Successful goals typically come from shots that have both pace and accuracy. How players approach the ball when taking a shot can affect both of these parameters. Rushing a kick can result in a shot that is both slow and less accurate. Slowing the approach can improve accuracy but reduce shot velocity. Click to continue reading...

I never thought I'd say it, but this is it the eyebrow of seduction is just too powerful. It needs to be reigned in and controlled like a military grade weapon. The UN needs to sanction it and ethics professors need to include discussion of its proper use in their curriculum. This simply cannot go on.

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In July I wrote a piece about Bruno Demichelis, a sports psychologist Ancelotti brought with him from Milan. Judging from his experience in setting up the venerated MilanLab, it seemed he had moved to London to help extend the careers of Chelsea's older players. The latest from Cobham suggests that he's turning to an unlikely source – meditation – to take the science much further.

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In July I wrote a piece about Bruno Demichelis, a sports psychologist Ancelotti brought with him from Milan. Judging from his experience in setting up the venerated MilanLab, it seemed he had moved to London to help extend the careers of Chelsea's older players. The latest from Cobham suggests that he's turning to an unlikely source – meditation – to take the science much further.

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They call him Mr. Chelsea, and Blues skipper John Terry certainly lived up to that billing when he recently decided to take control of the financial aspect of the women's football team at Stamford Bridge. The economy certainly hit the Chelsea ladies very hard as a significant portion of their funding from previous years was slashed this season.

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It is clear that a growing health concern in the US and many other countries is the increasing incidence of obesity and related diseases. Over the past few years, the number of children and adolescents who are classified as overweight and obese has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, statistics show that these children will very likely grow up to be obese adults with a whole host of associated Click to continue reading...

That's...The Continental with a marker post in each hand, throwing one towards the sun during training on Tuesday a delightful thing to do when there are other people around to possibly catch one of those spiked javelins with their jugular once they shoot back down to earth.

This isn't the first time The Berba has been caught doing this during training, though.

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Things aren't going so hot for the French national team right now. They're only sitting second in their World Cup Qualifying group, coming off a pair of 1-1 draws, everyone hates their manager, and now, ahead of a cupcake match against Faroe Islands (a side they only beat 1-0 last time), their players are losing consciousness during training.

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Daniel Agger is generally known to Barclays Premier League fans as a technically gifted Danish defender whose progress has often been halted by injuries. Similarly, Alberto Aquilani is usually perceived by English fans as an immensely creative Italian midfielder who has often been deceived by his proneness to injuries.

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The FIFA and the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) have recently developed a website dedicated to "The 11+". The 11+ is a warm-up program developed for soccer players designed to reduce the risk of lower extremity injuries (for a discussion of The 11+, click here). The website contains downloads such as posters and instruction cards as well as an collection of videos showing Click to continue reading...

What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?

The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count on once the season ends.

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What an amazing experience being part of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season has been! I'm a part of history. I'm a PRO athlete. But now it's the offseason, and so what next?

The difficulty as a player within this first-year league is that there is very little to count on once the season ends.

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With yet another exciting Premier League weekend in the books it's time to review this weekend's winners and losers.

Winners Robbie Keane

Robbie Keane emerges from this weekend as the biggest winner. The Tottenham striker has had a relatively quiet start to the season, oftentimes playing second fiddle to the red hot Jermain Defoe.

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In a week where you've become the most vilified person in football and on a day where you've been handed two FA charges likely to result in a three match ban, you'd probably feel like moping around training with a glum look on your face and The Smiths on your iPod, but not Emmanuel Adebayor he was all sunshine and smiles during training today.

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Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has announced the Premier League's plans to instate a home-grown players rule. The rule will be effective beginning next season and throws a whole new wrench into the under 18 transfers debate.

The Premier League's ruling means that Premiership clubs can have no more than 17 non-homegrown players.

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We've never done a photographic DTotD before, but I think this is a worthy exception.

What you're looking at is an image from the Paraguay national team's training session yesterday. They play Bolivia on Saturday and if I'm Bolivia, I'm peeing my pants right now. Look at that. It's like something out of a Chuck Norris movie.

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An article posted on the website, Scientific Blogging, describes a talk given by speaker and author Dan Pink. A common belief is that extrinsic motivation in the form of rewards can improve performance. However, scientific research shows that incentivising a problem-solving task may stifle creativity and actually hinder the outcome. Click to continue reading...

Part 2: Designing a ProgramThe NSCA's Position Statement on youth weight training argues that if children are ready to participate in sports, they are ready to engage in some type of resistance exercise. In Part 1, the safety and benefits of weight training were highlighted. Part 2 summarizes of the authors' recommendations for designing a weight lifting program for young participants. Click to continue reading...

Part 1: Safety & BenefitsThe number of young athletes who are lifting weights as part of their training is steadily increasing. In past years, many discouraged weight training in children and young adolescents. This stemmed, in part, from the fear of injury and adverse effects on growth and development. Click to continue reading...

Press release U.S. Soccer and EA SPORTS have teamed up to introduce EA SPORTS Interactive Training, a free, online tutorial that uses EA SPORTS technology to help train the soccer stars of the future. This interactive resource, available at www.EASPORTSinteractivetraining.com employs the EA SPORTS soccer game engine to illustrate U.

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Hello my name is Sam Malsom, I am 21 years old and welcome to my new blog. This blog will cover my life as a professional footballer in Iceland playing for FC Throttur Reykjavik in the PepsiDeild over here, as well as some of the memories that I have from my time in the Faroe [...] Click to continue reading...

I always knew Thierry Henry was magic, but this proves it the man can fly.

[Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images]

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Yes the singing is very bad. But the Liverpool fans are very passionate fans. And for a moment, National stadium felt like Anfield. 5000 Singapore fans came to watch their heroes train. 'You'll Never Walk Alone', 'Torres Bounce' and the 'Kallang Wave'. It was loud, it was boisterous and it was all happening right at Singapore National Stadium! Click to continue reading...

Hello my name is Sam Malsom, I am 21 years old and welcome to my new blog. This blog will cover my life as a professional footballer in Iceland playing for FC Throttur Reykjavik in the PepsiDeild over here, as well as some of the memories that I have from my time in the Faroe [...] Click to continue reading...

Hello my name is Sam Malsom, I am 21 years old and welcome to my new blog. This blog will cover my life as a professional footballer in Iceland playing for FC Throttur Reykjavik in the PepsiDeild over here, as well as some of the memories that I have from my time in the Faroe [...] Click to continue reading...

Not much going on around the LFC camp as the players train in the beautiful Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. Their first test will be against St. Gallen on Wednesday. St. Gallen placed first last season in the Challenge League, equivalent to our Championship League, and will now play this season in the Swiss Super League.

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After the second successive week, that elusive Egyptian Mido has still not turned up for training at Middlesbrough!
Gareth Southgate was understood to have expected his Egyptian striker back today after his no-show all last week but was again let down when he did not appear.
Apparently, the loss of two weeks wages, which he was fined, means little to Mido who like Afonso Alves, neglected to turn up last week and was given a telling off by Southgate over the phone last week. Click to continue reading...

Using 2v2 has proven to be a great way to introduce soccer to four year olds. Duration : 0:6:44 Technorati Tags: 3v3, celtic, coaching, dribbling, goals, knvb, passing, real, recreational, small-sided, Soccer, ssgs, street, Training, youth Click to continue reading...

Soccer training for adults and youth players. Duration : 0:1:1 Technorati Tags: adult, Soccer, Training Click to continue reading...

A quick look at how setting goals back and allowing kids to choose between dribbling and passing at restarts helps player development Duration : 0:8:51 Technorati Tags: 4v4, coach, coaching, development, football, footy, games, learning, sided, small, small-sided, Soccer, ssgs, Training, youth Click to continue reading...

Soccer Training with athlete of the Brazilian club A.A.Internacional of limeira with Physical Trainer Djair Garcia Duration : 0:2:20 Technorati Tags: athele, brazilian, club, coach, football, Soccer, Training Click to continue reading...

Last Sunday saw the Boro players begin their preparations for the season ahead just 6 weeks after winning the FA Trophy Final at Wembley. They couldn't of planned their return to training at a worse time with it being the hottest week of the year so far. Hardly the best conditions to get your fitness back in?

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SM Soccer Training Night Duration : 0:4:21 Technorati Tags: Night, SM, Soccer, Training Click to continue reading...

To be honest, most of the Brazilian team, from the goalkeepers to the guy who washes the shirts, can all do this with their eyes closed.
But it makes for impressive viewing none the less!
101gg Click to continue reading...

Is there an advantage to being born in the early part of the year? The relative age effect means that if you are born close to the cut-off age for a competition; you are more likely to be selected for the team than if you are born later in the year. This phenomenon seems to occur at all levels of play from local travel teams to the most advanced youth competitions. Click to continue reading...