Book Private Soccer Lessons with Coach JAMES

I played many sports but mostly soccer, long distance running and golf. I competed at some sort of professional level in each of these sports. I won a State Championship for the NJ All-Star for age 12 and 13 even though I was only 10. I then tried out and got selected to play semi-pro indoor soccer and did it for one season because outdoor was more my style.

I ran at State and National Championships while in High School and College in both Cross Country and Track and Field. Continued to run all over the world winning 165 races and three marathons.

While in the Army I set the record for the highest score on the Army PT score with 122 push-ups in two minutes, 120 sit-ups in two minutes and ran 9:13 for the two-mile run.

At age 32 I started playing golf and at age 35 passed the PGA players ability test and turn pro. Played one year on the New England Mini-Tour in 2006.

Started running again at age 45 and either won my age group or the overall race in trail racing.

It always starts with fitness and flexibility. The stronger and fitter an athlete the better they will be able improve in all aspects and play better than they ever have before. Then you make sure they know and perfect the basic skills a particular sport requires. Without the basics you can't efficiently move on to the more difficult skills. I always mix in the mental aspects a sport demands on an athlete especially in competition. The most mentally tough athletes always seem to rise to the top in competitive situations. Every training session ends with a good complete stretching session to help them prevent injuries and achieve great movement throughout their activities.

Another important part of success for an athlete is setting up routines and schedules. This includes when and what they eat, when they go to bed and wake up and what other activities they should and should not be doing especially in season.

We warm up the body with some light jogging or running. Distance depends on fitness of the athlete. Then we move into strength and speed training which includes various activities and plyometrics. Then we move right into skills training including basic skills and more advanced skills to make sure they always have the basics perfected. During each training session we will work on skills that maybe a weakness of theirs, so it then becomes a strength. Some days we will end the training session with some muscular strength activities to make sure the athlete is stronger than their competitors especially during competition. We always wrap up the session with stretching and a question-and-answer session so that the athlete can pick the mind of the coach to gain the knowledge they may feel is important to them.

The best coach I had was Sam Bare. He coached me while I was in High School as a private coach. The High School agreed to let him coach me even though he was not part of the High School itself. He was a seven-time all-American in college and a sub four-minute miler. He was currently working as the Head Cross Country Coach at Allegany Community College where he won nine National Championships. He also started Allegany Running club which at the time was the best team in the country. He taught me the best ways to train while in High School and I was able to run my fastest time by a long shot and enjoyed the fact that I qualified and competed in the State and National Championships.

I have been very God Blessed with athletic talent and knowledge and love sharing these skills and knowledge with others so I can see the joy on their faces when they succeed and accomplish their own goals. Since I have stopped competing on my own, I have welcomed the opportunity to work with you the athlete and with your kids the athletes so that the skills and knowledge can be passed along to the next generation.