Author: Charles Richard Cotton
| charles Cotton |
| Calgary, Canada |
Charles Richard Cotton is an internationally licensed expert specializing in teaching kids 7-17 how to unleash their own Soccer Genius - for on and off field success. He has over 30 years experience playing, coaching, and leading soccer communities. His accelerated training methods and unique soccer "Mind, Body, Heart and Spirit" approach help players and coaches achieve their highest levels of play and personal development. Charles lives in Calgary, Canada with his 3 beautiful daughters.
|
|
|
The Soccer Genius Blog A Source for Long Term Player Development
Showing category "Featured Articles" (Show all posts)
Posted by Charles Richard Cotton on Wednesday, November 3, 2010,
In :
Featured Articles
Fear is a funny thing. In
days gone by, we relied on fear simply to survive. It helped us avoid
being the delicious meal of some hungry animal. Things have changed and
we no longer have as many constant threats to our immediate survival.
Yet the fear 'instincts' still linger. As coaches and parents we must do
our very best to minimize triggering the fear-based instincts in
players.
When children learn their soccer in an environment that
attempts to minimize risk, avoid mistakes and voc... Continue reading ...
I realized just how important it was (and is) to begin training the mind and heart of the young player when I was first creating the Soccer Genius long-term development model. Far too often I saw very talented athletes fall by the wayside because they either lacked strong self-belief or they were not getting enough positive encouragement on and off the field. I became increasingly determined to start turning this trend around.
It was quite a moment of synchronicity when the 'solution' came to... Continue reading ...
Okay folks! You've asked for it and I'm giving it to you. You wanted to know just what goes into the SGT training Levels One and Accelerated One programs. Here's the skinny on what the players will get.
- Mandatory equal playing and practice time
- In-House league competition with a focus on individual skill success and 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 play. (Players do not register with other leagues or clubs because SGT has it all in-house - under one roof, with no rain outs or weather closures.)
- Tracking of play...
Continue reading ...
Self-competition is one of the hallmarks of the Soccer Genius Training programs. 7 and 8 year old developing players (Level 1 SGT) start to compete 'against, with and for' themselves through a series of ongoing personal challenges. How many juggles can they do in 30 seconds? How far can they fingertip focus dribble without looking at the ball? What rules have they mastered this week? Can they beat there best score to date? The list goes on and on (and on) throughout the 11 levels of the progr... Continue reading ...
Long-term success in soccer requires the developing athlete to make second nature a whole host of movement skills. I've identified 26 "fundamental" skills that I include in every part of the Soccer Genius Training system and programs. Levels 1 through 6 of the Youth Genius Development Program are chalk full of all these fundamentals.
The following list is the exact one I use when helping young athletes succeed at all positions in soccer. The developing player must be educated and experienced... Continue reading ...
This is a great question. Unfortunately, it's rarely asked of the people that can give the clearest answers - the players themselves!
This is not a question for grown-ups to be answering for children, as is often the case when leagues and teams are formed, rules are created and enforced and the 'business' of youth sports takes over. Academics, programmers and analysts, though often very well intentioned, tend to miss the boat when it comes to creating games and long-term development models of... Continue reading ...
Players best succeed in an environment that clearly sets and encourages the achievement of realistic goals. It's important and fun to pattern goal-setting at an early age. I encourage you to take it one step further by working with the principle of 'goals within goals'. Let's have a look at how I do this in the Soccer Genius Training programs, beginning with Level One for the 7 and 8 year old players.
Level One players have a dozen 'big' goals that they are working toward throughout the cours... Continue reading ...
Soccer (football) is seeing an unprecedented growth both in global popularity and organized development programs for youth players. Many national soccer programs are starting to consider or adapt long-term player development models, which is encouraging. Unfortunately, many are setting themselves up for long-term failure because of their choice of the end goal of their programs. Local teams, clubs and leagues that are following the national program lead are also likely to experience very mixe... Continue reading ...
Cheating is when a person misleads, deceives, or acts dishonestly either on purpose or as a learned (subconscious) pattern of behaviour for one's own gains.
I have yet to meet a person in my 41 years who has not cheated at least once in their life. I know that I have and I know that I still do. Every time I go for the ice cream instead of water when I'm hungry (most hunger aches are signs of dehydration not food hunger) I know I'm cheating myself out of what's best for my well-being. Likewis... Continue reading ...
The pledge of every Soccer Genius Coach, Trainer and Ambassador. Equal Playing Time is a guaranteed feature of all Soccer Genius Programs.
Excerpt taken from Andy Barney's brilliant book "Training Soccer Legends", with permission.
It takes tremendous courage to commit to an equal playing time approach in every game. Yet this is the only way to ensure that both your better and weaker players learn the right lessons for life from their youth soccer career. The weaker players learn they are valu... Continue reading ...
Great question - and a fun one to explore, too!
A Soccer Genius is any person that consistently achieves surpassing excellence in one or many parts of the game. This can be a player, a coach, a fan, an official, a parent or an administrator. Age is not a factor - nor is race, gender or ethnicity - in defining a Soccer Genius.
The Soccer Genius goes beyond originality, creativity or intelligence and enters the realm of insight and brilliance that has a transformational power on the game - both... Continue reading ...
This needs to be the mantra of every 7-13 year old soccer player! (Very quickly followed by "No more laps, lines or full-side games!" but that's another story ;D .)
And coaches, trainers and sports educators need to listen.
The window of opportunity for the developing players to master the essential technical skills is much smaller and sooner than many might think. By far the most important "window of optimal trainability" for technical skills is between the ages of 7 and 13 (some argue 8-12... Continue reading ...
|
