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Liviu,
Balance of individual skill work and passing work.
What I try to do is work towards teaching my kids “intelligent soccer”. What’s the point of teaching passing if the kids don’t really “see it” – blind passing leads to a false sense of success. Just switching the ball without really seeing it, isn’t intelligent soccer even if helps get goals.
I don’t teach passing until my kids can dribble without having to look at the ball. If a kid’s head is either barred in the ball or he has to stop dribbling to look up they aren’t ready to pass yet.
A players technical ability can put a limit on how fare they can go, so I try to build that technical base as big as I can. At the younger ages I think a big bag of tricks and the ability to do them with your head up is a good start for a solid technical base and the beginning of possession soccer.Phil,
Thanks for your thoughts. Totally agree with what you are saying. We are street right now and slowly evolving into a possession team – hopefully by the end of spring. Indoor is such a small space the focus on skill seems pretty natural to me.
I think you have good ideas. Most coaches have no idea how to teach individual skill, the kids in the video are rec. players that have been trained to do everything they do. They aren’t “naturals” and they don’t practice at home much, it’s mostly trained into them at practice.I’ve always had a fear (in the past) that if I taught passing “too early” the kids would stop using their skills and just make the easy pass. It’s the same idea that teaching tactics is bad before U13, because it “kills” creativity.
My personal thoughts have changed as I think 3four3 has shown me that it all depends on WHAT type of passing and tactics you teach. If you teach defensive long-ball counter attacks I think the thought is absolutely correct – it kills creativity and skill. However, if you can get your kids to play real possession than how is that going to hurt them. If the kids have the ball 80% of the game I think it’s only going to give them more opportunities to develop individual skill, better technique and better tactical understanding.
So my question to you guys is… can you get U9’s to get 80% possession in the American suburb environment. 10-15 pass combinations? Can you really get the kids to think ahead three and four steps off the ball to possess as a team. I deal a lot with suburb kids that are patchy in their level of commitment. About 90% of all the soccer they get a week is at my practice. Two times a week for 1 hr. As you can see from the video the kids are fairly technical, not elite, but good. Should I be able to do full possession in 6v6, can the kids do it. Any thoughts? I’m going to give it a go and try to update with video on here. Love to have your help.
I posted this is the other feed for film. I should have posted it here. 🙂
Curious what you think of this video…
Context: Opponent is a U10 low division Rush team. Not a great test, but it’s some of the only video I have of this team.
I started with most of them at U8 and I now have three U9 teams in the age. For indoor we mixed them all up. In this video there are 2 from my top team, 2 from my 2nd team and 1 from my 3rd team. The top 3 or 4 kids in this video – I have 15 more just like them. There isn’t a huge difference between the 1st and 2nd team.
I’ve focused a ton on skill development up to this point. I know Brian hasn’t gone any younger than U10, so I’m just trying to get thoughts on what to focus on with this team.
What drills of Gary’s do you think would be good to start with this group?
This spring I’m planning to really work on possession out of the back and see if we can get U9s to possess, which is pretty rare. For spring we will play 5 and GK so not a lot to work with.
Anyone tried to get their u9s to really knock the ball around? Any advise? Any thoughts on some basics patterns for 6v6. What formation would you play? Should I even think about doing pattern play with U9s? Should I just keep them mostly focused on skill and worry about possession when they hit U10? As other people have talked about with U9 and U8, you really need to keep it simply. You really need to break it down for them, any help would be great!
Love to hear your thoughts?Curious what you think of this video…
Context: Opponent is a U10 low division Rush team. Not a great test, but it’s some of the only video I have of this team.
I have three u9 teams. For indoor we mixed them all up. In this video there are 2 from my top team, 2 from my 2nd team and 1 from my 3rd team.The top 3 or 4 kids in this video – I have 15 more just like them. There isn’t a huge difference between the 1st and 2nd team.I’ve focused a ton on skill development up to this point. I know Brian hasn’t gone any younger than U10, so I’m just trying to get thoughts on what to focus on with this team.
What drills of Gary’s do you think would be good to start with this group?
This spring I’m planning to really work on possession out of the back and see if we can get U9s to possess, which is pretty rare. For spring we will play 5 and GK so not a lot to work with.
Anyone tried to get their u9s to really knock the ball around? Any advise? Any thoughts on some basics patterns for 6v6. Should I even think about doing pattern play with U9s? Should I just keep them mostly focused on skill and worry about possession when they hit U10?
Love to hear your thoughts?John,
My experience with girls soccer (watching) resembled slow motion nails on a chalk board. Gives me the chills just thinking about it.
Your team…LOVE IT! Your team’s speed of play is the highest I’ve seen for girls at any level! It’s sick! Possession around the back is awesome! Possession is the midfield is great!
Surprise possession in the attacking third (especially when a team sits) needs work. It’s pretty much obvious that everyone who plays possession struggles with the final third and it will probably always be the most difficult side of possession to develop.Your team needs to get a little more comfortable moving the ball around in the offensive third, which is something I think they are capable of doing. I would try to start choreographing this concept into your pattern play work.
Try to visualize with me here, if you can. I wish I could draw it out, hopefully I can explain it well enough. 🙂
What I always stress is getting more possession in the center of the field about 10-20yds above the opponents back line – I call it the “hub”. We want to find the pockets between and get it to our center mid face up to the field. It actually doesn’t matter where their back line is, just 10-20 yards in front of where every they are. Most of the time they sit on the top of the 18yd box, but it’s more dangerous when they push higher up on you, because there is more space behind.
This is one of the most dangerous places for a good center mid to have the ball with their head up. When they get the ball in the center of the field, about 10-20 yards in front of their back line w/ their head up:
1. They can play it over the top. 2. The can dribble down the middle and possibly take on the center back. 3. They can combine with the center forward. 4. They can put in the outside forward by splitting the center back and outside back. 5. And maybe most difficult to guard, the outside back can come flying around for an overlap.So when I’m trying to build out of the back, we don’t try to go straight to goal, we try to get the ball into the “hub”. That’s are big launch point for multiple different patterns of attack. Once we get there, it’s GOAL TIME!!
Obvious this has to be choreographed and practiced and the timing will have to be right.
I don’t know if I made any sense, but I tried. 🙂Rondo: A musical composition, commonly of a lively, cheerful character, in which the first strain recurs after each of the other strains.
rondo: (plural rondoj, accusative singular rondon, accusative plural rondojn)
circle (as in a group of people)Mark,
I’ve had similar concerns. I’ve come to this place: we can’t really use the exact same methods as Barca, because we don’t have the same structure. Seeking that result is awesome, but we might have to go after it a little different in our american system. My advise is to master this stuff first. I’ve been using these methods for about two years(ish) and my kids play some pretty good possession. Know that I have the real information from Brian and Gary it’s going to be scary how good my kids could be. The kids need a framework, they just don’t understand even the most basic stuff unless you take them through it on a full size field. Once you have mastered these concepts and your kids are killing it, then try to tweak it. But if you try to change things before you begin you may never produce a product that looks anything like Barca.Phil and John,
I talk to my kids about taking an “intentional 1st touch”, which is your 1st touch should take you towards your next pass or get you out of pressure.  Under low pressure – make your 1st touch towards where you are going next. Under high pressure (the defender is flying in on you, ) your 1st touch might have to beat him. The challenge is when the defender times it perfectly and you can’t beat him on the 1st touch AND he is all up on you. This probably when you make a super tight 1st touch and get off of it.
If this is what you are asking, it’s something I very interesting in too. What is a good drill to teach this? Squares does it to some extent, but it might not be the complete drill for it. Loosing your man is helpful too, but there is no pressure, so not sure if it is the complete drill to teach it either. Â Then again I’m not sure if there is any drill that will perfectly teach any concept, it might just be something you talk about across lots of drills, practices and games. Bleed into full possession games, sessions and real games.
If anyone has some other ideas on teaching a smarter 1st touch I’d love to hear it.
Alex,
I’ve been worried about the same concept of skill development. My kids are already fairly skilled for their age, but will my kids loose their individual skill if I start teaching possession at U9 or U10 and go away from the skill focus?? Â I don’t know if a coach can know for sure what the gaps are in their philosophy and training sessions are until they have taken a group up through the levels – maybe all the way to U18 or higher. However, I’m not seeing a lack of skill in Brian’s teams (younger or older), so it seems there isn’t a gap to this approach.
I’d like to get a perspective on why it is that they don’t lack skill. My guess is it might just be a by-product of being a legit player from a young age.  When players win a lot they like soccer more, they take more ownership of their development and in the end train on their own more. And the training on their own develops or keeps individual skill. I would imagine you would still need to encourage the time at home, because their kids (not every kid is going to work their tail off without being pushed). The other factor is that if your team has the ball the whole game you probably get more chances for individual skill. That probably has some impact as well.  I would also imagine that Brian still teaches the kids to recognize moments to take players on 1v1 so they do still get those opportunities. This is just speculation as I’ve haven’t taken a team from u8-u18 yet. I’m curious what everyone else thinks.
The big question I have is, How do you teach players to recognize the time, place, moment etc… to take players on. How do I get them to see it?
haha. Actually our opponent made this video and I just found it youtube.  5 minutes! I know it is boring without music.  I put on Pandora when I watch it, maybe that will help you get a little farther. lol. Glad you liked the logo and club. 🙂
Hey Guys,
I’m super excited that Gary and Brian put this together! I’m really excited about both the content and the collaboration pieces!
My name is Alec Lemmon. I was born, raised and played in Kansas City. Love this city! I started coaching at 13, helping run camps and helping my dad coach my little brothers. I was raised in a family of 6 kids that all played soccer competitively as youth and 4 of us played in college – 1 played pro. My Sophomore year of college (at MNU) Â – I covered games for local club coaches during the off-season. My Jr. year of college I started coaching a few teams for a small club. Â I became the GA for the men’s team at my school (MNU) after I finished playing.
I started my own club with some buddies my second year of grad school and it’s been a great experience so far! Â Absolutely LOVE coaching! Love coaching the kids! Love seeing them get better! Love possession soccer!
Tiki-Taka possession is what we bleed at Toca. We aren’t necessarily that good yet (on a national level), but we are passionate about developing it! We are 2 1/2 years old, so kind of still a baby club, but we are working hard to make slow but steady progress. The good part is that we building from the ground up (we don’t have to tear of the old down), the bad part is we started from nothing and it’s taking some time.
I coach (U9, U10 and U13 boys for the club.
Here is a little video of my U13s. They are solid. Nothing like Brian’s teams. I’m proud of them, because I know where they started from – you might not be that impressed but whatever. LOL. Â I was really struggling to get my teams to possess until I got hooked on 3four3 and the improvement has been CRAZY since then!
Love to here your feedback on what you see that’s good or need work.
