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Today in 5 minutes or less you’ll learn:

• Kellyn Acosta’s Mentality to Succeed

• The Fundamentals of Footwork

Q&A With Kellyn Acosta

I first met Kellyn when I worked with the USMNT in 2017. Kellyn is an incredible athlete, but more importantly he is a great human being. His infectious smile was known by everyone on the team and he played some huge roles during that year. Since then, Kellyn has found success in multiple organizations and has a valuable perspective for any coach and athlete to learn from. Enjoy his responses below!

What are underrated tools that are indispensable for your job?

Some underrated tools for my job or routine that I have implemented is prioritizing recovery. (Normatec boots, stretching, foam rolling, eating and sleeping). Another tool includes limiting things that don’t bring value to my life. (Staying up late, video games, fast food etc). Lastly, my biggest tool is my support system. Hardships are bound to happen but the people around me have helped me tremendously to get through those challenging times.

What advice would you give to Kellyn Acosta as a academy or collegiate player, when you first started?

My best advice to my younger self would be to stay level headed and to be a better version of myself than I previously was. Establish the mentality of 1% better each day.

What are the biggest misconceptions about your job as a pro athlete?

That being a footballer isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Most athletes aren’t as wealthy as many think. There are hardships that come along with fame. The people that you surround yourself with might not be looking for your best interest. These so called people become ‘leeches’ to your life and may drain not only your bank accounts, but your mental, physical and emotional wellbeing too.

How has your understanding of S&C changed since you first started to now in your career?

When you’re young, you never take into account how important S&C is. You just want to go out there and play because that’s all you knew and/or wanted to do. Having played many years in the league, I wish I would have developed a better routine at a younger age in which I would’ve been able to optimize my performance. I truly believe if I knew what I know now back then, I could’ve achieved even greater heights in my career.

Who or what was influential in your development as a young player, college?

My youth coaches were very influential in development as a young player. I give a lot of credit to my youth club coach Zee and my academy coach Oscar Pareja. Zee made me fall in love with the game and helped me gather the tools I needed to excel. Oscar was similar, he helped me develop in a different way. His approach was treating me more like a man than a kid. That ultimately helped me mature at a faster rate on and off of the field.

What are early setbacks in your career that later gave you an advantage?

My biggest setbacks in my career were injury related. I’ve suffered from muscle strains, sprained joints, to even fractures and hernias that required surgery. Injuries are bound to happen in a contact sport, but the psychological part of it was the hardest.

When was your moment you hit the next level?

The moment for me when I hit the next level was when I started getting called into the national team. I’ve had the opportunity to play on youth nationals teams from U14 all the way through, but to represent your country at the highest level is something you can only dream of achieving.

Fundamentals of Footwork

One of the most common words in the soccer language is: footwork. Coaches all around the world create sessions to perform better footwork, but sometimes it’s not rooted in the actual demands of the sport. When I think about footwork, I think about organizing my feet before passing the ball, approaching an attacker when defending and tracking a through ball to defend the space in behind me. However, when you type in footwork into social media, you see a bunch of ladder drills or short distance cones with hundreds of small steps. Footwork is all about applying high amounts of force into the ground, while preparing your body to react to a ball or human opponent.

When designing a footwork session, start with the end in mind. Common coaching themes I hear are: first two step quickness (acceleration), set your feet (defending), be ready for reactions side to side (multidirectional speed). We can use these coaching themes and connect the footwork to the end goal. If we are focusing on first two step quickness, we can design an acceleration session for any age athlete. For younger ages, create games that demand them to quickly accelerate over a 5-10 yard space. If you remember playing “red light, green light” then you can run this session. For more experienced athletes, we can train the skill of acceleration, the shapes needed to best perform those movements, and still end with a game. Maybe you play a form of tag to elicit short accelerations (this could also be used on a defending day). Ultimately, this can lead to positional situations with the ball that the athletes will experience in a match.

“What should my young athletes be focusing on?”

Focus on coaching up skills like skipping, shuffling, turning, backpedaling, decelerating and sprinting. There are fundamental coaching points to each of these skills, but starting with exposure to these ideas is just as important. A simple session design could include introducing the skill of shuffling, followed by a preprogrammed drill to allow them to train the movement in a controlled area. Remember, they will get the chaotic nature of movement when they play (which should also be the majority of their training), so starting with some drill break down is a great start.

“I have college athletes, do they need to focus on movement skills as well?”

Yes! At this level there may be more competence in athletic movements. We can use this to our advantage by combining skill work with situational drill work. Imagine we are coaching a shuffle movement in relation to defending for the day. The skill work would begin with shuffle movements. Once the skill has been coached and trained, we would move to a more dynamic drill involving reactive cues from the coach. The athlete is still working against themselves but the skill is being challenged by an external stimulus. Finally, we move to partner competition work through a mirror drill. Imagine two athletes facing each other, in the middle of a 15 yard space. On the whistle, one athlete will move between the 15 yard space as quickly as possible, while the other is working to mirror (stay in front) of their partner the entire time. What started as a simple skill is now being challenged in a defending situation.

Example: 6 Cone Drill - use this while coaching the movement skill.

Ultimately, in both scenarios we are preparing the athletes for the demands to come. Each setup is appropriate for the training experience of the athletes and can be progressed or regressed based on the comprehension of the skill.

We made it to the end! Congratulations, you're officially part of the exclusive club of people who read to the bottom of the newsletter.

But seriously, thank you for being a subscriber and taking the time to read my perspective. It means a lot to me that you find the content interesting and valuable. I am constantly striving to bring you the stories and strategies, with a dash of humor and empathy.

I appreciate your support and look forward to bringing you more front row insight into pro training. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to reach out to me. Thanks again, I’ll see you next week.

-Daniel Guzman-