• Sleep well, play well (The teenager's challenge)
    I'm sure anyone who's raised an adolescent or teenager can attest to the idea that teenagers don't get as much sleep as they need.
  • Michael Bradley: From 'runt of the litter' to U.S. star
    U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley, who on Tuesday lines up against Mexico in his 22nd World Cup qualifier and 75th game for the USA, is the subject of the Youth Soccer Insider's latest edition of "When They Were Children."
  • Positive thinking pays off -- for players and refs
    My college experience was studying at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan from 1980 to 1984 -- the same years as Ronald Reagan's first term in the White House. Near Parsons was a renowned positive thinker, Norman Vincent Peale, who was completing his wonderful 52-year ministry as Pastor of the Marble Collegiate Church and who had authored the best-selling "The Power of Positive Thinking" decades before. I learned more from reading the title of Peale's sermons on the church sign every week than I did in four years of studying at Parsons.
  • Getting players to pay attention
    It's perfectly reasonable that children who show up to soccer practice might have a difficult time paying attention when the coach has something to say. They have, after all, spent an entire day at school listening to adults. And now it's playtime.
  • Keeper Questions: Dressing, and warming up, for success
    Coach Tim Mulqueen answers questions about goalkeeping gear and warmups.
  • 'Crazier than it's ever been' (Jimmy Obleda, Fullerton Rangers, Q&A)
    According to Jimmy Obleda, the 2011 NSCAA Youth National Coach of the Year, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy has made the youth soccer landscape an "absolute mess."
  • The Many Benefits of Refereeing
    When I was asked to lead a discussion on "The Many Benefits of Refereeing" to help recruit refs at the recent Long Island Junior Soccer League Convention, it was easy to put together many talking points, such as:
  • Rondo: A simple practice game with multiple benefits
    "Everything that goes on in a match, except shooting, you can do in a rondo. ..."
  • 10 tips for the well-organized coach: presentation matters
    One area of coaching that is occasionally overlooked is how we present ourselves to our players at training.