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.

3/18 Ball Striking- Settle And Volley

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right.

-George Best talking about David Beckham

After watching our teams out in Las Vegas this last weekend I noticed that we had difficulty with being able to settle the ball and strike it under pressure.  So today I wanted to focus on us being able to settle the ball and hit a solid volley. 

I) Throw The Ball Up To Yourself and Volley
I had the girls throw the ball above their heads, trap it with their thigh and volley the ball before it hit the ground.
We struggled with the footwork and how to trap the ball and hit the volley before the ball hit the ground.  I didn't want the girls to hit the ball back up very high on their trap, but instead I wanted them to be able to move their feet quickly and step into the ball as it came to the ground.
After a while the girls started to realize that all the work they have been doing with the SPAT program was very useful in this motion.  As they started to get the pattern down, the volleys started flying.

II) Partner Throw and Volley

Now we had a partner throw the ball up for the girls and they had to trap the ball and volley it before it hit the ground.  Even though the I wanted the girls to hit the ball before the ball hit the ground, I told them that no matter where they trapped the ball I wanted them to volley it.  That meant if they trapped the ball behind them, I still wanted the girls to hit the volley.  Not everything is going to be perfect in games and while we will train to be perfect we have to be ready for the inevitability of the ball bouncing the wrong way.  We should have the mind set that we can deal with any kind of ball.

Make It Competitive:
1pt for a good trap
2pts for a good trap and a volley before the ball hit the ground
3pts for a good trap and a volley on target
5pts for doing everything properly and putting the ball in the back of the net

Our Street Soccer today was fantastic.  The girls played extremely hard and put in the type of effort I would like to see all the time.

3/4 Ball Striking

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

-Dan Stanford

When the girls arrived at ball striking today, I asked them if any of them had seen how Cesc Fabergas, of Arsenal, scored the winning goal over AC Milan in the Champions League game earlier today and to my surprise a handful of the girls said they had.  The goal was scored on a long distance shot just like we have been working on all winter long.

I gave the girls the option today of whether they wanted to continue to work on long distance shooting or half volleys.  I wanted to give them the choice because I want them to feel that they are a part of the decision making process and I realize that the winter training can get long so I want them to really enjoy the training. 

The girls said they wanted to work on long distance shooting for the majority of the time, but they wanted the last part to be volleys.

After 15 minutes of long distance shooting from the dribble we added in a long distance wall pass to work on hitting long distance shots with one touch.

After that we worked a little bit on half volleys and we will continue with volleys next week.

Our Street Soccer today was fantastic.  I had to stop the play two times to allow the girls to take a moment to appreciate good soccer.  (Eric Singer does this with the U15's and it is a fun little way to acknowledge when the team is playing at a very high level.  This usually comes after a couple of combination plays that lead to a goal or a great opportunity.)

Ball Striking- Volleys

We should aim to avoid mistakes and the secret is to not be in a hurry.

-Marie Curie

Every Tuesday we are at Corner Kick and we have three stations set up.  One station is working with CKI's SPAT trainer Brad.  For 30 minutes the girls work on core, leg, and upper body strength.  It is a lot of body weight training and it is very good.  We have another station where one of the small fields is used for the kids to play Street Soccer.  This is simply just letting them divide up the teams and play.  The last station is Ball Striking.  This is the one station where we get to work with the girls on different techniques. 

Week 1: Volleys
1) Volley out of their hands:  We have the girls bend down and kick the ball out of their hands.  This teaches them to get over the ball when they are striking it.
2) Throw the ball to yourself and volley it.
3) Coach throws the ball: We give them different angles and different heights with the ball.

Key Points:  Lean over the ball, Lock your ankle, Have your leg motion be parallel with the ground- don't kick upwards, Make good contact- don't try to kill the ball