SoccerCoachWeekly - Olton Ravens Youth FC -...

SoccerCoachWeeklyIssue 277 Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Soccer Pentathlon

1SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

It is hoped the Olympics will inspire a generation of sports people – from sprinters to long jumpers to volleyball players. And they might also have inspired you to think about soccer coaching in slightly different ways, embracing the qualities and techniques seen in other sports and working them into the world’s most popular game.

Certainly, you’ll find kids talking about what they’ve seen for weeks and months to come. And to capitalise on that, we’ve pulled together a soccer pentathlon that will have your players practising five core skills in pursuit of glory.

Why not score them in each and award gold, silver and bronze medals at the end?

How to scoreUsing your whole squad, the top five players in

each event score points – one point for the player who finishes fifth, five points for the winner.

Accumulate scores over all five events to determine your gold medallist!

Players take it in turn to throw – who can propel the ball the furthest?

Inset: Correct hand positioning is crucial for good technique

ToolS, TipS and TeChniqueS

David Clarke Head Coach, Soccer Coach Weekly

throw

Event one: THROWThrowing is at the heart of so many

Olympic sports, and in soccer it has become a supply line that can be every bit as effective as a free-kick or a corner.

How to play it• Use the touchline of the pitch or lay down a line of flat cones.• Players go in turn, and must throw the ball using the correct technique (see inset).• Mark where the ball bounces with a cone. The player who can make it travel the furthest before it bounces is the winner.• Each player has three attempts and foul throws lose a turn.

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SoccerCoachWeekly TOOLS, TIPS & TECHNIQUES


Event two: HEAD

Heading ability is crucial, so here’s a game that will help players practise and perfect the art.

How to play it• Again, stand players on the touchline.• Each player serves the ball to himself and heads it as far as he can.• The player who can make it travel the furthest before it bounces is the winner.

Team pursuit• As a non-scoring extra test, split your players into equal teams, ideally of three or four players.• Players stand in a row, five yards apart.• On your whistle, the first player throws the ball up and heads backwards. Each player must head the ball backwards to the next player.• If the ball drops to the floor, restart at the front.• The first team to get the ball to the end wins.

Event three: DRIBBLE SPRINT

Speed and control are required in equal measure for this challenge, which will get players on the move.

How to play it• You need to use eight cones, a stopwatch, and a ball for each player. • Create a circuit as shown in the diagram, 15 yards in length• Timing each player, the first begins the drill in a sprint start position - on one knee, hands on the ground in line with shoulders. • He sprints to the touchline and back, then does a weave circuit through the cones before a final sprint.• The player who records the fastest time is the winner.

The player is up against the clock in this demanding challenge which tests control and speed

SoccerCoachWeekly Essential tools for your team

Wednesday, August 15, 2012


serve/header

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Players must serve the ball up and head it as far as possible

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Soccer Coach Weekly is published by Green Star Media Ltd, Meadow View, Tannery Lane, Bramley, Guildford, GU5 0AB, UK. Email: [email protected] 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: David Clarke, Patrick Spence, Steve Watson & Alan White © Green Star Media Ltd. All rights reserved.


Event four: HURDLES

Your players have had three events to get themselves warmed up, so now here’s a hurdling challenge that will really test agility with the ball.

How to play it• Lay out a series of cones, each five yards apart, as shown in the diagram.• Players go in turn, dribbling to each cone, before jumping over it with the ball trapped between their feet.• Turn at the top cone then sprint back in the other direction.• The fastest time wins.

The player jumps over each cone using the technique shown before racing back to the start


SoccerCoachWeekly TOOLS, TIPS & TECHNIQUES

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jump with ballrun with ball

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Event five: HIGH KICK

We complete the Soccer Coach Weekly soccer pentathlon with an exercise that requires power and control in one.

How to play it• Give the ball to a player. He kicks it out of the hands directly up in the air.• Start the timer when the ball is kicked, and stop when it hits the ground or is caught. If the player manages to catch the ball, award a bonus by adding one second to the time.• Each player’s best score from three attempts is put forward.

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SoccerCoachWeekly TOUCHLINE TALES

Can your team strike gold?


Like millions of others around the world I have been carried along on the wave of euphoria provided by the Olympics, cheering every gold medal and feeling the pang of disappointment when our sporting heroes get pipped at the post.

And for those who do come second in their pursuits, they’ve only a silver medal to show for their efforts...

Only silver?! How can I possibly write such a thing when, only a few hours before scribbling this, I was out on the football pitch with players not much younger than those taking part in the Olympics telling them that winning isn’t really all that important?

My players have all been full of praise for Bradley Wiggins and his wonderful achievements this year culminating in a gold medal at the Olympics. And you can bet they will all have heard him say that gold is the only medal that matters. In contrast, there’s Pete Waterfield and Tom Daley, the duo who finished fourth

in synchronised diving. According to the former, “Fourth is the worst place to finish at an Olympics; I’d rather finish last.”

What message is that giving out to my players as they get ready for another season? They are going through pre-season training right now preparing for the ultimate goal: winning the league – well if it wasn’t the ultimate goal before, it is now!

Waterfield trained four days a week

travelling four hours for every hour-and-a-half of practice, and what for? Fourth.

Then there’s British judo champion Euan Burton, who missed out on a medal after training, he said, for a quarter of a century. “I can’t take any positives. I feel like I’ve

let myself down. I’ve let my coaches down and anyone I’ve trained with. I’ve let my mum, my dad and my brother down.”

Wow! How do you put a cheerful, ‘winning doesn’t matter’-style slant on that response to the Olympic spirit? And what about the image of South Korea’s weeping Shin A-lam, who refused to leave the fencing piste after controversially losing her contest after time had actually run out?

At the end of the day my players will have seen Olympians whose performances provoke the adjectives ‘disappointed’, ‘inconsolable’ and ‘distraught’. The winners, meanwhile, hear ‘jubilant’, ‘proud’ and ‘amazing’. Which feeling will my bunch of kids want to experience next season?

We all know winning shouldn’t matter, but for just over two weeks in London it was hard to make a case for it not to. So don’t discount it entirely this season. It is important and it does matter, just all in moderation.

“I can’t take any positives. I feel like I’ve let myself down. I’ve let

my coaches down and anyone I’ve trained with. I’ve let my mum, my

dad and my brother down.”

Seven reasons kids play soccerBased on a research study by M.

Ewing and V. Seefeldt (1989), with subsequent questions that can benefit your approach.

1. To have fun • Do your players have a smile on their faces, at training and in matches? • If you asked them if they were having fun, would they say “yes”? • If your players don’t seem to be enjoying themselves, maybe it’s time to ease off the coaching and play more games, just for fun.

2. To do something they’re good at• Do you make sure all your players, even the less able, can say “hey, I can do that!”

3. To learn new skills/improve their skills• Do you teach your players, rather than just allowing them to play? • Do you keep your skills and knowledge up to date?

4. For the excitement/challenge of competition • Do you make your coaching games competitive? • Do you set achievable objectives for each child so they can succeed even if the team doesn’t win?

5. To stay in shape/get exercise • Is your training designed to make your players as fit as they can be? • Do you encourage your players to eat healthily?

6. To play as part of a team • Have you built a team or do you have a collection of individuals?

7. To make new friends • Do you encourage your players to be friendly and welcoming to new players who join the team?


Steve Watson Editor, Footy4kids.co.uk


Soccer can be great for making new friends, promoting a team ethic and of course...fun!

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SoccerCoachWeekly SMALL-SIDED GAME

HandballFew sports grabbed the public’s imagination

at the Olympics like handball. It’s a quick-paced, high-scoring all-action sport, and your players can really benefit from what it offers in terms of teamwork, vision and positional awareness.

How to play it• Handball is played with six outfield players plus a keeper per side. Simply, the object of the game is to get the ball into the opposition’s goal.• We’ve shown a simplified version of the game. It is played on a court measuring 40x20 yards, with a three-yard wide goal at each end. You’ll need a handball, or a size 3 football, which is of approximate size.• Players move the ball forward by throwing the ball to one another, or can ‘dribble’ forward by bouncing the ball as they run.• An interception or tackle can only be made by a player using his hand.• The keeper is the only player allowed to step into the zone immediately in front of the goal. If an outfield player shoots and his momentum takes him into the zone, the ball must have left his hand before his feet touch down in the area, otherwise it’s a free throw the other way.• If the ball goes out of play, restart as you would do in a soccer match.• Play for 10 minutes each way.

Technique and tactics• Your players can be any build or size to play handball - the skill is in having the vision to find opponents with good passing and smart running.• And because a player standing still cannot be tackled, the game offers a great opportunity for players to take their time, survey options, then make a pass. But, in general, this is a fast-paced game that’s great for improving players’ reactions as they construct moves at pace.

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player movement ball movementrun with ball shot

The set-up of a handball game

Whites attack here with short passing moves, and a goal is scored


Teams must be aware of quick counter-attacks. In just a few moves greys intercept, get the ball forward, and score

Michael Beale Premier League Academy soccer coach


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SoccerCoachWeekly YOUR SAY



This week Steve WatsonSoccer Coach Weekly

Q My new policy of equal playing time is actually driving players

away. Through pre-season I’ve been very up front about my plans to players and parents alike, but some just aren’t buying into it. What can I do to prevent losing more players? Derek Thomas, Tottenham

A Let me assure you that you are doing the right thing. You

recognised the fact that the only way to develop your players is to have an equal playing time policy and you communicated that to the parents of your players.

So they should not have been surprised when you made your substitutions. Yet you are facing a parent revolt – after only one game.

My advice to you is to remind the parents who are complaining that what you are doing is for the good of all the children in your team, including the ‘better’ ones. If they decide to leave then you wish them well and hope they don’t spend too much time on the bench with their new team.

Hopefully, you’ll have enough players left to field a team, but if you don’t, carry on anyway. With your child-friendly approach to coaching it won’t be long before some rather more sensible parents bring their children to be coached by you and, in the long run, you will have a team full of confident, skilful players.

TACKLED: Results

Here’s the result of the poll we ran in Soccer Coach Weekly 276 asking if in a situation where your best striker was playing poorly, should you substitute him for a supposedly ‘weaker’ opponent, or leave him on in the hope he improves?

SCW Surgery

67%

TACKLED: A good sportBritish 100m finalist Adam Gemili was playing semi-pro soccer as recently as eight months before becoming an Olympian. But, as a coach, do you feel players should be encouraged or

discouraged from taking part in other pursuits if they encroach on soccer time?

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 [email protected]

Alan WhiteHorsham Under-14s

In my mind, the more activities young players are involved in, the better. Sport is essential to kids in those fundamental years – the development of neural pathways, the understanding of responsibility, teamwork, reward. It doesn’t matter in what sport they learn these core skills.

After all, I believe our role is to coach people, not soccer players. We should make the playing of sport as free and open as possible, and if a player decides that swimming or tennis or golf gives him more pleasure, then let him pursue that sport ahead of soccer.

There is an element of balance that needs to be considered. Up to a certain age, I think kids should be encouraged to play as many sports as they want to, and if that overlaps soccer time then so be it. Maybe past the age of puberty a coach can start to ask a player to make choices about what he really wants to do, but really we should keep it as open as possible for as long as possible.

Practising other sports offers a great way for players to develop coordination, movement and agility that they might not experience in soccer. They will be better players as a result.

And isn’t this the era where we’re encouraging kids to be as fit as possible? To start telling kids not to practise other sports goes completely against that.

But arguably the best thing about players participating in other sports is their ability to bring new ideas, methods and techniques back into soccer. I love it when players demonstrate to their team mates something they’ve learnt in another sport. My mantra is “I talk, you listen; you talk, I listen,” and learning from your own players is one of the most rewarding things you can do in soccer.

Patrick SpenceHighgate Rangers Under-11s

I need my players to be focused solely on the job in hand. They need to be committed to playing soccer, because that’s the only way they’ll get the most out of the sport.

When players start missing training because they are participating in other sports it builds resentment within the rest of the team. If one player can get away with not training then the others will believe that they should be able to as well. Perceived favouritism is a killer in team environments, and that’s the way things will be perceived.

Allowing players to do other activities takes away the whole team ethos that we’re trying to build - a shared ethos that we are all in this together. How can we be if players only turn up 50 per cent of the time? It sends out a really bad message and even those who attend every training session and every match will give less than they should.

There are those who say the solution is for players who haven’t attended all the time to accept the fact they may not play in as many matches. In theory, that’s great, but the reality is that this approach creates conflict, if not between player and coach, then between parents and coach.

Although people say that allowing other sports is good for development, it can also be bad in terms of players turning up with injuries, or arriving exhausted for training and matches. I’ve seen it many times and it actually removes any benefit from playing another sport, because the player’s soccer development suffers.

33%

“Practising other sports offers a great way for players to develop

coordination, movement and agility that they might not experience in soccer.

They will be better players as a result.”

“Allowing players to do other activities takes away the whole team

ethos that we’re trying to build - a shared ethos that we are all in this

together.”

ENCOURAGE IT DISCOURAGE IT

LEAVE HIM ON

TAKE HIM OFF

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soccer-Coach-Weekly/111136435679022

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SoccerCoachWeekly SCORING CHART

Soccer Pentathlon scoring chart



Keep track of your players’ scores with this handy sheet

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Soccer Coach WeeklySOCCER PENTATHLON

SOCCER COACH WEEKLY

SOCCER PENTATHLON

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