Training - Saturday, April 7

8:15AM - 8:45AM FIT Training

8:45 - 9:15AM Video Analysis

9:15AM - 10:45AM Field Training

I. Sequence Passing Warm-Up

Same that we've done the pass couple sessions.  I had the girls work through this as I set up the field for the main part of the training session.

II. Battle in the Box - Early Cross

The idea today was to continue to address some of our individual and team breakdowns highlighted in Virginia. 

Set Up

• 3 teams of 4 players in different color vests
• 35x60 yard field set up as in the illustration below (with a penalty box, goal, GK, and starting disks for attackers/defenders and wide players)

Procedure

• Blue and green teams attack and defender first and both teams start at the attacking/defending start disks
• Gold team crosses and has two players on each side of the field with all the soccer balls split between the two starting disks with gold 1 and gold 3
• Gold 1 passes to gold 2 who takes a short prep touch and serves in a cross from the right for blue to finish
• Green tries to clear the ball from the box
• When the ball is dead (in the goal, out of bounds, or out of the penalty box), both blue and green teams "reset" back to their starting disks and gold 3 passes to gold 4 to start the crossing sequence from the left
• After the cross from the left, blue and green switch roles and green now attacks 2 crosses, one from the right and one from the left
• Gold pairs alternate positions after each cross and each player get 5 chances to cross
• This means that the blue and green teams in the middle are dealing with 20 crosses in total
• Rotate team positions after the 20 crosses; blue sends two girls to the each side of the field to cross, and green and gold battle in the box

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for the first team that makes contact with the ball in the box (looking for aggressive movement towards the ball by both the attacking and defending teams)
• +1 point if the defenders clear the box
• +1 point if the attackers get a shot off
• +4 if the defenders get to the ball in the air (before it bounces) and clear the box in the air with a header or volley
• +4 points for a goal
• +2 points (1/2) for the crossing team for each assist on a goal

Coaching Points for the Crossers

• Good first prep touch, under control but away from your feet to set up the early cross
• Find a target for your cross instead of just kicking the ball (far post, near post, or a player's feet)
• Look up as the ball is being passes to you to see what you are going to do when you get it

Coaching Points for the Attackers

• Realize that the crosser has time and space and will likely serve the ball, so get into danger areas
• Be creative and careful on your runs (careful about offsides)
• Don't get all 4 runners flat in the box, someone has to stay at the top of the box in the event of a poorly cleared ball from the defenders or to offer a lay back pass option
• Work hard to keep the ball in the box if the defending team gets to it first
• Wanting the ball is about attitude

Coaching Points for the Defenders

• Communicate with each other and sort out who is marking who
• Attack the ball, don't let it drop in our box
• Clearances should be high and wide
• Kamikaze to block shots in our box

III. Battle in the Box - Support and Serve

Set Up

• Same as above, except for the start positions for the wide players

Procedure

• Gold 1 passes down the line for gold 2 and follows in a good supporting distance
• Gold 2 turns out of trouble and lays a ball back for Gold 1 to cross in first time
• The rest is the same as above

Make It Competitive

• Same as above

Coaching Points for the Crossers

• Follow the pass down the line at a good distance - too close to your teammate will allow a defender pressuring your teammate to pressure you immediately after the back pass, too far away and other defenders may intercept the back pass and the "surprise" of the cross will be lost
• Verbal communication - "Set it!"
• Visual communication - point with your hand to the side of your body where you want the back pass laid off

Coaching Points for the Attackers

• Make runs as if gold 2 was going to cross the ball
• Hold up and check back when the ball is played backwards in support to gold 1 in the event the defense pushes up
• Read the pace of the support pass to anticipate a first time cross

Comments

This was a very fun and useful drill for the girls!  I will likely build off of this for our next session. 

For right footed players crossing from the left side, they worked on their weak foot as well as cut the ball backwards (away from goal) and served in with their stronger right foot.

IV. Possess to Score

Set Up

• Two teams
• 35x50 yard field with one goal and GK set up as shown below
• All the players' soccer balls with the coach on the endline opposite the goal

Procedure

• Rock, paper, scissors to see which team attacks goal first
• Coach plays a ball in to the attacking team (blue) and the attackers go to goal
• If the defenders (green) with the ball and complete 5 consecutive passes without the attackers touching the ball, the defending team now becomes the attacking team and goes to goal
• The team that was attacking now plays defense and must win the ball and complete 5 passes in order to go to goal again
• If the ball goes out of play, the coach plays in another ball to a random player on the team who would have been awarded possession

Note: Coaches can also use Situational Restarts in this activity.  For example, if you wanted to concentrate on throw ins, every restart, no matter where/how the ball went out of play, would be started by a throw in.

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each shot on goal
• +3 points for a goal

Coaching Points

• It's more fun to go to goal, right?  So attackers must transition to defense quickly and try and win the ball back from the defenders to keep attacking the goal
• Defenders need to work together to win the ball then make the field big by spreading out to keep possession

Training - Thursday March 8

5:00PM - 6:30PM Field Training

OMG!  For like the second time this winter we had the full 17 girls at training!  It's a miracle! 

We had half the field to ourselves tonight and I wanted to make as much use of the space as I could. 

I. Crossing and Finishing With Recovery Pressure Wide

We've focused a lot on crossing and finishing in the last two years.  This winter we moved to adding pressure on the crossers.  This pressure makes the crosser play at a more game realistic speed (getting to the ball quickly, crossing quicker) rather than them having the ability to take their time getting the serve across with no defenders to worry about.  This time is not often available in competitive game matches.

In addition to helping the crossers more simulate game realistic situations, this wide pressure helps the runners develop a more realistic sense of reading the crosser and the timing of their own attacking runs in the box.  When I first went to pressure on the wide player with a recovering defender, all the attacking runs were late.  Why?  Because the runners had gotten used to slower, non-realistic play by the crosser.  Now that the crosser had a recovering defender to worry about, the crosses came over earlier (thus the runs were late).  If the crossers would then wait to let the attackers get into better positions, the recovering defenders would hammer them.  So I tell the crossers to whip the ball in when they can and FORCE the attacking runners to read when the ball is coming over and work on the timing of their runs. 

I could have looked to add this pressure to the wide players earlier on in our team's development, but the non-pressure crossing work helped the wide players get down their crossing technique, and the ability now to speed things up at this age allows the wide players and attacking players in the box to adjust quickly to the faster flow of the game. 

Setup

• 8 crossing playing, 8 central players, 1 GK
• Two disks on each flank, Crossing Disk and Recovery Disk, with the Recovery Disk 5 yards further away from goal that then Crossing Disk

Procedure

• central players work in pairs
• (1) Blue1 passes to Blue2
• (2) Blue2 lays off a pass back to Blue1
• (3) Blue1 plays wide to C, who tries to get in a cross to Blue1 (slot run), Blue2 (near post run), and Gold1 (a left-side wide player coming into the far post)
• recovering defenders (wide players take turns at being a recovering defender) start 5 yards behind the crossers and cannot leave their disk until the crosser leaves their disk

Coaching Points

• If crossers leave too early (before the play develops) and are forced to slow down their runs to wait for the ball, their recovering defenders (who can recover the second the crosser moves forward up the field, will be able to get back into a defensive position.  So crossers must read the central players in order to sprint quickly up the field at the right time in order to lose marking defenders.
• Wide passes from Blue1 must have the proper pace and direction
• Play your teammate in to dangerous positions whenever possible

II. 6v5 to Goal, Find the Point Player

In prep for our upcoming competitions, I wanted to continue to give the girls some attacking and defending ideas based on the team shape that we are likely to use.  At this point in time, I am leaning heavily to the 4-1-2-3 formation, so I set up the following exercise to run the girls through some game realistic scenarios in a scrimmage-type format (6 attackers versus 5 defenders attacking goal).

Set Up

• Back four defenders plus one defending midfield player and a GK, with two target players at midfield
• Front three attackers supported by two attacking mids and a defending mid
• All the soccer balls with the coach at midfield

Procedure

• I always started the exercise with the defending team pushed up to somewhere around the 40 yard line
• I would then serve a ball in and the girls would play until a goal or a shot was taken wide, or until the defending team was able to clear their area by finding one of their target players
• The service was varied; sometimes sent in behind the defensive line, sometimes in to a forwards feet, sometimes to a mid-field player

Coaching Points for the Attackers

• Find the Point player's feet to draw defensive eyes and collapse defenders to the ball
• Don't watch when the Point player gets the ball.  Anticipate, be proactive with runs, and look to get into dangerous spaces

Coaching Points for the Defenders

• Defensive team shape and good communication by the GK
• Find Target players quickly if possible to start the counter attacks

Training - Tuesday, Feb 6

With a full half field to ourselves tonight, I wanted to try and make the most out of the space provided. 

The girls began arriving around 7PM for a 7:15PM start.  For the first 30 minutes we worked on different Ball Masters Program skills; Set Up Touches, Diagonal Touches, Sole Roles, Scissors, Step Overs, Double Moves, and Cuts.

At 7:15PM we took the field and played 6v6+2 possession, focusing on speed of play and breaking pressure with long outlet passes. 

We then spent a good deal of time on crossing and finishing, moving from no pressure to limited pressure both on the wide players and the runners in the box.

We finished the session with a 7v7 scrimmage.