learning from the goal and then moving on to the next save”

April 25, 2022

News · Players

Train @ Home Leaderboards: Let’s Hear It From The Winners!

After 12 weeks, the Fifth Edition of the Train @ Home Program had some wonderful players that made it to the Top of our Leaderboards. Let’s hear what they have to say about this amazing resource. Go Rush!

The Winter Edition of the Train @ Home is over. Hundreds of Rush Players worked really hard to get Better, Fitter, Smarter, Tougher & Braver through our five Training Tracks. This Edition was the first one with the Leaderboards, through which each player could check his/her improvement algonside other Rush players.

THIS IS THE FINAL TOP 10 ON THE T@H LEADERBOARD

Mallory Meighan, the pride of WI West Rush, was the overal winner, with the incredible mark of 458 points. She won the Smarter and Tougher Tracks, and finished second on the Better, Fitter and Braver Tracks. Absolutely amazing!

Second place was for the wonderful Amelia Rasmussen, from Twin Cities Rush. Amelia won the Better, Fitter and Braver Track! We interviewed her to know how she felt throughout the program. A big thank you to Heidi, Amelia’s mum, who helped her through the interview, which you can watch below:

“I started doing the winter Train @ Home Program to get extra touches on the ball, I quickly got more and more involved. I also learned by doing the Tougher Track, that soccer is not all physical. There’s also mental aspects”.
Amelia Rasmussen – Twin Cities Rush.

Amelia also explained how, without being a Goalkeeper, she won the GK Track: “I did some of Goalie trainings, as at my age we all still have to rotate into that position. It was great to get extra tips, so I can feel more confident when it’s my turn”.

Third place was for the one and only Jakob Shevitz, from WA Rush. Jakob has been one of the more consistent players throughout these five Editions, and we were delighted to see him reaching this position. He also had some things to say:

“I learned a lot these 12 weeks about soccer and all aspects of the game. I like how by working all the Tracks I can train my brain and body as a whole athlete. This is helpful because you can’t just work your body or your brain, you need to put it all together and work on both”.
Jakob Shevitz – Washington Rush.

Mallory, Amelia and Jakob are perfect examples of what being a Rush Player means. They worked hard, and the improvement is undeniable. We are truly proud of them and all of you!

Stay tuned, because we will have a Spring Edition! Go Rush!

March 17, 2022

Goalkeeping · News

Coaching The Individual Goalkeeper

This article was written by Sean Connors, Rush Soccer’s Global Goalkeeping Director.

“T.E.A.M. – Together Everyone Achieves More!”.

“There is no I in Team!”.

However, there is only one player on the field for each team that can use their hands.

“Making an individual connection starts when the GKs arrive at training. Taking time to greet each GK, handshake/fist bump, and checking in to see how they are doing. How is school? How is your family? How were your games this weekend?”.
Mike Kappas – GK Director at Virginia Rush.

Coaches must make these types of connections to best know how to meet the needs of their players.

“Within a training session the coach must be aware of individual struggles. It might be with a certain technique, or making a save from a particular position on the field. What if during the session the GK is in the same position over and over again trying to get reps to improve but the ball keeps going in the net? The risk is it can reach a point where mentally it is crushing the player making them think they are terrible and can’t stop the ball”.
Matt Stueckle – GK Director at Washington Rush.

In these cases what can a coach do?

Get to know the Goalkeepers and work to teach them at their level! The better you can address each individual the more success they will have.

March 15, 2022

News

¡Viaja A Buenos Aires Y Aprende Con Rush Soccer Y La Escuela César Luis Menotti!

El viaje a Buenos Aires se realiza a partir de una alianza educativa con la Escuela de Entrenadores César Luis Menotti, presidida por el mismo César Luis, una de los más legendarios entrenadores de todos los tiempos, campeón del mundo en suelo Argentino en 1978.

El curso, de carácter obligatorio para los estudiantes de licencias AFA de la escuela, será de cinco días a doble turno de 9 a 17 horas entre el Lunes 20 y el Viernes 24 de Junio de 2022.

UN VIAJE PARA DISFRUTAR Y APRENDER JUNTO A RUSH SOCCER

Si hay un lugar que combina la elegancia europea, la pasión sudamericana, y el amor por el fútbol, ese es la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, la tierra que crió a tres de los grandes dioses del futbol: Diego Maradona, Alfredo Di Stefano y Lionel Messi.

PROGRAMA Y PRECIOS DEL VIAJE

Durante la semana en Buenos Aires, los participantes tendrán la posibilidad de disfrutar, además de los cinco días de curso presencial en la Escuela de Entrenadores César Luis Menotti, de distintos beneficios, tales como 7 Noches en el Hotel Dazzler Palermo Polo -con desayuno incluido-, Round Trips al Predio de la EECLM todos los días, cena temática de bienvenida y cena-show de Tango de despedida.

Además, los participantes tendrán la opción de disfrutar de la ‘Full Day Fiesta Gaucha’, con visitas a museos, estadios y City Tour, por sólo 145 dólares.

PRECIOS:

Estudiantes Curso EECLM:
– HABITACIÓN SINGLE = $1550 USD por persona.
– HABITACIÓN DOBLE = $1230 USD por persona.

No Estudiantes Curso EECLM:
– HABITACIÓN SINGLE = $1850 USD por persona.
– HABITACIÓN DOBLE = $1530 USD por persona.

¡No Te Quedes Afuera!

Si estás interesado/a, comunícate con Pablo Toledo, Director De Proyecto Deportivo de Rush Soccer, a [email protected]. La inscripción comenzó el 7 de Febrero. ¡Los esperamos!

March 14, 2022