Hi all, what do you think of the Coever (sp?) ball skills videos? Worthwhile? If so, which would be the most important or top 3 to practice? We live in NJ and recently went to a 1-day camp sponsored by Carli Lloyd's and her trainer, and I was surprised that they didn't mention anything about those ball drills. Only juggling, dribbling, passing, shooting, 1 v 1 - pretty much all the basics. Thoughts? Whenever you see Lloyd practice, she is doing the basics - no fancy ball skills practice...although I'm quite certain she is can probably do them! Also, how do you get a more powerful shot from a 12 year old girl? My daughter does fairly well getting past defenders but some of her shots are not powerful enough and pretty much go straight to goalie. For shots on goal, what percent should be goals realistically?
Coerver foot skills are excellent. I would start with one skill and build over time. She will need more than 3. For a more powerful shot, make sure she fully cocks the kicking leg (not just half-cocks as I have seen some do) and she accelerates her foot through the ball. If you can, buy a lot of balls....say 10-20. Have her kick, kick and kick some more every day for a long time. That strength will show up. This is tough to do kicking one ball and then chasing it and doing it again. I hope you enjoy shagging balls as much as I do as that is a big part of getting there.
Powerful shooting is mostly about technique. Her plant foot needs to be next to the ball rather than being behind the ball. Most kids with a weak shot place their plant foot too far back and lunge forward to reach the ball, which takes all your power away. Work on getting the plant foot closer to the ball. This is particularly difficult when dribbling because you have to place your plant foot far enough forward to account of the fact that the ball is still rolling. This requires a quick plant/shoot pattern so that you do not let the ball roll too far away after planting your foot. Just takes practice. In terms of aim, the ball will go to the spot where she points her plant foot. This is because the direction that the plant foot is pointed causes the hips to move into place square with that direction, sending the ball to that spot. If she's shooting right at the keeper, you can bet that her plant foot is pointed right at the keeper. It's hard to peg a precise target for a player's shots-to-goals ratio. If the player is taking speculative shots from way outside the box, you'd expect a low conversion percentage. Whereas you would expect a much better conversion percentage from 1v1s with the keeper. In other words, not all shots are created equal. I'd rather talk in terms of the number of clear chances to score that are converted. Clear chances are things like 1v1s with the keeper on a breakaway or open shots from within 12-15 yards of goal with a decent shooting angle. Top youth players probably convert more than half of their clear scoring chances. If you are finishing less than half of your clear scoring chances, then you're doing something wrong.
Circling back to the first part of your post, keep in mind that Lloyd is 33 years old. You wouldn't expect her to be doing isolated Coerver movements at that age. You would expect that she has mastered those movements and is working on them in more practical settings at this stage of her "development" (if you can really still talk about development for a player with maybe three years left on her career). There is a place for Coerver ball skill stuff during a player's ball-mastery phase. You would expect that phase to be largely completed by age 13 or so. A player might do some warmups using Coerver type ball-mastery movements later in his career, but it wouldn't be a huge component of his/her training.
Thanks so much for your input. Some of those Coerver movements look easier than others. Unfortunately, our coaches never stressed them and so I'm not sure if my daughter will take my advice - I've been trying to sell her on them for a few years. She is a great juggler but again the trainer has only stressed knee juggling and not really the foot juggling so she can only do the knee juggles. I suppose all I can do is provide guidance and the rest is up to her. Incidentally she will be 13 in a few months so maybe too late for all of this anyway. She is a decent division 3 or 4 player and we are not looking to be elite just looking to keep improving, have fun, and stay competitive. She's fast and is good at breaking away with the ball as a striker but sometimes shots are weak. Will try practicing the shooting using your advice - many thanks again!
Coerver Skills are excellent. Check out the free "99 skills to ball mastery app" for iphone or android. Another great alternative is iSoccer (ios only). iSoccer turns skills development into challenging games. I think US players might respond to this better as playing "games" might be more engaging than "drills" but that my humble opinion. If you want to develop your daughters shot, have her practice juggling with her knees and juggling the ball with her feet with no spin. Juggling with no spin/forward spin will make her shots knuckle and dip giving goal keepers nightmares. I would also buy her a bosu ball she can stand on at home while she if she spends any time watching tv or on the computer. This will improve her balance, proprioception, stability, core strength, etc. All of which will improve her shot. She may also enjoy using a senseball. This is the one tool I wish I had access too. Combine with the bosu ball for a challenge. If you feed her sweet potatoes, yams, fish with coconut butter, this will passively boost her endurance, and allow her to run hard for the whole game. If you live in New Jersey, Tom Turnbull Skills and Drills academy based out of scotch plains is hands down the best training in the state. When I went to him I was 5 years old and the worst player on my team. The following season I scored more goals than the whole team combined and was selected to NJ Select North at 11. SSC sharks at 12. NJ ODP North at 13. He helped me as well as a few of my teammates on pda get full rides to top 25 programs in the country. Tell him Andrew T sent you. I write about soccer training at www.thesoccercompass.com if you're interested in some free resources that can help your daughter score more goals a game.
Thanks Andrew! Lots of great advice! Unfortunately, we are not in NJ - it sounds like a great program! I'll check out your site as well.
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