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Join John Allpress, former assistant head of academy player and coach development at Tottenham Hotspur and Aaron Allpress, strength and conditioning coach and professional squash player, as they explore how to get the most out of pre-season with your team, incorporating the physical, mental and technical aspects of the game. This podcast is the audio version of a Soccer Coach Weekly webinar. If you want to watch the webinar, see the slides and video, and get the associated resources, plus check out more of our pre-season content, including planning guidance, core practices provided by John himself, a four-week plan, tips and webinars on preparing for match day, and a whole host more, head to: soccercoachweekly.net/pre-season Think we've missed anything, or got any thoughts for us? Let Steph know: [email protected]

John Allpress is ex-assistant head of academy player and coach development at Tottenham Hotspur and a Former national coach at the English FA. He has decades of coaching experience, and a keen interest in how players learn and take on information. Here, he shares his knowledge on how youngsters learn, and how we, as coaches, can use that information to help them get better.  Find this in written form: https://www.soccercoachweekly.net/coaching-advice/how-youngsters-learn---and-how-you-can-help-them Register for John's webinar on October 25: https://www.soccercoachweekly.net/coaching-events/how-to-help-your-players-get-better---cpd ---------------------------------------------- The Journey to Training is a series from Soccer Coach Weekly,  sharing advice, ideas, inspiration and opportunities for coaches to reflect as they head to their next training session. Or, as they head anywhere, really. Ultimately, we want to help you become a better coach, and solve some of your coaching problems. Wherever and whenever you listen, we hope to do just that. Find more from us: www.soccercoachweekly.net

Moritz Kossmann is DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City in South Africa. Here, he speaks to Soccer Coach Weekly about the skills of covering and recovering – how the approach to them differs depending on position, how we sell the skills as positive actions and the role leadership and communication plays...

Moritz Kossmann is DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City in South Africa. Here, he speaks to Soccer Coach Weekly about the skills of challenging - how it has changed over the years, the role of strength in the challenge and the information that goes into decision-making around challenging…

Moritz Kossmann is DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City in South Africa. Soccer Coach Weekly caught up with Moritz to discuss the crucial skill of intercepting.  He covers whether it’s a natural action for players, how important communication is alongside it, and how players can build up their knowledge around it as they progress...

Moritz Kossmann defines the act of marking as "the act of tracking the movements of an opponent player and looking to close them down in a 1v1 situation or to intercept the ball as they are receiving or are about to receive the ball". Moritz - DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City - speaks to SCW about what marking looks like for different positions, the decision-making process, the physicality required and how players learn about marking over the course of their development...

For Moritz Kossmann, pressing is the primary defensive action in soccer. It is, in his words, “an attempt at putting pressure on an opponent who has the ball so that they can't progress the ball up the field easily". Moritz - who has now moved on from his role at Ubuntu Football Academy to become DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City - sat down with Steph Fairbairn to discuss collective pressing strategies, individual pressing principles and how to coach it all...

Passing is more than just transferring the ball from one player to the other. At the elite levels, in particular, it is like a secret language, full of non-verbal signals and triggers, underpinned by players' ability to see the bigger picture in their heads. Moritz - who has now moved on from his role at Ubuntu Football Academy to become DStv Diski Challenge coach and head of youth at Cape Town City - sat down with Steph Fairbairn to discuss how passing can be used as a form of communication, the decision-making that goes into it and why the actions after a pass are so crucial...

Moritz Kossmann defines turning as: “A change of direction on the ball while you are in possession of the ball". Moritz is a coach at Ubuntu Football Academy in Cape Town, where he coaches the U21s, who play in the third tier of South African football, and oversees the senior section, made up of U18s and U16s. Having previously discussed receiving the ball, moving with it and finishing, he now talks to SCW about turning – why it is so important to the game, how players off the ball can support the player in possession while turning and what the building blocks of learning turning techniques are…

Goals win games. But attempting to finish, never mind actually scoring, isn’t easy to do. Moritz Kossmann is a coach at Ubuntu Football Academy in Cape Town, where he coaches the U21s - who play in the third tier of South African football - and oversees the senior section, made up of U18s and U16s. In our May 5 and May 26 issues, he spoke to us about receiving the ball and moving with it. This time, it’s all about finishing. Moritz covers what it is, the techniques and the building blocks for players learning the skill…

When to do it, what parts of the foot to use and how underloads aid attackers' dribbling development. Moritz Kossmann shares his expertise on moving with the ball...

Receiving is such a vital skill in soccer. A good first touch can beat a player in an instant, get a team out of trouble or create a chance on goal. But how can we support players to improve their receiving? Moritz Kossmann is a coach at Ubuntu Football Academy in Cape Town. There, he coaches the U21s, who play in the third tier of South African football, and oversees the senior section, made up of U18s and U16s. Moritz lent SCW his expertise on receiving – what it is, what good receiving looks like and how we can coach it…

As a player, Joanna Boyles Fennema performed at the highest level. She spent her four college years with the North Carolina Tar Heels, represented the U17 US national team and played for the Orlando Pride in the NWSL. Alongside success, Fennema’s playing days came with a lot of challenges – she was drafted by the Boston Breakers just before the team folded, suffered two ACL injuries while at college, discovered she has severely degenerative discs in her back. This back injury, and subsequent hip labrum tears, led Fennema to retire at 24. A chance encounter led her back into the game, and she is now thriving as an assistant coach at Columbus State University (CSU). SCW caught up with Jo to talk about the transition from player to coach, and how coaches can best support players going through injuries...

Mark Jenkins is the U15s lead coach at Weston-super-Mare AFC, a semi-professional club based on the southwest coast of England. Having been ready to keep working with his current crop of players for a few years, Mark was told that he would be given a new group for the 2023-24 season. It spurred him to start early with his season planning, and give him the best chance of getting the most out of his players. SCW caught up with the Uefa B-qualified coach to find out more about how he is going about preparing for next season...

Sarah Brady had aspirations of making it as a player. She went through Everton’s academy before playing for her beloved Liverpool for a brief time, and then moving to Leeds United for a short spell. When, she says, her "body didn’t really want to comply with the ambition", she took a step into coaching. It led her to the USA 14 years ago, where she has “done everything, from tying the shoelaces of three-year-olds all the way up to the collegiate game”. Last season, she was head coach of AC Connecticut in the inaugural USL W League, a pre-professional women’s league. Now, she is the USL academy director for the women’s pathway. SCW caught up with Sarah to find out more about the USL Academy structure, the Academy Cup, and what challenges coaches face working in the set up…