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.

11/15 2v2v2 With Targets To Goal

The girls were fantastic this morning and they jumped right into the street soccer with tons of energy.  I don't know if it was just a one day thing that they were ready to go with no yawns today or if it was because they knew that they would be playing right away so they were awake.  I'm hoping it was the latter.

0-10 Street Soccer

10-20 Footskills

20-50 2v2v2 With Targets Continuous To Goal

This was a really fun game that I did with more numbers with our U16's this past week and it worked very well.  There are so many different things you can work on in this game and it is always moving.  The game takes about 10-15 minutes to work through and get the kids to understand the flow of the game because it never ends and you switch from offense to defense so quickly.  My main goal for today with the game was to just get them to understand how it works because we are going to be doing this game a lot this year with varying numbers.

 When the girls understood the game it went really well.  The good/bad thing with the smaller numbers was that the 3v2 was pretty easy for them on offense.  I'm hoping that we will have enough numbers to move up to 3v3v3 so it is a 4v3 and a little more difficult for the attackers.

50-70 Ball Striking
Lots of reps working on shooting with the laces going for forward spin and no spin from 25 yards out.  We added an option for an outside of the foot shot and a toe poke during the last 10 minutes.

We did not have our agility training after the on field today because Evan's Augsburg team had won their first game of the NCAA tournament and he was in California. 

11/10 Training 1v1-4v4 Numbers Up Game

0-10 Partner Juggling

10-20 Footskills: Lots of rollover moves

20-60 1v1-4v4 Numbers Up Game
This was a game that I had seen Mark do with the U12's last Saturday that I really liked.  It is so nice being surrounded by great coaches that I can pick up lots of really good session ideas.

Set Up: 4 yellows, 4 Blues, 1 gk
To start the first yellow player dribbles at speed and takes a shot from outside the 18 yard box

 After shooting the yellow player now becomes a defender and the first 2 blues step up and go 2v1 against the yellow.
 

After shooting the Blues now become the defenders and the next 2 yellows step on to create a 3v2 with the original yellow who now gets to start in the position of being a target player.  We played with an offsides line at the 18 and I encouraged the new blue defenders to step up quickly after they finished going to force the yellow target player to have to work to get back onside.
 

*To make the exercise more game like I had told the girls that when they were defenders and they won the ball they could score a point by dribbling the ball past the half line.  This meant that the defenders would be starting in different positions throughout the game.  Sometimes they would be straight in front of them but other times there would be a defender or two recovering from behind so it gave them lots of different looks.  The game was great in always presenting something different to the girls and transitioning quickly from offense to defense.

After the yellows went 3v2 the final 2 blues stepped up and created a 4v3.  This part will be great in working on how our forwards should move to create space and combinations as we do this exercise more in the future.
 

The last part is for the 4th and final yellow player to come out and make finish the exercise with a 4v4 to goal.

The girls picked up the game really quickly and it was a lot of fun.  I had originally set up a points system for the game but the girls were so into it that I didn't bother with it because they were competing so hard.  This game was also good for fitness for the first 3 players that went because they stay on the field for so long and are constantly moving.

Today I really just focussed on the dribbler and runners moving diagonally, having the dribbler draw in the defenders, and when to pass the ball.  I want to do this exercise again the next time that we have a half of field to work with so I can start to work on some of the other aspects of the game.

We finished the day with a 7v7 scrimmage that included some of our U16's to give us enough numbers.

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.

11/8 AHA Training- 3v3 Transition

8:00am training comes early on Saturday morning so I want to make sure that the girls are excited to come to training when they could be sleeping.  To do that we start out our Saturday's by playing Street Soccer as the girls arrive.  We broke into one game of 4v4 and another of 3v3 and got the girls moving and having fun right as they arrived in the dome.

After 10 minutes of playing we worked on our partner shadow dribbling for another fifteen minutes.

Next we used our entire 1/4 of the dome to play a 3v3 transition game to goals.  Because I am working on creative runs and transition play I always want to use as much space as I possibly can so it requires more thinking and realistic runs.

The set up was 3 attackers vs 3 defenders with a goalie
The attackers tried to score, if the defenders stole the ball they tried to score on any of the 3 pugg goals I had set up. 

The basic ideas that we have been working on that I wanted to see from the start were:
-The dribbler needs to dribble diagonal  and do a move early to show skill on the ball
-If the defenders don't step to the dribbler, go and score without passing
-The runners need to run diagonal to make it tougher for the defenders to cover them

The main idea for the runners that I wanted to get from this exercise was for the runners who were running diagonal to cut back across after they had gone outside so they could receive the ball in the seam between the defenders and go to goal.

The other main idea that I wanted the girls to get was when the dribbler should pass.  It is when the defenders step to them and are running the opposite direction of the pass.

 What I wanted the girls to realize was that by running back across the middle, you are more dangerous because you will receive the ball going to goal.  Also, running across the field is very difficult for the defenders to stop because it requires either a lot of movement on their part or a lot of communication.

The timing of the pass was a big part of this exercise and we will continue to work on recognizing the visual cues of when to pass all year.

The girls did a good job with the exercise and it was fun to see occasionally when the defensive team would accidently only send out 2 defenders and the attacking team walked right through them with no problem at all every single time.

We finished the field training with a scrimmage.

After the field training Evan Fuhs, our assistant coach, took the girls through some agility and strength training for 30 minutes.  This is something that we are adding to every single one of our trainings.  Evan is a very good trainer and I am excited to have him on board because he will be able to bring lots of extra things to the table for the girls.  This was the first training that Evan has been able to be at because he is a part of the Augsburg soccer team that has made it to the National Tournament that starts next weekend for them out in Washington.