Youth soccer game coaching tactics (what are the most rediculous)

Discussion in 'Coach' started by Rob55, Jun 6, 2013.

  1. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Sorry, I'm soapboxing, but I'm actually focused on this point for corner kick defense.
     
  2. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    Corner kick defense is a lot harder than it looks. The key for me is a combination of staying goalside AND not ball-watching. If the kids understand the notion of staying goalside, but then watch the kick when it's coming in, they lose their man. You have to emphasize BOTH points. (Which I am sure you already are doing, but thought I'd mention anyway.) Tell them to listen for the sound of the kick and watch the attacker's eyes. Another approach is to keep a hand on the man they are marking. Not to hold him, but just to know where he is when you take a peek at the incoming ball.
     
  3. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Sure but when the player stands next to their 'mark' looking (full body turned) toward the ball, I can only get better :)

    In this sense I use the analogy of guarding a guy in baketball. Face him and use that device under your head, the neck, to turn your head to take a peak for the ball.
     
  4. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    Actually, my DOC makes a great point on exactly this subject. He emphasizes that the players should stand at an angle, so that they are positioned goalside, but they are facing BOTH the player they are defending AND the ball. Hard to explain this in writing, but imagine you are defending a man on the back post, corner of the 6 yard box. You should be positioned between him and the goal, but you should not be toe-to-toe with him staring in his face. You should stand at an angle with your body open so that you can see BOTH the player and the ball.

    (My DOC makes this same point about a lot of things. For example, when checking to the ball to receive a pass, you should not be standing such that you are directly facing the player with the ball. You should present yourself at an angle such that you are showing for the ball while also able to look upfield. It seems like a simple concept, but very few non-pro players actually play this way.)
     
  5. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Yes. Makes sense, and I think that comes sort of naturally once we correct the whole standing next to a guy facing your own goal, and concentrating on the delivery of the ball.
     
  6. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    Normally players have 180 degrees field of vision. You don't have to look directly "at" players or the ball to see them. Moreover peripheral vision is better at detecting motion, so you can react quicker to visual clues when you are not looking directly at the source.

    When man-marking it is always a mistake to let the man get 0n your blind side. If you want to deny him a pass, you don't do it by standing in front of him--because then you defending an area not a man.
     
  7. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    It does happen. More advanced youth teams, hopefull, U16 and up start to do it. You can set a pick a la basketball but a less obvious one is a part of the game. Do it early and see what the ref will allow.
     
  8. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    When I was growing up I learned these things from my friends. We played multiple sports and you just learned that what was true in football was probably true in basketball and soccer. You got chided for having an ugly shot or not being able to shoot or if you weren't playing defense. It was all self-correcting. Coaches probably shouldn't be going the negative route, so it's missing in the kids I coach—that peer instruction.

    I'm not advocating for multi-sport or street soccer, because those have their own holes.
     
  9. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    I stole a page from a former BigTen women's basketball coach on how to play man defense. He called it "pistol pete" . . . make a gun with each hand and point one at your mark and one at the ball and check back and forth between the two. I've probably mentioned this before.

    Then from Bryan Robson book I took out of the library, always position your body so you can see or feel your mark AND the ball.
     
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  10. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    None of my youth teams ever worked on verbal keys so when I first heard a kid on the other team yell, "trail!" I thought it was some sort of...trail...you know, like a pattern he was going to run. :confused: Yay for being 7!
     
  11. geddymurphy

    geddymurphy New Member

    May 28, 2013
    Club:
    FC Augsburg
    I yell plenty of important things during a game:

    - "Please get out of the woods! The game is over here!"

    - "Don't argue with the ref!"

    - "No, you're going in for Billy! Not Johnny!"

    - "Please stop trying to wear the Pugg goal as a hat!"

    I find those are a little more helpful than yelling "Support!" to a player who has not yet been introduced to the concept, like I've seen a lot of U7 tactical masterminds doing.

    I try to yell nothing but positive reinforcement during a game, particularly for subtle things like making a great run into space or marking someone rather than just ball-watching. I'll be thrilled when it actually happens that way. In the meantime, I'll be the one yelling for his U9 player who's supposed to be playing forward that he should get out of his own net.
     
  12. Rob55

    Rob55 Member

    Nov 20, 2011
    Hah, my son's first season of U6, he spend most of the game chasing around some girl trying to kiss and hug her during each game. This season he was captain on the High School JV team, so alot can change in a couple of seasons.
     
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  13. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    I had a 14 year old girl on a coed team that...um...developed over winter. She started doing the same thing on the field. I always made sure to put her on my side of the field so I could remind her what "game" we were playing ;)
     
  14. Danielpeebles

    Danielpeebles Member

    May 17, 2013
    Milford, Ohio
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    my team had some of that. I would set up cones ahead of time for drills before practice, and someone would have them in their mouths, or would be kicking them or having a cone throwing contest with another child. Generally someone always kicking the ball in the goal while someone else was getting their own ball out of the goal, and that person would start crying after getting nailed and be out of the first 15 minutes of practice.

    For fall season I'm going to put one parent in charge of
    1. pre-practice goal management (make sure no one stands in the goal and gets hurt if I'm collecting money or doing some other administrative duty, or someone else can just be in charge of the administrative stuff. I tried getting my wife to do admin stuff, and she stopped coming to practices.)

    2. a bench mom/dad. instead of having 2 assistants, I'm going to have 1 assistant coach and 1 bench mom/dad. I don't need 2 parents thinking they need to help coach, someone needs to make sure I can substitute players in, rather than saying "what happened to my subs?" "he went to the bathroom." "where's my other sub?" "he's on the other teams bench, he says he was traded." "he wasn't traded, telling him to put his own shirt back on and give the other player a break, everyone is waiting."
     
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  15. saabrian

    saabrian Member

    Mar 25, 2002
    Upstate NY
    Club:
    Leicester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Using multiple goals will mitigate this problem. Not possible in every circumstance, I realize, but it does help.
     
  16. Danielpeebles

    Danielpeebles Member

    May 17, 2013
    Milford, Ohio
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I was thinking of doing a game called "scrimmage with attack goalies"
    basically, the goalies play defensive mid-field, and are allowed to attack the goal when they have possession, but when they chase a forward down, they can jump on the ball in the penalty box. I had a goalie or 2 that felt paralyzed when the ball was only a few feet away because they believed they were not allowed to leave the box, a few times it lead to a very good goalie getting scored on. (I told them a few times, but by game time they forgot)
     
  17. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Or if you use multiple goals in a SSG, always have one more goal than defenders. Or make the goals really wide so it's ineffective to campout in front of it.

    As for the other, play with a "sweeper-keeper"
     
    Rob55 repped this.
  18. Rob55

    Rob55 Member

    Nov 20, 2011
    That's a good suggestion about making really wide goals for SSG's to prevent "camper-outers". That is a problem I've always had with SSGs...I've always a few girls that want to be lazy and just hang back and block the goal and boot it forward. It requires constant monitoring by myself as coach to get them moving in support offensively. Mostly just due to being winded and a lack of conditioning as well as lack of confidence in dribbling skill, but the wide cone goals is another way to fix that (and making the ones who like to camp out, to play up as forwards for a few minutes. Although in a very well played SSG (3-5 players), positions / zonal play really doesn't exist if they are doing it right with lots of give & goes and such.
     
  19. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    Another way is to keep the goals small (1-2 yards wide), but still award a goal if it hits the "camp-outer".

    OR!! (devious)

    Play with 3 goals for each team. Make the field, say, 20 yards wide. Assign full-time keepers. GK has to guard all three goals BUT must play behind the goal. To stop shots she can step through the goal. As you can imagine, the GK must sprint laterally to protect her goals. This type of game encourages field players to move the play side to side to "outrun" the GK.

    It's exhausting for GKs, so now there's one less place for them to "hide".
     
  20. equus

    equus Member

    Jan 6, 2007
    You can also play an SSG with two 5 yard end zones -- no goals. Score by completing a pass to a teammate in the end zone. Opposing team cannot enter the end zone they're defending. Keeps defenders covering the entire width of the field, and also good for attacking players with off-the-ball runs, finding space, and getting ahead of the player with the ball instead of even or behind them.

    Also, you can simply moves your goals back 5-7 yards off the goal line. Even if the defenders are inside the six, they're still about 10 yards away from the goal mouth.
     
  21. Monkey Boy

    Monkey Boy Member

    Jul 21, 2006
    Madison, WI
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Just play ghost or everyone's a striker.

    In ghost you play a normal soccer game, but only one player on each team can score, the ghost. The coach assigns the ghost for each team, so you can assign those players who want to be lazy.

    For everyone's a striker, it's a normal game. Once a player scores, that player cannot score again until everyone on their team has scored.
     
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  22. Twenty26Six

    Twenty26Six Feeling Sheepish...

    Jan 2, 2004
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You'd think so, but then again, this is rarely the case for adults. I've always wonder why.
     
  23. ~*GabrielG

    ~*GabrielG Member

    Jul 14, 2011
    Reminds me of trying to have our kids do the "flying V" from hockey's Mighty Ducks movies. In fairness, the kids were enthusiastic and really wanted to try it out. Failed when opponents just stood in the middle of our group that was waiting for the throw-in and we didn't close a circle but just bunched up.
     
  24. ~*GabrielG

    ~*GabrielG Member

    Jul 14, 2011
    Excellent point - hadn't considered that the competitive side of stuff can ruin results.
     
  25. ~*GabrielG

    ~*GabrielG Member

    Jul 14, 2011
    A good reason why they should get rid of indirect free kicks. What's the point really, when someone else just needs to touch it for a second?
     

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