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Justin,
Someone told me early on that the C license was the toughest. Having recently completed my B, I will say its a true statement in that the C was difficult and good preparation for the B. From my friends that went on and earned their A, the comment has been it was more difficult than the B, but more of a progression. Not nearly the shock experienced going from a D to a C. The license course dates will probably be released late this month for the coming summer and sell out almost immeidately. I want to do my A, but likely will wait a year or two due to costs in terms of money and time commitment.
Rene,
I’ve only taken a couple of NSCAA courses, both were diplomas for goal keeping, so no pass or fail. I enjoyed it tremendously and learned quite a bit about the technical elements that go into diving, shot blocking, etc of the goal keeper. When I did my B license in 2012, there were quite a few candidates that came in through the NSCAA “C” course equivalent. Their perspective was that the USSF course was much more demanding and quite a few of them struggled in the B course. Personally, I intend to take additional NSCAA courses on topics that USSF does not cover. Once I earn my USSF A, I intend to take the advanced NSCAA courses as continuing ed credits for the A.
Hans
Not yet. One of my goals this year is to learn Spanish.
Personally, I feel the USSF licenses are a very good thing. For the person that is shifting into coaching soccer, whether they have played soccer before or not, it is a shift in mindset and the courses give you the tools needed to teach soccer. Are they teaching possession style soccer? No, but they are not teaching jungle ball either. What you train your respective teams upon is still entirely up to you or any candidate that attends these courses.
My perspective is probably entirely different than almost all candidates that attend these. I did not play soccer in college or professionally. I coach a handful of teams for a very small rec soccer club and high school program. So the respective programs are not sending me to these, paying for these or is my job contingent on obtaining these licenses. Obtaining a license isn’t going to allow me to “advance” relative to what I’m already doing now and most everyone I coach or involved in soccer with would not have a clue what a license means, so there is no “status” gained. For me, I attend these like I would attending college. To learn something I’m incredibly passionate about from some of the best minds in the craft of coaching soccer.
If you enter these courses with the right mindset and go in thinking you’re the dumbest person in the room set out to learn as much as possible, you’re going to benefit significantly from the work ahead even if you are not successful in earning license at the end. As Andrew stated, you cannot under estimate the greatness of the network you will create with the fellow coaches as I am still in contact with coaches I met in my D license course I took back in 2006 and each successive license has lead me to broadening my network globally and me discovering 3Four3.
Although I agree with Klinsmann that licenses are important, my reasoning for it is significantly different. Again, that is from a perspective that is different than most that coach soccer.
Hello Aarron,
I’m contemplating using a futsal ball during training sessions for my high school team in preparation for away opponents who’s field is grass and often overgrown. We will get artificial turf this year which will be an improvement in the speed of our play at home, but we need to be prepared for slower fields and using a weighted, limited bounce ball for us will help us train for it. I’ve actually found full sized weighted balls from Select (0.6 and 1.0 kg compared to 0.45 of a standard ball) but I’m not sure what their “bounce” characteristics are.
My response to your question, give it a try and see what happens. If it means the futsal ball helps clean up the “technique” so the players can focus more on the tactical elements such as positioning themselves in support of the ball, proper body shape relative to the ball so they are able to receive across their bodies, then you may have altered a training scheme to help your team improve. The way I see it, the better they are tactically in positioning and body shape, the more time they will have to successfully wrangle a ball that wasn’t passed to them well, meaning more successful pass completions for your team in a game with a regular ball, which will lead to quicker technique improvement because there is more repetition under match conditions.
The characteristics of the futsal may improve your team’s kicking strength to, so there is that potential benefit.
Thanks for the post Eric. Often when I state what I do I generate a response of that will never work from coaches that speculate as to all the horrors that will result of attempting such a feat. When I considered doing this, I actually warned the parents of the players pre-season that we may not win a single game. The intent at the time was develop the quality players I thought were necessary before playing possession soccer.
Hello Phil, I’m just going to clarify my understanding of the question. To me a dead touch is when the ball dies on the foot that receives it. I don’t teach my players to dead trap the ball, so for my respective teams this is the result of the player taking too much pace off the ball when receiving. Note, technically it doesn’t have to mean a completely dead ball; it can mean a ball that is underplayed relative to the intent of the first touch requiring an extra step and/or touch before a pass can be made. That is the fundamental flaw I’m addressing and it may be quite different from what you are posting a question to.
Whether the ball is dead under the player or with the player extending to reach the pass, if the ball dies on the foot or is under played, the player is going to lose time in taking an extra step or touch before a pass can be effectively made. Often when I see players that make a mistake like this in games, it results in 3 touch passing assuming they are able to get the ball off at all. In lesser experienced/skilled players, I often see them taking a step back to windup for the pass, then step forward to kick the ball.
The 4v0 and 4v1 rondos address positioning relative to the ball first, although much of the discussion is about receiving the ball across the body. It is impossible to successfully receive the pass across the body effectively if the player is out of position and not checked back to the near cone. Again, the video reflects this in some of the play where the player “mentally checks out” momentarly after passing the ball, not realizing that the play can change directions. The result often is a turn over in possession.
With proper positioning, the player receiving the ball will have the defender pressing from his back side, so he owns position relative to the ball. Or the defender avoids pressing to cover the next pass giving up space in the process to which the receiving player can cut the ball across their body to change direction. To me the technical element I would focus primarily on is the positioning of the player to the near cones. That being done more consistently will result in more successful string of passes regardless of the quality of the first touch of the player, even in that limited 7×7 sized grid.I have coached U11’s playing 8v8. At that time, my team wasn’t playing possession soccer as I know it now. The formation we used was a 2-3-2. The 2 backs were often more than enough coverage. It was easier to teach the concept of press and cover. If the 1st defender was beaten, she would make a recovery run to be the new cover as the 2nd defender assumes 1st defender duties. This allowed the keeper to play in a sweeper position when the ball was on the opponent side of the pitch as we always played a high line. I required my outside mids to man mark their counter part when out of possession and to lose their mark in possession. It was simple in terms of defining who did what.
If I were to do it again, I would run a 2-4-1 with a diamond mid. I never liked the dual striker formation anyway and often would stack them (1 true striker, 1 withdrawn). With the new formation, it addresses my previous tendency. What I gain from this formation is the ability to use the Set Tactical Training (STT) of building out of the back which resembles the full sided game. Teams that tend to have 3 backs in 8v8 soccer tend to only attack with 3 players, 4 at best. The 2-4-1 and previous 2-3-2 formation meant we attacked with 5 and would retain numbers to effectively press the ball when our scoring failed a result. Granted this was a rec team, but they earned promtion to the classic level.
In a 7v7 soccer, all you lose is the attacking mid so the formation is 2-3-1 and you still retain the ability to run the STT. For us, in U9/10 we play 6v6 and the formation would be a 2-3-0. Again, the emphasis I would take would be retaining the ability to build from the back.
Please note when I coached the U9/10 group, my emphasis was on individual development (Coerver, Soccer U, etc) and I didn’t allow my teams to pass in games. The intent was to establish strong abilities with the ball to beat defenders and comfort with the ball at their feet. That “experiment” resulted in my teams winning their games by significant margins even though I encouraged my teams to start shooting wide of goal and intentionally missing after they scored a hat trick. Today, if I were coaching this age group, I would still impliment the no pass rule in games for up to one full season. However, I would train in practice the STT so that is imprinted on them early and when that transition to possession soccer is made, they immediately have familiarity with the philosophy of what is going to be requested of them moving forward and the formation they are using is consistent of 11v11 soccer.
A dead touch to me is fundamentally flawed in many ways. Granted I see its usefulness, especially in futsal where the sole of the foot is used a lot in moving the ball to get by a defender. The flaw is more evident in the passing game as often the dead ball is caught under the player. To be able to pass the ball, the player is forced to touch it forward as a preparation touch before they are able to effectively make a crisp pass. Or worse, the player takes a step backward in order to step forward into the ball for an effective pass. Either way, a ton of time is needed before the ball is sent to a teammate meaning there is less space for the subsequent player.
A live first touch is general depending on what the player is intending to do. Maybe a first touch is to immediately split two proximatity defenders and is larger as a result. However in my thinking, often the touch is within a step of said player so the next touch is a pass versus digging it out from underneath said player.
Two touch passing in everything I read, comprises 80% of all passes made in the premier league game. Same goes for receiving the ball across the body with the inside of the foot. My assumption in reading this was that two touch passing will be even more effective in lower level/younger games, which has been proven to be right in my experience. However, not all two touch passing is at the same tempo. As suggested in the 4v0 and 4v1 rondo games, the ball is received with one foot and passed with the other. This eliminates a step which quickens the tempo without having the ball being passed at a faster pace. A quicker tempo equals faster speed of play all while not resorting to one touch passing. The key skill here though is the player being able to receive and pass with either foot effectively while also developing an effective first touch back to the passing foot so said player can step into the pass immediately. An errant first touch that slips by the player receiving the ball slightly will mean he/she has to take an additional step and may be forced to pass using the same foot that received the ball which may be in a predictable/forced direction from defensive pressure.
Also, these rules are pretty strict, but they are not absolute as sometimes the defender will accelerate not to press the ball but to cut off the next pass. The player receiving the ball must recognize this and upon their first touch make a sharper cut of the ball back across their body so the play changes directions. This is demonstrated quite a bit in the videos of this rondo exercise and this is where the game itself can either teach the player to recognize the intent of the defender and defeat it or the coach steps in and makes a point of it.
Here is my bit on it as this was a problem with my high school team. Often the obvious opportunities to switch fields occured when our pivot would receive the ball, but instead of turning laterally with it and popping a medium pass to open space for our weak side fullback to run up on to, she would put the ball back into play on the same side of the field she received it. She is an accurate player with great touch, but she wasn’t seeing the opposite side of the field and to me the solution at the time seemed to lie in her simply peaking over her shoulder before she was played and seeing the other side of the field. Simply being told this, even though it was obvious to even the most naive to soccer parent in the stands of the switch opportunity, she didn’t see it and that is what mattered and no amount of “insistence” from me corrected the issue.
To formerly correct this, I will be using the Set Tactical Training of building out of our back field. On every third swing, when our pivot receives the ball, she will need to make a false check toward the pass, then open up to allow it to go by her while shielding the ball against a potential opponent defender, most likely coming frmo positive space on the field. Then make the medium length pass to the weakside full back to run onto into space, most likely at pace.
The issue for this occuring in the first place is the pivot seeing the other side of the field for the obvious switch. To teach the vision and create a “trigger” I will be insistent that before the pivot receives the ball that she make eye contact with the weakside fullback before the fullback initiates her run. That will help our timing of this type of play where I don’t have players stagnant waiting for a medium length pass and so we can attack space quickly.
Thanks Ryan for the response. I see the numerical advantage and I’m sure there are other factors of consideration such as the abilities of the opponent with the ball centrally, if they are comfortable or not with pressure on their backs, if there are only two mids, are they flat versus stacked, etc. To be quite frank, I haven’t worked on full team pressing choreography with the top 5, instead focused on the individual players in specific moments of play when possession was lost. Obviously, not nearly as effective, not enough repetition and although it was easy for the players to figure out the solution once a freeze in play was introduced, the cohesive pressure in real time was not apparent in our game and I see this solving the issue signficantly.
Gary,
This questions pertains to the front 5 pressing.
Do you have a preference on which direction your want your team forcing play of the opponent backs when pressing high?
In the video it appears you have your forwards forcing play inward. The advantage is you’re forcing the opponent to pass dangerously in front of their own goal. The disadvantage would be more field to cover with your supporting players.
I’ve seen demonstrations of forcing the opponent outward. You lose the dangerous play in front of the opponent goal, but you restrict field space more pinning the opponent to the sideline resulting in more turnovers to your team. I can see this being a little easier for a team to understand as the restriction of space becomes more apparent.
Thank you,
Paul
My name is Paul Gruber (aka PG 19) and I coach a girls high school varsity soccer team in Carlisle, IA. I’ve been fortunate to start the program and helping establish the local small rec soccer club working with every age group and taking on many administrative duties. I first became aware of 3four3 as a result of watching the YouTube video of the U11 team in the summer of 2012 while attending a coaching course in IL. From that point on I have read every comment multiple times to hone my understanding of the craft of coaching soccer.
My goal has been to develop a team capable of playing soccer resembling what I see in FC Barcelona. My reasoning was centered on a belief that I do not control the level of athlete entering my program but I do have the ability to influence the quality and capability of their play. This site obviously was HUGE for me. As ridiculous as my goal was/is, having it helped steer my decision making along the way and even when I got something wrong (ex tactical training activities), there was enough “right” (ex technical excellence) to prove useful when I changed training activities.
I’m not afraid of getting something wrong and will try something out before I ask if its okay. Often when I attend a coaching course or license, I have the opportunity to sit amongst peers that have experiences running programs at colleges or playing professionally. There used to be a time when I came up that I would wince stating what/where I coached and my experience, but as time has gone by I have realized that I am a peer, attending the same level of course and to be proud of what I represent. Coaching soccer is my passion, something I often pay to do, and I look forward continuing my being a student of this craft. Look forward to the dialogue amongst my “peers”.
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This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by
Paul Gruber.
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