The CYC coaches blog

NSCAA coaches convention

posted Feb 7, 2012 7:54 AM by Kickabout Team

By Gabriel Alves, Founder of Cyclone soccer

This past January, I went on a trip to the city of Kansas City, to attend the annual Soccer convention.

This convention is organized every year in different cities, as January is a month of Midwinter, they always seems to choose cities with climates very cold so that people stay inside the convention center for the 4 days.

It was the sixth Convention I have attend since the first in Philadelphia during 2006. Regardless of the city, one always gets positive things from the conventions. You can visit the stands which consist of different types of offers for the consumption of soccer, it can be clothing, equipment for training, tournament information, tourism, promotion of clubs, camps and better organizational tools to name a few.

Also during these days you can sit at sessions of training performed by different coaches of different nationalities whom all have different types of ideas and practices.

To know a little more about the NSCAA, I invite you to visit the link to below.

All in all its a great trip for the soccer player, coach and fan and well worth the investment of a warm jacket

Greetings to all,

Gabriel

http://www.nscaa.com/convention

National Coaching Diploma

posted Jan 12, 2012 6:57 AM by Kickabout Team

By Coach Phylo Neri, Ada Merritt

Last week i had one of the best times of my life participating at the National Diploma hosted by the NSCAA in Ft. Lauderdale. First of all the accommodation and all the facilities we used were just perfect (they made me feel like a pro!).

All the guys that I had the pleasure to meet were great people, besides being already really good coaches....and all the staff...just WOW...they blew my mind with their incredible preparation due to many years of practice, their professionalism and their deep knowledge of this beautiful game that is soccer. All week I've been pushed hard to give my best and to absorb as much information as possible. That pressure has helped me out to be a better coach and a better person as well.

Getting down to the specific organization of the course:

We were divided in four teams (10 person per team) each team was assigned an instructor. I was in the Timbers and my coach was Rob Herringer (head Men's coach at Benedictine College). Each day was divided into lecture and practical sessions based on different topics (the second day we spent more than 10 hours on the field!). For each topic the coaches taught us how to develop training sessions using the principles of play in progression or how to correct tactical and technical situations using the (coaching in the game) methods. An example one of my topics was:

"When to teach forwards how to make an opponent's play predictable"

This was a great topic for me giving my playing experience as a defender. Our Mentor coaches judged us on many levels, such as appearance, voice projection, communication of the coaching points just to mention some. During the week we had to pass three field tests and a final oral exam. It was a high level of stress but really worth it and an invaluable experience to me.

Now I'm really looking forward to sharing some of the new methods with all my players!

Looking back at the 2011 fall season

posted Dec 27, 2011 10:57 AM by Kickabout Team [ updated Jan 9, 2012 6:09 PM ]

by director of coaching Joel Di-Castri

Just over 6 months ago, Gabriel the founder of cyclone soccer and I sat in a deserted and dark St Patrick school hall for over 2 hours to discuss what we were going to do with Cyclone Soccer both this coming season and in the future. We had already had several other 'meetings' but now it was time to get to work. Our goal for the fall season was to regroup and organize what is fast becoming a fixture of a program in several schools throughout Miami. What struck me right away about my new boss as I got to know him, is his love for kids and passion for the game of soccer. It should be fairly obvious if you are in this line of business right? Unfortunately not, I have seen several other organizations during my short coaching career in Florida, that seemed to have forgotten the importance of these 2 key factors. As we concluded that meeting, I left the hall feeling rejuvenated and ready to give my all knowing that Cyclone was not like those other organizations.

My first 'open house' day/evening soon arrived, there I got to meet most of the parents of our players as well as getting to know my new coaching team. After all the paperwork was filed, schedules made, waivers signed and parents questions appeased, it was time to meet the kids. Wow! My academy, camp and even playing experiences had not prepared me for the world of after-school soccer. The first thing I realized is that the kids were just grateful to be outside from their classrooms, therefore keeping them focused and listening to the coaches was going to be a big challenge, let alone teaching them to play soccer.

Still, as we get ready to start the new season in 2012, I look back on the fall program with great success, having seen our players all get better regardless of there level of play or interest in soccer. I have seen them become more confident in themselves both physically as well as socially within their respective groups. We have had teams

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