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I’m going as well.
I coach an adult women’s team. Because of field space issues here in San Francisco, we only get to practice once a week for an hour on half a field. Our numbers can vary significantly from practice to practice, but we’ll always do 3v1 (or 4v1) and if we have enough, the double rondo. The upcoming season we’ll probably start doing 4v2+1. I’d like to do more with choreographed attacking patterns, but it’s hard with the limited amount of time we have each week and variable attendance (and to a certain extent interest level, if we only have an hour, people want to be active and playing as opposed to going through slower moving topics).
When I did JV boys this past fall (at a small private school, so minimal skill level and interest from the kids), we would always do rondos for the first 20 minutes. Beginning of the season we started with 4v0 and slowly progressed to 4v1. We would also do double rondos almost every day (or every other day). I found the S pattern was a good warm up whenever we were focusing on a shooting topic. Have the last person receiving across his body, and instead of dribbling to the back of the line, take a quick shot on goal, and then head back. We also used the 5v5+5 keep away exercise. Again do to space issues, we would only get a quarter of a field to practice on it so our activities were limited. Because of this, we would spend 10-15 minutes before games working on short goal kick scenarios and attacking patterns as that was the only time we would ever have enough space to work on these.
Would you make this position specific (outside players always on the flanks, center backs at the top and bottom, etc) or just have players rotate through all positions? I’m excited to try this one in a few weeks once we start up again. I love the double rondos, but if we wouldn’t have enough for that at practice I would do something similar to this. Basically a 3v1 in one square with a 1v1 (or 2v1) in the other, after a few passes switching the ball to the other grid, and having one or two players transition into that space with it (so always a 3v1). This seemed like a good progression from the normal rondos where they develop the ability to play under pressure in a fixed area to playing out of the pressure and recognizing space in other areas (in addition of the timing of the runs in the opposite grid)
Hi Guys,
I’m up north a little bit in San Francisco. I would second what Michael said. Unless you’re a top team and have that luxury to shop around for players to fit exactly what you’re looking for, you have to work with what you’ve got. I would also talk to them about how a formation is just a rough framework for how you start the game. What’s much more important is the roles and responsibilities for each position. So you can still be a possession team and play a 442 or be a “long ball team” and have a 433. I think as long as your philosophy and style of play is being shown on the field, I wouldn’t worry too much about the formation its being executed in.
David
Interesting article. I see 11v0 and building out of the back as random, not block, types of practices. The situation is constantly changing (moving the ball up the field, to the side, team moving backwards, etc) so players are constantly forced to adapt to new scenarios. One attacking scenario repeated over and over might be a little closer to block style, but I think as long as it involves decision making (when to pass, shoot, etc), that it would still involve the random practices.
It’s seems like the overall theme for the article would be as coaches, our goal should be to create players who are intelligent decision makers and the most effective way to do that is having practices replicate game like situations. Tied into soccer for example, I think it shows why it’s much better to do rondos for a warm up instead of passing back and for 5 yards apart as it works on a variety of skills instead of the same repetitive motion.
To a certain extent, I can see how some of those drills can lead to a false sense of confidence. However, I think you have to start that way if you’re going to attempt to master a skill. You can’t expect a group to successfully play out of the back 5 v4 their first time (or even 20th time). Once the competence is there at 5v0, then 5v1 should be integrated, and then so on. Hopefully players are realistic enough to realize that executing a pattern with little to no pressure isn’t the same as doing it in a full field game (if not, that first game could certainly be a wake up!)
You could look into this (although it’s with Barcelona, not Real)
http://blog.3four3.com/2013/03/25/3four3-and-celebreightfc-barcelona-soccer-tours/
I went to the open practice session the USA team had yesterday and thought I’d share a few things. Obviously this was open to the public, so who knows how much this replicates one of their actual training sessions.
Tab Ramos ran most of the session, and worked more with the defensive players. Klinsman and Hertzog with the attacking players. They had a light technical warmup, then kind of a short – short – long passing pattern around a square. Then the group split into offense/defense. I couldn’t see the defense group very well, but the offense worked on some small combination play involving one of the strikers checking towards the ball to create space for the second one to run into. After that was an 8v8 scrimmage with 2 outside players on each side (one for each team) and some light shooting at the end of practice. Klinsman was fairly active in shouting encouragement to players and occasionally would step in and talk with the strikers.
Dempsey and Bradley clearly stood out as the strongest of the group (not surprising). I tried to focus on watching Julian Green for a bit (given the hype and only seen him for a few minutes in the Mexico game), and he seemed to fit in fine with the group in terms of skill level, but certainly no standout. Beasley looked atrocious crossing the ball all session. Mostly poor delivery but on occasion he would play a good ball in, no one would be there. It was certainly a contrast to Zusi who seemed to always be looking for a target and being able to get it to them.
Two things surprised me about the practice. The first was the absence of any type of rondo/keep away exercises. Given how popular it seems those have become (or maybe only in 3four3 circles?) I thought for sure a portion of the practice would be used on that. The second was comparing the emphasis on the 3four3 curriculum on choreography and patterns to the attacking drill that seemed to have an ultimate goal (having one striker check back to create a passing lane), but without a clear way of reaching it. Everything was fairly random with no set sequence leading up to the desired outcome. Perhaps Gary or others who have observed pro teams might have more insight into if this is typical or not. But overall I found this seemed to contrast some of the concepts that have been highlighted with this coaching course.
Hi Justin,
I run into a similar situation with the adult team I coach as most teams have a sweeper/stopper system. I agree with a lot of what Eric said. Our ultimate goal is to drag the sweeper out wide, creating space in the middle of the field.
We tried man marking the sweeper on occasion, but had less success with that. Partly because it’s something we never really practiced so to put players in situations they’re not used to can be asking a lot. The times we would mark the sweeper, the instruction to the forward would be to make diagonal runs to the wings with the goal being to drag the sweeper out of position with her. Ultimately we had better luck with keeping our normal formation but just trying to change up the way we attack .
I think you can still play through balls into space with sweeper, but they have to directed to the flanks where it forces the sweeper to cover more distance to get to. If anything, finding the pass lanes with a sweeper is easier because you only have 3 defenders covering the width of the field as opposed to four. The challenge is obviously the execution of the pass into space.
Something like the Lose Your Man pattern might be good for this. If their outside backs are overly aggressive, having the wingers make a short dummy run towards the ball, followed by a real run away into space could cause them to free up space along the flank. Once they receive the ball, the sweeper is either forced to make the decision to come out wide to mark the player with the ball or stay centrally, allowing the person time and space along the side.
Justin,
I had a similar situation coaching middle school girls last year, but we only had 12 players on the team, so I didn’t have the luxury of being able to bench/cut people that weren’t not focused on soccer. I would absolutely take the problem players off the field as soon as they become an issue. Taking it one step further, don’t even put them on the field until they have shown you they want to be there. The larger problem will become if you don’t immediately deal with the problem kids, having their behavior rub off on the ones who currently are behaving.
You can’t make anyone want to play and get better, they have to decide that on their own. It sounds like you’re doing your best to keep them interested and engaged but they will ultimately decide how much interest and effort they are going to put in. I wouldn’t worry about them hating you as a coach. It’s always much easier to start off as being a strict hardass and then loosen up as people become more familiar with you than the other way around. And the other players will respect you more for not tolerating any of their BS either.
Hope that helps.
David
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the feedback. It’s cool being able to follow the progress of your team so far. My team women’s team has our first practice tonight so I’m excited to transition from reading the new material to actually putting in practice and seeing what type of results I get with it.
David
I think an early reaction of “I’ve spent $250 on basic keep away drills” isn’t unreasonable. I was initially surprised at how simple everything looked on the surface. However as I examined everything, was amazed to discover how complex they really are. Even though I’ve seen some of these exercises before, it was never with such an emphasis on the details. For me, that alone has been worth it .
I’ve always been surprised attending coaching courses how many people are there with notepads writing down as fast as possible the drill that is being set up as opposed to watching and listening to the actual speaker. There aren’t any secret drills that are going to transform a team. I fully agree with Eric in it’s the small things that have ability to elevate your coaching. For instance, in the rondo games, having a player drop the bib on the ground instead of handing it off to the new defender to get the passing rhythm started as quickly as possible. This won’t appear in any write up, but I believe it makes a huge difference in the execution of the drill.It would be nice to have some additional actual practice sessions on tape to watch to and try to pick up some of the smaller stuff that isn’t covered in the written descriptions and to see it executed with different groups.
Eric,
I’ve really liked hearing the success you’ve had implementing the 3four3 stuff and how you’re already seeing results with your group. I’m curious as to how the kids have reacted to the new format. I used to work with that age group, but more of a bronze level in terms of ability/interest. I tried to vary my exercises a lot (although underneath the umbrella of the same topic) to keep everyone interested, active, and exposed to different things (so kind of the opposite of the 3four3 theme!). I know the group would love rondos but I’m curious as to how they’d react to some of the other concepts. Particularly with some of the “slower” or “harder” topics where everything isn’t easily grasped and repetition is required over and over within the same exercise.Do the kids seem excited by the repetition of the same activities over and over at practice? How are they able to stay interested when they’re doing the same thing on Thursday as they were just doing on Tuesday (and the previous Thursday)? I’m sure part of this deals with the art of coaching in terms of getting them to believe in what you’re doing (and sounds like the results so far will encourage this) but I’m interested as to how you’ve dealt with this or if it’s even been an issue.
Nuno, I agree, I really liked all of Livu’s write ups from the convention and the insight it provided from interviewing coaches of different backgrounds. It was interesting to see some common themes emerge from all of them.
My take on it (as someone who has contributed a few times). I try to only comment when I think I can positively contribute something to the discussion. If I have no experience working with 8 year olds, I would stay away from that topic. It’s also been our off season so I haven’t had an opportunity yet to try out some of these new concepts. I still like reading all the different topics because it helps me increase my knowledge and understanding.
Additionally, coaching is a passion for me, but not my profession. I do it because I love it, but it is not my job. There’s a variety of experience levels on here so perhaps there is an “intimidation” factor of posting something that could be viewed as a waste of time or a dumb question by others. Personally I believe that if if your goal is education, then the only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask. It’s hard to grow and learn if you’re afraid of making a mistake.
I look at a license as something you need to get your foot in the door for certain jobs or just to stay you’ve accomplished (similar to college degree for many jobs). I’ve gone through the D and while I feel like I have picked up some useful information, it has by no means made me a great coach.
If someone tells me they have an A license, the first thing I would think is they’re dedicated to coaching by committing the time and effort necessary to achieve that. Whether they are actaully a quality coach or not is a different matter. There are plenty of coaches who have a high license but can’t coach well and conversely, coaches who do a great job, but have only done the minimal USSF requirements. At the end of the day, it’s just a piece of paper and the real display of ability is shown by the product on the field.
