Not sure why, but my girls hate playing each other in SSG formats. I've tried lots of variations (many ideas from this board and others) but they just don't seem to get into them. Sometimes they just stand around and don't try. Last night I had my best player ask if she and another top player could go and work on skills together off to the side instead of playing in the SSG. They seem to really take to elimination style games. They are fun, but as a coach trying to develop them, I don't like them because elimination style games usually mean the less skilled players get eliminated and stand around and wait while the better skilled players get more reps. So the better get better basically. Seems to be what most players on my team likes though. They really need game instinct development and better transition instincts (along with footskills) and SSGs usually are best for developing the game instincts. They just don't like SSGs. Anyone else ever encounter a group that doesn't like SSGs? Seems strange to me. I get less complaining from doing our foot skills & dribble training.
Okay, do you just divide into two teams, set up small goals, and play? Or are you always putting in restrictions, twists, and stoppages? I can't imagine players who don't like just playing... what the heck do they do on the weekend at match time? Ask to have a juggling competition with the other team? What I can see is players who dislike funky restrictions they don't quite understand (especially girls!) and games that are stopped every 30 seconds for coaching points. I have no idea if that's what's happening, but I'll throw it out there. Fewer restrictions, fewer stoppages, use praise/corrections at natural stoppages or point things out during the run of play. Here's a great "tournament" type SSG activity. Divide into as many teams of 3 or 4 as you can. Play a series of 4-5 minute games (multiple games going on at once). At the end of each game, each player tallies their score like this: 3 points if their team won 1 point if they tied 1 point for every goal the player scored 1 point for every assist the player got So, if their team tied and they got one assist, they'd get 2 points. Lose but score 2 goals, 2 points. Win and score 2 goals, 5 points. Then after every game, scramble the teams so they are all playing with different players. So there is a personal element (goals/assists) but you also have to help your team win however you can. After a few rounds of games, player with top points wins. Competition, but no knock-out. If they don't like this, I feel for you.
They don't want to think. They don't want to work hard at practice. It's not uncommon with some female soccer players to resist guided discovery and competitive games in practice.
Mine don't seem to love them either, they just want to play "real soccer" i.e. 8v8 with goalkeepers on a full field. They don't complain and the SSGs can be pretty spirited but I can tell they have their eyes on that full scrimmage. The vocal ones at least. I'm not sure why either. I usually don't put any restrictions, this season I haven't put any. And I try to keep the game flowing. I do make coaching points on the fly but that goes for the scrimmage as well. One thought is that kids want to do what they are good at. If it's skills training then they'd opt for that. Another is that they don't see how SSGs are just a snippet of the full game. Or maybe it's the vocal minority driving things?
Some of the frustration may stem from their inability to win battles 1v1. My daughter was that way at first, she loves to play give and go with her midfielders or slot a through ball out to her wingers. When it came to her vs one other, she became somewhat predictable and that led to her losing the ball. As soon as she developed a few 1v1 moves and learned to use her body to shield the ball, she began winning the individual battles and enjoyed ssg's much more. You should be emphasizing individual skills and off the ball movement before they get into the ssg. If they go in with more instruction they feel less pressure from the 1v1's that come up.
Good observation. We've had problems giving the ball away during matches (too much for my liking) so one of the things we worked on last night were turning moves (pull behinds, cruyffs, Vs) to help them turn away from pressure. We've worked a lot on 1v1s for penetrating over the past two years, but apparently not enough of dribbling to possess.
When you have restrictions in your SSGs, are you explaining to them why you have the restriction and how it relates to a game situation? Girls typically want to know why they are being asked to do something as opposed to "just do it." If they like elimination games, make a game where when one team scores, they get to choose who on the other team has to go off. Then let them play for a couple of minutes like a "power play", then send the one who was sent off back on. Then the side with the advantage is motivated to send off more, and the side that doesn't is learning how to attack with fewer numbers and defend as a group against numbers until their teammate gets back on. Is it consistent that everyone doesn't want to play SSG or just every once in a while? You'll have occasions where they're just not into it for whatever reason. Have a backup plan for Swedish Handball or some goofy game to play to get them interested, then try it again.
My girls really enjoy "real scrimmages" for the last 20 minutes of each practice against the U12 team in 8v8 format on the smaller U12 field, even though we've never beaten them in 8+ matches, we compete pretty well and pose more challenge each match it seems. I like the tournament style idea for SSGs mentioned as I think one of the reasons they lack interest in inter-squad SSG's is because I don't really put much emphasis on the competition and win/loss outcomes so the competitive drive isn't there to motivate. It ends up being alot of tiring running around playing the resemblence of a mini soccer match without any focus on win vs. loss (sort of working on certain game skills but not really engaged in fierce competition). Perhaps even giving some incentives/decentives for the winning and losing teams might also make it a little more exciting and fun. I just need to make sure teams are well balanced and fair.
Every SSG in a session, I always leave time for a 4-5min competitive game of it as the last bit, with minimal or no interruption. So every practice will have 2-3 short "competitive" games within it, even before reaching the final scrimmage. You don't even need consequences, but you do need a winner/loser and a bit of uninterrupted play time.
I ran everything except warm ups as competitions. I think ending a practice with 10 to 15 minutes of uninterrupted play is a very important part of the "fun" factor. At any age. We play soccer because we love playing the game.
Also, if there are particular elimination games they really love, as soon as two people are eliminated they should start their own smaller version of the game - you might even have multiple sessions of that while the main elimination game is still going on. Depending on how you are selecting winners/losers in the "consolation" games, you can send back winners to the main game. This also helps if you have a wide discrepancy in talent, as the girls who tend to get kicked out early will then immediately be thrown into a game with the other weaker girls, where they can gain confidence more easily.
I've seen this in the adult world. Players who can't beat people (lacking 1v1 skills) seem to be the worst at enjoying non-competitive or SSG without proper goals. It doesn't matter that they have good passing/crossing skills, I know several players who switch off when I suggest SSG without goal posts.
Good point, one of the big benefits of SSGs is that you can't hide. So weaker players are exposed—but that's what needs to happen so they can get better. Maybe before you let them loose on the SSG include a note in your instruction that SSGs expose weaknesses. Exposing what one is not good at is a positive thing. It's part of self-awareness and self improvement. Once you know what you are NOT good at then you can work on eliminating that from your game. From a coaching standpoint, SSGs really highlight what certain players are not good at. Technique, awareness, understanding of the game, etc. In a full game players encounter the ball less frequently so when it does come to them they might play it well so the deficiency is masked. But in a SSG they get numerous chances to make the same or similar plays and over, say, ten attempts you'll see what their common mistakes are.
What kind of Skills did they want to work on? Was it passing or shooting drills? I bet it wasn't 1 v 1 or dribbling drills.
i think others have hit the nail on the head: competition. there's an intensity to actual games that kids don't necessarily feel in a casual game. (elimination-type games provide a similar kind of intensity.) i'm not saying that ssg = casual. i just mean that the kids probably see it that way. i liked benji's suggestion of a tournament. even a round robin format could be useful (instead of stopping play to instruct, let play go uninterrupted and instruct the group that's off the field). but... how many kids do you have? (if you don't have a lot/enough, they could just be bored playing the same kids over and over again.)
i was thinking competition as well, but someone who's serious about getting better and serious about the sport is always wanting to win. whether it is in a drill, a SSG, or a scrimmage. this might just have to be a taste to let them develop.
Just curious, what age are these girls? My team is now U-16 and we went through a couple of seasons (around U-11/12) where they really didn't like the small sided games very much, either. I found that unlike boys, girls (at least mine) feel more of a sister-ship with their team-mates and don't really like to beat them in SSGs. They would work on skills, and really enjoyed playing 7v7 or 8v8, but it was the 2v2, 3v3 stuff that they were more apt to just go through the motions and not really try to 'win'. One thing that I tried (and seemed to work pretty well) was to have one group (say red) choose either my assistant or me as their representative. The other group (say white) got the other coach. We'd play a certain SSG for say 5 minutes. Whichever side was behind at that - different scores for different games - and the team rep would suffer. For example, I was with white playing keep away with 3 passes = one point. We'd either play to a score or for time. At the end, if red was winning, I'd have to do 10 pushups/run a sprint/sing "Row, Row, Row your boat" etc. In this way, they were competing against each other, but the 'losers' were the coaches. The girls could bond by being 'us vs the adults' and not feel that they were beating one of their friends/teammates. Good luck and let us know if you find something that works for you.
that's not a bad point. just have to keep in mind that we're talking about girls soccer and we don't know what age group, level of play, etc. i mean, if this is rec league, it's not all the players who are going to be "serious".
U14 girls rec. team I have the lower skill team in our league so most of my serious players from last season were taken by our top tier team from tryouts. Most of the girls on my team (with exception of maybe 4-5 out of 17) don't have much passion or intensity for the game, they are there for the social aspect of playing on a team and getting out of the house.
I think that answers most of your question. When my girls were that age, we worked and trained with our 'county' (rec) team once a week. The girls worked well when we did skill work, and we divided up to scrimmage and that worked well, too. The SSGs were very unpopular and eventually I didn't work on them much that day, spending more time on skill work then right into larger sided games (min of 7v7). I'd try to talk to the girls more individually during those scrimmages if they weren't doing the skill as we had worked on it. Hope that helps. Best of luck to you.
I think everything you mentioned probably applies to my team (mostly 12 year olds). Here's my gameplan: 1st 5 minute game...provide some stoppage and instruction to individuals 2nd 5 minute game...I play with 1 team and if we lose I have to run a lap, do a dance...whatever punishment they want (within reason) 3rd 5 minute game...I'll switch teams. (although I have a fear that the team I'm on will deliberately tank the game just so I have to do something stupid).
That sounds great. If you have any other adult that can be the 'other coach', by all means use them. The object isn't that they have to teach the girls, it just gives some of them another person that can atone for them if they don't "win". One other thing that I learned at my recent NSCAA class - ask them why they don't like certain SSGs, especially if there is a majority of girls who don't like a certain game. You don't have to fix everything they don't like (for example, we went through some problems with playing keep-away for a while - they thought it was pointless). If they have specific issues with these SSGs, hopefully you can modify them to make the girls more apt to work them as you intend. Again, best of luck.
The SSG's worked pretty well last night. They seemed to enjoy punishing the coach (I lost every game to no surprise despite my trying 110% to win). I've had a few girls whom said we need to work on our drop passes (i.e. passing backward to an open teammates instead of forcing it forward into traffic all the time). So we tried to emphasize that area of development in our games last night.
As with many aspects of soccer, it's always a balancing act. From experience, you let them freely use the drop pass and some will become comfortable with the "safety" of it. In certain areas of the field, we need to put the ball in some form of calculated risk. I'd be vigilant about the drop pass becoming a cop out--regardless of the direction of the pass, it should be the right decision. I've just seen too many high school and junior high kids who play the drop pass or hoof it away (under minimal pressure). Just because nothing bad happened, doesn't mean they made a good play.
Awesome. You have to feel that you've done a good job with them when they are happy and trying to work on their skills. Also, letting them talk to you and give you some input makes them feel more involved with the team and will make this a better, more coach-able team in the long run. Next time, give 120% (;-).
