Day 3 Parts 3,4,5..... Just 4 Keepers in the House!!

After thanking Coach Fortran again! I told him I had to run to get to another convention highlight..... although this one was not directly related to the NSCAA convention. I was headed to meet Just 4 Keepers founder Ray Newland, J4K Washington, Stephen Swanger and J4K Toronto, Canada, Roy Howell and his coaching partner from the Mustangs, Omar Jbaihi for some drinks and an unofficial J4K meeting. I have Skyped with these guys several times, and I had met Stephen face to face on Wednesday, but I was looking forward to meeting Ray and Roy for the first time and get pumped up for J4K and talk game plans for future business opportunities to help every keeper we can!!

From left to right: Prince Knight, Roy Powell, Ray Newland, Omar Jbaihi, Stephen Swanger

It was great to hang out with Ray, Roy Steve and Omar. The five of us  had a good time laughing about various stories and come to find out that Ray has really good (make that bad) sense of humor! If you get a chance to meet him, make sure he tells you a joke! We did talk quite a bit of business. J4K has a great future and we are in the process of taking the USA by storm! 5 State Directors and almost 40 Goalkeeper coaches across the country including Hawaii (yep, Hawaii....wanna go?). Steve and I also had a chance to discuss further details regarding our joint venture of taking US goalkeepers to UK this summer on a GoPlay Sports Travel Package and a J4K residential camp. It is going to be a great opportunity for the keepers that join in on the adventure! (wanna go?)

Steve had to get back to the exhibitor hall, Ray had a meeting to get to, I wanted to catch a Futsal session and Roy and Omar were going to do some downtown LA shopping for their wives. So we agreed that we would meet back up for dinner at 9pm.

Coach Park working with U16 Girls on the Futsal court

If you remember last year's convention, one of the poor sessions occurred on the Futsal court. Well shall we repeat that? I wanted to see if my Scottish coach, Donald Park, Head of Coach Education, Scottish FA could be more impressive on the court than he was in his lecture....... IMO, he was not. I'm not sure why he, or his counterparts, or NSCAA could run an effective session with U16 girls dealing with 'movement to find your striker' on a Futsal court playing 6 v 6?! A Futsal court is designed for 5 v 5 and trying to find space was next to impossible let alone trying to move and pass with a purpose to find your striker. To make matters worse, coach Park stopped the session way too much, so the girls could not get into any type of rhythm and they also had difficulty understanding him. But it was a required practical session for the Special Topics Diploma - Advanced Youth Coaching, so I watched and continued to critique.
 
Headed back to the exhibit hall to talk with some more vendors about goals for NSSC and a few other small guys before the exhibit hall closed up at 5pm. Decided to go back to the hotel, freshen up, change and get ready to go out with the J4K guys.

I wish that I could tell you that the five us went wild and crazy in LA, and yes we drank and had a good time!, but the truth is, after a good Mexican dinner, we went to an Irish pub, found that it had turned into an LA 90's dance club, loud and jam packed with all sorts of people! We had one drink each and determined it was time to call it a night a little after midnight. Guess we are getting too old to go romping around downtown! As long as I'm not too old to play competitive soccer twice per week and then have tons of fun with kids on the field!!!

Let's get on to Saturday!

Day 3 Part 2 - Coach Fortran to the Rescue!

<<Quick Technical Note: I apologize for the delays in posts. I had some strange computer problems that put me way behind schedule. So I am trying to get caught up as quick as possible! Thanks for your patience and understanding>>

On the way back to the hotel, I grabbed a yummy breakfast sandwich and a fresh coffee. I got to the room and restarted my day. I had a little time to kill so I took my time to ensure my next attack would have a chance at success. So I slowly got ready again, took a Taxi back to the convention center and spent a few minutes in the convention center looking at cool toys and decide to take some video that I could share with you.

Regarding the price? It falls under, if you have to ask...you can't afford it ;-)

Onto my next session. 'What Drives Winning: Building Character Gets Results. Here's How' Presenters Becky Burleigh and Brett Ledbetter were tasked with teaching the audience about culture and character. I was really looking forward to it for two reasons. First Becky is a great speaker and I am familiar with her positive attitude. Second, club and team culture is something that I have been focusing on for New Scotland Soccer Club. We are definitely getting there with much work still to be done. So let's go learn from the experts. Well I guess everyone else at the convention had the same idea! When I went through the double doors to the double sized lecture room........standing room only!! As I glanced around the room to see where I was going to stand (or sit on the floor like others), I saw Coach Rod Fortran from NSSC. We nodded our hello's from across the room and I began walking the perimeter to see what I was going to do. I knew I couldn't stand for the entire hour, and I knew that sitting on the floor would be awful for my knee. Just then......"Prince!" Coach Fortran was beckoning me to come to him front and center of the room. Two coaches just up and walked out right next to him and he motioned me to hurry. Maybe the best seats in the house!! A great combination play to penetrate the middle of the field!! Thanks Coach!

This session may be the highlight of the convention! Brett Ledbetter is a sports psychologist who works with top pro teams and athletes. Even though Basketball is his sport, he filled the audience with outstanding stories, observations and techniques on how (and who) to develop into winning leaders. Highlight statements include:

• Ask players why?
• Behavior is how you act, Character is who you are
• The power of the coach to affect the team
• "Failure doesn't exist" and other great quotes and attitude from a young Kobe Bryant
• Family - Forget about me, I love you and love is sacrifice
• Great leaders lead moment to moment

Brett and Becky did a great job of keeping the audience focused using little exercises and mini group discussions. Very informative and very enjoyable! Best thing that I took away from it was a team activity.....Rock, Paper, Scissors team tournament!! Not sure if it right for a U10 team (maybe we'll try) but I watched it work pure magic with a college level girls team! So I'll stash it away for later use.

Thanks again, Coach Fortran,  for looking out for one of your own!!

Prince Knight

New York State Director - Just 4 Keepers, USA

Head Coach - Just4Keepers - Capital District, NY

Cell: (518)-857-2969

PrinceKnight@Just4Keepers.com

www.Just4Keepers.com

World Class Gloves & Goalkeeping Apparel with Prices that Keep the Family Budget in Mind!

NY.J4KSports.com

Day 3 - Part 1 - Challenges after choices

So as any good soccer coach, and as a good soccer player should do, I tried to learn from my taxicab decision yesterday and improve to a better decision and arranged an Uber ride. So what that did was provide me with the opportunity to point out that what sometimes could be a better choice, may not always turn out that way! I apparently connected with an Uber driver who was having problems picking someone else up in the 'Pool' and as I watched taxi after taxi after taxi pick up coaches and convention goers, I stood there asking myself once again, "Was this the better choice?".

Off to the convention I went, about 20 minutes later than I wanted, had coffee but no food, and I really wanted to find a place to work on the Blog and answer some soccer and work emails. When I found a semi-private corner near my first lecture hall, I set up my MS Surface and got working. About 10 minutes into the Blog entry......screen went black!! Fully charged, I wasn't sure what the problem was, but my morning frustration grew! So I asked, did the lack of success from my earlier choice, put me in a position that would affect my actions?" I had another choice to make...try to troubleshoot my Surface, or head to my lecture?"

I chose to go to the first lecture, 'The Development Cycle' where my friends Ian Barker and David Newberry were going to discuss player development with Scottish FA national team program coaches and DOE, Donald Park. Now I have met and talked with Dave and Ian, multiple times at multiple conventions and clinics, dare I call them friends?? Ian greeted me by first name and laughed with me at us being #1 Twitter fans, so yes, I will say we are friends :-) After catching up with both of them, it was time for the lecture to start. To my disappointment, Ian and Dave sat in the seats and let the three Scottish coaches take over! Please know that I am a Glasgow Rangers fan and I love Scottish football, but to be frank, I had a very difficult time understanding them  and in my opinion they weren't very well organized. It made for a difficult and unrewarding session.

So even at the greatest convention surrounded by soccer, it was a difficult morning. So what to do?? Choice after choice, seemed to not have success. I decided to 'maintain possession' and played a supporting pass.....in other words, I went back to the hotel.

Prince Knight

New York State Director - Just 4 Keepers, USA

Head Coach - Just4Keepers - Capital District, NY

Cell: (518)-857-2969

PrinceKnight@Just4Keepers.com

www.Just4Keepers.com

World Class Gloves & Goalkeeping Apparel with Prices that Keep the Family Budget in Mind!

NY.J4KSports.com

Day 2 - Finale - Toys, Tours and Goals

As many of you know, Coach Knight loves his 'soccer toys'! Hurdles, ladders, rings, dummies, small goals, gates, cones, poles and specialized training equipment that you may not have seen before! I love the exhibitor hall at each convention I go to. I always try to bring something back to add to my arsenal. Always trying to keep training fresh and fun for all of my players! So off I went to explore the vast booths at this yer's convention. As this is my third convention, I have a nice routine that I like to stick to....first night make sure to walk down every path, look at each booth, don't stay too long at any one area, tell the pushy vendors that I'll talk to them later and make a mental checklist of the booths that I want to go back to visit and talk in detail. So after that initial walk through which took almost an hour, I had somewhat of an agenda set.

First, NSSC needs some new small goals for our U8 program. The kids are tired of shooting at "Pug-Goals"! They want the real deal to have the feeling of the ball hitting the back of the net or bouncing off the post!! So there were three or four vendors that I spent some time with. I am keeping in touch with the club officers and hopefully we will make a deal in the very near future.

Next I wanted to visit the GoPlay Sports booth. Coach Knight is working with J4K Washington coach, Stephen Swanger who also works for GoPlay. We are planning a trip this summer to take 20 goalkeepers over to the UK and train with professional and semi-pro keepers at a J4K residential in York!! So we needed to compare notes and introduce me to the rest of the GoPlay team! This trip should be awesome!!

Then I figured I would do some window shopping, enter a few giveaways and talk to a few people on items or services that I was not really interested in (although if I had a million dollars.......hmmmm I might buy this).

Craziest automatic ball server I have ever seen!

So instead, I picked up some small freebies and some not so small, before the hall closed at 9pm. Headed back to the hotel....via my first Uber ride!!! Went somewhat smooth, but it takes a little getting used to trying to find your driver among all of the others. So I am still trying to determine if it is the "better choice"

G'night :-)

Prince Knight

New York State Director - Just 4 Keepers, USA

Head Coach - Just4Keepers - Capital District, NY

Cell: (518)-857-2969

PrinceKnight@Just4Keepers.com

www.Just4Keepers.com

World Class Gloves & Goalkeeping Apparel with Prices that Keep the Family Budget in Mind!

NY.J4KSports.com

Day 2 Part 3 - Words from the great ones!

After a great session like the 'Next Level', I am always pumped and ready to go! I had just enough time to grab a a cup of coffee and update the latest Blog! So I made myself comfortable at a random large table where coaches shared space to eat, drink, work and chat. After I jotted down the draft for the Blog, some of the coaches began to make small talk. Today, I was wearing my Voorheesville Black Bird track suit. The coach to my right, who was from Colorado, said, "Is that Voorheesville near Albany, NY?" Somewhat amazed, I answered, "Why, yes! How the heck do you know that?" Turns out he was originally from the neighboring town of Guilderland....once upon a time. Small world! Then as the coaches to my left, who were also from Colorado, but did not know the former 'Guilderland' coach but were familiar with each other's clubs, learned that I also was part of Just4Keepers. They were very familiar with the outstanding work of Coach Z in Colorado and couldn't say enough great things about him, his training technique and the success he has had. So once again keepers, please know that being part of J4K is being part of something big!

So now onto another highlight. This one was marked with double stars in my schedule! A one on one with Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid! Now there were some great questions asked and some good stories that they shared with us. Everyone was trying to gauge how Arena would handle the challenge of managing the USMNT. What I would like to share with you the most, is for the goalkeepers. Hear what these two Master Coaches have to say about the modern goalkeeper.

I would like all of my Just4Keepers to watch and listen and then ask themselves......"Do I have what it takes to be a great goalkeeper?? I hope the answer is yes, because I want to help you be the best you can be!!

Onto the Exhibit Hall!!!

Day 2 - Part 2 1st Convention Highlight!!

So after lunch, I attended a field session, Development for the 'Next Level' with famous UNC women's coach, Anson Dorrance. I was really looking forward to watching him run a session with some U12 girls. However, a twist!! Anson welcomed the crowd, shared a few opinions on the session topic and how North Carolina has had some great success, and then handed the session over to a younger coach named Damon Nahas. At first, I was somewhat disappointed. Then I watched as Coach Nahas conducted a great session with these young girls. Full of energy, positive reinforcement, fun and challenging activities!! Furthermore, he was a great coaches' coach. I have said in previous Blog's from last year, some coaches are great with kids but cannot teach coaches. Damon was great!! I took two pages of notes, sketched all 4 of his activities that he shared with us and maybe a half a dozen coaching points!! Look out U10's, I am ready for some fun!!

First, coach Doarrance addresses the crowd

 Then Coach Nahas Takes Over!

 Full of energy and interaction with the kids 

The girls were tired and well worked, but all had smiles :-)

Day 2 - Part 1 - Choices...Taxi vs Uber

Good Morning and Good Day!

Great night sleep had me up and ready early. Full schedule on the slate, I wanted to get to the convention center early. When I threw open the curtains..........RAIN!! OK no worries, at least it's not snow ;-) But I decided I wasn't going to walk the mile to the convention center and needed a ride. I always coach my players, there's always a choice to be made. Whether you're a goalkeeper and you are deciding to punt or throw for your distribution, or if you are a striker, are you going to challenge 1v1 or are you going to pass to a supporting player and make a run?? There are always choices on the soccer field. I tell my players that there is never a wrong choice, only better choices for each situation. So my turn for a choice, traditional Taxicab or contemporary Uber?? Being old school I chose Taxi.......got me here..... but there probably was  a better choice in Uber. As I saw maybe 10 people get their Uber rides before I got my cab. So kids, remember, you have a choice on the soccer field. What I want to encourage you to always ask yourself.....Is there a better choice????

First Session this morning was building team culture. Sports psychologist Dr. Tiffany Jones, President, X-Factor Performance Consulting She took a group of post college girl athletes from different teams and ran some 'brain endurance training' exercises and showed us how you can use this for team building. Memory games, pattern recognition activities and conditional rules games can all be used to build teamwork, problem solving and identifying leadership qualities. Now, her methods will need to be modified substantially for U10's but the concepts will remain the same, have fun and challenge players while building a great team!

Next update sometime around lunch :-)