The Inside Scoop with Anytime Soccer Training - Discussing Youth Soccer from Around the World

Can a Great Youth Coach Have a Team That Can’t Connect Passes?

Every coach will tell you the answer “depends.” I’m not buying it. In this episode of The Inside Scoop, I ask a question that makes a lot of people uncomfortable: if a te

Give Kids Fewer Choices and Watch Them Learn Faster

I'll admit it: my approach goes against common youth coaching practice. When I started coaching, I believed kids could grasp tactical concepts much earlier than we give t

The Magic Wand Exercise: Day One of Building a Vision

I wish someone had shared this with me when I was 16. In this short episode, I sit down with my son Adam, who's at an MLS academy, and give him his first task in our ment

Performance Isn't Enough: My 30-Day Mental Toughness Challenge

I've spent years focused on technical training. My 16-year-old son has reached the advanced academy level, and he's learning something I didn't prepare him for: performan

What If We Broke the Rules of the Real Game?

Last weekend, a parent on the sideline criticized my son's team for not keeping the ball after scoring. That got me thinking: what if the game itself were designed to dem

Being Paid Doesn't Make a Player or a Program Professional

In this episode, I respond to a comment from the Anytime Soccer Training Facebook group about whether being paid is what makes a player or a program professional. The com

Standards, Reform, and Why Change in Youth Soccer Is So Hard

A rec program can have high standards and an elite one can have low ones. I explain how standards can fall short at the regional, national, or international level, why

Is All US Youth Soccer Rec Why Standards Matter More Than Labels

Most parents can skip this debate, but the "everything is rec" argument keeps coming up. I break down what recreational really means and why the real conversation is ab

Is All US Youth Soccer Really "Rec"? The Question Nobody's Asking

Everyone's arguing about whether all US youth soccer is "just rec." But what if that's the wrong question? In this episode of The Inside Scoop, I break down why the loud

Dribbling vs. Tactics Why Both Matter Early

I take on the debate over whether young players should focus on dribbling or tactical awareness first. My take: you can sharpen technical skills later, but tactical und

Why Sending Drills Home Isn't Enough

I dig into why just telling players to practice a skill — like passing with their weak foot — rarely leads anywhere. Sending home a drill or a video isn't the same as cre

Is Running Laps a Waste of Time? I'm Not So Sure Anymore

I watched a game this weekend that changed how I think about fitness in practice. Two teams, similar talent, wildly different outcome — and it came down to something most

Beyond the Pitch The Careers in Soccer Nobody Tells Your Kid About

In this episode of The Inside Scoop, I sit down with Carlos Mojica— author of Goal: Awesome Soccer Stories and Fun Facts for Kids — to talk about career paths in soccer t

Why 'I Can't Train My Own Kid' Is the Excuse I Don't Buy

Every parent has said it at some point: "I'm not qualified to train my own kid." I used to believe that too — until I built a system that changed everything about how my

How I Judge a Youth Team in 30 Seconds · I Don't Watch the Score

When I watch my kid's team, I'm not really watching the score. I'm watching whether they can create goal-scoring opportunities consistently — inside a game model and a st

The Hidden Scoreboard No One's Watching

Winning and losing tells you almost nothing about whether your kid's team is actually developing. I break down the real signals I look for after a decade of watching gam

What Youth Soccer Doesn't Want to Tell You About Fitness

Fitness doesn't fit the narrative — it's not fun, it's not easy to sell, so it quietly gets left out of the conversation around player development. In this episode, I d

The Coach Conversation Most Parents Get Wrong

I've spent 15 years watching parents try to talk coaches into playing their kid a different position — and I've learned it rarely works the way people hope. In this epi

Do You Have to Play It to Teach It?

In this episode, I take on a claim I hear constantly in coaching circles — that you can't teach a skill you can't perform, or that you can't teach soccer if you haven't p

Should I Talk to My Kid's Coach About Moving Him to a Different Position?

In this episode, I answer a parent's question about whether to approach their U9 son's coach about moving him from striker to wing, where he seems to perform better. I p