AHA Training 12-1 How Do We Reorganize?

Details: My problem has always been that when people ask me what time it is, I want to tell them how to build a watch.
-Herb Brooks

Today we kept building on our 2v1 ideas within the context of the 4v4 game.  The goal through all this build up is to try to get the girls to see the game in terms of how they can create numbers up opportunities and how they can use numbers up to their advantage.  This will be our goal on both offense and defense. 

In order to create numbers up situations we need to be able to recognize how to organize ourselves quickly.  We cannot reorganize ourselves quickly if players are always locked into the same spots on the field.  What happens if someone sees an opportunity on offense, goes forward and we lose the ball?  Is that person supposed to get all the way back on defense right away?  Sure, but what I want the girls to recognize is when someone else is in a better position than they are, can she get into position for you and you can take her spot?

I.  Ball Masters
Today we did stop and go moves.

II.  Two Games of 2v1 Keep Away Progression
This is what we did last Saturday, but we had some girls who were gone the week before so I wanted them to do this exercise.

III.  4v4 3 Grid Game With Goalies

Players: 4 Reds plus a goalie, 4 Greens plus a goalie

Set Up: Field is 40x30yds
Divide the field into 3 grids: 15x30, 10x30, 15,30

Procedure:
-Play 4v4 with goalies. 
-When your team is on offense there are no restrictions.
-When your team is on defense you can only have a predetermined amount of players defending in each grid.
Example:  Before the game starts your team decides that you are going to play a 2-1-1 (2 defenders, 1 mid, 1 attacker) On offense you are free to move throughout the grids, but as soon as you lose the ball you can only have 1 player playing defense in your attacking grid, 1 player playing defense in the middle grid, and 2 players playing defense in your defensive grid.

Green Attacking

Green can move anywhere while they are attacking.  Red can only have their predetermined amount of defenders in each grid. 
The key is can green build up their attack to create a numbers up opportunity without losing the ball.

When Green loses the ball they must figure out how to reorganize.

The key to the game is when you lose the ball how quickly can you get players into your defensive shape.  This may mean that one of the defenders who has made a run all the way into the attacking grid stays there because it is quicker if the midfielder drops back to defense and the forward drops into midfield.
The big key to this is to communicate who should go where.  The ball gets turned over in soccer a lot and we have to all be on the same page so we need communication about who should go where.

We are going to use this set up a lot in the future to get the girls used to reorganizing by who is where on the field, not who is what position.  It is all about creating soccer players and not one position players.