Feedback

I wanted to thank you very much for the great coaching course. It was a great opportunity to learn some new coaching techniques and tactics. I look forward to taking more courses from you in the future. I hope to keep in touch and updated with new things going on with AYSA.

I just want to thank you again for letting me take the time out of Saturday to coach my game and also putting up with me this weekend. I know I don’t even come close to having the soccer skills the other coaches have but your course and instruction will make me a better coach. I promise I will continue to study the game and be the best coach I can be for my players.

Thank you again for a very productive weekend. I had practice last night and the boys did not want to leave the field at all. I am looking forward to work with you again. please pass my regard to coach Chris.

Thanks again for a really great and informative weekend. I must admit that I was partly dreading having to spend a weekend in a classroom. But, just like you taught us, you kept it moving and flowing from one subject to the next…brilliant! Props to you and Chris for keeping my relatively short attention span from wandering for the duration of the weekend.Going into the course I fully expected to get some great ideas on how to coach my players. On that you didn’t disappoint. I expected aspects of the course to be difficult. They were. However I also got things that I did not expect. You showed me there are some things that I am already doing really well (didn’t expect). Through your method I was able to constructively analyze my strengths/weaknesses and motivations for coaching youth soccer better than I imagined. To top it all off I even think you brought my relatively poor playing skills up a notch, which is definitely something I didn’t expect! You and Chris are great assets to AYSA and Arizona soccer in general. It was a blast!!!

I took the USSF D course and wow! did it exceed my expectations. Coming from the background of a competitive player (in Sereno) I thought I would breeze through it....boy was I wrong. The course really challenged me to think about the end results. They gave us processes to use in planning our sessions and made sure they each stage of our session progressed to the end result (a game like situation where the players make the decisions themselves). We learned about the technical and tactical fundamentals of soccer....some of which are very obvious yet we (or at least me) often overlook. The main instructor, Tony C, is the director of coaching in the state of AZ. He was amazing and I believe his philosophies about the game match very well with Steve Wallace and CDO (whereas other clubs have different philosophies). Overall, I think all the candidates were pushed to their utmost potential...mentally and PHYSICALLY. It is a course I would highly recommend to any coach that wants to take their team, players, and practice sessions to the next level. It is not an entry level course...and you should consider the 'E' before the 'D' if it is your first time coaching soccer. Please remember this is just the opinion of one coach. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and wish you all the very best for the upcoming season. Sincerely, -Adam Goldstein

" Hi Tony,Just wanted to thank you again for such a wonderful course. It was a great experience and I believe that you may have saved my soccer career. I was seriously debating about whether I was going to continue coaching anymore. You have re-energized me and have given me hope that the youth of az will get proper player development under your direction. I take coaching seriously and realize that coaches are role models for our youth and that we can have a tremendous impact (hopefully positive!) on them and the way that they develop into young adults on the field as well as off the playing field. I will give you my support in anyway that I can and will faithfully spread the word of your program to other coaches.

Your inspiration was a shot in the arm for me, and it came just at the right time!!

Thanks again, and please keep in touch.

I wanted to take a second and thank you very much for this weekend's course. I learned many things and you made it thoroughly enjoyable each step of the way. Your discussion about the game and your views about player development were spot-on in my opinion. Apologies for my lack of fitness, especially on Sunday - I may not have looked it, but I was still enjoying myself! Thanks again, you have a new fan down in Tucson - best of luck and welcome to Arizona!

I just wanted to say “Thank you” for a fun and educational experience last weekend in Tucson. With your European background and cultural perspective on football, you bring something to the table Youth Soccer in the US badly needs.Two quick things:Based on the licensing rules I understand that I will have to hold my E license for 12 months before I am eligible for a D license, which is fine. However, would it be possible to participate in a D class before that (without being eligible for the actual certificate)? I am coaching U13 starting August this year.Regarding educating parents and parents coaches and maybe engaging more parents in educated coaching; may I suggest that you invite yourself to hold 1 - 2 hour sessions at club level where you address the U6, U8, U10 coaches in particular about some of the fundamentals and the philosophy of Youth Soccer. I don’t know if your schedule allows for this, but I certainly believe it could be a low-threshold introduction as well as server as a vehicle for recruiting participants to the E classes.Thanks,

" Tony,
I want to thank you for spilling all of your creative wisdom upon all of us candidates that attended your “D’ License course last week. The volumes of imaginative information have inspired me and my style of coaching in a way that I have never thought was possible. You made the course a purely enjoyable learning environment. Your lessons were anything but a culmination of drills that lack meaning and substance. You provided us with real time situations that would encourage any player to think about the game, and the situations that actually occur on the pitch. Your creative teaching will be a long time asset to new and old coaches here in the valley, and most importantly to the players they teach. I would recommend this course to any coach that wants to expand his frame of mind. It has something for everyone, from the new coach to the most experienced. The knowledge gained is completely out of the box and true to the game.

Respectfully,
Michael DeMello

Thank you for the course. One thing I forgot to mention today, you have made me think about the game and more importantly the players in a hole different way.

Your lessons are very thought provoking and really make me think about things, why and what I am doing. I have been very inspired by your passion, intent, and love of the true development of the the player.

Your vast experience, knowledge of players and the game, your thoughts of true development of players, has made me think what I am doing as a teacher and rethinking a lot of things I do.

Peter Beirne
Scottsdale Blackhawks "

I wanted to follow up with you on the National “D” License Course which I attended last month that you instructed. First and foremost, I learned more than I ever expected to. The way you conducted the course was professional, very well thought out, and kept me intrigued and excited to learn more.

I felt you used many different approaches that were not only educational, but interesting. You put us in drill learning situations on the pitch, had us physically participate in activities, gave valuable classroom tutorials, we viewed film footage from professional coaches in real coaching situations, we studied recommend book material from US Soccer, and you had “out of the box" thinking discussions which we all participated in. It was a complete triangulation of soccer and educational information.When the class was over I felt so good about taking it. I knew had really accomplished something to make me better as a person and a coach. I am proud of myself. Without the knowledge that you provided in the course I know I would not be the coach I am aspiring to be. I have a thirst for more knowledge and cannot wait to take the experience and interpret it to my U-11 and U-12 boys.I know all of my peers who took the course feel the same way that I do. I will recommend this course to any coach I come across that needs a better perspective and more knowledge on the pitch.Once again, it was my pleasure taking the course and you have done the soccer community an invaluable service by sending me and 8 others into the world of coaching.