DAVID COPELAND-SMITH

I had been providing players individual technical sessions for about 10 years before I actually branded with the name of Beast Mode Soccer.

The fact is, coaches do not have enough time to dedicate to developing each and every player on their team, and I was fed up seeing players who were 13/14/15 who had been playing at a relatively high level for over 4 years who were technically inept and really didn't have even a good basic foundation but relied on their physical attributes.

We kept getting more and more requests for sessions because of the results our players were seeing on the field and it got to the amount that I had to make a choice: Coach teams and continue to do technical sessions, or start exclusively offering 1 on 1 development.

After talking to a lot of influential people in my life, most of which said it would not be possible to form such a business, I chose to do it, I love a challenge!

I coached at home in the UK, local teams, individual sessions etc, got my UEFA licenses, then moved to the USA in 2002 and worked with a camp in Upstate New York, then later with Major League Soccer Camps. For MLSC I was a Player Development Officer. This allowed me to travel around Florida working with various clubs training teams and in the camp environment. After I left MLSC I worked independently for various clubs as a Skills Development Trainer, showing coaches how to get players to train on their own to improve. Again, I was always more interested in the bio-mechanics and movements of technique building and skill development.

When I moved to California I decided to only work with one team, and start studying the bio-mechanical side of technique. I also started to read heavily about the mental side of sports development and how I could utilize that into our system, and became basically obsessed with making every player that I worked with the absolute best that they could be.

This is one of the many reasons I absolutely love 1 on 1 technical development; Every single soccer player on earth can benefit from it.

Honestly, we have worked with a phenomenal amount of pro players. Ali Riley (New Zealand and FC Rosengard in Sweden) was our first player that turned pro. Ali started working with me while in High School, then to Stanford for college then turned pro with FC Gold Pride. Ali was actually responsible for the name Beast Mode Soccer, during a session she hit the top corner and screamed that, I went home and registered the name!

All of the pro players that I have worked with all share one thing in common, and that is an absolute relentless pursuit of excellence. They are 100% allergic to standing still and always want to improve. Here are a few of the players that have done Beast Mode Soccer sessions; Ali Riley, Alex Morgan, Landon Donovan, Abby Wambach, Christen Press, Stephen Ireland, Mana Shim, Liz Bogus, Whitney Engen, Kelley O'Hara, Allie Long, Omar Gonzalez, Tobin Heath, Bobby Warsaw, Beverly Goebel, Sarah Huffman, Leslie Osborne, Bianca D'Agostino, Rachel Van Hollebeke (née Buehler), Jill Oakes, Angela Salem, Chelsea Stewart, Sydney Leroux, Rachel Daly and a lot more.

The benefits of 1 on 1 training are huge. As I said before, each and every player in the world can benefit from the individual attention of a skill specialist. The fact is, if you truly want to play at an elite level, you HAVE to put the individual technical work in. At Beast Mode Soccer we break down game footage of our players, study it, then formulate long term development program for that player based upon what we have seen and their own personal goals (both short term and long term). Our systems are very much 'building blocks,' based upon functional footwork and techniques, literally every movement and touch we do has a purpose. Once the player has the technique down, we introduce spatial awareness training, which shows the player exactly when and where that certain technique will be used in a game, which starts the process of skill development, and then we introduce high pressure game type scenarios until the player is comfortable executing the skill at full speed. We also implement The Better Soccer Blueprint: Personal with our players, which is a step to step guide showing players exactly how to own their technical, mental, physical and tactical development and really emphasizes the importance of self reliance in soccer. We have had phenomenal results with it, which spawned our award winning training system The Better Soccer Blueprint, allowing any player to train 'The Beast Mode Soccer Way' from their own home. Again, the feedback we get from players who commit to the system is unreal. Players who make goals, like the one player who was playing rec soccer, but wanted to make ODP and achieved that goal within a year following the Blueprint.

Commit. It's a simple word. Every player who I have worked with who has made it to highest level has done so by making a commitment to excellence.

We live in a society that is becoming crippled with entitlement and laziness. We use the word 'talent' as a crutch, which people use to enable them to be o.k. with mediocrity. I get mad when I hear a commentator say Alex Morgan or Christen Press are 'natural born goal scorers' when it's absolute b.s.! These players have spent thousands and thousands of EXTRA hours on the field, smashing shot after shot into the corner of the goal so that it becomes a repetitive motion for them, there is absolutely NOTHING natural about that!

These players write their goals down, are organized and are literally obsessed with becoming the absolute best player that they can be.

My biggest piece of advice would be to form the habit of training on your own. It's hard sometimes, you will get up and really not want to do it, but its at that moment when you know if you actually REALLY want to be a pro soccer player. Most people want to wake up and train, but when it comes down to it, they just want to sleep in a little bit more! These people will make excuses for the rest of their lives about why they didn't make it, but at the end of the day when they are laying in bed, they know that they alone are responsible for not achieving their goals.

It always amazes me that players have all the time in the world to watch garbage TV shows, read trashy celebrity obsessed magazines, and play silly games on their phones, but they can't find an hour everyday to train their weakness' to become strengths? Do not be that player! Be the player who is at team practice early, and leaving late, doing extra, smashing goals and leading by example. We have a saying at Beast Mode Soccer 'Champions Do More,' be a champion!

Study. Study everything. Study everyone. Have no ego. I have read over 300 coaching related books, I have a collection of over 200 soccer DVD's and dedicate one hour a day to studying. Whether that be reading, watching a DVD, observing coaching sessions, watching other technical trainers (sometimes that can be a bit tricky!). Try to learn something new every single day.

I chose to purely focus on long term individual technical development a long time ago, and I have soaked up thousands and thousands of hours of information and developed the BMS training method which I feel is the most complete system out there, yet we are ALWAYS growing, and I know that I can learn from so many sources, for example, we use drills that we learned from the website of the author of this blog! As soon you think you know everything, in my mind, you've lost. We follow the principle of 'Kaizen' which is Japanese for 'continuous improvement.'

Try to find a mentor, somebody who has been around coaching for a long time and aligns with your methodology and basically act as their apprentice.

It really is all about learning and being open to different opinions. A great resource is social media, but it comes with a warning! Do not become an arm chair coach relying on other peoples sessions from the internet, if you do that you are just a robot with no coaching style of your own. Experiment with your own sessions, build up a library and then share your killer sessions with everyone else!

Great question! We are currently working on our third training program called 'The Soccer Vortex' which is shaping up really well. I can't really say a lot about it right now, but it will literally change the way players train on their own and look at development, it's very exciting!

2015 will see us add to our nationwide locations (currently Los Angeles, Richmond VA, Portland, Seattle and Utah) and the nationwide launch of the Beast Mode Soccer Level 1 Technical Training Certification. This is an awesome opportunity for soccer trainers to learn exactly how we develop elite level players, and why the top players in the nation can't stop talking about BMS.

It's exciting times ahead, but don't think I will ever slow down, you see, we practice what we preach, and I am on a continuous search for excellence and improvement!