What do you think we can learn from soccer? 

Whether you coach soccer athletes or not, there are aspects from the sport that can be applied in any coaching setting.

One of the best minds in the space, Fergus Connolly, started implementing his soccer training principles in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers and had outstanding results. 

Here are the three biggest takeaways from this work and how it can apply to other sports:

• Starting with the Game
• Laws of the Game
• Law of Expected Emergence 

Starting with the Game
Whereas many sports are thought of on a weekly schedule, Monday-Sunday, soccer takes a different approach. It looks at the games, and works backwards from there. 

Instead of working on 7 day cycle, they can use MD +/- system to determine needs.

Laws of the Game
Every sport has them. In soccer there is offense, defense, transition to offense, and transition to defense. 

An important part of training is to understand the physical traits needed to successfully dominate these moments. 

Training should be dictated by what is actually going to happen during competition.

Law of Expected Emergence 
Finally, one of the biggest takeaways on how soccer can be applied to all sports is the law of expected emergence. 

Simply put, habit determines actions in high pressure situations. 

Soccer players train so that the principles of the game and the associated moments are so ingrained in players that they develop a heightened game intelligence– allowing them to respond in the moment. 

If you’re not accelerating and decelerating maximally in training, this will not appear in the competition. 

Soccer is becoming more and more of a universal sport. This is shown by the rapid growth of the sport in the United States. 

Whether you’re a performance coach, or team sport coach, the game of soccer has the opportunity to drastically impact your business or your team. 

That’s why the Soccer Speed Blueprint was created. 

There is so much we can learn from the sport of soccer, whether we’re directly coaching a soccer team, soccer athletes, or have a desire to coach them some day due to the growing popularity. 

Join us on this journey and see what all you can learn from one of the world’s largest sports.