So I have been training my son and daughter to play soccer (football for the rest of the world) for the last 12+ years. Instead of going to college in the US, my son attended a soccer academy in England last year and had a fantastic time. He learned a lot about the game (got his level 1 FA youth license) and developed tremendously as a player.
The nice guys at SR Analysis just finished his highlight video for the year. Didn’t have access to all the best stuff and the resolution was low on some of the footage but you can see that he is a heels in the chalk flying winger. He got to play against two professional Finnish teams and grazed the arctic circle. Very proud of him.
It is much more effective to teach young players how to do things correctly, than to hope they are successful modeling their games after once in a lifetime exceptions…
Hehe. Yeah. I helped pick out some of the clips and the thought was to show that he could use the non-dominant foot pretty well. His real coaches do tell him to drive for the byline when playing on the left side. You do of course have to mix it up or it’s just going to turn into a foot race and the higher the level that you go, the harder that gets. He’s worked hard on being able to square up the defenders hips then shoulder dip and go hard to the left. All about the decision making though.
Giggs and Robben are probably his two favorite players. Giggs because I showed him bunch of youtube clips of his mazy runs when he was growing up. And we both loved watching Robben torment defenders over the years. He has been practicing playing inverted. He’s got a nice bending shot/cross technique that I never taught him. Just took to it naturally. I always drove the ball and not very well. Ah, 80’s college soccer in America. :)
I used to spend sunday (off) at boarding school practicing corners with my left foot. I always scored more with my left, having the option to go either way makes a world of difference. I tell my 7 year old son to prefer his weak foot.
So season is back in full swing in Leeds. He had a really nice Robben-esque goal last Saturday. If anybody is interested, you can see it at the 3:08 min mark in the highlight recap on this page.
He is number 38. Starts out on the left wing, moves to the right then eventually comes back to the left and comes off about 10 mins into second half.
First half of the season is in the books. Here is a highlight reel if anybody is interested. He had three assists in a game against Stalybridge Celitc that was not filmed sadly. They won 4-1. Got to play games against a u-23/19 academy mix for both Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough. Going to Slovenia this March to play some showcases.
That’s awesome. It would be pretty cool if you son gets on with a European Club. You could buy him in Football Manager. That would be pretty darn neat.
