I have an inner battle with the idea of Captains Practices for upcoming high school seasons.

On one hand, it fills a void of something that is greatly missing in the American soccer culture that is "Street Soccer" or "Pickup Soccer."  They can be a ton of fun and a tool for team building.  I remember my very first captains practice, as a freshman goalkeeper I was terrified of some of the shots I was facing from the seniors.  Some of them could literally make the ball whistle through the air.

On the other hand, who is running them?  What size field are they using?  How long are they playing for?  Who is and who ISN'T invited?  I remember driving by one last year and the numbers had to be 12 v 12 on a full field.  I've heard of a local High School having secret captains practices and excluding half of the program this summer.

I believe this is lost time.  In Michigan, high school coaches are allowed 15 training days during the summer.  When I was an assistant at a particular school, we would take advantage of those 15 days and have over 60 kids getting a meaningful training session in and tons of playing time and it still created a team building environment.  If your state doesn't allow you to work with your players, I would instruct players to make smaller games, 6v6, go set up pugg goals on a basketball court somewhere or take over a parking lot.  Play futsal.  Thats real street culture.  Develop a winner stays tournament.  Keep stats and keep track of wins throughout the summer.  It can be better than 12v12 or even worse, 8v7 on a full field (which I've also seen).

Last year I was training some middle school aged players that are honestly severely behind.  They brought up during training how during their middle school soccer season they would have "Fitness Fridays" where the entire day was all fitness.  

Now, when I was with varsity programs, at the NCAA Division 1 level, ECNL and DA teams, and at the professional level ABSOLUTELY we would dedicate days to fitness.  But these players were middle school players that are behind.  They cannot control the ball whatsoever.  They have a hard time keeping the ball inbounds.  Accidental touches all over the place and the inability to clean up the mess quickly.  And yet, a coach will waste an entire training session dedicated to fitness.  This is a major problem all over the USA.

I believe in juggling a soccer ball.  I don't believe in just going out and juggling.  I believe in juggling challenges.  I don't judge a soccer players skill level based on their juggling.  I'm not sure those two things are related at all.

I do juggling tests to MEASURE a players relationship with the ball.  How much they've worked with the ball.  For instance, I do a 14 surface juggling challenge where the surfaces are:

1. ​Laces Right Foot
2. Laces Left Foot
3. Inside Right Foot
4. Inside Left Foot
5. Outside Right Foot
6. Outside Left Foot
7. Heel Right Foot
8. Heel Left Foot
9. Right Thigh
10. Left Thigh
11. Right Shoulder
12. Left Shoulder
13. Head
14. Chest

Can you do them without dropping the ball?  Can you close them all out and do them all again without dropping the ball?  Tobin Heath, while at the University of North Carolina could do all 14 surfaces twice in 36 total touches.

Its challenges like this that measure the relationship with the ball.  Heres another one; on my first week back to training after the Covid19 shutdown I gave each player 1 minute and 15 seconds to count every single juggling touch they did on their right foot, even if they drop the ball they continue from the number they left off from.  Then they do the test again on their left foot and I compare the skill gap between the players strong foot and their weak foot.  Of the now 30+ players I've trained since returning to play, only 14 have been able to get 100+ touches on both feet.  

THAT GIVES ME INSTANT FEEDBACK!

When teaching vision, coaches should really focus on training a players peripheral vision.  Especially when you are going towards goal.  When players at the highest level score goals, their primary focus is the ball.  Often times if you were to rewind the game before the goal scorer gets the ball and rewatch the goal, you'll see a player that hardly looks up at all, because they already looked before they got the ball or a few touches before the goal being scored.  

The underlying philosophy of PlayMaker Training is that "you can't have advanced tactics without having players with advanced technique."  Additionally, if you have watched soccer for a long period of time you have probably been able to pick up on the different tactics applied by certain managers and coaches around the world.  Flat Back 4?  3 up top?  The role of the #10?  High pressure?  Low block? Counter attacking?  All of these change over time, what has NEVER changed, is the ability on the ball, at the highest levels.  While tactics are fleeting and seemingly changing every year, the technical capabilities of players, have ALWAYS remained the same.  Dominate the ball and you're able to adapt to any coaches system.