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Paul, you’re absolutely right in terms of message delivery. Doesn’t matter if its girls, boys or men even. You address the issues of deficiency to the players in question who are on the video, they are going to be defensive at the very least. Delivery is key. Often you have to find the moment or create it where the player contribute and/or ask for the solutions. At that point they are receptive to the information, willing participants versus defensive advasaries. Girls simply don’t hide their emotions as much as boys/men, but the emotions are still there regardless of gender.
My points of the video, those are intended for the coaches. In the context of how it will be addressed to my team, it will be layered meaning we’ll observe video from early in the season to late. To catch improvements. As a coach, I need to scout ahead and know the answers (improvements) ahead of time so I know what questions to ask early on. So, if I see issues with our outside backs getting caught too far in when they are played, I want to find footage where they are getting into better positioning later in the season. I may frame it from the earlier video and directly ask the question to the outside back of what she felt she could do, to be even better than she was in the video. Then I show her the evidence that she has aleady started to make those improvements on her own.
In the past, I’ve steered away from analyzing video in front of the team because quite frankly, the footage of quality play wasn’t there. So we instead studied footage of our top opponents (to scout them) and footage of professional teams. This year I think we’re starting to get into the quality realm where we’re not trying to fix everything, but are trying to improve what we already do well. Refinement versus complete construction.
Going very basic here. I like a lot of 1v1’s. Most use the activity to teach moves to beat a defender. But it can be equally effective in teaching proper defensive techniques. I teach the three D’s a little differently.
Deny as much space as possible. Better to defend the ball than the goal so we don’t wait for the attacker to come to us and we close space, but we have show the right area to the attacker (their weak foot) and give respect so we don’t over commit and never do we ruch to tackle.
Delay, respecting the opponent, we want them to dribble which is slower than a pass and isolates them. So again, give enough space to where the attacker isn’t compelled to get rid of it and force them into an area of field where they are less threatening (to the flanks).
Direct, must force play towards the flank, encouraging the attacker to dribble themselves to an ineffective area of the field. I have stated often that to commit to a tackle you have committed to either winning or losing the ball. However, if you are patient enough, the attacker will literally give you the ball as they are nullified in getting by you as a defender as you have not “stabbed” for the ball.
Often there is an issue with the “up” players not defending when they lose the ball. 1v1’s means they have to defend. You will still get players that put their hands on their hips when they are dispossessed and this is the time to correct the behavior. Pressure causes all sorts of problems for the ball handler so even if you are beaten, by hustling after them they know your presence and that’s another thing they are forced to deal with in terms of pressure in addition to performing the right technique at the right time to score. If they stumble over the ball, you’re in a position as a recovering defender to capitalize on their mistake versus watching and wishing you had done something.
There is also a 1v1 transition game. As soon as the attacker shoots, he becomes a defender as a new attacker dribbles in and tries to break toward goal. This goes both ways and is fast paced and helps teach the mental transition from attack to defend and then back to attack if the ball is won. Player stays on until they are scored upon.
The clip of the long passing sequence in the video was nice. I picked it because every player on the field got a touch on the ball. The shot was deflected out and resulted in a corner kick which we converted into a goal. Disecting that sequence there is much to be desired. When our outside back received the ball that started the sequence, she took way to long to make a decision. Sometimes theres is over confidence in our abilities under pressure and what she didn’t realize is although she easily handled the pressure, that time she took with the ball allowed the opponent to choke off potential passing lanes. Had the opponent been more rehearsed in their pressing, it could have been bad. Our center back upon receiving the ball made the nice swing pass through our keeper, but again, our other outside back was caught to low, basically where our other center back should have been. Again, we occupy space and by doing so we bring in an opponent defender. Simple positioning changes, which we had plenty of time to get to, would have made the passing more smooth.
Anyway, I intend to get some more video out from 2013 to edit and get to the team to observe so they can see even though we did well, we could have done a lot better, in a sense that didn’t require any more effort, skills or speed to accomplish. That is the part that excites me is the capability is there, not asking for anything other than the team learning their positional placements relative to the ball and getting to those areas at the time they need to be. Our season officially starts March 24th, two weeks later we have our first game. I will be posting video when I can during the season in hopes to demonstrate our improvements as we move forward.
One observation in the players running these sessions for my program. As their technique improves, both in passing and receiving, I’ve noticed there is less checking to the near cone as before. Basically with good technical abilities, you don’t have to work as hard physically to get into position. This is a concern as I want the full check to the cone so when a touch does go awry or when we misjudge the pressure coming in, that we are in the best possible position to unlock ourselves where maybe technique alone doesn’t solve the problem.
One thing I have required the players to do is they have with their foot the near cone relative to the passer before they can receive the ball. That was the only restriction added. What I’m trying to break is the habit of ball watching when they’ve made a pass and recognize to get into a positio of support early, before it is needed. It also means if the player is out of position (hasn’t touched the near cone) that the passer might have to slow the release of the ball until it happens. Obviously this may lead into the pressure being too great to overcome. This is the part I’m stuck with as I want that ball moving early so we don’t get ourselves stuck but I also want the players getting in the best positions of support every time, even when it is not necessary so we have the best of technique and positioning to unlock ourselves out of pressure.
So the issue is speed of play being brought down because of the restriction or will it increase in time as players become more automatic in checking to right support angles versus ball watching. Some addition coaching points was to the players that it wasn’t simply touching the cone with their foot. They still need to have their body open to the pass when they make that touch to the cone, so some body shape issues have to be addressed too.
Anyway, I’m an obvious fan of the activity and it will become one of my go to rondo games we do all season.
I think Andrew hits on a pretty decent point. Videoing the session. For me, the intent was to spark more turn out in the open gyms by posting it. Watching it, saw somethings in it that will need to be addressed, once I’m allowed to when season starts. Of particular note is one of my more seasoned players. She is a bit “too” casual. I like her play under pressure because rarely does she panic. However, because she’s too casual and has very good first touch, she isn’t checking to the near cone as she should. The results is when her touch isn’t as good as it should be, that she at that point is left with no option other than to hit and hope and the result is a poorly executed pass that’s the deck. Basically, had she checked as she should, she would of had more space to play the ball into off of a first touch. Also, she would of had more distance between her and the defender when the ball was played to her versus the defender on her as she is receiving. Its a small detail, but for me, she is my strong center back and it is not only the potential problem of the play that is worrisome, but also the body language expressed that exudes someone that is bored or not to “serious” about her position which are not characteristics I would describe her play as. Then there is what this communicates to the opponent; would it encourage a defender to press her high as they see her as being off in concentration compared to someone that exudes confidence on the ball? She is highly confident, and I’d like her to reflect that in a different way than she currently is.
Thanks for the video. Played a variation of it of 7v2, if a defender won the ball, they dropped their bib and player took their place that lost the ball. We played two grids. They could unlock the opposite grid when they successfully combined 3 one touch passes in a row. Otherwise it was two touch max touches to sustain possession.
This was after a double rondo game which was 5v1. Again players between the cones versus in the corners, but allowed a neutral player to be a constant center. The intent for me was to help our center learn how to turn with the ball. She plays as my team’s pivot, so when ever she received the ball, she had to turn with it and feed it to the opposite line, regardless of what the shape was. This helped the target player recongize how to get into a proper position as the center was receiving the ball to anticipate that bypassing play.
The activities are run by the players as its open gym. Here’s a clip from a couple of weeks ago. The ball is live, not a futsal, it is a gym and the floor is slick like dirty ice which counters much of the quick reactions and hustle I’d like to see in their play. However, this is a mix of girls ranging from Varsity starters all the way down the roster. Their touch is improving as is their technique, in spite of all the challenges. We’ll have turf this coming spring season and I’m looking foward to having a faster more consistent field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gR9FogZKR2k
Hey David,
Just thought I’d contribute to your theme. For this age, I don’t teach passing at all. Game wise, we play 3v3 or 4v4, no keepers. In games, tactically I tell the team to get behind their teammate with the ball. Fundamentally, they are giving proper support and safety for the teammate to dribble. Primarily, it gets them out of the way of their teammate so they’re not an obstacle or potentially stealing the ball from said teammate. Training sessions are usually once a week, for about 45-60 minutes. Keep the activites the same week to week as kids like a routine, but I have quite a few activities so we’re not stuck on one for too long. Lots of breaks.
Form dribbling – consists of chop dribbles with the laces, single footed zig zags, monster walks, pendulums and toe taps. Simple is the key.
Box dribbling (10×10 yards) – kids all with ball all around the perimeter of the square. The objective is to dribble across the square and back, usually 3 times. Its a race to see who can finish first. Activity teaches the kids automatically to get their head up to avoid collissions. Use this activity to introduce different turns (inside cut, outside cut, cryuff cut, hook turn, step over turn). Usually youngest I stick with the inside and outside cuts.
Gate dribbling – random gates, run the activity with 3 players at a time. The intent is for speed so concepts of getting the ball off the foot more are taught to give up some control for speed, but to read the layout (look for the next gate, look for openings, look for lanes that go through several gates, etc). Players count how many gates they can get through in 20 seconds. Then they try to beat their prior record. The coaching tips I give I tell them I’m giving them cheat codes for a video game.
1v1 two goal game – defender serves to attacker, there is a goal (gate) on either side of the field (lateral versus on the ends). The player can dribble through either gate to score. The key is we’re not shooting, we’re instilling quick changes of directions, possibly fakes to throw off the defender. If the defender wins the ball, they can dribble through a gate which can be from either side of the gate.
1v1 line soccer – defender serves to attacker, the objective is to dribble to the opposite end line and stop the ball on the line with foot on top of the ball. This can be used to teach shielding either during a bad first touch to gain control of the ball or when attempting to stop on an end line to score. Its directional so moves can start to be introduced as well. it also teaches basic defensive principals which I don’t cover until at the upper part of this age group.
3v3 soccer to goals – basically a short scimmage implementing the game tactics notes above.
ghostbusters game (20×20) grid – everyone with a ball dribbling inside grid, one player outside of grid without the ball that is the ghostbuster. On go, the player without the ball has 30 seconds to attempt to tag each player with the ball which freezes them. Player that is frozen hoists their ball above their head. They can be unfrozen by teammate who passes a ball between their legs. Just a fun game to end a session with.
high or far – Just a thing my dad used to do when I was a kid. Kids come up to you as the coach and tell you either high or far. Then you as a coach punt the ball based on what they say and the player runs out and shags the ball, dribbling all the way back. If they do it quick enough you might do it again for them. The kids like it because they are in awe at how high or far you can kick the ball. The thing I learned about it is it wears out the kids substantially for their ride back home and they unknowingly get some cardio which isn’t necessary but….
The goal is to develop top notch ball handlers that can keep the ball (individual possession) under pressure. Usually the players are facing 1v1’s, 1v’2 and 1v3’s. Sometimes more if the teammates try to take the ball away. Ultimately, with every club I’ve coached for and every parent I’ve given this advice to who are recruited as a first time soccer coach, have had very good success in developing skilled players using these activities. One thing though is to make sure to coach the parents so they’re not yelling at their kid to boot the ball. Tell them your intention, goals and get them to yell support of what it is you’re attempting to achieve.
Just throwing this out there based on what I heard in the Caleb Porter interview from last fall. In every session, they work on possession themes and pressing themes. To him, this has to be trained upon every session as those minute details lead to a split second difference in improving the speed of play, speed of transition and keeping the ball. Possession and pressing are two elements that minimize the time the opponent has the ball. If your team loses it, there is a cohesive team response to get it back within the 6 second rule. Once you have it, then your team has its “go to” play of building from the back. This is the “base” of the play of your team from which all the other elements are built from. It is this play that allows your team to organize, regain shape and stretch out the opponent. As your team becomes more automatic with these two areas of training, you’ve already impacted the game significantly in terms of which team controls the match and likely outcome.
I think you answered your own question. Your team’s improvement based on the training has lead to some improved success. Have they mastered building from the back, etc? Most likely not and I think with more work on it, they will be able to sort through the passing deficiencies as they improve their technique and tactical positioning and play. Primarily, what was it that the team not doing that lead to the passing lanes being closed down? Was it the speed of play relative to the opponent being too slow, (more work on the STT’s will help). Under pressure, was the team’s quality of receiving and passing dimenishing which slows down play?
On the other end of things, can you play direct when you need to if it is a must win situation? My answer to that is yes. The thing is, a team that knows how to play possession style soccer can play direct as they will have the capability to. However, a direct team will struggle trying to play a possession game as it requires more skill, more tactical understanding, positioning, reading of play. Personally, I have coached in must win games and saw that because of the high pressure of the opponent, the condition of the field (overgrown, slow and narrown), that we had to go direct as building up from the back wasn’t allowing us to stretch the opponent wide because simply put, the field was too narrow and the stretching had to occur with the longer direct pass. When that was done a few times, it allows us to back the opponent up, gave us the space we needed to build up and got the opponent thinking about the long ball more than us havnig the ball and that allowed ball movement from us to wear on the opponent.
If its not a must win situation, and your intent is to develop the team, then I think sticking with the STT’s and curriculum of 3four3 will be highly recommended as you know there will be improvement with that.
I run aggression drills. Often the activities bring out a lot of cheers from the girls. The first is a very simple activity I teach to 5 year olds and new to soccer players that requires no skills. Ball sheilding.
Start with a disk, two players per disk. One player sheilds the other player from being able to step on it. Go for about 10 seconds which would be an incredible amount of time in a game. The “defender” is allows to try to get by the person on the disk and get as many steps on the disk as possible. You can control the amount of contact from within soccer acceptable to all star wrestling. Then the players switch roles. Progression, place a ball on the cone, defender tries to knock it off. Final progression, use a ball, no cone, now the person with the ball, can move the ball in addition to sheild it.
Another activity, players are shoulder to shoulder at the start. They must maintain contact. Coach roles a ball out in front them and the two players try to “charge” each other off the line toward the ball, so they are moving but in contact with their shoulders, no one is allowed to slip their opponent.
Final activity is a progression of a 1v1 activity to goal. This is back with a U14 girls team that was weak technically and physically, kind of the odd girls out team that I took on. I didn’t allow passing the season I coached them because I wanted significant improvement in their ability to handle the ball under pressure and win 1v1’s. As the season went, we played a lot of 1v1 games, such as 1v1 line soccer, 1v1 to two lateral goals. The final progression was to a full sized goal, but the field funneled toward the goal so the players couldn’t just “out flank” their defender. I wanted them to start thinking what moves to use to create openings in the center of the field so their shots were more square. As they got better, I asked the defenders to become “cheater defenders” which allowed them to grab a hold of the person with the ball if they got by them (all out wrist or jersey tug, no shoves). This taught the girls that how to deal with the cheater defender and more importantly that they would deal with it in an effort to try and score versus whining about the opponent cheating. This pretty much nixed all complaints from my team of “Get off of me!” and as we became more aggressive, we were less likely to retaliate which often is what draws fouls from the officiating.
These activites worked very well for me, even when we didn’t have the skill to complete a pass, we often won the 50/50’s and many times the 80/20’s. If you’re doing this to calm your team down when they have the ball so that individually they are confidendent they can possess it, then it allows them to see the next play versus hit and hope. However, some of what I’m seeing with the team running “choreorgrahped tactics” is it helps simplify what everyone needs to be doing and gets them into positions before they “have” to be in a position. So I’m a bit torn on this, probably a mix of both and that is where coaching would come in.
Just throwing this out for those of you coaching really young kids or new to soccer kids and if you’re wanting a lot of repetitions. I used to play the 2v1 double rondo game with my U10’s. All players are within the respective grids versus in the corners or between the “cones”. The intent was to teach movement off the ball after the pass and to break habits of ball watching once a pass is made. Basically, the game is self teaching because of the player passing ball watches, usually the defender that pressured them to pass will run in a line from them to the new ball handler, effectively placing themself inbetween to the two players in possession. To break the coverage, the player that just passed has to move to what ever space that is open.
Emphasis has to be made on the defender to always press for the ball or they will start covering the passing lane thus leaving the person with the ball under no pressure which is a very bad habit to make in training to have come out in a game. Basically make sure the kids are still playing soccer and not just trying to win at the activity.
For my respective teams, this was very helpful in developing first touch, especially touches that took the ball counter to the defender thus getting behind their mark. If I had a team of 12, I would run 3 grids simultaneously, again emphasis was on high repetitions within the training time I had my players.
The team ran a double rondo activity in their open gym last night. Slight changes made was it was a 4v1 per side with 8 total player. Basically took the 4v1 rondo game and made it a double. Also, the players in possession played between the cones versus in the corners while facing a single defender. If the defender got tired a new defender could enter the opponent grid, so activity had more continuity.
Having only 1 defender though made it difficult for that defender to play the ball to the adjacent grid when the ball was one, as there is only one against 4 (actually 3 at best). Often I would simply feed the ball to the adjacent grid when the defender clipped or won the ball and made the team out of possession shag the lose ball to be played back to me. Compared to the single 4v1 rondo game, there was more focus from more players (8 compared to 5) and I didn’t have to cycle defenders in and out based on base. Also allowed the game to become competitive, Point earned for every 5 consecutive passes. Insisting on 2 touches only. One touch or more than 2 touches equals a turnover to the opponent.
Hey John,
I will be following what you and your team does as I coach high school girls as well, but our season is in the spring. As noted above, the quality of play is there. I’m going to re-watch the video where I have more time to see what else is occuring off the ball relative to the opponent and your team’s positioning. Very interested in the sessions you have run for your team, especially as your season progresses.
Thank you,
Paul
Hello Caleb,
To me the Set Tactical Training (STT) of playing out of the back is complimentary to the Choreographed Pressure (ChP) activity for the attacking unit. For me, I would run the two activities at the same time, one coach with the STT and the other with the ChP.
You being the only coach, then maybe the solution is what is suggested above, definitely at first, where everyone goes through the activities. Teach everyone the STT and ChP so everyone has an understanding of how the activities work as you will likely have positional overlap of players playing different positions on your team. Once the principals of the STT and ChP are understood, meaning your players understand how to run the activity and the focus becomes more on the details such as technique, positioning relative to the ball, recognizing triggers for advanced positioning, then possibly you can run the two activities into one another as they are both forms of shadow play. Basically the defensive unit plays out from goal while the attacking unit plays into it.
You will need to have cone markers that are different for the two units. Allow the defensive unit to play through a few cycles, addressing speed of play and positioning adjustments as well as technical corrections. Then rest them while you go through a few cycles of ChP with the attacking unit.
From there, the next logical activity seems to be running the Pattern Plays using the entire team to goal. After that, if you don’ t have enough players for a full team scrimmage, then I would make it a “phase” type game of attacking unit against the defensive unit on 2/3rds of a field with targets for the defensive unit to play into and a goal for the attacking unit to attempt finishes on.
Using the rondos as the warm up before everything.
I had my team run the 4v0 and 4v1. Gave a couple of prospective team captains the info, provided them instruction as to how to build the activity and they did a decent job considering the variation of skill present during the pick up soccer time. I think the hardest element to execute in this activity is when the player makes the pass, to check to the near cone immediately as often they get caught watching their pass. This became evident when the ball changed directions and the passer was out of position as they hadn’t check to the near cone, and the play often gets locked into a corner as a result. The key to unlocking the ball from the corner was literally getting the two players to the near cone so play could open up away from the corner. This was one 30 minute activity ran by the kids and I know better quality will come about with further instruction and repetition.
How the activity was introduced with step by step progression.
4 players on a 7×7 grid, just passing the ball around >> restrict to two touch only >> restrict to no passes across the square >> restrict that pass had to be received across the body >> restrict that pass made by opposite foot that receives >> require near players to check to near cones.
Then add a single defender >> reading the pressure angle of the defender as the ball is circulating so player can determine if she will cut in to change direction or remain open, just as important as reading where the ball is likely to be played next.
One simple activity, many different layers and in the end, definite improvement within the activity itself and the cadence of the touches was; tah-tah…tah-tah…tah-tah
Almost as fun to listen to as it was to watch.
