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Just spotted in the Arsenal vs. Bayern game:
I spy a 4v1 rondo. This kind of overload is not a mistake. | Arsenal 0-1 Bayern | 62′: pic.twitter.com/MNeO9eyQZp
— Liviu Bird (@liviubird) February 19, 2014
As promised, some video from training, now that we’ve finally split into three groups, and I have the core of my team settled:
This is the first time I’ve been able to work with them on any of this stuff. It was all in a huge group with 20 or so other U8s for the previous two weeks, which felt a bit like herding cattle at times. In any case, I noticed a few trends:
- If you turn your back on half the group, they usually won’t be doing what they should. The one big exception I found in reviewing the tape was during the 4v0 rondo section of the video posted here. That group on the near side did OK at staying on task.
- When kids were making mistakes, it was frequently the same offender(s) over and over — see if you can pick out the one that frustrated me the most! As a general rule, I won’t teach to the lowest common denominator. To make sure the more talented kids are challenged, I coach to their level, and naturally, the less-skilled players will be drawn up in their performance. We’ve split the groups so that the chasm of talent in any one team shouldn’t be vast, but you can clearly see that the gap is there.
- After nearly an hour of working on receiving across the body, I saw very little of it in our end-zone game and the small-sided game that followed. However, the chunk of the end-zone game that I posted here was the team in yellow connecting six consecutive passes, which was probably the highlight of the session in my book. (The game rules were: earn one point by passing to a teammate to control in the end zone; earn three points for connecting three consecutive passes.) I’m going to work on spacing with them next, to minimize the beehive effect that is very obvious even from that small clip.
As always, thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc. are all welcome. No other way to get better than to put yourself out there, even if it’s uncomfortable (and nobody likes being scrutinized). Like I said, I’ve never coached this age group before, so I expect the learning curve to be steep at first.
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This reply was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by
Liviu Bird.
A couple updates: I bought an HD video camera and a tripod, so I’m set to record training sessions and games. Also, we’ve had our first two weeks of training and still haven’t split into our teams — I’m coaching one of two “B” teams, if I can ever convince the other two coaches and the director to let us split the teams.
It’s been kind of a frustrating process so far — disorganized, asinine training sessions — and the adults are pissing me off far more than the kids (welcome to youth soccer, right?). In any case, I’m hoping to have some actual observations of substance to report soon, complete with video.
For now, I can say that this seems to be a good little group. The kids are picking things up quickly when I get moments to coach, and most of them are pretty well behaved for being 8 years old. Once I can get the bureaucracy crap out of the way, I think we’ll do OK. They naturally take to the idea of passing and moving when we just let them play, so with a little direction and focus on the proper topics, they’ll hopefully be good to go in a couple months.
I’m starting with a U8 boys’ team tonight. I’ll keep everybody posted on how it goes, but the main question I have running through my mind right now is: what is the right balance of individual skill work (encouraging creativity and risk-taking in 1v1 situations) and passing work? I’ve heard multiple people talk about how some coaches will instruct their players not to pass, at least for the first couple of weeks, to create some 1v1 ability.
I don’t want to go that far with it, but I’m thinking my emphasis for the first two or three weeks (two sessions a week; no games until first weekend of March) will be individual skills. At this age, I want to create competence in individuals so that they can effectively work within the dynamic, possession-based framework I would introduce to older teams. After a couple weeks (and definitely before we start playing games), I want to introduce basic rondos with an emphasis on receiving across the body and taking a positive first touch.
I’m also going to invest in a video camera to tape training sessions and matches, so I will hopefully have video to share with everybody.
I’ll throw my hat into this ring, even though I’m based in Seattle. I get down to Portland fairly often to cover Timbers games as a member of the media.
Good to see you on here, Chris. I’m down in the Portland area quite often, since I’m based in Seattle. We’ll have to get together at some point.
Hi, all. I’d like to say thank you to Gary for opening up this great opportunity for all of us to learn not only from him and Brian, but also from everybody in the community.
My name is Liviu Bird (pronounced leave-you). I grew up in the great white soccer hotbed of Fairbanks, Alaska, but my heritage and soccer background come from Romania. I moved to the Seattle area for college, where I played two years at Highline Community College and two years at Seattle Pacific University (NCAA Division II). I also played PDL with the North Sound SeaWolves and Kitsap Pumas.
These days, I’m mostly a freelance soccer reporter specializing in tactical analysis (but I write all kinds of stuff). Follow me on Twitter to see all the stuff I write, when I write it. I’m moving away from writing a little and more toward coaching, though, as soon as I can get on with a club.
I was an assistant/goalkeeper coach at Edmonds Community College for two seasons, and I am the junior varsity assistant coach at Lakeside School (where Bill Gates went!). As with everybody here, I believe in the possession soccer model and what Gary and Brian want to build, and I’m eager to learn more and start building my own teams to play that way instead of being a frustrated assistant.
I look forward to interacting with everybody here. This promises to be well worth every penny, and I’m excited to see it all grow.
