NorCal Hosts La Liga Formation Methodology Level 3 Course

This past weekend in San Ramon, NorCal Premier Soccer hosted its first coaching education opportunity of the year when La Liga again visited California for yet another Formation Methodology Level 3 Course.

The event, which was co-hosted by US Club Soccer and San Ramon FC, saw 120 NorCal coaches participate over a three day period in order to better their craft and in turn help better the level of the game locally.

“It’s great to see enthusiastic coaches after the holiday period brave the elements to continue to better themselves and better the game,” said NorCal Coaching Education Coordinator David Robertson. “Despite the conditions, people were full of enthusiasm.”

The course was the fourth of its kind that NorCal has hosted alongside US Club Soccer and served as the entry point for La Liga’s three levels of Formation Methodology classes.

Time was spent roughly evenly between lectures in the classroom and practical demonstrations on the field for which NorCal’s PDP players volunteered to be coached by some of Spain’s top coaching minds including Carlos Casal Lopez and Saul Vazquez Chas.

“I really liked the course because it’s so comprehensive,” said Peninsula Youth Soccer Director of Coaching Val Henderson. “Obviously the most fun is being on the field and seeing the players play and the coaches interacting with them. It’s all about making a plan, having a reason for your planning, and then being prepared for adjustments.”

Added 1974 Newark FC’s Fausto “Lato” Villegas: “We learned a lot from Carlos and Saul, who were here to show us the methodology from La Liga. They demonstrated how to run a training all the way from the warm ups to the cool down and what all of their coaching points were.”