New York Red Bull Training Session – Friday February 6, 2009

Today I had the privilege of attending and observing the New
York Red Bull training session at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida. I say
privilege because the chance to watch Juan Osorio coach was just that a privilege.
I saw real coaching in soccer for the first time in a long time. He gets it, a truly
outstanding coach. I cannot say enough good things about the structure and
content of the training session. Juan asked me to evaluate his session and here
are the things that I saw: I always look for progression and there was
progression within each segment of the practice and between segments. The whole
session progressed from technical work  to tactical work to strategic work. It was
really cool to see the progression from fundamental movement skills in a drill
relating to and leading directly to soccer skills. He taught with varied styles
appropriate for the situation and the player, his ability to demonstrate obviously
really captures the players attention. Mistakes were pointed out and CORRECTED;
there was no repetition of errors! Good tempo to the session. It was obvious he
knew his players strength and weaknesses and he was always teaching to minimize
weaknesses and optimize strengths. He gave incredible attention to details in
areas that I have never heard of or seen an American coach address. He was
working with the defense and showed the probability of certain balls in certain
areas resulting in goals. It gave a lot a more meaning to the subsequent
defensive drill because now each player knew WHY they had to be in a position.
There was no jogging in warm-up. The warm-up related to the practice that
followed. In contrast there were two other MLS teams training on adjacent fields
at the same time. The difference was incredible. They were repeating errors,
all jogged around the complex to warm-up. Juan had every segment of the
practice thoroughly planned with each drill drawn out in detail. I could not
help but contrast this to my experience with the 1998 US World Cup team when the
head coach on the bus to practice turned to one of the assistants and asked
what he thought the team should do today – no plan and no idea. I can’t wait
to see another session before they leave. Juan is a great example of a coach
who is always learning. He wants to learn from other sports. I was telling him
how much his training session reminded of a session I had seen Tex Winter run
with the Chicago Bulls. The first thing he asked me is does he have a book. So
tomorrow I will bring him Tex Winters book. Folks, that is how you become the
best – constant learning.