3/28 Futsol

I. Possession Build Up Game

• Two teams of 5 players
• Each team has their own half of the field
• Team starts 5v1, when they complete 5 consecutive passes the other team adds another defender to make it 5v2.
• If the defenders win the ball they turn and play it back to their teammates
• If the ball goes out of bounds, the team who did not knock it out receives the ball
• Build until one team completes 5 passes versus 5 defenders

The key point was for the girls to use all the space they had.  Our players constantly come inside and make the field very small.  I stopped the game a lot to point out every time a player would go inside and make the game small.  If we can learn to spread out, we will become a much better team.

II. 4v2 To Goal 

• Went live to goal whenever the players felt it was a good time
• Progressed until it was 4v3

III. Futsol 

11/16 Futsol

We started off with some quick touch work doing the U and some other patterns.  After that we worked on our rollover moves some more.

The main focus of the our 35 minutes of technical training was spent working on our passing just like last week.  I keep challenging the girls to make every repetition count, coach each other, and focus on proper technique.  Each training we talk about how important it is to work on the the basics.  Today I broke down how the game we played yesterday with all the transition work just comes down to basic inside of the foot passing and being confident on the ball.  The game looks complicated and there are a lot of different scenarios that can come up, but at the end of the day it is just the basic skills done at a fast pace.

We ended with the no look passing for fun again and they began to improve on that, but it is still pretty funny to watch some of them over exaggerate the no look.

We played our triple crown points system today and there were some really good combinations.  The highlight of the futsol was a back heal goal by Carly.  Really creative.

11/9 Futsol

Evan took the girls for twenty minutes before training to do some strength stuff with the girls.  He has to be creative on these days because he just has the hallway outside the gym to work with but the girls got in some really good reps and technique work.

We started out in the small gym today with our footskills training.  

0-15 Dribbling technique: Side Rollover-Push, Rollover step-over, rollover step-over scissors

15-35 Passing Technique
The girls were in groups of three and we concentrated on 1 touch passes.  

I wanted the girls to get into the habit of checking to at angles so the girl who was working on the 1 touch pass had to reset every time and make sure she was checking back properly.  The other aspect of the exercise was to have them make a 1 touch in a different direction than where the ball had been played from.

I challenged the passers who were not doing the 1 touch passes to concentrate on their form and make each pass sharp and follow through properly.

After working on that for about 20 minutes we spent the last 5 minutes working on 1 touch no look passes for fun.  The girls really enjoyed it even though most of them were not able to get it to work today.

For our futsol portion we divided out into three teams and played Triple Crown Cut Throat where in order to win you had to complete 2 out of the 3 options: complete a nutmeg, complete a give and go around someone, score a goal.

11/2 First Futsol Session

First futsol session of the year today.  It was 75 and sunny when I walked inside to the gym and it seemed wrong to be training inside today.  Two weeks ago when I scheduled the past weeks training outside it was 40 degrees so getting indoor time for this weekend seemed like a good idea.

Since it was the first session of the year we did 15 minuets of footskills and we spent the rest of the time playing.  I divided the girls up onto 4 teams and we played a round robin tournament using both the futsol courts.  

Since we are still working on their creativity and thinking ahead we used a modify point system to incorporate Give and Go's and Nutmegs

The point system we used was:
-During the games goals counted as 1 pt and Give and Go's counted as 1 pt
Wins= 3 pts
Draw= 1 pt
Loss= 0 pts 
-Every nutmeg that a team completed added a bonus point onto their team's over all standings score.
-So if you won and had 3 nutmegs your team received 6 points. 

3/9 Futsol: Repetition=Competition

I have never known a manager prepare his training sessions so thoroughly.  Like Zidane with a ball at his feet, Mourinho has this thing that cannot be taught.  He is the Zidane of managers.
-Porto Scout Gil Rui Barros

It was a bit of a long weekend for me since right after our session yesterday morning I hopped in my car and drove up to St Cloud where we were holding the friendlies for our U13, U14 and U15 teams.  These friendlies have become a very good event for our club and it was a great tune up for our U15's who I am heading out to Las Vegas with next weekend.  Today we finished our last game at 2:30pm and I made a bee line right to Woodbury to make the futsol session this evening.

I get asked a lot if I like working with the younger age groups and I tell people how enjoyable it is because they always bring energy even when, as a coach, you don't have any.  I was a bit low on energy when I arrived at the futsol session but after a couple of minutes of working with them my energy level was back up and I was ready to go.

0-10 Tennis Ball Work

10-30 Receiving Technique- Repetition=Competition
Proper technique only comes from repetition, but repetition can get old and boring.  So today we introduced the concept that "Repetition=Competition."  Today I was showing them how to make the exercise competitive but I challenged them that every time we are working on our technique make it into a competition.  Whether it is competing against yourself or against someone else, if you are competing you will be more focused. 

For our work today we played my favorite receiving game.  Each player has a partner.  Your partner stands 8-10 yards away from you and you pass the ball as hard as you can into her feet and she has to control the ball under her.  If she does not control it well enough she gets a point.  If your pass is not accurate then you receive a point.  Just like golf, points are bad in this game.  We rotated partners every couple of minutes.

We did a couple of variations:
-Players start farther away and the person receiving the ball must check hard to the ball and receive it
-Players check to the ball and play a one touch pass

30-75 Futsol