Articles
Becoming a Top Coach: Beyond the Tactics
Explore the subtle art of coaching, where the challenge lies not in 'knowing' tactical maneuvers but in 'understanding' how to help players uniquely comprehend and play the beautiful game.
Self-Aware Coaching Series: Your plan frees your mind
We discuss the benefits of the planning process in terms of clarifying our intentions. However, there is an additional purpose to planning your training sessions, freeing your mind for the unexpected.
Momentum Does Not Exist: Train for the process, not the result
What is “momentum”? What is “energy”? Why are we influenced by external factors? It’s something that all players deal with, including professional players. I’m going to answer those questions and how to avoid it all together with first-hand experience and with the help of Ange Postecoglou.
Thinking Frameworks Solve Your Problems
When you consistently use frameworks as guide rails, it maps out a process for your mind to follow and better solve your problems. When you don’t have a logical structure or framework you are leaving your mind exposed to chaos.
Messi: The First and Last of His Kind
What if we never get to see someone like Messi. It’s been said that there will never be anyone like the Argentine. Simultaneously, that saddens me and makes me grateful. Saddens me for future football fans and fills me with gratitude I was with Leo for the better part of my life.
The Paradox of Choice: Coaching with Option Making
In order to make correct decisions, one must master the skill of knowing where to look and what to pay attention to in order to satisfy the constraint or objective. When speaking about this topic with Chris Bentley, he introduced me to this idea of option making instead of decision making.
Environment Design without Expectations
Sometimes the best lessons on environment design, ego, and expectations come from a screaming newborn.
It's All Just Noise
Noise can be an alluring, debilitating, dizzying, song that can slam your boat against the rocks. Keep your ‘Why’ close and you’ll be fine.
TOVO's Strive for True Development: Interview with Todd Beane
I sit down with Todd Beane, TOVO Academy’s founder. We discuss TOVO’s methodology, developing intelligent footballers, the importance of having a clearly defined ‘why’ as a coach, how to avoid the noise of youth football, and more.
FC Nordsjælland's Revolutionary Approach: Interview with Flemming Pedersen
I sit down with Flemming Pedersen, FC Nordsjælland’s first team manager. We discuss the importance of a style of play, developing intelligent players, FC Nordsjæelland’s academy success, and modern football.
Fractalled Football
F.C. Barcelona U10 coach, Oscar Jorquera, consistently reiterates the following phrase to the players he’s coaching, “Although the scenario changes, the situation is always the same.” He is of course alluding to this self-similarity throughout a match.
Guardiola's Class
Since that 2007 coaching clinic, Pep Guardiola has singlehandedly changed how football is played. Luckily for us, someone filmed this once in a lifetime clinic and the following findings are those ideas preached on that cloudy April 11th in 2007.
Move the Opponent, Not the Ball
If you were to ask any player in the world what the most important thing in football is, they would all say the ball. Without the ball you cannot win a match, that’s an indisputable, objective fact. So what better bait than the one thing every player wants.
An Interpretation of Football
The ball is a mesmerising thing. Without that lovely, spheric object there wouldn’t be any beauty in the sport. The ball is everything.
The Principle Behind Lukaku's Run
What if I told you it’s not the ball that pulls defenders out of position and creates space, but instead the possibility of the ball, the possibility of danger?
Guardiola on Play
My question is at what point in our need to control every aspect of the sport and how we teach young people to play it did we take the ball away?
Counterattacking: The result of indivisible football
One of the most important concepts of positional play is the idea that football is composed of fluid, continuous actions which cannot be separated.
Intentionality in Sport: LA Galaxy case study
If you are constantly questioning the intentions of your actions and words, you begin to have a greater understanding of yourself and why you do things. So why don’t we talk about intentional actions in coaching more often?
Football Fluidity
We see football in the most fluid form possible, completely void of rigidness and lacking creativity.
Lillo on Intentionality
Juan Manuel Lillo points out the rules clearly stipulate the objective of the game and all tactics must be based around said objectives.