Handling Blowouts

Keep better players playing

Because our Academy concept has drawn talented athletes this team from its inception(top level), it was sometimes difficult to find challenging games early on when playing against community based teams.  (See Of Wolves and Sheep)  However, I felt that I do my girls an injustice if I force them not to play the game by imposing non-realistic restrictions on their play to help limit goal production in games.  I guess the term "realistic restrictions" in this case is an oxymoron of sorts, but some restrictions are better than others as they still allow the girls to try and play.  In blowout situations, adding restrictions like "no more goals" or "10 passes before a goal" are not only completely foreign to the game itself, they can actually be more of a slap in an opponent's face as girls sometimes pull the ball back on breakaways or even turn back from open goal situations in order to stick with the restrictions mandated by the coaches.  Coaches, parents, and players don't want to lose, but I think they much prefer getting hammered by a clearly superior team rather than being pitied upon.  

I'm not saying there should be zero restrictions placed on the girls' play, just better restrictions allowing for a balance between not running up the score and my own girls overall development.  Here are a few that I've found successful...

Out Of Their Comfort Zone
It is easy to see that young girls prefer to play in positions where they feel comfortable on the field.  However, all coaches at the younger youth ranks should rotate their players' playing positions no matter how the young player feels to the contrary.  Games that are well in hand provide an opportunity to do just this without the pressure of performance for results in the girls' heads.  Attacking minded players to defensive positions and vice versa, lefties over to the right, scared little peanuts into goal. 

With this said, I believe that good coaches rotate player positions in all games, regardless of whether or not the game is in hand or not.

Touch Restrictions
One of the easiest restrictions to implement, limiting the touches the girls can take on the ball is a sure way to help level the playing field, blunt the attacking play, and keep the girls on the field challenged against lower level competition.  How do I enforce it?  Simple.  I make it clear to the girls that if they break this restriction (take more touches than I allow) they will be subbed off the field at the next opportunity.  All the girls want to play, no one wants to sit, so this is a great motivator. 

Though I've gone to touch restrictions on the entire field, I prefer to use the restrictions in the attacking half.  Meaning, the girls have unlimited touches in our defending half, then it's two-touch (or three-touch, or one-touch) in the attacking half.  In this way, the girls can still play and go to goal but just have to think ahead and anticipate prior to receiving the ball, read their teammates, and work harder off the ball to create goal scoring chances.

Dribbling Restrictions
When playing weaker competition, most of my girls find it easy to beat players on the dribble.  Winning these 1v1 battles on a regular basis is a sure path to utter dominance in a game situation, so by negating this advantage the game becomes more equalized.  The two ways that I've tried to accomplish this in the past have been with the No Beating Players 1v1 and No Dribbling Forward restrictions.  I usually go to the No Beating Players 1v1 restriction prior to implementing the No Dribbling Forward restriction.  Both restrictions force players to combine with teammates in order to move the ball up the field rather than use their technical dribbling and/or physical speed advantage, and both restrictions force player to think.

Dominant Foot Restrictions
At times I've implemented restrictions like Weak Foot Only or Weak Footed Shots Only.  Again, both serve to blunt the attack while forcing players to step out of their comfort zone and focus on needed weak foot development in game situations.

Shooting Restrictions
The main ones I've used here have been One-Touch Finishes Only, One Touch Finishes From a Back Pass Only, and Long Range Shots Only (from outside the penalty box).  These shooting restrictions allow the girls to still try and score goals though not as easily as they may have found early on in the game. 

I make sure the girls and their parents understand why I enforce these restrictions, and buy in has been favorable. 

Again, we're talking about the younger age groups here and these restrictions have come mainly from my experiences with this team during the 2005 Summer Season.  As the players get older and as we've looked to find more challenging league play options for them (U12 Boys C1 League for the Fall of 2005, up a year to the U13 Girls C1 League for the Summer of 2006, up a year to the U14 Girls Premier League for 2007), the frequency of blowout results has been reduced.  We still play some of the bigger local tournaments (NSC Cup, All American Girls, USA Cup) at our true age level, and we are returning to our age group for this year's Minnesota State Cup, so there will likely always be games here and there in which we are clearly more dominant than our opponents.  My goal for myself is to not let my ego get the best of me and to temper the need to go our and showcase this team's talent by destroying the weaker competition... especially in State Cup.