Inside iSoccer.org

Online training tool to become part of Earthquakes Academy curriculum

San Jose, Calif. – iSoccer.org, the fast-growing online training and assessment tool for soccer players, coaches and teams, has become the Official Technical Assessment Provider of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, making it the first partnership between iSoccer and an MLS club.

The Earthquakes will integrate iSoccer’s online assessment and training technology into its Earthquakes Academy curriculum. The club will also provide access to its professional players to help iSoccer develop a “Professional Standard” in areas such as ball comfort, juggling, dribbling, passing and aerial control.

“We are pleased to be using this innovative technology to identify and improve players of all ages under the Earthquakes umbrella,” said Dave Kaval, President of the San Jose Earthquakes. “iSoccer is a great way for the next generation of players and fans to positively interact with the Quakes and for all the potential talent in California and around the world to compare themselves to our pros.”

“What a wonderful relationship for both iSoccer and the San Jose Earthquakes.,” said iSoccer Founder and CEO, Scott Leber. “Their academy is quickly becoming the preferred destination for some of the most talented young players in Northern California and we are happy to be a part of their overall development and evaluation strategy. We will also be able to leverage their professional players to inspire and motivate youth players across the region–providing ‘Heroes of the Game’ as role models is a very powerful motivator for young players looking to take their game to the next level!”

In addition to individual player analysis, iSoccer will assess and log scores for all Earthquakes Academy players including the U-18 and U-16 teams along with U-14 Pre-Academy Regional Development Schools throughout the season starting in 2012. The Earthquakes will also feature iSoccer score reports as part of their official player evaluation process.

iSoccer has partnered with more than 200 clubs in all 50 states and has collected over 500,000 players assessments since its launch. The player assessment interface was re-launched in September 2011 with new features and has been positively reviewed by soccer websites such as www.soccer365.com, www.equalizersoccer.com and www.womensprosoccer.com, among others.

Coaches, We Need Your Help to ‘Raise the Level!’

Please take 10-15 minutes to complete this survey, and we will match the results with the hundreds of thousands of quantitative assessment results already gathered to better understand how:

1 – Technical skills correlate to in-game performance.
2 – Individual achievement has impacted player motivation

As a way of saying thank you, complete by Dec. 1 and you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a $100 Gift Certificate from Eurosport.

Thanks in advance for your willingness to help us make iSoccer as effective a motivational and player evaluation tool as possible!

Full Article: http://www.ourgamemagazine.com/?p=1459

By Scott Leber, iSoccer.org – This fall, thousands and thousands of hours are going to be spent training to improve a young player’s technical ability. And a great question to ask is, “Are we making the best use of that time?” Across the country, players are getting a lot of touches on the ball – however, they may not be training at the speed or the sharpness that is required in games.

Coaches often ask players to dribble in a box or allow players to have less than perfect touches. But in a game, we are not dribbling in a box and the ball turns over every time there is a lazy or poor touch. When we don’t provide enough pressure, a time constraint, or a space constraint, we may not be challenging our players to develop the proper tools to solve the problems that the game demands.

Therefore, as much as possible, we need to train in game-like setting when working on our individual skills.

So how do we do it?

First, we have to ask the player to be deliberate with every single touch. Try and isolate a specific skill or skills to leave no room for interpretation – the coach and player knows exactly what is being asked to perform and players can really see where their weaknesses are. If the first touch has to be with the outside of the right foot and at a forward angle, demand it. If you want the pass to hit the right foot, demand that type of accuracy. If you want a quick outside right touch and then an inside right foot touch past the defender after the scissor, demand it.

Next, we can limit the time they have to do the skill and keep score. When placing a time constraint and a score to a skill, we are requiring players to perform the skills at their absolute maximum speed for that time period. You will be amazed when the work rate jumps 15 to 20 percent! Players will consistently want to beat their old scores while wanting to compare themselves with their teammates. Building a healthy sense of competition in practice can be motivating and fun for all the players.

Finally, when you add deliberate training + time constraint + score keeping, we are applying the best pressure we can to an individual player – the pressure to be better than yourself. Players can now set their own goals and see their own improvement. Individual achievement in a team setting can be very powerful. The strongest and weakest players on the team can score and improve at their own rate without being dependent on anyone else.

So let’s make the most of this fall! Be deliberate with every touch. Perform the skill at game speed. And always push yourself to improve your score!

Scott Leber is the Founder and CEO of iSoccer.org. iSoccer was founded in 2008 with a single objective: How to motivate players to train harder and increase their technical ability. Check out iSoccer.org to learn more about the iSoccer skills test, tracking tools and age group technical standards.

[Go to iSoccer.org to begin knowing your level so you can raise your level]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 29, 2011) – iSoccer.org, the popular online training product and motivational tool for recreational and competitive soccer players, has added former WPS Commissioner and Stanford soccer standout Tonya Antonucci to its Board of Directors. Antonucci is the CEO of the Women’s Soccer Initiative (WSII), which launched Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) and was Commissioner of the league from 2007-2010, as well as a member of the board for professional soccer with US Soccer from 2009-2011. She launched the Yahoo! Sports property and was formerly a General Manager at Yahoo!, overseeing the company’s award-winning 2002 FIFA World Cup ™ site.

“We are incredibly pleased to have Tonya join our board. She brings a wealth of experience in a space that is critical to our development and success: the merging of technology and soccer,” said iSoccer CEO & Founder, Scott Leber. “Her insights will be invaluable as we continue to grow our brand and refine our product.”

iSoccer launched its new web interface in early September 2011 and has collected nearly 500,000 individual assessments since launching as an online training tool in 2010. Following a series of ball tests on the field, each individual assessment is then entered online by players. The aim of iSoccer’s assessment is to provide a standard by which players can gauge their progress and coaches can pinpoint areas for technical improvement and individual progress.

“iSoccer’s product is unique in the marketplace,” said Antonucci. “It fuses the benefits of online technology and national standards with individual player assessments to provide a platform for technical proficiency and improvement. It’s such an incredibly useful tool for all teams, coaches and individuals that I envision it growing into a must-have in both elite and recreational training and development..”

[Go to iSoccer.org to begin knowing your level so you can raise your level]

The iSoccer assessment was used at the Region IV ODP camp in Moscow, Idaho this past summer. Over 850 players were assessed and over 11,000 assessment results were collected. This report organizes and graphs the data, and compares the Region IV Girls’ results to the 2010 national standards as well as the emerging division I college standard.

To see the scores and graphs, download the full report: 2011 Region IV Girls Report by iSoccer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Group of Stanford Soccer Grads Look to Raise the Bar in the Way Soccer Talent Is Developed with Help of the Internet

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 8, 2011) – iSoccer.org, the popular online training product and motivational tool for recreational and competitive soccer players, has launched a new product phase this week on its website: www.iSoccer.org. The new product takes the player, coach and club experience to the next level. They are able to go online and assess a player’s individual level based on a series of 16 skills in the span of a less than an hour with the ultimate goal of increasing a players technical acuity for the game.

iSoccer.org was founded in 2008 by former Stanford soccer standout Scott Leber. A long‐time youth coach, Leber pinpointed the unique opportunity of harnessing online technology to solve a fundamental problem in the current development of American soccer talent: a lack of technical ability and motivation among young players. With their national testing standard, iSoccer has collected 451,873 assessments scores and over 14.4 million touches on the soccer ball have been logged by individuals since launching in early 2010. Youth clubs in all 50 states, five state soccer organizations and eight national organizations, including the National Soccer Coaches Assocaition of America, have all partnered with iSoccer.org in its mission to raise the level of the game.

“We are attempting to fundamentally change and enhance how youth players and teams develop their talent,” said iSoccer founder and CEO, Scott Leber. “By integrating the power of technology, proven motivational psychology, and a progressive training platform, we believe we have found a present‐day solution to the many obstacles players and teams encounter that constrain player development. Our goal is to unleash a player’s full potential.”

The online assessment allows coaches and players to breakdown specific areas for individual improvement. This targeted training approach produces more complete and dynamic players, while helping to motivate kids all at the same time.

Local coaches benefited from a Flow-ESPN football clinic that introduced online technologies to bolster football performance.

The clinic was led by the US-based company, ISoccer.org and André Virtue of Whole Life Ministries, who exposed coaches to revolutionary training methods and procedures via several drills and online tutorial programmes. The two-day clinic, which took place at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay earlier this week, sought to strengthen the coaching skills of coaches from all over Jamaica.

Virtue, who is the local organiser of the camp, says it was formulated to keep the rural coaches up to speed with the latest international techniques to improve their overall training capabilities. It forms part of a broader programme that Flow initiated last year as part of its investment in local football.

Under that programme last year, Flow teamed up with its international broadcast partners, ESPN, to expose 40 local coaches and over 100 players to the expertise of international football stars Robbie Earle, Frank Leboeuf, Shaka Hislop, Russell Latapy, and Uche Okafor, who conducted several coaching seminars at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium.

The clinic will continue later this year in November as the broader Flow-ESPN group returns to build on this initial training. Explaining how the clinic works, Virtue said, “ISoccer is a programme with an assessment tool which the coaches will use to break down the technical level of a player, as well as to identify weaknesses within that player.

“The tool is called the National Assessment, which is a test to measure a player’s overall technical ability. Those tests involve juggling, dribbling, first touch and pass, aerial control and ball skills.”

Speaking on the joint initiative, Sharon Roper, vice-president of marketing at Flow, says that it is very important for Flow to support local football talent.

“The sport of football has been one of the most popular avenues for youth development in Jamaica,” she said. “The national football programme has resulted in many opportunities for young men for social mobility and personal development. Flow is, therefore, pleased to team up with ESPN, Isoccer.org and Whole Life Ministries to strengthen the sport.”

Read the Full Article: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110906/sports/sports5.html

Coach, we get it. You have a full time job and afternoon hits. Rushing to the field you think, “What am I going to do with the kids tonight?” You are not alone, and iSoccer wants to help you by simplifying practice! We believe the goals of the season are:

1. Players become better soccer players.
2. Players enjoy competing and want to play next season.
3. Players grow as people and socialize with their peers.

That is it. Lets keep it simple. Winning is of course important, but secondary to those three season goals! Ready? Let’s do this!

Click HERE or on any of the below images to download the Eight Week Practice Planner for Recreational Coaches from iSoccer.

The clearer the session is to the coach and players, usually the more effective it will be. This ‘four part’ practice plan tries to give you both structure and progression. Every kid is guaranteed lots of of quality touches, tons of decision making opportunities and a chance to compete every practice! With those three things + energy from the coaches, you are well on your way to making every player better and creating an effective practice session! Feel free to incorporate any drills you already know or ones you find online. This hopefully serves as a framework for an effective, fun session. When you are done with 8 weeks, just repeat! Good luck and you can always reach out to iSoccer at: Support@iSoccer.org. We are here to help you Raise the Level of your Players!

If you are an experienced or professional coach, please forward to any coaches you think might benefit from this practice guide. And if you have any thoughts on this plan for recreational coaches, (how to make it simpler, more effective, clearer) please let us know – We are always looking to make everything we do better and greatly appreciate honest feedback!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA. To supplement its existing camp and training curriculum, UK International Soccer Camps has teamed up with iSoccer to continue raising the level of players across America. This summer, UK International have introduced the iSoccer assessment to thousands of players attending camps from Maine to Hawaii.

Nik Alsop, Director of UK International Soccer Camps says, “Our new partnership with iSoccer will provide players with an additional, exciting way to continue improving their soccer skills. Through standardized skills tests, players will be able to measure, track and actually see their progress. This mirrors the skills tests we conduct on our camp programs and supports our philosophies with player development.”

“This is a very exciting new relationship for us,” states Scott Leber, CEO of iSoccer. “UK International Soccer Camps has a proven track record of providing fun yet effective camps to players across America. The players of UK International will now be able to walk away from camp with a tangible program that they can continue to work on their skills at home and in the fall season. We are looking forward to building upon this first summer and continue providing value to their players across the country.”

About UK International Soccer Camps
UK International Soccer Camps was established in 1990 and since that time, we have become recognized for our professionalism and commitment to player development. Originally a west coast-based company, they have strategically grown to become one of the largest providers of soccer education throughout the entire USA with programs from Hawaii to Florida. UK International is also the official camp provider for AYSO. For more information on UK International Soccer Camps please visit their website: http://www.uksocca.com/