SoccerCoachWeeklyIssue 283 Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Score every time

1SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

Running sessions, like this one, that feature quick overlapping attacking play is great for attackers whilst also giving defenders a challenge against fast forward play. There’s a real competitive element which means players of all ages will find the session fun.

How to play it• Create a playing area measuring 30x20 yards.• You need balls, bibs, cones and goals• Start the game with three players at one end, the attackers, and two players at the other end, the defenders.• The attackers start from their goal line, moving forward with the overload in their favour. A shot can only be taken from inside the five-yard zone.• After any shot, attackers lose a player while the two defenders are replaced by three new players. Play now switches - defenders have the overload and become attackers.• Just as in a normal game, if the defenders win the ball when out of possession, they can attack and try to score.• Ensure the rotations are continuous, and play until you can see attackers are learning the best set-up routines and dominating the practice.

Advancing the game• When attackers have got the hand of this practice, add an extra player for each team - this will make it more difficult for attackers.• To make the practice more difficult for defenders, increase the size of the playing area.

Technique and tactics• The tight playing area means the attackers have to work hard to make the overload work. They’ll need to employ sensible passing and movement angles and clever one-twos in order to get behind defenders and into the five-yard zone. • Timing of runs and passes is vital to the success of the session. You should look for this to be transferred into competitive match situations.

The attack moves to the other end, but a white defender makes a crucial interception to break up play

Attackers link up with a 3v2 overload

Upon scoring, goalscoring whites leave the playing area to be replaced by team mates at the other end, while an extra grey comes on as they become attackers

TOOLS, TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

David Clarke Head Coach, Soccer Coach Weekly

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player movement ball movementshot run with ball

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SoccerCoachWeekly WARM UPWednesday, September 26, 2012

Pass, react and pass on

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

Soccer Coach Weekly is published by Green Star Media Ltd, Meadow View, Tannery Lane, Bramley, Guildford, GU5 0AB, UK. Email: david.clarke@coach-soccer.com Tel: +44 (0)1483 892894 Head Coach: David Clarke Editor: James Evans Publisher: Kevin Barrow Managing Director: Andrew Griffiths

Customer Service: Duncan Heard Designer: Steve Southern Contributors: Micheal Beale, Jan Beck, David Clarke, Simon Darby, David Lewis, Tom Livesey, Steve Watson © Green Star Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

How to play it• Set up two lines of players 20 yards apart. • Stand in the middle facing either line.• The player at the front of the line makes a pass in to you.• Touch the ball off a yard or two either to the left or the right, and tell the player to react to and run on to the lay-off.• The player must now pass out to the opposite end first time. He follows his pass and joins the back of the line.• Now turn around to receive the next ball from the player who received the pass, and continue.

Technique and tactics• Use a variety of serves to test your players, such as a grounded pass, plus bounced and looped passes.• Players must adjust their feet and body shape to the serve.• They also need to concentrate on the ball and show good technique on their pass.• Laying balls off to either the left or the right means players must react quickly, and cannot predict which side they’ll need to run to.• The players can vary how they return the ball too, a simple one- or two-touch return for a grounded pass, or a header or volley for passes in the air. Allow them to choose.

The coach plays the ball left, it’s taken on by the working player and passed to the other group

Now play turns the other way with a new player reacting to the coach’s lay-off

The coach varies the style and direction of pass to ensure players react quickly

GREATTECHNICALWARM-UP

Michael Beale Premier League Academy soccer coach

player movement ball movement

Want to put the principles from this warm-up into a game situation? Check out the Footy4kids game on page 3.

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SoccerCoachWeekly FOOTY4KIDS

Shoot, shoot, shoot!Here’s a fast-paced goal-driven game

that practises shooting and keeper skills.In the example given, I’ve made this a

game for 11 players (two teams of five plus a keeper), but it can easily be adapted for different numbers of players.

It might help, at first, to discuss shooting technique – ask your players if the keeper would find it easier to save a shot directed at the corners of the goal or the centre, and talk about the benefits of accuracy over power, and vice versa.

How to play it• Create a 30x20-yard playing area with a goal on the halfway line.• One team stands at each end of the playing area.• Now stand on the halfway line and serve a ball for each player, in turn, to control, then shoot. Vary the serves so the ball goes across the player, away from, towards, and either side of him. And mix up hard passes and bouncing balls.• Now give each player a ball. The first player on team A takes one touch to push the ball in front of him, before shooting. • If the keeper saves the ball he returns it to the player. If the shooter misses or scores he retrieves the ball the returns to the back of his line. • As soon as the first shot has been dealt with the keeper turns to face the other team and the process is repeated.• After each separate player has taken three shots, see which team has scored the most goals.

Techniques and tactics• Watch your players’ first touch - do they push the ball out of their feet? • Consider too their shooting technique – is the head over the ball, is the non-striking foot next to the ball, and is there a good follow-through?• Check too that players are using the correct surface on the foot, namely the instep or the side.

The coach lays off a pass for the first striker to shoot at goal

Next it’s the turn of a player in the opposite team

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

After three shots per player, which team can score the most goals?

Steve Watson Editor, Footy4kids.co.uk

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

player movement ball movementshotrun with ball

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10-8, whites win

Want to develop these attacking principles from out wide, and using multiple teams? Then out our small-sided game on page 5.

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SoccerCoachWeekly TOUCHLINE TALES

Turn defeat into victory

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

As you can imagine, I receive a lot of emails from coaches who want to share their problems with me, and I do my best to answer them all, offering maybe a drill, an exercise, or simply a piece of advice.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret here... I try to read every one of those queries, not just because I feel a moral obligation, but also for selfish reasons... as a coach I learn a lot from my readers too!

Earlier this year I received an email from coach JD in Australia. He told me he’d had far too many peaks and troughs with his coaching and was at a low point where his team was not winning games and nothing was fun anymore. He’d been like this for a while, regularly brushing the problem under the carpet and blaming anything and everything, especially the standard of his players.

Then he read something I had written about not giving up and researched other

similar pieces published through Soccer Coach Weekly. He told me he realised he was not training the team the way he should - he had not bothered to do things that needed to be done.

I was immediately struck by his willingness to tell me this and his desire for absolute honesty, not just with me but with himself too. The minute he did this he was on his way to turning around the culture of defeat within his team.

Admitting your mistakes is an important part of becoming a success – you learn by

admitting and recognising your failures. I am still in touch with this coach and he has now turned the corner; indeed, his team has just won two games in a row for the first time in two seasons.

So if his email describes your situation, don’t despair. You can begin moving in the right direction straight away by admitting your mistakes and energising your training sessions. After all, there’s nothing quite like winning when the odds are stacked against you.

I will leave you to ponder a quote I read earlier this week by 19th century Scottish author Samuel Smiles:

“The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.”

Six simple circuit training activitiesSet up the stations below going in a

clockwise direction - 20 seconds on each station, change quickly, with no rest in between!

1. Line jumpsPlayers jump across a line, making sure

the whole foot touches the floor.

2. SquatsWith backs against a wall, players slide

down so that legs and the knees are bent at 90 degrees. You can adapt this so that players squat without the wall, but make sure there is a straight line from ankle to knee and that the bottom goes out behind the feet, with back straight at all times.

3. Star jumps (or jumping jacks)

The movement of arms above the head makes it a much harder workout. Jumps may be slow or fast, depending on the ability of the child. Players must bend knees on landing.

4. Beanbag holdArms are parallel to the floor and players

have to hold the beanbags up for the whole time. This exercise can be made more difficult by asking the children to slowly rotate their arms!

5. Running on the spotIf children have bare feet, make sure this

is done on a thin, gymnastics mat. Again, this can be made harder by encouraging the children to get their knees higher.

6. Ball roll or hoop-la-hoopThe idea is to exercise

the waist and stomach. Children can either roll a football around their waists, making a large circle with their hips at the same time (for a large

range of movement), or they can twirl a hoop around

their waist. The boys tend to prefer the ball rolls. This can be made more difficult by

using a smaller sized ball.

Extend each exercise by five seconds on each subsequent practice. Children will quickly realise that the real competition is themselves.

If you have a helper or two, you should record your childrens’ scores as they progress around the circuit. Over the weeks you can then work out how each child has progressed and congratulate them on their success. This adds value and interest to the circuit training. You’ll also be emphasising how much you value hard work and improvement, and not just technical excellence.

David Clarke Head Coach, Soccer Coach Weekly

Steve Watson Editor, Footy4kids.co.uk

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

“I was immediately struck by his willingness to tell me this and his

desire for absolute honesty, not just with me but with himself too. The

minute he did this he was on his way to turning around the culture of defeat

within his team.”

Exercises like star jumps and ball-rolls can effectively work different areas of the body.

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SoccerCoachWeekly SMALL-SIDED GAME

2v2v2 crossing gameIn this continuous 2v2 game the

defenders must stop the attackers scoring from a cross to win their chance to break out and score at the opposite end.

How to play it• Create a playing area measuring 40x30 yards.• For this small-sided game, you’ll need cones, goals, and eight players (four teams of two), plus two keepers.• To start, the middle team receives a ball from the coach and combines to pass wide to the crossers.• Now the middle team makes runs to lose the defenders and attempts to score from the cross.• If successful, they receive a second ball from the coach and attack the opposite goal.• However, if they do not score then the defenders break out to receive a ball and attack.• If an attacking team fails to score it becomes the defending team in that half.• Play for five minutes then rotate teams so that, in a 20-minute game, each team has had an opportunity to be the crossers.• At the end of 20 minutes, which team has scored the most times?

Technique and tactics• Teams must make opportunities count with good running and decisive finishing if they are to continue to have opportunities on goal.• Crossers must ensure accurate deliveries at all times.• For all players, speed and intelligence of movement is the key part of this game.

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player movement ball movementrun with ball shot

Three teams square up in this game

The black team scores from the first cross

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

The defenders must force a mistake if they are to launch an attack of their own

Michael Beale Premier League Academy soccer coach

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

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player movement ball movement

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SoccerCoachWeekly YOUR SAY

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

This week Jan BeckHolmstad, Norway

Q I have worked with my team on what I call the defence

sweep where I have one player slow the player with the ball and the second defender take the ball and push it up field. This works very well but what my team is struggling with is that my forwards and midfielders are always back with the defenders so my defence has no-one to push the ball up to. What would you suggest to help in our offensive push? Ashley Jones, London

A It’s quite usual for all players to gravitate to the ball at the age

group you coach, whichever end of the field it’s at!

You could simply tell one of your players to stay in a forward position but it would be much better to ask them why that would be a good idea.

While you’re at it, ask them if it would be useful to have one player who stays back most of the time.

Your guys should be able to figure out (maybe with a bit of prodding) that they would score more goals if one of them stayed up front when the other team was attacking. And they would let fewer goals in if they had one player staying back behind the ball (a sweeper).

But if it doesn’t work, don’t worry. A natural attacker and a natural sweeper will eventually emerge. And in the meantime, your players are refining their ball skills by dribbling in a confined space - two yards from the ball!

TACKLED: Results

Here’s the result of the poll we ran in Soccer Coach Weekly 281 asking if you felt it was a good idea to give your youth side an online presence.

SCW Surgery TACKLED: Back to the old-school?

PUT IT TO THE VOTE: Which of our guest coaches do you agree with? Visit our Facebook page or email your thoughts to David Clarke at david.clarke@coach-soccer.com

Is the development of our young players being held back by too many old-school coaches (with old-school methods)?

Tom LiveseyWhyteleafe Greens Youth

Soccer has to give itself the best chance of moving on. In England particularly, we’re clearly lagging behind other nations who have employed the latest coaching methods, and with that, have embraced the kind of philosophies that really help players fulfil their potential. And we’re not alone. Contrast that to forward-thinking nations who look at the whole blueprint of what a player is, not just how he plays.

And in my mind, we’re not just talking about practical coaching methods here, we’re talking about the whole structure of coaching from top to bottom – the support, governance and direction of national bodies in laying a platform on which the future game can thrive and prosper.

And even on a practical level, old-school coaches can be particularly dangerous in terms of their methods. I’ve heard some horrendous things shouted from the touchline – “take him down”, “hit him”, “if you get touched in the box go down”. The principles in these types of coaching are completely at odds with the notion of fair play that we crave in youth soccer. And there seems to be no typical ‘old-school’ coach – old and young, it’s clear we need education in youth soccer’s principles rather than a move to siphon off the older faces in the game.

It’s ultimately the players who suffer. I’ve had lads from opposition teams close to quitting because the dominant, confrontational methods of their coach has meant the enjoyment has gone from their soccer.

Our governing bodies clearly feel there should be a better structure to ensuring coaches go about their work in a set way, hence the coaching process and subsequent qualifications that are provided by practically every recognised association.

“We’re not just talking about practical coaching methods here, we’re talking

about the whole structure of coaching from top to bottom – the support, governance and direction of national bodies in laying a platform on which the future game can

thrive and prosper.”

Simon DarbyWembley Under-13s

The temptation is often to confuse what real coaching is, and to get too wrapped up in the theory of what it is we’re trying to do and how well we are doing it. The long and the short is that soccer coaching is about teaching kids how to play the game. At a basic level that’s kicking a football, receiving it back, being aware of what it is to play in a team and having an awareness of rules and tactics. For what most of our kids require in terms of learning the game, coaching is coaching.

Personally, I think it would be arrogant of any amateur coach to think he was ‘new school’. The fact is coaching principles and methods are changing and developing at such a pace that unless you’re right at the top of the professional game, we’re all playing catch-up.

What frustrates me most is the criticism levelled at some coaches for their techniques. In the purest sense these are people giving up their own free time because of a love for the game. We should be thanking them rather than picking holes in their methods.

If everyone was taught the same way the game would be in a very sterile state. Soccer, at every level, is built on players, coaches and managers doing things in slightly different ways. That’s what gives the game its spark and its interest. Players aren’t robots, and nor are the coaches.

Can it be said that that newer coaching methods have actually had a positive impact on the latest crop of players emerging here in England, for instance? Given the failings of the supposed ‘golden generation’, shouldn’t we actually be embracing some of those old techniques and approaches in trying to bring back a home nation we’re proud of?

“What frustrates me most is the criticism levelled at some coaches for their

techniques. In the purest sense these are people giving up their own free time

because of a love for the game. We should be thanking them rather than picking holes in

their methods.”

YES NO

YES 17%

NO

83%