All Posts by Tom Mura

4 Ajax v PSG-09-17-2014

HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett UEFA Champions League September 17, 2014 Amsterdam Arena Ajax 1 v 1 PSG Everything started well from the opening whistle with a fast score from Cavani in the 14th minute. However, as was the case in their most recent Ligue 1 road trips, PSG could do nothing

1 The Penetrating Pass

I've spent the first few weeks of the year focusing on passing and possession with one of my teams. They've picked up on the concepts very well but there have been times when have just kept possession for the sake of possession. Possession without the intent to play the penetrating pass will have your team knocking the ball around nicely but not going anywhere. And that's what I started to see with my team.

To progress our possession passing to finding penetrating passes I started with this session.

1 Coaching Team Shape in the 4-2-3-1

One of the biggest challenges when coaching young players is getting them to stay in position. Time and again, you see them charging for the ball, before huddling around it in a clumsy effort to get a kick. Even senior players can succumb to over enthusiasm, creating huge gaps for the opposition to exploit and break through on goal.

Coaching Team Shape in the 4-2-3-1 provides a grid based training system that solves this problem. Firstly, it introduces your players to the key principles of keeping team shape before providing a progressive series of drills that improve their

0 A First Touch with a Purpose

The most important touch is a player's first touch. If that touch is a positive touch away from pressure and in the direction that they want to play there is a much greater chance of keeping possession. When the first touch is poor, into pressure and away from support, the chances of losing the ball are much greater. If your player's first touch is putting them into a tackle, it was a poor first touch.

The key to having a good first touch is giving that touch a purpose. Too often players are only concerned with

0 Teaching Build Up Play Progressively Part 2

This session builds on the one I described in last week's post. The focus of this session on taking the shapes and patterns that were taught in the last session and making them more function.

This is a session I did with my U9 team. In our area we play 6 v 6 at this age so that's how we set up the game related patterns.

2 v 2 + 3

This is really a 5 v 2 game at it's heart. The idea is to

2 Teaching Build Up Play Progressively Part 1

I've written before about our club's philosophy that encourages teams of all ages to play out of the back as often as possible. The key to implementing this with your team is to teach the players what visual cues to look for so that they can see patterns in the options that are available. These

3 Three Different Ways to Organize a Training Session

As a young coach I always organized my session in the same way: simple to complex. This is the way I was taught through the USSF Licensing Courses and this was what I always stuck to. Only in the last few years have I found that there is more than one way to have an effective

1 Being Creative with Free Kicks

When you see a free kick with in shooting range in a game today you just see a shooter, a wall and a goalkeeper. These are great examples of an ability to strike a ball but how many times do they end up like this? Ok, maybe not as bad as some of those but

7 Position Specific Training

I think that much of our time as coaches is spent teaching all of the players the same thing. There is obviously a place for this at the younger ages when they just need to learn the basics. But in my opinion, as the player get to be 12 and 13 there is a place for position specific training.

Learning the roles and responsibilities of a particular position will allow the players to apply the technical skills that they've learned to the place on the field they will be playing. The options are different for a wide midfielder than they are for a center midfielder and the more comfortable we, as coaches, can

0 Goalie Wars

Goalkeepers have often been overlooked and under appreciated. In recent years, a competition that focuses on the special skills of goalkeepers has become increasingly popular. Goalie Wars tournaments started as a part of Goalkeeper camps but have started to be held as stand-alone events.

The rules are simple, two goalies are positioned 20-30 yards apart and they shoot, dropkick, throw or punt the ball to try to score on the other goalkeeper. They play two halves of three to five minutes.

Here's a example

1 Preseason Sessions with a New Team

When I start coaching a new team I try to schedule a four day camp before our normal training schedule begins. Having four straight days with the team allows us all to get to know each other and lets me see what kind of players I'll be working with.

The sessions I present depend on the age and level of experience of the players. This year I started coaching a U12 girls team so the examples I give here will be based on that age group. They are a very competitive group of girls that have all played at a high level locally so I also take that into consideration while planning the sessions.

Regardless of the age group I like to start out the first day with

0 Tell Them or Ask Them?

I recently came across a blog post that touched on a topic that I wrote about a number of years ago. The difference between 'telling' a player what to do and 'asking' them what they should do is the difference between the player making the right choice once and the player understanding why it's the right choice.

Here is a link to the post. I would credit the author but I couldn't find their information on the site.

Each weekend I coach five or six games. Because I

1 Coaching the Principles of Soccer

When you coach young players, it can be difficult to know where to start. Some coaches will focus onlyon developing technique without teaching the key elements of the game. But this can just stunt a young player’s development. When they don’t understand the game’s core principles, they won’t know where they need to be and why so they can use their  technique to create chances to score. To solve this age old problem, two experts in youth coaching have created Coaching the Principles of Soccer – Attack and Defense. This book presents a structured approach to developing an understanding of how the game is played and to provide them with a solid base on which they can develop.

The drills in Coaching the Principles of Soccer – Attack and Defense will

0 Coaching Team Shape in the 3-3-1

How many times do you hear coaches yelling, "Spread out, create space!" And how often do you see the players look around and not move much?

This is a sign that the players don't know where to go or how to move in relation to their team mates. This ability is not a natural one for most players. They need to be shown where to go to support their team mates while keeping proper spacing between themselves and their team mates.

A new book called, 'Coaching Team Shape in the 3-3-1' by Sean Pearson contains

0 Training 1 v 1 Skills at Home

The summer months are a great time to recharge and take a break from formal training and playing but that doesn't mean that players can't work on improving their individual skills in their own time.

0 Conquering the Myths of Youth Soccer

I recently discovered a post by Vince Ganzberg, former Director of Education of Indiana Youth Soccer and current Grassroots Coaching Education Consultant for US Soccer, that got my attention. 'Conquering the Myths of Youth Soccer' highlights some of common youth soccer fallacies. I'm re-posting one of the myths he deals with here because it's one that I hear repeated over and over. Too many people think that more matches equals more development. Ganzberg does an great job explaining why this is not necessarily the case. 

“Conquering the Myths of Youth Soccer”
Vince Ganzberg
Director of Education of Indiana Youth Soccer

This past summer I finally found some time to read a few books. One of the books that

0 Don't be in a Rush

Parents (and many coaches) are in such a rush to move their players from one stage of development to another. They want their kids to play on the highest level team, in the best division, against the best players regardless if they are actually ready for it. They view it as a status symbol as much

0 At Home Training Tools

There are a large number of 'at home' training devices on the market. I thought I would comb through them and give you what I think the best best option are. Kickback http://www.kickback.com/ This was one of the first at home training tools that I was familiar with. They were very popular in the 90's

0 A Letter to Parents

I have nephews that play competitive baseball and my sister told me about a letter a coach sent to the parents of  his youth baseball team before the season. She described how  it covered the different roles and responsibilities of the parents, coaches and players. The parallels to youth soccer were instantly obvious. She found a link to it on the web site of a Kansas City youth baseball organization run by a former professional baseball player, Kevin Seitzer.

As we come to the end of one year and approach tryouts for next year, I though that this letter might help other coaches communicate their expectations move effectively to the parents and players on their teams.

2 5 v 2 Progression

I feel confident in saying that most coaches use a 5 v 2 possession game in their training plan. It's a great exercise that is a technical challenge but also requires the players to make good decisions about where to pass and how to support. Like any exercise, if you use it too often it

8 Defending Against the 4-2-3-1

More and more teams at every level of the game are playing with a 4-2-3-1 so it makes sense to work with your team on how to defend against it. Using a 4-3-3 formation to counter a 4-2-3-1 can be an effective tactic. Teaching your back four and defensive center midfielder to deal with the striker and three midfielders of the 4-2-3-1 is a good place to start.

This session is taken from our book, 'Beating the 4-2-3-1' by Stevie Grieve. The book includes main real examples from games at the highest level and training sessions to teach the concepts to your team.

0 Build Up Play Through Quick Passing

This weeks posts is from the May edition of WORLD CLASS COACHING magazine that is available exclusively to Member Drills Database subscribers. The training session was contributed by Kevin Thelwell who is the Head of Football Development and Recruitment for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Reed has been working with professional clubs for more than 13 years. He

1 Progressive Turning Practice

Turning is an important skill to develop because players often receive the ball with their back to pressure and need to have the ability to control the ball around that pressure and move the ball forward.

As with all soccer skills, they developed over time through a number of training sessions but below is one example of a practice that will lead your players through the learning process.

5 First Touch Training in 'The Cage'

When I'm constructing an activity for a training session I try to make sure there is an opportunity for the players to work on their first touch. After all, every individual action begins with a first touch. A one touch pass is really just a controlled first touch to another player. I also like use