By Mike Smith Have you ever noticed how most collegiate and professional squads back off on each other when an attack stalls and the opposing team decides to play out from the back? Compare this to youth soccer and it seems there is constant pressure at every position. I know there is a focus in youth
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By Mike Smith - Over the course of my 24 years of coaching in general and 16 years of coaching high school, one of the constants I have faced is the need to “make” a keeper. Most coaches have moved around a bit as far as teams and age groups coached, but in all my
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By Sean Reed - Objective This session can be used as part of the warm up working on quick movements with and without the ball and within a competitive situation. Using games / competitive sessions can be a good way to engage the players at the start of the session. Set Up – 1st Part
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By Philip Joe Cauchi Introduction: In this session we are going to raise the players’ bar in dealing with 1v1 defending situations starting from different positions. This will develop the players’ mental abilities to quickly recognise how their position should be in relation to the ball and the goal they are defending. From these situations
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By Philip Connolly Objective: The objective of the following training session is to work on aspects of retaining purposeful possession in order to build combinations to play forward with transition actions in winning and losing possession of the ball. Practice 1: Warm-up activity to introduce some of combination patterns that we would encourage the players to
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By Mike Saif Question - I have a 2 part question. I coach club U16's and U18's. We are beginning our indoor session next week. I treat this as an elongated preseason for our Spring outdoor season. This consists of time (2hrs) in a school gym - basketball court and down the road playing 8-10
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By Anthony Hazelwood The following activity has individual players working on their soccer specific muscle tension movements. A 4 x 4 yd. squared zone is marked with each cone being a different color. This activity must be done in pairs with a coach or a teammate. The Pele Box activity targets muscle tension and reactive/thinking
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By Matthew Carroll Description: The purpose of the “Killer Pass Transitions” activity is to create a high tempo simulation of play just beyond, or just in the box, in which players use short passing to break the defensive line and create an opportunity on net. Setup: One grid is established in the middle of the
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 40 Fun Games For Young Players By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART ONE Introduction PART TWO Fun Games PART THREE Fun Games PART FOUR Fun Games Introduction - why substitute exercises with games? Children and young aged boys consider specific technical exercises boring. They see soccer as a pure game and a
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 40 Fun Games For Young Players By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART TWO Fun Games Fun Games Exercise 1: follow the compass (1) Set-up and sequence: all the available players are placed inside a rectangular area of different dimensions, depending on age and level of the children. The sides of the rectangle
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 40 Fun Games For Young Players By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART THREE Fun Games Fun Games Exercise 16: tigers zoo (3) Set-up and sequence: this exercise is the third progression of the number 14. The rectangular set-up is considered as a tigers' zoo. Corner goals are added using red cones as
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING 40 Fun Games For Young Players By Luca Bertolini Table of Contents PART FOUR Fun Games Fun Games Exercise 29: 1 v 1 multiple duels (1) Set-up and sequence: this exercise is a progression of the exercise num.28. 4 goals with goalkeepers and 2 black and 2 yellow players with 2 balls each
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By Mike Smith - There is no higher pressure situation for a keeper to face than that of a PK. Some could argue a 1 v 1 breakaway where the attacker is coming in at speed is more challenging but I would argue since the keeper is not limited as far as movement during run
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By Sean Reed - Objective This session focus’s on putting players into competitive races, which can challenges aspects of movement including their acceleration, deceleration, speed and movement. This session can be used as part of the warm-up. Set Up – Races without the ball The session is set up with a middle area (home) with
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By Mike Smith I was a ball chaser. I was cut from my middle school soccer team 3 times – even though I was the fastest player on the team ( well, at tryouts anyway). This was back in the 80’s near Washington D.C., which actually had some well developed soccer programs for back then. Even
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By Philip Connolly Relationship between Midfield and Attacking Units when building an attack in a 1-3-5-2 Formation Objective: The objective of the following training session is to work on aspects of the relationship between Midfield and Attacking Units when attacking in the final third. Practice 1: Working on moving the ball from midfield into the forward
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By Philip Joe Cauchi Introduction: Wingers or lateral midfielders play a highly important role in any system of play. Their main aim is to create width in attack by stretching the opposition’s defence. However, there is mainly two ways which this can be accomplished. A winger might be instructed to play inside closer to the
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING Pro Possession Games By Renato Lopes Moreira Table of Contents PART ONE Introduction Warm-Ups Small Group Situations PART TWO Four-Player Situations PART THREE Five-Player Situations PART FOUR Six-Player Situations Large Group Situations Introduction "If you keep possession of the ball, the opponent does not have it." It was with this phrase that the
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING Pro Possession Games By Renato Lopes Moreira Table of Contents PART TWO Four-Player Situations Four-Player Game Situations 4x1 – 2x1 game situation – possession game Setup: 5 players 10x10 meters game field Execution: Divide the game field into two small fields. Divide the attackes into two small teams with two players each; One
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING Pro Possession Games By Renato Lopes Moreira Table of Contents PART THREE Five-Player Situations Five-Player Game Situations 5x5 - High pression - possession game Setup: 10 players 20x10 meters game field. Execution: The attack must maintain the ball possession as long as they can; If the attack makes five consecutive passes, they score
Continue readingWORLD CLASS COACHING Pro Possession Games By Renato Lopes Moreira Table of Contents PART FOUR Six-Player Situations Large Group Situations Six-Player Game Situations 6x4 - 1 touch - possession game Setup: 10 players 20x10 meters game field. Execution: The attack must touch the ball between them without losing the ball possession; It is only allowed one
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By Adrian Hampshire Question - I coach a U14 and U16 team. Can you give me ideas on what types of foods and when the players should be eating during a tournament when playing a game a day for 3 to 5 days? 10 key tips to help the young footballers get their nutrition right
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