Training - Wednesday, May 23

Back at Mac for our second session at the cool new facility. I had 15 girls at tonight's practice.

I. Ball Masters Program – Individual Technical Development

Ball per player in a general area working on individual dribbling moves.

I gave the girls a series of difficult dribbling combinations to work on. These weren’t the garden variety single moves (ie, Scissors, Step Over) but rather some creative not-too-useful-in-games moves designed to spark interest in and challenge the girls.

With 15 girls at training, I divided the team into 3 groups of 5. Two groups would play in the 4v4 and 4v3+1 games while the third group would work on bending balls down the line in another part of the field. I rotated the teams every 4 minutes.

II. 4v4 to Targets

Set Up

• 40x30 yard area
• One Target player (who is neutral) on each endline, 4v4 in the grid
• Extra soccer balls behind each of the Targets

Procedure

• Blue and green play 4v4 in the playing area
• The object is to receive the ball from one Target and get it to the other Target
• Targets play 3-touch or less (ball can't die!) and pass back to the team who plays into them
• Teams can use Targets for support
• If the defending team wins the ball, they may play to either Target to begin their attack

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for a team if they can play the ball from one Target to the other

Coaching Points

• Team shape when the ball gets to a Target - two players back and wide one player offering a close option, the forth player deep and dangerous
• Move to 1) get open, 2) create space for yourself, 3) create space for a teammate
• Make the field big (spread out) in the attack, compact on defense

III. 4v3+1 to Goal

Set Up

• 40x30 yard field with a 3-yard goal on each endline
• 4 players from each team on the field, 1 player behind the team's goal running the endline as a support player

Procedure

• Attacking team (blue) has four players on the field and one support player
• Defending team (green) has 3 defenders on the field and two support players (one on each side of the goal)
• Attacking team goes to goal and can use their support player
• If green wins possession of the ball, they must play back to one of their support players
• This support player is then "live" and joins the 3 green defenders to make 4 attacking players
• One of the 4 blue attackers drops back to make 2 supporting players, leaving 3 blue players to defend

Make It Compeititve

• +1 point for each goal

Coaching Points

IV. Bending Balls

Set Up

• 44x15 yard channel set up with two goals and two start disks at each end (see below)
• 2 players at one end, three players at the other (since I had groups of 5)
• 3 to 4 soccer balls at each end

Procedure

• A passes to B who takes a prep touch and tries to bend the ball down the sideline (gold line) into the goal near the other group of players
• A and B switch positions as C and D take their turn, with D trying to bend the ball down their sideline (purple line)

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each goal, which group can score more?

Coaching Points

• Head up after the prep touch as you are running to the ball to find your target
• Inside of the foot bending balls - toe of the kicking foot pointed up, player should look to "clip" the right side of the ball to impart right to left spin
• Look to make contact with the middle part of the ball to keep the pass low

Progression - High Bending Balls

Same set up and procedure, this time the players look to contact the bottom right part of the ball to lift the bent ball over a bench or other obstacle placed midway in the channel

V. 5v5 Winner Stays

Set Up

• 3 teams of 5
• 40x44 yard playing area with two regulation goals set up on the endlines

Procedure

• Blue plays green 5v5 to goal (4 field players + 1 GK)
• Gold waits on the sidelines
• First one to score stays on the field
• The team that was scored on leaves and the waiting team takes their place

Make It Competitive

• It is

Coaching Points

• Let them play