4/22 Training: Read The Game

Good guys are a dime a dozen, but an aggressive leader is priceless.
-Red Blaik

Keeping Score
If you have ever asked kids what the score of a game was in training or any place where the kids have to keep track of their own scores you will hear a wide variety of scores and a ton of emotion exclaiming that the score that each player says is correct.  You can also hear cries of "The other team is cheating!" or "They can't count!"

With the U12's we have discussed the benefits of keeping track of the score out loud throughout the entire game but for some reason it does not happen.  It might be that nobody wants to yell out things so everyone can hear.  Or it might be that when the score is 1-0 or 2-1 it is obvious what the score is so it doesn't need to be said. 

We had a lot of score keeping issues today and it caused a lot of emotion because all the girls are very competitive and hate to lose, especially when they think they have won.  This is about the third time we've had this issue where it actually detracts from training a little bit.  I want the kids to keep score on their own because it forces them to think about more than what they are doing.  Also, I want the things that are obvious to you communicated since something that is obvious to you, may not be obvious to a teammate.  The more we communicate the more we are on the same page.

The only way that I have thought of to help this issue is if I ask a team what the score is and their entire team can immediately say the right score they get a bonus point.  Has anyone else done anything else that works?

On to the training . . .

One of the main things that I focus on in trainings and games is how to read the game.  The game is always changing and you need to constantly be moving and thinking one step ahead of the game.  This is a very advanced topic for 12 year olds but the more we work on it, the better they will understand it.

0-10 Ball Masters
We did the V cut from the Skills Sheets and the scissors and maradona.

10-20 Receiving Technique
Each girl was with a partner.  You ran forward to receive the ball and after you pass run backwards.
We did 3 touch with same foot and receive and pull cruyff with one foot then touch and pass with the other foot.

20-40 1v1 With 2 Support Players
Here from 4/8
We did this two weeks ago and the kids really understood how to move when they wanted the ball so today I wanted to really concentrate on them constantly moving whether they had a good chance to get the ball or not.

All the girls understood the movements (Get wide when we have the ball, back and in when we lose the ball) but everything is done at a jog or 3/4 sprint at best.  One of the things that I really wanted to happen was for them to realize when the other team was going to shoot so they could be ready and moving with a good first touch instead of being surprised by the shot and taking a poor first touch.  I was hoping that they would realize the benefits of a good first touch and how it would help their team score more often but it was not happening all the time.

* * *
This is a new game that I am working on developing.  I like the ideas but it is not quite where it should be so it gains the full attention of the kids.  I challenged the girls to sprint every time they needed to move and then once they were in the right spot they could relax while being on their toes, but getting everyone to do this consistently was a struggle.  I've got to find a way so the game rewards the players for moving quickly because in this game. 

The players who are on the outside can get stuck out there for a while if their teammate in the middle is shutting down the other team or she is not passing, causing their movements to become slow.  Plus the players attacking 1v1 are not always going at full speed 1v1 so the other players have more time to react.  Maybe putting in a 5 second max for the person with the ball will speed the game up and require the other players to move faster.
* * *

45-75 3v3 Transition Game
Here from 9/16/07
For this we moved our small 3v3 game, that is what the 1v1 plus 2 support players is, onto an entire half field going to goal.  For the first 10 minutes the kids just ran every where and looked to attack.  This caused a lot of breakaways because everyone was looking to get forward when they had the ball.  So we came in and talked about how we could bring the 1v1 with supporting players ideas into this game. 

The light bulb went on.  The girls started to understand that both players off the ball cannot make a run forward because we might lose the ball.  Thinking ahead!  Then they started to realize which player should make the run based off of where the defenders and open space was.

The last part we talked about was that the person with the ball should not be the person closest to our goal in most cases.  Once this clicked in the girls really started to make some great runs forward and play some outstanding offense while at the same time keeping a good defensive shape.

While this was a tough practice because of some of the tension over keeping score and working on thinking when you are not directly involved in the play, we really started to accomplish what we wanted.  We will revisit this on Thursday to hopefully solidify these ideas and come away excited about what we have learned.

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 4/21 Corner Kicks

Success is about having, excellence is about being. Success is about having money and fame, but excellence is being the best you can be.
- Mike Ditka

We started off with a little header progression so we could concentrate on our technique before we were going to goal.

Working on set pieces can be very difficult for players because they can involve a lot of talking about where to go and repetition.  Because of this I had originally planned to spend 20-30 minutes today working on corner kicks and I planned to revisit the topic later in the week.  I didn't want to kids to tune out.

As we started working on the corners the girls were completely focussed and they were really enjoying working on them.  Since it was working so well we kept with it and we ended up spending an hour on corner kicks.  I could tell a huge improvement in our volleying and heading from all the time spent playing tennis soccer over the last two weeks.

 For the last 15 minutes we scrimmaged.

I left training feeling really good about our corners and I can't wait to see them in action this weekend.