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Owen Miller is the co-founder of Flow Soccer, a year-round player development and mentorship program based in the Boston area. He played college soccer at UMass Lowell, where he served as team captain, before spending six months in Spain coaching a gap year program and observing academy training at Villarreal, Valencia, and Levante. Back in the US, he served as a volunteer assistant at Boston College and worked in the club system for several years before stepping away to launch Flow Soccer with co-founder David Gydus.

In this conversation, Alf and Owen cover a lot of ground. They discuss what Owen observed in Spanish academy training — the efficiency, the tight spaces, the coaching philosophy of loading instruction up front and letting the game run — and how that shaped the way he approaches sessions today. They talk about what Owen found frustrating in the US club system, from the geography of elite travel to the toll it takes on coaches and families. And they dig into the concept at the heart of Flow Soccer's identity: the flow state, as described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and how Owen builds sessions specifically designed to help players reach it.

The conversation also covers Flow Soccer's no-questions-asked pricing model, the program's partnership with Boston Scores, the importance of mentorship for young men, and why Owen believes a good coach's job goes well beyond what happens on the pitch.

This one is for youth coaches, club coaches, and anyone who's ever asked what it really means to develop a player. Hit play and enjoy the conversation.

For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.

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Paul Barry is a UEFA A licensed coach developer and the current Head of Coaching for the Foundation Phase at Crystal Palace FC — and in this conversation, he brings the principles that shape one of England's top academy programmes directly to grassroots coaches.

We talk about one of the most common mistakes coaches make: judging players on outcomes rather than decisions. Paul explains why praising a young player's intention — even when the execution falls short — is the foundation of developing real game intelligence. We also get into what "winning" actually looks like at the foundation phase, how to create the conditions where young players feel safe to try things and fail, and what Paul has learned from writing children's books about growth mindset and emotional resilience.

If you coach young players at any level and want to think differently about how you give feedback and measure progress, this episode is for you.

Hit play and enjoy the conversation.

For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.

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ACL injuries sideline thousands of young female athletes every year—but it doesn't have to be this way. In this episode, 17-year-old high school soccer player Maya Lanfer shares what she's learned from researching this injury, interviewing sports medicine professionals, and creating educational resources for coaches and players.

Maya breaks down why female athletes are more susceptible to ACL tears, what the research says about prevention, and the simple warm-up exercises that can significantly reduce risk. She also discusses the emotional toll these injuries take on young athletes and makes a compelling case for why coaches need to move beyond thinking of ACL injuries as "bad luck."

Whether you coach girls or boys, this conversation offers practical insights you can bring to your next practice.

Maya's Videos on YouTube

• Attention Female Athletes: How to Save Your ACL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhQVSvzjNrg
• HOW TO: ACL Injury Prevention Warm-up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za65nYmyr8Q

For more information about CoachCraft, visit https://coachcraft.info.