All Posts by Mike Saif

13 Early Specialization in Youth Soccer – A “Catch 22″

Today’s post is from our Soccer Conditioning Experts at Soccer F.I.T Academy and looks at whether or not having our kids specialize in soccer at an early age is beneficial or harmful.

As a fitness professional, youth club staff member, and soccer dad, I hear ALL sides of the discussions about “early specialization in youth sports across the U.S.” While this trend affects many youth sports, this dilemma as it pertains to the American soccer landscape is the most interesting in my opinion. FACT- The U.S. is behind the rest of the world in technical ability, tactical competency, and situational soccer awareness compared to our competition across the world. FACT – The ONLY way to narrow this gap is for our youth..our children… the future of U.S. Men’s & Women’s Soccer is to play…and play more. FACT – The U.S has highest rate of youth

0 Attacking With Numbers and Team Shape

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on team shape, attacking with numbers and much more.

Start with half a field with a keeper in the goal.  Have a line 30 yards out across the field and also extend the sides of the 18 all the way to the midfield line.  There is one attacking and one defending player in each of the wide zones and three attacking and 2 defending players in the center of the field.

The three attackers start with a ball and they have a 3 v 2 in the center zone.  If they play the

0 Footwork and Balance

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on footwork, balance and shot blocking.

The keeper starts on the near post with a server 12 yards out on a slight angle with some balls.  There is a cone in the middle of the goal.

The players slides to the middle

0 If You Need To Condition Without the Ball

Ideally we would like to do all fitness with a ball but the reality is there are times when pure running is helpful. Some players (and teams) simply are not capable of pushing themselves all out in soccer related activities and for those players it’s best to use activities where using fitness specific running is valuable.

In this activity you can vary the distances. I have done this with distances as short as 20 yards and as long as 120 yards. The thing I like about this activity is the faster the players run, the less distance they have to sprint. This is their incentive to really push themselves..

In the example below, we are going to use half a field for the distance. We could use a cone at each end but instead will use the goal for one end and the center circle for the other. Players start in two lines side by side

The players start by jogging around the around.

1 Integrating the Goalkeeper into Team Training

I don't think most coaches give a lot of thought to the needs of their goalkeepers when they sit down to plan their session. They're usually just another player in the team for most of the session and then go in goal when it comes time to shoot or play a game. While it's important for all goalkeepers, especially young goalkeepers, to work with the ball at their feet they also need to train with the team in functional exercises. This establishes a link between the goalkeeper rest of the team that will translate to game day.

A book that got me thinking about this subject is, "Team Training for the Goalkeeper" by John Murphy. In this book Murphy gives examples for training your goalkeepers with the team in all phases of training. Warm-up, Functional Training, Possession, Small-Sided Games, Phase of Play exercises and 11 v 11 setting are all discussed. He also includes full sessions that integrate the goalkeeper throughout the session.

Here are a few warm-up exercises

0 An All Inclusive Warm-Up

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is a warm up drill working on dribbling, passing, receiving and vision.

Start with a circle with a 20 yard diameter (you can use the center circle for this).  Put 4 cones in the middle around 4 yards apart and surround the circle with players.

One player starts with a ball and dribbles to the middle and then

0 Running with the Ball

A topic I don't see coaches cover very often is running with the ball. We all spend a good bit of time on dribbling sessions but running with the ball is a different skill. When you're dribbling the idea is to have the ball close to your feet and under tight control. When you're running with the ball you're trying to take space quickly so you get the ball out of your feet and run after it.

A session from the Manchester United Soccer School is great for working on this skill. I came across the session in our book, 'Technical Practices of the Pros'.

I've used this session with teams as young as U10. It's been

0 Adding Creativity to Diamond Drills

As I've written in previous posts, I enjoy incorporating diamond drills into my sessions because they provide all of the principles of attacking in a dynamic format that keeps the players moving and engaged. In one post on 'Diamond Passing' I shared some progressions on the diamond passing drills that I've used in the past. Over the last two months I've introduce these to my players during a number of practices. They've done a great job with them and I can change the pattern on the fly just by saying, "Layoff-and-Go", "Overlap" or "Play the Forward". I've also seen the movements from these exercises occur in scrimmages and games so the players have made the transition between practice and practical application.

During the winter my club participates in Futsal since the Midwest winter makes it tough to stay outdoor year-round. For those not familiar with

0 Recognition, Positioning and Shot Blocking

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured topic works on recognition, positioning and shot blocking.

This activity uses two cones 8 yards apart representing a goal and a keeper in the goal.  There are 6 players (3 on each side) spread out around 18 yards from goal with balls.

Play starts by one of the players taking a short touch of their ball.  This is the keepers signal so he

2 Agility, Sprinting and One-Touch Passing

Here is a simple activity that works on agility, sprinting and one touch passing.  This uses L shaped movement with passing

Start with 7 cones making up and L (or a reverse L) and 3-4 players to the side.  Two players start 10 yards from the last cone with 1 ball.

The first player in line “slaloms” through the cones sideways and then forward until getting to

1 Beating the Offside Trap

I've never been a fan of teaching youth teams to operate an offside trap. My feeling is that the time spent teaching this tactic is far better spent training players to better understand defending. You're also leaving the success or failure of your defense in the hands of the referees. Even with very good referees, your only one missed call away from a breakaway and likely goal.

I do believe that it's a good idea to spend some time teaching your players how to beat the offside trap. This knowledge is not only useful against trapping teams but also against teams that play a regular pressure-cover-balance defense. A book I've taken some ideas from is, 'Offside! - How to Coach It, How to Use It, How to Counter It.' This book does a great job of explaining how teach the tactic as well as how to beat it.

There are a number of different ways that you can combat the trap. I focus on four

0 1v1 Attacking and Defending

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on 1 v 1 attacking and defending as well as goalkeeping.  A great deal of emphasis should be put on the individual defending in this game as it’s a part of the game that is frequently neglected.  To learn more about how to do this please check out the DVD Coaching Individual Defending: Attitude and Technique.

Start with 2 goals 30 yards apart with a keeper in each goal. There should be a group of players with balls near the right post of each goal.

The first player on the black team starts by dribbling out at full speed and

0 Movement, Shot Blocking and Rebounds

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today's featured activity works on movement, shot blocking and rebounds.

Start with a keeper in goal, player 1 even with a goal post 12 yards out and player 2 15 yards out with a ball.

The keeper starts by positioning himself to cut off the angle as if player 1 is about to

1 Conditioning With Technical Training

Adding technical training into conditioning is a great way to ‘kill 2 birds with 1 stone”.  This activity will first show you an example of this and then add a second bit of technical work to really challenge the players.

Start with some low hurdles 1 yard apart starting 40 yards from goal.  There is a keeper in goal and the field players are in a line each with a ball.  The server (or a resting field player) is to the side of the hurdle closest to the goal.

The first player in line passes to the server and then goes over each of the hurdles as fast as he can.  He then

0 Attacking Against the 4-3-3

Every formation weakness that other teams will look to exploit. It's important to know what other teams might try so that you can prepare your team to deal with them. With this in mind, I read David Platt's, 'How to Play Against and Beat the 4-3-3'. Platt suggests that the best way to deal with a team that is adept at playing the 4-3-3 is to play a variation of the same system, the 4-3-2-1.

This excerpt of the book focuses on how to attack against the 4-3-3 beginning in the back and working through midfield.

Playing with a 4-3-3 system enables that team to be press high up the pitch and limit the ability to play out from the back.  Clearly this is something

0 2 v 1 Out Wide and 2 v 1 in the Box

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on 2 v 1 out wide  and 2 v 1 in the box.

This activity uses half a field and has a full sized goal with a keeper in it.  A center midfielder (or center back) starts in the middle with some balls.  There is a 2 v 1 out wide on each side and a 2 v 1 in the box

The central player starts by playing the ball out

0 Shot Blocking, Footwork and Backward Dives

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity works on shotblocking, footwork and backward dives.

Start with a keeper in goal, a server on each side of the 18 and another server near the penalty spot.  Each of the servers has a few balls.

Server one starts by shooting on goal (the angle can vary).  The keeper is given just enough

0 Adding Intensity To Your Training Sessions

One way to add conditioning to a training session is to simply add intensity.  Below is a 6 v 4 plus keepers protect the lead game that lasts 8 minutes and done at full speed has a lot of fitness work built in.

This game uses a half field and has a goal on each end line and a keeper in each goal.  There are four midfielders and two forwards on one team and four backs on the other team.

This is an 8 minute game and the yellow team starts off up one goal.  There objective is to

0 Defending the Wide Areas in a 4-3-3

My primary concern about changing to a 4-3-3 system was how to deal with players attacking from wide areas. With only three midfielders, all of whom play centrally, I was worried that this would be an area that other teams could exploit. So making sure we had a plan to deal with this problem became a primary concern.

One of the strengths of the 4-4-2 system is it's ability to create 2 v 1 situations on the wings. So if we're going to play from a 4-3-3, how will

0 Combinations and Flank Play

Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on combinations and flank play.

Start with 4 midfielders (2 central and 2 out wide) and 2 forwards. They are attacking a goal and a keeper is in the goal. The deepest central midfielder starts with the ball.

The play starts with a pass to the other central midfielder. He lays the ball back to the

0 Shot Blocking and Distribution

Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter.  Today’s featured activity is a group warm up and works on shot blocking, distribution and a little bit of movement.

This a 4 keeper activity with one keeper in “goal”, two keepers 20 yards wide on angles and a fourth keeper starting as the server.

The server starts with a ball at his feet and shoots at the keeper and

0 Technical Training Including Sprints

A common (and simple) passing activity would be a 5 or 6 person passing activity with one touch passing between two lines and a sprint after each pass.

3 Defending Against the 3-5-2

Every systems has it's strengths and weaknesses. In previous posts I've described why I feel that the 4-3-3 is a great system to teach players the game. While I believe in playing our own best game regardless of what the opposition is trying to do, playing against other systems provides challenges that the players need to learn to deal with. In the next few weeks I'll show you how I've taught my teams to handle these differences.

Teams that know you are playing with three in the midfield might try to overwhelm these players by having five in the

0 4 v 4 Game Environments

During the winter season my older teams continue to practice outdoor one day per week. As I've mentioned before, we're fortunate to have one of the best turf field complexes in the nation with 12 lighted fields. So with the only weather that will stop us from practicing is ice or snow.

Since many of our training sessions will be in pretty cold conditions, I tend to play a lot more small sided game tournaments during the winter. The players enjoy this practice format and it keeps them moving so the cold is less of an issue.

We have three different books that I look to for new ideas when it comes to small-sided games. One of them is 'Coaching Soccer Champions'. The author, Terry Michler, is the winningest high school coach in the country. He's been the Head Coach