By: Abdullah Zafar Picture this: your team has won a free kick on the edge of the box and your dead ball specialist lines up the perfect shot. You expect the ball in the back of the net but instead it ends up flying high over the crossbar. What's the first thing that comes to [...]
The trouble with the internet is that it allows anyone to say anything, about anything, regardless of their credibility or expertise. To make matters worse, if somebody says something on the internet that is popular, they are bound to generate a reaction in which others agree with what has been said, regardless of whether what [...]
It’s hard to believe, but I originally wrote a very similar article to the one you are about to read, exactly 2 years ago (in early November, 2015). Much to my disappointment, since that time nothing has changed in the Ontario and Canadian inter-university soccer competitive schedules. The original article, which was published here on [...]
Hi Everyone, In this edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog, I discuss the congested schedule of the regular season and play-offs in Ontario and Canadian university soccer, and the inherent problems associated with making adult players consistently play more than 1 competitive, 90+ minute match per week. I hope you like it and [...]
Hi Everyone, In this edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog, I discuss my recent trip to Maui, Hawaii, and the work I did there with the Valley Isle Soccer Academy, the largest soccer academy on the island. Despite numbering less than 150 players and, of course, hailing from an island with a total [...]
Located in the heart of Maui – one of the Hawaiian Islands, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a population of just under 150,000 people – the Valley Isle Soccer Academy is, as stated on their website, “Maui’s only professionally organized training academy for competitive youth soccer”. Founded in 2012 by former F.K. [...]
I began learning how to coach around the same time I began learning about sport science, when I got a job coaching a YMCA boys’ soccer team almost 17 years ago, while I was also an undergraduate student in Toronto. Even at that time, the synergy between what I was learning about coaching – how [...]
Hi Everyone, In this edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog, I discuss the need for fitness and strength / conditioning coaches who work in soccer, to be more than just "repetition counters" in their day-to-day work. If you do work in soccer, you need to build upon the "conditioning" piece of "strength and [...]
Hi Everyone, In this week's edition of the Soccer Fitness Gols Video Blog, I summarise the week o August 7th-13th, 2017, which I spent sitting in and observing training with the Miami FC and their Fitness Coach (a long-time friend and colleague) Paolo Pacione. I also provide some recommendations for Canadian fitness coaches and soccer [...]