Training - Tuesday, March 6

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

I. Turning Under Pressure

Just a little technical warm-up for the girls.

Setup

• Players work in pairs with one ball between them

Procedure

• One partner (Blue) faces forward with their legs spread just wider than shoulder width apart
• The other partner (Green) stands behind Blue with the ball
• (1) Green plays the ball through blue's legs and then runs to one side of Blue or the other
• (2) Blue gets to the ball quickly, feels the pressure from Green on one side and turns away from pressure and dribbles quickly back to the line

Coaching Points

• Attackers must either see or feel (with their hands) where the defender is
• Turn away from pressure, don't show the defender the ball.  In the illustration above, Blue could use a Right Foot (RF) Inside Cut, a LF Outside Cut, a LF Pull Back, a LF Step Over Turn, a LF Cryuff Turn, etc.
• Explode out of the turn to take advantage of your move and create distance between you and the defender
• Defenders must stay to the side of the attackers (this is an attacking drill, not a defending drill) and make body contact

6:30PM - 7:45PM Field Training

I. Corner Kick Attack

Attacking Set Up and Runs

Direct Service

• Simple.  Get the ball into the box.  We have 3 or 4 girls now who stand above average chances of getting the ball directly into the middle of the box in the air.  No one is very consistent at it yet, but we're getting there.

Sneaky

• Ball played back to outside back for service
• Runs must be delayed, watch for the signal

Target 1-2

• (1) Target player releases to the ball
• (2) Corner is played to the Target's feet
• (3) Target plays back to corner kick taker for a service
• The idea here is to get a service into the box from a better angle and closer in to the danger area
• Runs are delayed, watch for the signal

Slot Dummy

• (1) Run triggers the play here  Near post runner releases early demanding the ball. 
• (2) Corner is played in low and hard and dummied (let pass) by the near post runner
• (3) Player at the top of the box shoots

Jefferson Cup Schedules Posted

So we open up against the #1 team from Delaware, then face the #1 team in Region III later that day. The tournament is set up so that our third game will be against the team from Group D that finishes in the same place as we finish in Group A (first place in A vs first place in D, second vs second, third vs third).  I like this set up as it increases our chances that we will play against a comparable team on Sunday morning.  I would obviously like to do well in our group as to face the toughest opponent possible on Sunday morning. 

What I love about this schedule is that all the Championship Flight teams are playing on one of two fields throughout the whole day.  I plan on getting my fill of some of the nation's best U13 girls soccer on Saturday! 

3/24/2007	Girls U13 Championship
Time	Home Team	Away Team	Site
Group A
8:00 AM	HOCKESSIN HOTSPUR (DE)	BANGU TSUNAMI FC 93/94 BLUE (MN)	CP #4
11:00 AM	CHARLOTTE SC 93 BLUE G (NC)	HOCKESSIN HOTSPUR (DE)	CP #4
2:00 PM	BANGU TSUNAMI FC 93/94 BLUE (MN)	CHARLOTTE SC 93 BLUE G (NC)	CP #4
Group B
9:30 AM	BETHESDA SC FREEDOM 93 (MD)	FREEHOLD SHOOTING STARS (NJ)	CP #4
12:30 PM	FREEHOLD SHOOTING STARS (NJ)	MCLEAN MPS STRIKERS (VA)	CP #4
3:30 PM	MCLEAN MPS STRIKERS (VA)	BETHESDA SC FREEDOM 93 (MD)	CP #4
Group C
9:30 AM	CHANTILLY BURN (VA)	MT. LAUREL UNITED POWER (NJ)	CP #5
12:30 PM	CAROLINA ELITE 93 GIRLS PREMIER (SC)	CHANTILLY BURN (VA)	CP #5
3:30 PM	MT. LAUREL UNITED POWER (NJ)	CAROLINA ELITE 93 GIRLS PREMIER (SC)	CP #5
Group D
8:00 AM	SOUTH CHARLOTTE 93 SCSA GOLD G (NC)	FC PENNSYLVANIA STRIKERS (PAE)	CP #5
11:00 AM	SCORPIONS SOCCER U13 ELITE (MA)	SOUTH CHARLOTTE 93 SCSA GOLD G (NC)	CP #5
2:00 PM	FC PENNSYLVANIA STRIKERS (PAE)	SCORPIONS SOCCER U13 ELITE (MA)	CP #5

I initially booked my return flight to MN for Monday, March 26.  I didn't know what the Sunday schedule would be, and didn't want to battle weekend traffic back into DC to catch an evening flight out of Dulles.  Seeing as we are a long shot to advance to the championship game, I think I will try to save the added hotel and rental car costs and look to re-book to return on Sunday evening. 

Futsal/Street Soccer - Sunday, Mar 3

5:00PM - 6:15PM Futsal/Street Soccer @ Lake JHS (Woodbury)

We had a dozen girls today and played a series of games to 3.  Each player on a winning team would get 3 points for the win, a point for each goal, and a bonus point if they shut the other team out (for a max of 7 points per game).  The players on the losing team would get 1 point for the loss and a point for each goal they scored.  For example, if Team A beat Team B 3-2, all the players on Team A would get 6 points and the players on Team B would get 3 points.  I promised suckers to the top three point getters at the end of the 75 minutes. 

For each game, I would divide the girls into teams of six by different assignments.  Alphabetical by the second to last letter in your middle name, giants vs the munchkins (tallest six vs shortest six), dark eyes vs light eyes, blondes vs brunettes, early birth dates vs late birth dates, etc. 

I absolutely love these sessions. The girls are excited because they know that all they are going to do today is play the game.  The atmosphere is ultra competitive and thus forces the players to focus and play to the best of their abilities.  Though more competitive, the atmosphere is also more relaxed, without the external pressures of competition at league games and tournaments, so the girls are comfortable and confident in their abilities.  This translates into some truly amazing play, and after an afternoon of coaching, I love sitting back for the first 30 minutes and just watching the girls play.  I then get off my lazy rear end and jump in to play myself. 

FIT Training - Sunday, Mar 3

3:15PM - 4:15PM @ Fit Studio (St Paul)

As part of our agreement with FIT Studios, the girls are taking part in six Crash Training Sessions in March and April. Today was the first session and the girls met at the St Paul studio from 3:15PM - 4:15PM to work with Aaron "Levy" Leventhal and his trainers. I could not be there as I was committed to working with the U10s and U11s at Lake JHS in Woodbury for Futsal Training, and I would catch up with the girls later that day as they came to Lake for their Futsal/Street Soccer Sessions at 5PM.

From Aaron Leventhal, Fit Trainer

After working with the girls on Sunday we have begun to design a team specific program to help the girls peak for their outdoor season, specifically their trip to Virginia.

As we have spent time training speed, agility, strength on Saturday during the winter, we have decided to focus mostly on game fitness and peak performance by the end of March.

On Sunday we administered a sub maximal v02 test, we split what is called the “cooper test” between 2 girls. The goal is to cover a 2 mile distance in 12 minutes, we which means that each girl would need to cover 1 mile in her 6 minute interval. Performance levels for this were fine, but we are concerned mostly about this aspect of the girls training right now as it relates directly to game performance at high levels.

In other words, we want to make sure that their ability to maintain high levels of intense work for an entire game. 2 reasons for this are simple and they have turned out to be the main goals for this crash training course.

1. If we do not have high levels of intensity that we can maintain for a certain amount of time, full game in this case, our skill level will drop as we fatigue. At this level we do not want to waste time building this type of fitness through playing actual games, we want to have it in place before we go into our first game.
2. Injury prevention is most important in this type of crash training. Most common serious injury among girl soccer players is ACL/MCL injury. We are dealing with joint stability and lateral strength. It is important to make sure that we are able to maintain strength and stability under the demands not only of the intensity of the game but the volume as well. In other words, the girls are more susceptible to injury when they are asked to perform outside their level of fitness and they become fatigued. We want to make sure that they are able maintain stability in this state of fatigue. We do this through challenging the girls in unstable environments while fatigued.

We have decided to include maintenance work for the certain aspects of the girls training. Thus, making sure that we continue to keep high levels of speed, strength, and power.

Our focus on the mechanics of running will be our first activity in most sessions and will serve as a dynamic warm up. In other words we are using specific movement to warm up as opposed to static stretching, as we feel that we can teach form and use specific movement more specific to our training than static stretching.

We also will include a cool down component to the training using foam rollers to help with tight muscle groups. This will serve as the recovery and regeneration portion of the training.

We are looking forward to working with the girls and expect to have a great time with them and get a lot of work done in our sessions. The best advice we can give the girls at this time is to make sure that they come prepared for 60 or 90 minutes of focused training depending on the session.

Training - Saturday, Mar 3

8:15AM - 8:45AM FIT Training

8:45AM - 9:15AM Video Analysis

Wasn't a very productive session (relative to our other Video Analysis sessions) this morning as I forgot my laser pointer and the remote control for the DVD player that I keep with me.  Without the remote, I can't rewind the player to go over portions of play as the only rewind button on the DVD player we use restarts the entire chapter.  So I basically sat the girls down to watch around 20 minutes of Manchester United's goals.  I tried to point out stuff and we discussed some of the play, but it was not as effective as when I could run a sequence over and over again for them to see.

9:15AM - 10:45AM Field Training

I. Ball Masters Program

• Fake Shot Push
• Fake Shot Cut
• In & Out

II. Attacking the Lead Foot

I wanted to give the girls the 1v1 technique of beating players at speed by attacking their lead foot.  In general, at our level opposing defenders usually get the concept of side on defending (as opposed to defending square).  When presented with this body position, I want the girls to be able to first recognize this, and then second look to exploit it.  They can do this by dribbling the ball across the defenders lead foot.

In the illustration below, the Blue defender is defending side on with their right foot forward.  The Green attacker should look to take the ball across Blue's lead foot to the attacker's left.

I just had the players working in pairs, standing about 20 yards apart.  A would play the ball to B and the close B down, making sure to take a side on position.  B would look to recognize this position and take the ball across the defender's lead foot.  Defenders defended at minimal pressure to begin with.

III. Duelling 1v1s to Goal

We then looked to take this idea to goal in the next exercise. 

Setup

• 2 teams of 7 in a 45x30 yard grid
• 2 goals with GKs
• Defending Disks are about 12 to 15 yards apart at midfield
• Teams split their players between the Attacking Disk and the Defending Disk
• All the team's soccer balls with the players at the Defending Disk

Procedure

• First defenders come out to the Defending Disks with soccer balls
• (1) On the "Go!" signal from the coach, defenders play the ball to the opposite team's attacking player and defend
• Attackers go to goal, if their ball gets knocked out of play or they score a goal, both attacker and defender go and help their respective teammates (playing 2v2 until the second ball is out of play)
• After both balls are out of play, players who were just playing switch lines, and the next two players in each team's defending line come out to the Defending Disk to await the next "Go1" signal for round #2

Make It Competitive

• +3 points for the first goal scored (I want to award attacks at speed!)
• +1 point for the second goal
• +1 point for a successful attack of a defender's lead foot (encourage the players to work on the skill)

Coaching Points

• Attack at speed!
• Don't worry about skill moves until you are slowed down
• Recognize body position of the defenders and exploit it

IV. Volleys

The girls were tired from the 1v1s, so we took a break to get some light shooting working on volleys.

V. 7v7 Small Sided Scrimmage