5v3 Movement To Goal: Training 5/3

I was in Rockford this weekend with the 16's for their last weekend of MRL games.  The 16's have made some major improvements since last year and it looks like they will finish 3rd in the MRL Premier League.    Last year they finished 7th.  The 16's game on Sunday as at 10:00am versus Lexington FC.  After beating them 2-1 we jumped in the car and drove straight back to Holy Angels to drop the players off.  Then Eric and I rushed over to the airport to return the rental van.    

It is a great idea to rent vans when you are going somewhere within driving distance.  It doesn't cost much and you save the wear and tear on your vehicles.  

I made it to McMurray about 15 minutes before the 6pm training session.

I.  Running Juggling

II.  Finishing Repition

The girls were in 2 lines up on top of the 18 and ran into the box 1 at a time while Evan and I served the balls in a variety of ways to them.  We kept harping on the girls to be sharp with the finishes, make solid contact, and shoot low.  I gave them 1 point for a shot on net, 2 points for a goal in the top half of the net, 3 points for a goal in the bottom half. 

III. 5v3 To Goal: Forward and Midfield Movement

Set Up

• 5 Blue Attackers (2 Fwds, 3 Mids)
• 3 Red Defenders (2 Def, 1 Mid)

Procedure

• The Blue CM begins dribbling diagonally towards the forwards
• The Red mid cuts off the passing lane to one of the forwards

• Each attacking player has lots of choices on where to make her run

A) Forward Receiving The Ball

• A¹ Check to and lay the ball off
• A² If the defender is tight, spin off and the ball will be played over the top for a break away

B) Ball Side Outside Mid 

• B¹ Stay where you are to receive the ball at your feet
• B² Curve your run outside and receive the ball at your feet while going forward
• B³ Run hard to the corner and call for the forward to dummy the ball and let it go through to you

C) Forward Who Does Not Receive The Ball

• C¹ Dart inside for a flick on from the other forward or call for the dummy
• C² Pull wide and get ready to run in for the cross.  If you pull really wide the weak side outside mid can run inside and you can make the far run

D) Weak Side Outside Mid

• D¹ Curve your run wide and get in for the cross
• D² Sprint inside for the cross and have the weak side forward take the far post run

 Make It Competitive

• +1 for a good cross
• +1 for a shot on goal
• +3 for a goal
• +5 for a one touch finish
• Defending team +2 for a successful clear

We didn't get through all the runs today because my focus was for the girls to get the set up of the exercise and see how they could be creative on their own.  We struggled a little bit on recognizing when to pass the ball into space and when to play the ball into feet.  It wasn't bad, but incorrect decisions would cost us 1-2 seconds or put us in a less dangerous area had we made the correct choice.  I'm asking the girls to get to the next level with their thinking and it is going to take time.

IV. Scrimmage

Finishing, Forward and Midfield Movement: Training 4/30

Today's training was thrown a bit out of whack when Eric called me to say that he had an emergency at work and was not going to be able to attend the 16's training.  Originally he was just going to let the girls run it, but I said that we were doing a lot of finishing and different activities that are fun and I could have the 13's demonstrate the activity and the 16's could go and run it on their own.

It turned out I overestimated the 16's focus level and maturity.  Their was no leadership and they were perfectly happy to do everything at half speed and sloppily.  After 35 minutes I told them to go do whatever they wanted because it was a waste of time to explain the exercises to both groups and try to watch them since they were not putting in any effort.  

If the 13's ever show this type of attitude there will be major consequences and changes to who is on the team.

Here is what we did:

I. Off Foot Juggling & Driving The Ball With 1 Touch Back

All but 4 players can get to the 30 juggles with their opposite foot now and the 4 are really close to getting to 30.  The one touch back went better than expected last time.  

II. Finishing Technical Work

Lots of repetition.  We had 2 players serving balls from their hands on each side.  Every couple of minutes we switched up the type of ball being played in.  We concentrated on quick, sharp swings.  Finishing low.  And Headers.

• Line drives from throw
• Bouncing balls from throws
• Lofted balls from throws

III. Crossing and Finishing
Same set up we used on Tuesday to see if the technical work helped us out on our finishes. 

IV. Scrimmage vs the U16's
Some of the 16's had mentioned before training that they'd like to scrimmage the 13's.  I had said no before because there was a lot of things I wanted to work on and we were not going to have time.  But the 13's really wanted to play and they had been pretty focussed during training so for the last 40 minutes we scrimmaged.

The small training field at McMurray (100x55) would play to our advantage because the 16's wouldn't be able to out run us.  We played really well and created a handful of really good scoring chances.  As usual the girls battled extremely hard and didn't back down from the challenge.  The 16's hit the post but besides that the work rate of the 13's kept the ball away from our 18.  There was a controversial offside call by the 16's that pulled a goal back that the 13's had scored.  The game ended 0-0 and I left amazed at how the girls absolutely never back down.

Early Cross: Training 4/21

Evan had the last three sessions with the girls as I was out of town with the 16 Blues for their MRL games in Cincinnati from last Thursday-Sunday.  The 16's went 3-0 over the weekend and are in a great position to battle for the league title and a place in Regionals.

Evan continued with our crossing and finishing work and he brought in some defensive work for the Sunday training.

For today's session I found another great session that Mark did 2 years ago with the current 15's.  

I. Off Foot Juggling

II. Driving The Ball

III. Battle In The Box - Early Cross

This exercise was perfect for what we are working on and it gave the girls another variation to keep their attention.  

Set Up

• 4 teams of 4 players in different color vests (We had 3 teams of 5 players so we had 1 team serving, 1 team attacking, 1 team defending with one of the defending players stepping in goal.  We had 4 minute rounds)
• 35x60 yard field set up as in the illustration below (with a penalty box, goal, GK, and starting disks for attackers/defenders and wide players)

Procedure

• Blue team attacks, green defends, gray team on deck, gold team serving
• Gold 1 passes to gold 2 who takes a short prep touch and serves in a cross from the right for blue to finish
• Green tries to clear the ball from the box
• When the ball is dead (in the goal, out of bounds, or out of the penalty box), defending team exits the area and is on deck waiting, attacking team (blue) becomes the defending team, and the team on deck (gray) attacks a cross that will be played in from the other (left) side
• Gold pairs alternate positions after each cross

Make It Competitive

• +2 points for the first team that makes contact with the ball in the box (looking for aggressive movement towards the ball by both the attacking and defending teams)
• +4 points if the defenders clear the box in the air directly from a cross (so +6 total if they get to the ball first and clear the box in the air)
• +2 point if the attackers get a shot off
• +4 points for a goal

Coaching Points for the Crossers

• Good first prep touch, under control but away from your feet to set up the early cross
• Find a target for your cross instead of just kicking the ball (far post, near post, or a player's feet)
• Look up as the ball is being passes to you to see what you are going to do when you get it

Coaching Points for the Attackers

• Initial movement should be away from the ball to force your defender to work hard to see both the attacker and the ball
• Be creative and careful on your runs (careful about offsides) - lose your defender with quick changes of direction, starts and stops, or bursts of acceleration
• Don't get all 4 runners flat in the box, someone has to stay at the top of the box in the event of a poorly cleared ball from the defenders or to offer a lay back pass option
• Work hard to keep the ball in the box if the defending team gets to it first
• Wanting the ball is about attitude

Coaching Points for the Defenders

• Transition quickly from attack to defense and organize
• Communicate with each other and sort out who is marking who
• Don't lose your mark!
• Attack the ball, don't let it drop in our box
• Clearances should be high and wide
• Kamikaze to block shots in our box

IV. 7v7 Scrimmage With Service Boxes

For our scrimmage I added service boxes in the corners to encourage the girls to get the ball wide and to the end line before attacking the goal.  This is going to be where the space will be for us in State Cup so the girls need to continue to work on getting the ball wide.

 Points

• +1 for a goal without going into the service area
• +3 if the ball goes into the service area and your team gets a shot on goal
• +5 if the ball goes into the service area and you score a goal
• +10 if you deliver an early cross from your half that results in a goal

I didn't want the girls to have to wide if it was on to go straight to goal, but the points were set up to encourage getting to the end line.