Optional Training 4/8 Tennis Soccer

Although we approached the game seriously and worked hard at it, we hoped everything we did would help the game be fun and fulfilling for our players.
-Dean Smith

Today was a great day.  A majority of the girls arrived to the optional training session early and while I was working with our U10 Girls team, the U12's made their way up a hill, past the basketball court to 2 tennis courts and they began playing tennis soccer all on their own.  When I finished with the U10's and made my way up to the courts they said "This is fun.  Can we keep playing?" 

So for the next 45 minutes we played tennis soccer.  Every 10 minutes we switched up the teams and I added in different restrictions like; You cannot hit the ball back over the net without passing to a teammate. 

After 45 minutes I said we were moving on even though they still wanted to play.  I figured if they left training tonight still wanting to play more tennis soccer they would be excited to arrive early to all our sessions here and play.

For the last 30 minutes we played a 1v1 game that works on seeing teammates who are making runs from behind you.

1v1 With Two Support Players
Set Up: 25x20 yard grid with cone goals or flag goals
Procedure:
-1 Player from each team step out into the middle and play 1v1
-The other 2 players from each team are behind their end line on opposite sides of the goal from each other
-If you cannot score you can turn and play one of your two support players and they attack the same defender that you were just playing against.

We talked to the girls about which support pass will create more for us offensively.  The support pass that goes straight behind you or one that goes to an angle.  We decided that the pass that goes off at an angle is more dangerous because the defender must now change her angle to close you down.
We also talked about after the player makes the support pass at the angle that we should rotate our positions instead of following your pass because it will be quicker and you will be more likely to be open for a return pass if you don't run on the same line as the pass.

As the girls played longer they started to realize that the support player could start to realize when the ball was going to be played back and she could make her run early and receive the ball into space running full speed.  By making this run the girls would beat the defender with the pass.

The key point to this run was not to make it too early.  If the run is made too early the defender does not have to choose who to defend because the runner will be flat with the passer, or if the run is made to early the runner may have to stop her run to wait for the ball.  It is much better to receive the ball running into space.

As the girls became better at this we added in the option for a give and go between the runner and the passer on the condition that the passer yelled "Back" as she was passing the ball.

An added benefit of this exercise is that it helps us to work on our team shape.  Whenever the player in the middle was beaten 1v1 the two players on the end line needed to drop back and central behind the goal to stop the ball as it was shot through the goal.  It they did not drop then they would have to chase the ball down as it flew by them.

After we finished we talked about the fact that we basically just played a 3v3 game with really good defensive positioning and explosive runs from behind the ball.  This game went really well and we will be using it a lot in the next couple of weeks.