Switching from 7 to 11

[kopiteinkc]

My rec team (Girls U-14) is switching this season from 7 vs 7 to 11 vs 11.

Of course they will be playing on bigger fields too.

I have been coaching them for about 6 years now and they are a great bunch.

However, I have concerns about how they will make this transition and ideas to help them would be appreciated.

I expect they will have huge gaps between the defenders and midfield and between the midfield and forwards. I also anticipate stamina being an issue on a larger field.

Other things I should be looking for and suggested remedies?

[uniteo]

I assume they're making the move within a club...so every other team will have the same challenge?

I would just arrange a couple of friendlies for them to get used to the field size. And yeah, they'll be more spread out, but they shoud be more spread out. I've had problems with my defenders hanging too far back and constantly having to tell them to move up, but I think that is more because of youth coaches who told them 'defenders stay back.'

[lillefty7]

id remind them constantly of their shape and to not stray too far from their home area just because they have the bigger field. Always seee where the rest of the players are and position urself accordingly.

[kopiteinkc]

I assume they're making the move within a club...so every other team will have the same challenge?

I would just arrange a couple of friendlies for them to get used to the field size. And yeah, they'll be more spread out, but they shoud be more spread out. I've had problems with my defenders hanging too far back and constantly having to tell them to move up, but I think that is more because of youth coaches who told them 'defenders stay back.'

Actually two clubs merged and the other club have been playing 11 v 11 whereas our club has been stuck at 7 v 7. So my team will be somewhat at a disadvantage.

[uniteo]

id remind them constantly of their shape and to not stray too far from their home area just because they have the bigger field. Always seee where the rest of the players are and position urself accordingly.

You know, I'd encourage them - wait, it's U-14, I'd demand that they do it - to leave their areas on the attack, just stress that they need to get back on defense and be aware of what the people who are supposed to be around them are doing.

They really need to learn by now that the attack should be dynamic and they're capable of abstract thought, they can figure out that if A is playing behind B and then A passes B, B needs to cover for A.

[Twenty26Six]

My rec team (Girls U-14) is switching this season from 7 vs 7 to 11 vs 11.

Of course they will be playing on bigger fields too.

I have been coaching them for about 6 years now and they are a great bunch.

However, I have concerns about how they will make this transition and ideas to help them would be appreciated.

I expect they will have huge gaps between the defenders and midfield and between the midfield and forwards. I also anticipate stamina being an issue on a larger field.

Other things I should be looking for and suggested remedies?

I'm a little late in chiming in on this, but I thought I'd try and help.

The biggest problems I could see arising are lack of movement amongst players who aren't near to the ball and a lack of purpose/direction in those players as well.

One thing that should work for you is that fact that these girls are used to playing with a little more pressure at their heels and they should be comfortable with making short, quick passes. 7v7 should definitely be more hectic and scattered than 11v11. Use the new space to your advantage.

Best thing I can think of is to start praising support play and short/direct/quick passing. Focus on possession and the virtues of checking to the ball. Make them face the ball when receiving and above all they need to be talking up a storm.

Re-establishing sound fundamentals of trapping and passing and ingraining them with proper habits when it comes to support play is a plus in any format. Although, I think it would be especially helpful when moving to a bigger field.

Small quick and easy passes plus numerous short off the ball runs is a great way to keep possession. The more possession, the less chasing and that should help out with the lack of stamina.

They don't necessarily need to be more spread out. At their age and depending on their skill level that may lead to problems in linking passes and lead to long ball or risky passes. Something that is tougher to teach, but much more valuable than 'spreading out' is keeping them compact, but mobile. Being close together is not necessarily a bad thing as long as they have intelligent mobility as whole. What makes it hard is helping them distinguish the right and wrong between chasing the ball and moving as a unit.

I don't know if that made any sense at all, but I hope some of my ideas got across. I'd also love to hear an update on how it's going. I coach u-14 boys at the school level so it's nice to try to compare.

[kopiteinkc]

I don't know if that made any sense at all, but I hope some of my ideas got across. I'd also love to hear an update on how it's going. I coach u-14 boys at the school level so it's nice to try to compare.

Thanks for that.

In our first match we won 3-0 -- but against a team who had switched leagues with us and had never played 11-a-side either. So it wasn't a true test.

Then last Saturday came our reality check -- lost 7-1. Our positional play was awful and our support play even worse.

They were a much better team and kept their formation much better than my team.

As they pressured us my midfield collapsed and we ended up with 8 in the back line instead of 4. This led to huge problems getting any possession as we just kept clearing right back to them.

A number of times when we did get possession we had no support from other players as they watched for example a left back trapped in the corner forced to hoof it down the wing as no-one was available for a pass.

We looked slow, lacked aggression, acted intimidated and plain sucked. But hey they enjoyed their juice boxes and rice krispie treats and celebrated our last minute consolation goal like they'd won the cup. :)

My daughter said "we just got gotta get six more now" and they all laughed. Kids! :)

[Twenty26Six]

Thanks for that.

Hope it helped a little.

My daughter said "we just got gotta get six more now" and they all laughed. Kids! :)

See, now that's the gender difference. My modified boys probably would have cried/fought with each other on the field.

Re: Left back hoof - That's one of the biggest problems I have encountered when trying to train kids. Even at the high school level it is hard for them to grasp a sense of "total football" (everyone being involved, everyone expecting to get passed the ball). When helping out with my local varsity team, I really tried to work on getting the left and right backs to understand that they are an outlet for possession. Usually being the less skilled of the four defenders in a diamond D [stopper/sweeper] it even becomes more of a challenge because you are trying to develop abstract thought in a player who may not even be able to pass or trap well.

One consolation is that no matter how horribly skilled a player is, they can always mentally improve no matter how unathletic/untalented they may be. That in turn may be a bigger factor in their improvement at an older age than anything else [i.e. - dribbling skill, speed].

But, it's good to know they haven't lost their spirits because bottomline, it should be fun. Plus the ones that rise to the top in dealing with losses are the ones you can definitely build the team around. That's probably an over-complicated analysis of a bunch of girls playing soccer, but I can't help it. I love football :)

[kopiteinkc]

See, now that's the gender difference. My modified boys probably would have cried/fought with each other on the field.


Certainly. There was a little bit of complaining and pointing fingers. We had a friendly match on Sunday and we worked on some more things during that time.

One of the girls arrived and during warm ups announced to the rest of the team she didn't want to hear any more negative comments and all 11 players were at fault if we conceded a goal. All the other girls applauded.

Can you imagine a boys team doing that? :D

Now I have to fix all of our problems and make us world beaters by next weekend ;)

[kopiteinkc]

Ok I have decided the most important thing my girls team needs to work on is getting the players to support each other more.

It was glaringly obvious that too many players were left stranded while team mates stood and watch them get swarmed by two or three players from the other team.

I am not a novice at this but would appreciate any particular advice on this issue. Any particular drill/game that might help with improving support play?

[Twenty26Six]

I am not a novice at this but would appreciate any particular advice on this issue. Any particular drill/game that might help with improving support play?

I really don't have any sure fire drills to give you that would help.

I aways try to stress before/during/after practice the importance of communication and making simple plays. I try to get the kids to understand that trapping a ball when you are standing still and facing it is easier than when you are running away, etc.

I had been working on a drill [4v4]. Players, once in possession of the ball must freeze in their location after stalling the ball. The defender is not allowed to close down the players with the ball. This allows the player to pick their head up and forces them to find an open teammate. This also forces their teammates to find open space. It's not a superior exercise, but if the you can use that model and add to it, then it mat be helpful.

I also use _a lot_ of two touch drills[trap and pass]. I make them trap the ball first; mainly because most of my boys aren't highly skilled. Second touch is a pass. It doesn't allow dribbling. It forces them to pass, pass, pass. After awhile, they start to get accustomed to the constant off the ball movement.

If you find anything that seems to work particularly well, I would love to hear it. I'm always trying to find good new ways to work on support play.

[kopiteinkc]

I really don't have any sure fire drills to give you that would help.

I aways try to stress before/during/after practice the importance of communication and making simple plays. I try to get the kids to understand that trapping a ball when you are standing still and facing it is easier than when you are running away, etc.

I had been working on a drill [4v4]. Players, once in possession of the ball must freeze in their location after stalling the ball. The defender is not allowed to close down the players with the ball. This allows the player to pick their head up and forces them to find an open teammate. This also forces their teammates to find open space. It's not a superior exercise, but if the you can use that model and add to it, then it mat be helpful.

I also use _a lot_ of two touch drills[trap and pass]. I make them trap the ball first; mainly because most of my boys aren't highly skilled. Second touch is a pass. It doesn't allow dribbling. It forces them to pass, pass, pass. After awhile, they start to get accustomed to the constant off the ball movement.

If you find anything that seems to work particularly well, I would love to hear it. I'm always trying to find good new ways to work on support play.


I have been incorporating more and more two touch play as their skills improve. But I also have the problem of the first time hoof it anywhere. So I have to make sure they actually control it with the first touch instead of just a wild swing.

In the end today I told them I would give a foul to the other teasm if anyone didn't control it before passing it in our end of practice match. It worked quite well.

Next match is Sunday, I'll keep you posted.

[Twenty26Six]

In the end today I told them I would give a foul to the other team if anyone didn't control it before passing it in our end of practice match. It worked quite well.

I'm definitely going to have to try that. It's a very tangible way to show them I'm displeased and simultaneously put the the defense at a disadvantage because of the action.

Next match is Sunday, I'll keep you posted.

Great, I'm very interested. I'm not involved with any youth teams until August, but I'll definitely be noting this for use then.

[kopiteinkc]

Another thing I tried was splitting the pitch into thirds -- only the defenders and attackers of the two teams in the first third, only the two sets of midfield in the middle third and only the defenders and attackers again in the final third.

It took a little bit of explaining, but once they got the hang of it -- it worked ok. I am gonna try it again over the next few weeks and as they get better at it I think they will start to understand their positions a little better.

I can introduce two-touch to this quite easliy as well.

[kopiteinkc]

Lost 7-1 again today. I'll report more when I have finished licking my wounds. :(

[kopiteinkc]

Lost 7-1 again today. I'll report more when I have finished licking my wounds. :(

Well we did do a little better with playing in position, but we still got whupped.

Our one goal came from our one foray into their box. The rest of the match was spent in our half defending as they had all the possession.

The thing I noticed the most was our inability to hold the ball. We chased shadows for much of the game, when we did win it back we immediately gave it away again.

We showed no composure, didn't string two passes together and were slower to the ball throughout.

Back to the drawing board ....

[usscouse]

Well we did do a little better with playing in position, but we still got whupped.

Our one goal came from our one foray into their box. The rest of the match was spent in our half defending as they had all the possession.

The thing I noticed the most was our inability to hold the ball. We chased shadows for much of the game, when we did win it back we immediately gave it away again.

We showed no composure, didn't string two passes together and were slower to the ball throughout.

Back to the drawing board ....For one mad minute I thought you were talking of the Man City match!!!! :)

edit: Couldn't resist, sorry.. ;)
I've been following the saga of the U14 7-11. You seem to be doing the right things, the team are just taking a while to adjust that's all.
We went through that with our first season, U13 boys then. We lost our first 4 games and badly. Yeh, we treated it like a joke but we didn't want them "to get used to losing."
Next match things went differently, the passing worked and Andrew cut in from the left wing leaving his marker and hit a right foot shot across the goalie into the top 90. Our first goal!! Won't forget him taking his shirt off and waving over his head running down the field...
(Well I know your girls can't do that.)
He scored another that day and we won 3-0. That was the pivot point, we had a pretty good season, enjoying the games and finishing with an almost 500 season.
It would have been 500 but the last match we were tying 0-0 away, 2 minutes to go we got a corner and I told every one to get up and fill their area. We were going to swamp them and win.

We lost 1-0 on the counter!!!!!!!

Didn't mean to threadjack. My point is, keep doing what you're doing, you're not going to the championships so keep having fun, your practice ideas sound solid and the first win will come. They will see the light!!! :cool:

[kopiteinkc]

For one mad minute I thought you were talking of the Man City match!!!! :)

edit: Couldn't resist, sorry.. ;)

Didn't mean to threadjack. My point is, keep doing what you're doing, you're not going to the championships so keep having fun, your practice ideas sound solid and the first win will come. They will see the light!!! :cool:

Thanks Ken. I needed that pick me up. With the Man City loss and this debacle I was feeling sorry for myself :)

[usscouse]

Thanks Ken. I needed that pick me up. With the Man City loss and this debacle I was feeling sorry for myself :)That was a debacle and we NEED 4th spot!!!!

I've done my share of bragging about how we went unbeaten last season with our U14's. Our second season.
The key to this was our flat back four.
Our weakness was some of our mids so we played long ball.
We'd soak up the oppo's attack with our defensive mid and back 4 and springboard up to our fast forwards.

It worked for the most part.

We lucked out on two guys who could play centerback together. Not as easy as it sounds. One was a striker and wasn't happy at first but turned out to be our player of the year. He did go up to take free kicks and because of his size he went up for corners "a la Sammy"

In the State comp. we played teams that played us wide and brought half backs into the center in numbers. played the drops and the triangles and beat us.
We'll step up with our total football this season. Our tryouts are next week (U15 this time) we're going gold so they're not going to get it all their way this time.

Anyway, keep working at it and keep posting. I want to know how your team progress's and gets better!!!!

[kopiteinkc]

It's funny because I have this girl who I have been tempted to move from centre half to defensive midfield as she is quite skillful and can dribble her way out and then pass well to one of her own players (which is a cause of celebration amongst our teams parents when that happens!)

Unfortunately I don't have much to replace her with at the back. I have a number of dead weight players who I can walk faster than they can run!! I am not joking!

I have considered switching from a 4-4-2 (I am a traditionalist after all) to a 4-5-1 so we can get the damn ball in midfield.