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Tip of the Week | Striking Gold at the NSCAA Convention!Become a Member Today! And,
Lionel Messi Featured - Arm Swing Technique and Body Position while dribbling under pressure.
Striking Gold at the NSCAA Convention! Become a Member Today! And,
Lionel Messi Featured - Arm Swing Technique and Body Position while dribbling under pressure.
Chochi Valenzuela
Speed Wins!
Soccer Speed Newsletter #56
We Struck Gold in Philadelphia!
#1 - My NSCAA Convention Must Read Report:
So there I am sitting in the back row awaiting the beginning of the Women's Professional Soccer Draft and up over come Anson Dorrance looking for a seat. I figure he is trying to be incognito which is hard to do for someone who's won 20 NCAA National Women's Soccer Championships.
By the way, he gave me some information worth it's weight in gold that I will pass onto you at the end of this story. Keep reading...
So, he's limping around looking for a seat and I've got three seats open next to me and plenty of leg room so the king of women's college soccer sits next to me. Not because I'm famous but because he had a recent knee injury playing soccer and he literally needed safe leg room for his recovering leg.
Oh, it must be my lucky day!
He must have thought I looked harmless before he sat down but he was wrong. Like a 1960's teenager at an Elvis concert I rushed the stage with fan-dom in my eyes to ask him silly, nervous and pointed out the obvious with questions like: "did you hurt your knee?" Augh what an idiotic bone headed question.
No, I'm just kidding, I was as professional and respectful appropriate and it paid off for all of us as you will see in a moment.
I did however have a few questions as well as a congratulations for beating Stanford in the finals for yet another National Title.
It's was odd, he did seem at all tired of the monotony of winning yet another...
Anyway, the coach of the Stanford Women's team is an old teammate of mine, Paul Ratcliff who was once the assistant at UCLA so I dropped his name in the conversation so I could at least connect with him in some way.
No real connection just me sitting there acting like I was watching the Draft, but really trying to think of something to ask him that had any marticum of substance.
After 10 more minutes of 'watching the draft' I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and moved to the back of the room because the voice in my head wouldn't shut up, and I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. It worked, I could watch with a peaceful mind and so could 'the king'.
Then, I remembered the question which had eluded me earlier!
At the risk of being an annoyance I went back up to him and asked him about his training and testing program. This is when he gave me THE GOLD!
I asked him if he had a book or a resource I could buy that has the testing program he uses to rank his players. He told me that he didn't have them in a book but he would send them to me via email.
Now, before I go on, let me tell you why this is so important for you as a soccer coach and soccer speed trainer.
Three years ago I was coaching the Tacoma Community College Men's Team I came across one of the testing drills from Anson Dorrances' program at UNC and the colleague told me that this one drill was the #1 indicator of his starting line up each year.
So I decided to put it to the test and the results were Staggeringly Accurate! I could hardly believe how accurate it was. This one test identified the most skilled and effective players on the team, in order of effectiveness.
I told Anson about my experience and here's what he said:
"It's called technical testing, now teams like Man. United and other top organizations are doing it..." and the last thing he said is what really caught my attention, he said "Technical Testing is where the future of soccer is headed." Why is this so important? Because if this is where soccer training is headed then you need to be up with the times and trends. The game and training methods always evolve and so we need to keep up.
Your soccer speed training programs will need to include the drills, activities and tests. Or, at the very least you will have to show how your programs help prepare players to excel at these tests.
Here is the one test I used with my college team.
All 11 technical tests as well as two more bonus tests will be available to members of my new website www.SoccerSpeedTraining.com
Enjoy.... Chochi Valenzuela - Director
PS. Free reproduction of this article is allowed as long as all the content and contact information are included.
If you enjoy the topic of speed training and conditioning for soccer then you will be absolutely blown away by my new website!
On this website I give you everything I've got! Drills, Expertise, Camp Activities, Soccer Speed Science, Video Training, Coaching Education...
AND, I am also bringing together the top speed training professionals around the world to help educate you and your training staff on topics like 'How to run a speed and conditioning program with your club!'...
There's too much to even continue to list in this newsletter so just know this:
Lionel Messi has the best Upper Body Soccer Speed Technique I've ever seen!
Study this video and watch how often Lionel Messi pumps his arms while dribbling the ball. This is contributes to his overall speed and allows his feet to move faster and in a more controlled manner. Granted, there are more than attributes gained through training here but this is a great example of the basic arm swings at play at the highest level.
Here's a soccer speed training tip for all of you speed and conditioning pro's - it doesn't matter how good your drills are if the players are not pumping there arms at every possible moment your speed training isn't doing them any good once they get on the field to compete.
Watch especially the last goal of this video for the best example of maintaining arm swings while dribbling under pressure:
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