3/27 Training

• We should have 11 players
• 1/2 Field Session 

I. Technical Warm Up: Receiving Balls Out of the Air 

• Group of 4 players set up at each corner of a 10x10 yard grid
• Each player has a ball
• Players work with their partner who is diagonal from her

Procedure

• Both players throw the ball up in the air to their partner at the same time
• Trap the ball, dribble towards the other side of the grid and do a move 
• Vary the types of throws, some high, some hard and low
• Talk about looking around as the ball is traveling

II. Technical Warm Up: Give and Go Passing Square

• 1 touch on the outside
• Fake passes
• Hard dummy defense

III. 6v6 (6v4) Possession Across Endlines (0-20)

• Play normal
• Play Straight Diagonal or say that they must play someone in behind

IV.  Garbage Can Patterns (20-30)

• Review each pattern twice to each side

V. 6v5 Through Ball Game (30-50)

VI.  Attacking Corner Kicks

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VII. Scrimmage

Final Training Before St Cloud Friendlies 3/2

We have a lot of things that I want to get through today so I want us to have lots of energy and move quickly through things.  Because we have been working on all this stuff for the past couple of weeks we will limit our coaching points to 10 seconds or less with a demonstration today.  I want us to demonstrate the idea, not just talk about it.

The session is broken down into 3 parts

• 3v2 to goal (35 minutes)
• Set pieces (15 minutes)
• 7v7 (30 minutes)

I.  3v2 To Goal (6:20-6:40)

Set Up

• The same as the the 3v1 game that we have been doing but now there are 2 defenders and the player at the top now goes to goal and is live to make it 3v2.
• We will make it competitive by dividing the players into 4 or 5 teams
• Key points are having counter runs and fakes when receiving and passing the ball
• Players should be looking for the killer pass or killer touch
• Each turn is done in 8 seconds or less

II.  3v2 With Kneeling Targets (6:40-6:55)

• Field size is approximately 36 x 44 yards although I often make the width more narrow with my team. Two target players are always on the field. 
• The one that is NOT in attack is always kneeling and ready to pop up if his team wins the ball or brings the ball onto the field, while the other target takes a knee.  (We will not have this player take a knee but instead be up and moving into an open position for when her team wins the ball.)
• Teams are situated behind opposite goals and are broken into pairs. A goalkeeper is in each goal. The two players of the pair position themselves on opposite posts. 
• One has a ball and must play to target first and then both players enter the field to attack the two players of the other team (their target is kneeling). 
• The 18 yard box is the half field mark. If your team scores a goal then your pair defends a pair from the other team that is just coming onto the field. 
• If the ball goes out of bounds in your teams half, then you are off and another pair from your team attacks.

III. Set Piece Competition (6:55-7:10)

• Divide them into two teams
• Each team gets 4 corners from each side and 8 free kicks from outside the box (16 total) Eric will work with the defending team on how to mark.  I'll work with the attacking teams.
• With the free kicks from outside the box I will go over the technique of the players all getting together for 7 seconds to decide what they are going to do

IV. Eric's 7v0 to 7v5 Game (7:10-7:20)

• Focus is on movement after you pass the ball and counter runs off the ball
• Counter runs are one player checking back and another player going through
• As we build numbers I'd also like to focus on the person on the ball and how many touches they take and how they time their passes
• If we have to eliminate something due to time constraints this will be what we take out

V. 7v7 (7v5) Across End Line Game (7:20-7:30)

• We will modify for whatever numbers we have
• This game will be played to goal.  When a team gets across the end line they are free to go to goal.  The end lines will be set up 10-15 yards from the goals.
• Focus is on constantly having a killer run while we keep possession.  I don't want 7 players trying to keep possession of the ball.  Someone always needs to be running through.
• I would like to put them into a formation so they can play out of that.  For our defenders on offense it will be a 4-2-1 for the mids and attackers it will be a 4-1-2

VI. Scrimmage (7:30-7:40)

• Just take out the end lines and play to goal

VII. Evan Training 

Ball Movement

I. Warm Up/Coordination and Agility Training with Evan

While Evan is leading this I am going to begin our individual player evaluations with some of the girls.

II. Technical Passing and Receiving

III.  7v7 Scrimmage

I want to do a whole/part/whole training today and really focus on ball movement and reading the cues where the defenders are.  We will play this scrimmage for 10 minutes.  One team will line up in a 4-3 with our back four and 3 players who will play as a 3 front with a left/center/right forward and no midfield.  The other team will line up in a 4-1-2.

IV. Back 4 With A CM Versus 3 Fwds To 2 Goals

Set Up 

• Field is 25x15 yds with two pugg goals for the attacking team to score in
• 4 Defenders Plus a center mid on the Blue team
• 3 reds that are the opposing team

Procedure

• One of the back four begins with the ball and they attempt to move the ball so they can score on either of the two pugg goals
• The red team earns points by winning the ball and playing the coach or a target player outside of the grid

Key Points

• Keep your head up
• Keep moving off the ball
• Memorize where the openings will be based off of the defenders positioning

Four our defenders I wanted to show them where the openings will be based off of where the red players move to defend them.  There will always be a gap to exploit in the defense since we are numbers up.  We need to recognize when to dribble, when to be calm on the ball and hold it to draw defenders in, and when to move the ball quickly.

IVa.  3 Mids Plus 2 Forwards versus 3 Defenders To 2 Goals

Set Up 

• Field is 25x15 yds with two pugg goals for the attacking team to score in
• 3 Mids Plus a 2 Forwards on the Blue team
• 3 reds that are the opposing team

The idea with this is the same as above but designed to work with our forwards and mids.  Again we want to work on our movement as a team and recognizing where the openings will be based on where the defenders move.  I really wanted to focus on the forwards movement and timing.

V. 7v7 Scrimmage  

Optional Functional Training

Mark and I combined the U13's and U14's training space today so we each had a 1/4 field for 100 minutes and then we would use the remaining 60 minutes to work on functional training with certain positions.  This is our first night trying this, if it goes well we will do this on the weeks that we have back to back training sessions.

I am really excited about trying this because we will be able to focus in on certain aspects that we do not get to spend enough time with during our team trainings.

Playing In The Wingers - Tuesday 1/5

I. Evan Fitness

The idea for today is to build on the crossing and finishing from Saturday while working on how we can get the ball to our wingers in space.

II. Playing In The Wingers: 4v3 to 6v3 Patterns To Goal

Set Up

• 30x20 yd grid at the half line
• 2 Teams
• Blue Team Attacking (6 Players) 2 Fwds and 2 CMs who start inside the grid and 1 Winger on each side, outside of the grid
•  Red Team Defending (3 Players) 2 CB and 1 Mid
• 2 Pugg Goals are the goals for the defending team to score in

We are going to work on four patterns to get our wingers the ball.  Each pattern is started by the positioning of the Red Defender.  I want our center mids and forwards to recognize which pass is being taken away by the defense and take what they are giving us.  

Basic Rules

• The red center backs must stay goal side of the two forwards
• The pattern becomes live upon the pass out to the wingers and the defenders attempt to steal the ball

Key Ideas Not Written Into Each Progression

• How the forwards and center mids make runs for each other at the start of each pattern
• How do we make our runs into the box
• Where the service should be played

Make It Competitive

Offense max points per turn is 5

• +1 for proper execution of the pattern
• +1 for a cross and shot that is not on target
• +2 for a cross and shot on goal
• +4 for a cross and a shot on goal

Defense max points per turn is 5

• +1 for first touch on the cross
• +2 for a clear
• +4 for a goal into the pugg goals

Procedure For Pattern 1 

• Red mid starting position is blocking the pass to the far forward
• CM plays the close forward and bounces outside to for a give and go with the forward

Procedure For Pattern 2

• Red mid starting position is blocking the pass to the near forward
• Blue CM plays the ball to the far forward who lays the ball off to the other CM who plays the ball to the winger

Procedure For Pattern 3

• Red mid starting position is blocking the pass to the far forward
• Blue CM plays the close forward and bounces outside just like pattern #1 but the red defender goes with that center mids run and takes away the pass back
• The Blue Forward plays the ball to the other center mid who finds the far winger

Procedure For Pattern 4

• The Red mid starting position is blocking the pass to the far forward
• The Blue CM plays the close forward
• As the ball is played the other center mid makes a run into space beyond the other forward
• As the ball is played the other forward drops off her defender and receives the pass from the other forward and plays the center mid into space
• The outside makes her run down the line and stays wide as an outlet for a pass if the center mid is closed down

III. Playing In The Wingers 5v5 Possession To 7v5 To Goal

Set Up

• Expand the box we were working with for the patterns to be 40x30 yds
• Attacking Team has 7 players: 2 forwards, 2 wingers, 3 mids
• Defending Team has 5 players plus a goalie and they are set up in the following fashion 
• 2 center backs who must stay goal side of the blue forwards
• 2 outside backs who can step up to pressure the ball but cannot tackle (they are allowed to intercept passes)
• 1 midfielder who can tackle
• If the attacking team is struggling I will give them a support player who is outside of the grid that they can play to restart their attack

 Procedure

• The attacking team must complete 2 passes before finding a winger into space
• If the defending team steals the ball they try score on the pugg goals or keep possession of the ball inside the grid
• Once the ball goes to the wing the play is live to goal
• The attacking team has 10 seconds to create a shot

Make It Competitive

Offense Max Points Per Turn is 5

• +1 pt for playing the ball to the winger
• +1 for a cross and shot that is not on target
• +2 for a cross and shot on goal
• +4 for a cross and a shot on goal

Defense Max Points Per Turn is 3

• +3 points for a goal into the pugg goals
• +3 points for completing 4 passes inside the starting grid 
• Once the ball goes to the winger the defense can only get points for scoring inside the pugg goal within 7 seconds of winning the ball

IV. 9v9 Scrimmage

Playing Through The Outside Backs- Training 12/15

After our scrimmage on last Friday I've decided that we will play a 4-4-2 formation.  We will play the formation a couple of different ways based on who we have on the field (player's strength's) and how the game is going.  We have gone back and forth debating over what formation to go with.  

Thanks to the fall and last summer we will always be able to go back to the 3-5-2 and we will use that throughout the year depending on each game but we want to move away from that system for this year.

We've ruled out a 3-4-3 system as of now because many teams will be playing a 4-3-3 and with Bella missing a majority of the winter, I don't think we are athletic enough to play with 3 in back versus the 3 fronts.

We've looked at playing a 4-3-3 ourselves but I did not like it at this point in the year for us and we've decided to go with a 4-4-2 for a couple of reasons at this point.

• It is tough to get width in the 4-3-3 formation without playing with 2 wide forwards and I want to be able to attack at all times with an attacking triangle.  The 4-4-2 allows us to keep an attacking mid up higher with our 2 forwards while still maintaining our width.
• We are not good enough possessing the ball yet to consistently get our outside defenders into the attack so I feel we would be less dynamic attacking.  
• Attacking with your outside backs leads to a lot of early crosses versus end line crosses in girls soccer and shaping an early cross and finishing an early cross are two very difficult skills.
• Our player personnel suites the 4-4-2 more because like most teams from the midwest, we specialize in midfielders.

With our 4-4-2 we will often leave 3 players up to attack and based on our age group and personnel, the 4-4-2 will be the most flexible formation for us to play.

Moving away from the 3-5-2 this year we need to find some more outside defenders.  For the winter we currently have Brownie and LK as our only 2 true defenders.  We are going to be trying a number of different players at the outside back position.  As of now it looks like Becks will begin to play at left back and I will be rotating a couple of players through right back.

Since we are going with the 4 defenders I want to start working on how we can get our outside defenders involved in our attack because anyone that we do put there will be an attack minded player.  

Today's Session 

I. Evan's Workout

We will start off today with Evan's work out for the girls.  I am still really excited that he is able to work with the girls again.  It will be such a huge benefit to us as we prepare for Laguna.

II. Mark Yuiell Footskills

I took the idea for the next activity from a session Mark ran with the current 16's when they were 14 and were learning about spacing and how to play through their wide backs.

I had to modify the session to be run in only a 1/4 of the dome as opposed to an entire half of the field so the spacing is tighter, but the ideas remain the same.

Being able to look back and see what Mark did with his group before and what we've done in the past is the reason why I have started writing in this journal again.  It is so helpful with ideas.

Here is an excerpt about what Mark was thinking when he designed his session. 

The girls still tend to crowd around the ball at times, not fully comprehending yet that their teammates are usually good enough to pass the ball to them over distance now.  As our players get drawn close to their teammate in possession of the ball in games, though the number of options may increase, we are still not very effective as a pass to a close teammate does not break pressure (get us out of pressure) a lot of the time.  The idea of focusing a bit on spacing and shape when attacking would be helpful to them as in game situations there can sometimes be a world of difference between a 5 yard pass and a 10 yard one.

Spacing and team shape require that the girls possess some very important skills.  First, they need to have the awareness in their surroundings (where opposing players are as well as the location of their own teammates).  Second, they need to possess an understanding of the individual benefits of receiving a ball in space versus receiving a ball in pressure as well as the benefits of attacking up the field on opposing teams in less densely populated areas.  All this can’t be addressed in a single session and takes time to build the skills in the young players.  I planned on addressing some of these issues tonight.

These are some of our biggest issues right now.

III. Technical Functional Training – Wide Backs

Set Up 

• 4 Groups of 4 players
• Two groups work on the right side of the field, two groups work on the left side of the field
• There is an attacking group on each side with a center midfielder, outside back, outside mid, and target forward
• There is a defending group on each side with three dummy defenders and one goalie
• Balls start with the center mid

Procedure 

• Blue group starts with the ball at the blue mids feet, working up the right side of the field
• Red players play low pressure, dummy defense against the blue team
• Blue mid begins the sequence by dribbling forward with the red mid applying pressure on one side or the other
• Blue mid turns away from pressure and looks for support
  
• Blue wide defender recognizes the need to maintain possession and moves back quickly, away from the red defender to provide support
• Blue outside mid recognizes that we are going to keep possession of the ball and moves back to provide an outlet for the outside defender when she receives the pass
• Blue mid plays to blue wide back
• The outside mids movement will create a better passing lane to the forward for the outside defender
• Blue wide back receives the ball across their body with the inside of their right foot, playing the ball out wide to their right (clear your feet!) in order to set up a pass up field on their second touch
• Blue wide back plays a driven ball to their target player who, with one or two touches, plays back to the blue outside mid who has moved up the line
• Blue forward turns away and makes her run towards the far post after laying the ball off to the outside mid
• The outside mid takes a couple of touches towards the middle of the field and fires a shot
• The forward looks for a rebound to complete the sequence
• Yellow then begins the same sequence up the left side of the field 
• Midfield defenders should apply contact pressure though not trying to win the ball
• Wide back defenders do not move
• Target player defenders apply contact pressure to the back of the target player and make then work to get good touches and pass backs to the supporting midfield player

Make It Competitive

• Which group can execute the sequence the sharpest/quickest/with the most technique?

Coaching Points

• Midfields need to clear their feet with their turn so that they can play a pass quickly to the supporting wide defender
• Wide defenders must back away from their marking defenders quickly once they recognize that their midfielder is looking to play backwards
• Wide defenders need to recognize where the open space is (out wide) and touch the ball in that direction – this also helps create a passing channel wide of the marking defender in order for the wide back to play forward
• Target players make their body big, shielding off the marking defender
• Balls played into the targets should be low and driven over the distance
• Balls played back from the targets to the mids should be on the ground

 Variation

Same set up with the following variation to get the wide to continue her run forward

• After the wide back plays the ball to the target forward she will continue her run up the line
• The outside mid will cut inside to receive the pass to create space for the outside defender
• The defender can choose to shoot or attack the end line and deliver a cross

If the pattern goes well I will release the defender who is playing against the forward and allow her to choose who to defend after the lay off and the game will become live.

IV. 3 Grid Game

To build off of the movement from the backs in a game format 

Set Up 

• Attacking team has 4 defenders, 2 center midfielders, 2 forwards
• Defending team has 1 forward, 3 midfielders, 2 defenders, 1 goalie
• 3 Grids, with the middle grid being the smallest
• 2 cones are set up for an offside line to allow the forwards space to make runs

Procedure

• Blue defenders move the ball against the 1 red forward until they can make a pass forward
• Once they play the ball into the final third, the game is live and players can go anywhere
• If the red team wins the ball they can score from anywhere into the open goal

Make It Competitive

• +1 for a ball into the forwards that the attacking team makes
• +1 for a completed pass after the ball has been played into the forwards
• +1 for a shot on goal
• +2 for a goal

Defending Team Points

• +1 point for an intercepted pass by the midfielders.  We want to continue to work on our defensive shape so we will give points for doing a good job.
• +2 points for a goal into the open net 
• After 10 balls switch roles

 Coaching Points

• We just worked on finding the forwards with a driven ball so we want to encourage that pass
• The blue defenders need to constantly be moving to keep the ball in their 4v1 and understand that they are not moving the ball to beat the 1 red forward, but that they are moving the ball to pull the red midfielders out of position and create a passing lane into the forwards
• Forwards and mids need to time their runs and check to at appropriate times
• Forwards and mids need to work together
• When the Blue team loses the ball they need to apply immediate pressure to deny the quick ball forward into the goal for the red team.  
• As the pressure is being applied 1-2 blue defenders need to drop off to head/clear any long balls towards the goal

V. Scrimmage

If anyone is still reading this I forgot how long it takes to create an in depth session on this.  The planning of the activities, drawing them in AI, and then putting everything together on here.  It is a lot of work, but it is worth it when I can look back and find a good session.