This topic contains 8 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
Here’s a video I uploaded to YouTube of the 2014 Kickoff for the up coming spring high school girls soccer season. Its a montage of clips and its interesting to note the differences from the older clips to the ones from just last year. Keep in mind, the first year the program was around we were 0-12 scoring no goals while giving up 84. Last year we experienced our first winning season ever. Possession was what we emphasized and even with limited understanding we were establishing ourselves as “different” from any other team. Took the STT unveiled late in the season last year and used it to refine our build up from the back. The 4-3-3 rotational movement video of Michael Jolley also helped us frame how our shape should be in the various phases of play. Ultimately, in spite of being cooped up in a gym all preseason last year, we looked pretty good considering. I am absolutely excited for 2014 and it will take concerted effort not to run amuck with all activities trying to do everything at once. I could easily see using just a handful of the activities and hitting them pretty much every session. Anyway, I like stories and I like to write. Corny or awesome, doesn’t matter, I think the video did what I wanted it to; getting everyone stoked about what’s to come.
The sequence that starts at 5:05 is very nice. Very rare to see such a long stretch of possession, no matter who you are playing.
Better to be corny than boring. Looks like you are inspiring the girls! The progress speaks for itself! Great work!
Right on, Paul! Keep the videos coming. It’s important for your girls to see themselves doing things right, and wrong. It’s also important for you to see everything as well. You should invest a lot of time into reviewing your games. Let me know if you ever need an extra set of eyes.
The clip of the long passing sequence in the video was nice. I picked it because every player on the field got a touch on the ball. The shot was deflected out and resulted in a corner kick which we converted into a goal. Disecting that sequence there is much to be desired. When our outside back received the ball that started the sequence, she took way to long to make a decision. Sometimes theres is over confidence in our abilities under pressure and what she didn’t realize is although she easily handled the pressure, that time she took with the ball allowed the opponent to choke off potential passing lanes. Had the opponent been more rehearsed in their pressing, it could have been bad. Our center back upon receiving the ball made the nice swing pass through our keeper, but again, our other outside back was caught to low, basically where our other center back should have been. Again, we occupy space and by doing so we bring in an opponent defender. Simple positioning changes, which we had plenty of time to get to, would have made the passing more smooth.
Anyway, I intend to get some more video out from 2013 to edit and get to the team to observe so they can see even though we did well, we could have done a lot better, in a sense that didn’t require any more effort, skills or speed to accomplish. That is the part that excites me is the capability is there, not asking for anything other than the team learning their positional placements relative to the ball and getting to those areas at the time they need to be. Our season officially starts March 24th, two weeks later we have our first game. I will be posting video when I can during the season in hopes to demonstrate our improvements as we move forward.
Paul. What has your experience been using video with the girls? When I was on the girls side I had mixed results using negative sequences (things to fix) until there was a lot of belief built up in the team. I almost exclusively used positive sequences (when we executed properly), as we worked on imprinting a style of play. Once we had an identity I could mix in more of the moments when I was going to address errors, breakdowns, and when other choices were present and better.
Paul, you’re absolutely right in terms of message delivery. Doesn’t matter if its girls, boys or men even. You address the issues of deficiency to the players in question who are on the video, they are going to be defensive at the very least. Delivery is key. Often you have to find the moment or create it where the player contribute and/or ask for the solutions. At that point they are receptive to the information, willing participants versus defensive advasaries. Girls simply don’t hide their emotions as much as boys/men, but the emotions are still there regardless of gender.
My points of the video, those are intended for the coaches. In the context of how it will be addressed to my team, it will be layered meaning we’ll observe video from early in the season to late. To catch improvements. As a coach, I need to scout ahead and know the answers (improvements) ahead of time so I know what questions to ask early on. So, if I see issues with our outside backs getting caught too far in when they are played, I want to find footage where they are getting into better positioning later in the season. I may frame it from the earlier video and directly ask the question to the outside back of what she felt she could do, to be even better than she was in the video. Then I show her the evidence that she has aleady started to make those improvements on her own.
In the past, I’ve steered away from analyzing video in front of the team because quite frankly, the footage of quality play wasn’t there. So we instead studied footage of our top opponents (to scout them) and footage of professional teams. This year I think we’re starting to get into the quality realm where we’re not trying to fix everything, but are trying to improve what we already do well. Refinement versus complete construction.
Varsity girls played their first match last night. The girls were nervous being the season opener. Interesting what nerves/panic will do in player decisions as my tenured 4 year starting center back decided she was going to dribble centrally from the back field, under pressure. I asked her what that was about at half and her response was she didn’t know why. At half we were tied at zeros but in reality we managed the ball very well on a narrow very slow football field.
Second half, the ice was broken 5 minutes in. Our second goal came a few minutes later and was literally Pattern 1 with a reserve player in at the left forward position. My attacking mid at the 10, scored the first three goals. The 9 scored the other two with the last goal coming off an in air twisting header. Nice 5-0 win. Score could have been much higher as our finishing needs work.
Lot’s of little things. Set Tactical Training will be hit pretty hard today and tomorrow before our next game Thursday, to improve the speed of our play. We’ll be at home on a soccer pitch, so ball will glide faster and there is another 20 yards of width which will be huge for us. Up top, we’ll work on the crossing element of Pattern 1 and 2 to be specific in the quality of our crosses and the timing of our runs at goal so the ball doesn’t get behind everyone. Our opponent will be coming at us and we need to put some goals in early.
I will be posting game footage soon on YouTube for the team to view and for you coaches. Feedback is welcomed.
Season is under way. We are four games in with a 3-1 record. Our first two games were dicey, but victories. In our loss, it was on a field that was very narrow with sharp drop offs along the sidelines (football field with soccer markings). In spite of that tight space and playing an aggressive, physically stronger and quicker opponent, we did manage some good looking possession soccer. In particular unlocking ourselves from our own corners by combining. Basically I would take how we played in that loss over the first two games in victories. Here are the videos unedited. Please excuse the dialogue during the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxzA_QfoqBY&feature=player_detailpage&list=HL1398176492
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=HL1398176492&v=e1qR5r7R9Zg&feature=player_detailpage
I’m waiting to hear your feedback. From last year, our back 6 (counting the goal keeper) are the same with the exception of our left center back which has been tricky, but I think we’ll get there.
Last night we played an opponent that also lost to the opponent in the footage above, but their game ended 3-4 compared to our 0-2 showing. However, we played on a soccer field with natural grass. With wider space, better surface, we had all sorts of time to figure out our game. We won that match decisively 8-1 last night. Footage of that game is being uploaded and again I will be soliciting your feedback in terms of what we did well, what needs to improve and what I can be working on activity wise in training to gear up for our next opponent which is a full week away.
Thank you,
Paul
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.