Dynamic Soccer Speaker Series: Anson Dorrance
"You need coaches or loving critics or people that you respect to help accelerate the process so you can get there as fast as possible... it’s learning how to get to work instead of giving up on a dream"
"The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching.”
— Anson Dorrance
“THE ART & SCIENCE OF EXPERTISE & THE VISION OF A CHAMPION”
When: Friday, August 29, 2025 @ 6:00-7:30pm
Where: Palo Alto (location to be announced)
Who: For coaches, players, parents
Inquire: info@dynamicsoccer.com
Cost: NorCal Coaches Special Price $60
Join FIFA World Cup Winning Coach, 22 x NCAA champion and 7x National coach of the year, legendary North Carolina Tarheels coach Anson Dorrance, one of the most iconic and influential figures in global women's soccer and the driving force behind some of the most recognized names in women’s soccer, including FIFA World Players of the Year, 65 USA Women’s national team players and hundreds of professional players who he trained at North Carolina Women's soccer.
Anson describes the importance of committing to winning, leadership and motivation as well as the responsibility and commitment players must take to drive the process of achieving excellence and for their own performance not only in games and training but especially self practice. Anson describes the importance of "love of ball" and "love of game" in order for players to accelerate their journey towards excellence and explains the critical importance of modeling and imitating favorite players as a form of motivation. He describes the and identifies technical, physical, tactical and psychosocial qualities players should exhibit when trying to get recognized or scouted as well as the value and self testing, benchmarking and self evaluation.
Anson shares material from his lectures from his “The Art & Science of Expertise” class at UNC Chapel Hill where he teaches individuals to realize their full potential and how they actively and thoughtfully pursue their goals. He teaches students about deliberate practice, growth mindset and self-regulation which gives players the knowledge and tools they need to figure out how to pursue expertise in soccer in specific and targeted way. This course helped players improve their performance on the soccer field, in the classroom, in entrepreneurial ventures. He teaches students how to understand their thinking, emotions and behaviors and what matters in a discipline and how disciplines create knowledge. Anson describes how putting in enormous amounts of time in a players pursuit of excellence and refining ones craft to become an expert and pursuing ones passion is a given, however, it's not only quantity but the quality of deliberate practice, content/type of material, planning, performance, monitoring/feedback with concerted effort at the edge of ones comfort zones helps make incremental and transformational change.
"He’s one of the most brilliant men I have met. He blew my mind with his boldness and intuition"
US Women's National Team Coach Emma Hayes
“Dorrance is one of the true legends in sports... I had been an admirer of his for years and read his book long before i went to USC...I adopted Dorrance's approach for a number of reasons.As a motivational tool it helped us make sure the players were practicing at a very high level”
Las Vegas Raiders Coach Pete Carroll (ex-Seattle Seahawks & USC)
