All Posts by Tom Mura

0 Position Specific Strength Training: Defensive Actions to Attacking Transition

By Anthony Hazelwood The following practice is a soccer specific, small sided and muscle tension training activity geared towards strengthening the player’s muscles and increasing their anaerobic capacity. Players are placed in their functional areas and will perform repetitive soccer specific and muscle tension movements in a functional 1-4-3-3 formation. When preparing the activity, if

0 Defensive Covering – Man and Ball

By Mike Smith Good defense has several aspects. The most common is just getting back to clog space, and I will take that all the time. However, a team that wishes to play complete defense should also have good marking, players attempting to deny penetrating passes and players focused on winning long services of the ball.

0 Manipulating Defenders with a Front Three

By Sean Pearson Formation With Chelsea’s success under Antonio Conte changing his formation to a 3-4-3 after a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in September they went on a record equaling 13 game winning streak. There is a lot to do with that but we will focus on how the front 3 in that system manage

0 Playground Games

By Sean Reed - Objective I have chosen to write about a couple of classic playground games which you would often seen played in the playground, down the park and even in the street. Games that allow the players to manage, take control and most of all let them play. Set Up – World Cup Singles

0 Playing Forwards from the Own Half

By Alex Trukan There are many ways to get the ball into opposition’s half. Some of the teams prefer a direct approach getting a long pass played from the own goalkeeper, others strongly believe in a patient build up through the thirds. What becomes more and more popular is a combination of these two styles.

0 #098 Creating a Cohesive Defensive Unit

Click Here to Listen to Podcast Click Here for the Show Notes

0 Position Specific 6 v 6 to Targets

0 Position Specific 4 v 4 + 3

0 Position Specific 5 v 2

0 Position Specific 4 v 1

0 Dealing with the Second Phase Shots

By Scott Housden - The majority of crosses that goalkeepers have to deal with during a game are usually those that the goalkeeper is not able to gather cleanly. Therefore, they may have to punch or help the ball on or, rely on their team to deal with the cross whilst the goalkeeper calls ‘away’ and

1 Stopping FC Barcelona from Playing out from the Back

By Alex Trukan One of the main FC Barcelona characteristics is patient build up from the back. Passing the ball out from a goalkeeper and then progressively playing through the thirds up to the opposition goal is not only nice to watch but also effective. FC Barcelona players have been doing it for years and

0 Off the Ball Movement

By Gregg Gillies - Warm Up: Hand Ball Soccer This is a great warm up game. When utilizing it with my teams, I've found that it gets them engaged and excited about the upcoming practice session (their brains are switched “on” and they are focused). It gets their bodies moving and their minds ready for what's

0 Diagonals Create Space

By Mike Smith I constantly catch myself reminding my team, “it’s” not always about what you are doing, it’s about what you are doing to the other team. Many times, the player in possession of the ball doesn’t look for or see the space that is created by team movement, but IF you have players who

0 Training Zonal Defending

This week's Animated Drills Video looks at a foundational exercise to train your team to defend zonally. The diagrams are created with the session planner on Planet Training that is available through from Planet.Training. Click the image below for more information on, 'The Complete Guide to Zonal Defending' How would you progress this activity? Share

0 Position Specific Warm-Up

3 Quick Finishing from Forward Passes

By Sean Pearson Area Size: 46 x 38 Yards Time: 20 mins Players: 7 v 7 Objectives To make runs behind the defense from different angles To make quick decisions when finishing with 1st time shots Set-Up Three zones divide the field into 3 sections. There is 6v6 in the middle zone with 4 players in the middle and 2

1 Finishing Race

By Alex Trukan This practice is focused on improving explosiveness in sprinting and changing direction with the ball. It challenges players to run with the ball at maximal intensity and then be able to twist and turn before a finish. These physical abilities are crucial to win attacking running duels as well as to accelerate

0 #097 Diving and It’s Effects on Youth Soccer

Click Here to Listen to Podcast

0 Rectangle Passing - Up - Over - Up - Back - Diagonal

0 Rectangle Passing - Up - Over - Diagonal

0 Rectangle Passing - Layoff with Give-and-Go

0 Rectangle Passing - Layoff

0 Attacking Spaces Around the Defensive Midfielder

By Alex Trukan Defensive midfielder’s position has been a response to available half spaces between units. Many team used to play with flat lines (eg. 4-4-2) what created gaps easy to exploit by the opposition. Defensive midfielder’s role was to cover these spaces, screen through balls and mark any opposition players within these areas. There