11/8 AHA Training- 3v3 Transition

8:00am training comes early on Saturday morning so I want to make sure that the girls are excited to come to training when they could be sleeping.  To do that we start out our Saturday's by playing Street Soccer as the girls arrive.  We broke into one game of 4v4 and another of 3v3 and got the girls moving and having fun right as they arrived in the dome.

After 10 minutes of playing we worked on our partner shadow dribbling for another fifteen minutes.

Next we used our entire 1/4 of the dome to play a 3v3 transition game to goals.  Because I am working on creative runs and transition play I always want to use as much space as I possibly can so it requires more thinking and realistic runs.

The set up was 3 attackers vs 3 defenders with a goalie
The attackers tried to score, if the defenders stole the ball they tried to score on any of the 3 pugg goals I had set up. 

The basic ideas that we have been working on that I wanted to see from the start were:
-The dribbler needs to dribble diagonal  and do a move early to show skill on the ball
-If the defenders don't step to the dribbler, go and score without passing
-The runners need to run diagonal to make it tougher for the defenders to cover them

The main idea for the runners that I wanted to get from this exercise was for the runners who were running diagonal to cut back across after they had gone outside so they could receive the ball in the seam between the defenders and go to goal.

The other main idea that I wanted the girls to get was when the dribbler should pass.  It is when the defenders step to them and are running the opposite direction of the pass.

 What I wanted the girls to realize was that by running back across the middle, you are more dangerous because you will receive the ball going to goal.  Also, running across the field is very difficult for the defenders to stop because it requires either a lot of movement on their part or a lot of communication.

The timing of the pass was a big part of this exercise and we will continue to work on recognizing the visual cues of when to pass all year.

The girls did a good job with the exercise and it was fun to see occasionally when the defensive team would accidently only send out 2 defenders and the attacking team walked right through them with no problem at all every single time.

We finished the field training with a scrimmage.

After the field training Evan Fuhs, our assistant coach, took the girls through some agility and strength training for 30 minutes.  This is something that we are adding to every single one of our trainings.  Evan is a very good trainer and I am excited to have him on board because he will be able to bring lots of extra things to the table for the girls.  This was the first training that Evan has been able to be at because he is a part of the Augsburg soccer team that has made it to the National Tournament that starts next weekend for them out in Washington.