This. Sooo this. This is what I do as well and you describe it so much better—esp with 3 players and parent proxies. It really helps too with passing back to the GK. They are too scared. But if you ever play possession soccer, you need to be able to do this with confidence. People have no problem when you go 1v1 with shadow pressure, but people lose their minds if you suggest shadow pressure in larger settings. Shadow pressure is an amazing tool.
Thank you all for the feedback. Some of the posts have been very instructional and I have stuff to look up (Coerver, 3four3, etc) but it gives me more to read. After filling in the spring for a few games as the prior coach was also coaching Lacrosse I was asked to coach this team. I was even more pumped about the openness of the Play-Practice-Play but I felt that while that would help for good players it doesn't help kids who have poor fundamentals which is why I showed up here. Thank you so much for confirming what I was seeing and thinking with my own eyes that I needed to build the individual skills and confidence before the P-P-P scenario. The good and bad is that I have 14 kids so I can full scrimmage if I can get the field. The bad is that my kids don't play as much as I would like. My practices have a little bit of individual skills but more of the 2v1 and 3v2 skills as I don't really have any players that can break a player down off the dribble and many are scared to try and just boot to get rid of the ball. I'm trying to allow the 2v1 to be a way for the kid to win and build confidence as I have some that do not want the ball. We did spend a few practices on clearing the ball using shadowing and a walkthrough and it helped but it only works in a few instances. Thank you all for your open discussion as its allowing to think about things I never would have if I would have stuck with the P-P-P program. I believe Playing leads to mastery but my kids have never watched soccer other than maybe an older brother.
I was thinking more about shadow play/orchestration as it relates to principles of play and, at least the way I do it, it's all principles of play. -We shift to support the ball -When we shift or find our "windows" we are exhibiting mobility -We talk about proper spacing to establish width and depth -We are creating repeated movements (patterns) which we can learn how to break: improvisation. There's no improvisation if there's no pattern. Constant improvisation is just chaos. -All the above so we can create penetration Prior to 7v7, most kids play 4v4. So we create a diamond. In 7v7 4 create an immediate diamond around the ball and you have 3 other players that you can use to advance vertically, horizontally (switch) or diagonally. It "plays well" with Positional Play, where a diamond car draw defenders and then spray it to the players further out. In fact, I might even start out with shadow playing the 4v4 before adding the "target" players—gotta get the small parts right, before we work on the big parts. Assuming we are moving right to left in the diagram Further, I love using 4v2 directional games like line soccer. "Let's see if 4 of you can pass to a teammate beyond that line against one or two defenders." It can actually be pretty challenging for beginners. But it's one of the basic functions in a game—advancing the ball toward the opponent's goal without losing possession—the other two being recovering possession and creating scoring chances.
My practices for beginners have A LOT of individual skills in the form of ball mastery, move review, 1v1s, and shielding. If you have players that lack confidence on the ball THIS is the way to develop confidence. They will struggle with 2v1 and beyond because the underpinning of this whole thing is individual proficiency.
At U10 and older, I concentrated on unbalanced keep-away games followed by balanced games with goals to add penetration to the play. If your SSGs are 4 v 4, they are large enough to learn all the principles of play. I felt that everything else at the fundamental stage was just an extension of the 4v4 play. I think elessar78's diagram illustrates this. I think the most underserved curriculum area is teaching novice players how to support play off the ball. Supporting off the ball is the most important aspect of the game. It is what 21 out of 22 players do all the time. Play on the ball is the primary focus, but should not exclude other areas altogether.
Agreed. We are all told to spend a lot of time on the ball at young ages, but really it's a sport that you don't spend a lot of time ON the ball. On here to say that time without the ball needs attention too.
Our academy director is BIG on juggling. We do more of it now than ball mastery drills. What do you all think of this?
I think juggling is useful when practicing alone. I juggled, but only invested some of my practice time and in a different way then most people. I didn't repeat moves and worked on moving the ball up and down the body. I also would strike the ball high into the air to practice first touch of volleys. Good complement to rebounding off a wall. The problem with a wall is that it encourages you to overhit the ball. Juggling 100 times on the left foot followed by 100 times with the right foot is a worthless skill in my opinion.
Getting better at juggling requires practice. Practice that should be done at home. Getting good at juggling shows that a player is dedicated to getting better and is doing work on their own. But once you can get to about 50 juggles- consistently, using both feet, knees, chest and head- That’s about all you need. Anything else is just mind numbing.
The club does this thing called “juggling Plus”. Yes, it’s mind numbing after 50. So we ask them to juggle with a purpose. For example, it starts basic-left foot, catch it. Then increase complexity: left foot, left thigh, catch. Or left foot, righ foott, right thigh, left thigh. So it’s about making the ball do exactly what you want. But I kinda agree that juggling and ball mastery after a certain point should be done at home.
Our A-team and B-teams are really interesting this year. The players we picked for the A-team are small, technical players. The B-team, when we did evals, did not show too much technical ability-still don’t. But B-team has some BIG, fast, athletic players. A-team can struggle a bit at times. But B-team can power through some of the poor soccer that they play. Poor soccer=running into tackles, getting into “jousting” situations. To me, it’s kinda like “where soccer should go in the US” and “where soccer was in the US”. Not gonna lie, the athletic players make it easy to win today. And there’s always the temptation to “just teach them skills” like we did with the small technical players-but there’s no guarantee.
So true. It’s frustrating to play a team with minimal soccer skills but they score goals like crazy. And smash it out of bounds with the slightest pressure in their defensive third. After yesterday 5-0 to a team that was “good at kicking” I’m starting to think that what we need to work on.
That was a good amount of our B-team win yesterday-heavy touch past, sprint to the ball first and blast it past an 8YO GK in a 7x21 foot goal. Parents are very excited and you can’t tell them the result is misleading to an extent or that their kid blowing past the defender, who is slight of frame and a head shorter, isn’t a result of skill.
my final week of the season starts today just as the fall weather arrived. feels like temp is forecast to be 37 this evening. layers on layers. at least it's done raining...
Girls 04 team won a hard fought game 2-1 on Sunday. Ref was fair and let the girls play. Some hard, physical play but a lot of decent soccer. We played the same team last week and won 3-0. They brought a few players yesterday from their flight 1 team. We play flight 2. No big deal there. It’s within the rules and all of the big clubs around here do it. Other teamn sideline did not feel the same way. Chirping at every call. Yelling stuff at our players. Dropping f bombs. (So were their players. I heard at least 2 from my vantage point.) Hard challenge with about 20 minutes left. No foul called. But girl on the other team got hurt. Knee or thigh I believe. Coach came on and carried her off. My player that was involved said sorry to the girl at least twice. Another girl on my team approached our player while the girl was being carried off and gave her a high five and told her to keep playing hard. Not congratulating her. But I could see how it may have looked like that to a parent. After the game- a mom from the other team felt that she had to let me know that our girls are bad sports and should never be cheering when another player is hurt. She approached me with her lip quivering and said “hey coach. Can I talk to you.” I said not if it’s about the game that was just played. I don’t talk to any parents right after a game”. She didn’t want to hear that and gave me a good lesson on how the pros pick each other up after a foul and that our team is dirty.
LOL. Pros pick up opponents after they knock them down hoping to avoid a caution. From a first aid standpoint you don't pick someone up that may be injured.
I've been struggling with this very problem this year as our high school team makes the move into a higher league. We also graduated 11 seniors from the team last year so this has been a huge transition year. Thinking back across the season, the great majority of the goals we've surrendered have been from kick-and-chase tactics or through balls where our defenders tried something silly (why chest a ball down and clear it when I can try a chest-high volley ... and then miss the ball entirely?). Our problem has been compounded by the fact that the facility we use only has two of four fields equipped with goals - the other two are for U-littles and they lock those goals to the fence when they're not playing. We share the facility with multiple other teams, and games always get priority for the full fields. That means most of our practices have been on a field with no lines, no goals, and no real sense of direction. We've made do with a lot of rondos and as a result our passing and off-ball movement has become significantly better over the season. Unfortunately our ability to hold our back line with useful pressure from the midfield has suffered, but the worst effect has been that we find ourselves now unable to shoot effectively at all. In the last two games we coaches counted 10+ clear-cut chances each game where guys either missed the net entirely or shot straight at the keeper. I told one of our coaches that our team this year has become like Spain in the last World Cup: dominant on the ball up to the attacking 18 and then completely toothless after that. Combine that with a cheap goal here or there and, well, it's been a rough stretch. It's hard to convince competitive teenagers (let alone their parents) that 90% of their game is significantly improved when they're not scoring goals and not winning games.
On another note, I was told by my daughter (who also goes to the school for which I am an assistant coach) that "everyone" on the team thinks I'm "super strict" and that "everyone is scared of me". I know that may be teenager hyperbole, but dang that hurts given how hard I work to make everyone on the team better both as an individual and as a collective. I'm the one who pulls kids aside for a private 1-on-1 to illustrate how they could make a small change to improve their game. I'm the one who hangs out until everyone has a ride home, the one who gets the head coach to sub someone who looks hurt, the one who checks on everyone when they don't look or react the way they normally would. If I showed any more interest in the happiness, success, and well-being of each of these kids I'd be in danger of boundary violations. I've genuinely yelled three times this year. The first was when you couldn't hear one of the other coaches because of the inane chit-chat going on while he was trying to talk - I had to raise my voice three times before the kids could hear me over the noise they were making. The second was when I was running part of the practice by myself and the kids would not stop yakking even after multiple warnings. The third was when two kids started ragging on (in a very negative way, not at all "messing with") and very nearly fighting with each other; I explained that simply would not be tolerated and reiterated how teammates must be supportive of each other rather than cutting one another down. I have only a few basic rules that all the kids know: 1) be respectful to the coach, no talking or dribbling/juggling while they're talking; 2) be respectful to each other, no bashing teammates - find constructive ways to express differences; 3) be respectful to the game, show up on time, give your best effort and play hard but clean, and clean up before you leave the field every day. If that makes me "super strict" then these kids would have croaked under any coach I ever played for. Am I crazy for having this level of expectations, and is it entirely outlandish to raise my voice so the kids can actually hear me or the other coaches? I know as coaches we're always looking for ways to improve our technique to better communicate our ideas and expectations but boy, sometimes, "kids these days"...
We are a bit field restricted too. I ran a session yesterday to try and get our back 4 to become better organized on the long ball / counter attack. No goal keeper. First we worked on back 4 rotation as the ball swings from side to central to side. Diagonal if it's wide. Triangle if it's in the middle. A bit boring, but got them into the swing of things. Then I added in a holding mid for the defense and a lone striker for the attacking team. Then moved the ball from side to side again. This time, not only needing to be mindful of where the ball is, but also how to mark the opposing striker to not let an easy passing lane open or to let her run in behind on a smash over the top. Then I explained to the center backs and the holding mid - If the opposition play a long ball over the top - one or 2 of you has to shield/stop/harass the lone striker while the other 1 or 2 need to get to the ball. And the GK needs to come off of her line early to clean up any balls that are lumped near the penalty area. Then we advanced to a 3v4 with long ball after long ball played along the back line. As soon as the backline won a ball, I'd send another wave of 3 attackers in at them. Added a 4th attacker and then a 5th. And rotated everyone to get a turn on the back line. Finished up with a 6v7 scrimmage.
We've had 3 practices since I posted here with my questions/concerns and the feedback confirmed my thoughts and I've put it into play in practice. To recap my team is a U10 rec team and I spent much of the fall trying to work on roles of each position, spacing, etc. When we first practiced it was like a 6 year old scrimmage with all this bunching. As we struggled this fall and I tried to follow the Play-Practice-Play I was getting discouraged because I could see the bad habits continuing and doing 3v3 or 2v2 with bad skills seems pointless after a while. I was seeing improvement in keeping space and not bunching but we couldn't connect a pass etc. From everyones comments I went back to individual fundamentals. Its only been a few practices and the kids have grumbled but enjoyed the new drills. We got killed in our game last weekend like normal but this week we have had 2 practices and it was 100% focused on Individual development, rondos, and 1v1 control. We finally scrimmaged the last 15 minutes tonight and I saw confidence from a few of my players on my team that I have never seen before. I don't expect any miracles winning any of our last 2 games but I finally feel comfortable with what I am doing and while I just waiting for the season to end I am now wishing I had a few more weeks with them.
and just like that, my season is over. i had a great time working with my two groups of youngsters, 6Us and 8Us. it was great to be able to focus on just having fun with the kids and playing silly games with them. they don't know how much work they're doing when you make it fun for them. i have about 2 and a half weeks until tryouts for our spring 19U team so i'll be working on recruiting for that and getting my tryout list finalized. even when the season ends, the work never stops.
This has been a weird fall. I've only had 1 Thursday practice and maybe 2 Monday practices all season because of rain. I've also had a couple of games rained out. With all of this I feel like I never found a coaching rhythm for the season. I have a couple of weeks left so it will interesting to see how it feels.
Good stuff. Last weekend I walked into the game with even more resolve that I was NOT about the result. Ended up losing to a team 4-5, that we had beaten twice this season handily. I could not go in again, after our tournament, and beat up on a team when we clearly had things to work on. The wins are fun and the kids need them but they need more. Specifically, as a coach, we need to see them stitch together the bright spots, the good play, closer and closer together. It’s not always linear progress but you gotta trust the process. As an aside, identify work areas for the rest of this season and the next. Map this out onto your training calendar of what you are going to work on each session. As much as possible stick to the plan-otherwise there is the temptation to solve last week’s problem.
I have 3 weeks left. Being relegated to an assitant’s role Has been humbling, esp since I’ve been the primary for the past decade. Been trying to be a good assistant, esp since I’m being paid well to do it. It also makes me feel good to know that I’m not doing it for the money. Considering non-paying options next year as long as I get to run my program. I have nothing against the coaches I’m working under this season. They are good and not teaching the players anything wrong per se—I would just do it differently. But the emphasis on the things I value in players is severely lacking, the teaching tools like 1v1s, rondos, ball mastery-lacking. There is also a lack of emphasis on building culture and good people. I have two (maybe 3) standing offers to coach elsewhere next year. Neither of which I’m super-excited about. 2 are more of the same, one is radically different but not necessarily in good ways. Anyway, if you know of a club looking for a coach that is interested in developing dynamite 1v1 players, uses rondos to teach team play, and wants to build culture and good people-let me know, willing to travel. Haha. #jokingnotjoking
@elessar78 The way you use the word "rondos" is a synonym for SSGs So the coach doesn't do ball mastery, 1v1s or SSGs. He also doesn't address culture and respect for the game and others. I hate to say it, but those omitted things are the bread and butter of all competent coaches right up to the international level, both genders. I am guessing that the coach focuses on team tactics (he probably calls it teaching about "positions") to the detriment of developing competent players. Team tactics are really a waste of time for most player development. Mastery of fundamentals including principles of play come first. Players that have mastered the fundamentals don't need "team tactics" to solve tactical problems and win matches. The principles of play are all players need until you get to an advanced level of play where everyone has mastered the fundamentals.