Tag Archives for " Soccer "

2 Adult Rules for Youth Soccer

I attended a tournament a few weeks ago with a set of rules that I haven't seen used for young teams in any other event. A player was not allowed to re-enter the game once they were substituted in each half. So a player could start the game, play for 20 minutes before being subbed but could not re-enter the game until the second half. The age groups involved were U11 to U14 girls.

The reasons for limiting substitutions in the game when it's played at the highest level make sense and contribute to an attractive and skillful game. If professional teams were allowed to 'roll' players in and out, the game would be more focused on speed and athleticism and much less on the skill of the players. There would also be substantially more physical play because if one of your defenders

0 Shooting from Central Areas in a 4-3-3

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

1 Creating Movement and Combination Play

My 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

5 Getting Our Players to Watch the Game

Last spring we were having practice and there was tie during a 1v1 competition we were having. Whenever this happens I ask the players a trivia question to break the tie. This time I asked, "Name a Women's National Team player other than Abby Wambach." One of the girls blurted out, "Mia Hamm!" The other had a blank expression on her face. These were 12 year old girls. I think I would have had much the same response had I asked a similar question of a group of 12 year old boys about the Men's National Team.

With the Women's World Cup happening this summer I organized a team get together for the final. It worked out perfectly when the U.S. made the final. In the weeks leading up to the final we talked about the way the games were going and who was playing well. I asked if the girls could name one of the U.S. defenders

0 Shooting - Small-Sided Games

Actual game situations provide the best training for shooting and finishing once a technical foundation has been established. I highlighted by favorite shooting game, Halfline, in a previous post. Here's a link to that post.

There are many ways to organize small-sided games so that the emphasis is on shooting. Here are a few from our book, 'Coaching Soccer Through Small-Sided Games.'

This game was from a session observed during pre-season training in Ft. Lauderdale, February 2000.

1 Shooting - Three and Four Line Exercises

One of my favorite books is, 'Training Creative Goalscorers'. The book is by Chelsea FC Academy Coach, Michael Beale. The focus of this book is on training shooting and finishing in functional situations that also involve an activity after shooting like defending the next player or playing a give-and-go with another player. These are the

0 Shooting - Two Lines on the Posts

This is the second in the July series of posts on shooting progressions. The exercises I'll discuss are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The exercises shown in the first post of of this series where mostly static so that the players would really

0 Shooting Exercises - Wall Ball

During the month of June I highlighted my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. In July I'll thought I'd go through the progression I use for shooting. The exercises are normally part of a complete session but are shown here on their own to focus on them. The first time I work on shooting

1 1 v 1 - Round Robin Evaluation

During the month of June I have been highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This final week focuses on 1 v 1 Round Robin Evaluation. The ultimate test of a player's 1 v 1 ability is to play a competitive game against a motivated defender. A number of coaches I know use

1 1 v 1 - Rotation

During the month of June I am highlighting my four favorite 1 v 1 training methods. This week's 1 v 1 exercise is 1 v 1 Rotation. The previous exercises in this series were very controlled. Soccer is not a linear or controlled game. Once the players have an understanding of the basic methods and

1 Parent Your Best..

My post this week comes from our Soccer Conditioning Expert Scott Moody at SoccerFIT Academy. I thought you would find it interesting because it includes a survey that could gather some very useful information for coaches and parents alike. I will share the results in a future blog post. We are always looking for ways

2 Moves and Fakes

We had a discussion in the office the other day about the difference between fakes and moves. The discussion revolved around how you can use a move that doesn't fake the defender and whether we should be teaching young players moves or how to fake. This is an interesting subject because there's no shortage of

2 Should Young Goalies Punt?

There was a recent discussion on our local soccer forum that talked a teams that were playing 'Kickball'. One poster suggested that goalkeepers should be encouraged to roll the ball out or drop it to their feet and pass their way out of the back rather than punting it up the field. I've never coached

1 Shooting Under Pressure

I'm always looking for ways to transfer shooting technique into goal scoring in games. I've used multiple games and competitive situations. Some have been more effective than others. I saw a new one last week while doing a combined training session with another coach. Many of you may be familiar with it but I had

1 When In Doubt, Kick It Out?

I was reading the book, Coaching Soccer Tactics recently and it got me thinking about the long time rule of thumb for soccer in the defensive part of the field has been “If in doubt, kick it out”. The logic for this rule of thumb is when the ball is in the defensive part of

0 Brazilian Transition Games

Brazilians learn the game by playing the game.  In many countries training sessions are focused around drills and exercises that isolate techniques and tactics.  Brazilian coaches spend most of their time creating playing environments with small-sided games that put an emphasis on the specific areas of the game but also train the player ‘globally’. One

0 2 v 1 Exercises

We all want our players to be able to recognize certain situations and then choose the correct option to take advantage of it. One very effective way of showing players these situations is to set the attacking team up with an advantage and condition the defenders to play in a certain way. This allows the

0 Five Goal Game

This is a game that I've used as a warm-up and in the main part of the session. I like it because of how many different things you can coach depending on your focus. As with most small-sided games, the kids really enjoy playing it so they get a lot out of it. Here is

0 Adding Movement and Awareness to Basic Passing

Basic passing exercises like the one below are great for focusing on the technical aspects of passing the ball but it's easy to get stuck in a rut of doing the same progressions over and over. I was playing with different ways to add movement as well as force the players to think about where

3 Circle Drills

There are a number of high level coaches that use a lot of circle drills in their sessions including Barry Gorman (long time coach at Penn State) and David Williams (Manchester United Academy). I've had the opportunity to watch both of them run sessions at our International Coaching Seminar so I've used some of their

0 Making Teams

When I make teams in practice how I do it will depend largely on the type of team I’m working with. When the team has a large disparity between the top players and the weaker ones, I try to balance the teams by putting the top players with the weakest ones and then work my

1 Multi-Theme Practice

During this time of year I like to run a few sessions that incorporate competitive games that test the player’s dribbling, passing and shooting. Making the exercises into competitive games increases the motivation of the players and challenges them to perform the skills under pressure. You can use almost any drill or exercises in this

2 'Dots' Warm-Up

I think it’s important to start practices with an activity that will engage the players and get their attention. When players arrive at the practice field they have usually come from a busy day of school. They may have spent some time playing with friends around the neighborhood. Depending on their practice time, they may

2 Tournaments or Friendlies?

Over the first few weeks of the season my team has played in two events. The first was a tournament put on by our club and the second was billed as a ‘Friendlies’. In both cases we played two games a day on Saturday and Sunday. I could, and probably will, do a post that