Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
The Elite Clubs National League was founded in 2009 and continues to lead by daring to do things differently, embedded with grit, collaboration and tenacity – all things learned from the beautiful game. The ECNL protects and propels the integrity of the game and everyone it impacts by facilitating the perfect symmetry of excellence and humility, exclusivity and accessibility, freedom and community. We believe that challenging everyone to rise to their best creates game-changers that live well, long after cleats are unlaced. Born out of the belief in a better way. Continued in the ever-evolving pursuit of excellence.
Breaking the Line: The ECNL Podcast
How Athletes Can Get the Most From Individual Training | Ep. 135
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Let us know the topics of interest to you!
Following a riveting episode regarding sport specialization, Breaking the Line welcomes David Copeland-Smith, founder of Beast Mode Soccer, to discuss all things regarding individual training.
ECNL President Christian Lavers and ECNL Vice President Doug Bracken converse with Copeland-Smith about a variety of topics surrounding individual training, including: Copeland-Smith's experiences training world-class athletes such as Kennedy Fuller, Alex Morgan and Tobin Heath, how to maximize the relationship between athlete, skills coaches and club coaches, how to tell if an individual training coach is right for your athlete and more.
Along the way, we'll hear stories about 7v7 games in Beverly Hills, the Voice of the ECNL Dean Linke earns a new fan, and listeners will learn how each member of Breaking the Line got to where they are today.
As always, make sure to submit any questions to https://ecnl.info/BTL-Questions, to subscribe to Breaking the Line on YouTube, and to follow the ECNL on all social channels.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the March 25 edition of Breaking the Line, the ECNL podcast, featuring ECNL President and CEO Christian Labors, and ECNL Vice President and Chief of Staff Doug Bracken. In the last edition of Breaking the Line, Christian and Doug took a deep dive with the ECNL Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Drew Watson, about specialization. Great topic, great show. Today they put the spotlight on individual and private training, and to do that, we bring you Mr. David Copeland Smith, the founder of Beast Mode Soccer, and the original architect of modern one-to-one technical development. Since 2011, he has set the standard for individual soccer development and private coaching throughout the world. He trains locally in Los Angeles and is the private soccer coach who serious players seek when they want measurable results. His philosophy stands on the principles of discipline and personal accountability, not flasher hype, and he is really, really good. You will like this episode and you will like David. With that, before I turn it over to Christian Lavers to drive the ship on a fascinating conversation, it's time to go around the league on Breaking the Line, a bi-weekly look at all things ECL. League play is heating up in the ECNL boys, and we wanted to give some shoutouts to teams who have earned every single point possible through at least 10 games. U13 World Class and Pipeline, U14 Alabama FC, U-15 Solar Academy, Concord Fire Platinum, and Gretna Elite Academy, U-16 Crossfire Academy, and U-19 Tennessee SC and Florida Premier. At the Regional League Boys level, Seattle United has qualified all six teams for the ECNL Regional League West Playoffs, and Playmaker Football Academy is in first place in four of their six age groups in the West Division of the Mountain Regional League with just three games remaining in the schedule. In the pre-ECNL, Beach FC Boys team took home the U11 and U12 gold medal in the phantom bracket of the pre-ECNL Northern Cal Cup, advancing to April's pre-ECNL Champions Cup in the process. Also, be on the lookout for the announcement of the first 10 ECNL clubs to participate in the 2026 ECNL International Iber Cup taking place in September 2026. The ECNL Girls always prides itself on being a pathway to the highest level of soccer, and so far this year, seven ECNL clubs have had more than 20 players commit to D1 programs. Legends, Slammers, Sting Black, PDA Blue, FC Stars Blue, Solar SC, and St. Louis Scott Gallagher have all done a tremendous job getting their players to the next level. This has been Around the League, and now we turn it over to Christian Labors.
SPEAKER_06Thank you very much, Dean. Appreciate that. As always, we start every podcast the same. We're gonna have to do a new introduction because I'm tired of saying I appreciate Dean every time we're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_05He should do like a you know, like a Chicago Bulls kind of uh seriously, don't do dun dun. I don't know what that's something like that with introductions. Let's leave the weight the weight out. Let's just do that.
SPEAKER_06If he wants to raise his game, yeah. Yeah I think some background lasers and some sound, I think Dean is an appropriate challenge for a little stretch goal for Dean Linkey coming into this. And with that, it's an appropriate reference of stretch goal. We're gonna introduce David Copeland Smith. David, first time long time, right?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, first time being on with you guys. I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_06Well, we appreciate having you. The topic last week was with respect to specialization and injury risk. And actually, that discussion was very nuanced with our chief medical advisor talking about how important workload is on that variable, because so many of the studies are oversimplified, as was much of the discussion on social media about that topic. But as we got deeper into the workload topic and the and the difficulty of tracking that both across multiple sports when kids do that, but then also across all the other stuff that they may do within a sport, we thought it might be a really interesting topic to talk about how we manage and the good, bad, and and everything else about individual training versus team training, integration or lack thereof. And your name, and obviously your business, beast mode soccer, was right at the top of my head, and we haven't connected in a while. But I said, hey, let me reach out to David, see if he'd be willing to join us on this incredibly high profile media opportunity. And of course, you jumped to it, and now we're happy to have you.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I'm I'm super stoked to be here. It's honestly it's a topic that I love talking about because there's so many misconceptions, right? And and honestly, there's so many loose ends that people don't tie together, which is where the problem stems from.
SPEAKER_05Give us a little of your background and how you got into being, I would say, a specialist in that area, right?
SPEAKER_07I came to the US in 2003, which seems like a lifetime ago, right? Because it was. Um, I was in Florida, and that was where I I was I was coaching for MLS camps, and that was where I first got approached to do an individual session. And I looked at the guy like he was crazy. I'm like, what do you mean? And he's like, Oh, you know, like do some footwork and stuff. I'm like, oh no, you just do that in a backyard, mate. What do you need me for? And he was like, Well, they don't know what they're doing, and so I was like, okay, so I did it, and with that kid, I saw like rapid growth, and he was only like nine or ten, but I saw like rapid growth, not just technically, but more so confidence-wise on the field, and this was no kind of level, right? This is like local um rex slash club, right? So not not like level levels, but that was like the first tipping point where I was like, okay, there's something here. So I was coaching club in Tampa, it back then it was FC Tampa. I think they're HC United now, but they may have changed again. Then fast forward a couple of years, I met a girl. That's how most of my story stuck. I met a girl, by the way. Yeah, yeah, and they've never got a good ending. Um she wanted to move out of California, so I followed her and I was like, Yeah, that's a good idea. Because I'd always I always thought I'd end up out here. I knew nothing about it, but I was, you know, what what do you know apart from saved by the bell if you grew up in England, right? That's it. So I was like, I could be Zach Morris, let's go. So we drove over here from Florida, and my goal when I got here, I was like, right, I don't want to coach club, I want to focus on individuals, but I need to meet players and coaches, and I'm kind of like an introverted extrovert.
SPEAKER_06And what year was this, by the way, when you moved out to King's?
SPEAKER_07This was 05. I have a dog, she's a little bit psycho. Wait, pin. She and she only speaks Spanish.
SPEAKER_06Um, so you're not mad, you're kind of impressed when she eats a wheel of cheese as well, is whatever you heard.
SPEAKER_07Mate, mate, when yeah, no, she's she's seven pounds, she'll eat seven pounds of food. Um, so that is an 05 when I moved out, and and I put my name down on one of those like websites where they need players for teams, because that's what I love about football, right? It's it's a real connector, football. You can just you know go along, join a pickup game, and you've you can meet people who you bounce off. So I put my name down on this random site. Luckily, I survived, it wasn't like you know a crazy person's website, and we were playing against a team called Hollywood United.
SPEAKER_06And Hollywood United, I think you know where the story's going. Yep.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so and as we're playing, I I recognize a few people. Uh like there was a guy from the cult, the the 80s rock band, and I'm like, that is not Billy Duffy, and it was Billy Duffy, and I'm like, oh my god, because my dad used to listen to all that, right? Like, um, and the guy in goal was on a show called Without a Trace, it was Anthony La Paglia, and I'm like, What is this?
SPEAKER_06Right, and you were Zach Morris, right?
SPEAKER_07I was trying to be Zach Morris, but then their centre back was this really tall black guy called Hilton, and I looked and I'm like, this guy's in a Nike commercial right now, and he's a coach in the Nike commercial. I've got to speak to him afterward. I'm going up to the guy afterward, and we're like, remember, we're playing against them and they smashed us to bits, and it's one of those moments where you either do or you don't, right? And it's difficult for me to go up to a group of strangers. So I went up to him, I was like, hello, mate. I I recognize you from a Nike commercial. I'm like, you're a coach. He's like, Oh, yeah, I'll do a bit of this, bit of that. And I told him what my goal was, and he was like, Listen, I've got a player, they live here, come out with me and I'll pass him on to you. And with that kid, again, I saw that growth, and then one of the guys who also played for Hollywood United, a guy called Rocco Santangelo, I interviewed for a for a local high school job because that was my other goal. I was like, I'll get a job at a high school program because that's you know, only a three-month commitment, and then I can meet players that I can work with. And Rocco ended up being the goalkeeper coach at this program, so it was like very weird. I got this JV job at Harvard Westlake, which is like a um, I want to say it's a bougie school. It's a bougie school in LA. Uh, you know, when I went for the interview, I didn't believe it was a high school. I thought this is a college, like the facilities and everything were insane.
SPEAKER_06Well, I think here in the US we call what you guys call college high school, is I think how how it works from the educational perspective.
SPEAKER_07See, I thought what we call high school.
SPEAKER_06I'm just gonna keep lobbing things at waiting for some type of response.
SPEAKER_07What we call a GCSE, you call a master's degree. It's funny. So I see how well this is going. So one of one of the kids there, like I was doing JV, this kid was on varsity, it was Ali Riley, and we clashed the first day because you know the whole like freshman senior thing, and the co the head, the head of the program couldn't make it that first day. I think he crashed his car or something. So I'll take it both, and we clashed a little bit, but then I would see her watching my sessions, and I thought she was just trying to like mess with me by like making me uncomfortable, but then she came up to me, she's like, Oh, like my parents were wondering whether you'd train me. I've got a chance to play for New Zealand under 20s in the World Cup. And I'm like, Yeah, but obviously we clashed a little bit, so if you agree to do everything I tell you, I'll do it. And and I was already excited because I'm like, at the time this kid was a speedboat with no driver, right? She was rapid, um, so they would just knock the ball over and she'd sprint on and score. But I also knew like she was smart and and she would listen. So we set out a program for her, and she did it. Um, she went to that youth world cup and made an impact, so much so that John Herdman was the coach of the U-20 New Zealand. Then John ended up bringing her up to the full team for the next World Cup. Um, and again, she was I would say one of the first high-level players that I was a little bit taken aback by the amount of technical and psychological development we could do in a short space of time. And I would say like three months was when we really saw a shift. Um, and Ali went ended up going to Stanford. Um, so obviously he's a smart, smart uh woman. Um and then she would come back in the summers, and uh I would train Kelly O'Hara because they were roommates. Um Kristen Press would come out, uh Whitney Engen because she was tight with Kristen. And this was uh kind of just I'd say just before or maybe the year of like ECNL kicking off.
SPEAKER_06I think we kicked off in 09, it was our first year.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so it was around it, it was those formative years, right? So because Riley went to Stanford in 06, so it'd have been those because I started to get ECNL kids toward the end of Riley's um uh Stanford career, so it kicked off from there, and then uh they went to WPS um and WPS failed, which was a blessing for me because we had all these players coming to LA to train or to to just stay in the offseason, and they stayed when the league failed, and and I had a network of players who respected what I did, so I'd get a bunch of these players coming to train and then we'd play pickup. So, you know, Abby Wamback, um Liz Bogus, Amy Lapella bit, Nikki Washington, like, and obviously we're going back here, so a lot of people might not remember the they'll remember Abby, but you know, players like Nikki Washington were formative in the league in the NWSL and they were world-class players, you know, Alex, Tobin Heath, like all these players would come out and we would train, and then we would play pickup. That's where it all kicked off, and then I organized it all into a business because Allie came up to me one of her off seasons, maybe the one between Stanford and WPS. She played for FC Gold Pride with Kelly and Marta. Um, Albertine was the coach then, and um she's like, Dave, like you need to grow up a little bit and start this company because no one knows who you are. Like, you know, when we talk about you, it's like just Dave the soccer guy. Um, and I was very fortunate at the time where I was house sitting for um a pop star in England, he's called Robbie Williams, and he had a house on Mulholland in Beverly Hills, and he had a soccer, like a converted tennis court into a little 7v7 field, and I was house sitting for his dogs because he was on tour, so you know, I was very, very fortunate that we could train and play there, especially for like players like Alex, who already had like a good size profile there, so it was very private. But Riles was like, Dave, you've you've got to you know grow up a little bit. And I was like laughing. I'm like, bro, I'm Peter Pan. What do you mean? I'm living in a pop stars house on Mulharland Drive with no rent, no bills, and I do soccer for a living. What are you talking about? I need I've unlocked the code, my friend. Um, but you know, there's there's a few people that I listen to, and and she's one of them. Um, so I started a company, and you know, I really, really dived into skill acquisition. Um, and my friends always say, like, I gave myself a master's degree in mechanics and skill acquisition um and skill interpretation because I didn't do anything for months, I just read books. And this is like pre, you know where where you could get everything, all the information easy, right? I had to like I remember like going on eBay and buying books for like 300 bucks because you they were out of print, but I really needed to read them, and you know, I've got all these books in my story somewhere, and and I really did give myself that master's degree in biomechanics, growth mechanics, how to acquire skill, how to translate it to the field, and I started to organize, and back then they weren't called IDPs, right? Back then it was just like Dave, will you write me a program? And I'm like, Yeah, of course I will, and uh, and again, it was a nightmare back then. I would, you know, have to pull for for Riley, for example, I'd pull old Gold Pride games off of YouTube, I'd go into iMovie and clip it myself, which would take three hours to clip, you know, a 90-minute game. Then I'd study them, then I'd write out a plan, then I'd send it to her, and then we would execute. And looking back, yeah, that was the first of my IDPs. And then one another big tipping point was Alex, first time we were trading, it's a funny story. Kelly texted me and she's like, Oh, can I bring a couple of players up tonight? And because it was Robbie Williams's field, we used to get a lot of Premier League players up in the summer. Because you know that world, sports and entertainment, they often, you know, they want to be friends with each other, right? But Rob would just fob them off onto me and be like, oh Dave, this, you know, Sean Wright Phillips wants to come up and play, here's his number, takes them. So I was like, Kale, like, yeah, they can come, but it's a good level tonight. Like, we've got a couple of Prem players come up, and I said, if they're not very good, they're gonna be on your team.
SPEAKER_04And Kelly like laughed, and she's like, Yeah, like they'll I'm confident they'll be fine.
From Pro Pickups To A Real Business
SPEAKER_07I'm like, okay, and it was Alex and Tobin. And I'll be ex I'll be honest, I was excited about Tobin because Tobin is small-sided, like, come on. So we trained first, we played, and I was right, like Tobin was a demon in that small-sided area, and Alex came up to me afterward and was like, listen, I just wanted to see what you were like as a trainer, see if we bounced off each other. So Mia Ham is training a bunch of us. Um, this is in 2012. Mia Ham's training a bunch of us. Like, I would love it if you came out and did the off days, but Mia wants you to come to her days as well to so you can share notes. And Christian, I'm stood there like what is happening? Like, what is happening? I'm I'm from a s I'm from Plymouth, not a big town in England. I have no connections in soccer. My dad was a boxer and an electrician, my mum was a swimmer and worked in retail, right? So I do come from a coaching background because dad was also a squash coach, mum was a swimming coach. But I have no connections in football, and later on in life you learn that connections are everything, and I'm still learning that now. Um but I had nothing, and I'm stood there, and and it was that moment I looked at her and I'm like, You're stood on Robbie Williams's field. Alex Morgan's just asked you if you can train a bunch of the national team players alongside Mia Ham. Like, what is happening here? Like, this is amazing. So I'm like trying to be all you know cool. I'm like, yeah, of course, no problem. And I go down to that first session, I'm shitting myself. Not because of the players, I'm confident with the players because I know I'm hyper-organised, I know who was going, I'd researched them and I knew they needed to work what they needed to work on. But Mia, like, come on, it's Mia Ham, right? Like Mia's one of the people from that '99 team and before who will always be relevant. Always. And she's made moves that are genius that she doesn't even try and she's relevant, right? And when I tell you she was the kindest person to me, like there was no ego. She was like, Dave, I just want you to come to my session so that we're on the same page. And Christian, her delivery, that's what struck me the most. Like, bearing in mind you've got like Boxy, you've got Abby Wanbach, you've got Rachel Bueller or Van Hollebeck now, you've got Alex, you've got Sid LaRue, and this is a young Sid LaRue, spicy Sid LaRue, right? And you've got all of these players, and they could be 20 yards away, and Mia talked, and you could hear a pin drop. Because they're all like, right, less we need to listen. And that's something that I learned very, very much from Mia is when you garnish that amount of respect, you know, you don't need to scream at players, especially in my environment, right? Because my environment is very different than coaching. My environment, everybody who comes there knows that my only goal is to get them better. So I learned a lot from Mia, and it was one of those sessions where one of the players came up to me and she's like, Dave, like, I live in San Diego, so I can't come up to all these sessions. Can you write me a program that I can do at home? She's like, I just really need to do footwork. And bearing in mind, like She won a gold medal. Right? Like, this is a legit player. And on the way home, I was like, if if a player at this level doesn't know what to do on their own, how does you know a 14-15-year-old? So I wrote a program for her, and then you know, I gave it to her, and she executed, obviously, and saw the results, and she's more confident on the ball. And I started to write out a new program for anyone called the Better Soccer Blueprint, and that was after like first digital program, which again, looking back, it wasn't because this is one thing I'm adamant about is when I put out digital programs, it's not a follow-along because football isn't follow along. It's here's a set of exercises, here's the way you analyse your game, analyze yourself, ask for your coach's input, then pick the drills that match. And that again, that was our first um program, and that was because of that player. And then unfortunately, like now you fast forward 15 years, and now there's too much information, right? So now people people go for a drink of information from a tap and they get hit with a fire hydrant of information. And who do you believe? Right? Like you you see viral videos of kids jumping through hoops of fire doing somersaults with$20,000 worth of skills equipment, and every shot goes into a top corner, and kids want to do that because it was viral, and it's like, bro, this is all horseshit.
The Information Fire Hydrant Problem
SPEAKER_06Let's take that as a uh stepping off point. I mean, that's a really interesting story, by the way. I didn't know almost any of that. So kudos to you, congrats on that. Somewhere in there, your company was beast mode soccer.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_06Um, obviously, you've trained lots of pros and international players, lots of youth, men, women, boys, girls, very big social presence on the various channels. If I had to put you in a box, David Copeland Smith in a box, you are an expert in your own words, in individual biomechanical actions, technical skill training, right? Much of that being training without opposition or training an individual in a ball or a few people in a ball. And we don't need to go into the unopposed versus opposed philosophical debate, I think, for our purposes. And maybe I'll just say we we agree that both are important. That's it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, like we we can go into it. The one thing I say is with all of those arguments, and I I always listen because I'm interested, and I'm not gonna die on a hill. You know, if you don't believe in unopposed, why do I care if you don't believe in unopposed, right? But one thing they always miss is the psychological aspect of training unopposed, of the repeat actions. For example, Rachel Daly, like Rach always needed me the couple of days before games to give her exercise to do where she could do like 40 or 50 finishes, the exact same finish. Now, did she need that technically? No, but psychologically, she went into games and and she's prepared. And if that action happened in the game, she'd bang it. And that's always my comeback to it. And then then I mute the Twitter feed because they just argue amongst themselves.
SPEAKER_06It's clear in the even just your description of this the founding story here in that specific example as well, that you put a lot more thought into this than most people that are in the individual training space. I would say that you know, team training is really important to have opposition and too much individual individual stuff in team training, is probably a misallocation of time. But every good player in the world spends enormous amounts of time with whether you call it a ball on a wall or one player, one ball, just playing and working on different skills and mechanics. So I I think it is absolutely true that you need both. You need the individual work on your own or in small group to refine things, and then you need you need the collective decision-making, opposition pressure, whatever. And if you're comfortable with that statement, then we can move in 100%.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
Building IDPs With Film And Schedules
SPEAKER_06Okay. So what started this to go back to the beginning was the recognition that if both of these things are important, and then you also deal with a hyper-competitive youth sports world where everybody's trying to move forward, move up, all that sort of stuff. We talked about it last week from the perspective of if if the individual trainer is not aware of what the team training environment is demanding, or vice versa, there is uh potentially an increase of risk from overtraining of a player. So I guess I'll start from the perspective of, and a lot of these things will probably be questions of good practice, bad practice, or best practices or not, to help people maybe distinguish between what is a good thing to do and not, or maybe good directions to pursue when you're looking for these things. Um, but also I think to educate maybe some team coaches and how can you work more collaboratively with people that are providing these things? Because kids want them and they are a good thing if done right. So, first question I'll ask maybe for you to elaborate on when you start to work with a player, how do you try and create individual training programs that one tailored to them? And I think you'll probably talk about research and film and some stuff like that, then also work into the schedule and demands that they already have. Certainly, if they're professional, it's going to be only in soccer, but in youth, it could be a kid who's playing soccer and basketball or soccer and track or just doing a lot of soccer. How do you answer those two questions and get us some guide rails?
SPEAKER_07So when we onboard a new player, first thing I ask for is either Huddle or VO or Trace, whatever one that they use. Because I want to get that footage. Then we break that down and I send them a questionnaire, basically strengths that they think they've got, weaknesses, their goals, who are their mirror players, players that they profession in the professional level who they want to mirror their game around. Um, then we ask their schedule. So, you know, if it's uh ECNL kids, you know, what days are they training, then their game schedule, what games are they or the days are they playing? Because a lot of the time, you know, parents are the crazy ones where they were like, Oh, well, she's got a game at one, so we could train at nine, and I'm like, You no, you know, you you've got to load it properly. So we take all of that into account. What I try to do is have a dialogue with coaches, but what I found, Christian, is egos, man. Egos ruin it. Like coaches don't want to speak to me. Um, not all of them, I've got some great relationships, um, but it's almost like and this this this is levels, this runs from youth all the way through to certain national teams where staff won't speak to me because they're it's almost like because then they'd be admitting that I'm doing something that they're not, and I find that the best coaches are absolutely the most open ones, right? So, oh yeah, brilliant. She needs to work on this, this, and this. But the way around that for me is if they don't respond to my emails, I go through the kid and be like, hey, like ask the coach what they think you need to work on, ask them to be brutally honest, then you give me that information and we work around. And it goes both sides because a lot of these trainers, a lot of these trainers chase clout, not development, right? And they think they're above the coaches, and you see this on social media posts when they're talking shit about team training and your coach can't do this and your coach can't do that. And I see them, and I'm like, I've first of all I immediately block or mute that that person because I'm like that, they don't know what they're doing, and then you've got the egos on the other side, which I just spoke about. And if we could educate all of us to just put your ego aside, ego's a good thing if you know how to check it, you know. Like I will speak to anyone coaching-wise, and I'll we might clash, we might not like each other, but I'll speak to you anyway and be like, right, we need to, you know. I used to clash with people at US Soccer without about Alex and them, but we'd still speak. Yeah, I know you know all about clashing at US Soccer.
SPEAKER_05And we'd still the banter can go both ways, Christian, I think, is what he's saying in airplay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well done.
SPEAKER_07Touche. Yeah, but but you do, right? You you know, uh so you know exactly what I'm dealing with.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right.
Egos And Coach Trainer Collaboration
SPEAKER_07But I'd still speak. Now they might have hated speaking to me, in fact, I know they did, but would still through gritted teeth, would still agree on things, right? So I feel like if the if people put their egos aside, we could both get on the same page, and then it's easier for a trainer to monitor load and a coach to monitor load, and all it takes is a text like, hey, I've got this player on these days, what's your schedule this week? Right, just to make sure, because a lot of the times it's up to the trainer to educate the player and the parents, right? Like I said, you know, if you've got a tournament in Arizona and you've flown from from Southern California and you've got two games, I don't want to train you on the Friday, right? Because I feel like that needs to be your rest day and that's gonna be your travel day, so you don't need that overload, right? And if you've got team training on Thursday, then we're not gonna do it either. I'll see you when you come back.
SPEAKER_05Do you feel like that happened over time? Like, did you need to earn that clout to be able to do that?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and I don't I had coaches ban their kids from working with me. And I would call them and they'd never answer the phone because they're shit ours is, but I'd call them and I'd leave a message like, bro, like what is your problem? Like, you don't know what we and I think I think a lot of it was like the name of the company, like Peace Felt. Everyone thinks I'm like this drill sergeant, and I couldn't be the more opposite, right? Like, I've I've had sessions where the kid's mentally gone, she she's gone, and she just needs a break, and we will sit down and chat for an hour and we'll get footage over the last game, and we're like, oh, listen, we're not gonna work today, but let's have a look, let's see where you think you're going on. So I feel like it was a lot of on my side of having to educate the masses of what we do, and I've fallen into traps before, I've fallen into traps of posting bullshit to try and get viral, right? I fell into that clout chasing trap, and when I look back, I've got shame. I'll be honest. Some of those drills, I'm like, oh my god, I cringe.
SPEAKER_06We all can do that in our in our growth curve, right? You hope you can look back and cringe, because if you can't, either you were a savant from day one, which is probably mathematically impossible, or you haven't grown that much. But one of the things, and when we when I spoke to you last week, we talked about, you know, that I think resonates with what you're saying here is that if you want to know who a player thinks has helped them become the player they become, you should ask the player.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And not uh, you know, be aware or be cautious around anybody, whether it's individual coach, team coach, club, who claims you know, to be the source of development of this player or the cause, right? Because at the end of the day, players develop themselves, right? And they choose resources to help them in that process.
Spotting Clout Chasing Fake Trainers
SPEAKER_07Yes. I mean, and an ex-Arsenal coach got in trouble for it last week, right? With uh Max Dowman. Apparently, a guy went on talk sport, and Max's dad turned around and said this this guy didn't do anything, so I don't know why he's claiming it. And you know, that's the thing. If you look at one thing I'm proud of, and if you look back, I don't claim it anything. The only thing I claim is that we've helped guide players, right? Because I'm not doing the work, they are I do my work, but they're on the field doing it, right? They're at home going out into a yard doing the work, and you know, yes, do I highlight players that I've worked with? Yeah, of course. But if you can find anything saying, yeah, this is my player, it's not because there's so many moving parts, and uh individual training is a small cog in the wheel, right? And for me, obviously, that wheel is important, but uh club coaching, strength and conditioning, parents, teammates, everybody plays a role here, and I think you're right. There's uh there should always be a warning flag with trainers, especially who like they'll train someone like twice and it'll be all over their social. And that is a trend that we've noticed lately, is that you know, they'll do a couple of I I actually had I'm not gonna call out the company because I don't want to give them attention, but there's a company in LA who do it, and they basically had a player reach out to players that I work with on a professional team and were like, oh, we'll do three sessions, and they as so obviously the players do it, and immediately photographer comes out, videographer, and the player, the player in question called me afterward and was like, hey, like listen, I just want to let you know I just did this session. First of all, it was shit, they didn't even know what position I played. Second of all, I just had to call them and tell tell them they are not to use that footage, and that's what a lot of people are doing. It's a shortcut for clout. Now, do we have clout? Yeah, but we've garnered that with long-term development, you know, like with Alex, not once have I ever, ever, ever asked Alex Morgan to post about me. Never because the way I've always thought is well, if you're good enough, people talk anyway, right? And I worked with Alex for 12 years, like every offseason, every time she was injured and she needed a comeback, every time she got cut from the national team, you know, I've s I put a lot into that journey, I put a lot into Rachel's journey, you know. I put a lot emotionally, physically, and mentally into my players. Yet I will never be like, yep, they got there because of me. Because it's not true.
SPEAKER_06Doug, and you might have an opinion on this. I mean, in an ideal world, a fully professionalized club would have, you know, all of this stuff built in. When you're talking about the biggest clubs of the world, they do, where there's individual, there's IDPs for the top players, there's individual tra individual training built into the team training program, there's the gym down the street, there's down the you know path, there's the nutritionist who's telling them exactly what to eat, and it's all packaged. Most youth clubs don't have anything close to that. The coaches don't have the bandwidth to manage all of it. And so if in that world you have coaches who don't make it at least feasible for players to go find the things that they're not gonna be able to get from the club, and that's not a criticism, it's just a reality. There's not enough time for every youth club coach to do individual sessions for every kid that they coach. There's just anyone who tells you they can do that is is is lying.
SPEAKER_05I was gonna ask you, David, like when it works really well from your perspective, what is that what does that look like? So we'll talk from like a professional standpoint. Do also address like the youth part, because that's ultimately who we're talking to. But I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_07Well, they're pretty they're pretty much honestly, they're pretty much the same. Like I'll tell you an adamos at Gotham. You know, if when I have Gotham players in the off season, one speaks to me, tells me what they want it to work on. Usually it's spot on what I want to work on. If it's not, I'll be like, hey, what about this? And it's not like a long conversation, we're not going out for a beer, it's very short and straight to the point. Laura Harvey is another one, she'll reach out, like, Dave, this is what they want, I need them to work on. And I'm not gonna argue with a head coach, right? They know they've got them day in, day out. So I'm gonna give them what they want. And if the player wants to add, then I'll run it by the coach, right? Yeah, okay. And with the youth, I'll take, say, Anton um and Jeff at Beach. Do you know those guys? They do these in our teams. They are what I would call the the best coaches from an attitude standpoint because Jeff and Anton will be like, Dave, we'll take uh one of the players I work with is Emily, right? She's a beach player, she's a lovely little player, actually trying to get her into the Ecuadorian national team because she's like a nice technical player. And she's on Anton's team, and Anton will be like, Dave, brilliant, you're working with Emily. I'm like, Yeah, I'm gonna start next week. Great, this is her IDP that we've written out. If you don't agree with it, let me know. And there's that collaboration that gives me mad respect for him and that club that they're respecting what I do. Because Anton and Jeff, they get it. They they can, you know, say they've got two teams each, they can't write 40 IDPs and update them every week because it takes about you know an hour to properly update them. That's a full-time job, right? So they can't do that. So when it works well, that's it. And you know, and some will text me after a game, going, Oh, Em killed it today. She did this, she did that. I'll send you the footage when I'm done.
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna jump on that because uh you've said it a few times and I don't want it to go unnoticed because I think it's really important. Because one of my pet peeves when I look at some individual training is how generic it is. By the way, generic doesn't mean it doesn't look good or look fancy. And in some ways, the more poles, cones, sticks, hurdles, flares, whatever, the more some people think it's really impactful, although you never see those things on a soccer field. One of the big litmus tests in any sort of evaluation of individual training is how specific is it to that player and their needs and strengths and weaknesses at the time versus the guy who's just standing there saying, okay, now juggle 10 times. Now dribble through these cones. You know what I mean? So you've talked a lot about film IDPs, updating IDPs, all that stuff. I think that's a really important thing to call out for people to discern between good and bad.
SPEAKER_07For me, a massive flashing red flag is what I call equipment monsters. Right? The ones who take 25 minutes to put all the equipment out, and it looks great. Looks amazing on camera, right? And then you see it and it's just generic crap, but it goes viral because it looks amazing. And one thing in my first session with players, the one thing I always say is like at any given moment, you can stop and ask why. Why are we doing this? And I will break down exactly the why.
SPEAKER_06Because if it doesn't transfer, what's the point? Right.
SPEAKER_07What's the point? And the the funny thing is, like, since we decided to be a hundred percent organic to who we are on social, you know, I'll just throw the drone up in the sky and let it film. Some of these drills must be really boring to watch because people are like, well, that's that's basic. Right? But say it's a Kennedy Fuller, for example. I do a lot of work with Kennedy, ex ECNL kid, ex-solar kid. Phenomenal to work with, next generation attitude of a 35-year-old veteran, just wants to get it done. And Ken's for me, I want her to be more brave. Um, last two seasons she was a young player, now she isn't. I want her to pick that ball up and drive at players, beat them and shoot. Right. So that's not that's not a really attractive drill, right? There's no jumping through hoops, there's no, you know, mannequins jumping out of the way. It's literally me playing in, her having an attacking first touch, beating a player and shooting. Yet she scored that exact goal last week. Right. And I'm and again, I'm not saying it's because of what we've done, but I am saying it's because she's confident that she's done that a million times and apparently Apparently, like a mum told me she when she was 12, she'd do all the time. Right? And I've seen footage of when she was in ECNL, and that was her. So it was trying to get that out at the pro level. So, you know, I think trainers as a red flag. Christian, I've seen so much, mate. I've seen trainers go out on the field, set it all up, do one drill with a player and leave. And then you see the drill on social, and it's like, oh yeah, we did this session today. This is working on this. And I'm like, it wasn't though. It wasn't. You literally had like three cameramen out getting all the different angles. You're an influencer. You're not a trainer. Big, big difference.
Homework That Actually Builds Skill
SPEAKER_06What about this? Because the other thing is, and you touched on mentality to a certain point, especially if you're going to do what you do, uh, I don't want to say at scale, but you're going to train more than one player in your day or in your week. There's got to be some recognition, in my opinion, anyway, that what the individual trainer is doing is giving some very specific feedback on mechanics and technique and that sort of thing that is designed to transfer, and you can do that within a session. But I would think then what the player then has to do is go uh home and then do more of that without the trainer there. And there's also this, you know, there's a large number of kids who will do these exercises. How let's just let's just assume they're really good exercises, tailored for that player's weaknesses, designed correctly. But the only time the kid's going to get a ball out and do it is when uh the trainer's standing right there over the top of them. So talk about how you get the kid to do this outside of the moments when you are there, and then how you reflect that back into sort of a schedule with that kid or an updating of the IDP. That's does that make sense?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, so we I tend to keep it very simple. Now we have an app, Beast Mode Soccer Plus. So, you know, most of the exercises I do will be in there. And I'll, you know, if they need a refresher, I'll be like, right, it's there. That's all I'll well I won't give them more than two exercises to do. And I want them to repeat it because I feel like one of the traps people fall into more, more, and more. I want when we first bought out the app, you know, I was getting texts or emails from people going, oh, my daughter's finished all the sessions. What's what's next? When is the new ones? And I'm like, that one with Alex Morgan, uh, yeah, I'm like, we've probably done that a hundred times. You need a small amount of exercises that you repeat and you repeat and you repeat and you repeat. And that's what we do with our players. Like, number one, doesn't overload them, right? Doesn't confuse them.
SPEAKER_06It's like the book 2,000 drills for dummies. You know, everybody forgets the end of the title.
SPEAKER_07Right? No, it's true, right? And you so it's very simple. And then the IDP is literally like, right, these are the exercises you do this week, boom. But more importantly than that, it's I want you to go to your team practice, and I want you to be brave. Right? I want you to trust yourself and do this in a game or in uh practice at first. And if it doesn't work, and it won't, maybe the first time, second time, third time, I want you to sh have that bravery and keep doing it and tweak it and fix it. And speak to your coach and tell them, listen, I'm I'm trying this this week. This is what I'm trying to get down. Like and that's the way that it will eventually morph into technique in a game, like the skill part of it. Right? So you will see that transition from being able to do it with your friends in a pickup game to then in practice when it matters, then in a game when it really matters. And that's where your coaching comes in, where you coach your players to be brave and to try new things. So for me, like I feel like my players understand that, and and I'll I'll get funny text. I tried that tonight. I'm like, oh, what happened? I'm like, absolutely failed, you know, fell on my ass or something like that. But I've done it in a way that it's like, all right, what did you do? She's like, I kept trying it, I kept trying it. And that's what I want because you know, unfortunately, like we live in a world, right, where instant gratification is everywhere. Right, I I can order something on Amazon and it'll be here in an hour, right? Whereas before like back in good old times, I'd order something and it would take two weeks. And it's the same, kids think it's the same with skill acquisition, right? Well, if I can't do it immediately, and they'll look at other like world-class players and they'll be like, oh, well, they were just born with it. No, they weren't. Anything worth achieving is delayed gratification, and it's gonna take a thousand times of failure before you get that down and you get your mechanics right and you read the players correctly, so you can you know which players you can do this on because this player overcommits and they leave that little bit of space, so you're confident doing it against them. So, you know, that's a long-winded answer to the question, but that's what we do. We're kind of like, Well, we'll do the sessions, and a lot of the times our sessions we're doing the same thing, and I'm we're seeing how they're developing, but I'll set that gauntlet to them, right? Try this, try this this week, and it you know, it doesn't matter if you fail, because at the end of the day, it's only football, right? No one no one's dying, no one's getting shot in the head.
SPEAKER_06How about this? I'll use a uh an old Sun Su quote here, art of war. You know, the a good leader, the people credit the uh success to the leader, and a great leader the people say we did this ourselves. So how do you create because especially if you're starting to work with a young youth player who doesn't know, you go back to your first story in 2003, kid has no idea what to do at home. And I think that's probably a more common scenario, right, besides juggle, right, or kick a ball against a wall, which is a remarkably powerful tool, by the way. I think kicking a ball against a wall might be the best thing you could do with a ball for a long time in your career. How do you help a player, because I assume that this is part of the goal, go from being purely, you know, the student who is saying, okay, yep, the coach is telling me that this is something I should work on, this is how to do it, to ultimately the one charting their journey and starting to be self-reflective and saying, okay, I've identified this as an area I need to be better, and probably at that point going to you and saying, Hey, can you give me some ideas of how to train this? To then also eventually them being able to, in real time, say, you know what, I'm understanding more and more how to train myself, and you are a reference as opposed to a crutch. Does that make sense?
Owning Your Development Through Reflection
SPEAKER_07Yeah, absolutely. And that that's my goal, right? It might my goal is to create. We have a hashtag own your development, right? And what you've just described is the essence of that. Of it usually happen, it will happen usually, I would say, between the ages of 16 and 19, 20. Right. So usually when they're at a good level ECNL team, they start to understand the things that they're that are missing from their game. And it's just it's repeated actions, right? And what what I try to do is create a safe space where they can have that vulnerability and be like, this is what I need to work on. And then we build out from there until eventually they're uh you know a college program, and again, it doesn't need to be a UNC, it can be a D3 or an NAIA school, as long as they know they they know, like, listen, I have looked at the footage and it is confirmed what I think that you know, my when I use a half turn, I'm not checking properly, I keep going into people, or the turn isn't working, whatever it is, then we can guide them, right? And that guidance doesn't leave. Like, I always use like Alex, Alex is a good example because Alex was always aware, but it got to the stage where Alex always knew what she wanted to work on, but it got to the stage where I'd be like, Okay, I 100% agree with that, but what about this as well? And she wouldn't even question it, it would be yeah, yeah, let's add that in, because she knew that I knew her game arguably better than she knew her game, right? So it's the players who do it are the ones who take that extra time to study their game because the there's a formula because what you think you need to work on you've probably overblown in your mind. So get your Huddle or VO, whatever it is, download it, look at your clips. Does it agree with what you think? So a lot of the time it won't. Okay, it does. And then I go to my trainer, send the trainer the clips. What do you think? Then you collaborate, then you switch your coaching. Hey, I'm working on this. Watch me at practice, tell me what you think, and it's a collaboration process, and uh obviously it works well on paper, but 10% of players will do it, and those 10% are usually the ones that are getting they're getting they're gonna get invited to you know the ECNL top 11. Like, you know, it's it's those players because you can tell it's your Ali Sentners, right? Your cat radars, your Shay Harveys, those players. But I've I had I've had Shay since she was 11, I think. She's at Portland now. She was she was she went to quite a few youth teams, but she was always at ECNL. But when Shay was like 16, 17, that's when it started with Shay. Oh Dave, like she's a centre midfielder. When I when I were to take the ball, I'm like, I'm being too safe with it, the ball's too close to me. I need to work on that touch away from it. And you know, I'd watch her footage and I'd agree. So that for me, that's the best formula, but again, realistically, not all players are gonna do it.
SPEAKER_05It sounds to me like also a lot of what you're doing is psychology, yeah. And and and creating creating some confidence or giving being another person there to say it's okay to do to do that.
Soccer Therapy And Modern Communication
SPEAKER_07Yes, it's soccer therapy, honestly. Um and for for all levels, all levels. I would I would even go as far to say as it's more soccer therapy on the pro level, because you know, a lot of coaches don't know how to deliver their message properly. And what we as coaches and trainers have to understand is that humans have evolved in the last 20 years to be a lot more sensitive, right? Now, whether you agree with that or whether you don't agree with that, whether you think they're weaker than we were, whatever, I don't care. But players don't like it. Well, all the feedback is just in your face, right? Yeah, players. Players don't like getting screamed at anymore, right? And players, what I found is like they can they know they can be vulnerable with me because I'll listen. And a lot of it for me is educating the players to understand that okay, like this coach, this is how they deliver, they haven't evolved their delivery, they're not meaning to be mean to you, right? They they don't mean they're not they're not being personal, it's just their delivery. You have to understand their delivery, take out what you know that they mean and ignore the rest. You know, if they use bad language, ignore it. So it's just their delivery, right? And then take what you want, tell me, then we build on it. And a lot of it is soccer therapy.
Training That Looks Like The Game
SPEAKER_06Talk about working with girls versus boys. Are most of the players you work with in the are are they female players? And yeah, regardless of that, how is there a difference when you are are looking uh to plan sessions or interact with the boys and the girls?
SPEAKER_07The honestly, the only difference that I found is that with boys you tend to have to prove yourself a little bit more. They're a little bit like who are you? Again, I feel like now we've got the background where you know I I used to train Landon, Omar came out a bunch of times, Tyler Binden now got signed by Nottingham Forest, he's on loan at Sheffield United, you know, in December. Went up to Nike, worked with Diego Luna, and you know, and again, Christian, it's all about winning people over with evidence, right? So with Diego, first of all, great, great guy, like really pleasant to work with, but I spent eight hours on White Scout looking at everything, getting all his stats, boom, boom, boom, working it all out. And after our first session, he didn't say this to me, but he went up to you know all the Nike people, right? Yeah, he went, he went up to like Ben and was like, bro, this this guy knows my game better than me. And that's my job, male and female, is to win players over with evidence so that then they know I'm serious, they know we're not just doing ball mastery to do ball mastery, we're not hitting long balls to hit long balls, you know, like we're doing this because this is why. X, y, z, this is where you keep missing, right? This is where your first touch needs to set, and it isn't, it's getting away from you. And I say that because there's four examples in these three games.
SPEAKER_06You just brought an idea in my head because I I used to think about this in dealing with long balls, because when you see a lot, let's put it in the bad training category, it's people hitting either stationary long balls or long balls with like the little prep touch with the outside of the foot. So the ball's slightly rolling. And if you then think about being a center midfielder, for example, and having to receive on the half turn, open your body, open your hips, and then whip your hips back across to hit a diagonal, it is almost a completely different set of well, it is a completely different set of movements to set up for the yes, the striking of the ball is the same surface. But if you don't train the actual movement of opening my hips, taking the touch away, and then whipping my hip backs across it, you're not gonna see progress by hitting a stationary ball. And with that Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_07Oh, 100%. But even with that first movement, they've got to be receiving a ball that they actually receive in a game, right? If they're often receiving balls at a shit height, at ankle height, then I need to play those balls in ankle height.
SPEAKER_06So, you know, one of the It's the old if you're if your training doesn't look like your game, there's probably a problem with your training.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and one of the players I've worked with a lot on her long balls is Sarah Gordon. She's a centre back for LA. And with Sarah, it's having a receive and open with a heavier touch than normal because she's usually got that space around her. And then I'm obsessed with texture on the ball. And with Sarah, I'm like, right, you know, if you've got Giselle on the left, and you know that Giselle's gonna be making that run, I want you to texture that ball to it's got the right height, but it's slightly the outside of your foot. So as it bounces, it's the spin takes it further ahead because we know that Giselle is Giselle's rapid, right? So we know that Giselle wants that ball in front of her. I don't want you to play it just Giselle's feet in the air because we're taking away what's most dangerous about her, then. Like, can she deal with it? Yeah, she can deal with it, but let's put it in front of her. And basically, it's a good example because you see it all the time, right? They're just hitting the ball, they're just hitting lawn balls, they're hitting lawn balls. But you've got to take that that picture from their footage, how they receive the ball. When they do spin out, is it the right angle? Right? Can you do a few angles? Because a smart forward will figure out that angle the second time you do it, right? So a smart forward's gonna be like Jodie Taylor, oh my gosh, I love Jodie. Jody is the technical director at Arsenal Women now, but Jodie played for England, she played for Arsenal, Portland, Orlando, and I always used to sell her, I've worked with Jodie a lot, but I used to tell people like she's the smartest player I've ever worked with. And 2015 World Cup, I think it was the quarterfinals, England, uh, Canada at BC Place. I went for uh for dinner with Jodie the night before, and I'm like, oh, what's your plans? And she's like, Um and I I feel bad because I'm throwing someone under the bus, but she's like, I'm just gonna I'm gonna sit off Lauren Sesselman, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, what do you mean? She's like, every time the ball comes nearer, I'm gonna sit off her because she's good for one big mistake every game. And I'm like, it's a bit risky. She's like, no, you you watch. And it was like she was Nostradamus because in that game the ball came in, Lauren had a touch, it wasn't a horrific touch, but it was just far enough. Jody was there like a sniper, and she went in, she got the ball, she knocked my Khadisha with a shot and scored. And I that it blew my mind, right?
SPEAKER_05That that isn't Sesselman a Wisconsin kid, Chris.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good player, good player, but I was always blown by by Jody's in-depth details, right? Like you knew she had studied like all the defenders, she had studied, and that is what she made her mind up on, right? Yeah, that's what I'm gonna wait for.
SPEAKER_06Well, and that that's the other thing embedded in what you're talking about, is every single player has strengths and weaknesses, regardless of what level you're looking at. And the challenge of becoming great, and I think Doug, you and I have talked about this in the past. Great players, truly great players, aren't great at everything. They're really good at everything. There's two or three things that separate them as world class, right? And so to me, part of the challenge of looking at a at a young player is trying to figure out you know, Doug, you call it super strengths, but like what is the thing that we can make different for you than anybody that you're competing with? And to me, that's embedded in your in your planning.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and I think the other thing that probably goes unseen, David, I'd be interested to note here if you agree with me on this, is the more I think with what you're doing and what all I think good coaches try to do, because you're consistently asking the players to reflect, think about what they're good at, see what they're good at, understand what they're good at. I feel like it that's opens players' minds to then do what Jody does and look at what another player might do that they can take advantage of. You know what I mean? So I I think that's the other part of that. It is I think we've talked about this before on this uh podcast is one of the hardest things to me in coaching is to get players to reflect on what they're what they've done and what what it means and how they take that information and make themselves better or recognize those things. It's really hard to do because they want to move on right to the next thing.
SPEAKER_07Now I think what's so powerful now in 2026 is Huddle Y Scout VL trace. I think it's so powerful because yeah, we want players to reflect and we want them to reflect evidence-based facts, right? Because Ray Rachel, Rachel was oh mate, psycho in a good way. Ray Rachel walked off a field after after playing a game of her life and be like, I was shit today, wouldn't I? And you're like, What what part of you were what what particular part of you were shit today? The three goals you scored, and it's like, no, like in the 64th minute, I turned out and went straight into Pinot. It was terrible. And then with footage, I was able to compile, like, right, there's all the things you did really well. There's that one or two moments that that you're reflecting on. Tell me what outweighs what. And there's your there's your soccer therapy for it. Yeah, and then she would understand not necessarily understand, but she'd be like, Yeah, right, that's fair. And I'm like, what you did with you know that movement is we can fix it in a heartbeat, you know, or I'd give respect to the defender. I'm like, defender was brilliant, right? She's obviously studied your game, she knew that you were gonna do that and shut you down. Right? Like respect where it's due.
SPEAKER_06This has been a, I think, a really good discussion. It's clear, and the reason that we wanted to bring you on this is the track record that you've had in terms of players that you've worked with and the growth of the company. It's hard to scale individual training.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_07But it's hard to scale integrity.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_07That's what it's really hard to do. I could do 10 sessions a day, but it's not possible because I can't keep track of players like that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_07You know? So I prefer a smaller circle with better results.
SPEAKER_05Oh, no, Toyotes are pretty good. Would you say I had to pick something?
Less Training More Specific Progress
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna put uh a hype uh an avatar here of the average 15, 14-year-old youth soccer parent. Would you say it is better to have fewer sessions with the trainer, but a more in-depth plan that is more put on the kid to do on their own, but a planned activity tied to the kid and their strengths and weaknesses in film. So, you know, you meet the trainer once every two weeks or three weeks for a session, with for lack of a better word, homework, or to have a trainer who is there three days a week. Yeah, um less but less specific and more generic.
SPEAKER_07This is my fear with the trainer evolution, and I fear that I started it, first of all. So sorry. Um but what I fear is that we're just gonna, you know, that because parents are being sold a lie, right? Like if you train with this guy every day, what's gonna happen? You're gonna produce a techie robot with no football brain, right? So I I usually work with players once every week or once every two weeks, right? Depending on their schedule. And I want those players to work on what we've worked on during the week. And then you'll see if your kid actually wants it.
SPEAKER_06Well, and by the way, I'm gonna guess that the kid who doesn't do anything between the time that you work on them, they're not moving that far and they're not gonna be around that long, do I think?
SPEAKER_07Which is a test for the parent in your kids. Yes, yes, the needle doesn't move, and the parents know. They start, okay, they don't they don't really want it. And then on the other end of the spectrum, you've got you've got your Olivia Moultries, right? Who you had to tell Liv, like, you need to take a day off, bro. You know, like Liv was up at 5 a.m. working whilst her parents were asleep, right?
SPEAKER_06By the way, that's a whole nother topic because I do think that's also, you know, it's sort of the negative of the grind never stops, is there is such a thing as diminishing returns and take take some time off.
SPEAKER_07Kristen, we used to have a t-shirt that said rise and grind and more grind, and it's one of the things I'm ashamed of. And I want to put one out that says rise and grind and nap. Right? Because rise and grind and agree. Recovery is the most important thing in all of our training, team training, individual training, strength training. You need that day off mentally and physically. You have to. And it's you know, sometimes it's spring break, and the parents are like, oh, we feel bad because we're going away. Should we take a ball? And we're like, no, don't take a ball, take a week off, bro. Like it's okay to be.
SPEAKER_06We had a phrase at a pool that was carpe manana, as opposed to carpe diem. You know, it was hey, to may maybe tomorrow you can seize the day. Today you're gonna sit at the pool.
SPEAKER_07Today you're gonna relax because that is a training week. You chilling for a week is it absolutely that can count toward your streak. 100%. It's why we wouldn't do streaks in my app. Because it's important to take time off. Like for me as well, and for you guys as well. Like, I'm sure sometime you get footballed out, right? Because there's there's some times where I'm just like I don't want, I don't even want to watch you. I didn't I didn't watch the League Cup final because I had a gut feeling Arsenal are gonna lose, which is what I didn't watch.
SPEAKER_06But I didn't want to watch it because I'm like, Is that just because that what's tends to happen every time it gets to this time of the year? Yeah. Wow, that's what that's what my kids are huge Arsenal fans for the record, but I I did have the same.
SPEAKER_05They're gonna win the league. You're you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_07They're gonna win the league. No, I think we're gonna win the league, and I think I think we're gonna win the Champions League as well. Really?
SPEAKER_05That's a bold statement right there. That's a bold statement. I don't think the Champions League's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_07I will we will smash Real Madrid to smithereens.
SPEAKER_06Oh, there's a there's a there's a marker laid down right there.
SPEAKER_07That's just my gut feeling because I feel like I think we need to end on that. I mean, that is I can't, I don't think we can go any farther. I'm not putting any money on it.
Bracken Brainbuster And Closing Stories
SPEAKER_06We close all these with the very aptly named Bracken Brainbuster, which is where Doug comes up with a wide range of questions. Some are good and some are not, you know? And then we all give an answer.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you'll know if Christian doesn't like it because he does this face. I'm like, oh well, that's you know, that's instant, uh that's my instant feedback. Instant feedback.
SPEAKER_06Feedback that is timely and measurable. It's very important.
SPEAKER_05And all of our uh Jacob, Ryan, and Dean come back on here so that we can we can ask this question. Sometimes serious, sometimes not. Today's a little more serious, I guess. And this is because I I thought about this with David coming on. What or who made you do what you're doing? Because obviously you've you've taken something and and worked hard to perfect it. You've created something, and uh Christian and I, and I don't know uh everybody's origin story uh here, but Christian and I obviously were involved in starting PCL.
SPEAKER_07Which by the way, respect, because you guys have absolutely killed it. And it's it's the league that I recommend to everyone because you do things the right way.
SPEAKER_06Well, we appreciate that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it wasn't just us, but uh we were we were there. Uh we were there. So what or who made you want to do what what you do?
SPEAKER_07And David, I'll I'll give you the floor first. I would say the tipping point for me was Ali Riley when she pulled me and said you need to grow up, you've got something here, you've got a special talent. And that was when I thought, if this kid's saying this who's always mean to me, then it means something, right? And that's when I thought, yeah, this is gonna work. Awesome.
SPEAKER_06Hi Labers, you're next. I get next. The first time I became really uh reflective and aware of the impact of a coach, it wasn't uh wasn't a coach that ever coached me, but I did some trainings with him as a young player in college, this guy named Brett Hall from Chicago, an old NASL guy who works with worked with a lot of players, male, male and female in Chicago, and I saw how much those players improved and how important he was to them in their growth just as a mentor for a lot of them. And I said, you know what, that that's an incredible power of a coach, and it made me more interested in becoming a coach, watching that impact.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, cool. Let's go to Dean Linke.
SPEAKER_06We know that Leah made you want to do what you do, but beyond that, Leah gets worked into every answer, David, which is Dean's wife.
SPEAKER_00So he always finds a way. 31 years, David, and counting. Uh, with respect. I respect the spring. I'll start with my grandma because she was a massive Detroit Tigers fan, and I would fall asleep every night listening to Ernie Harwell, who is one of the all-time great voices of broadcasting, and that's when I knew I wanted to be a broadcaster. The good kind of segue for me was deciding to do a PR degree and getting picked up by U.S. Soccer while I was still in college in 1989. And if you look at what happened in '89 through '96, and then being able to join the Colorado Rapids as their TV voice would be the tipping point. But I got to give credit to my grandma and Ernie Harwell with a little tip of the hat to Chick Hearn, since I lived out in LA and went to a lot of LA Lakers games and got to listen to him because I think he's one of the all-time greats. Yeah, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Uh, let's go to Ryan. I don't know if there's any um person in particular, but just growing up and loving sports and just liking just such a wide range of sports and playing a lot of different sports growing up, just always made me want to stay close to it. And I was always good at writing as well. So just kind of connected those two things together and tried to make something out of it with that. All right, Jacob.
SPEAKER_01Uh, I gotta give a lot of credit to my parents. They always said that I could be whatever I wanted to be when growing up. And in high school, when it became very apparent I wasn't going to be a professional athlete, I kind of turned to communications and specifically journalism because I would read the Sunday and Saturday newspaper, the sports section, every day growing up with my serial. But they're the first people then in college. Uh Caitlin Moyer, who is the director of digital media for the Milwaukee Brewers, she gave me an internship uh with the Brewers my senior year, and she showed me that I wanted to work for teams and organizations, not for newspapers. And then I got to give credit to Andrea because she hired me the first time here in the ECNL. And then when I went away, and then she brought me back for my second tour. So I'd say those how I ended up here specifically at the ECNL, Andrea Christian Baker.
SPEAKER_06We were very uncertain about bringing you back, you know, having had a very good thing.
SPEAKER_05A lot of uncertainty. No, the jury's still out.
SPEAKER_06I will add, uh, you know, your story, David, about sort of you know, house sitting and and using somebody's field. And I remember when I started looking into soccer, I was graduating and all my friends were going to Arthur Anderson or you know, IBM or some big company like that. And I was like, I think I might coach if uh if my parents hadn't said, you know what, do it, if that's what you want to do, go do it, but keep moving forward. I probably wouldn't have had the uh confidence to do that and would have been uh very similar to you in that sense of there was a moment where you said, you know what, maybe I'll take this more seriously, and somebody, somebody helps support that or provoke it.
SPEAKER_07And look at look at what you guys have grown, right? Like it's cra it's so big. It's so big, and it is the top, it's probably the top youth league in the world. Right? It's massive, and look at the players that that league churns out. Right? It's you you guys, I don't think you guys realize the amount of impact that you've had on the landscape because you live it day in, day out, right? But when I get a kid who plays ECNL, they wear that badge with the utmost pride because that may that if in their head that means they've made it at a youth level, and I think you guys should be really, really proud of what you've done.
SPEAKER_06Well, I appreciate that, and I will say one of the core values is that the league doesn't develop players, clubs develop players, and we serve them and uh serve the coaches, and individual coaches are a part of that. And I think that the best clubs have a way of solving the individual training um dilemma. Definitely, you know, whether that's outsourced or working with people or in-house or whatever it may be, it's not ignored, it's it's addressed very intentionally. So really appreciate you being on here and sharing your story and uh good to connect. I'm sure we'll have you on again.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. I'll put my glasses back on now so you can make fun of me. So you can see it's immediately the first time.
SPEAKER_05That's maybe that's why I took his glasses off. I can't I can't answer. I did not get to answer. Thank you for putting my questions. Oh, right. We gotta go back to Doug. Yeah, yeah. Um, I did not have any idea. I loved sports growing up. Um, I loved playing sports, uh, being involved in it. But when I went to college, I befriended a guy who had played uh basketball at Ashland University where I where I went. But he was an he was an old timer. His name is Kevin Wilson. So he and I just became friends and had a relationship or a kind of a mentor type relationship. He was the director of sales recruitment for the Hyatt Regency Corporation. So he asked me if I would be interested in becoming a sales manager for for the Hyatt Regency Corporation. But I found like, yeah, and I said yes, that was my first job. I was a high I was a sales manager. I know, yeah, right. I was a sales manager at the Hyatt Regency and so in New Orleans, Louisiana, very oppressively hot down there. Not not great. As I talk to him all the time, we talked a lot about coaching. And so after I'd been there for a year, I said, you know, this really isn't for me. I really want to get into coaching. Um, one of my college teammates, Mike Varga, who I have to give credit to, said, Hey, I'm I'm the head coach at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, and come be my grad assistant. And so that's that's how I started it. I thought back then if I could make you know enough money to live you know a meager existence and be able to coach and do something I enjoyed, I would, I would have, I would have made it. So fast forward to hear, obviously, we've we've had a lot of really cool opportunities and things have aligned where we're we're able to do something that we we really enjoy doing. And Christian and I sat next to each other at a meeting and didn't really know each other, and then we started working together, and it's been 17 years of that. Mostly good. Mostly good. So it's been great. But we all have some driving force, so I thought that was an important question to ask. So that's cool. But David, yes, thank you, man. That was uh super interesting. I think it's really helpful, also, information for people.
SPEAKER_07I have a kid who plays, and yeah, so I appreciate you guys' time, I appreciate the platform, and I appreciate what you all do. Low key. Low key. I've always been a fan of Dean.
SPEAKER_00Oh wow.
SPEAKER_07Now you've got a friend for life, mate. He's got such a good voice, right?
SPEAKER_05His voice is made for commentary. Voice of our generation. Yeah, voice of our generation.
SPEAKER_00I was actually getting ready to give Christian the needle and say he doesn't know who Chick Hearn or Ernie Harwell is. Uh you know at least one of those guys, Christian. Right?
SPEAKER_05Everybody knows Chick Hearn. Everybody knows Chick Hearn. Come on. He has no idea. He doesn't. All right. Well, uh, this was great. Thanks to everybody. We'll be back in a couple weeks. And until then, uh that's a wrap. That's a wrap.