Unless coaching is your actual job, life comes before the game.
This past weekend I had to fly to Arizona for a long ago scheduled family vacation, unfortunately, it coincided with the start of the current season and I had to miss my team's first match. Fortunately they won 3-2.
I was worried about how they would play this game, since we moved up to the most competitive division and they had not spent the whole winter training as some of their competition. I spoke with my assistant after and he debriefed me on the match. He said it was a physical match. Immediately, my brain processed this to mean that we need to circulate the ball from player to player faster to negate the physical play.
Another point my assistant made was that the middle was too clogged. Again, brain thinks that we'll work on build up play to the width. On the plane ride back, I kept thinking about how I'm going to really emphasize that our outside midfielders (in a 3-3-2) MUST have their heels on the touchline when we are in possession to really spread the field.
To train for this situation, I think we'll play 1 big goal to two small goals (6+GK v 3, to start). The objective will be for the team defending the big goal to play through one of the two small goals (maybe I'll place a target player beyond the small goals that they must play to) simulating how we build from the back into the middle third through width. In this situation, I'll only coach the team defending the big goal.
He also noted that the two goals we gave up were from loose balls in the box that we did not get to. First one our keeper made a diving save but gave up a rebound which their striker pounced on. The second was off a corner that wasn't cleared and sat unclaimed in front of goal until their player fired it in. Bad thing is that we gave up goals that could be fixed with just a little initiative. Good thing is that they are goals that can be resolved with a little behavior modification, as opposed to having to build a complete lesson around it.
To me, this is a technical thing. Strikers and midfielders should know to follow their shot and defenders should know that they should follow the shot in as well. All this in case of a rebound. Remember Ronaldo (the fat one) pouncing on Oliver Kahn's spilled save in the World Cup final? If there was any bigger waste of time than following in on Oliver Kahn, I don't know what is. But even the best do it. And for all of Ronaldo's brilliance, he most important national team goal was probably from one of the most basic responsibilities of a striker. Follow your shot.
Overall, physical play in our opponents disappoints me but it's not surprising. It's easy to teach. "Run harder.", "Be more aggressive.", "Knock them off the ball." Constant things I hear from opposing coaches. If I knew nothing about soccer, then I'd probably resort to this too but there's so much more to the game than basic thuggery. If you're this type of coach, stop it. Challenge yourself to grow in the game—for the kids' sake.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
I apologize for the long delay between posts. Soccer season is upon us, so there is a lot less free time to write. My "free" hours are spent with coming up with training plans or administrative stuff for the team.
Our first game is this coming Sunday. In preparation, our tactical phase has been focused on when our team is in possession in the attacking third. My approach this season is to expose the young players to the context in which their technical skills will be applied in a real match. I have the luxury of having a full field to ourselves for training, so every activity is oriented on the pitch as they would see it in the game. I further reinforce this point by explaining to them why we do this drill, why it is set up how it is and where it is, and the objective.
For example, I've ran a 5v2+GK+TP (target player).
5 players try to score on a normal goal against 2 defenders. The 2 defenders try to win the ball back and play it to the target player to score points. I believe this latter part makes it more game realistic as now they work on the transition from defense to attack. All restarts come from me to either the center mid or or wide midfielders.
As a side note, we play 2-3-2, so I deploy the 5 attackers in this activity into a 2 forwards and a LM, CM, RM deployment. Again, echoing as much of actual play as possible.
At the outset, the 2 defenders could handle the attackers very well, outscoring them 4-1. But the next group did considerably much better that I had to add a third defender to increase the resistance. We cycled in players ever 3-5 minutes, with the players not participating in the 5v2 were off to the side with my assistant playing keepaway.
The following training session I wanted to work on our attacking/build up play in the middle third. After the warm up, we play what I call the end to end game. Two teams, in a 30 yard long x 40 yard wide grid. On the short edges you have a player from each team, to score a point the ball must be passed from touchline to touchline without losing possession. This works on good stuff like possession, short and long passing, receiving, and the concept of switching play.
After that, we played the End Zone game to get more work on our attacking/build up play in the middle third of the field. This was a very spirited game against the two groups and I felt they grasp the concept of penetration or playing balls behind the defense very well. They're really starting to get these concepts, but it's still a little rough.
My main concern is that their play in real matches is too vertical, too rushed. I don't want to be heavy handed and force them to possess more so their overall play isn't as crisp as I would want. For the most part, they can handle the technical demands of the game. As a group, the top third are advanced for their age technically, the rest are a little ahead of their peers but their technical game have various holes—each one different for each player.
Some coaches may think I'm forsaking their technical training for organization and tactics. Maybe on the surface, but I'm still very much invested in their technical development as ever. I'm coming to believe that it's hard to develop the all important Soccer IQ if they are not presented with the soccer situations they will face in a match. In fact, putting them in these contextual games really highlights what technical deficiencies they are lacking.
The proof will be in the pudding this weekend at their first match of the season. Can they play nice soccer together and display their individual technical qualities?
Our first game is this coming Sunday. In preparation, our tactical phase has been focused on when our team is in possession in the attacking third. My approach this season is to expose the young players to the context in which their technical skills will be applied in a real match. I have the luxury of having a full field to ourselves for training, so every activity is oriented on the pitch as they would see it in the game. I further reinforce this point by explaining to them why we do this drill, why it is set up how it is and where it is, and the objective.
For example, I've ran a 5v2+GK+TP (target player).
5 players try to score on a normal goal against 2 defenders. The 2 defenders try to win the ball back and play it to the target player to score points. I believe this latter part makes it more game realistic as now they work on the transition from defense to attack. All restarts come from me to either the center mid or or wide midfielders.
As a side note, we play 2-3-2, so I deploy the 5 attackers in this activity into a 2 forwards and a LM, CM, RM deployment. Again, echoing as much of actual play as possible.
At the outset, the 2 defenders could handle the attackers very well, outscoring them 4-1. But the next group did considerably much better that I had to add a third defender to increase the resistance. We cycled in players ever 3-5 minutes, with the players not participating in the 5v2 were off to the side with my assistant playing keepaway.
The following training session I wanted to work on our attacking/build up play in the middle third. After the warm up, we play what I call the end to end game. Two teams, in a 30 yard long x 40 yard wide grid. On the short edges you have a player from each team, to score a point the ball must be passed from touchline to touchline without losing possession. This works on good stuff like possession, short and long passing, receiving, and the concept of switching play.
After that, we played the End Zone game to get more work on our attacking/build up play in the middle third of the field. This was a very spirited game against the two groups and I felt they grasp the concept of penetration or playing balls behind the defense very well. They're really starting to get these concepts, but it's still a little rough.
My main concern is that their play in real matches is too vertical, too rushed. I don't want to be heavy handed and force them to possess more so their overall play isn't as crisp as I would want. For the most part, they can handle the technical demands of the game. As a group, the top third are advanced for their age technically, the rest are a little ahead of their peers but their technical game have various holes—each one different for each player.
Some coaches may think I'm forsaking their technical training for organization and tactics. Maybe on the surface, but I'm still very much invested in their technical development as ever. I'm coming to believe that it's hard to develop the all important Soccer IQ if they are not presented with the soccer situations they will face in a match. In fact, putting them in these contextual games really highlights what technical deficiencies they are lacking.
The proof will be in the pudding this weekend at their first match of the season. Can they play nice soccer together and display their individual technical qualities?
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