Training Friday 9-28

I worship the dribble.  As a child I did nothing but dribble.  In the living room, between the furniture and the chairs, in the garden around my dog.  I learned all about life with the ball at my feet.

-Ronaldinho

The goal of today's session is to use the scissors move to unbalance a defender before you take them on.

Too many players dribble in a straight line, right to the defender, and attempt one move.  That is too easy for the defenders.  By dribbling straight, you allow them an easy time of jockeying and you allow them to continually move in the same direction, thus helping the defender to keep a good center of balance, which makes it easier for her to tackle you.

If you throw in a little change of direction, a scissors or two before you get to the defender, she will have to shift her weight with each move, and in doing so it unbalances them.  By the time you get to the defender, if you have unbalanced her, your final move and success rate will be much higher.

I.  Partner Scissors Exercise

1 partner has the ball and does a scissors looking to beat the defender.

The other partner is the defender and must keep one foot on the cone until the attacker touches the ball.

Attackers get 1 point for every time they get by their partner.

Key Points:

-Mix it up and use different variations and take the ball different ways each time.

Variations: Normal, dummy, double, triple, nutmeg ect.

-Watch the defender as you do your scissors.  What way does she lean?

-Start about a yard away from the defender.  If you start too far away she will have too much time to react.

***

I showed the girls that if I do a normal scissors one time, the defender is looking for that the next time I do it, so I do a dummy and go the other way.  The third time I go against her she is determined not to get beat to either side so I nutmeg her.  Before I do my move I'm taking into account every other time I've gone against her and how she has reacted.

Variations:

-Let the defender move before the attacker touches the ball.  The defender still has to have one foot touching the cone, but now they can reach one foot out to poke the ball away.  This keeps the attackers on their toes and keeps them quick on the ball.

-Take away the cone and have them dribble at the defender

II.  1v1 To Two Goals

Set Up:

Grid 20yd x 18yd

Procedure:

-2 groups going 1v1 at the same time.  This forces you to keep your head up and look for the open space.

-Point for every time you dribble the ball through one of the two gates you are attacking.

-Play for 2 minutes and see how many goals you can score.

As the girls started to play I was hoping that they would use the scissors a lot during this exercise and they did.  But they were dribbling straight at the defender, doing one scissors and hoping they would get by her.  They simply were not getting the importance of unbalancing the defender before they did their final move so I said that you got 3 points for every goal you scored and 1 point for every scissors you did.  It does not matter where the defender is, if you do a scissors you get one point.

After playing a couple of games with these rules, the girls started to see that they could score more goals because the defenders had no idea of where the attacker was taking the ball with all of their fakes.  Scoring and keeping the ball became easy.  The girls were starting to understand that running 100mph forward all the time is not that effective.  Changing directions, scissors, keeping yourself under control while still moving quickly is the key to our success.

A couple times when I asked for scores, one of the girls would report that she had 20+ points and then her partner would respond that she didn't have any.  The defender could not get the ball because she did not know where the attacker was going with it.

I then added in the nutmeg challenge and we got more nutmegs than during any other exercise we've done this year.

III.  6v6 Scrimmage

3 points for a goal

1 point for every scissors

2 points for every nutmeg

This was probably the most fun scrimmage we've had to date.  The girls were creative and confident on the ball.  They found that when the dribbler didn't sprint forward every time, the other players could make runs and we began having some great combination play.

Training Sunday 9-23

To me the Olympics are not about 'dream teams,' they're more about dreamers.  They're not about medals, but the pursuit of medals.  The Olympics are not about being No. 1, they're about sacrificing and trying to be No. 1.

-Herb Brooks

The goal of today's session is to work on first touch and thinking creatively.

I.  Footskills Work

Double Moves:

Scissors

Stepover

Scissors Stepover

II.  3 Person Passing and Receiving Grid

I usually never repeat a training exercise during an entire years worth of training.  But with this first touch and passing exercise I really want to work on our form so we will do this exercise a lot this year.  Today I added the challenge of having the passers moving as they pass the ball.  It is much harder to deliver a accurate pass on the run.  I am also continually asking our girls to pass the ball hard.

III.  5v2 Keep away- Split the Defenders

I love this exercise because it challenges players to think about how the defense will react to each pass.  If you challenge yourself to always be looking to receive or make a split pass you will find that you are always moving and thinking about the next pass or how to set up the split.

Set Up:

-2 Teams of 7 people

-2 players from each team defend in the opponents grid

-If the defenders get the ball they give it back to the attackers

-1 point for every split pass

-Play for 90 seconds

The first time we do this I just let the girls play and see how well they do.  Some of the girls do a good job of moving off the ball and look to make the split, but others stand around when they don't have the ball and when they get it they are only looking to get rid of it, not looking to make a play.

After asking them how it went and hearing their responses that it didn't go so well I picked out the 3 players who I felt did the best job of moving and jumped in and played 4v2 looking to split the defense.  In 30 seconds we more than doubled the high score from the groups that had gone 5v2.  "What's the difference?"  I asked the girls. 

-Movement off the ball (You have to always be creating an angle to either receive a split pass or give one.)

-You have to be looking to make the split (Again, we are looking for creative players.  Players who want to step up to the challenge and make a play.)

-Good first touch

-1 touch the split pass.  (A short pass that causes the defense to shift followed by a 1 touch split creates the most success since the defenders don't have as much time to react.)

-Hard passes (I keep telling the girls to learn how to both pass and receive a ball that is passed hard because the faster the pass is, the less time the defenders have to react.)

-Communication (Everyone is talking about where the ball should go and directing others what to do.  The more info you have, the better choice you will make.  It is not just talking to the person on the ball, but the people who are making runs.)

When I send the girls back out to work again they find themselves having a lot of success. and I added the bonus challenge of nutmegging the defender for an additional 3 points.

IV.  7v7 To Goal:  Look For Split Passes

We finished with a 7v7 scrimmage where we awarded 3 points for every goal scored and 1 point for every split pass.

If You Are Losing, Apply More Power

One the big goals for our team this year is for the girls to realize how many different options they have on the field and the ability to choose which option is right for each situation.  I've often heard coaches and parents on the side lines of games where their team is losing, actually I hear it a lot when they are winning too, yelling out the phrases; "Come On!  Play Harder!" or "Get Tougher! Don't let them push you around!"  When I hear comments like this I can't help but laugh a little. 

"You're not playing hard enough," is our simple answer to the problems that come up in games.  "If you would just play harder you would win" is the message we send.  This is a part of the culture we live in and our mentalities translate into sports.  In Jaime Raser's book Raising Children You Can Live With He notes:

Children can draw parents into interactions that become Us (the children) against Them (authority figures), not Us against the realistic and logical consequences of rules.  Us against Them becomes a war.  "Getting tougher" can win battles, but it may also teach that winning is the most important goal and that force and power are the ways to win.  Children then learn that, with enough power, they can also win and that this is how the world operates.  If they feel they are losing, they simply apply more power.

It is an old American football idea.  You don't lose because of lack of preparation.  You don't lose because you have not learned what to do on the field.  You don't lose because gasp! the other team is better than you.  You lose because you didn't try hard enough.  You didn't battle hard enough. That is a terrible message to send to our kids.  Losing means you didn't try?  Sure, it works out nicely for the coaches and parents because it was not their fault.  It was the kids' fault for not trying hard enough.

If we equate losing with a lack of effort we are also building excuses for the kids and coaches.  We are putting the blame on their lack of effort when, more than likely, there are aspects of your game that need to be improved. 

We don't always have to "Get Tougher" to win the battles.  We can be creative in our ways to get the ball out of our half and into their net.  We don't always have to boot the ball up field.  Force is not always the answer.  We have to be strong enough as coaches and parents to not make each play and every game a zero sum game with only one winner and one loser.  We need to be able to allow for the fact that sometimes the teams and players we are facing are better than us and when we run into this situation our solution should not be to simply "apply more force." 

Are there consequences to this type of thinking?  Sure there are.  You are going to lose the ball and, especially if you are playing someone who is better than you, the ball may end up in the back of your net.  It may end up there a lot.  But what are the consequences to only subscribing to the "apply more force" type of thinking?  Sure you might get a good result in today's game.  But in the future you will probably run up against someone better than the team you just played and your one and only strategy may not work and you wont have an alternative. 

Sometimes applying more force is the answer, but not all the time.  If we, coaches and parents, can calmly look at each situation in a game and inspire our players to think outside the box to solve the problems they face on the field, then the players may start to believe in their abilities.  And if we're lucky, along with self belief,  they will be inspired and begin to work on new ways to solve problems.

Training Friday 9-21

The goal of today's session is to improve our first touch and passing. 

I.  Footskills Work

Today's work involved the rollover and all the things you can add a rollover to.

Rollover scissors

Rollover stepover

Sideways Rollover while dribbling

II.  3 Person Passing and Receiving Grid

III.  1v1 Passing and Turning Grid

IV.  4v4 To End Lines

Training Sunday 9-16

I. The Value Of Communication And Knowing Who To Trust

I got this activity from Rick Rassier when we took the Mounds View Girls HS soccer team up to his Jump Challenge Course in Sauk Rapids, MN.  His teamwork and motivational techniques are awesome.  His experiential learning techniques make an immediate impact that is not only remembered, but more importantly it is understood.

I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.

I would recommend any team, business, or school take this training.  Click Here for more info.

Blind Folded Dodge Ball

This is the best activity I have ever seen that shows the importance of communication to the kids, but also how parents yelling from the side lines, well meaning of course, impacts what the players on the field do in a negative way.

Set Up:

-Players and Parents each have a partner.  One partner is blindfolded and placed in the middle of the grid.  The other partner can move around on the outside of the grid.

-The grid contains land mines in the shape of cones and hula hoops

-The grid also contains soft nerf balls or any other type of ball that does not hurt to get hit with

-The coach may be in the grid to hand out balls to players but he may not always help you

Rules:

-The partner who is not blindfolded may only direct their teammate in the middle of the gird vocally.  You may not touch your teammate or enter the grid

-If you run into a land mine, (cone or hula hoop) you are out

-If you get hit by a ball that is thrown by another player you are out.  (In order to get out by a  ball, it must have been thrown by somebody inside the grid.   The ball cannot bounce, once the ball hits the ground it is dead.  It also does not count if you run into somebody while holding a ball.  The ball must be thrown for it to count.)

Procedure:

When the coach says go the players in the middle spin around 5 times and begin the game.  Play until there is a winner

What happens?

If you are interested email me or call me and I will explain.  I don't want to give away all the key points to the players before they do the exercise.  As I stated before, not only is this game great for communication, but if you are interested I can tell you how it is very eye opening for parents too.  The best thing I've ever done with parents to get them to understand how side line talk can have a negative impact on our team.

II.  3v3 Transition

Since we were only going for an hour today I wanted the girls to play a game that would really get them moving for the last 40 minutes.  3v3 transition is a great way to get the kids moving and work on the aspect of youth soccer that happens the most in every game.  Transition play.  So many teams are constantly booting the ball up the field and giving away possession of the ball.  The teams that can counter quickly have the better chance of winning. 

Putting the time restraint on the games really keeps the kids moving, looking to keep the ball, but also looking to attack every opening they get. 

I love this activity because it can be used for so many different topics:

-Transition Attack

-Transition Defense

-Possession

-Through Balls

-Conditioning

-Beating players 1v1 to create numbers up

-Creating space for shots

ect