By Sean Reed - Objective This session will work on 1 v 1 playing into target players. Focusing on working with the player attacking and defending, combining with other players and movement to receive the ball to support the player in possession. Session 1 Diagram 1 Set Up 6 Players 1v1 in the middle and
Continue reading
By Alex Trukan This practice is designed to develop players’ short sprinting endurance. This will allow them to produce high quality sprints more often during the game. One of the situations when acceleration over short distances is used is finishing in and around the penalty box. This is why, this practice uses shooting context to
Continue reading
By Alex Trukan This practice is focused on developing aerobic power as well as strength in duels. In a practical sense, it means that players will more able to maintain the quantity of actions throughout the whole game, even towards the end. This game also develops strength to stay on the ball and deal with
Continue reading
By Alex Trukan This practice is designed to improve player’s ability to produce quicker and more explosive actions. That in example might be used in 1v1’s as well as high intensity sprint duels. In this exercise, physical component is incorporated into technical practice based around 3v1, 1v1 and 1v2 scenarios. Interchange between those situations makes
Continue readingI believe that we should teach our players to be very comfortable and confident with the ball by teaching them different fakes . During the initial learning phase I want the players to use them every time they get the ball. Some coaches say that you can't teach creativity but I think that you can give them the tools and then teach them how to use them. This can look a bit rough at first as the players get comfortable with the fakes but if they use them enough they learn when to use a move and when to choose another option.
There are so many different fakes you can teach that an important question becomes
Continue readingI think coaches spend a lot more time teaching offensive skills and techniques than they do teaching young players how do defend individually and in small groups. The attacking techniques of dribbling, passing and shooting are easy to create training sessions around and they are definitely the sexier skills of the game. But teaching a young player to defend a 1 v 1 effectively is vital to their development as a player.
John Walker presented an excellent session on
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This practice involves high intensity, power and strength work in a ball challenge situation. The demands placed on the players help in developing body capacity to deal with a pressure of a defender when challenging for the ball and receiving it. It also focuses on dealing with man to man marking and movements to receive.
Set-Up and Directions
Organise a square of approximately 10 x 10 yards. Four players should be positioned outside the area, one on each side. Two players start inside the square, one being an attacker and the second one, defender. One of the players outside the square starts with the ball.
On a coach’s signal, inside attacking player attempts to receive the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on hard passes, applying high pressure and receiving a ball under pressure and beating a defender.
Start with a 40 x 20 grid with a line 15 yards from one of the end line. There is a player on each end line and the one closest to the line in the middle has a ball.
The player with the ball drives a
Continue readingBy Alex Trukan
This circuit exercise is focused on improving quality of football actions as well as technical and tactical aspects of 1v1 situations. From a physical perspective, it helps to develop speed and strength in order to make players more explosive and sharper. That can be especially used in short sprinting duels which happen all over the pitch.
Set-Up and Directions
Organise three hurdles and a coordination ladder as shown on the diagram below, place one cone in front of the hurdles, one in between hurdles and a ladder, and a third one next to the ladder. Distance between the cones should allow 10 second break between the work on the ‘stations’. Set one group of players with one ball each behind the first cone. Organise goalkeeper in goal and one
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on turning with the ball, shielding and taking players on.
Start with groups of 2’s with a 30 x 10 field for each group and a small goal on each endline. There is one ball per group.
This is a simple 1 v 1 game with an
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the Goalkeeping Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on breakaways.
One of the difficult things about working on breakaways is that much of it comes down to experience. Knowing when to go down, when to stay up, when to come out, when to stay back is extremely difficult and it really does come down to experience. This activity can’t recreate a true game situation but it can help a keeper get accustomed to reading the touch, coming out for the ball and making the save.
This works best with a couple of keepers and a few field players. Each field player will need a ball. One keeper starts in goal and the others are to the side. The field players are near the top of the D.
The first player touches the
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible.
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Todays featured activity works on long passes, receiving long passes, dribbling at speed, crossing and finishing.
This activity uses half a field with a goal and a keeper in goal. There are 5 groups of players to start. One group has balls just inside of midfield, in the middle of the field. One group is out wide waiting for the first pass. One group is 10 yards away from goal than the group waiting for the ball (they are defenders). One group is out wide on the other side and the last group is off of the end line (they are also defenders).
The player with the ball starts by either chipping or
Continue readingBy Lawrence Fine, Author of the FineSoccer Coaching Bible. Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking with pressure or playing away simple. Start with a 4 v 4 game plus keepers in a 50 x 40 grid with full sized goals (the number of players and size of the field can
Continue readingTurning 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.
Is it time to start 'Fall' practices again already! If you're like me you found yourself asking this question this week. I don't know where the summer break went but it's gone.
Like the first few series of the football game, I like to plan out my first few weeks of training way ahead of time. I know I want to cover a number of topics including some technique to knock the rust off. I also want to start talking about how were going to
Continue readingDuring the month of June I am highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This week's 1 v 1 drill is 'Team 1 v 1'. This builds on the 'Two Line 1 v 1' exercises from last week. The two lines are now placed on opposite posts of two goals as shown in
Continue readingIn the month of June I'm going to focus on my four favorite ways to train 1 v 1 attacking. These same exercises can also be used to train the defender but I only coach one side of the ball in each drill, exercises or small-sided game. I'll begin with the simplest progression and move
Continue reading