Brandon Smith

I have been coaching athletes for over 3 years, specifically coaching in soccer for just over a year. I have experience in coaching at the high school AAA level in which the program I work with, Westminster Schools of Augusta, has won six straight state championships. I also have experience in personal training mainly with youth goalkeeper development, both in one-on-one sessions as well as in small groups. In addition to this, I have also served as the goalkeeper coach for college youth camps at Southern Wesleyan University. I have experience working with players ranging from ages 6 up to 18, and have found abundant success in adolescent player growth and young adult development on the pitch. Lastly, I also have received my national goalkeeper level 1 diploma from United Soccer Coaches Organization, and I am currently working to achieve my level 2 diploma as well.

I have been playing soccer for my entire life, in which over time I gravitated towards goalkeeping, but have also played heavily as a center midfielder. I first found success being recruited for the Augusta Arsenal soccer club's highest ranked team in the National Premier League as a U14 player in the U15 league. I continued with the Augusta Arsenal for 3 out of my 4 years in high school, in which we placed 4th in the league in my senior year. I also played for the Olympic Development Team my freshmen year of high school, competing at the sub-regional Region III tournament in North Carolina. I found great success in playing for my high school team at Westminster Schools of Augusta, in which I was the starting goalkeeper for each of my four years. My freshmen year I set the GAA (goals allowed on average) school record at 0.303, allowing 13 goals total and posting 14 straight clean sheets to end the regular and post-season. Over the course of my four years, I held a record of 74 wins and 12 losses, won 4 straight state championships, and achieved All-Region and All-State Honors. After graduating from high school, I was recruited by and accepted an offer from Southern Wesleyan University in Central, South Carolina, in which I have played soccer at the NCAA Division II level for two years as a part of the Conference Carolinas Region.

A typical session with me includes several stages of intense, experience-driven drills, game-tested tactics, and activities which challenge the mental aspect of the game just as thoroughly as the physical. My coaching strategy focuses on learning the play style and technical ability of the player over the first session(s), then using that information after reviewing film from our sessions to approach training the player in a method which ensures his/her positive development over time and direct improvement session-by-session. At the beginning of every session, the player will first perform several dynamic movements to warm up the core muscles and prevent injuries during the drills. During this warm-up, I will explain to the player the layout of the session, what specific techniques we will be focusing on, and which drills we will be going through to accomplish those tasks. My focus in drills is always on quality, not quantity, therefore I will commonly stop players in the middle of drills and take time to highlight small flaws in either technique or mindset which, if unaddressed, can result in developing poor form over time. This style of coaching not only allows for the correct development of proper form, but prevents fatigue from overtraining which can lead to poor repetitions and improper form. At the end of sessions, we will always perform a cooldown in the form of static stretching, which will help with long term injury prevention and prepare the athlete for the next day. In concluding the session, we will always discuss both general, long-term goals for the season as well as specific, short-term goals which can be achieved within a single session or group of sessions and will be addressed commonly throughout future sessions in order to maintain a focused, purpose-driven mindset of consistently improving. The mental aspect of the game is just as important as the physical, and I guarantee that any player I coach will be trained not only to play with their feet but also with their head, and in doing so will achieve a confidence in their own ability that will be unmatched on the pitch.