The Coaching Journey

We've had some fantastic guests on The Coaching Journey Podcast. Today, though, is what I consider to be the best episode we have done so far on the podcast. Today's episode features Pat McCann, professional player with the Richmond Kickers in the USL, and yet Pat's name isn't one you'll be familiar with. This is an inspirational story that any coach, player, or fan of the game NEEDS to listen to. We discuss Pat's journey from Long Island, NY, to trials with MLS clubs, to purchasing a one way ticket to Ireland on the hopes of acquiring a professional contract. Pat's story is what the pathway looks like for most players, and we are proud we are able to bring this necessary discussion to you. Support the podcast and join our Patreon community by clicking here! Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week The Coaching Journey Podcast is excited to welcome Jon Townsend on the show! Jon is a former collegiate player and current coach, as well as writer for These Football Times. Our discussion today revolves around the youth development process both in the U.S. and abroad and we ask the question as to whether or not we are maximizing our development of elite soccer players. TVC has offered our listeners a GREAT opportunity to get a discount on their excellent e-books. Click this link and get $10 off any purchase by using the code "CJ10". It is a fantastic resource for any coach and I recommend this having seen the TVC method in action! Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

Our latest episode of The Coaching Journey Podcast discusses the all-important question for any coach. What is your WHY. Do you have a (good) reason behind why you plan the sessions you do, the activities you run, the words you use, the style of coaching you employ, and so on. Do you have a clear thought out philosophy for development? Do you have game-models that you want to implement and execute with your team or do you simply find the cool Facebook video session that has no application to your team?  Many coaches are lost in the coaching wilderness, but you can get back on the right path today. Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week, The Coaching Journey Podcast is excited to welcome Todd Beane on the show! Todd is the founder of TOVO Academy as well as the Cruyff Institute, however his current home of Barcelona is not where his journey began. Todd was raised in the U.S., attending and playing at Dartmouth before joining the professional ranks. He has a Masters in Education from Stanford University and has coached at the club, collegiate, and professional levels. Our discussion today focuses on front-loading the cognitive process within youth development, as well as coaching and development philosophies, automatisms, and lessons learned from the master himself, Johan Cruyff. Make sure you check out Todd and TOVO here: http://tovoacademy.com and follow Todd on Twitter: @_ToddBeane Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week, The Coaching Journey Podcast is excited to welcome Doug Lemov on the show! Doug is an educator, author, and the Managing Director of Uncommon Schools. He also runs the fantastic website teachlikeachampion.com. Doug has written the international bestseller Teach Like a Champion, and Teach Like a Champion 2.0 as well as a book many coaches may find pertinent, Practice Perfect. Our discussion today revolves around the cognitive process that is learning, and we talk about Doug's involvement with US Soccer in working with coaches through the upper level licenses offered by the Federation. We discuss skill acquisition as well as decision-making processes, and this is a discussion you are going to want to bring a pen and paper to because Doug spends the hour offering great insight into the learning process with youth development, both in the classroom and on the soccer field. Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @T

Alex Morgan. Landon Donovan, Christen Press. Rachel Daly. Stephen Ireland. Kelley O'Hara. These are all players who have played at the highest level, some even winning a World Cup. These are also just a few of the professional players who have worked with a man whose name you might know, but whose company you will definitely know. Our discussion revolves around how David's journey with Beast Mode Soccer, as well as the training methodology he employs and the reason why the likes of Alex Morgan or Rachel Daly are playing at the highest levels. We talk about individual technical development and discuss the often heated debate between opposed and unopposed technical development, and it's a discussion you don't want to miss. Subscribe to the podcast to stay up to date on the latest episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week, The Coaching Journey Podcast is excited to welcome Paul Marco on the show! Paul enters his 16th year as the Head Men's Soccer Coach at Binghamton University, and under his guidance, the Bearcats have been transformed from a team that won just two games the year before his arrival into an established program that has become a fixture on the conference, regional and national scene. Paul is also Senior National Staff with the NSCAA and is heavily involved in their education courses including the Master Coach Diploma and the 30 under 30 program. Our discussion today revolves around Paul's thoughts on challenging our BEST players, as well as his work at the college level, and the possible positives and negatives to college soccer as compared to the rising landscape of professional academies. He is an excellent educator and someone that all of our listeners can learn quite a bit from. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and please leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheC

Celtic is a club synonymous with success in Scotland, and even in Europe. Their academy has produced some top-class players for the Scottish club as well as some of the biggest clubs in the world, and today on The Coaching Journey podcast we sit down with Willie McNab to talk about it! Willie is a current Academy Coach within the club as well as the International Academy manager for North America. Our discussion today is a fantastic chat on youth development both grassroots and elite level, as well as developing creativity and bringing out the best from a player and a session. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and leave a rating and review! Follow us on Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Follow us on Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week The Coaching Journey is excited to welcome Ian Barker on the podcast. Ian is best known for his current role as the Director of Coaching Education with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Ian's credentials are extremely impressive, but perhaps more impressive is the thousands of coaches he and the NSCAA have helped educate. He is an excellent educator and many coaches have a story of their own personal interaction with him. Today's chat is a fascinating discussion on youth development as well as coach education from one of the country's best! Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and leave a rating and review! Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

When I talk with groups of coaches, often times the discussion revolves around the best ways to develop and enhance team culture. There are books, podcasts, videos, and presentations all focused on how to create a successful team culture. We want to create a group environment that people will write about one day, but we forget the simple truth that is before we focus on team culture, we need to focus on developing and refining our own personal mindset. If you can change your mindset, if you know your true purpose and goals, then it will be that much easier to create a positive personal and team culture in your life. Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and leave a review! Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

How often do you hear people argue that in order to coach at the highest levels you have to have played at the highest levels? Can a non-pro truly understand the nuances and intricacies of the game if they don't have top class experience? It's a myth that has no grounding in reality, but it's still around because of ignorance and misunderstanding. I wrote an article a few days ago entitled "The Ex-Pro Myth in Modern Coaching" that caused quite a stir, and this week's podcast continues that topic with some expanded discussion on the issue!   Subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and leave a review! Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Facebook: The Coaching Journey Music: http://www.bensound.com

With hundreds of players off to play at colleges from nationally competing D-1 schools to D-3 schools, a handful of Youth National Team players, and several professionals, you might assume this talent pipeline is a professional MLS academy or a foreign feeder club. You may not, however, know that this talent pipeline is located in Faribault, Minnesota. We spoke with Joe DeMay who is the Director of Girl's Soccer at Shattuck-St. Mary's on the great work being done at the school. Be sure to check out Joe on twitter: @JoeDeMay and the Shattuck's Girls program at @SSMGirlsSoccer   Please subscribe to the podcast on and leave a review!   Music: http://www.bensound.com

Almost 13 months ago, the U.S. Men's National Team lost to Mexico and Costa Rica, and fans were quick to demand Jurgen Klinsmann's resignation or downright dismissal. The furor was so bad that we had to write an article explaining some of "The Real Problem(s) Behind Our National Team." Fast forward to today, and the U.S. Men's National Team has lost to Mexico and Costa Rica (again) this past week in World Cup Qualifying, with fans again demanding Klinsmann's dismissal. Is that where all the blame should go, or are we just skimming the surface? We discuss the deeper issues facing US Soccer and the U.S. Men's National Team on this week's podcast! Subscribe to the podcast on and leave a review.   Music: http://www.bensound.com

How often do we watch training sessions in which the activity is focusing on youth players playing one touch. In fact, so many coaches want to master a one-touch style of play that we've begun to miss an important point about youth development. Forget one-touch, we need to instill a two-touch mentality in youth development? Why? Well, listen to our latest episode of The Coaching Journey podcast as we tackle this important topic as well as give a brief update on The Coaching Journey and our recent hiatus! Subscribe to the podcast on and leave a review.   Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week The Coaching Journey is excited to welcome Stevie Grieve on the podcast! Stevie is a TV Football Pundit, Expert Analyst of MindGame, Experienced Academy Director and Coach. He is also the author of numerous coaching books for World Class Coaching and he has coached in Scotland, Switzerland, the United States, and most recently India with a professional club. Our discussion revolves around youth development and coach development around the world as well as various aspects of Stevie's own opinions on the game. It's a discussion that is geared to get you thinking and will provide numerous takeaways for any parent, player, or coach!   Subscribe to the podcast and leave us a 5 star review!   Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week The Coaching Journey is excited to welcome Sam Polak on the show! Sam is a young coach in the United States as well as a tactical analyst and writer for publications such as Four Four Two, KickTV, as well as others! Our talk today revolves around two young coaches sharing their experiences and opinions on the coach education and coaching world in general as it appears to us, and it is a discussion in which differing view points are shared, which will help you start to question and shape your own opinions on our thoughts!   Subscribe to the podcast and leave us a 5 star review!   Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week The Coaching Journey is excited to welcome Danny Karbassiyoon on the podcast! Danny is a former professional player most notably with Arsenal Football Club, Burnley, and Ipswich Town. He is a current scout for Arsenal Football Club and has been instrumental in discovering current Arsenal players Gedion Zelalem and Joel Campbell. Danny brings to the discussion an excellent story of his own background as well as a wealth of insight into modern day scouting and youth development both in North America as well as worldwide!   Subscribe to the podcast and leave us a 5 star review!   Music: http://www.bensound.com

How often do we see thousands of new drills being promoted, or articles exclaiming that your team can play like Barcelona, Real Madrid, even Leicester City! All of this is fluff that takes away from the simple truth. Coaches are looking for variety and novelty when focused repetition is a key, and it all stems from one single question. If you can ask yourself this question, everything will flow from there, and your focus won't be on the thousands of different sessions. Instead, it will help illuminate the core activities you need to really help develop your players. We explore that question in today's podcast!   Facebook: The Coaching Journey Twitter: @TheCoachJourney Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week we talk with Gary Kleiban of 3four3! Gary, along with his brother Brian Kleiban (Academy Coach with LA Galaxy) founded 3four3 to represent "the global soccer standard in the United States" and with their product visible on the field and their subsequent videos, it's hard to disagree. Our discussion revolves around US Soccer, covering topics such as problems that coaches face, the issue holding US Soccer back, and one possible solution to these issues.   Subscribe and leave us a 5 star review, because why not!   Music: http://www.bensound.com

This week we talk with Zac Ludwig, a coach and coach educator with Illinois Youth Soccer who is the creator of SwitchingTheField.com. We discuss all things youth development and bring back our first interview since switching to the new streamlined podcast! Be sure to listen as there are a lot of good takeaways for your players, parents, and clubs! Continue the discussion: On Facebook: The Coaching Journey On Twitter: @TheCoachJourney   Music: http://www.bensound.com