The MISTITLED 2014 Climate Change Victimized Thread

Discussion in 'Coach' started by elessar78, Feb 24, 2014.

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  1. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    Teach striking as part of a movement. There are a lot of ways you can do this. I have started with walking, which is a very natural movement, so they get used to the rhythm. Start in front of the goal, have them carry the ball, drop it, and volley it into the net. Helps with the approach, weight transfer, and follow through. The gimmick is that by framing the strike with the familiar movement of walking, they won't think about the walking part and the movement will flow naturally. By the way the ball flies, the players get good feedback on their contact with the ball. Good contact with the instep and the ball flies true with good energy.

    I prefer to start teaching striking with instep drives, because the walking motion is more natural than using the inside of the foot. If you start teaching striking with the side of the foot, the walking movement is less natural because of the outward facing of the hip away from the direction of movement. Usually kids can perform instep drives while running without problem.

    With really young kids, running is a better fit than walking. A "hop" for the weight transfer from planted foot to the striking foot should come naturally. The youngest I coached is U10. It is a great age group to work with. I would be reluctant to coach specific techniques before U8. My view is that the younger ages should be focused on having fun with a ball. First you build the desire and then when they are older, if they have the desire, you teach them technique and how to practice.
     
  2. GKbenji

    GKbenji Member+

    Jan 24, 2003
    Fort Collins CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Teach striking by working on solid contact and accuracy first--hitting a target at maybe 15-20 yards. When kids try to kill the ball, technique ends up suffering. You kick far by using good form, not by doing it as hard as you can.

    A few key coaching points I've found for instep drives:
    1. As rca says, the step or "hop" into the ball is critical. I always say "Short last step, short kick. Long last step, long kick." What a long step does is get the kicking leg to stretch out behind a bit, so you get the full length of the swing. For compaison, imagine a golf putt (short swing) to a driver (long swing).

    2. The sweet spot on the foot must meet the center of the ball. But the brain tends to think the "center" of the foot is closer to the ankle than the instep where you want to strike the ball. You'll often see a ball stay low, and spin away from the kicking foot (to the left if it's a right-footed kick). So you need to watch for a few things:
    a) Plant foot needs to be far enough away from the ball. A common mistake is to plant way too close. Here's my rule of thumb (so to speak): Have the player take their hand and extend pinky and thumb out as far as they can--kind of a "hang loose" sign. That's the distance their plant foot should be from the edge of the ball.
    b) Toe down. If they raise their toe (like for a push pass) they'll hit the side of the ball instead.
    c) Aim slightly to the "inside" of the ball (to the left of center for a right-footed kick). Doing that counter-acts the brain's idea of where the center of the foot is, and they'll get the sweet spot of the foot centered on the ball. If it's correct, the ball won't have any side-spin.

    3. The kick should be long, smooth and easy. Don't kill the ball. Make solid contact and let physics do its thing.

    Start with short, accurate kicks and make sure they're hitting the correct spot on the ball with the correct part of the foot, comfortably and easily. Then ratchet up the power, by using a longer step & swing than by trying harder.
     
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  3. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    What I see from my U9s in terms of striking:

    Non-locked ankle.
    Not sure how to teach this. "Toe-down" has never worked for me personally (as a player). For me, maybe it's my unique biology, or multiple sprained ankles, but toe down doesn't give me a hard lock. I have to flex/tense the muscles in my lower leg (the muscle that runs along the outside of the shin bone and what looks to be the soleus muscles).

    [​IMG]

    Leg Swing (from Blast the Ball DVD)
    I used the pool noodle vs baseball bat analogy. You don't want to hit the ball with a limp, wobbly pool noodle, a strong object like a bat will propel that sucker. So the whole leg stays solid and swings at the hip joint only. Knee is slightly bent and but does not move.
     
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  4. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    #104 rca2, Apr 21, 2014
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2014
    When I think of striking I think of pitching a baseball. The whole body is involved with every part adding to the speed, even the wrist and hands. It is like cracking a whip. So I don't buy into the idea of not involving the knee joint. I think like the wrist, it adds to the speed. Since we are striking instead of throwing, the striking area needs to be tense (hard) rather than relaxed to transfer the most energy. BUT it only needs to be tense during contact with the ball, which is fortunate since we need to first push off before striking and then land after striking on that same foot. I guess for most people telling them to lock the ankle is going to get them to tense the foot too.

    Also the "toes pointed down" stretches the soft tissue over the bone in the instep, making the instep firmer. It also brings the boney sweet spot into a more prominent position, better able to contact the ball. The difference might be small, but I think that is what happens. I don't think that the point is movement related.

    When thinking about "toes down" forget about dead balls. Think instead about striking on the volley or half volley. It works extremely well for me, and should for you too.
     
  5. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Good things for me to try out tonight. Similar but just different enough I am hoping it clicks. A few have the idea but they aren't consistent. I've tried doing it from a light jog but they focus heavily on the plant foot and then get all wonky. I like the drop and hit idea. I don't want them to kill it but more to get in a longer pass or not have to dribble into the goal. I'd just like to have some quicker movements to compliment our short game passing and maybe draw out defenders with a few longer shots. The team we played Saturday kept a defender so far back she essentially acted like a second goalie. We peppered the goal but never scored. When it wasn't that defender it was the goalie (who came out in the second half and took over the game. grrr). Yeah, perfect time for everything we worked on the week before to be needed.

    As for the "ankle lock" thing, in an essence, you are both correct. It just depends on your view. A straight up anatomical viewpoint - to keep it simple - when you dorsiflex the ankle is locked due to the tibia and fibula holding it into place (think dovetail joint from your woodshop class). When you plantar flex - elessar's issue with sprains - you are relying on the muscle being strong enough to hold it into place. It's locked but anatomically not really. That reminds me I have to dig out my tape for tonight. One girl hurt her ankle and the doctor wants it wrapped. I can officially say I've never wrapped a 9 year old's ankle.
     
  6. rca2

    rca2 Member+

    Nov 25, 2005
    Here is another coaches' drill for teaching good contact with the instep:

    I think you can see more energy when there is good contact, as well as hearing a sound difference.
     
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  7. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Going to a tournament this weekend and we worked on team/small-group defending concepts yesterday. Such a great, fun topic. They got the basic ideas down so now we can refine, refine, refine, over the next practice and pregame. One of the drills we used yesterday


    [​IMG]

    Coach plays ball in, Reds give chase and try to win possession (not just disposses) by either playing out of the back of Blue's zone or playing back to their teammates' zone.
     
  8. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    My U8s have been working hard on shooting technique this spring. We started with the basics of how to approach the ball. The natural approach for many kids is to run straight at the ball and kick straight-legged like a Rockette. We got them to take a slightly angled run at the ball instead. Emphasis on proper plant-foot placement. Many kids tend to put their plant foot too far back and lunge at the ball. Proper placement is in line with the ball and maybe 6-12 inches to the side of it, depending on the size of the player. The plant foot also should be pointed at the target (i.e., on frame and not straight at the keeper). A lot of coaches instruct players to "land on the shooting foot." This is good advice but is a little hard for some kids to understand. In addition to talking about landing on the shooting foot, we talk about not anchoring the plant foot. Some kids will "land" on their shooting foot without ever lifting their plant foot off the ground. Almost immediately after striking the ball, the plant foot needs to leave the ground so as not to halt forward momentum.

    We also emphasized pointing the toe/locking the ankle, but many of the kids were just not getting this. Some were shooting with their toe and others were whipping their foot rather than keeping the ankle locked. Last night we used the method shown in the video above with good success. We also talked about making the leg (from the knee cap to the big toe) stiff like a baseball bat rather than limp like a pool noodle as @elessar78 mentioned above. Two kids had pretty good breakthroughs thanks to these methods. So...thanks!
     
  9. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Regarding striking the ball:
    Since we're still in pre-season of sorts we're working on restarts like corners and goal kicks. I noticed that my U9s and U11s don't set-up for deadball kicks.

    I coach them to:
    1 place the ball on a tuft of grass and not in a rut)
    2 set your plant foot next to the ball (using @GKbenji's "hang-ten" to set the distance)
    3 set your striking point and identify the contact point on both ball and foot
    4 step it back to a comfortable distance
    5 keep eye on the striker point on the ball

    made a huge difference for a few of them
     
  10. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    During a break we broke out the walk-drop thing as a quick intro. They were hitting the ball square after a bit. Now it's just learning to not run straight on. I quoted you because last night I was informed that #2 did not actually mean "hang ten" but hello or something like that. I wasn't really paying attention to a 9 year old being a smart aleck.
     
  11. danielpeebles2

    Dec 3, 2013
    well, during today's game, my youngest son and one of his friends on the other team were pretending to be dueling star wars styles with imaginary light sabers. (both 7 years old) how's that for gma? His dad said, "I can see now why it would be a bad idea to have them on the same team." on the bright side he did have a few good dribbles before he lost interest.

    My other boy played hard though, nearly scored a goal today, but he lurched over the shooting arch.
     
  12. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Aaaaaand we're off. Finally got outdoors this week. Practice Monday and Wednesday. That should be enough for a tournament today. Right?

    Anyway, team went 2-2. 3-0 and 4-0 wins. 1-0 and 2-1 losses. And in the 2-1 loss we missed several chances to tie and win. Very happy with the day. Mostly, though, I changed my team shape for this team. Historically for U-12 I played a 3-3-1. After this indoor season, where we play a 3-2-1 where we play two central middies and ask our defenders to get wide and forward on the attack, we kept having the problem of getting those guys forward. Now that we have the time in practice to work a bit tactically, I switched to a 4-2-1. By adding a second central defender, I've pushed those outside defenders to much more of free wings to create width and not getting bottle-necked by middies while going forward. It worked nicely today. Enough to give it some further use for tomorrow's league opener.
     
  13. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And here we have two league games left. You all did better in your tournament than ours. Our last 4 games across all competitions have seen us control the game for long stretches with nothing to show. Higher level teams, equal teams, lower team. Doesn't matter. And you know how it goes when you let teams hang around...0-4.

    Warning, rant upcoming. It's a total pet peeve of mine when teams crowd the box on goalkicks. Most of the younger kids don't have the leg strength to get it very far and so many coaches take advantage of it and have their kids surround the opposing box. Win kick, score. Yay to develop your kids there, coach. Our rec game was really bad. My team is horrible and we were probably down 10-0 at one point and the other coach was yelling at his kids to crowd the box and then would praise them tremendously when they intercepted a pass and scored. My poor boys don't have the understanding, leg strength, or coordination to either get it long or even to the outside (they play with a line across the field and no true box so there isn't a lot of outside anyway). I make my kids drop back and actually win the ball with a thing I call defense. We don't get many easy (cheap) goals but we are developing marking and tackling. *end rant*
     
  14. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Lost our season opener yesterday 2-1. We hit the crossbar 3 times. Boys played decently. Passing and ball control could have been better.

    Just hate losing to a team that plays Foosball soccer and line up their three defenders to stand straight across, deep in the back and never coming forward. Meanwhile my team takes some risk pushing numbers forward and putting us at risk for counter-attack. It then becomes up to the players on the field to problem solve and learn the lessons that all over the field we always need some counter-balance to the attack. Give up two breakaway goals and we can't get a good look from the middle of the field - we had most of our shots from wide spots against a pretty good goalkeeper.

    Anyway after this weekend it has been fun to see that some kids who I couldn't imagine being competent soccer players at a U-12 level back in October are now taking up prominent positions in the central midfield and central defense as tempo setters and ball control.

    Hate, hate, hate goal kicks at young ages. I tell my team that in my score book, I don't count goal kick goals for or against. Just like I won't count free kick goals against depending on our inability to build a proper wall, etc.

    Of course conversely, I really want my kids to be able to learn to make eye contact with our GK to make a run into a window between two defenders and have the GK deliver a ball to that open spot. At least we can work on a skill there.
     
  15. CoachPaulTX

    CoachPaulTX New Member

    Apr 28, 2014
    Dallas, TX
    Club:
    Aston Villa FC
    I'm jealous of all of you just kicking off the season. We have just one more game in our competitive league left and one scheduled for academy (hoping a few makeup games will be scheduled in that league).

    Won our U7 competitive league game 10-1 Saturday, we are 9-0 after going 9-0 in the fall after moving up to U7. Won our U7 academy game 10-0 yesterday. It has been really amazing to watch these neighborhood boys come together since the age of 3. We are now to a point were our players have to do "X" amount of passes before they can shoot, do a skill move before a pass/shoot and if you score you move back to defense/goalie. Our first goal is fun, our second is development. We only use positive reinforcement in coaching (the team we played Saturday was talented but played timid/scared, after a 10 minute tongue lashing from the coach after the game I knew why).

    For all you coaches with new teams, just stick with it as it takes some time but if you can keep a bunch of players together they will become a team eventually. Many lessons took practice over multiple seasons before fully sinking in. The more we play, the lesson coaching I do from the sideline. We did play up an age (which was 1-2 years older) academy indoor soccer in the winter to challenge the team - that paid big dividends (despite losing all but 2 games and one of those was a forfeit) as our boys saw a much quicker, passing based game that they learned from the older boys. I think I'm going to take a group of the boys and try futsal this summer for developmental purposes.

    Best of luck everyone and enjoy the season!
     
  16. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    Don't be. After the coldest winter in 25 years with snow covering the fields non-stop until late March, we just got outdoors a month later than usual. We stood in rain and cold for Saturday's tournament (our other U-12 team played in sleet late in the afternoon). Yesterday I spent 9 hours in mostly mid-high 40's playing in my own match, refereeing two matches and coaching one.

    I can use some sun and high 60's stat.
     
  17. Coach_Hayles

    Coach_Hayles Member

    Dec 23, 2013
    Redmond, WA
    Club:
    Newcastle United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    So my girls have played two games so far... a 1-1 in the first game and then a 5-0 loss. Oddly, they played much better in the 5-0 loss - they used the space much better, seem to have a better handle on positions, were making smart runs. Unfortunately the field was awful so passing and dribbling were both tough going.

    The tie was a scrappy affair with everyone chasing the ball around the field.

    One persistent problem I'm having with the girls is making tackles. They're enthusiastic but they all seem to just kick the ball directly at the opponent's legs and it bounces off going the other way again. I keep telling them to try and knock it to one side or the other but I'm getting nowhere. Any tips?
     
  18. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    If the attacking player is so out of control with the ball so far out in front of herself that all you need to do is knock the ball to one side or the other and go around her, that's not really a tackle at all. A tackle occurs when an attacking player has fairly close control of the ball and you need make near-simultaneous contact with the ball in an attempt to stop her progress or dispossess her. In that case, you really don't have the option to simply "knock it to one side or the other."

    I teach tackling by placing a dead ball between two players with each player one step from the ball. I say "One, two, three, tackle!" and the players each make simultaneous contact with the ball with ankle locked and toe up, similar to an inside of the foot pass. Both players have their hips and shoulders squared to the tackle. They then each take a step back and repeat, trying to sychronize contact so that they hit the ball at the same moment and the ball stays mostly still. This teaches them the proper manner for making contact in a tackle. We then progress to continuing the play until one player or the other manages to "tackle their way through" and win the ball. The key is to stay square and not turn your body such that the other player is able to tackle the ball through you.
     
  19. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    This tournament weekend, again, for me was bitter sweet. We dominated possession in 2 games on Saturday only to lose by one goal each time and had the lead in both games. BUT it's still progress for this team. Last season they couldn't score, couldn't possess, couldn't penetrate now they're doing all those things. We conceded goals off of bad mistakes . . . my usually trusty GK let a ball roll through his legs, a defender didn't trap a ball well in the box, a soft pass gets intercepted right in front of goal, a player decides to tie his shoes and a 50/50 ball lands in his vicinity—stupid, lame, self-inflicted mistakes.

    But after a season where we only scored 6 goals all season, we've scored already scored 10 goals in 5 games.
     
  20. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Block tackle is just one way to dispossess an opponent. And, I believe, I got this from @nicklaino, but on the block tackle at the moment of contact roll over the ball to get it to go over the opponent's foot.

    I also teach a poke tackle and stepping in between an attacker and the ball.
     
  21. cleansheetbsc

    cleansheetbsc Member+

    Mar 17, 2004
    Club:
    --other--
    UGHHHHHH!
    1. Can my players please check their shoes before they check into a match? I spend 8 minutes trying to get them to focus what is going on on the field and not screwing off on the bench. Within 30 seconds of going into a match, they are on the floor tying their shoes.
    2. Nike and Adidas, this is also on you with the terrible laces that you put in your boots. Spend 2 cents more and get better laces!
     
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  22. dcole

    dcole Member+

    May 27, 2005
    I wouldn't describe stepping in between an attacker and the ball as a tackle, I'd call it disposssessing, but not tackling. A poke tackle is something you do if you're approaching the tackle from behind or beside the player in possession, like a slide tackle. If you're poking the ball away from a player who is coming head on at you, I'd personally refer to that again as disposesing rather than tackling. But this is all really just semantics. I assumed he was asking about block tackling, but maybe he wasn't.
     
  23. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC

    He was in my dog house that day because of the laces. During warm-ups for game two he stops AGAIN in the middle to tie his shoes. I lost it a little and told him to step off the pitch and triple knot it. Know what? Wasn't an issue again the whole weekend.
     
  24. elessar78

    elessar78 Moderator
    Staff Member

    May 12, 2010
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I did use the word "dispossess" in the first sentence of my response, right?

    Does a ball have to be poked right back at the attacker? A side-on defender can't reach in with his inside foot and poke it away?
     
  25. Ihateusernames

    May 16, 2007
    Merriam, KS
    Club:
    Kansas City Wizards
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That was our game last weekend. The defender was so deep that she was pretty much a second goalie. It kinda confused my girls. Then in our league game yesterday morning the other team ended up with 4 in their own box (playing 6v6) and hit on a couple counters. I want my girls to move up a level and play better/equal competition but we have to stop losing to lesser competition first.

    I don't count goals that come from goalkicks. Unfortunately the refs do.
     

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