Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on numbers up attacking, numbers down defending and offensive transition. Start with a 40 x 30 grid with two full sized goals and a keeper in each goal. Two attacking players and one defending player starts on the field and additional players from each team
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession, attacking and longer passes.
This is a 4 v 4 game with a third team resting. The field is 40 x 30 and there is an extra 10 yards on each end line. Two small goals are set up 10 yard beyond each endline with a player from the resting team in each goal.
The two teams must stay inside the field but to score a goal they must
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking and defending with flank play.
This is a 3 v 3 game with a keeper using half a field. The three attacking players start at the midfield line with one of them out wide. The defending players can start wherever they want. A keeper is in goal and the ball starts with a server behind the midfield line.
The game starts with the server playing the ball out wide
Can you teach creativity? Some coaches believe that players are either creative or their not. Certainly there are players that we can all name that appear to be, 'naturally' creative but I believe that most players need to learn to be creative.
I don't think that you could have put Mozart in front of a piano at seven years old and he could just start playing. Learning the basic patterns and structures is vital first step in the process. Once you understand the framework and basic skills you can start to put things together in new an innovative ways.
I take this same approach when working with my teams when it comes to ideas for attacking. I like to give them a number of different attacking patterns to work on before freeing them to see what the defense is giving them and deciding how they can take advantage of it.
Since this is the first year I've implemented a 4-3-3 formation with any of my teams, I turned to an expert for idea on both the attacking and defensive
Continue readingI'm in favor of teaching young 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 have told me that you can't teach creativity but I think you give them the tools and then teach them how to use them. This can look a bit rough at first as the kids 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've always had a standing challenge to my teams (U13 and below), if they score a headed goal, I buy ice cream for the next practice. It's been a way to encourage the players to try and score with their head if they can. This has been most successful with the girls teams I have coached. The extra incentive has become something that the team rallies around.
After spending a few weeks working on our combination play to score we played very well in our next games. Two of our three goals came from combinations in the middle of the field.
Another area that I've wanted to address
Continue readingAs I've written about several times, I've been going through the process of training one of my teams to play the 4-3-3 formation. I've always used a 4-4-2 or a 3-4-3 in the past so this has been a learning experience for me as well as the players.
I began with the defensive phase of the game to give the team a foundation to build on. They now have a good understanding of their responsibilities when we don't have the ball and that has made us a tough team create chances against. As a part of this we've worked a great deal on getting our wing backs involved by pushing them forward when we win the ball. This put emphasis on our wide play and we've been able to generate a lot of our offense by attacking the flanks with both our wing backs and wingers.
The area that we have been lacking
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today's featured activity works on 1 v 1 attacking and defending around the 18.
Most of the time, when we work on 1 v 1 play, it's with the attacker facing the defender. However, frequently in games, the attacking player receives the ball with his back to the goal and must create space and turn in order to get the shot. While the attacking player is trying to create space and turn, the defending player is trying to prevent the turn and force the attacker away from the goal.
This is the type of training you would do with small groups because otherwise, there is too much standing around.
Start with a keeper in goal, a line of attackers (in black) at the corner of the 6 and end line and a line of defenders (in yellow) just a step wider than the attackers and 2 yards back. There is a server with some balls wider than the defenders.
The server plays the ball toward the top of the 18 and the first
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking and counter attacking. There are some interesting teaching points on this subject (and many others) in the DVD Attacking: Coaching the English Professional League 4-4-2 by David Williams, former Manchester United U18 coach.
Start with 3 forwards and 2 midfielders attacking against 4 backs, 1 midfielder and a keeper on a half field with a full sized goal.
The attacking team is trying to score and can be as patient as they want in working the ball into spaces. There is nothing special about this game UNTIL THE
It was difficult to choose a winner in our recent shooting drills competition because we received so many good entries. In the end we picked this exercise from Dennis Hillyard of New York. We were looking for drills that were easy to understand, used equipment all coaches have access to, provided a lot of repetitions for the players, were scalable to larger and smaller numbers and provided progressions that could be used as the players develop. This exercise meets all of those criteria.
Shooting Competition - First Time Shooting
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on possession, changing fields and quick attacks.
Start with a 5 v 4 situation in a 35 x 35 area in the corner of half the field. Two other attacking players are on the other half of the field out wide. There should also be a keeper in goal.
The attacking team must make 5 passes inside the corner grid and once they do, they can pass the ball wide to the
As I've discussed in earlier posts, I think that most coaches agree that our players don't watch the game being played at the highest level enough. Kids in countries where soccer is part of their culture grow watching professional player every week so when it comes time for them play they have a rich source of creative ways to break down defenses. They've watched Messi and Iniesta rip apart a back four with quick passing combinations and then tried the same thing with their friends at the park. Our players need to be given examples of ways to create goal scoring opportunities so they can look for those situations
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today's featured activity works on attacking with an overlap as well as defending the overlapping run.
Start with a keeper in goal and two attackers and one defender. The attackers are around 35 yards from goal to start and the ball starts with the middle player.
The player with the ball passes to his teammate who then
Continue readingWelcome 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
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
Continue readingI'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
Continue readingWelcome 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
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
Continue readingWelcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity is a 2 v 1 turning into a 3 v 3 to goal. There are similar type of activities in the book Brazilian Soccer Coaching by Mauricio Marques.
This activity uses half a field broken into 3 sections. Assuming the half field is 58 yards long one section is from the midfield line 20 yards in. The second section is from that section to the top of the 18 and the third section is from the 18 to the goal.
In section 1 there will be 2 attacking midfielders vs 1 defending
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on one touch passing, shielding and taking players on. For more activities similar to this check out the DVD 1 v 1 Attacking.
Start with 2 players in a 10 x 10 grid with one ball.
The two players are passing one touch while moving around the
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking at speed. There are many other options to try with this activity and you can find others in the book Improving Your Teams Speed of Play.
Start with a 40 x 25 field with 2 full sized goals and a keeper in each goal. There is a midfield line and 3 attackers and 2 defenders in each half.
If the yellow team starts with the ball it would be 3 v 2 going to goal. The black team defends and if either
Welcome to the FineSoccer Drills Newsletter. Today’s featured activity works on attacking with speed and defensive communication. This is a nice progression on attacking and defending and similar type progressions can be found in the book Modern Attacking & Goalscoring.
The first part of this progression has three attacking players start 40 yards from goal. The middle player has a ball. Two defending players start on the end line at the corners of the 6. There is a keeper in goal.
This is a standard 3 v 2 to goal with the one condition being the attackers only have 7 seconds to get
I've written about my teams transition to playing a 4-3-3 in previous posts. The process has been going really well. I've been very pleased with how we are defending with the system. This was a concern for me because I could see how we were going to be able to deal with the other team's wide players. The girls have done well sharing this responsibility between the winger, attacking midfielders and wing backs.
We've been able to create a lot of offense using the wingers and wing backs getting forward. The player we haven't used much is our center forward. The spaces in the middle have been so congested that it's been easier to get the ball wide and attack from there.
This week I want to work on attacking combinations in the middle of the field. We have a number of good resources for this type of session. An article in the September Magazine Update to our Member Drills Database includes a great session from Jan Pruijn of Ajax International. The session was originally presented at the Nebraska WORLD CLASS COACHING International Coaching Seminar held last February in Lincoln, NE.
Another great resource is Player's Roles in the 4-3-3. One of the two books focuses on
Continue readingMy U13 team that is playing in the 4-3-3 formation played it's first tournament this weekend. I think it's very beneficial to have an early season tournament so that the team plays three or four games over the course of a weekend. Generally I'm not a fan of the current tournament system and feel that they put too much emphasis on who has the fittest team rather than who has the best team. But the advantage is that you can spot areas that need to be worked on in one game and then come back and focus on those in the next game.
After an early season tournament I usually have two or three weeks of sessions in mind based things that we need to improve on from those games. This weekend we were clearly the strongest team but we ran into a team that knew our players and system of play. They sat in and played a 4-5-1 (which looked more like a 4-6-0 at times) and just looked to catch us on the counter attack. They were successful in keeping us out because we
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