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Jared Montz is a former professional soccer player and runs an Online Soccer Academy with the goal of instilling not only self-belief in young players but also the soccer knowledge they need to achieve their dreams on the field and in life. What types of skill work do you do at your soccer camps? At my soccer camps we cover all things soccer through the course of the week. I treat my players like young pros and expect a lot out of them. What makes my camp stand out is I really focus on the “Soccer Smarts” more and really teach players the game. So I have designed a few different exercises to increase speed of thought for players; I call these the Montz Exercises. What stuff can young players do on their own to improve their game? Great question but to answer it properly would require me to write a book! Players obviously need to train on their own if they want to get better and make it to the next level. In America players usually only train twice a week with their team. If they want more training they need to train on their own. Juggling, working on skills, and creating your own training sessions are all important. The main focus of my Online Soccer Academy is to teach players how to train on their own so they aren’t just out there goofing off, but actually training and challenging themselves. What advice do you have for kids who want to play college or pro soccer? If you “Believe in it” and back that up with hard work anything in life is possible! In soccer there are so many little things that make a difference on the field. The little things make a difference off the field as well. You could be the best player ever, but if no one knows it or you are not playing in front of the right people you will never get recruited or scouted. I offer a service where we build high school players personal college recruiting websites and then teach them how to use their personal website, exp yourname.com, to promote and network themselves to college coaches. I believe these networking skills will carry over to the pro soccer world as well as the real life world. We started this service three months ago but it has not been made public on my website yet. You can check out my example website at http://www.davidcollege.com Basically players need to create their own luck instead of waiting around to get lucky. Is it useful for players to play with older players? Incredibly useful. Anytime at camp I see a player do very well in their age group I move them up. For example I have a six year old, Carlos Valencia who has been coming to may camps since he was four. He plays with 10 year olds now and you wouldn’t know he is six! Who is your favorite player in the MLS and then in world soccer? I have never been good at picking favorites. Since I was a midfielder I will give you a few midfielders I am a fan of; John Thorrington, Logan Pause, Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson, Dax Mcarty, and Stuart Holden (before he went to Bolton) to name a few. World Soccer is even tougher choice for me but some favorites are Michael Bradley, Steven Gerrard, Cesc Fabregas, and Frank Lampard. What was your best attribute as a soccer player when you played? Best attribute… In my opinion I think I had a great soccer brain, good technique, was very hard worker and a serious competitor. Who is your favorite soccer team to watch and you can’t miss seeing on TV? The Chicago Fire is usually a must see for me! Learn more at about Jared and his soccer camps at: http://www.jmsoccer10.com |