Courtesy: Soccer Nation


Mrakovic Hot Shotz

by Diane Scavuzzo

Friday, November 11, 2011

Mario Mrakovic Fine Tunes Soccer Players to Become Technically Versatile & Powerful

Mario Mrakovic is the Director of San Diego Surf's Grassroots program as well as the founder of San Diego Futsal. Growing up in Croatia, (next to Italy) he began playing soccer at an early age, guided and encouraged by his father, who was also a coach. He played with FC Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb (you can see them playing in the Champions League), Tekstilac and the San Diego Sockers before becoming a full-time coach.

Well known in Southern California as a highly spirited, fun loving yet technically demanding coach, Mario Mrakovic combines his lifelong love of soccer with a desire to help young players to gain technical knowledge and the skills that they need to become successful. Mrakovic has now taken over the soccer programs at Hot Shots in Del Mar and this week launches several new programs for youth soccer including a shooting clinic, futsal training and private agility and speed sessions.

SNN: How do you develop players?
Mario Mrakovic: When I start working with a player, I begin from scratch, no matter what level of play or experience he or she is at. We start with the footwork and work on the proper balance of the whole body, not just focusing on the leg work. Then we get the ball involved, starting with the most basic touches. We move slowly in the beginning.

I also evaluate more than skills; not just what you can do with the ball but how you do things with the ball.

Skills are different from the technical aspect of the game. There are players with great skills, but technically they are not so savvy. It is like when you are watching the Olympic competition in skating or gymnastics. They are all incredible world class athletes, yet they get different technical grades that separate them by the smallest of margins. This is my approach to training – it is not the entertainment value, but rather the technical merit.


SNN: How should parents choose a trainer?
Mario Mrakovic: If you have a choice to take your child to learn to play piano, you will always choose the grumpy, strict, uptight Russian teacher with a heavy accent, over a friendly, super sweet and nice but insignificant other instructor. And why? Because you want your kid to learn the best way – the right way, the correct way, the most successful way.

Technical execution is the mother of all activities. Yet, it is the most difficult one too! Perhaps that is the reason why it is not used as much. Who has time and stubborn patience to pay attention to all the little details? It is always easier to push things under the rug. So what I do well is find those little details and make those little corrections which have a domino effect.

One correction is going to lead into another. And there are often so many things to correct. It’s just like a puzzle; the pieces could be all over and we are putting them together to make a great picture. It is like solving a puzzle. I have developed a training system that I use to solve that puzzle. The saying goes that there is no magic pill to success, that it has to be hard work first and foremost. This is true. However, I do believe in perfect hard work. Only perfect practice makes it perfect. Not just practice.


SNN: How do you train players to perform better?
Mario Mrakovic: I like to work with players and take the skills they have acquired and fine tune them to achieve the next level of success. I want to make players look technically clean, sophisticated and effortless. I want them to have the power and the elegance at the same time.


SNN: How important is being versatile?
Mario Mrakovic: Usually players fall into positional restrictions and are labeled accordingly – they are either one thing or another. I believe in the versatility of players. The game of soccer has evolved, and some old-school coaches have not adjusted and changed their ways. They are simply outdated. In the modern game of soccer, all players must have the ability to play automatically, to be able to attack and defend, to think fast and change thoughts in an instant.

When you are training younger groups, you want to develop versatile players. This means having a player that can do it all; that can do the proper running, dribbling the ball, controlling the ball, trapping the ball, passing the ball and shooting - players that can execute in all the aspects of the game.

The modern game needs players who are equipped to handle all of the demands of soccer, and not just be put in the corner and asked to do one thing or two.


SNN: What happens during the training at soccer clubs?
Mario Mrakovic: Our youth coaches too often take priority of the teams’ performances and improvements – meaning the performance of the team reflects the quality of their work. There is one missing piece here, and that is the personal and individual priority attention to players. This is what I have found is so important at club soccer. It’s also what I have found different at the European soccer clubs I visited last summer. This is what I want to be doing at Hot Shotz – to develop technically clean and versatile, powerful and elegant players.


SNN: Is this your own program?
Mario Mrakovic: I know that I have developed a teaching curriculum that will always produce magical results in record time. I have zero doubts about it. I have tested it with pro soccer players, U.S. National Team players, the best U.S. National freestylers, semi-pros, and more. I am always willing to show it anywhere, anyplace, anytime as a player, or as a instructor.


SNN: How long have you been coaching?
Mario Mrakovic: I guess you could say I’ve been coaching since age 4. My dad was a soccer coach in the early 1970s and I was the only kid on the block with a ball, so everybody was very eager to be good friends with me. They would ring my doorbell and call for me to come to play with them. I would come down from the fourth floor of my building and I would bring the ball. Even back then I could talk forever about soccer. I would make teams and I would direct the traffic with kids usually 2-3 years older than me.


SNN: Really? Age 4?
Mario Mrakovic: Yes, I was “coaching” when I was 4. I was telling kids what to do, how to play, who to cover and so on. I was telling them where the bricks (goal posts) should go on the street and how far apart, who should be on which team, etc. I would tell everybody to stop the game because a truck or a car was coming. I was coaching all the kids. Soccer was all I was doing at the time.


SNN: What did your father do?
Mario Mrakovic: He was a Futsal/soccer coach in Croatia, in the former Yugoslavia. He was a soccer manager for some of the best Futsal teams of his time. He won numerous local and international championships. Until about 15 years ago, the teams from Croatia were the best by far in Europe. Back then, the Spaniards, Italians and others came to Croatia to study and learn the game of soccer. With the better infrastructure and financial backing, these European countries have since eclipsed Croatia. Spain is now my favorite soccer country to look at and admire their style of play and their success both in Futsal and traditional soccer.


SNN: What do you like about Futsal?
Mario Mrakovic: Futsal has been a part of my life since the very early days. I remember the smell of the gym and even the odor of the dirty shirts that my mom would be washing for the team, ha, ha. It was just part of my upbringing, it was my everyday life. I remember at an early age going with my dad to the tournaments and facilities, and traveling all around Europe. Futsal and street soccer are huge part of me. I grew up being a Futsal player and a street soccer player. That’s where I really honed my skills. And that always made me very successful in 3v3 games and tournaments, arena soccer games or Futsal. I always did well because of my ability to keep the ball close and to make good decisions in a short amount of space and a short amount of time. Futsal is the best training for soccer players.

Look at Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Marta, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Pele and Maradona – they are all soccer legends, and they all credit their extraordinary skills and technical abilities to Futsal and street soccer. They all developed their slick skills outside the club environment. And this is exactly what San Diego Futsal is looking to do – allow the ball to be the teacher, allow the game to be the master, allow players to be innovative, imaginative, unpredictable, entertaining and exciting.


SNN: What are you now doing at Del Mar Hot Shotz Sport Center?
Mario Mrakovic: When the new management came in at Hot Shotz, they asked me to take over all of the activities related to soccer, Futsal and soccer-related speed, agility and quickness training. We are concentrating on those three specifics: soccer sessions such as shooting clinics, Futsal training and speed and agility training. Speed to Burn ran its training at the facility in the past, and I was asked to replace that popular program when they moved out. I have actually been running speed clinics and camps for 15 years, so I have lots of experience at this.


SNN: When did you first start San Diego Futsal?
Mario Mrakovic: San Diego Futsal has been around 17 years – it was originally called Futsal Funtastic – and now we have three Futsal courts that we use for our clinics and camps. We also have extra space on turf that we can turn into another three courts.


SNN: What are you trying to achieve in your soccer clinics?
Mario Mrakovic: What I am trying to achieve is to provide an opportunity for players to work, practice, train and learn things that they always wanted to know but they are afraid to ask about or feel they do not get from their club training. This is the reason I am so excited. I will be working 7 days a week at Hot Shotz. I also want to provide an environment for technically trained players to play against each other so they can hone theirs skills even further. Imagine being able to play in an environment with other players of high technical skill and being able to put together combination moves and passes just like the pros do. This gives a player a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment greatly improving self esteem and confidence.


SNN: Will you be providing personal one-to-one training for players?
Mario Mrakovic: Yes, absolutely. We don’t target positional play as much because, as I said earlier, it’s all about versatility. Our training here is not about quantity – it is about quality. What that means is that the focus is not on repetition and drills, but rather proper preparation, instruction, visualization, correction and constructive feedback.

I am aware that there are many excellent programs offered in San Diego, but I also know that SD Futsal Staff Coaches such as Javi Gonzalez, Maddie Tantillo and I provide technical training at the highest levels. We all have gone through vigorous training and apply the same technical principles and the very same specific soccer coordination in our training.

Our coaches are all of the very same soccer pedigree; we all move and demonstrate exercises the very same way. The focus is always on technical sophistication and understanding of body movement in relationship with the ball or without it.

The game of soccer is also mental; it is also about critical thinking, so when the players do something they understand not only what they did, but how and why they did it.

We want the players to become analytical and smarter in these situations. We do not start racing 100 miles an hour – we break things down and do it gradually, step by step through correct progressions.


SNN: Why did you choose to set up San Diego Futsal here at Hot Shotz?
Mario Mrakovic: The idea was always to have a site for soccer and Futsal training that is available to everyone. I honestly doubt that there is a better location than Del Mar Hot Shotz. I think it’s a great location for everybody. People can come here easily from all parts of town, from the north, south and east. I really see this place becoming the soccer destination. Everybody will look forward to coming here for clinics, camps, private training, team training, leagues and tournaments. It’s all going to be here. Hopefully it will turn into one big place that is totally soccer and Futsal dedicated. Parents can drop off their kids and enjoy a bite to eat, or a drink at the restaurants nearby, or even go for a walk on the beach.

I really want to make it an amazing soccer haven for all. The games of Futsal and soccer have become so much more alike. They each involve pin-point one- or two-touch passing, quick decisions and an automatic style of play. Players need to learn and practice great and flawless touches on the ball. I want to see that Hot Shotz will follow this developing trend by offering programs that will do it more than justice. And that will be yet another magical result.

I challenge any player or parent to try one session with my clinic. They will see and feel great improvement in their soccer skills and will immediately perform better on their team.


Hot Shotz Sports Center is located at the Del Mar Fairgrounds - 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar 92014. Listing of Camps and Clinics: click here.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com