Possession with purpose

[frank starsinicSpectator]

Over the years, I’ve coached as best as I could the concept of possession soccer but something was missing.

I was not coaching “possession with purpose”.  The need to pass the ball from player to player with nice short passes AND get the ball into scoring position.  That is one thing I never liked about keep-away drills…. there is no “direction”.

The rondo video linked below is the first one I’ve ever watched where this concept was discussed.

The video doesn’t cover all of the details that 3four3 does, e.g., receiving the ball across the body, passing across the body, mandatory 2-touch…

But it does have some very interesting things to consider.

Here is the part where they add “direction” to the drill

 

 

[Rene GonzalezParticipant]

Like the concept a lot of transitioning to a new grid . . . have sometimes done this with a transition to releasing a player tho shoot on goal.   Don’t know that I would do 5v2; starting with 4v0 or 5v1 (which video mentions).

[Scott NelsonParticipant]

Not a bad concept.  I’d seen this video but couldn’t get this far because the poor technique not being addressed (every time a player takes the ball on the front foot or does the ‘behind the leg pass’ the ball seems to turn over, and rightfully so) drove me crazy.

I have always liked moving rondos and box to box games (anyone ever see the Dutch Soccer School videos?) but one thing I have really tried to get away from is the arbitrary “make x number of passes before you move to a new area”.  While it does help players focus and concentrate, I think this approach does little to help players read the game and recognize the cues to play.  Unless you are up 6-0 do you really want your kids to pass up a 2v1 to goal because they haven’t made enough passes yet?

So in the game from the video I would rather have my group be allowed to switch boxes whenever ALL of the players are in the same box.  Now a more realistic condition (team mates are in position and ready to play) as opposed to an arbitrary condition of x passes.  This way players need to look and/or communicate to verify the conditions have been met instead of just counting to themselves.

[frank starsinicSpectator]

Looks like 3Four3 now has a “possession with a purpose” this year.

[Rich DeFabritusParticipant]

Personally, I think there is something to be said about passing patterns.  I know of one low level team that does it and does it extremely well – so much that the “punch above their weight”.  My team passes well for a low level team, but it’s not patterned, it’s more “creative” – the movement is there, but the girls pass based on whether the nearest players are open or not.

I prefer the patterns, but I’m ok with the fluid / on-the-fly approach as far as my team is concerned, as it’s still “with a purpose”.

I can vouch that using the 3four3 patterns as a reference has certainly helped – while we may not follow the steps exactly, the girls better understand what to look for and the proof is in the pudding.  Through 6 games, we’re the 2nd best in flight in terms of goals scored and 2nd best in terms of goals against.  We have always been at the top in terms of goals against, but we’ve NEVER been a high scoring team.  One could infer that we are playing against inferior teams, but these are essentially the same teams we’ve played over the past few seasons, the only change for us has been more intense application of the 3four3 methodology.

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