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I don’t have experience coaching girls younger than 13, so this may not apply for those young ages you’re coaching. The mentality of girls and boys is massively different. I discovered this year with my university women that they internalize EVERYTHING as criticism saying they aren’t good enough. It takes an entirely different approach than what I can use with my U14 boys.
The boys understand my criticism is constructive so it is easy to just say “hey, your technique is wrong. here’s the correct way to do that.” With the women’s team, I have to somehow figure out a way to frame their development through things they’re already good at and heaps of positive reenforcement.
My end-of-season meeting with the boys is “here’s three areas you’re weak in and need to improve them by doing x, y, z.” My end of season meeting with the girls is “what areas are you strongest in and how can you maximize that to benefit the team?”
My club was using iSoccer.org as a means for kids to practice some basic technical skills and get touches on the ball outside of practice. However, they started charging this summer so we stopped using it and have not yet found a replacement aside from simply encouraging them to get as many touches on their own as they have time for.
During the winter we have 5v5 “pickup” futsal for U12 through high school and adults by invite (mostly the coaches and a few former players). At the start we have all the kids do some timed skill measure like juggling or toe taps. We line them up and the lowest group of players are a team who play the next lowest who play the next lowest until the top kids team plays the coaches team. Seems to be a good motivator for the kids to practice those base level touches on their own time so they don’t get stuck on the bottom teams.
I’ll chime in on this as I am in a similar situation. My club has to combine 2 age groups just to field a team because my town is so small. We already recruit from nearby towns that are up to 40 minutes away. The average kid on my team is extremely tactically deficient. When I took over my U13/14 team in spring 2012, we had 2 players (the centerback and keeper in the video below) who tried to do everything and beat teams 2v11 because they were the only ones with any technical ability at the time. I started implementing choreography into my sessions and focused on a lot on the tactical side of the game. We went from last place and a -57 goal differential the season before I took over to first place and a +23 goal differential during the season the video is from (spring 2013). A part of that was the U13 players (especially the kids at left mid and center mid) I got were a lot better than the U15 players I lost over that year, but the bigger part was the tactical work.
By implementing the most basic of tactical instruction, i.e. lots of 1-2 passing and wide players getting wide, it allowed the less skilled players to get involved in the buildup and the attack. My right back in the video and the kid starting at left wing are obviously technically weak. However, giving them the simplest instruction about what they are supposed to do in common situations allowed us to keep the ball longer as a team so the more talented players could work in better space. It also allowed for my mediocre players ( the ones at left back and holding mid in particular) to have an impact on the game.
It is much easier now to motivate the kids to work on their individual ball skills outside of training because we are a winning team and they feel pride and motivation to keep getting better. I’ve shown them all the Coerver skills and things like proper passing and shooting technique. It is extremely easy to show them the link between playing time and how much work they’re putting in outside of scheduled team practices.
Here’s the video. I played everyone out of position in this half except the outside backs and the left forward. We won 8-4. The team we are playing against is from the next town over. Our high school team has lost to these guys more often than not over the last 5 years. The year before I started coaching this group, we had lost to them 2-1 and tied 2-2. Since I’ve taken over, we’ve won all 6 games against them by a combined score of 34-9. I’ll let the video speak for itself about the tactical style gap between the two teams.
Interesting app. I really wish this included times the ball is lost via tackles so it doesn’t include those in the passing accuracy percentage.
You kinda have to specialize the homework/instruction for individuals simply due to their very different understanding of the game and their abilities. I do a mid-season and end-of-season check-in letter individualized for each player. I give a hard copy to the players and email a copy to the parents to make sure they’re giving the same message to their kids.
Here’s my notes for the entire team where I briefly outline my instructions
Here’s a copy of an old end-of-season letter
I’ve also found success in giving extra reward of some kind for players who watch a professional match and write a 1-page tactical report. Gives them incentive to watch professional soccer more critically and another chance to see some of the principles we’ve been working in training.
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This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by
andrew crollard.
Video: U12 possession soccer development vs. FC Dallas
0:11 – CB backpedaling when advanced teammate in possession turns and faces him, receives across body to open to RB who is backpedaling to be able to receive wide
0:39 – Both CMs give directions to other players. LCB backpedals when faced, LB gets wide, 3 players end up in the box on attack
1:10 – As RB makes forward run inside, DM takes his place
1:35 – LB gets forward when LW receives similar to as in attacking pattern 1, 3 players in box
1:44 – goal kick to deep CB to wide LB and both receive across their body. Swings through CB to RB and both receive across body
4:30 – CB drops off, plays the CM, and LB starts to get forward similar to pattern 1. CF checks deep to receive the ball then drops it and gives instructions to his teammate about where to play
5:28 – LW receives across body. LB receives across body. CM lets ball roll across body to open the option to switch. RB gets wide and the RW also backpedals to get wide.
6:14 – receives across body and execute attacking pattern 2
6:59 – CB is backpedaling when teammate with ball faces. ball is played to keeper and 5 defensive players get into position to begin set work of playing out of the back.
7:51 – both CMs receive across body. Ball dropped to CB and then 3 players consecutive receive across body. RB backpedaling wide when ball is played to RCB.
9:35 – RB receives across body. DM giving directions to teammate.
9:53 – RCB receives across and begins building out of the back with a bounce from the checking DM to the wide RB.
10:37 – DM and LCB giving directions. RB getting wide. LCB receives across body. DM receives across body.
I noticed Xuxuh tends to make his runs inside whenever the right wing receives the ball near the line. I assume that is by your instruction. Didn’t notice a whole lot of your players losing their man, but that might be because the camera was focused elsewhere.
I do this kind of video review for my team whenever I have a parent who is willing to tape games for me. It really does help a lot to see which kids are actually learning and implementing the things we’re working on in our sessions.
I think most teams are shifting over to the Timbers and Thorns leagues. Deadline for the league to qualify for the state cup is January 6 and the other league without state cup qualification has a deadline January 21: http://www.oregonyouthsoccer.org/players/springleague.aspx
I am trying to convince my board that we should be playing in those leagues this spring instead of WSYSA District 6, which is probably going to fold because the Spokane teams don’t want to travel more than 2 minutes.
Good idea. My club is Union County United, by the way.
You Portland area folk can expect a request from me to come observe a session when I happen to come to that side of the state next.
I don’t know if the coach would allow it, but I’d recommend trying to get in touch with the women’s coach at Concordia University and try to go observe a session or two. They won the NAIA national championship this year and played some great soccer.
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This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by
Hi Justin,
Glad to have someone so close to me! We’ve been playing in WSYSA District 6 the last few seasons with most of our games being at the complex in Pasco. The league might fold this spring, so I’m unsure if we’ll be playing in Washington or Portland this spring. You’re welcome to come drop in to one of my U14 sessions or at the university – we usually practice back to back. What league does your club play in? I’ve always wondered why there aren’t any Tri-Cities teams in the league anymore. There used to be tons back when I played in it 12 years ago.
-Andrew
For getting a photo:
Go to Gravatar.com and follow the instructions there. It should automatically link up with this forum after you upload a photo.
You can’t think of their current skills in terms of what your players “should” know. You have to think in terms of what they DO know. It sounds like they just have no idea how, when, and why to go through the process of switching fields. Set up detailed shadow play for them and walk them through the process. Show them the “triggers” as you put it that tells each player where and when they should be moving when that trigger happens. It is going to take more than just one or two sessions of doing this before they are able to complete it to your level of satisfaction. Once they’re able to do it without pressure, add a couple defenders who apply pressure but don’t try to win the ball (I like to use former players who understand what I’m trying to do in the shadow play).
I also coach a very underskilled U14 team and you will go insane if you don’t completely reevaluate where exactly your players are in your development plan to coach to what their actual current levels of understanding are. Of course we would like all our players to come in understanding the core tenets of our style of play, but unless you have someone feeding you players who has the same development plan, it just isn’t going to happen.
What age are you coaching and what else in your sessions are you doing to teach them the process of switching? If you’re just telling them they need to do it in the pre-game peptalk, they likely have no idea how to actually accomplish it because you haven’t showed them. If you have showed them, then you probably haven’t showed them enough times for it to sink in yet or explained it well enough about when, how, and why you want to do it.
Hey Chris,
I met another coach, Pedro Gaytan Farfan (BU11 maybe?), for your club at a license class about a year ago. There was another 3four3 follower there from Molalla who I haven’t seen pop up on the forums yet, but hoping he got in on this. Glad to see another Oregonian on board with the possession movement! I hope I’ll get the chance to meet you sometime and discuss overhauling the curriculum as that is something I am in the process of doing at my club out in La Grande.
-Andrew
@crollaa on twitter
I’m Andrew, 26 years old, and I am a coach in the small town of La Grande, Oregon. I am head coach of our BU14 team year round (3 years now) and during the winter I take on our BU12, GU12, and GU14 as well. I just moved from what was essentially a fill-in DOC position to vice president of the board for our county’s youth soccer, rec and club.
I am also an assistant coach for the women’s team at Eastern Oregon University and am fortunate to have found my mentor there who coaches possession-based soccer. When I first started coaching at the U14 level, the entrenched high school coach took me under his wing and tried to be my mentor. After a half season I realized he views the entire game differently than I do (his entire system and player selection is based off winning 50-50 battles) and phased him out. This season was my first learning under the head coach at the university and I learned a ridiculous amount of the “why” answers to a lot of the things I knew were correct and had been implementing on my BU14 team. It has helped me better explain things to my players and increase their decision making speed and abilities.
Looking forward to modifying the content and insights here to fit into my situation.
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This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by
