Training - Monday, May 7

7:00PM - 8:30PM Field Training

With the focus primarily on defending ideas the last few weeks, I wanted to look at more attacking concepts today.  We found success against Wayzata often by changing the point of attack, by switching fields through the center of our midfield, but I know we could have done it more often and sharper/quicker.  The idea for today was to give the girls lots of repetition on receiving the ball across their body, allowing for quicker side to side play across the field as well as increased vision of the entire field in front of them.  Then, cover the concept of short passing to draw in opposing defenders and then look to change fields through crisp and accurate distance passing.  Finally, look to put all this to use in small sided competitive games.

I had 16 girls at training.

I. Ball Masters Program - Receiving Across Your Body

Set Up

• 2 groups of 8 players in different color scrimmage vests
• Each group further subdivided into 2 teams of 4 with 2 soccer balls per team
• 2 "passers" with soccer balls 30 yards apart, 2 "workers" in the middle (15 yards away from each passer) facing each other about 10 yards apart

 

Procedure

• At the same time, P1 passes to W1, P2 to W2
• W1 receives the ball across their body and passes to P2, W2 does the same and plays to P1
• W1 then gets a pass from P2, W2 from P1, and repeats the procedure
• Work for a few minutes then switch positions

Make It Competitive

• Which group is the sharpest?
• Which girl can release the ball the quickest?

Coaching Points

• Move to the ball, don't wait for it
• Always keep your hips facing the other worker (visualize facing up the field)
• First touch on the ball should be with the inside of the far foot (on the far side of your body relative to the passer), in the direction that you want to go
• Control with one touch, pass with the next
• After the pass from the worker, workers should look to move (check) away from the passer to create space in which to check back and receive the ball
• Peek over your shoulder just as the pass leaves the passer's foot or as the ball is traveling to you for awareness
• Move your feet to adjust your body to best receive the ball facing up the field, even on poor passes from the passers

II. Short to Long

Set Up

• Groups of 4 with one soccer ball
• 4 starting disks in a line, 10 yards apart from one another

Procedure

• A starts with the ball
• A passes to B who lays a ball back to A
• A plays 1-touch to D and then A and B swap starting positions
• D controls the ball and passes to C
• C lays the ball back to D and takes up D's starting positions
• D passes first time to B and the sequence is repeated

Make It Competitive

• Which group is the sharpest?

Coaching Points

• Crisp short interplay between A and B and between C and D, followed by crisp side of the foot passes over distance
• We want to keep the ball on the ground, so concentrate on passing technique and strike the middle of the ball (toe up, ankle locked, knee bent)
• The player receiving the ball over distance should move to show for the passer, not stand and be blocked by the other player near them

Progression - Same set up, but now the receiving player can move to the opposite side of the passer, forcing the passer to hit a weighted lofted ball over a "defender" to their teammate

III. 3v1 Change Fields

Set Up

• 2 teams of 8 players in different color scrimmage vests
• Two field set ups side by side (5 yard space in between the fields) - each area has two 12x15 yard grids separated by a 10 yard gap
• Players distributed as shown below

Procedure

• On field #1, blue plays 3v1 against green
• As soon as blue completes 5 consecutive passes, blue tries to find one of their teammates in the 2v1 grid
• If a successful pass is made to the 2v1 grid, one of the two players who did not pass the ball from the 3v1 grid sprints to make it 3v1 in the 2v1 grid
• Continue on as before
• If a ball goes out, the resting player out of the grid plays a ball back into the 3v1 grid
• If defenders win the ball, they simply pass back to the attacking players and the attacking players start their count over
• Play for 90 seconds, then rotate positions

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for 5 consecutive passes
• +3 points for a completed pass from the 3v1 grid to the 2v1 grid

Coaching Points

• Composure in the 3v1 setting
• Anticipation and movement to get open by the attacking players in the 2v1 grid when applicable
• Crisp passing over distance to the 2v1 grid and quick support by an non-passing player

IV. 4v4 to Endlines

Set Up

• 4 teams of 4 in different color scrimmage vests
• 2 40x30 yard fields

Procedure

• Teams play 4v4, scoring goals by dribbling the ball under control over the 40-yard endline
• Make it take it, so if a team scores over an endline, they immediately turn around and attack the other endline

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each goal

Coaching Points

• Look to play across the field to shift and unbalance the defending team, creating better opportunities to play forward
• Sometimes to get open and link across the field, players need to move backwards (away from the endline they are attacking) out of trouble (out of the area covered by the defending team)
• Draw defenders in with quick, short passing, then look to change the point of attack and move forward up the field in areas less crowded by defending players

V. 4v4 Tournament

Set Up

• 4 teams of 4 in different color scrimmage vests
• 2 40x30 yard fields with 6' Pugg goals as shown below
• Extra soccer balls in or near each goal

Procedure

• Teams play 4v4 to goal

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for all goals

Coaching Points

• Let them play

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

Finishing Session - Thursday, April 5

6:00PM - 6:30PM Ball Masters - Individual Skills Development

With spring break vacations in full swing, we had a dozen girls show up last night at Bielenberg for training.

I. Synchronized Ball Dancing

Set Up

• Ball per player, each player working with a partner

Procedure

• The partners are given a series of ball moves to work on together, attempting to execute the moves in as synchronized a fashion as possible

Make It Competitive

• Give the partners the sequence, have them work on it for a few minutes, then bring the team in to watch each pair work and rank them 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best

Comments

In a continuing effort to find new ways to keep the girls interested in working on important individual ball skills, I came up with this idea.  I would give a technical sequence like this:

1. Forward touch with the inside of your right foot
2. Left foot Step Over
3. Right foot Cut Behind

The idea was to have the girls work on their ball familiarity in a fun and competitive setting by trying to have them work with their partner to master the sequence, then challenge the pair to execute the moves as a unit at speed. 

This was a lot of fun for the girls.  We did this 3 or 4 times using different technical sequences, then I had the pairs try and make up their own 3-move routine to show off in front of the group.

6:30PM - 7:30PM Field Training

II. Sequence Passing

Continuing on with our "improve our passing" theme since returning from Virginia, a ran the girls though our Sequence Passing routine while I set up the field for the finishing work to follow.

Set Up

• 35x40 yard area
• Two teams of 6, gold and blue, and players on each team are assigned numbers 1 - 6

Procedure

• Two soccer ball, one with the #1 players on each team
• At the coach's signal, #1 passes to #2, #2 then passes to #3, and so on
• All players must be moving at all times

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each team if they make a mistake (you don't want points)
• Mistakes could be errant passes outside of the grid or to incorrect teammates, more touches than is allowed, not receiving the ball in a proper position, etc.

Coaching Points

• Short passes - no more than 10 to 15 yards
• Short passes should still be crisp and game like
• Keep the ball on the group, strike the middle of the ball using proper passing technique
• See your intended target before you receive the ball - meaning, take a look prior to having a ball passed to you in order to see where your next pass will be going
• Adjust your body to receive a pass facing the teammate you are going to play to next - sometimes this means moving your feet quickly in order to best position your body

Progression

• Unlimited touches by all players to start
• Two touch by all players
• Two soccer balls for each team - one starts with #1 and one starts with #4 on each team

Reverse It! Variation

• On the coach's "Reverse It!" shout, players reverse the order of their passing - #4 now passes to #3, #3 to #2, etc.

III. Pattern Play Shooting With Limited Pressure

The idea here was to get the girls into a shooting rotation that would involve finishing for sure, but also keep the non-shooting girls involved and active as well as demand that the girls focus on a number of different technical aspects of the game.

Set Up

• With 12 players, players set up as in the illustration below.  Note that I used blue and gold colors to help identify starting positions and the initial direction that players in these positions go.  There is no need for two teams in this exercise.
• One player in each of the following positions (labeled in green) - GK, Passer, Target, Defender, Attacker.  Same set up for another 5 players using the opposite side of the field, with all additional players waiting in the passing line. 
• The pink cone marking Defender D's starting position is 3 yards behind Attacker A's starting cone
• All the soccer balls split between the two passing lines

Procedure

• (1) Passer P passes to Target T then follows their pass to become the next T.  Note both blue and gold P start at the same time so that there are two passing patterns going up both sides of the field (in opposite directions) at the same time
• (2) Target T passed to Attacker A then takes D's position
• (3) Attacker A goes to goal then becomes the GK in the goal they just shot at
• (4) Once Attacker A touches the ball, Defender D is live and tries to stop A then returns to A's starting position to become the next A
• After a shot is taken on them, GKs retrieve the ball and wait in line at the passing cone by their goal in order to work they sequence up the other side of the field
• As soon as a shot is taken, the next player in line at the initial passing cone starts the next sequence

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for a goal
• +3 points for a far post goal (encouraging far post shots from angles)
• +1 point for a save as a GK

As I mentioned, though this is a fun finishing exercise for the girls, I wanted them to focus on a number of technical issues in the pattern play build up as well as on the finishing end of things.  I would let the girls run through the exercise a few minutes, stop and bring up a point, let them run through it some more, stop and bring up another point, and so on.  By the end of the 30 minutes, I had covered the following. 

Coaching Points

• Good, firm pass from P to T
• T, knowing the direction of where they wanted to play, needed to receive the ball across their body with a tight touch (close to their feet).  I wanted the target players to think about playing in a crowded midfield with not much room for larger control touches away from their feet.  I also wanted this player to play 2-touch (control then pass) as quickly as possible.  For blue in the illustration above, that would mean inside of the left foot control and a quick right foot pass.
• I wanted T to pass to A feet (as opposed to passing to space), and to focus on passing to A's lead foot, the foot closest to the direction A wanted to go (to goal) and furthest from Defender D.  In the illustration above, that would me blue T would pass to blue A's right foot.
• Positive first touch by Attacker A to goal

Two Touch Variation

Same as above with the restriction that Attacker A only has two touches.  Target T must still pass to Attacker A's feet, but now Attacker A is working on shots from distance at angles rather than also having the option to dribbling in 1v1 with the GK.

Pass to Space Variation

Same set up and sequence as the exercise above, only this time Target T plays Attacker A in to goal with a lead pass to space.

Coaching Points

• I wanted Attacker A to simulate holding their run to stay onsides, so I implemented the rule that the Defender D  could not move until A left their cone.  In this way, if A started "cheating forward" in anticipation of a pass, D could recover goal side even before the pass was made by T.  Also, this cheating forward could also lead to A drifting into an offsides position. 
• Attacker A even though not moving forward, should get their body down low and ready to explode to the ball when it is played in front of them
• Attacker A needs to communicate verbally ("Through!") and visually (with their hand out and extended showing Target T where they want the ball played

IV. 4v4 Small Sided with Neutral Team

Set Up

• 30x40 yard playing area with a goal set up at each end
• 3 teams of 4 players, each team in a different vest color

Procedure

• Two teams take the field to play 4v4
• The team that is not on the field provide a GK for each team as well as a side player on each sideline
• Wide players are neutral players and are limited to 3-touch or less
• Which ever team scores stays on the field.  The team that was scored on changes places with the neutral team

Training - Tuesday, March 27

6:00PM - 6:30PM Ball Masters - Individual Skills Development

I. Short Passing Warm Up

Now that baseball has started up at the Academy of Holy Angels, we are not allowed into the dome until our allotted start time of 6:30PM.  I didn't know this and wasn't able to prep the girls prior to tonight.  Luckily the weather outside was decent, so we spent the first 25 minutes on the grass area just outside of the dome.  I would later get an email informing BTFC teams that we cannot use this grass area yet, but I didn't know about this tonight.

We struggled this past weekend with our passing.  Big time.  I wanted to take a step back and refocus on simple passing technique.  I did this simple exercise as a warm up.

Players worked in pairs with one soccer ball per pair.  They stood about 10 yards apart and worked on different passing techniques back and forth.  Lots of repetition which was needed.

• Inside of the foot - strong and weak foot
• Outside of the foot stab pass
• Clip pass (player would face sideways and "clip" the ball across their body to their teammate)

6:30PM - 7:45PM Field Training

II. Sequence Passing

Set Up

• 44x40 yard area
• Two teams of 7, gold and blue, and players on each team are assigned numbers 1 - 7

Procedure

• Two soccer ball, one with the #1 players on each team
• At the coach's signal, #1 passes to #2, #2 then passes to #3, and so on
• All players must be moving at all times

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for each team if they make a mistake (you don't want points)
• Mistakes could be errant passes outside of the grid or to incorrect teammates, more touches than is allowed, not receiving the ball in a proper position, etc.

Coaching Points

• Short passes - no more than 15 yards
• Keep the ball on the group, strike the middle of the ball using proper passing technique
• See your target before you get the ball - meaning, take a look prior to having a ball passed to you in order to see where your next pass will be going
• Adjust your body to receive a pass facing the teammate you are going to play to next - sometimes this means moving your feet quickly in order to best position your body

Progression

• Unlimited touches by all players to start
• Two touch by all players
• Two soccer balls for each team - one starts with #1 and one starts with #4 on each team
• 2 to 1 - a player takes two touches, the next player takes one, the next players takes two, etc.
• One touch by all players

When the girls started this drill, gold was on one side of the field and blue was on the other.  I challenged the girls to have their teams play through each other, thus forcing them to get into good positions, find their target players in traffic, and all around be more aware of their surroundings. 

The girls also hit many long balls to teammates early on and, like I have them do in our pre game warm ups, made long runs to get the ball.  I wanted to focus on short passing, so I put in the restriction of passes no longer than 15 yards and encouraged them to move quickly to get into space prior to receiving a pass so that the pass could be played into their feet.

III. Four Corner In and Out

Set Up

• 50x65 yd grid with 4 x 10 yd Target Areas, one in each corner of the grid
• Two teams of seven players, gold and blue
• All the soccer balls at the coach's feet at the top of the grid

Procedure

• Coach plays a ball into the mix
• Teams play possession, scoring points for a set number of completed passes
• Teams score bonus points for passing a ball to a teammate in a Target Area and if that teammate can then play another pass to a different teammate (not the same teammate who played the pass into the Target Area)

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for every 5 consecutive passes
• +5 points for a pass into a Target Area followed by a successful return pass to a different teammate

Coaching Points

• Get support around the ball and keep the ball moving
• Don't force low percentage passes
• Read when the time is right to place a long pass to break pressure or spring a teammate, and when the time is right to slow down the pace of play
• 3-man combination play - third attacker needs to read when a ball is played into a Target Area and where the best position is to give support

IV. 7v7 Small Sided Scrimmage