Training - Monday, June 18

Holy Angles, 16 players.

The plan for today was to warm-up with some technical work keying on movement of our outside defenders.  It would also involve work for our target forwards and mids.  I then planned to move to the 3v2 Continuous activity that we ran through last week, focusing more on the spacing and shape of the three attackers.  I was then going to finish with more set piece work in prep for the weekend.

The girls still tend to crowd around the ball at times, not fully comprehending yet that their teammates are usually good enough to pass the ball to them over distance now.  As our players get drawn close to their teammate in possession of the ball in games, though the number of options may increase, we are still not very effective as a pass to a close teammate does not break pressure (get us out of pressure) a lot of the time.  The idea of focusing a bit on spacing and shape when attacking would be helpful to them as in game situations there can sometimes be a world of difference between a 5 yard pass and a 10 yard one.

Spacing and team shape require that the girls possess some very important skills.  First, they need to have the awareness in their surroundings (where opposing players are as well as the location of their own teammates).  Second, they need to possess an understanding of the individual benefits of receiving a ball in space versus receiving a ball in pressure as well as the benefits of attacking up the field on opposing teams in less densely populated areas.  All this can’t be addressed in a single session and takes time to build the skills in the young players.  I planned on addressing some of these issues tonight.

As with all good plans, unforeseen circumstances arise and plans need to be changed.  The field was double booked beginning at 8PM as our U16 and U17 Blue teams had planned on scrimmaging in prep for Regionals this weekend.  With some accommodation, they agreed to begin at 8:15PM to give us 75 minutes on the field.  To throw another wrench into the mix, the U15s (training from 6:30PM – 8:00PM), having not played a game since State Cup, were interested in a full field scrimmage with us from 7:30PM – 8:00PM.  I decided it would be good for the girls to get a competitive run in for a bit, so I adjusted our training plan accordingly.

I. Technical Functional Training – Wide Backs

Set Up

• 4 groups of 3, formed around 1 wide back per group
• Two groups worked up the right side of the field, two up the left – the right side groups had our two wide right backs, the left side groups had our two lefties
• Midfield start disk, wide back start disks, and target start disks arranged as shown below
• All the soccer balls with the midfield players

Note this activity involves 12 players. The other four players (our central backs) were off on another part of the field working on long distance ball striking and clearances. Players were rotated in and out between the activities.

Procedure

• Green group starts with the ball at the green mids feet, working up the right side of the field
• Gold players play low pressure, dummy defense against the green team
• Green mid begins the sequence by dribbling forward with the gold mid applying pressure on one side or the other

• Green mid turns away from pressure and looks for support

• Green wide defender recognizes the need to maintain possession and moves back quickly, away from the gold defender to provide support
• Green mid plays to green wide back

• Green wide back receives the ball across their body with the inside of their right foot, playing the ball out wide to their right (clear your feet!) in order to set up a pass up field on their second touch
• Green wide back plays a driven ball to their target player who, with one or two touches, plays back to the green mid who has moved up for support, completing the sequence

• Orange then begins the same sequence up the left side of the field while green and gold switch roles so gold can attack while green defends
• Midfield defenders should apply contact pressure though not trying to win the ball
• Wide back defenders do not move
• Target player defenders apply contact pressure to the back of the target player and make then work to get good touches and pass backs to the supporting midfield player

Make It Competitive

• White group can execute the sequence the sharpest/quickest/with the most technique?

Coaching Points

• Midfields need to clear their feet with their turn so that they can play a pass quickly to the supporting wide defender
• Wide defenders must back away from their marking defenders quickly once they recognize that their midfielder is looking to play backwards
• Wide defenders need to recognize where the open space is (out wide) and touch the ball in that direction – this also helps create a passing channel wide of the marking defender in order for the wide back to play forward
• Target players make their body big, shielding off the marking defender
• Balls played into the targets should be low and driven over the distance
• Balls played back from the targets to the mids should be on the ground

Release Variation

Same set up and concept with the following modifications:

Procedure

• This time the midfielder dribbles up field, turns back to maintain possession from the marking defender, then turns back up field again when the marking defender over plays the back pass
• The wide back backs up to offer the same support, but once the mid turns back up field, the wide back releases out wide at a sprint to received a pass in space from the central mid

• Wide back still plays forward to their target and the target still tries to find the supporting mid

Coaching Points

• Recognition by the wide back after backing up to provide support that the mid can play forward, and a sprint out wide (into open space) and forward to receive a pass in that space
• Arm extended out in front of the wide back indicating that they want the ball played out in front of them
• “Release!” call from the wide back to provide verbal communication

II. 30 minute Scrimmage vs U15 Blue Team

We defended most of the time as the U15s were able to out play us in the midfield and thus keep good possession of the ball.  We didn’t really allow any solid chances at goal but did concede two or three corners.  We didn't threaten the U15 goal more than 2 or 3 times, and did have a couple corner kicks.  We did manage to score a great goal though.

Jilly (LM), from midway in our own defending half, played a 30 yard long ball over the top that Ripper (RF) raced onto up the right center part of the field.  Millie (LF) sprinted up the field in support of the attack with a loud “Early! Early!” call, wanting the ball played to her quickly.  With the ball still bouncing, Ripper played a fantastic first time, blind pass into the space behind the recovering defenders.  The U15’s GK came out to the top of the box to make a play on the ball, but was thrown off a bit by Millie barreling down at her.  The high lobbed pass bounced high on the turf and over the outstretched hands of the GK.  Millie changed direction and hit a left foot volley into the top right corner of the open goal as the GK tried to chase her down.

What we did learn from the U15s (who incidentally have gotten MUCH better since we saw them in January) was how their center back (in a 4-man defensive scheme) was able to get up into midfield when they had possession.  This girl was usually free and clear of defending players as our forwards were too high and our mids too far in retreat.  She got the ball often and the added numbers in midfield killed us.  It was great for the girls to see and I kept rotating out our central backs so that they could watch and try to pick up on it.

III. Corner Kick Attack/Defense

Set Up

• 6 defending players defending an open goal
• 2 girls striking corners on each side of the field (4 total)
• 6 girls attacking the corner kicks trying to score

IV. Game Observation

For the last 15 minutes of training, we sat in the stands to watch the U16s and U17s play.

Training - Thursday, June 14

On Monday I was reminded that the MN Lightning (Minnesota's W-League team) was playing against Ft Wayne on Thursday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in St Paul.  ELR Stadium is one of the premier college soccer facilities in the country and home to the Gopher Women's team.  I called up Mikki (University of Minnesota's Women's Head Coach) to see if I could get the girls to train at the facility prior to watching the Lightning game (scheduled to begin at 7PM that night).  She hooked me up with the Facilities Director there and we scrambled to get things organized. 

Mikki was out of town on a recruiting trip, but Assistant Coach Kate Cortis was gracious enough to meet the Bangu girls at the stadium at 5:30PM to give us a tour of the stadium.

Kate took the girls up to the stadium press box and down to the Gopher's locker room.  It was cool for the girls to see a bit of the Gopher soccer team's history in pictures in the press box, as well as to see the college girls official lockers and the "Future Gophers" name tags.  It's a good bet that there are some future Gophers in this group. 

It was a hot day, but I wanted to get in a little training.  I just set up some 4v4 small sided games and help a mini tournament for 30 minutes or so.  It was good for the girls to get on the thick grass on the training field there as we will likely see this type of surface next weekend in Iowa. 

We then sat under the shade of a huge tree in the parking lot to eat pizza, then headed into the Stadium to watch the Lightning.

Fun session...

See more photos here.

Training - Monday, June 4

Holy Angels, 14 players.

My plan for the day was a technical session, attempting to address a few areas in which we need some serious improvement prior to Regionals; clearances from the back and judging air balls.  I also wanted to continue to work on our ball striking technique. 

From what I've experienced (and read), young girls develop the skill of tracking an object in a 3D environment slower than boys do.  I assume this is related somewhat to depth perception, but I haven't done extensive research to find out exactly what all the exact cause of this is.  All I know is that many girls on this team jump to head a ball that is 10 feet above their heads, or take an approach path to an air ball that sometimes leaves them and the ball in separate zip codes once the ball is once again Earth-bound. 

This ability to pick up on and judge a trajectory of the ball flight is a key component in the game.  With all the work we've done with heading the past few years, it doesn't do any good if the girl due to poor visual coordination can't get on the end of a cross, a goal kick, a punt, etc.  It's about moving the body into the correct line of flight  and getting the body into an area that the ball will land. 

So, on my way over to Holy Angels I stopped by Toys R Us to pick up an Air Hogs Stomp Rocket set. 

I had seen these things in action in my neighborhood and it looked like a very enjoyable way for the girls to work on this visual skill.  I didn't really know how it was going to work out with this age group, thinking that the Stomp Rocket toy would be better for younger players.  I was amazed at the results by the end of training.

I set up 3 stations and divided the group into 2 groups of 5 and one group of 4.  The groups would work at each station for 8 to 10 minutes or so, then rotate through the other ones.  Each station had points associated with it and each group would tally their points to keep things competitive. 

Station #1 - Stomp Rocket

The girls took turns jumping on the air pad to launch the foam-tipped rockets into sky-high parabolas for their partners to try to get their body in position (by judging the trajectory of the air rocket) to catch the falling projectile.

Station #2 - Aerial Ball Control/Dead Ball Service

Set Up

• 1 8v8 goal with a 6x12 yard box marked with disks in front of it
• A clearing line marked with disks 12 yards from goal
• 1 ball striking disk 30 yards from goal

Procedure

• One partner in goal, one partner up at the ball striking disk
• Girls took turns striking a dead (not moving) ball at goal from 30 yards
• The player in the goal tries to either 1) control the air ball within the controlling box, or 2) clear high balls with their head past the clearing line 12 yards away and to the outside of the field

Make It Competitive

• + 5 points for the ball striker if they can score a goal past their teammate
• + 1 point for the player in goal if they are able to control the flighted ball within the controlling box
• +1 point for the player in goal if she is able to clear a high ball with her head past the clearing line

Coaching Points

• Player in goal must move her body to get in the line of flight rather than stretch and reach (off balance) for a ball wide of them
• Concentrate on the clearing headers, looking to put the ball high and wide up field

Station #3 - Aerial Ball Contact/Moving Ball Service

Same as above, this time the ball striker pushes the ball forward with one touch and strikes a moving ball at goal.  Ball must be hit from outside the 25 yard mark.

I had the girls go through the entire circuit (each station) once, then brought them together to talk about the tracking/trajectory piece.

I then had the groups go through the 3 stations again, varying Stations #2 and #3 to work on clearances.

Station #2b - First Time Clearances/Dead Ball Weak Foot Low Service

Station #3b - First Time Clearances/Moving Ball Low Service

This time the girls would accumulate points by clearing the ball up field.  Points were determined by accuracy and distance as shown by the numbers in red in the above illustration.

7v7 2 Goal, 1 Goal

We finished with a 7v7 half field game with one team going to a regulation sized goal and the other attacking the two 8v8 goals we used during the station work.  The GK of the team defending the two 8v8 goals had to defend both goals.

If readers remember, last Wednesday the skies opened up on us at Macalester College.  I failed to wash the scrimmage vests since then.  Suffice it to say that the odor emanating from the vests was less than pleasant.  Neither team wanted to wear them so I was forced to do trivia to determine a losing team that would wear the rotten-egg-smelling Nike vests. 

This whole situation garnered a bunch of smiles and laughs which I love to see.  It also helped to have an affect on the ensuing scrimmage as I told the girls in the orange vests that if they scored, the smelly apparel could be shed and had to be worn by the other team until that team scored.  It was a VERY competitive finish to training :)

Training - Wednesday, May 30

With storm clouds gathering, we took the field at Mac for our sole training session this week.  We've had a lot of soccer in the last month and the next two weeks things die down a bit game-wise.  We meet Wayzata again tomorrow in league play, then get in 5 training sessions before meeting up with the Woodbury team on June 12.  After that we have another 3 or 4 sessions, a rematch against Coon Rapids, a game against our White team, then off to Des Moines for Regionals.

My idea tonight was to get in a lot of technical finishing.  We have two regulation-sized goals at Mac that are relatively easy to move around the field.  This allowed me to set up a series of repetitive shooting exercises then change the field around to finish with some fun, competitive games to two goals.

I started with some ball striking work, building on our inside of the foot bending balls from last session while also introducing the outside of the foot bending ball. 

Before sending the girls off to work, I sat them all down behind me and proceeded to strike four different balls at the same target.  I first hit a high lofted ball, then a low driven ball, then an inside of the foot bending ball, and finally an outside of the foot bending ball.  All four soccer balls started in the same spot, and I began my approach to each ball from the same spot.  The key here is for the players to be able to hit all four types of passes coming from one starting position, changing the flight of the ball by foot placement/alignment, where they make contact with the ball, and how their leg swings at the ball.

Using these ideas, I could hit about a half a dozen different passes - low/high inside bender, low/high outside bender, low driven, and high lofted.

I. Ball Masters Program - Individual Skills Development

Ball Striking Technique

• High Lofted Pass
• Instep Drive
• Inside of the Foot Bender
• Outside of the Foot Bender

The girls worked in pairs trying to strike passes that their teammate called for.  For example, if Getch and Becs were working together and Getch had the ball, Becs would yell out "High lofted pass!" and Getch would try to hit that type of pass to Becs.

* * * * *

The coaching point I really wanted to try and hammer into the girls today was how to finish low crosses played across the box when the attacker is in the middle of the goal or at the far post.  Most girls think that to score a goal, you have to swing your leg straight up the field at the goal.  This thought makes finishing crosses difficult as, especially when the ball is played across at pace, the timing of the leg swing has to be perfect in order to impart any type of power into the ball.  Instead, I want the girls to turn their hips to face the ball more, allowing the inside of the foot to also be turned more towards the ball.  This "new" foot angle allows an increased chance of better contact on the ball while also putting the ball "back where it came from" - back toward the post that the cross was coming from.  Not only will this though increase the girls chances of making good contact with the ball, but moreover the opposing GKs who are playing say a cross from their left will be moving to their right across the goal as the ball is played across.  Their momentum will help them get to any shots played to their right side while making it nearly impossible to stop even a weak shot hit back where it came from to the GKs left.

I thought long and hard about how to try and get this point across to the girls.  Eventually, I settled on using a prop.  I had Maddie bring a tennis racket and some tennis balls to training.  I got the girls together then asked for a volunteer who thought they had mad tennis skills to step up.  Hannah gladly took up the challenge.  I stood Hannah at the far post about 6 yards away from goal while I stood at the near post.  I asked Hannah to make sure her hips and the tennis racket head were both facing straight ahead of her towards the far post area of the goal, then asked her to try and hit the tennis balls I was going to throw in front of her into the far post area of the goal.

Now I'm no Johan Santana, but I proceeded to blow three tennis balls in a row past Hannah's face while she flailed hopelessly trying to make contact.  I then did the same thing to Bidi who had been heckling Hannah for her apparent tennis ineptitude. 

I then asked Bidi to turn her hips slightly, turn the racket head towards me roughly 45 degrees, and now try to hit the same type of thrown tennis ball into the near post area of the goal.  What do you think she did on the first pitch?  You guessed it... near post side netting with an attitude!  I asked the girls what did this all mean and how did this relate to our team and the soccer field.  It wasn't hard for all of them to see what I was getting at and they were all excited to put the new found knowledge to work.

* * * * *

Shooting is all about repetition, repetition of correct technique. 

My idea today was to split the group of 18 girls (I had the U14 Blue team's GK with us as well) into two teams of 8.  I set up two shooting fields side by side, and the 2 GKs took turns alternating in the net on field #2.  Half the group would work on a specific type of finishing skill on one field while the other half of the group would work on something else on the other field.  After 5 minutes the teams would switch fields.  After another 5 minutes, that particular "round" was complete and we'd move to round #2 with different finishing scenarios. 

II. Repetition Shooting Round #1

Field 1 - Back Where It Came From

Field 2 - Give and Goes

III. Repetition Shooting Round #2

Field 1 - Back Where It Came From - Bounding Balls

Field 2 - Far Post Benders and Near Post Driven Shots

Lightning in the skies at around 6:45PM.  We called practice and huddled in our cars for 15 - 20 minutes, then took the field again.  A few minutes later, more lighting and training was called.  We didn't get to the last two activities.

IV. Repetition Shooting Round #3

Field 1 - First Time Lay Backs

Field 2 - Heading

V. 4v4 Lots O' Shots

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