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So in practice my team has been going over attacking pattern one and two 3 sessions a week for the past month and a half.
At practice, the patterns look decent, but still need to work on the timing of the runs from the fullback and the forwards.
My question is, how long did it take you coaches to see the patterns manifested on game day? Four games into the season and I still only see it no more than 4 times in a game.
Kit – great question! not sure the age of squad you are training, but here is our experience coaching our GU10 team:
we modified an overlapping pattern #1 for 8v8 and introduced it in fall of 2013 (at U9). We heeded the Kleiben brotheirs advice of “do less, not more” and refrained from working Patterns #2 and #3 — at least initially — as we worked them 2x per week
The girls really started moving it around back w good pace against controlled or minimal pressure. but timing of the “losing your man” run was problematic. The outside backs also struggled with recognizing when the overlap was “on” and whether or not to “fly” down the flank.
despite these challenges, we would see several successful overlaps per game. Were they executed to perfection? No! Did the winger “lose her man” and create space? Not really! Regardless, we thought we’d build on this limited success and decided to forge ahead mid season and intro patterns #2 and #3.
that complicated things for several of the B calibre players and served to confuse The girls. nonetheless, they had some initial exposure to the other patterns that season.
For a variety of reasons, we didn’t have the team back until fall 2014 at U10. We picked up where we left off, now working on all three patterns while gradually ramping up pressure (started w 2 defenders and increased from there)
They really started to get it fall 2014. And we layered in some of the “why” we play like we do — to get our shape, pierce the 1st line of defense and create numerical advantages among other reasons.
bottom line: now halfway thru our 3rd season (spring ’15) they are going very well. We saw 4 successful and 6 total attempted patterns in just the first 10 min of our match on Saturday. This was a breakthrough! Coaching staff was delighted to see the heavy lifting in praxis starting to pay off. the girls prolly favor pattern#1 mostly as you might expect since they are most familiar w it.
Now, taiming of runs and losing man still need work. Also, we’re working hard on timing runs as we crash box near, far, top of D To get on end of cross. Getting our winger to recognize need to cover for the overlapping back (8v8) is also a focus for us at moment.
we don’t track patterns for entire game, but I do know we had at least nine 5+ consecutive pass sequences during our 50 min match. Possession football is contagious — that’s for sure!
Hope this helps and sorry for long post. I bet you can sense our excitement w our progress. Wish you and all our fellow 3four3ers well. Cheers!
Simon,
Thanks for the great response; it’s refreshing to read about other coaches’ experiences like yours who are trying to implement choreography in their practice.
I forgot to mention that I have a U13 girls team but half of the team is comrpised of 11 year olds. I’ll also mention for context that all the girls are new to competetive soccer, with all of them having between 8 months and 1 and a half years of experience. This is their second season in competetive soccer so they are still in “rec” mode in many aspects and I am still trying to correct so many bad habits and ideas they developed from the typical “soccer dad” coaches they had while in rec soccer.
Here is a general account of how practice goes with my team:
1) rondos (4v0 or 4v1)
2) Posession game (5v5+5)
3) functional training for attackers and the back four plus defensive mid. This typically includes shooting practice in different scenarios (related to our attacking pattern) and defensive scenarios (right now the back four are working on the concepts pressure, cover, and balance)
4) working on attacking pattern one or two. I have them do it without pressure as a refresher and then add defenders in various areas to work on scenarios that may arise while trying to execute the pattern
5) building out of the back. We do this as much as possible every practice.
6) scrimmage with conditions that are conducive to seeing an attacking pattern manifested at some point.
Now given the fact they are so new to the game, they have shown a considerable amount of development from their last season when I was the assistant and their headcoache’s idea of conducting practice was mostly springs, laps, some random passing excercises, and a scrimmage. They are not just winning games now, but winning in style as they execute many 3 pass passing sequences.
Lately I have had a stressful time dealing with parents who don’t agree with using rondos or choreography despite evidence of their positive impact on their development. They want more conditioning in the form of sprints and laps. They think choreography is a waste of time because it’s not “intense” enough. This negativity has leaked into some of the player’s minds and I sometimes find it difficult to keep them engaged because they parrot their parents sentiments that they should do more shooting practice and “conditioning”.
So given the extra context I added in this post, what are your comments and suggestions to address this situation? What I am really curious to know is how do you keep your players engaged in choreography so they fully commit to executing it properly?
I strongly feel that if parents would leave the coaching to me, then this process would go so much smoother. Their soccer IQ is so low, and their influence over their children is understandably so strong that it’s making their kids development so much slower.
so here’s what comes to mind after reading your post:
1. how well are your girls receiving across the body? I only ask because this is a major building block in my mind and w/ your squad being relatively new, I’m curious how they’re doing. on our side, as you might expect, we have girls at various levels of proficiency w/ this skill (some excellent, some okay, some poor) despite fact that we’ve been working on it for 2 years. we’ll continue to work on it (prolly like you are doing w/ the 4v0 and 4v1) until it is absolutely second nature. I’ve found that the ones that now execute naturally are by far our better, more skilled players.
2. tough spot with the parents. in fact, that sucks! you are right, they are wrong. period. you prrolly don’t need that vote of confidence but I just wanted you to know you have a big support community here. you’ve got to keep fighting the good fight. so question is “what do you do about it?” there are a lot of different views on this subject. IMHO, sounds like you might need a parent’s meeting. others will suggest that’s hogwash and you run the team and that’s not your job. anyway, we’ve tried to meet and educate parents and share the vision and even some of the 3four3 videos among other things. I don’t know if it’s ultimately been successful. but we are fortunate in that we don’t really have any parents that are on hero pills thinking they know better than the coaching staff. we also have some credibility from the glory days that serves us pretty well in this regard. so I’m not much help here because we just don’t have that issue. in the end, I suppose it comes down to the philosophy and playing style of your team. if you set that vision and make clear the expectations of what you’re about or at least what you want to be about, then hopefully it makes sense. they can get the “intense” conditioning and random passing on just about any other team, so set ’em free if that’s what they want. bottom line, what are you aiming for? whatever it is, it must be reinforced consistently over time. so either the parents get on board or you need to find another team.
3. all of that said, I think if you can lay out the vision, it will help you in so many aspects. it will become clearer why you work the patterns. we struggle at times with certain of the girls focus. but the repetition is what they need. we work them hard w/o any pressure but demand they perform at a high rate of speed — usually two touch (that’s why I inquired about “across the body” ability earlier). and when we get out of the back and accomplish the task at hand, we blow a whistle and have them trained like pavlov’s dog to get home to do it again. the repetition is the beauty. it’s the mother of all learning. we do it again and again. we’re getting better, but there’s always improvement to be made. so after we get it to a point of speed satisfaction, we add some pressure. and as the focus starts to diminish we remind them that the quicker we get through the repetitions, the quicker we can have some more fun with finishing work, scrimmage, world cup or whatever the carrot is for the last 15 min. if they don’t perform, we don’t have the fun — it’s as simple as that.
4. the “Player Development vs No Player Development” video from 3four3 might prove helpful w/ the parents. if you haven’t seen it yet, just search youtube and you’ll find it.
hope these thoughts help! I wish you much luck and success. you’ll have to let us know what you decide to do w the parents and how it turns out. cheers, Simon
Hello Kit
I wanted to second what Simon is saying – you’re on the right track. We also experienced parental issues that arose from taking over a team from another coach and changing the philosophy. Here are some thoughts for you:
Do you know what the unhappy parents are looking for? Is your results record better than last year? From my experience they quieten down quickly if you keep winning. The bigger issue is when they disrupt your training and match play BEFORE you’ve put a run of wins together.
If you get issues before you have a winning record, then it becomes tricky. We found that discussions and meetings with parents didn’t really help – its difficult to change people’s minds irrespective of how many videos you show them and can have the side effect of making some of the parents make public statements about why they think you are wrong (we had a couple of vocal parents who were convinced we didn’t have players with the technical ability to play possession). This quickly gets reflected in a loss of focus by their children.
We found the only way out of this was to stick to our guns and accept that some players may leave. Poor engagement in training/ matches has to mean they sit out. This becomes particularly difficult if the complainers are parents of better players. But if they don’t buy in based on your team’s performances they will disrupt your progress (and pattern play!) as long as they are around. Eventually one of you will end up moving on
Hope that helps…
Simon/Amal
In terms of receiving across their body, they still aren’t displaying it consistently in games. They have come a long way though considering that concept was completely new to all of them. However now they at least understand it’s the right thing to do and are aware when they don’t do it. This is one of the many many bad habits that I need to correct that they learned from their recreation coaches (their dads).
The parents are of little help to me now. The problem is the dads. All of them are good friends and played together in high school, but never progressed from there. When they were playing in the 80s/early 90s they had that old school mentality of just run laps and sprints and them do a scrimmage for their high school team. In fact, I know their coach because he is still around. He is not a soccer coach in any sense of the word; he’s actually a baseball fanatic and head coach of the high school baseball team. He would only coach soccer in the fall because no one else would. So you can understand what kind of soccer education they had coming from a coach like that and how it has shaped their philosophy that they transmitted to their daughters.
I have had several parent meetings to explain my philosophy, but to no avail; they can care less about possession based playing. Every single discussion entails them saying something like “They need more conditioning.” Despite us having a winning season so far, they still say all this. To be honest, they are not out of shape, and we do “conditioning” with the ball in game related scenarios/patterns. But they do get tired in games and there is a simple reason for this: because they can’t retain possession and constantly have to run around chasing the ball to regain possession. The parents cannot for the love of all that is sacred make that simple logical connection! It’s frustrating seeing how blind and ignorant they are!More context:
Last season was their first season in competitive travel soccer. They lost every game by score lines like
8-0,7-0,4-0. In fact they only scored on goal and that was in the last game. I was the assistant last season and took over the team after the head coach was fired a little over half-way through the season. The original coach put them in the U14 Bronze division even though we had only one 14 year old, three 13 year olds, two 10 year olds, and the rest 11 or 12.As head coach this season I decided to make us a U13 team. I took out the 10 year olds and 14 year old, but we are still a very young U13 team. I also moved us down a division to Copper yet for some reason we have 4 Gold teams and 1 Platinum. We beat the other Copper teams and a Bronze team and lost to all the Golds by only 2 goals each game.
The score lines look good, but the thing I love the most is they are showing signs of development in many areas of their game. The parents however only care about the wins. It’s a poisonous environment because they don’t allow their daughters to realize and celebrate their development.Kit –
I second Simon’s comments above. Accept the reality that this relationship is not going to last. Especially because you have a group of parents who are all reinforcing each others ignorance – not just an isolated individual or two, and at least some of them are the parents of the better players, I think you are fighting a losing battle when it comes to changing the team culture. One possibility is that your program will attract better players whose families buy in to what you are trying to do, and then you can drop the ones who don’t and basically “take over” the team. If that does’t happen though, you should take your daughter and find another possession based team where she can get a proper football education without the added stress that your current situation will inevitably bring to her playing experience.
If this were basketball or football, running patterns (plays) is expected and often at a very early age, (especially for football for obvious reasons). Many involved in soccer are not athletes themselves. Meaning they were not involved in other similar in concept sports. Found that they were pretty good at soccer because they were for the most part competing against other similar athletic peers. Things have changed since the early 80’s but the issue is the folks running things were brought up playing that style of American soccer. What I find so facinating now is how much useful information I’m getting from making correlations to the other sports I played as a kid. As a result I’m experimenting with my own sets of patterns and although they are run “perfectly” by my team, they do create a framework from which we can play on. Often the patterns start the same, usually the build up phase of play. That is your start, similar to a point guard getting the ball up court. From there you run a play and see what happens. If the play is on, you execute. If its not on, you recycle the ball and reset, get your shape and create the next opportunity.
I’ve created plays using misdirection. I’ve created plays to help us in situations where I know we will be pressed high by an opponent playing a narrow football field (this is high school soccer) so getting wide isn’t possible, so we recongize how to create space in the next line, usually our 9 recoiling her run then springing into space behind the mids.
The overlaps my team has been reluctant to do. Partly because they are still in a mindset of defending when they have the ball, that they can’t cross into the final third of the field. Those are big runs and big runs back if they don’t go as planned. That is the push right now, but I also have created plays where we play to the 7 or 11, they either can turn to start driving at a defender and set up a combo with the 9, or they can’t turn and they play under to the 8/10, or our outside back recognizes the match up/marking and plays 7 or 11 in and we’re immediately behind the opponent defensive line. That is one pattern, with 3 possibilities, all without an overlap. Add the overlap then you’re still using the same pattern, you’ve just created another variable outcome.
As for the parents, I deal with it head on. I’m constantly communicating via email as to our intent, expectations and successes from our games. I overwhelm the parents with information, not to sell what we do, but to clearly communicate what it is being done. However, I also expect more from my players meaning I require them to juggle at home. They are lifting weights in the off season, something clubs don’t offer or have access to. We do agility training as well in the offseason which along with weight lifting reduces injury, gets us more athletic, and helps our fitness/conditioning. In season we will still lift to maintain muscle. With younger kids, that’s not going to be something done. For the high school into college teams, I’m surprised more teams don’t do this as the infrusture for it is there.
For the parent thinking their kid doesn’t run enough, give the kids homework to perform with the parents. See who steps up. I’ve had my run ins with parents, usually they are individual and isolated in their thinking. Also, I blind copy all the parents in my emails so they do not have access to the contacts I have on the parent list, thus eliminating a parent from getting up on a soap box. Its not their forum and if they want to create one, make them earn it.
Have had a lot of the same as Simon – not perfect, but then we modified ours a little too. Basically, we adhere rigidly to building from the back, but I include keeper. We also use the 3four3 goal kicks (which I have to say is unbelievably great – amazing that even elite teams we’ve played don’t even bother attacking when we play wide to our center backs).
We struggled with the attack patterns, but since we have our outside backs playing to the outside wingers (4-3-3, one holding mid), we encourage the girls to be “creative”, but play a few passes to feet then try to space with runs off the ball.
The flood gates have opened. Traditionally, my team is all defense. We are now the leading offense in terms of goals scored, and the goal scoring is distributed across all 3 forwards (including 2 subs) and both attacking mids (plus 1 sub). Both my starting outside / fullbacks have wide open shots on goal, and 1 sub fullback has a few. None have scored, but the opps were there and they took them. Surprisingly, once you start passing it around the lower level teams, the defense softens / opens up.
If the attacking patterns aren’t sinking in, use them as a training / reference point but also work a more free form attack. We’ll line up the front 3 and all 3 mids + 2 outside backs (looks like a 3-2-3) against no opposition other than a keeper and have them pass around. We’ll put some restrictions (make 5-10 passes, then go to goal) and we’ll also add a defending unit to provide pressure and make it more realistic.
Most important thing – KEEP WORKING IT! To any parent that disagrees, remind them that this is derived from Barcelona, who is now in the Champions League final and one of the most successful teams of the past decade (if not most successful). If they don’t buy in, they’ll be weeded out.
Buy in is critical. I went into this season having 2 down seasons after 3 extremely successful seasons. I was on verge of losing some kids and parents. We’ve been on a tear, won 3 in a row and the girls’ confidence is through the roof. We may not look like Barca, but we pass more than any other team we play, string together 10-15 pass sequences, and break down teams (albeit not quickly, it starts slow, then the frustration and exhaustion sets in and we seem to pour it on late).
I’d love to keep the 3four3 curriculum “my little secret”. I am also so confident right now as a coach using the core activities that I am comfortable saying I could coach most low level teams from U10 – U15 (beyond that, I may be challenged). I’m hoping that Brian and Gary introduce more activities, but I swear by the core – it works. You just need patience and buy in…
Good luck!
Our attack has not been very strong this spring season, but we currently have one of the best defenses in the league. I attribute much of this to the fact that teams are not getting as many chances at our goal because we are able to possess the ball more effectively than they are. So in effect a good offense, has been a good defense, even if the attack has been poor (if that makes sense). While it is certainly frustrating to not finish opportunities as we reach the attacking third, it is at least satisfying that we are not being broken down in our defensive third. The chances that we allow seem to be mostly on mistakes out of the back or central midfield, which in my mind are correctable.
As I mentioned in another post we are working heavily on identifying pressure and how to play out of it. I think if we are able to solve that issue the pattern play will click in a game situation better. What I found with the pattern play was that the players were not looking at the whole field to identify where to go with the ball, instead narrowing their choices down by pattern and consistently playing into the pressure. So basically we are now working on the recognition skills and communication skills to make the correct play based on what we see. I think that the patterns will have greater meaning to the players in a game setting once the recognition skills are established
Kit (if you are still out there) – thought you might like a quick 90 seconds of our GU10 as they wrap up the spring season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlWOcMJKzk&feature=player_embedded
much work remains! any comments, criticism, feedback or ideas are greatly appreciated. cheers, Simon
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This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by
Simon.
Nice work Simon! Very impressive for u10 girls. I can see them receiving almost all the time across their body and even shouting direction on the field. It’s apparent through the audio that the parents are on board as well when the girls combined with attacking pattern #1. I see you lined up in a 2-3-2 for 8v8 I think thats great as well. I coach girls going to u-13 and were moving to 11v11. 2-3-2 fits in real nice with an upcoming 4-3-3. – Only encouragment I’d give you is have your left mid really backpedal and get wide when the center back gets the ball. This really stretches the opposition out. I tell my girls jokingly I want the bottom of their cleats to be white by the end of the game. All the best man!
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