[DragonFly]

Was asked to do a bit of research for
my bro's team:

Need change of attack drills for a
Girls HS vasrsity team, 442 possesion
oriented highly skilled team. They
play a lot of two or one touch balls,
so they get a lot of the possesion.
But from my bro... says they need to
learn to switch attack and create
more goal-scoring opps.

Thus, he asked me to come up with
some drills for changing point of attack.

The few drills I've seen out there incl
putting goals at the 4 corners (and having
a basic scrimmage). Thus, the players are
rewarded by swithing fields (and encouraged
to keep their shape def and offensively).

Also, putting the field in 3 vertical
areas, with only allowing to attack
the goal when the ball has passed into
all three areas. (again, basic setup is
a scrimmage).

Found a few others that seemed a bit
convuleded. But, I'm hoping you guys
know a few more that I could give my
bro to consider.

Thanks.

[uniteo]

One of the drills I read about here but haven't got to try yet (I can't wait, but priorities are priorities) is having a scrimmage where players all wear pinnies...as a team plays the ball around, when players get a touch they flip their pinnie over their head, no shot can be taken until all players on a team have flippedc their pinnie over their head.

Not exactly switching the point of attack but gets ball movement...and if it is a small sided game, with a wide field, the action should mirror the attacking end.

[zozojar]

Odd number drills work well. Devote a full session or two to this.

Try a basic game of keep-away, but have 1 or 2 neutral players (your center middies, maybe?). Neutral players are always on the team with the ball. Play in a large area (I will sometimes use half a pitch for 8 v. 8 + 2). Focus your coaching points on their runs after a turnover. What should happen is after a turnover the neutrals will always be open. Your girls should start to recognize this and learn to use them as their first outlet (if they don't recognize this put in a control requiring them to make their first pass after a change of possession to a neutral). When they receive their first pass, they should turn away from traffic and find a runner in new space. That will lead to a bit of possession in the new space followed by a turnover and another pass to a neutral and another chance to move into a new space (etc. etc.)

After a good 30-45 mins of this, add goals. This "pushes" the space wide. I.e. You have a defense looking to defend one direction (forward) which means the space they will recognize is side-to-side. Keep your neutrals in place for the first part of this then just even up the sides and let them play.

This is a very simple concept but it only works if your coaching points are simple and your players are fairly knowledgeable. I don't like games that restrict when you can and can't go to goal. Your D will start defending the funny little goals you put in place instead of the goal with the net attached and your O will forget what the grand scheme of things is (score goals).

Hope this helps.... Sorry if I got a bit wordy. I have a whole session I have used with this if you'd like.

[DUTCHVIZ]

Check out the 4 goal game at www.bettersoccermorefun.com.
Hope it helps.

[blech]

Similar to the 4 goal game is to remove the goals and allow teams to score by dribbling the ball over the end line. They can score anywhere across the goalline, it should help develop lateral play.

I've also used drills designed to mix up the distance of passes. I'll have them in groups of threes on the field, each threesome with a ball, and then they're supposed to make 2 short passes (5-10 yards), and then a player breaks away for a long pass (20-30 yards), and then the other players come to support this player for 2 more short passes, and then a long pass. Needless to say, I call it short-short-long. Of course, you're short-short-long may not result in a lateral long ball, as opposed to a long ball going forward, but it begins to get break them from the cycle of just playing the short ball all the time.

Similar to the above, you can set up two grids about 15 yards wide, about 25-30 yards apart (wary the distances as appropriate). Put two players in each grid. The players in each grid are playing against each other. The players in one grid hit the long ball to their opponents in the far grid. The opponents have 3 total touches between them, playing one touch soccer, to control it and return it to the other team. You score if your opponents fail to successfully return the ball. Again, you should naturally end up with them playing short-short-long. If you want, you can add requirements to the long ball - it must be on the ground, it must be in the air (but not over the far grid), etc.

As another variation on this one, you can place a defender in the middle area between these two grids. So, now it's 4v1, but much different from the 4v1 that we typically do in a 10x10 square. Obviously, the defender should rarely get the ball, so switch it up after a while to avoid tiring them out. The players on one side should be controlling the ball, and then as the defender approaches, playing long to the two players in the opposite grid, who will then control the ball between them until the defender approaches, at which point they play long.

Of course, when scrimmaging, encourage the offensive players to stay wide, and occasionally blow a whistle to "freeze" play and point out to them when they are not switching play. Don't go overboard with the whistle. They'll get board if you're freezing play constantly. But, step one is to stay spread out themselves, and then to understand that once they've drawn the defense over, it's time to switch field. Good luck.

[Richie]

"But from my bro... says they need to
learn to switch attack and create
more goal-scoring opps. "

If they are a possesion
oriented highly skilled team. They should be very familiar with takeovers.

The ball draws pressure if the dribbler is forced to move to a flank. As the ball moves to the flank the players on the flank are having their space killed by the approaching pressure that the ball brings.

So the flank player seeing that should leave the flank and move behind and past the dribbler to an inside the field position. Now that dribbler can use a takeover or even a back heel to that inside player who is now moving away from the pressure, and is in a perfect position to reverse the field of play to the far side. She can even bypass the center player and go right to the far side wing mid or the far side wing back. No chance of losing the ball because the takeover player is looking right at the far side players.

The only thing the far side players have to remember is to open up the far side after they see the player takeover.

I like drills but prefer functional training. This is functional.

This should be easy for your bros team because a player takeover is a simple two person tactic that two 8 yr olds can do.

Great tactic for reversing the field on a small field, even playing indoor soccer in a gym.

Richie

[DragonFly]

FWIW,

Thanks for the advice/help. The team made
it to the state semi-finals, but lost 0-1 away
to a team that has only lost one playoff
game in the last 9 years, or something like
that.

They did get better at changing the point
of attack, but still needed work on it.

Again thanks.