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Players

Consistency And Effort To Become Your Best Version: Meet Jakob Shevitz, Winner Of The Train @ Home Spring Edition!

The second edition of our Train @ Home Program came to its end and coaches Michelle, Pablo, Adrian and Lindsay had the difficult responsibility of choosing just one winner between hundreds of Rush players who deserved to be highlighted. After long consideration, they decided to feature the one and only Jakob Shevitz, from Washington Rush!

You may already know Jakob, as he won several Tracks during the Winter Edition.

He is a fantastic example of consistency and effort and showed great improvement throughout the six week program to become the ultimate T@H Winner on its second edition.

We spoke with Jakob and he told us which was his favorite Track, his goals for next season and a special message to all of the Rush players from the T@H Winner.

A special thank you to Jen, Jakob’s mum, who besides helping her son achieve this fantastic goal, also facilitated the interview. Watch below!

Or, if you rather, read below:

What have you been doing to ensure you stay motivated and continue training individually during this period?

“I have been thinking of the people who play in levels and age groups above me, and what areas they are better than me. So, I thought the more I practice like those players, and the more consistently I practice, the better I become and the closer I get to being one of the stronger players on the field“.

Have you noticed any improvement in your training since the beginning of the Program?

“It has helped me by improving my ball control, my ability to check my shoulder for pressure, and my speed and strenght in the game of soccer. It has also improved my awareness and my speed to react at pressure coming at me“.

Do you think it has an impact on your performance on the field?

“I think it improves my work on the field and during the practice, because I can react more quickly to pressure and get my skills ready, so that way I can dodge around them or get a pass around“.

What is your favorite part of the Train @ Home Program?

“My personal favorite part is the Smarter Track. I loved all the questions that went with the videos that you showed us. I also liked the video choices that you put in for the quizzes, because there are a lot of really experienced players playing on really good teams in the videos“.

What are your goals for next season?

“My goals are:
1- Try to get more the ball on the field, so I have more chances to get the ball to the back of the net.
2- Try to practice more consistently and work on my skills and different areas.
3- Help my team improve behaviourally and skillwise”.

No Summer Break, We Keep Training! Click HERE to learn about the third T@H Edition, starting on June 8th!

May 17, 2021

Rush Way

Maximizing Opposed Playing Time: Rush Canada’s and Miami Rush’s Futsal Programs

As explained in The Heart of The Rush, one of the two pillars of our Player Development Approach is to maximize weekly playing time in direct confrontation. In this article, we present an alternative that two Rush clubs use for that purpose: FUTSAL.

Quoting the section What We Believe In from The Heart Of The Rush.

“Stating that the game is the teacher is more than a philosophical idea. Our 70 Games Rule is the overarching expression of it. At the youth stages, we want our teams to play 70 11v11 scrimmages a year. Some will be formal and some others as part of a training session, just like some will last longer than others, but they will present the stage for learning to take place. At the grassroots level, the 70 Games Rule is expressed through the constant encouragement and club initiatives to increase the overall weekly playing time of the participant. That doesn’t mean increasing the number of training sessions (team or individual), it means providing opportunities for the players to play more time in direct confrontation“.
The Heart Of The Rush.

This month we are not debating or presenting on our player development approach. This is not a theory based campaign, but a pragmatic one. We want our players to play more time in direct confrontation than they do in any other club. This article is not about why?, it’s about how?

For many of our clubs, the answer (at least partially), relies in FUTSAL.

You will notice in the two cases presented below that training is divided into three categories: Formal, Alternative Formal, and Informal. This is what the categories represent:

Formal: Regular training and competition (includes High School)
Alternative Formal: Futsal or similar, there’s still coaching involved.
Informal: Spontaneous, pick up, no coaching involved.

RUSH CANADA

Working alongside Rush Canada’s Technical Director Slobodan Pavlovic, we collected information regarding the club’s Futsal program for U10 and under, and U11 and older. At Rush Canada, Futsal is not only impactful in player development, it is also a revenue stream. Check below.

Brief description of the program: Futsal at Rush Canada is mandatory and included in the annual registration package. U10 and under play one hour a week (minimum) and U11 and older two hours a week.

Disclaimer: This varies considerably depending on the time of the year, as they use Futsal increasingly during the off season periods with additional camps, tournaments, etc.

Futsal costs the player $450 (for U10 & Under) and $700 (U11 & over) a year.

From a soccer standpoint and the main reason why we evaluate the case, the Futsal program contributes with a minimum of 20% extra playing time in direct confrontation, or the equivalent of 0.81 hours weekly (average) at U10 and under, and 1.77 hours at U11 and older.

As it says on the (*) above, we are aware that the impact of Futsal in the overall confronted playing hours measured as a percentage might be overestimated as we have no data for informal play, which we believe to be pretty marginal (unfortunately). However, the impact is still significant and that doesn’t affect the hourly contribution seen in absolute terms.

Why Futsal in Slobodan’s words:

More contact with the ball: In a recent study it was observed that during the game, Futsal players were in contact with the ball 210% more than playing traditional US indoor arena soccer. There are about 10 times more contacts with the ball and 10 times more confrontations and transitions in Futsal than in 9v9 or 11v11 soccer, so we think that’s obviously very impactful in skill development.
Improves Ball control – with limited space, boundary restrictions, constant opponent pressure and game pace, high level of technical skills are required.
Pace & Transitions: With no walls to help them out, players must move of the ball and support each other just like in the outdoor soccer but with much higher pace and more transitions. This develops tactical awareness and facilitates right decisions in different phases of the game – attack, defense and positive and negative transitions that is easily transferred to the outdoor game

If you would like to learn more about Rush Canada’s Futsal program, please contact Slobodan Pavlovic at [email protected]

MIAMI RUSH KENDALL

Another club that uses Futsal as part of their regular programming is Miami Rush. We spoke to Renatto Soriano, Miami Rush’s Technical Director, to understand their program further:

Brief Description Of The Program: At Miami Rush, Futsal is used for U12 and under. One day a week for one hour, and for an average total of 60 sessions a year and seven games, so the total impact is estimated in 67 hours of futsal a year per player.

The program affects about 25% of the U12 and under membership (30 out of the 120 players). It is not mandatory, and external players can participate as well.

From an operational standpoint, the program requires four fields (three outdoors and one indoors are used) and there are three coaches running the program.

From a financial perspective, the program costs the player about $20 per hour / session.

From a soccer standpoint, Futsal contributes with a 33% of extra confronted playing time a week, even though we know this percentage is overestimated as we don’t currently have additional data for informal play. However, the impact is still significant and can be seen in absolute terms, as a 1.29 average hours added per week.

Why Futsal in Renatto’s words:

‘Most of South Americans like me grew up playing like this. We believe in its impact in player development. They learn a lot of things through Futsal, like staying on their feet when marking or using the sole of the cleat. They also learn things like playing/restarting play quickly through the game. Coaching for us needs to be brief, we want a lot of freedom.

If you’d like to learn more about Miami Rush’s Futsal program, contact Renatto at [email protected].

April 20, 2021

Webinars

Building The Right Mindset To Perform With Fabrice Ramphort

Sports Performance Coach Fabrice Ramphort walked us through ways and strategies to help our players develop a strong, positive mentality and avoid stress and anxiety while performing, during a fantastic Webinar with Chris P., our Developmental Director. Watch and/or read below!

Fabrice is a Sport Performance Coach who has a degree in Mental Preparation and works with young athletes to unlock their potential using mental strategies. “There are many different parameters that we can look at in Mental Performance. One of them is the Cognitive Ability, whether you can concentrate, the challenges to regain concentration, etc. There’s also Psychosomatic Abilities, like relaxation and activation. Another is Stress Control, managing stress and managing fear as well”, he explained.

Having a two-way communication can and will help us develop together with our player a plan to build a strong mentality: “If there’s some nervousness, you need to look at what are some of the components that make someone anxious or stressed, and you can put in place what we call ‘Performance Routine‘, which will help you cope with that anxiety or stress. ‘Performance Routine’ is basically you finding activities, which you are gonna put in place with the athlete, so he/she can put those strategies in place as part of the journey“.

Whether a player has more or less skills, self esteem is key when performing not only on the field, but on a daily basis. Fabrice indicated that helping them remember their success in the past can help players regain confidence in themselves.

“If you look at the post performance or the feedback, it’s about the self image. There’s two elements: the inner self image, where we need to establish whether the self image could potentially impact on the person’s self esteem. If the person’s self esteem is in jeopardy, that can impact on the confidence. The other element is image re rehearsal, which includes visualization, what you hear, what you feel, etc. One way to increase confidence is to talk about past good performance. You want to get into image re rehearsal based on past positive experiences”, he stated.

“From an informational way of working, we are aiming to get transformation, but between those two, there’s some work to be done. ‘Transformational’ also potentially means that the player will see a reason to do this. If the player sees that there’s a benefit in doing those exercises, then he/she will see an added value in doing that”.
Fabrice Ramphort.

Our guest also left a self-reflection concept to analyze how important we consider and apply mental exercises when coaching young players: “We need to remember that every day we work on the physical, the tactical and the technical. I think it is important to ask ourselves: ‘Do we also want them to start working on the mental?’. Do we work on the short term or do we look at working on the longer term, investing in something today to collect the benefit tomorrow?“.

April 20, 2021

Players

Meet Brett Christensen, The Coach Behind Guershom Sylvain, The Rush Player Of The Moment

Michigan Rush’s coach Brett Christensen has obviously had an impact in Guershom Sylvain’s development, coaching him for the last four years. In this article, Brett shares his coaching approach and thoughts on player development. Meet the coach behind Guershom Sylvain.

Guershom Sylvain is the Rush Player of the moment. Owner of a spectacular and inspiring story, the Michigan Rush ’04 striker received a full scholarship to continue his soccer (and education) development at Combine Academy.

Brett Christensen, Guershom’s coach, kindly answered our questions. Born and raised in Idaho, Brett also coached in Alaska before arriving to Michigan to obtain his PhD in Sports Psychology. And, as Guershom, he showed humility when asked for the player’s evolution: “I don’t know if I would say I am behind Guershom’s success as he was responsible for most of it, but I have helped him along the way”.

“Guershom came to our club after being noticed playing at a local indoor place. One of our coaches noticed him and talked him into coming out to a couple of training sessions. From there we noticed how athletic he was and got him to join our club. I did not coach him right away but I have coached him now for the last four years and he has grown a lot during that time because of his tremendous work ethic and how responsible he is as a person off the field“, he added.

What do you think was the key aspect for success in your relationship with Guershom?

“I think the key aspect was developing trust between us. We have not always seen eye to eye, but as he learned I had his best interests in mind and he got more comfortable talking with me then things took off from there. He knows that if he does not understand what I am saying or if he thinks a different way that I will explain it to him so he understands why I am asking for certain things. That does not mean I do not listen or value what he says, I do because that trust goes both ways. He has a different perspective on the field than what I do as a coach so we can often have good discussions about how we play. I don’t think he would be where he is now if I just told him as a coach that I expect things a certain way but I never explain why that is important and how it relates to the game. It could be as little as why we play a certain foot in a situation to as big as the system we are playing as a team. When I coach, I want all the players to have that understanding. He knows in every game and training session there is a team aspect that is important, but so is his individual contribution to the team and his individual development and that all these things work together”.

Was Guershom way above the rest? If so, how did you handle that situation?

“He has always been more athletic, but not always above everyone else. I have been lucky enough to coach a number of players that have been very good. It is having this experience of coaching these players that helped me develop my coaching style and ability to work with top players in my teams. I know I have to be prepared to adjust sessions to a level that the top players are adequately challenged, but without losing the bottom half of the group. Giving individual goals in addition to the team goals in a training session really helps balance a session and keep everyone developing”.

Brett adapts his coaching approach based on the group he is coaching and how they respond to his coaching style. But he always focuses on the mental side of the game and encourages decision-making from the players: “I use games that require the players to figure it out while playing instead of giving them a pattern or letting them just run through the motions. I like the players I coach to be adaptable and be able to think for themselves. I want them to know that mistakes are okay but only if they learn from them. I want them to really try to push themselves to be better every time they are on the field”.

“I also use an individual approach to coaching. I will give things to the players as we are training to make things more challenging or more game like for their specific position. It requires a lot of planning on my part to have my training sessions adaptable for each player, but I feel the players understand the game better and what is expected out of the training session. It is also a great way to push your top players. Giving them more to do, or additional things to focus on during training helps them deal with the pressures of the game and be more effective when teams set up to stop them”, he stated.

“If I am looking at players that are trying out for my team, I look for coachability, work ethic, and then technique and athleticism in that order. I want players who are hungry to learn and push themselves to get better”
Brett Christensen.

“If you look at it from a Rush perspective, I want players that embody the core values. I want those players that don’t have to work at those values, they live them every day because that is who they are as a player and as a person”.

Open space, Brett. What would you want to tell the thousand of Rush coaches reading this article?

“If I could give some advice to coaches it would be to do what is best for your players and the team in that order. I see coaches all the time that set a team up around what is best for the coach but puts the team and players at a disadvantage. A coach is there to develop players. If you do your job well then the team results will come but having a player’s first attitude to development will reap the biggest rewards. This is at all the levels and age groups. It does not matter if it is 3 year olds playing fun silly games, or academy level players. Focus on the players. The biggest compliment a coach can get is other teams wanting your players.

Last thing, players being uncomfortable and even a little frustrated at times is a good thing for them and the team. It shows they are growing and having to adapt. This is what you should strive for in your sessions. You want them to really work to get what you want out of a session because it won’t come easy in a game. I once had a friend of mine say that training sessions should be harder than your games because then the games are easy. This is the mindset I want from my players. I get at players in training and push them, but in games I want it to be about them. I want them to enjoy what their hard work has got them”.

Thank you, Brett!

April 8, 2021

Coaching

What We Learned About Designing Player Centered Sessions

After a month of much discussion and analysis on how to design Player Centered Sessions, we found several valuable concepts that can be incorporated to the way we design sessions.

In simple words, if we want to discuss designing player centered sessions, we need to start by answering two questions: What’s a player centered approach? And why is it important?

What’s A Player Centered Approach?

In words of Juan Gonzalez Mendia, Director of Sudamerica Coaching (watch the full webinar here):

A player centered approach is about putting the participant at the center of the learning process. It’s about the decision making. Most of the environments in sports in the last 20 years have been related to education, and in the last 50 or 60 years (if not more) education has been related to somebody on a step, literally, telling the participants what they need to learn. If they were lucky, they would also hear ‘why’ they need to learn it. A participant centered approach is the opposite. This is a real story that serves as an example. I started teaching at a school years ago, in 2008, and the classroom had a step, so in my first week I turned that step into a stage. I moved my desk to the back of the room, and we turned the step into a stage in which the student would perform, express himself/herself, or present”.

As you can infer from this passage, in a participant centered approach the role of the teacher (coach) relates more to facilitating than it does to instructing.

Why Is It Important?

A Player Centered Approach is vital for us in it’s alignment with our core belief that the game is the teacher (or the best learning environment), and therefore the coach works as a facilitator. Quoting The Heart Of The Rush:

At Rush Soccer, we believe that the game is the teacher. It is in the complexity of the game where skills and creativity arise and develop, not in isolated, mechanized situations. These last can introduce a concept or a technique but can never be the core or the proposed channel for learning. It is in the game that the player discovers solutions and creativity arises, and it is the role of the coach to facilitate that environment and guide, when needed, through that discovery. It’s participant centered, not coach centered.

Building off of that base, the question that arises is how the Rush Way materializes this player centered approach.

The answer relies in the application of The Rush Blue Thread, a set of eight connected principles pursued in every session to ensure a top player centered learning environment is facilitated. That’s what was discussed by a panel on March 11th, when Pablo Toledo, Rush Soccer’s Coach & Player Development Director, was joined by several Rush Technical Directors including President Tim Schulz, Coach Education Consultant Megan McCormick, and Rush Canada’s Technical Director Slobodan Pavlovic, among others (Click HERE to Watch!).

“The question we were asking ourselves was: Knowing and respecting that every Rush club works on a different landscape and we are 100 clubs, how can we still be 1 and provide a similar player centered learning experience? That’s how and why we thought of these eight principles to design and execute training sessions that we call The Rush Blue Thread”, Pablo explained.

The Rush Blue Thread principles are:

“If we could get every Rush coach to do this, we would be miles ahead of any other club, maybe in the world”
Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant.

OTHER LEASONS LEARNED ABOUT DESIGNING PLAYER CENTERED TRAINING SESSIONS:

1) Design Activities with Intentional Feedback: “It seems obvious that learning requires clear (and accurate) feedback. We knowing nod our heads when we hear that the more quickly the feedback is given after a decision, the more likely it will “stick”. Many coaches’ first instinct is to begin planning and considering coaching points and verbal information they will give during a session. However, the most consistent and immediate feedback in a training session comes directly from the activities (the game). Thoughtful session planning allows a coach to carefully tune the feedback loop for players, to ensure that the information is clear, accurate, and timely, even when the coach doesn’t verbally reinforce it”, Megan explained in her wonderful article ‘Key Considerations’ (Click HERE to read!).

2) When designing a session, ask yourself: Would I enjoy this? This might seem simple but it roots down to the core of learning. As Juan Gonzalez Mendia said in his last webinar: “For the longest time we thought that fun was important for learning, that if you enjoyed what you were doing you’d learn more and faster. We were suspicious about this, now science has proven it”. If you want to keep your players ‘engaged’ with the topic, observe if the session is enjoyable. Scott Mills spoke about this as well (Click HERE to Watch): “I think that the players respond to that and something they enjoyed it’s also teaching them. That’s the best part”, Scott stated. “We’ve all been kids and -I guess- we all love playing soccer, so imagine for a second that you will be part of the activity and self-reflect on how that session would be enjoyable”.

Russell Earnshaw linked many of these concepts as well in what he summarizes as seeing the session from children’s eyes. Rusty’s story about how he spent a day shadowing a child to understand their perception and feelings around the daily activities he participated in, to conclude that it was a really, really boring day added a bit of humor. “If we are really player centered, then why aren’t the children running lessons and sessions or at least being part of it?”, he wondered during his interview with Chris P. (Click HERE to Watch).

3) Ask players to provide their own objectives/goals for a game, or coach providing objectives: We took this one from Scott Mills, and I struggle to find an even more participant centered idea: “Each of our players have a pentavalent plan and define objectives for short, medium and long term for them. You (coaches) then help them, for example, if one player said ‘I really want to improve my speed and agility’, we will see the design of sessions that suits that goal. We also ask them to set an objective for the match, so we’ll ask them ‘how are you going to achieve that?'”.

4) Plan Your Response to Failure: It’s normal for players to struggle in training. In fact, we expect (and want) some failure to take place. Quoting Juan Mendia again: “If I watched a session and the players were always succeeding, I’d invite the coach to review that session, because something is not working”. The question that really matters is: What will my specific and purposeful response be when the player(s) makes this particular mistake?

5) External Focus of Attention: Megan highlighted this one (note how important we think it is that it is part of the Rush Blue Thread). This is about visual cues. It is our responsibility as coaches to make sure players have the tools to evaluate their own success or failure by observing the external outcome. Without thoughtful guidance, players might rely solely on the final score of the game to judge their performance. As coaches, we are constantly taking in so many visual cues and often leave them out of our verbal feedback. Taking the time to plan how you will help players watch for the things you see as a coach can pay tremendous dividends.

Please note that we are talking about literal things to observe, the focus is in what you can SEE. “Great pressure! Did you see how the attacker kept her head down and wasn’t able to look up?” That could be a great way to teach a young player about distances for the pressuring defender, or “she was able to pick her head up and survey the field which means you need to close more space”. These simple phrases will help the player self-evaluate her action every time she is required to provide pressure.

Using two simple questions before training can help make sure we are aligning a player’s external focus with our own: What actions/behaviors am I trying to teach? And, What specific things can a player SEE if they do this well? If they fail to do this well?

6) Building Mental Engagement & Planning The Conversation (Click HERE to read): Updated coaching education programs have introduced us to guided discovery and the use of questions to share our coaching points. However, the skill (or lack thereof) of crafting and asking questions can dramatically increase (or decrease) player engagement. If we are interested in putting the player at the center of the session, it’s time we all revisit the way we use questions. The goal is to have EVERY player in the session thinking deeply about EVERY question you ask as a coach. A loft goal to be sure but one well within our grasp with the right techniques.

Check the Chart below:

7) Random vs Block Training: We stated at the beginning of this post that a Player Centered Approach has it’s roots in decision making. Sean Connors, our Goalkeeping Global Director, presented as well about how this approach materializes within Goalkeeping specific training. That’s what the Random vs Block Training Webinar was about.

“Block Training is a traditional approach, it’s what you’ll see in most fields. A defined number of repetitions, repeating them over and over, so that the focus is on the execution”, Sean explained (Watch it HERE!). “Random, on the other hand, means different activities, don’t do the same thing twice, and the key is to read the situation, plan the situation and then do. Adding those two steps (reading & planning) is the main difference between Random and Block Training. Random not only focuses on technical execution”, he added.

Below, a brief and informative example of both types of GK training:

“So often we think about ourselves as Goalkeeper coaches training technique and execution, that tends to be the focus. But it doesn’t matter if you can catch a ball if you are not in the right place, if you haven’t made the right choice to catch the ball. That situation has got to become the focus”, Sean stated.

A lot to digest coach, we hope you enjoyed the learning this month. Stay tuned for April’s!

March 30, 2021

Coaching

Player Centered Session Design: Planning the Conversation

This article was written by Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant and Lead on the Rush Female Coaches Alliance.

As coaches, we recognize the importance of designing activities that replicate the game and “paint pictures” to help players translate technical skills into well timed actions on the field. I would propose that the planning of “the conversation” between coach and players throughout the session is of equal value. Updated coaching education programs have introduced us to guided discovery and the use of questions to share our coaching points. However, the skill (or lack thereof) of crafting and asking questions can dramatically increase (or decrease) player engagement. If we are interested in putting the player at the center of the session, it’s time we all revisit the way we use questions.

Education expert, Doug Lemov, skillfully explains how to harness the power of questions to increase engagement (and learning) during a session. His blog post on the subject is well worth the 7 minutes of your time.

CLICK TO READ: Building Mental Engagement Among Athletes Through Questioning

The video Lemov highlights in the post above shows a coach well versed in using questions to keep players highly engaged. He is also a coach who clearly planned the questions he would ask and participation techniques he would employ. The goal is to have EVERY player in the session thinking deeply about EVERY question you ask as a coach. A loft goal to be sure but one well within our grasp with the right techniques. The chart below can serve as an introduction to some easy ways to implement these ideas into your own sessions. I would encourage you to choose one or two and give them a try this week in training.

Click HERE to Download the Full Scale Chart.

March 25, 2021

Coaching

Player Centered Session Design: Key Considerations

This article was written by Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant.

March’s coaching development webinars, podcasts, and articles will focus on how we can lay the foundation for training sessions that focus on the player. As our understanding of teaching and the game continue to evolve, we recognize that the player must be the main character in the session. In my opinion, this doesn’t have to involve turning traditional training methods on their head. Instead, I believe it starts with a different approach to planning. There are three session design considerations that immediately come to mind to help us shine the spotlight on the player.

Activity Design with Intentional Feedback:

It seems obvious that learning requires clear (and accurate) feedback. We knowing nod our heads when we hear that the more quickly the feedback is given after a decision, the more likely it will “stick”. Many coaches’ first instinct is to begin planning and considering coaching points and verbal information they will give during a session. However, the most consistent and immediate feedback in a training session comes directly from the activities (the game).

Thoughtful session planning allows a coach to carefully tune the feedback loop for players, to ensure that the information is clear, accurate, and timely, even when the coach doesn’t verbally reinforce it.

1) What behaviors/actions am I trying to introduce or develop?

a. If a player successfully executes one of these actions, how does the activity reinforce or “reward” them?

2) What behaviors/actions am I trying to prevent/extinguish?

a. If a player does this, how does the activity disincentivize or “punish” the
actions?

A quick example is adjusting the position of goals to reinforce defensive actions in wide spaces. If players effectively defend wide spaces, the opponent will have more difficulty scoring, and the defending team will be more likely to recover the ball (reward). Poor defending out wide will likely result in goals score by the opponent (punishment). Note: playing to counter goals could also be used to reinforce actions like switching the point of attack or creating 2v1’s out wide.

External Focus of Attention:

Otherwise known as visual cues. It is our responsibility as coaches to make sure players hav the tools to evaluate their own success or failure by observing the external outcome. Without thoughtful guidance, players might rely solely on the final score of the game to judge their performance. As coaches, we are constantly taking in so many visual cues and often leave them out of our verbal feedback. Taking the time to plan how you will help players watch for the things you see as a coach can pay tremendous dividends. “Great pressure! Did you see how the attacker kept her head down and wasn’t able to look up?” could be a great way to teach a young player about distances for the pressuring defender, or “she was able to pick her head up and survey the field which means you need to close more space”. These simple phrases will help the player self-evaluate her action every time she is required to provide pressure. Two simple questions before training can help make sure we are aligning a player’s external focus with our own.

1) What actions/behaviors am I trying to teach?

2) What specific things can a player SEE if they do this well? If they fail to do this well?

Response to Failure:

It’s normal for players to struggle in training. In fact, we expect quite a bit of failure as players develop. Teaching expert, Doug Lemov, writes about the importance of anticipating how we expect individuals to fail, and most importantly, planning the specific response when this happens. Who better to predict exactly how players will struggle then the coach who works with them every day? This allows us to do one of the most difficult things in coaching: removing our emotional response to failure. The more specific we can be in planning ahead for these moments, the better the outcome is likely to be in the heat of the session or game.

1) Given the focus of training, what specific mistake(s) do I expect to see? (individual, collective, etc.)

2) When I see this specific mistake, how will I respond? (Coaching point, adjust space, restrictions, etc.)

We should not be asking (and watching) whether or not players will fail or make mistakes. The more important question we can ask is: What will my specific and purposeful response be when the player(s) makes this particular mistake?

Unfortunately, there is no specific structure (PPP, OLI, Whole-Part-Whole) that guarantees a player centered training session. Ensuring that the player always remains the main character rests on the planning and execution. Thankfully, coaches have nearly 100% control of these two components. While we might not love to admit it, we all know that outstanding execution requires outstanding planning, so why not embrace the process?

March 8, 2021

Podcasts

Lesle Gallimore From The Girls Academy: Strategies, Processes And Communication To Be Elite

NCAA and University of Washington Legend joined Megan McCormick, Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant, to discuss ways to Manage The Performance Environment, on a MUST LISTEN episode of The Rush Podcast Network (Click HERE to Listen).

“We are fortunate to share a conversation with an absolute legend in the game, a woman who needs very little introduction“, stated Megan McCormick at the beginning of her interview. Lesle Gallimore‘s background and experience definitely validate the statement, as she is one of the most respected and experienced soccer coaches in the USA, a Washington Youth Soccer Hall of Famer, and NSCAA National Coach of the Year (2000), among others, and we had the privilege to connect with her during a brand-new episode of The Rush Podcast Network.

Find below some of our takeaways from the conversation:

“If you are striving to be elite, there are so many different people and things that go into your performance environment, that it can get overwhelming. Strategies and processes are key”, Lesle explained.

“Communication is everything. I don’t think there is such thing as overcommunicating”, she added, and went deeper to explain the importance of “open, honest, and frequent communication with everyone who might influence the environment”.

Lesle’s emphasis in the importance of communication and recognition of stakeholders was a common denominator along the conversation. As a matter of fact, these were brought up as well when Megan inquired on what she considers key steps to successfully manage any performance environment, to what she listed:

Prioritizing areas of opportunity.
Having a plan to influence your environment.
First thing to think about is the people.

And also when commenting on Common characteristics of the best performance environments:

Focusing on individual people’s strengths.
Clear and consistent focus on priorities.
Communication.
Positive, solution-oriented mentality.

Another area that was frequently highlighted by Lesle was to focus on individuals, escaping from one-size-fits-all approaches. This was evident not only on the above but also when weighting on the age old debate of focusing on Development vs. Winning. Here, our guest speaker spoke about achieving results by focusing on the plan for each individual player above everything else.

It wasn’t an exception when she shared her personal philosophy to manage the Girls Academy League: “My guiding light is the players. So wherever there is a difficult decision to make, making sure I’m not just listening to the loudest voice in the room… and just trying to do what’s best for the ‘team’ (players), using players and their experiences as my guiding light when I make decisions”.

When asked what advice she would offer to her younger self: “There is no substitute for experience. You have to go through it. You have to be willing to suck. You have to be willing to fail. You have to go through it”.

Thank you for a spectacular Podcast, Lesle and Megan!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN THE FULL PODCAST!

March 2, 2021

Players

Building Mental Toughness To Take Your Game To The Next Level: Meet Rush WI West’s Mallory Meighan!

It’s been fantastic to see the dedication that our Rush players have to not only become BETTER, FITTER and SMARTER but also with the launch of the new TOUGHER Train @ Home Track, it’s obvious that they are ready to take their game to the next level by building mental toughness and increasing overall performance.

Among the many who have set big goals and taken the challenge to step up their habits to reach them, Coach Michelle Weimer chose Mallory Meighan from Rush WI West U14G as the very first featured player for the new TOUGHER Track.

“Mallory not only set some great goals but she has already started implementing new practices, including mental cues, to help her excel to the next level”
Coach Michelle Weimer.

Here’s what Mallory had to say about the new TOUGHER Training Track and how it’s already helping her think and behave differently.

What do you like the most about the new Tougher Training Track?

“I have watched a lot of really good players that make a mistake during a game and you can tell that they just become more and more frustrated and continue to make mistakes. Training usually focuses on physical skills but if you don’t learn to take control of your mental game even the best players won’t perform well. The mental part of the game is something that we don’t often talk about or work on improving in practice but it’s a big part of the game”.

As someone who is working to become a high performance athlete, how do you think building your mental toughness will benefit you?

“Nobody is perfect. We are all going to have times where things just don’t go the way we want them to. I hope building mental toughness will help me turn these situations into learning moments and continue to improve. It’s easy to become frustrated and let emotions negatively impact your game. I want to learn to quickly recover from mistakes and put my focus back on making a positive impact”.

How has what you’ve learned about mastering your mindset, managing your emotions and maintaining your behaviors affected your performance on the field already?

“I haven’t had much opportunity to use the training from last week yet. We are hoping to start our spring outdoor season next week. I have been able to think of times when I have lost my focus in the past and can see where some of the things discussed in your session could have helped”.

What high performance habit have you implemented so far that you feel is helping you the most?

“I like the roadmap idea. I know where I want to go or what I would like to do, but if I don’t write it down and have to look at it I don’t work as hard to do it. Seeing it on paper makes me want to work harder so I can mark it off”.

What is your favorite way to remember your mental cues and keep you taking action to be your best?

“I think using notes will be good. Being able to see it will keep reminding me of what is important. I get busy and think about other things so a note will make me stop and remember what I should focus on”.

We can’t wait to see the fast development and growth of Mallory and the enormous amount of great players that keep working hard at home.

Keep going Mallory and all!

February 18, 2021

Coaching

Starting With ‘Play’ – By Megan McCormick

Megan is Rush Soccer’s Coach Education Consultant & Lead on The Rush Female Coaches Alliance.

The single most common question I get working with young players:

“Coach, when are we going to play?”

Why not answer the question before they even have a chance to ask it? Not only will it save the explanation that everything we do at training is actually “playing”, there are also plenty of significant learning and developmental benefits to starting with play (the game). To name a few obvious ones:

Players are excited to arrive to training.
No need to wait for stragglers. Players are immediately engaged and can burn off excited energy.
Coaches can observe to tailor and adjust the session’s coaching points to player needs.
“Free” play increases opportunities for decision making and creativity similar to street soccer or pickup.

There are also some, in my opinion, more deeply compelling reasons to start a session with some form of play. (Be it 2v2, 4v4, or in this case full 7v7.) I want to share a few that helped shift my firm commitment to progressive sessions into a borderline evangelical belief in starting with the “game”.

Finishing with “success”

Performance and execution is often best at the beginning of a traditional “progressive” session. As activities become more complex, we expect to see more struggle and failure. This can leave young players feeling frustrated as success decreases through the session. Utilizing a “play practice play” or “whole part whole” structure can allow players to experience increased success at the end of a session compared to the initial play phase. The result for young players can be an increased sense of accomplishment and keen awareness of the impact of effective coaching. Players walk to the parking lot feeling like they improved and motivated to return to the training environment.

Increasing the value of coaching

What we know from education research is that people are more likely to tune in and retain information that is immediately useful for them. A quick example:

In February 2020, I knew NOTHING about the importance of incident rates and average test positivity when tracking a virus… let alone how a community achieves herd immunity. The information has always been there, and yet, I found very little reason in the past to give it more than a passing glance. And here I am, a year later, writing COVID-19 protocols for a soccer club.

Players behave the same way. If they are finding mostly success as a task or activity starts simple, they have little reason to tune in and pay attention to coaching. Starting with the game allows coaches to pose questions and point out challenges, allowing players freedom to explore and experience failure. This can make them more likely to pay close attention and work to implement coaching points that could turn their failure into success.

Replicating the structure (chaos) of the game

The most chaotic and complex minutes in soccer games often occur when? The beginning. In my experience, this is especially true with young players as they settle into their positions, navigate relationships with teammates, and take stock of the opponent. A progressive session structure moves from simple to complex and systematically introduces challenge and complexity (i.e. direction, an opponent, etc.). However, we know intuitively this is not how players will experience the game on Saturday. Introducing a scrimmage or play at the beginning of a session can support a player’s ability to jump straight into the chaos and build the habit of working to immediately solve problems. The player’s mental and physical experience throughout the week will more closely mirror what they are likely to experience during the weekend.

In conclusion, there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to developing young people. Increasing the number of tools at our disposal as coaches increases the likelihood we will be able to meet the needs of the players in front of us. Session structure is one of those tools, so regardless of your comfort with play-practice-play, I challenge you to take it for a spin and look for signs of the benefits listed above.

February 9, 2021