Monthly Archives: September 2013

1 Finding the Motivation to Try

This post is a follow up to a previous post called, "Developing Confidence in Young Players" from our Soccer Conditioning Experts at SoccerFITAcademy.com. This post advances on those ideas.

“Things are hard when you HAVE TO…but become easy if you WANT TO…”
- Alan Stein

What motivates younger players? Not surprisingly it is the same things that motivate all of us when we are placed in an unfamiliar position or situation. In the beginning, it all comes down to three simple things that have total control on our confidence to get involved…

2 Favorite Triangle Midfield Exercises

By Rob Podeyn Author of Triangle Midfield  This is the first part of an article that appears in the November issue of the WORLD CLASS COACHING Magazine and will be uploaded to the Member Drills Database on November 1.

There are many exercises for training the triangle midfield. These five exercises represent my five favorite training exercises for training and developing the triangle midfield. They are generic enough that you can use them with just about any formation that uses the triangle midfield.

EXERCISE #1

Four Square Game- This is a great game for working on possession while also learning how to quickly read the pressure of the opposition. It is also excellent for teaching your players how to transition quickly from attack to defense and vice versa.

Start by creating a large square that is 40 yards by 40 yards (reduce it to 30 yards by 30 yards if for older players who are more skilled). Divide the large square into four equal squares that are 20 yards by 20 yards. Have five players in each grid for a total of 20 players (you can also go four in each grid for 16 total players). Have each group of five players in their own color (i.e. grid 1 wears red, grid 2 wears yellow, grid 3 wears black, and grid 4 wears blue).

Start the exercise by passing the ball into one of the grids. The team in that grid must

0 Continuous Paired Finishing

By Daniel Severn

This week we have an easy to set up, fun, but hard working exercise. This exercise works well with either two or three players.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below. We will show the exercise using just two active players and a goalkeeper. You could still keep a good, high tempo with three active players. You will begin with one player at the corner of the six-yard-box (this will be the ‘feeder’) and the other player (active player) facing away from the feeder, towards a line of cones.

Play begins with the active player shuffling through the cones as quickly as possible.  As he gets to the end, the feeder plays a pass out in front of the active player, who curves his run around the tall cone in order to run onto

0 Dribbling and Awareness Small-Sided Game

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a game that works on dribbling and awareness.

Start with a 30 x 30 grid with flags 10 yard on the outside of each corner.

Players are in teams of 3’s inside the grid and each player has

2 Eight-Cone Goalkeeper Drills

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on fitness, footwork and catching

Start with 8 cones 1 yard apart in a line. They are numbered 1-8 as shown in the diagram below.

A keeper starts in front of cone 1 and one server starts

9 Should Coaches Appeal for Decisions in Youth Soccer?

Every weekend you can go to a soccer complex and stand in between the fields while games are being played and just wait. It won't take long and you'll hear, "Heeeeyyy!" or "Refereeeee!" It's not coming from the player or the parents (although you'll hear it from them but that's another post) but from the coach. I'm as guilty of this as the next coach. It's almost a reflex for me by now. This weekend I caught myself and started really thinking about it.

I can shout quicker than the referee can get his whistle to his lips so it's a bit unfair because if the referee calls the foul there will be someone that says he gave it just because I shouted. If he doesn't then he knows I'm going to be upset because I've already indicated that I thought it was a foul.

At a certain level of play with experienced, adult referees then I don't

0 Dribbling and Passing Warm-Up Game

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a dribbling and passing warm up game.

Start with 15-18 players in a big circle (40 yard diameter) with a small square (5 x 5) in the middle

Start with one player having a ball. This player dribbles into

2 Goalkeeper Organizing the Defense

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a small sided game inside the 18 working on defensive organization, shot blocking and short distribution.

Start with a keeper in goal, 2 small (3 yard long) goals in the far corners of the 18 and a 4 v 3 in the 18.

The four black players try to score in the big goal so the keeper concentrates on

2 New Tactics For the Number 10

By Kieran Smith - UEFA 'A' License Coach

This rise of team’s formations like 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, and more specifically using a defensive midfield to sit in front of the defense and screen, has led to a bit of a dark period for the traditional Number 10 position; but has that led to the creation of a new position? The Central Winger.

The number 10 traditionally stayed centrally and played off of the CF but with the rise of the likes of players like Makelele and Busquets, has led to space in the central area becoming scarce at the top level. The central winger takes up the same position on the pitch as the traditional number 10 but as they play unfolds, they cover a lot more of the field than before.

This picture shows the traditional movement of the No 10 which you can see is the same area defensive midfielders cover showing how difficult it can be to find space in attack.

In picture two you can see an example of how the umber 10 can find the

5 Technical Team Relay with Finishing

By Daniel Severn

Team competitions are always fun. They demand each player to work to their maximum effort as they represent their team. This technical relay race will focus on techniques of dribbling the ball and ends with the player shooting.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below. We have 3 players representing each team, Yellow and Black. Player one begins at the end line of the field, with a ball at his feet. Player one has a line of small cones in front of him. Player two waits behind the tall cones, which are placed in a zig-zag formation, diagonal from each other. Player three waits behind a ladder; this is the player that will finish the relay by taking a shot.

Player one will complete his station before passing the ball to the player at station two, who in turn completes his station and passes to player three; who completes his station beats the flag and takes a shot to finish.

Station one – Dribble through the cones using the

1 Something Must Be Done to Stop Diving in Soccer

When you talk about soccer to someone who is not a fan at some point they will point out how soccer players dive and pretend that they've been fouled. This is the first and only thing that some people know about soccer. This is a black eye on our sport and something must be done to punish it with the goal of stopping it.

This form of cheating has made it's way into other sports like basketball where it is called, 'flopping'. Fines are being handed out to players like Chris Bosh during last year's playoffs. The first comment on the story says,

"This is what we get for trying [to] make soccer a more televised and popular sport in the US.
Soccer brought the playbook on flopping to America and it has spread rampantly through the
NBA and is starting to now even trickle into the NHL."

Last year eight players in the NBA were fined for flopping, the most common fine

4 Attacking Features of the 4-3-3

This post is from the Training Sessions For the 4-3-3 book.  This excerpt is from the section that takes a look at the attacking features of the 4-3-3.

When our team had possession of the ball, our Wings had freedom to attack.

The only caveat to both was not to reach the attack line together, and always position one a little further back, quickly recovering the defense if the ball was intercepted by the opponent. One or both wings could also assume the role of offensive midfielder, helping in the attack and creating an offensive superiority situation.

Our offensive midfielder advanced his position by getting to the point of the

1 High Tempo 4v1 Conditioning Game

By Daniel Severn

Today we have a simple variation of a popular and efficient exercise. By putting in this one twist, we add in movement, timing, speed of play and lots of conditioning. Again, there are many variations and ways to change or adapt this depending on the age and ability of your players – I’ll show you some of my favorite variations at the end of this article.

Set Up and Directions

The exercise is set up as shown below. We have four small cones marking out a 15x15 yard area. We also have four tall cones positioned centrally outside each side of the area, approximately 5 yards away.

The players will play a ‘regular’ 4v1 keep-away within the area marked by the small cones. The twist is this simple, after making a pass, the player must

0 Finishing From Crosses

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on finishing crosses.

Start with a grid that is 50 x 50 with a goal on each endline. There are 4 players on the sidelines with balls. They are numbered 1-4. There is a keeper in each goal and 2 forwards in the middle.

Player 1, on the outside starts by taking a touch and then

1 Warm-Up For Hands and Footwork

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Todays featured activity is a great warm up for working on hands and footwork.

Start with 4 cones in a 3 x 3 square. A keeper is at one of the back cones and a server is 10 yards in front of the cone with a ball.

The keeper starts by sliding side to side to the other back cone and then

11 Session Designer Updates

We are making a wish list of improvements and new features to the Session Designer. If you have any ideas, please comment below. We would love to hear from you.  Please post below in the Comments section.

0 Changing the Game

When the game isn't going our way and what we're trying to do just isn't working, I look for ways to change the game. There are a few things that I look at and will discuss here but there are countless ways that changes the coach and players make can alter the game.

The first thing I look at is tempo. Is the other team stopping us and creating attacks of their own because they are playing more quickly than we are? Are they putting us under pressure because they are keeping possession longer and building up against us? Are there one or two areas on the field where they are just quicker than we are and we need to change who is playing in those areas?

If the other team is just working harder than we are and investing more into the game we need to raise our game match their intensity. I don't believe this is often the whole problem. Coaches who just

1 Possession and Group Decision Making

By Gabriel Celante

This drill will work on individual and group decision making about where to play the ball, holding possession, and completing a series of passes. This drill also emphasizes switching the point of attack and quickly transition play.

Organization
1. Set up the field as shown on the diagram.
2. Split the field in two halves
3. Split the teams in 2 groups of 5v1, 5v2 or 4v2

Instructions

The team that starts the ball has to make 5 passes and then

0 The Order Game - An Effective Way to Start Any Session

By Daniel Severn

This week’s exercise can be used as a multi-purpose exercise. It is a very fun game that will get your players pushing themselves to the limit. It is also a very effective way to start a session as a warm up as it has very positive effects on team communication as well as getting them thinking and using their ‘soccer brains’ from the start of the session.

Set Up and Directions
The exercise is set up as shown below.

Above, we have 3 teams of 2 players ready to compete against one another. Each team has 4 objects in front of them (in this case, a small cone, a ball, a tall cone and a flag) spaced approximately 5 yards from each other. This is a speed and agility exercise which involves quick thinking from the active player as well as

0 Defensive Shape and Patience

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on defensive shape and patience

Start with a keeper in goal, a back 4 and 2 center mids (this is assuming you play with a back 4, if you play with 3 in back, set up accordingly). The attacking team has 2 forwards and 3 midfielders to start.

The three attacking midfielders pass the ball around and try to

0 Moving Forward to Make a Save

By Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on shot blocking and coming forward to make the save.

Start with a keeper in goal and a server with a few balls at the top of the 18.

The server starts by shooting on goal. It can be