David Garcia 4/2/21 David Garcia 4/2/21

The Power of Observation

Purposeful observation unlocks many doors in the realm of coaching. As Dr. Ceri Bowley states, “What you see dictates how you act.”

David Garcia 3/19/21 David Garcia 3/19/21

The Paradox of Choice: Coaching with Option Making

In order to make correct decisions, one must master the skill of knowing where to look and what to pay attention to in order to satisfy the constraint or objective. When speaking about this topic with Chris Bentley, he introduced me to this idea of option making instead of decision making.

David Garcia 3/13/21 David Garcia 3/13/21

Complex Build-Ups Lead to Simple Football

As many football philosophers have pointed out over the years, a well developed organised attack leads to tactical advantages when you are nearer to goal. The purpose is to get the ball to attacking players in favourable conditions to finalise actions successfully.

David Garcia 3/12/21 David Garcia 3/12/21

Environment Design without Expectations

Sometimes the best lessons on environment design, ego, and expectations come from a screaming newborn.

David Garcia 3/5/21 David Garcia 3/5/21

It's All Just Noise

Noise can be an alluring, debilitating, dizzying, song that can slam your boat against the rocks. Keep your ‘Why’ close and you’ll be fine.

David Garcia 3/4/21 David Garcia 3/4/21

TOVO's Strive for True Development: Interview with Todd Beane

I sit down with Todd Beane, TOVO Academy’s founder. We discuss TOVO’s methodology, developing intelligent footballers, the importance of having a clearly defined ‘why’ as a coach, how to avoid the noise of youth football, and more.

David Garcia 3/17/20 David Garcia 3/17/20

Positional Play’s Need for Ball Handlers

When a player, no matter what age begins to play football, the first relationship they must discover is their relationship with the ball. A novice player must explore what it means to manipulate the ball. This means being capable to manoeuvre the ball in any which way.

David Garcia 1/1/20 David Garcia 1/1/20

FC Nordsjælland's Revolutionary Approach: Interview with Flemming Pedersen

I sit down with Flemming Pedersen, FC Nordsjælland’s first team manager. We discuss the importance of a style of play, developing intelligent players, FC Nordsjæelland’s academy success, and modern football.

David Garcia 4/10/19 David Garcia 4/10/19

Fractalled Football

F.C. Barcelona U10 coach, Oscar Jorquera, consistently reiterates the following phrase to the players he’s coaching, “Although the scenario changes, the situation is always the same.” He is of course alluding to this self-similarity throughout a match.

David Garcia 11/17/18 David Garcia 11/17/18

Guardiola's Class

Since that 2007 coaching clinic, Pep Guardiola has singlehandedly changed how football is played. Luckily for us, someone filmed this once in a lifetime clinic and the following findings are those ideas preached on that cloudy April 11th in 2007.

David Garcia 8/12/18 David Garcia 8/12/18

Move the Opponent, Not the Ball

If you were to ask any player in the world what the most important thing in football is, they would all say the ball. Without the ball you cannot win a match, that’s an indisputable, objective fact. So what better bait than the one thing every player wants.

David Garcia 7/8/18 David Garcia 7/8/18

An Interpretation of Football

The ball is a mesmerising thing. Without that lovely, spheric object there wouldn’t be any beauty in the sport. The ball is everything.

David Garcia 7/2/18 David Garcia 7/2/18

The Principle Behind Lukaku's Run

What if I told you it’s not the ball that pulls defenders out of position and creates space, but instead the possibility of the ball, the possibility of danger?

David Garcia 6/25/18 David Garcia 6/25/18

Guardiola on Play

My question is at what point in our need to control every aspect of the sport and how we teach young people to play it did we take the ball away?

David Garcia 6/19/18 David Garcia 6/19/18

Counterattacking: The result of indivisible football

One of the most important concepts of positional play is the idea that football is composed of fluid, continuous actions which cannot be separated.

David Garcia 6/13/18 David Garcia 6/13/18

Intentionality in Sport: LA Galaxy case study

If you are constantly questioning the intentions of your actions and words, you begin to have a greater understanding of yourself and why you do things. So why don’t we talk about intentional actions in coaching more often?