Last fall we often committed the big sin (no Not passing it to the middle in your defensive third - that is brave!) but the one of not knowing where pressure is coming from until you get the ball. Once sports starts up again - I want to try and include this into my coaching. I've tried a few things in the past and I've tried a few drills with a 1v1 where the one player has his back turned and he doesn't know from which way the defender is coming without checking his shoulder when the pass is enroute. But I hate artificial drills. Does anyone have a better way of teaching this or is this just experience and repetition? The one kid who occassionally does it is the one kid who watches soccer on TV and loves the game (he's not my best player).
Your instinct is correct-artificial drills aren't the best for this, because you are scanning for specific things; defender distance (space), teammate distance, etc. these are clues that will dictate next action or confirm whether your hypothesis of the next action is correct. this goes hand in hand with body shape which you should teach first. Both best done in a SSG to keep variables low. Body shape first because then you're seeing most of the field already and the scan over the shoulder fills in the rest of the info. The end goal Is getting that 360-degree picture.
Scanning, like moving to a better position, should be a constant habit. 1v1 seems a poor context to me, because it is meaningless in that context. I would suggest that you make it a coaching point and give feedback during other exercises. Once a session ought to be enough to make and reinforce the point. Positive reinforcement works best if you have someone that does it even occasionally. I was lucky to have mixed levels of development in the youth teams I coached, so that there was always a role model available.
It's artificial, but we'd run a 3 person drill with 2 stacks of target cones per trio or 2 puggs if you run it as one of a few stations. ^ P T Dv Target faces Passser, Passer sends a ball to Target. They backheel to the open target. (^ v) passer moves to target, target defends, defender goes to passer after resetting the cone on a hit. You can progress to the Defender starts on Target's back, they must choose a target as the pass comes in (ie they can't run straight back and then react to the backheel). Kids like scoring/hitting targets. I can't say it works great, but I had kids hit backheel passes at u13/14. Could just be correlation
Thanks for the comments. Its something I always look for and talk about with my teams and probably call it out 1x/practice but usually privately during play and I pull the kid to discuss what could have been done better. I probably talk about receiving across the body (correct foot) 5x that amount as that is part 1, scanning is part 2. There was a local pickup game that was less about playing and more about having the kids see their friends. There was no coaching so I was sitting there watching and there was 1 kid there (who plays on a larger club) who did it so consistently that he was 10x better than everyone else. These were 9-11 year olds and its something you don't see often at this age and was looking for anything beyond just repetitions, play and correct body shape.
I should explain that the two concepts are two sides of the same coin. Players cannot recognize their best movement choice if they are not constantly scanning the field. If players are not moving, then they are not influencing play. This is what makes effective players effective. All the skill and athletic ability in the world won't help if you are not participating in play.
I think this takes a lot of time to develop. It depends on the age too. It is not a natural thing. I think more important than scanning to see where pressure is, is scanning to see where you can pass the ball. The two are related yes. But if you can identify where you are going to pass it before you receive the pass, then you can do a quick one or two touch pass and that naturally relieves pressure. I guess if you really think about it, you scan for various reasons: - general scanning (basic tactics) to determine space, teammates, opposition, where is the ball, where is the goal in relation to everything going on, where is the goalie - the emphasis on these variables varies based on position. For ex, a defender is not too worried about position of goalie, but the forward should be. The mids probably have to do the most scanning as they are surrounded and have most constant pressure. - scanning to determine pressure (ie opposition) - scanning to identify passes and to move ie creating passing lanes I also think this something where it's not like they learn it and that's that. You will have to constantly remind them in a game. It is very easy to slack on scanning. Even in the pros I see them getting lazy with scanning and that causes mistakes and breaks the defense allowing goals. Communication is also important and works with scanning. In a sense if your teammates communicate it can "fill in the gap" of a lack of scanning. For ex, I know about pressure because my teammates tell me if I can turn or then tell me if pressure is coming. I may get a glance but not a full look but if my teammates talk to me it fills in the rest of the picture. Works well too for fancy yet effective passes like heal flicks.
@NewDadaCoach I disagree. I believe it is easy for children to pick up these things, because if they played the normal childhood games, like tag or keep away, they would already have learned the basic tactical movements playing with other children. The fact that some children don't play tag in the neighborhood, doesn't mean that it isn't natural or easy to learn. It just means those children have not developed basic athletic skills. If they don't play tag and keepaway, they probably are lousy at feints, turns, stops and starts too. Things 6 year olds should be able to do.
I'm specifically referring to scanning when I say it is hard and not natural. Feints, turns, stops, starts I think are quite natural. Well, at least for me this is how it is. I have never found it natural per se, I have to remind myself to scan. Usually after I do it a few times it then becomes more 2nd nature (throughout the course of a game that is). And I see pros all the time not look behind them, and the opponent slips by and kicks in that cross.
Blind side runs happen all the time at every level. Team communication is the counter. I bet that you did not grow up in an environment where children played outside in the neighborhood with their friends all day long during the summer and after school other times. At first tag, red rover, mother may I, simon says, keep away, jump rope, hop skotch and others. Then later unorganzied sports. That amounts to thousands of hours of physical, mental, and social development.
This is a weird comment. Actually I did grow up in such an environment. I don't know many kids that didn't, where I grew up. And not only did I play a ton of many different sports and games as a kid, I also played many different sports as an adult. I have tried just about every sport. In college, for fun and exercise and an easy credit, I would take a different sport class every quarter (even though I was a business major). No idea what this has to do with scanning on a pitch. I observe and analyze a lot of soccer these days, from local pickup to Premiere League and I analyze scanning and I have a good sense of how humans approach it and how they are generally not very good at it. You can only focus on so many things; generally players are focused on the ball, the opponent, and if they are tired their focus bandwidth is reduced, scanning is sacrificed. Of course, the ability to scan increases the higher up you go.
Back to the OP: "According to the study's authors, more work is needed to determine how best to develop a player's football vision and intelligence. 'There were indications though that scanning may be best enhanced through changing practice conditions such as altering the pitch size, number of players and the use of different colored bibs or headbands, to require players to quickly learn the value of always looking around,' Dicks said." https://www.upi.com/Science_News/20...is-as-important-as-ball-skills/7041536813659/
I think in most games, even childhood games, the need to scan isn't as high as it is in soccer. Most "tag" features one kid who is it, the rest scatter and basically keep "it" in front of them. Team tag could fix this but I'm not sure kids self organize into team tag. Release maybe, but there it's more of a guard the base to keep jailbreaks from happening - the scanning is much slower. Basketball generally involved advancing on a defensive block. Street hockey might offer it but generally most kid organized games don't have a lot of strong back checking , it's more a series of 3v2+gk alternating ends. Other gimmicks I've used/heard about - with u littles, since parents are supposed to be at practice, you can get them involved to hold up bibs, or make funny gestures that recognition from the kids triggers something - like when MomA holds up the red bib the red team gets a bonus point, or if Braedaen's dad is making moose ears Braedaen is the target shooter.... Most likely it is just repetition of "check your shoulders" coupled with teaching good body shape, recieving with an eye towards the field instead of passing face to face and having hte receivers do a 180, and team communication - pressure/turn/person-on/etc
@CoachP365 I agree that soccer is unique in its high demands on players. Hockey and Basketball have reduced sides and space so the challenge is not as great, but field hockey and lacrosse have the same challenge as soccer. One facter we have not discussed is that a low speed of play doesn't punish or reward players who scan. The players have plenty of time to look around. The opposite is true, however, when the speed of play is fast. Scanning is rewarded and necessary for success. It is probably (along with body position and being two-footed) the biggest differences in tactical speed between players and teams. For example, playing 1 or 2 touch rewards players that scan and punishes those that don't.
Great discussion y'all. At the outset, it can be as simple as where to take your first touch. Too many kids just control it to stop the ball. If we can "break lines", turn upfield, protect the ball, or set up some deception—that's a HUGE win. Overtime, as you teach them about Principles of Play, they'll be able to take that and scan for weaknesses. Biggest win is if your "units" (forward line, midfielders) can recognize weaknesses and conjure up the same idea on how to beat it. IMO, it's what's really missing in a lot of soccer in the US. We play a team sport but rarely play as a team. Think about option routes in football, receiver and QB have to make the same read. Pick and roll in basketball, two players have to make the same read. we play this rondo. 4v2. But to one end of the (larger) grid there are three-four gates and two "GK". Three passes in the rondo then you can try to attack the gates. So attackers are scanning where the open gates are. If the GKs or defenders stop you, you switch out.
Rondo Presión+Continuación pic.twitter.com/yY79dxcyDH— Jose Romero Sangüesa (@joseromeropf) July 21, 2020 Here's a vid kinda showing what I was describing. Mine has fewer players and goals, but you should get the idea. Some goals are defended, some aren't—attackers have to constantly scan so when they get the required number of passes they can play quickly to goal. the way I described mine goals were only on one side, I like this because of the 360 degree quality.
Defenders should also look behind them to orient themselves to the goal as the striker is approaching in order to close off the angle. This will discourage the striker from taking a shot. I see many times where the defender simply is allowing a window for the the striker to shoot and he does and scores. But if the defender had just moved a foot to the left or right it would have closed the angle.
If it's good enough for pro-clubs, I'm gonna roll with it. I know you're being facetious, but we rondo to, partially, draw defenders in and we can "escape" in any direction we want. What I like about this that typical rondos never addressed is that all the "stimuli" is in front of the player. In the real game, you need that 360° awareness.
I think I've mentioned, I checked out a lot of HS soccer this year as my the cohort I coached the most in youth hit their senior years, and was surprised by how much attempted possession got wrecked by a defender coming in from behind. It makes me think about a larger issue - how much of what is taught in coach ed. is against idealized opposition. Like maybe in whatever country we're trying to imitate this cycle kids organize in a low block, or understand positional play to the point where the out of posession forwards are just trying to prevent switches of the field vs running back to bodycheck the midfielder just byond the half way circle....
@CoachP365 You made an excellent point. Everything in "coach ed" is taught against someone at USSF's idealized view of the senior game. Then USSF changes personnel almost every year. In 2015 USSF wanted every coach to expressly assign a conventional 433 postion to every player in every exercise even at the youngest grass roots level. Their thought was that this was important tactical training. I suspect that no coach ever did it outside of "coach ed" classes.
Hey! We use the numbering system and have done so since they were 7-8? We found it was actually easier than using the words. Once you explain the roles of each position. You also prevent the use of different terms/words/names for the same thing. Left wing/Left mid/Left midfielder/Left side just gets replaced with "11". Striker/Forward is just "9".
So, how do you handle the 6/8/10 split of duties? Is it a sum thing, where if you have 2 10s the deep mid actually plays like a 4, or do you try to have 3 box to box 8
Sorry I am against this: teaching the current USSF favored 433 system six years before they play a 433, using a specific system to teach principles of play, and not allowing them to explore other organizations. Even within the 433, I have organized it in dozens of different ways, but never with the 6, 8, 10 as defined by USSF. It is too limiting and predictable. It is a crutch to compensate for teams that don't have 3 CMs who excell playing both ways. I prefer teaching and allowing players to think and solve problems creatively. Adjusting their roles to suit the tactical circumstances which results in faster play. Restricting them to role playing positions also discourages experimentation and learning through trial and error. Teaching a specific detailed system, like the current USSF, is really teaching a game plan rather than tactics. So what happens when the senior game moves on past the current flavor of the month? Which I hope will happen long before 7 year olds become 17 year olds.