A Weekend in Nebraska - Day 1

We left for Omaha today at 3PM.  Four other Bangu girls teams were also making the trip down and I was looking forward to a good weekend of soccer.

My goal for the weekend was for us to come out of it as a tighter-knit group.  I was excited about the games for sure, but more interested in the team bonding aspect of the trip.  The girls were going to stay in rooms together, 3 or 4 girls per room.  From our parent group, we asked for volunteer chaperones who would stay in near by rooms at the hotel.  I knew some parents may have been a little hesitant to send their 12 or 13 year old girl off on her own on a soccer trip, but if anyone had any complaints, they kept silent.  Sending the girls on a bus without their parents for a weekend to Omaha was one of the points of contention last year with the core group of the Renegades, so I was sensitive to the issue.  One non-chaperoning parent elected to drive down separately, though I think this was more from a soccer-junky perspective and having a free weekend to watch his daughter, rather than from a protective standpoint.

Our team shared one 56-passenger bus with the U13 White team, and the U15 Blue team.  The two U14 teams (Blue and White) shared the other bus.  I knew that I wanted to do some team bonding activities on the bus ride down, so I asked my girls to try and show up a bit early and secure seats for all our team in the back of the bus.  Some of the U15 parents had gone out to purchase Subway sandwiches for the girls, bagged sliced apples, water/Gatorade, and Granola Bars, and the plan was to drive straight through, hoping to arrive in Omaha in around 6 hours.

Since it got dark around 5PM and I needed light for our team binding activity, as soon as we got out of the metro area and onto the open road, I got the girls together to do some work.  Amos Magee, my longtime friend and teammate, current co-worker in the MN Thunder front office, and current head coach of the team, ran a similar activity with our office staff a few weeks back.  I was impressed with the results and wanted to try and do something similar with the girls.  I purchased four different colors (yellow, blue, pink, and orange) of colored paper and cut the sheets into fourths.  I brought a number of Sharpie markers and masking tape and brought these along as well.  To the very back window of the bus I taped an index card labeled "Hate it/Doesn't work".  About halfway up the bus on the same window side I taped up a card labeled "Love it/Works well".  The idea was for the girls to write down on their colored paper different items or aspects pertaining to certain categories, and then tape these pieces of paper up somewhere in the Hate it/Doesn't Work - Love it/Works well spectrum.  The different colors of paper represented different categories.  Yellow was Team/Teammates, Blue was Training/Games, pink was Parents, and Orange was Anything Else.  So, on the yellow paper, a girl could write anything down pertaining to the team as a whole or her teammates, then stick it to the window indicating how she felt about the item she wrote down.  For example, if a girl thought that other girls on the team were "clickie" or unfriendly, the player might write "team chemistry" and tape it somewhere on the Hate It/Doesn't work end of the bus window.  If another girl loved to travel to events, she might write "out of state events" on a piece of Blue paper and tape it towards the Love It/Works well end.

This was a good activity for me as a coach to try and discover what the girls really like and don't like about what we are doing.  Though each girl had her own take on things, there were some comments that appeared in the same general areas multiple times.

Love It/Works Well

• Carpools from Woodbury (from the Woodbury based contingent)
• Fun practices
• Out of state events
• Playing up an age group
• Player commitment
• Funny coach
• Our uniforms
• Challenge in training
• Our warm ups
• My parents' support and the time they take to drive me to practice
• My teammates
• Our old pink shirts
•  My parents always tell me to do my best

Hate It/Doesn't Work

• Parents yelling at games
• Not enough practices
• My parents could try better to make it to more of my games
• Some people hang out with the same people too much
• Mark has to say "Listen" way too much
• Sometimes we don't work hard enough in practice
• Some players are negative towards others
• My dad drives too slow to practice and everyone passes us
• Too many players, not enough playing time
• When my parents tell me that I did something great when I didn't
•  Don't know some of my teammates that well
• Our gray training shirts
• Parents can be negative on the sidelines and can be too loud
• Mark always has to get our team's attention when trying to say something

Set Pieces - Corner Kick Attack and Defense

Our final session prior to the Omaha friendlies.  I covered attacking and defending cornerkicks.  Nothing fancy here, just repetition and practice with 20 or 30 cornerkicks.

Set Pieces - Attacking and Defending Free Kicks

The idea for Tuesday's and Thursday's sessions this week was to try to get the team on the same page for some of our set pieces. Specifically, attacking and defending corner kicks and free kicks.  I always like to cover set pieces the week prior to a tournament or big event as the outcome of the game can be changed in an instant from a well, or poorly, run set piece.  Yes, I admit, this is results focused to a large extent.  But one can be dedicated to development and still want to get results.

Today the focus was on attacking and defending free kicks around the box, and attacking and defending free kicks from midfield.

Training - Saturday, January 6

8:45AM Video Analysis

9:15AM - 10:45AM Field Training

I. 1v2 No Tackling

Set Up

• 3 players to a ball at midfield

Procedure

• 1 player has the ball and is the dribbler (attacker), the other two players are the defenders
• 1st defender (1D) puts pressure on the ball, 2nd defender (2D) provides cover
• Dribbler works their way to the end line, moving at 1/2 speed and more side to side than straight forward
• Two defenders work on jockeying/delay, communication, positioning, switching from 1D to 2D - no tackling allowed
• Players change roles at the end line and a new dribbler works her way to midfield with the other two players defending

Coaching Points

• Down low, grab the grass, quick feet by the 1D
• Good buffer zone distance between the 1D and the dribbler
• Communication by the 2D ("Patience!", "Down low!", "Force her left!")
• "I go ball!" by 2D if attacker gets too far ahead of 1D, 1D then recovers and becomes 2D

1v2 Cutting Off the Passing Lanes

Set Up

• Two teams, green and blue, with designated GKs for each team
• 30x15 yard grid with two 5x5 GK boxes at each end
• Teams line up as shown below, with half the players at a corner of the grid and the other half of the players 10 yards up the side of the gird with all the team's soccer balls
• Team's GK is in the 5x5 yard box at the opposite end of the grid

Procedure

• Blue starts out as the defending team in the first sequence, so the first player in the line with the soccer balls plays a ball out to the far green player then goes out to defend
• First blue player from the back line (at the corner of the grid) also comes out to defend
• Green attacker goes 1v2 and tries to get the ball into the hands of their GK at the far end
• If blue defender win the ball they may try and play to their GK

Make It Competitive

• +3 point for the attacking team if they can play a ball to their GK
• +1 point for the defending team if they win the ball and play to their GK

Coaching Points

• 1D (first defender) must close at speed and DELAY, not dive in and make a commitment to a tackle
• 2D must first cut out the dangerous pass into green's GK.  The illustration below shows what could happen if both defenders go to pressure the ball.

• Instead, the back player's first movement should be to cut off the dangerous ball up the middle of the field

• Once the dangerous pass has been cut out, if the back defender stays put, she leaves her teammate in a 1v1 defending situations.  We always want numbers up when defending, so a 1v1 situation (even numbers) is not good for us.

• As 1D applies pressure to the attacker (get the attacker's head down looking to protect the ball from the pressure), 2D can close the gap to cover

• Good communication from both defenders

II. 1v2 Recovery Game

Set Up

• Two teams blue and green with designated GKs
• 20x35 yard grid with defending and dribbling cones as marked below (dribbling cone is 6 yards away from defending cone)
• All the soccer balls with the players at the dribbling cones

Procedure

• Green attacks first with the first green player in the dribbling line dribbling out versus the first blue defender in the defending line
• The minute the first green dribbler leaves the dribbling cone, green GK calls the first player in the green defending line out to be ready for the next attack

• The green dribbler tries to score a goal
• Immediately after a shot or a loss of possession by the green attacker, the first dribbler in the blue dribbling line attacks the green defender who was called out by the green GK

• The green dribbler that just shot or lost possession now recovers to make it a 1v2 situation
• NOTE - only the initial sequence is a 1v1 to get the game going.  All others become 1v2.  Also, it is very possible for the dribbler who took the shot or lost possession to pressure the opposing dribbler right away (instead of recovering)

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for a goal

Coaching Points

• Immediate transition from attack to defense by the dribblers
• Pressure and delay from the first defender while also encouraging their dribbler who just lost possession to recover
• Recovery runs should be at a sprint and goal side of the ball and the recovering defender should be verbally encouraging the pressuring defender to delay

• Once the recovering defending is in a good cover position, they should encourage the first defender to tackle and win the ball