Training - Friday, April 27

6:45PM - 8:15PM Field Training

I. Warm Up - Individual Defending Delay/Jockeying

Set Up

• Players work in pairs with one ball
• Pairs line up at the midfield line, the attacker has the ball and the defender get ready to defend
• Number the pairs off based on their starting location into #1's and #2's

Procedure

• Group #1 goes first with the attacker dribbling towards the endline and the defender jockeying (no tackling)
• As soon as Group #1 players near the midpoint of the half, Group #2 starts their work
• Dribblers should not dribble straight ahead at full speed.  Rather, I'm looking for cuts and long diagonal runs in order to have the defending players work on their defensive posture, buffer distance between themselves at the dribblers, footwork, feinting, etc.
• At the endline, the girls switch positions and the girls who were just dribbling now defend back to midfield

Make It Competitive

• Which defender does it the best?  Who does the best feints?  Which dribbler is the most creative?

Coaching Points

• Defenders should be down low - "grab the grass"
• Side on offset stance to channel the dribbler in one direction
• Turn and sprint to recover goal side if the dribbler takes off on a long diagonal run
• Keep your distance from the dribbler - to close and you'll get beat
• Feint in as if to tackle for the ball, then spring back immediately to prevent the dribbler from getting past you

II. 5v5 Ball Behind the Defense

III. 7v8 to Goal with Counters

IV. Individual Work Time

Not Off to Cincinnati

I went over to Corner Kick tonight to see the four younger teams off on the busses to the Arsenal Elite Invitational in Cincinnati.  The girls were excited for sure, excited about the bus ride, excited about the hotel, excited about the tournament.  The parents who were boarding the bus for the 12+ hour ride looked a little less excited, probably wondering what they were getting themselves into. 

The teams will undoubtedly face some of the stiffest competition any of them will face this entire summer.  There is a very good chance that all the young teams will get crushed on the field, but I know that the coaches will stress the learning experience for long term development. 

I'm bummed not to be going as the competition at the U13 group, as with all the groups at this event, is excellent.  However, as I mentioned earlier in this journal, our prime objective is State Cup and we could not afford to play a tough weekend of soccer, jump on the bus for the return trip, get home sometime Monday morning, then have to head up to Coon Rapids for an evening game against one of the stronger teams in the event (Wayzata). 

We will train tomorrow and Saturday, take Sunday off, then see what Monday evening will bring.

Training - Tuesday, April 24

6:00PM - 6:45PM Game Observation

I was in a bit of a dilemma regarding training tonight.  I had scheduled Tues, Thurs, Sat training this week in prep for our first State Cup game next Monday, but I also wanted to head down to Cottage Grove to catch some of the U14 Midwest Regional League game between our top U14 team and Eden Prairie.  After some consideration, I decided to try and book a field at the same site in Cottage Grove for training, and was able to do that with the help of Jonathan Schaefer (Bangu U14 Age Group Coordinator and Cottage Grove soccer's coaching director). 

I set training from 6PM - 8PM, having the girls watch the first half of the MWRL game then jump on the adjoining field at the complex to train.  The game started late as there was an issue with a missing ref but I was able to have the girls sit on the parent sideline (as not to distract the teams) to watch the first 30 minutes or so of the game.

Both our U14 Blue team and the EP team are solid teams.  We will face EP twice this summer in league play, and watching them today I think it will be very difficult to stop their big, strong, athletic forwards from scoring.  We'll have our hands full, that's for sure.

6:45PM - 8:00PM Field Training

I. Bombers (one of my favorite possession games)

Set Up

• 2 teams of 9 players (we had a guest player training with us today to give us 18 total in training)
• 50x70 playing area
• One team is designated as the attacking team and has a soccer ball
• The other team is designated as the defending team and has three soccer balls, preferably brightly colored ones but for sure different from the attacking team's soccer ball

Procedure

• Attacking team plays possession soccer and tries to complete consecutive passes within the playing area with their one soccer ball
• Defending team (with three soccer balls) plays handball and tries to hit or "bomb" the attacking team's soccer ball for points
• Defenders may not interfere with the attacking play in any other manner (ie, block or intercept the attackers' passes) aside from throwing bombs as the attacker's soccer ball
• Teams switch roles after 5 minutes

Make It Competitive

• +1 point for the attacking team for every 5 consecutive passes without their ball being bombed or going out of bounds
• +1 point for the defending team for every successful bomb attempt (if a bomb hits the attackers' ball)

Coaching Points

• Attacking players must be aware of their ball AND the three bomb balls at all times
• Attackers should draw the defenders (and their bombs) in with short, quick passes, then look to break pressure with longer passes or quick changes of field (by passing or by dribbling)
• Attacking players without the ball should support their teammate in possession of the ball in areas and at angles that keep them clear of defenders with bombs
• Defenders need to communicate well and move into dangerous positions in which to have a bomb passed (thrown) to them so that they can try and more easily hit the attackers' ball

Progression #1

• Same as above, but the attacking team players are limited to 3 touches or less

Progression #2

• Same as about, but the attacking team players are limited to 2 touches or less

Comments

I love this game, so do the girls!  Lots of good soccer, lots of hilarious moments.

II. 4v4 Tournament

Set Up

• 4 teams of 4 players, each team in a different color vest (with 18 players we had 2 teams of 5)
• Two 35x40 yard fields with 2-yard flag goals on the endlines
• Spare soccer balls behind each goal

Procedure

• Teams play 4v4 to goal, goals must be scored below the top height of the flags
• Teams rotate fields every 5 minutes with every team playing every other team

Make It Competitive

• +3 points for a win, +2 points for a tie, +1 point for a loss
• +1 point for each goal that a team scores
• Whichever team has the most points at the end of the round robin event wins

Coaching Points

• General team shape
• Visual and verbal communication
• Creativity

III.  6v6 Wide Channels

Set Up

• 3 teams of 6 players, each team in a different color scrimmage vest
• 50x70 yard playing area with two goals on the endlines
• Extend the penalty box lines up to midfield, forming a 44x50 yard central area flanked by two 10 - 13 yard channels which are split with a midline forming 4 crossing boxes
• Determine which two teams play first and have these two teams take up sides in the central area
• The third team provides 4 crossing players, one in each crossing box, and two endline bumpers
• Spare soccer balls in each goal

Procedure

• Teams play 6v6 to goal with 5 field players and 1 GK on each team
• Blue can use crossers #1 and #2 as neutral players, along with the bumper behind the goal they are attacking (bumpers can run along the entire endline
• Gold can use crossers #3 and #4, along with the bumper behind the goal they are attacking
• The only restriction on green is that the ball cannot die (come to a stop) in their crossing box
• Play for 5 minutes then rotate team positions (blue goes to cross/be bumpers, gold changes sides to attack the flag goal, green takes up the side gold was just on)

Make It Competitive

• +2 points for each goal
• +4 points for the attacking team if a goal is scored using the wide players or the bumper
• +2 points (half the points) for the crossing/bumpers team for assists on 4 point goals

Coaching Points

• Goal to goal if you can, but if in trouble or if the opportunity presents itself, use the neutral players in the crossing channels
• Once the ball is out wide, get numbers in the box
• Get the defenders ball watching with penetrating passes into the bumper's feet, then make runs to find space to finish
• Wide players should stay behind the ball and wide in order to help ensure that they attack passes played out wide to them and face goal - if a wide player is too narrow, a ball played out wider than that player forces the wide player to run away from goal, if a wide player plays too far forward, a poor pass behind them forces them to run backwards away from goal

* * * * *

If you couldn't tell, I wanted the girls to play a lot today.  We had a very productive and focused session last Saturday and a tough fitness session on Sunday.  My goal is to focus on more tactical play again on Friday, and finish out the week of training on Saturday with another fun, lively session in order to minimize any stress and pressure on the girls prior to Monday's match up.

Recipe For Success Updates - Apr 23

The Chatterbox - Go home hoarse

Visual Engagement - Do more than paint them a picture

FIT Training - Sunday, April 22

11:00AM - 12:30PM @ FIT Studios (Minneapolis)

From Danielle,

Today’s session was broken up into three stations. Adam was responsible for strength and balance, Mark did skill training on the turf, and I focused primarily on speed and agility.

To up the endurance level for the team I had them do interval training on the bike rather then the treadmill. This requires a completely different group of muscles. While on the bike the girls did one minute sprints on the bike while limiting their recovery time as they went along. This workout took roughly 19 minutes. They each did it twice. Upon completion they went right into what I consider to be game fitness agility workouts (jump rope, gates training, squat thrusts, core work). These exercises were designed to test an athlete’s ability to perform in a fatigued state. The girls showed drastic improvement this week in that respect. Their energy level was high as well as their determination.

Adam contributed to the workout by having the girls perform various strength activities which required a high level of concentration and balance. This is done by having the girls use weights in addition to physio and bosu balls. By having them perform these activities in an unbalanced environment will only further strengthen them as soccer players because it hones in on sport specific muscle groups.

We concluded our session as a team doing additional core work and reactionary drills. Although the girls were extremely tired their focus was great and I had a wonderful time training them. I look forward to this week’s session.

Please check out our website at www.fittc.com if you are interested in any of our elite performance camps that will be starting up in June.

See you soon!

-Danielle