King Knight Education

These two books are being used by forward thinking coaches internationally to inform their coaching. DM for referrals to coaches currently on the Tactical Periodization Masters from Portugal who are using both of these books together. From Seirul·lo to Guardiola: The Espacio de Fase and the Evolution of Positional Play: tinyurl.com/4863wwtk Football Ecology: A Practical Manual For Constraints Led Approach to Coaching: tinyurl.com/4yuh75xn

@coachryanjones YouTube. US Futsal is a racket. Useless. Like all the other stuff, one day they said ‘let’s make a course/federation about futsal’. No prior knowledge or experts.

Does anyone know where someone could learn more about coaching futsal?

@Erushforth1 Hey Elliot, no, its actually large. Looks a touch larger than a size five. I think I found it. "Bola Society". Although I would be interested if anyone else knows what I am talking about.

@KingKnightEd The small one ? Futebol de salou

Coaches: what are the names of the balls that you often see used in videos of Brazilian street skills?

@BMichaels22 I don’t know that a child should ‘lead’ that level of conversation to be honest but if you refer to my original post I did say that the child should be interested in the conversation.

@KingKnightEd I would add, as long as the child is the one leading that conversation. If they don’t want to talk about it. Leave them alone. You’re a parent there for support, you’re not their coach.

People on socials telling you to not speak to your child about the game on the car ride home, goes exactly contrary to the research on feedback. Should you be screaming and shouting at your child over a game? NO! Should you talk to them about what they feel/think/saw and what you observed? And have a healthy chat about it? Absolutely! Never has there been so much nonsense from washed up former ‘pros’ or mid level directors at small clubs filming themselves in their car on their drive home “I don’t know who needs to hear this”, or “the fastest way to screw up your kid is…”. Nonsense. If a child ran in front of a car, you would instantly tell them in the moment and just after (and probably forever more) that “cars can kill you, please don’t do it again”. As long as you are not a bore. As long as your child expresses an interest. As long as you are not aggressive with the feedback, immediate feedback is the best received feedback. ‘Coaches’ and ‘psychological experts’ telling you to say nothing and just enjoy it for what it is, are the same coaches still using cone drills and telling you that there is no such thing as competitive football/soccer. Everyone in life requires feedback. Just be careful how you administer it.

Football is not played on a static tactics board. It lives in dynamic, relational spaces that emerge around the ball, teammates, opponents, pressure and transition. That is the heart of From Seirul·lo to Guardiola: The Espacio de Fase and the Evolution of Positional Play. The book explores three key spaces: Game Center Space — the duel around the ball. Direct Cooperation Space — the immediate support network that keeps play alive. Indirect Cooperation Space — the wider structure that creates width, depth, rest-defense and future advantage. Through Seirul·lo, Cruyff and Guardiola, it traces how Barcelona’s methodology evolved from multidimensional training into Juego de Posición as a living ecosystem of intervention, cooperation and structure. For coaches interested in positional play, Tactical Periodization, dynamic spaces, rondos, positional games, SSPs and building a club Game Model, this book gives a language for seeing beyond formations and into the relationships that actually shape the game. From Seirul·lo to Guardiola: The Espacio de Fase and the Evolution of Positional Play tinyurl.com/4863wwtk

There are enough courses and enough information freely out there now that if, as a coach, you are ignoring the principle of reducing without impoverishing or respecting the whoelness of the game, you are doing it willfully. If the majority of your activities (and there are exceptions (recovery/specific technical or physical work (coadjuvant training) where you MIGHT not fully respect the game and instead choose some form of analytical training) are not open, complex, opposed, contain transition etc. then what are you really doing? Come and speak with us if you need help here.

I used to think this. And there may be a ton of other reasons why it isnt a good idea. But from a player talent dilution standpoint it can be the best thing for the players. Too many angry little board members start their own club out of spite or not being fully in control and break up groups of friends, groups of parents and take the best talent in the area and split it across multiple clubs instead of focussing and concentrating it in one club where the stronger player environment would benefit all who train in it.

Holy. Shit. Epic. Jose Mourinho is Real Madrid president Florentino Perez’s favoured candidate to replace Alvaro Arbeloa.

If a coach were to read you annual coaching plan, your monthly cycle, your weekly micro cycle, your daily session or even just an activity from one session, he should come away with an understanding of your game idea.

This is the very definition of closed mindset. This is why none of these three people will ever succeed. I would never let my children anywhere near these three people. People fear what they can not understand and they criticize what they fear. instagram.com/reel/DXcEZgpCJ…

I would say also, if you’re treating sports like a business, or an investment, talking about roi, you might be missing something. Players want to be in the best environment they can. Surrounded by the strongest coaches and the best players. In the us, for the boys, that is mls next. Is there a second team environment? Of course. America may have the highest participation number of players in the world. They need an outlet. I don’t think America has it down perfectly but one thing you have to concede is that within a given geographical area, America offers as many levels of football as it can ranging from professional, to professional pathway (mls next), to higher level travel (ECNL/upsl), to regular travel (USYS and US Club), to recreation. On top of that you have the disaster that is high school and college soccer. Not every player wants to be professional, nor are they good enough to be professional, but to the best of its ability the US does offer a professional pathway. Drop out numbers in youth sports and the tiny % of players that make it as professional are not indicative of a bad system per se. The almost 0% of players that make it professionally is to be expected. Same as the amount of people that want to be an astronaut. It’s hard. Not everyone has what it takes but when you are within that mls next sphere you absolutely have the opportunity and exposure to show what you have and if you don’t/can’t then sometimes that’s on the player or, maybe more accurately, they just don’t have it. And as for fees, I am English, American fees are ridiculous but it is different here. Back home local fields were free and so many dads in the group used to play that there were plenty of options for coaches so a paid coach was not needed, a bunch of dads got together and did it for free. A dad possibly even referees for free. In a country where the culture is young, and the dads probably didn’t play, you need paid coaches, you need paid referees. The fields are far from free. But even in England, when you are talking about academy level, these are now professionally paid coaches. Same as here. And how could you possibly advertise mls next as a pitential development pathway to the professional game if you didn’t have A licensed professional people doing it. That took it seriously and know what to do. Is it perfect? Of course not. Not even Spain or Italy have a perfect youth system. But is it as bad as some people with a genders of pushing their own solution make out? Of course no.

Sure. Thanks. The final output is not a possibility of an ROI on the cost. Unless they are one of the very few that does not have lower level players subsidizing the “real” MLS academy. By last count- nearly all of them have that model. My club does not. We don’t pay for good players with dues from inferior players.

Parents ask me ECNL or MLS Next all the time. When I explain what neither of them is actually designed to do they're always shocked. I'm not selling anything. Just telling the truth. That's how rare it is in American youth soccer. #USMNT #MeritOverMoney

@alexlubyansky_ @BradSchneller So your club is free to play for all? Please tell me about that. Sounds great. I would love to know how it works.

You're reply is disinggenious. Just because I said 'thats how it is' within my response doe not mean that I am writing the system off and saying 'thrres nothing can be done'. I said that line in response to 'America is pay top play'. That WILL NEVER change. That IS HOW IT IS. My comments were directed at your comments about MLS Academies being money grabbing lie factories. That just is not true. I'm not sure how your experience can show a different answer. Maybe you could elaborate and explain with specific examples.

@KingKnightEd @BradSchneller Thanks for the dialogue. Your view, in my view, lacks nuance. "That's just how it is" is the most dangerous line in most places- not just American youth soccer.

There are a lot more than a few. Your statement is very generalized and lacks nuance. America is pay to play, that’s just how it is. Some levels are higher than others. Those higher levels are closer to the professional pathways than the lower levels. Professional players have to be drawn from somewhere. I am not saying that there aren’t places that promise professional contracts but that is not overwhelmingly the case with mls next academies.

@KingKnightEd @BradSchneller There are only a few of those. The rest are fully funded on top, subsidized by low level players paying dues. Like a reserve team, or another platform team, or both. I’ve seen them with hundreds of P2P under. I’ve seen them with affiliate P2P in other markets. Great question.

@alexlubyansky_ @BradSchneller Don’t quite understand how fully funded mls next academies extract money?

@BradSchneller Sorry, don’t understand twitter that well yet- elaborate on what? Just joined this thing

@coachryanjones Hello Ryan how are you? That’s really upsetting. A good few hundred have sold on Kindle and we haven’t heard any issues. I just purchased it myself to check and no problems. What are you using? iPad? Kindle? Web browser?

Has anyone ever experienced this using the Kindle app on iPad? It's making it a little difficult to fully enjoy the @KingKnightEd Espacio De Fase book 😔

US Youth referees would be losing their minds over Declan Rice’s throw ins today. Foot over the line. Foot up. And a bunch of other made up stuff because when you never played and have never watched a single game on tv, that’s all you know how to call….