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Hello,
My name is Michael Perkins and I live in Los Banos, CA where I coach our U11 AC Los Banos team and am also the Varsity Coach at Pacheco High School. I have been following the blog for a while now and first caught wind of Brian and Gary when I saw their video of the team playing Arsenal at the U12 level. I have been waiting for the course to open up again since I missed the first window and I am excited to have access to the materials here.
I am a converted soccer coach. I played Football, baseball, and basketball during my youth and coached football for a number of years. I got turned onto soccer during the 2002 World Cup and began following the US after that. From there my interest grew and I had the opportunity to coach my boys at a park and rec level. We were dissatisfied with the structure of the league so we moved the kids into a neighboring cities CYSA league and I was asked to coach. At that point I began taking licensing courses. After a year of driving back and forth an opportunity was available to establish a U8 travel soccer team, so we began play in NorCal as a Bronze team. We experienced success in terms of winning and losing, but primarily because we had a few really good players in attack. At that point I recognized that eventually they would starve our forward of service if we continued to play direct. We began evolving to develop a path to a more possession oriented attack. However, all the licensing and trainings (US Soccer, Fiorentina) that were offered did not really go into how you develop this style of play.
Seeing Gary’s video’s and following the blog has given me some direction thus far and has helped us developed to the point where we are currently. I am hopeful that the materials will help advance us further as we move into the premier level.
Hi all,
My name is Carl Schwarzbach and I currently live in Fort Worth, Texas. I have been coaching youth for 5 years now. I currently have U12B and U7G teams. I created a independent club ArsenalFW this past Fall to give the boys a chance to play at a higher competitive level while not having to pay the exorbitant club fees.
I have played since I was young and have always had a desire to coach the beautiful game. I am always looking to learn new things related to coaching and the game itself. I have enjoyed recently reading Gary Curneen’s “The Modern Soccer Coach: 2014” and also have Marti Perarnau’s “Pep Confidential” on order.
I also recently joined the local youth recreational soccer board with an interest in improving the coaching within the rec level. Grassroots coaching per capita is very poor in Fort Worth and I’m determined to improve it. So excited to see this coaching membership is open again because I sure regretted not signing up last year. Looking forward to learning and sharing ideas with the 3four3 community.
Cheers.
C-
Hi all –
Glad to be part of the community. I’m a self-admitted soccer addict with experience coaching HS at all levels and youth from U6 to U14 in the Cincinnati area.
It’s funny…you go your entire soccer career trying to coach possession soccer – knowing it’s the right thing to do – but always have this fleeting feeling like something is missing. I stumbled across this site a few months ago and finally realized the missing ingredient was ME – and the way I was going about the process. I feel like 3four3 and this methodology is the missing piece to put everything together.
I’ve spent the last few months digesting every single blog post and every activity and am super-excited to now have “insider” access.
Never have I found something in the soccer community that has resonated with me as much as 3four3 – let’s do this!
I couldn’t be more excited!
Matt Ruehl
Hello Everyone
My name is Aman Grewal and I coach a U12 local boys team in Surrey, England. We have a group of skillful but small boys that are just not suited to jungle ball, so I am really working on a possession style.
This isn’t easy in English “grassroots” football. The academies and English FA have changed their focus to become much more possession oriented but grassroots remains entrenched in ugly, physical, long-ball battles. Partly because our pitches get so muddy and partly because that’s what parents demand.
So we’re going against the madding crowd. I’ve already introduced rondos and playing out of the back based on the 3four3 available materials – so I’m excited to add in the rest of the methodology.
If there are any other south east England based coaches it would be great to hear from you – it would be nice to have some moral support against the masses!
Aman
Welcome Michael! Do you have a Twitter account? I highly suggest getting one so you can connect with other like minded coaches on a daily/weekly basis.
@thatcroatianguy
Hi John,
I have been interacting with Gary and a few others for a while now. My twitter account is @teamperkins11
Hi coaches. Great to join in. I want to challenge all of us coaches. Aside from soccer skills and values, we must build into our philosophy “life skills and values” also. We are leaders, and the kids look up to us.
What would these life skills and values be?
Perserverence
Teamwork
Fair play
Giving
Caring
Attitude
Humility
What else? Feedback please!
Brian
Hi Brian,
I have been doing a little reading. Some books that I have read or am in the process of reading that are really good on topics of the psychology and philosophy of coaching and playing sport are:
Players First by John Calipari
Toughness by Jay Bilas (Google his 2009 ESPN Article on toughness, it is the basis for the book and most of it translates to soccer well)
Changing the Game by John O’Sullivan (More of a guide to raising a happy, high performing athlete)
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Some of the foundation for Changing the Game) by Carol Dweck
How Good Do You Want to Be? by Nick Saban
Hope this helps in your search for development of a Philosophy that supports elements bigger than the game.
Michael
That is a great list of books If I may suggest Soccer Tough and Soccer Brain are both good reads on psychology as well…both are written by Dan Abrahams
Hello, my name is Kit Elliott. I am obsessed with the game to the degree where it’s almost all I think about because I want to be the best coach possible for my players. I’m so glad to have discovered Gary and Brian’ s work along with other like-minded coaches that are interested in perfecting the art.
I coach a U13 girls team here in the Monterey Peninsula, and have just started my first season as a high school soccer coach for JV girls. I will try and post some videos of their progress as the season goes along. So far they are developing very quickly because they are all so smart and open-minded. They love the rondo exercises we do everyday, and often ask if we can continue doing them after the exercise is completed. They’re an eager group.
I look forward to learning more from you all.
Hi,
My name is Brian Storr and I live in Santa Barbara, CA. I have been coaching my kids’ AYSO teams for seven seasons now. In 2008, I was the stereotypical parent volunteer coach (u-10 boys) who had no idea what he was doing. While the team I coached that first year didn’t do very well, I enjoyed the experience and have been coaching ever since.
For me, 2013 was a turning point in terms of my coaching. By then, I had watched too much kickball and decided that I wanted to do my part to put a stop to the kickball and begin teaching and promoting possession-based soccer. Of course before I could begin teaching players to play possession-based soccer, I had to start learning it myself and that is when I stumbled across the 3four3 website. What a find! Over the next few months, I read all of Gary’s posts and his readers’ comments. By the time I had read through all the posts, I knew I had to get a a 3four3 coaching membership once it reopened.
I am very excited to now be a 3four3 member and have access to all the wonderful coaching material that is available. Currently, I am an assistant coach for a U-12 girls AYSO all-star team and will have the opportunity to introduce several of the 3four3 activities in the coming months. As a member, I am also looking forward to learning from all you other coaches that are 3four3 members.
– Brian Storr
P.S. My Twitter handle is @soccerbyte.
Hello to All,
After staring at the email asking me to consider joining the membership I could not resist anymore. I have been coaching a little over 20 years at a few different clubs in the Philadelphia PA area. Right now I have a U14 girls team and am the boys Technical Director at a local club. (I get the teams up and running, maybe spend a year, sometimes more with them and then hand them off to another coach.) My philosophy and way of coaching as evolved over the years to what at present, is very much in line with this site. I am in my mid fifties and probably looking at the door sooner than later but still trying to improve and give the kids every advantage I can. I am looking forward to my time here with Brian and Gary and continuing that journey. Thanks for the opportunity gents!
Dave Cardacin
Hi,
My name is Amalia and I finally joined….!!!!! I really look forward to interacting/learning from all. I stumbled upon 3four3 a while back in my search to satisfy my thirst/hunger to improve and be around other like minded coaches .Everything Gary/Brian have had to say rings so very true and their honesty/videos/product refreshing and motivating. Just so you know Gary I gave up smoking to afford this …a frappe w/0 a smoke just wont feel right but I know it is very well worth it! Cheers
Hi everyone,
My name is Robert Kleemaier. I’m a boys soccer trainer in Kelowna, British Columbia. For a long time now, due largely to my multilingual (Dutch/English/German), multicultural (Austro-Canadian) background, I’ve muttered repeatedly that I was born in the wrong country. The hockey mentality that prevails at the grassroots level up here is simply painful to watch on the soccer pitch. Kick & rush is the default option. But a 10-pass sequence? Caressing the ball? Running off the ball to create space? Helping your teammate by *not* running into that space? Are you kidding me? In short, the shortcomings documented in the blog about the lack of soccer culture in the US are equally mirrored or worse exacerbated in Canada.Dying on the vine, I came across goplaybetter.com in November 2013 (our off-season). What a refreshing way of looking at teaching football for the grassroots trainer! It bore tremendous fruit last season during which I was charged with teaching 13 players how to start learning to play & appreciate proper football, half of whom had significant cognitive issues. It was a daunting task for a volunteer, but thanks to the broadening of the developmental metric spectrum we managed to become a competitive team during our oddly short & interrupted 4-month season (April-June/Sept-Oct.). Then only to see that my best player with a superior understanding of the game didn’t even get selected for the jump to the next level…*sigh*.
Now I am immersing myself in Gary’s & Brian’s opinions, approach & expertise, and am duly impressed. It is causing me to think deeply about what needs to change in my approach to teaching the Beautiful Game. The challenge before me now is twofold:
- to adapt the curriculum to an 8-v-8 setting for the Boys U12 season in 2015;
- to disseminate Gary’s & Brian’s approach within my SA.
The former is entirely doable. It will take time, but possibilities are already starting to become evident. The latter, however, will be a real challenge, for anything proper that I introduce to my team can just as easily be undone by the next ‘coach’. And all this in the name of ‘competitive balance’. There is, however, a slight chance that I will be called upon to pass on to other volunteer coaches what I’m learning here, so I’m cautiously hopeful the seeds of change will be planted soon.
Looking forward to interacting with some of you at some point in the near future.
Groetjes/Cheers/Tschüß,
R.Hi Robert from a fellow Canuck! Kelowna beautiful place. I am originally from the Lower Mainland BC Greek descent lived in Greece California and now Mexico for 5 years. I too recall 2o yrs ago when my son decided he wanted to play soccer and no culture around it. I thought to myself “where is the soccer?” I dont see it it anywhere not on tv in the streets etc. THANK GOD FOR WC 94 that year! My involvement in coaching started because of my son I always loved the game played in the streets etc but never “coached” until I saw my sons 1st practice and game I might as well landed on Mars. during the game coaches/parents screaming running shouting boot it or take him out etc was too much for me so the following year I decided to coach and so my journey began. I now coach here in MX w my husband trying slowly to build a club we have 3 teams. I was fortunate enough over time to have been taught influenced and been around some excellent high level coaches which gave me a good grounding and enjoy 3four3 because a lot of it is very similar and I just want to improve so my kids can improve. Anyhow look forward to interacting!
Cheers
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