Most young players (and many older ones) have a difficult time understanding how to stay onside. Last weekend I found that something I had worked on in our previous session made it VERY easy for even my U9 players to understand.
I have a training session focused on teach players how to complete a successful give-and-go. After a passing warm-up I have the players move through this pattern:
When I'm teaching the give-and-go I focus on two things first: the player with the ball driving at the defender and the wall passer staying on the shoulder of the defender. Staying on the shoulder creates the angles necessary to have a successful give-and-go.
Once the players understand the pattern of the exercise and I have the dribbler driving at the defender then my focus turns to the wall passer and his position and body shape. It always takes the players some time to understand how to move with the defender and stay on their shoulder but they get eventually. It doesn't take long once they see one or two of their teammates applying the concept.
During my game on the weekend I had a player drift offside a couple of time when I said, "Just stay on his shoulder like the give-and-goes we worked on."
That was the key! Once they related this to the practice we had just done then they all understood how to stay onside. Not that they will always do it correctly but now at least I have a quick corrective cue I can use to remind them when they lose focus.
Do you have a session that you've run that taught some concept that you weren't focusing on? Please share it in the comments section below. I stumbled on this one but I'm sure their are many others.
Have a Great Week!
Tom
