August 20, 2013

Teaching Awareness

August 20, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

Some idiot commentator said today that the LOOK Fabragas did today for Barcelona to see the next pass before he received the ball; he was born with and it couldn’t be taught. What BS, of course it can be taught. I wasn’t good at it when I played professionally but I am damn good at it now because I teach it and have taught myself it how to demonstrate it in dynamic action. In other words ONE touch football. If I can learn it anyone can. Where do they get these commentators from?

July 17, 2013

Coaching the Right System

July 17, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

When I joined San Diego Surf SC, I knew that this was a club with a reputation and history of success, and there was the great potential to build on that. One thing that great international youth academies like Barcelona and Ajax have in common is a standard system of play throughout their teams. This is one of our goals at Surf – to bring a standard system to the club.

We will use the 4-2-3-1 system of play, the most popular system at professional level throughout the world now. This system, which was used by Spain to win the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, is a fluid, attack-minded system also used by Arsenal, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and many others. With this in mind, we will also teach the players alternate systems of play to suit particular moments in game, all developing from the 4-2-3-1.

June 21, 2013

How Do You Define Soccer Intelligence?

June 21, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

I call it Soccer Awareness

This is the “thinking” part of the game. The game starts in the head of the player and we as coaches must guide the players to think more quickly and with better accuracy in decision making.

Therefore soccer intelligence is based around players being able to identify their options BEFORE they receive the ball; and pick out the best option of hopefully several available to advance it; and maintain possession of it in the next phase of play.

June 17, 2013

What is "Soccer Awareness"?

June 17, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

The “Soccer Awareness” idea originated from what I felt were the most important things to teach players.

I looked beyond the technical process as that is easy to implement and wanted to get INSIDE the head of the player.

Thus the “Thinking Process” of a player became my focus, developing ways to teach an awareness of space, time, and movement, but significantly BEFORE the player received the ball.

June 06, 2013

Book Endorsement from The Institute for Jugendfussball

June 06, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

The 4-2-3-1 is the favored formation of many top teams in world soccer at both club and national team level. This fluid, attack minded system has come to the forefront thanks to its success at the highest levels. Most notably, Spain utilized the 4-2-3-1 in winning both the 2008 European Championship and the 2010 World Cup. Top club sides Arsenal, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich have also had success with the system. In this book, Wayne Harrison breaks down the 4-2-3-1 and discusses the principles, player roles and responsibilities, variations and adjustments based on the opponent´s strategy.

January 23, 2013

Recap: NSCAA 2013 Indy

January 23, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

I had a great week in Indianapolis at the NSCAA National Convention. I was honored to be able to present a field session on Developing the 4-2-3-1. It was very well received and there were approximately 1600 coaches from all over the USA and abroad watching the session.

January 23, 2013

Wayne Harrison Joins San Diego Surf SC as Boys Director of Coaching

January 23, 2013/ Wayne Harrison

Wayne Harrison, a former professional player with Blackpool F.C. in England and former Youth Director at Al Ain Football Club in the UAE, will join San Diego Surf SC as Boys Director of Coaching beginning on December 1, 2012. Harrison holds a UEFA ‘A’ license, the NSCAA Premier Diploma and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Physiology and Sports Psychology. In addition, Harrison is a well known and respected author with eleven books published on soccer player development and coaching.

August 17, 2012

Coaching Video: Numbers Game Continued

August 17, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

Here is another coaching video which is a continued clinic on the numbers game.

August 15, 2012

Coaching Video: Movement off the Ball

August 15, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

Here is new video coming from Soccer Awareness and Wayne Harrison. This segment is from the 2007 NSCAA Soccer Coaching conference. A great segment of soccer awareness training and movement of the ball. A must see for any level coach!

August 13, 2012

Book Review - Soccer Awareness: Developing the Thinking Player

August 13, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

This is a review from Amazon on the book: Soccer Awareness: Developing the Thinking Player

As a long time coach (not of soccer though), I took to the task of coaching my daughter’s travel soccer team. It’s not difficult to find drills for dribbling and passing and small sided games and such. What is difficult is getting the kids to look around and play the game. These drills provide dribbling and passing practice, but also awareness training.

June 04, 2012

Comments from World Class Coaching Clinic

June 04, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

Wayne is an outstanding clinician, and was well-received by coaches attending the Nebraska World Class Coaching Seminar. His passion for the game immediately rubbed off on the players he was working with, and they clearly enjoyed the sessions he conducted. He has the ability to convey relevant information to his teams while at the same time fostering an environment for learning by encouraging his players to figure out various situations for themselves. Wayne interacts with players and coaches alike in a thoroughly positive manner, which I am sure contributes toward accelerated learning for any individual fortunate enough to work with him.

May 30, 2012

Winning and Development for Youth Soccer Players

May 30, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

I have been teaching a certain way of development for 15 years and more; as I am sure many of you out there have too, and low and behold the English FA now decide it is all about SSG”s and development not winning.

At EPSC I would not allow top teams to develop until U12 because then it was about WINNING. No one liked it at the time but it proved successful when they got older, look at all the good teams that were created. I took it down to U11 because too many did not get what I was doing nor more importantly WHY I was doing it.

May 17, 2012

Jose Mourinho - Real Madrid Head Soccer Coach

May 17, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

I Wrote to Jose “The Master” Mourinho; as he bought my first book in 2002.

Recently, I have had the chance to to send Mourinho my latest two books.

I am rather delighted; first the fact he actually replied; which shows a humble and human side to him, as I am nobody to him, plus his comments below inspire me to keep trying to improve myself.

May 05, 2012

Soccer Symposium for Player Development

May 05, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

On Sunday, April 29, coach Wayne Harrison of CV Manchester Soccer Club presented a coaching symposium focused on his “Thinking Process” of training. The symposium, held at Carmel Creek Elementary School, was open to all interested coaches, parents and players. Harrison shared his views on coaching players to develop “vision” and to play a thinking style of soccer.

A former professional player with Blackpool Football Club in England and Oulu Palloseura in Finland, Harrison also represented Great Britain in the World Student Games in Mexico. His coaching experience includes Youth Director at Blackpool and Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. Harrison holds the UEFA “A” License, the NSCAA Premier Diploma and a degree in Sports Psychology and Applied Physiology.

May 04, 2012

Pepe Guardiola - An End of an Era?

May 04, 2012/ Wayne Harrison

Pepe Guardiola; Possibly the most successful manager of all time if you base it on the length of time in charge (obviously Sir Alex has the record for that for longevity and winning) and what a shame he has quit.

He is an inspiration to us all, he shows that LONG TERM planning works at youth level, that there is no quick fix, that what he achieved in 3 years is on the back of 15 years work of which he was a significant part of; starting as a young players going through that system of development to ultimately being the top man.

Teaching Players to Position Off the Ball to Face Forward to Receive It

Often players position to receive the ball with their back to play. These session plans show some ideas on how to position and instead "Face Forward" or at least Half Turned or three quarters turned rather than positioning square and facing back.

Distribution from the Keeper and Playing Out from the Back Using the 3-1-3-3 - Training Center Exclusive

Here are 9 ways to distribute from the keeper and play out from the back. We owe it to the players to teach them this as Young as is possible.

I work on this initially practicing all ways to get out. Have opponents only intercepting passes to begin. Then let it go free. When opponents win it back we work on the defending team condensing and defending correctly.

If three or four ways to develop play are done very frequently then it becomes a subconscious decision to move into position so no decision making required as such.

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Soccer Awareness: Basic Principles of Development (One Touch Play)

Linking foot preparation, body position and mental preparation to the technique involved in making a one touch pass leads us to a discussion on one touch play and its benefits.

One touch play teaches the value of being able to take your eye off the ball when keeping your eye on the ball can be a disadvantage.

To make this work, players need to have good teamwork and positional sense and therefore must work hard for each other.

eBook 37: Game Changing Strategies and Different Systems of Play to Teach Your Team for 11 v 11

$7.99

54 Pages

We want to stay with our own game plan as closely as possible; based on what we practice and to keep it simple for us; as we dictate to our opponents; and we impose OUR WAY on them.

But there will be many occasions where we must change the system of play and we may have to adjust to suit the opponents.

Here are some ideas for you to consider for your team starting with the 13313 and 14231 systems of play.

eBook 36: Scanning and Teaching One-Touch Mentality Training Ideas Updated 2022

Teaching players to develop a "one touch mentality" in their game, to train the MIND.

To play in "Anticipation" of the ball; both on and off it by Scanning the field constantly to make earlier, faster and more successful decisions in the game.

How do we do this? Here are some sessions to use to help develop this ability.

eBook 35: How to Develop Play in "No Mans Land" in a 1-3-3-1-3 with Animation

$9.99

45 Pages

Using the 1-3-3-1-3 system of play for this, we show how your players can find free spaces between opponents with inverted runs from outside to in. Including how to create freedom of movement within the team framework.

17 Favorite Practices Tactical Play and Target Games

This 295 page ebook includes 17 game situational clinics focused on tactical play and target games. To achieve the given theme successfully, many of the situational games have set conditions to them to force the theme to happen consistently and to maintain the focus of it. As we will explain, a big part of teaching in ALL these games is developing a One Touch Mentality in each players brain. So the “general” theme around all of them will be establishing this thinking process no matter the “specific” theme being taught.

This book is also available to Elite and Premium Members in the Soccer Awareness Training Center. Access Here.

Soccer Awareness Coaching Curriculums presented by Game Sizes: 4 v 4, 7 v 7, 9 v 9 through to 11 v 11

$30.00

We produced the eBook "Tactical Thoughts on the Development of the 4 v 4, 7 v 7 and 9 v 9 Game Sizes" covering information on team shape and development. We now add this eBook to provide Curriculums in each game size to support the tactical games eBook.

What this eBook offers you:

Its all done here for you, paying attention to the ages of the players and the depth of teaching suitable to them.
As the program moves from 4 v 4 through to 11 v 11 the focus changes from individual teachings at 4 v 4, to small sided situations at 7 v 7, to Phases of play and tactical needs at 9 v 9; through to team tactical development at 11 v 11.
11 v 11 focuses on advanced training ideas to teach the “team”.
This eBook covers up to 14 weeks of training for each game size presented as one session per week.
All sessions have small sided games scrimmage set ups as close as we can get it to finish to reflect the theme of the session.

Tactical Thoughts on the Development of the 4 v 4, 7 v 7 and 9 v 9 Game Sizes

$19.99

This eBook shows how these different size games can be taught and also shows different systems of play that might be useful to you.

The idea I am trying to cultivate is to find a pattern of development that goes from 4 v 4 to 7 v 7 all the way through 9 v 9 to 11 v 11 that educates the players VERY EARLY on how to ultimately play the 11 v 11, a common thread running right through the book.

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