how do you teach your players to play? Do you tell them to go out and put there body into players and do you coach them to be tough and go hard into every challenge. I am new to coaching and as a player i play defense. I have always been taught to go hard and strong to the person with the ball because it is mental as much as physical. If a player knows things are going to be rough it hurts there concentration and there route of attack because there worried about being hit. Just wondering about other opinions on the subject. Also is payback a good thing to teach a team. I beleive it can bring a team together because all members of the team know they have someone watching there back. But thats just me.
"Do you tell them to go out and put there body into players and do you coach them to be tough and go hard into every challenge." I didn't tell them anything we worked on it on the practice field. Tacking is about timming to win the ball. You have to tackle hard because if the opponent is tackling hard and you are not. You are open for getting hurt so even in practice you tackle hard but fair. You have to train so technically you know when and how to tackle. How would you teach them technically the stand up block tackle? If all you can do is foul, and you can't win the ball. Chances are you will lose that match. Remember your not out there to hurt people just to win the game. If I saw a player intentionally try and hurt the opponent, and did not go to play the ball, and the official misses it. I will pull my own player off the field because we are not there for that just to win. Any dummy can hurt somebody that's easy. ----------------------- "I am new to coaching and as a player i play defense I have always been taught to go hard and strong to the person with the ball because it is mental as much as physical." Not to win the ball? ---------------------- "If a player knows things are going to be rough it hurts there concentration and there route of attack because there worried about being hit." You can intimadate a young player. Some you can't. Have a team that has a good speed of play. It would be hard for you to do it because they are not in one spot long enough to do it. That is how you can make the game look beautiful even against a physical team. -------------------------- "Just wondering about other opinions on the subject." Well, that's mine. "Also is payback a good thing to teach a team." I was a fair player, but if I thought someone was trying to injury me on purpose. I would smile at him take his number, and before the game was over I would try to put him in the hospital. Did I ever coach it depends on the age, and what was happening to them in games. Richie
Aggression. There are a lot of games which allow players to learn to be aggressive. I believe that aggression comes from confidence. If the coach projects an attitude of confidence building at practice, the team will show it on the field. I don't mean to accept poor play under the guise of building self esteem. I mean to encourage and expect a good effort. If the players always give a good effort, performance will follow. Paybacks are a distraction. You cannot play good soccer if you are looking for a payback. I always told my team that every match provides a golden opportunity to level your opponent within the spirit of the game and with relatively low risk of injury ( to anyone ). The key is not to look for that moment, but to recognize it. No one should look to injure another player, they might get their wish. We used to play a game called " Combat " in which the rules against pushing and grabbing were basically suspended. I would play 7v7 full field with both teams allowed to cheat, then allow only one team to cheat. In fifteen years of this, the team NOT allowed to cheat has won every match. They would concentrate on quick ball movement and avoiding unfavorable contact, while the other team concentrated on cheating instead of their game. I teach illegal contact for two reasons: it teaches players how to physically deal with foul play, and, it teaches players to deal mentally with dirty play. Both lessons make a tougher and better player.
As a player, I categorize myself that I play mean, but I don't play dirty. I'm not opposed to using my physical size and ability to intimidate an opponent or make them think twice about taking a shot. When I train other keepers, I try to instill that same attitude...Never go out and challenge just to sweep someone's legs and try to hurt them, but at the same time don't hesitate to get involved in physical contact to make a save. I also make sure, though, that they understand that if they're playing against a basically unskilled opponent, they need to not go out there to kill them, and that that opponent might get caught in a bad spot not because they're playing aggressively, but because they just don't know, and as a keeper (or any other player for that matter), you have to be aware of that (I'm a GK coach for a high school girls team, and we play teams with every skill level imaginable). But I'm a keeper, and we're all kinda nuts anyway. :-D
Re: Psycho keepers Rock on! I got kicked in the head/jaw this past weekend and got the inside of my knee spiked. But hey, I stopped a PK and shut down the league's leading scorer, so life is grand, lemme tell ya!
Generally, I agree with the earlier poster who asks for the age group. I wouldn't say that the technical aspects change but how they are approached, etc. As far as aggressiveness goes, you have to coach your players to be aggressive and go for the ball. That's one of the things I have a bench player track during a game: how many 50-50 balls are won by each side. This is often a function of hustle, aggressiveness and field awareness. Of course, these are the types of things you work on in practice. So I teach my players to be aggressive but controlled. That's especially the case with defenders. As a player (and coach), I always loved defenders who were so aggressive they came steaming out at me. These guys are almost always easy to beat with a hesitation move or to win a direct kick from. So, as Richie points out, aggressiveness, as well as every other thing you teach your players, is subsumed under the goal of winning the game. That, my friend, is the best payback. I always tell my players to look at the scoreboard when the game is over. What matters is the final score--not who fouled whom how many times, or if you got ball-slapped or your shorts tugged in a match. The one area that I diverge from this is my keeper. My defenders know that no one touches my keeper when he's in the air (specifically running into once he catches the ball or undercutting) and no one touches him when he has control of the ball (on the ground or otherwise). It's open season on a player who does that. Then again, I don't really have to teach that. The defense knows that they are a unit and they are expected to work together. And I model it in practice--if the ball's loose, I expect the offensive players to go for it. If the keeper has it in control, you let him be. jw
Here's what I think is a good U11 answer, at least at a competitive level. (This approach comes from an MLS assistant coach who also is involved in youth soccer.) 1) Tackle hard but fair. No need to foul. No need to attempt to intimidate. Maybe you'll scare somebody, maybe you won't. Just play hard and don't worry about that other stuff. 2) Don't complain when you're hit. Let the ref deal with it. 3) If you get hit repeatedly and the ref isn't taking care of you, "play like men and hit them back."
I coach a U9 team with an equal mix of kids I've had for years and brand new kids, many of whom have never played. With the exception of 4 of my 7 long-term players, my squad had a terrible problem with lack of aggressiveness. We hang back on every 50/50 ball, letting the other team take it; we wait until they're in our penalty area before seeking to take the ball away. I've done some monkey-in-the-middle drills at practice and harped on it at halftime of every game, but nothing seems to light a fire under these guys. Suggestions?
It's very hard to 'teach' agression. some kids have it and some don't/. They will get weeded out with age. You just have to keep the game fun and instill winning attitude(depends on age) Didn't Edgar Davids once say "Don't go for a 50-50 challenge unless you are 80-20 sure of winning it" ? sounds about right..
With younger kids, getting hit by the ball is a big concern. Here's how I dealt with it last year and it stopped the problem right in its tracks...I asked my U-9 girls: "When was the last time you got hit by a ball and it hurt enough you had to stop playing?" I clarified the question by asking, "Not that you THOUGHT it was going to hurt, but it actually hurt enough to stop playing?" The girls thought about it. I had one response that said that last fall she took a ball to the face. Another said that she caught one to the stomach when she was playing rec. We had a few more of these responses. I was able to pull it all together by saying, "It appears getting hit by the ball hard enough to stop you from playing only happens to each one of you about once a year. Isn't that right?" I went on, "You have birthdays and Christmas more often than you get hit by a ball that really hurts. So, let's go out there and not worry about getting hit hard. It will happen, but you will probably turn 10 first and celebrate Christmas before it does." They thought about it and agreed. Then I told them and showed them that by putting high defensive pressure on the ball will greatly limit the number balls to the face and midsection. They now play first and second defender beautifully and can successfully double team and strip at midfield. Next year the back pass to hold possession and start the build up will be a team staple. I can hardly wait for practices to begin.