5/12 Training: Moving The Ball Outside And Getting Runners Into The Mixer

Make the present good, and the past will take care of itself.
- Knute Rockne

I.  Long Distance Ball Striking
Half of the time was spent working on the weak foot.

II. Ball Masters

III. Driving the ball low and trapping on the run
For this we worked on the girls hitting a low driven ball that goes far but does not go much higher than a couple of feet off the ground.  To do this you hit down at the ball and your follow through is stopped as you hit the ground.

As we worked on the low driven ball we also worked on proper technique for trapping those awkward balls that bounce a foot or two in front of you.

IV. 7v6 Get The Ball Wide Before You Go To Goal
We played this game a week ago.  We play it on half of a full side pitch with a channel on each of the outside flanks for players to run into.  I've seen this game played a lot with the outside players already standing outside in the flanks but I like for the players to have to get outside as the ball is coming to their side better.

The key points that we focused on today were as soon as the ball begins to switch to your side to curve your run as wide as you can so you can receive the ball going at goal instead of going to the corner.  We stopped the play a couple of times to show how by just curving the run a little wider makes a huge difference in our speed of play and how dangerous we are.

We also focused on getting runners into the mixer as soon as the ball was played wide.  We talked about the players in the middle running away from the ball as it goes wide so they can be running at goal as the cross comes in and they will have more of the net to shoot at.  We already have natural support players in our formation if the dribbler on the outside needs support so we need to get players into the danger area.  Plus, running away from the ball, makes the defender choose if she is going to watch the ball or watch your run.

We had a couple of very nice crosses and finishes today and the girls are really picking up on the little things that are important at the top level.

5/7 Training First Summer Spat And Changing The Point Of Attack

The Six W's: Work will win when wishing won't.
- Todd Blackledge

Today we started our summer Spat program that we will do for a half an hour every Wednesday.  The training is focussed on making the girls stronger through the use of their own body weight, (Bear crawls and other exercises of that type) core work, and continue to teach the girls how to change direction and decelerate properly.  If we can teach them how to do these things at a young age they are way less likely to incur injuries as they get older.

After the Spat we ran the same session that we ran on Monday since a number of girls were gone and we wanted to improve on our form.

I. Ball Masters
II. Long Distance Ball Striking
III. Changing The Point Of Attack
IV. 6v6 Scrimmage

Skills Time Follow Up

Since posting the Academy Skills Sheets yesterday I have been asked to elaborate on how the kids will do everything.

Reader-There is a lot of stuff on the sheets.  Are they supposed to do everything each day?

AK: The idea of putting so many things on the sheet was so the kids will have options.  The great thing about soccer is that there are so many different ways to pass, dribble, shoot, and trap a ball.  You can work on something different each day.
Here is how it will work:  Say a player wants to work on their dribbling for a half an hour.  She can look at the dribbling section and choose to start out with the Quick Dribbling.  If she starts out with the 4 touch she works for as long as she wants on the 4 touch and she can try as many times as she wants to get her top score.  When she is done working on that she can put down what her top score for the day was and then move on to another section of the Quick Touches and work on that.

Dribbling
Quick Touches-Do As Many As You Can In 30 Seconds
Date/Top Score:
4 Touch	Goal: 19	4/21: 15
4 Touch Cap	Goal: 19	4/21: 14

After that maybe she wants to work on some moves.  The moves section does not involve counting how many times you do the move in 30 seconds because we want you to work on taking the ball away different ways and setting up the move different ways.  To record for this section you simply put down the date that you worked on the move and if you want you can put down how much time you spent.

Maradona

4/21: 5 min

If you want to do the the cutting grid you can take as many turns as you want to try and get your best score.  You only record your top score.

Inside Cut

4/21: 20

The same goes for the timed dribbling exercises where you can take as many turns as you like, but you only record the date and your top score.

10 Cone Quick Touch- Put 10 cones in a straight line 1 yard apart
Date/Top Score:
Anything	4/21: 8.4 sec

Now if that is all the time you had for one day that is fine.  You can come back the next day and challenge yourself to beat your scores from the previous day or you can select new things to work on.

For the Ball Striking section you can record what you did like this or you can simply write down the amount of time you spent working on the shot.

Shooting
Date/Time/Shots
Laces	4/23 50 Shots

For the Long Distance portion you can take as many tries as you want from whatever distance but you only record the furthest distance that you hit the wall from 10 times in a row.

Long Distance Passing- Pick a distance and hit 10 in a row from that distance
Date/Distance
Driven Ball	20 yds

For the Juggling Portion you simply write down your score.  For the Combos section if it says Foot-Thigh you have to alternate between your foot and thigh and you write down what your highest score was alternating.

The last section is the Circuit Training.  All of these exercises were covered in our winter Spat training.  For these you just pick one of the 3 circuits and do everything on the list.

Reader: Are you using any sort of motivation for the players to get them to work on the skills?

AK: We will be having the Skills Days once a month where we will give out prizes for the areas that I mentioned in the first article.  Besides that we will try to keep the kids updated with where their peers are at and the leaders in the Academy are at so they can have some extrinsic goals to reach for.  The hope is that the kids will simply do this because they enjoy working on their game and they want to improve.

As I said before, none of this is required.  If you want to go out and do your own thing or play with your friends that is great.  If you don't want to see a soccer ball when you are away from soccer that is fine also.  But as the kids will start to see, the players who really spend time working on their game will eventually see the improvements in their game and their skills.

If you have any more questions please email them to me and I will try to answer all of them.

Skills Time

On the youth soccer level, you don't train more than two or three times a week, and that's not enough for a serious player.  If you have a soccer ball you don't have any excuses not to get out there and work.  Seven hours a week, you'd see amazing results.  I would do that, if I could go back to being twelve.
-Heather O'Reilly

Academy Skills Tracking Sheets

Since the snow has melted and we can play soccer outside again I have been inundated with questions about "What can I do on my own to improve?"  My first response is always to go out and play 1v1 and small sided games with your friends.  This is what I did growing up all the time and it was the time that I improved the most and I had a ton of fun doing it.

Besides playing with my friends I also spent countless hours out in our yard working on all the different skills.  This individual work combined with playing with my friends are where I saw the major improvements in my individual skill.  With how little time you actually spend training with your team compared to how much time you are away from your team the top players will spend countless hours on their own and with friends playing.

One of the main duties of a coach is to inspire a player to want to play on their own and to give the player ideas and ways to improve.

I have put together the Skills Tracking Sheet as an option for players to use for when they are working by themselves.  The sheet is broken down into 4 categories: Dribbling, Ball Striking, Juggling, Circuit Training. 

A majority of the dribbling moves plus many more moves can be found here at JA Kings StrongSoccer.Com

The goal of the Skills Tracking Sheet is to chart your individual improvement and help you to realize that the more time you put into your game, the better you will become.  Players should set goals for themselves and work to achieve their goals.

I do realize that players like to know how they rank against their teammates.  So once a month we will have Skills Testing Days where we will pick certain skills to test.  After these days we will compile all the data and tell you where you rank compared to your teammates and the rest of the Academy.
*I am looking into prizes for the Skill Testing Days for: Team Top Score, the Top Score for the Entire Academy, the Most Improved Score On Your Team and the Most Improved Score In The Academy.

We will show you how you compare to your teammates and the Academy without showing every players score.  This would be an example of how we will show the scores for a player on our U10 Boys team:

5 Yard Cutting Grid: Inside Cut For 30 Seconds
Name	Score
Academy Record	28
U10 Boys Top Score	24
Avg Score	20
Your Score	22

When you're a young player, you don't get how hard you really have to work on the other stuff, even when no one's looking.  I wish I had known that earlier.  When you get older, you realize how much better you could be if only you'd worked on those things earlier.
-Angela Hucles

Training 4/15 and 4/16

Make the present good, and the past will take care of itself.
- Knute Rockne

Lots of tennis soccer on both these days with various ways to play.  We eventually were able to get to the point where you had to volley the ball to a partner as they were running towards the net and they had to head the ball over.  The tennis soccer ended up being a really fun and effective way to spend a lot of time on finishing crosses over the past two weeks.

Besides the tennis soccer we played a lot of small sided games.  We will start to kick things back into gear next week.