Soccer tips from WUSA players

Nancy Augustyniak, Atlanta Beat

On defense: Defensively, work on your patience by not diving in because that’s always been a big problem for me. When I take some time off from soccer and then get back into playing, I start diving in and that’s how you get beat. So I’d emphasize having patience.

LaKeysia Beene, Bay Area CyberRays

On Catching (for goaltenders): I used to practice by throwing the ball at uneven surfaces like volleying it against the tree. The tree’s rounded so it doesn’t come right back to you. That way you can catch it different places. The ball is flying in all different places so you have to move quickly to get it.

Jenny Benson, Philadelphia Charge

On practice: The biggest thing is taking the time to practice on your own. Scheduled practices may not allow you to have enough touches on the ball. Take a ball outside and juggle for a half hour on your own, or do some passes against the wall for a half hour a day to develop your touch on the ball. It will also make you a lot more comfortable during a game when you are under pressure.

Carey Dorn, Bay Area CyberRays

On defense: Defensively, it's important to read the play and get in position early enough so that when the ball comes near you, you are in the right position. This way you don’t have to scramble back or scramble forward to reposition yourself. It’s important to stay focused and not zone out when the ball is on the other side field and you don’t have much action down at your end. This will keep you ready for that crucial play where you need to be at the right place at the right time.

On practicing footwork: One of the most important things is keeping touches on the ball. Go out by yourself and do some footwork with the ball. If you can find a wall just kick it against that and keep kicking the ball around.

Meotis Erikson, Boston Breakers

On ball handling: One thing I suggest for young people is to spend as much time as possible with the ball. You can always continue to get more fit in your free time but the key at this level is being able to play with the ball. If you don’t have anyone to play with, pass against the wall and work on striking the ball, passing the ball, and set up cones to dribble around them. Spend at least 15 minutes a day juggling, dribbling, passing and shooting because the better the skills you have, the better off you’re going to be.

Michelle French, Washington Freedom

On footwork: When I’m training on my own, I do a lot of footwork skills. If you’ve been practicing keeping the ball close to your feet while you dribble, you'll be able to do that during the game when you're under pressure. It will come easy to you because it your practice will make it seem natural.

Emily Janss, New York Power

On footwork: I say that you can never be perfect on the ball. Your foot skills can never be perfect so if you're always working on them and getting comfortable with the ball at your feet, you're going to be that much more confident with the ball at your feet in a game situation. I would say to keep working on your juggling and your Coervers (moves you make to get by your defender).

Nikki Lamb, Atlanta Beat

On what you'll be remembered by: The one thing I've always been told is that no one remembers what you did the first half if you have a good second half. So if you're playing bad, no one remembers that if you come back and play really hard the second half.

On Competing against friends: Be competitive with each other. Know that you can go hard against your friends because that's going to make you better. Just have fun and have a good time with it. Don't worry that your friends will be mad at you if you're competitive.

Karina LeBlanc, Boston Breakers

On goaltending practice: To help me with goaltending, I like to have someone behind me kick a ball at a wall about five yards ahead of me and I'm just reacting to it. The person is kicking it to different areas of the wall and I just have to react and make the quick save since I can't see where it's coming from.

Kelly Lindsey, Bay Area CyberRays

On staying relaxed: Stay relaxed on the field. The minute you start tensing up is when you are going to make most of your mistakes. Young players need to watch a lot of professional games, both men's and women’s, and see how many mistakes the pros make. No one is perfect out there and everyone makes mistakes. Try not to get upset with yourself when you make them on the field. Just work through it and keep going no matter what happens.

Shannon MacMillan, San Diego Spirit

On shooting: When you’re shooting, don't keep the ball under you, keep it off to the side a little bit, keep ankles locked, keep your head down but know where the goal is. When you kick, just drive through the ball and land on your kicking foot so that you’re pulling yourself through. Just hit it with your laces but keep your ankle locked.

Tammy Pearman, New York Power

On having confidence: I wouldn't necessarily say this is a soccer tip -- it's a life tip. When I was a kid I had a club team coach and one thing he always said was, "Believe in yourself." He said, "Believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything." It was because of that saying that actually got me through high school. My senior year in high school I had a coach who never thought I was ever going to be able to play at the collegiate level. He was very difficult to deal with. When times got rough, I would always say, 'Believe in yourself,' and it got me through it.

Lindsay Massengale, Boston Breakers

On ball handling: An excellent way to improve your game is to get someone to go out and play 1-on-1 with you. If you can’t find someone to play 1-on-1, then find a wall and kick balls off the wall and practice juggling. Doing ball work will improve your technical skills 100%. At Clemson, I would work with the ball for 30 minutes after practice everyday and it improved my skills a lot. It's important to practice even after your scheduled practice is over.

Christine McCann, Boston Breakers

On communication: Defensively, communication is huge. Make sure that you take the initiative. A lot of people are hesitant to speak up and demand that a player step to the ball or get into a different position, but it is so important. That is something that I am still working on. Don’t be afraid to make a decision. If you aren't afraid to communicate with your teammates and you can tell a person to move to get into a different position, then you are going to be a step ahead of the game.

Laurie Pells, Philadelphia Charge

On training (for goaltending): I like to train with a medicine ball. That’s a heavy ball, a weighted ball that you need strong hands for. Throw the ball or have someone kick it toward you. You can train with this heavy ball to increase hand strength and performance.

I’m also into ply metrics -- doing a lot of jumps. I like to jump over things, ropes, chairs, and work on my vertical jump. If young people are having trouble getting up to high balls then they need to work on their jumps. Jump over benches, boxes, anything.

Beth Sheppard, Carolina Courage

On technical & tactical aspects of soccer: I'm not the fastest person out on the soccer field, so I concentrate on the technical and tactical aspects of the game. Technically, I'd advise that you should be out touching the ball all the time. Do foot skills constantly so that you can be comfortable with the ball. Tactically, I'd suggest listening to your coaches and being a student of the game. Don't just learn your own position; learn the tactics of your teammates' positions as well. I'm a midfielder and when a training session is more geared to forwards, I don't tune out. I listen so that I can learn their thought process so that I can anticipate where the ball is going.

Dayna Smith, Atlanta Beat

On playing simple: I heard a tip from Robin Fraser, my former coach from the Colorado Rapids. It rings in my mind everyday before I play. The tip is to PLAY SIMPLE. That basically means that you don't need to do flicks in the middle of the field, or you don't need to try to pass the ball through five people -- you can play a simple 10 yard pass and get it back, and then go from there. But if you play simple, it helps you to build your confidence. So play simple, there's no need to be flashy or make the game harder than it is. That tip is great for my style of play because I don't need to be cutting every direction with the soccer ball or driving through people. I need to connect passes and keep the flow of the game going.

Kate Sobrero, Boston Breakers

On defense: On defense, always keep your feet moving and keep your weight on your toes as opposed to being flat footed and having your weight on back of your heals. If you have it on your toes, you can turn faster and react faster than if you’re just on your flat foot. That’s something that I've learned.

Rhiannon Tanaka, San Diego Spirit

On ball handling: Something I wish I would have been told when I was younger is to try to get out with a ball for 10 minutes everyday and just get touches on the ball. Try to get as many touches as you can. Whether you're doing juggling or practicing your moves - it all really helps.

On defense: I practice doing 1v1 stuff. It really helps if you have someone that continues be competitive with you and do moves on you. Then I can just defend them.

Tisha Venturini, Bay Area CyberRays

On passing: It helped me when I was younger to just go outside to a wall or to my garage and pass the ball to myself back and forth for hours.

On heading: I would head also head the soccer ball up against the house or to the garage roof. I would just head it to myself back and forth, back and forth for control.

On Shooting: I would just bash the ball into the garage. This is the kind of stuff that parents don’t really enjoy. It is just about repetition. You really don’t need anyone else to do it with, you can just kick it against the wall, kick it against the garage.

Kristy Whelchel, New York Power

On offensive heading: When you're offensive heading, head it back to where it came from. That's one thing that I would hear over and over from my coaches when I was growing up. It's just a matter of geometry. On offensive corner kicks, head it back to where it came from so you're driving it back into the near post. Drive the ball against its momentum. Otherwise you just head it and it'll just skip and go past you.