The Targetizer

Article Kindly Submitted By James Collingwood of Soccer News DirectHow Soccer Schools Can Combat The Challenge Of Competition And Succeed In A Saturated Market
Tips To Increase Revenues, Increase Repeat Custom, Uplift Your Profile And Sky Rocket Your Profits….

Tips To Increase Revenues, Increase Repeat Custom, Uplift Your Profile And Sky Rocket Your Profits….How The BIG Soccer Schools Survive, Thrive And Outgun The Rest….
Special Report By James Collingwood

It seems every man and his dog has started a soccer school. From the next door neighbour to ex football players and almost everyone in between.

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Over the weekend, a freinds father sadly passed away. I didn’t real know him, but I knew his kids pretty well and we all grew up on the same street. His father was a young, fit and healthy 65 years old and used to fix cookers - lugging them from peoples homes and back again. 

What I’d really like to share with you is probably one of the most profound but simple things I’ve heard in a long time that really made me sit up and think - about my life, my business and the people I come across and try to help.
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The Soccer Bite Back - Is Atonement Killing Your Game Plan?

What is Atonement?
Atonement, as described in the Collins English Dictionary is to ” make amends (for sin or wrongdoing).

So what has this got to do with soccer and your game plan?

Atonement is an inbuilt system, programmed into our minds from birth, by well meaning parents, teachers and guardians, that we must atone for our mistakes. That is, try and make amends for any mistake we’ve made. In football that may be giving the ball away cheaply, not scoring or whatever we or our players deem as a mistake - to atone we go the extra yard to make up for our errors.

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I came across an article just before christmas about our role as coaches in the development of the game from grassroots through to national level.

As you know I’m a firm believer that the buck starts and stops with us in developing the bright new talent that will support and grow football and every level of the game - from park to premeir league and beyond.

The article I referred to is from the top dogs at Sport England - the government set body that is tasked with supporting sports at all levels - from schools to clubs, within England.

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Endurance Workouts

All exercises are dependant on age and experience – if you are under 10 then simply running around
doing what under 10’s do is enough workout for younger bodies.

Youth and Senior aged players – 14+ should be concentrating on more soccer specific exercises
to help build all muscle groups to be able to cope with the stresses and strains of the game.

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Striking The Soccer Ball & Body Shape

There are many techniques and situations you can practice for in preparing to strike the ball and making sure your body
shape will allow for the shot – but none of these drills will prepare you more than experience itself – that is, doing it on the
pitch on match day.

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The Importance Of Communication In Soccer
Recently, I saw a youth coach set up a 4v4 game with some under 6’s. Some of these kids were totally new to the game,
others had some experience.

Now, you know as well as I do that at this age it’s all about enjoying having a kick about. Nothing too serious or heavy
because that last thing we want to do is put of little ones by being too aggressive.

The coach, in all his wisdom, presumed that the kids understood football commands like ‘throw in’ and ‘free kick’.   

Of course when the ball went out of play the kids all followed the ball as if nothing had happened and carried on whilst the
coach chased behind screaming ’stop!’ ’stop!’ ‘throw in!’ ‘throw in!’

Very amusing for the parents but you could see the coach was getting a bit aggravated. (more…)

A Trick From The Ancients….

Now this isn’t a trick in the ‘Zidane 360′ sense of the word but that
doesn’t mean it’s any less useful. Some would even say it’s easier
to master than the ‘360′!

The skill is called ‘Centering’. Have you heard of it?
It’s origin is more in tune with the teachings of the ancients than
modern football (soccer), however it’s a powerful tool that we can
use to develop focus at highly stressful points in the game - like
free kicks and penalties.

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Inspirational Video (Turn your speakers up!)
(You have my permission to use, forward and play this to
your friends, players, fellow coaches and parents)

This is a popular topic that is resounding around many clubs.

Simply because its a very valid topic and one that is crucial to the performance and well being of our team, especially on matchday.

If I were to write a formula on Soccer Motivation it would be this:

GOOD PREPARATION + POSITIVE MENTAL AROUSAL = A TEAM WILLING TO PLAY FOR EACH OTHER AND WANTING TO SUCCEED COME WHAT MAY

Bit of a long winded ‘formula’ but I was never much use at maths! However I’m sure you get the picture.

Let’s disect that formula and also discover how to use the concepts of Motivation to create that positive mental state we want our players in just before the game.

Motivation can be used to get our players in the correct frame of mind, energise their performance and create a positive mind set. Obviously their is a lot of work that goes in before hand - the preparation - that supports your players mindset before matchday.

So lets get to the nitty gritty and find out how to motivate our players and how to use motivation on matchday. (more…)

Nigeria - 2007 World Cup Champions Before Kicking A Ball

An Example Of Self Believe and Self Confidence At The Highest Level And How You Too Can Harness That Same Power

The World Cup U-17’s Final brought a spectacular end to a breath taking tournament by worthy champions who had decided before they had even played a game that they were going to win the World Cup for the third time. This is possibly the ultimate form of self belief that you will see at any level of the game. But was this self belief just cocky game play, or over confident spin.

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