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W E E K LY
August 18 2010 Issue 173 Under 4s - Under 16s
So, the season is underway... enthusiasm seeps from every pore, optimism knows no bounds, and the aching muscles are worse than ever… and that’s just the coaches! In this issue of Soccer Coach Weekly we’ve got pace, positivity, possession and even some picky eaters, plus all the usual top training tools and techniques. Enjoy the issue...
PACE AND POISE Here’s a drill that will help your players maximise two of the most important aspects of the modern game – speed and accuracy.
ROB AND RON’S SPEED SHOOTING It must be a close call as to who is the faster player, Arjen Robben or Cristiano Ronaldo. Both can run and change direction at speed, and both possess a potentially devastating end product to boot. Many people assume that speed is inbuilt, but it can certainly be taught and perfected. Control, meanwhile, is something that even more easily, over time, can be fine-tuned. So here’s an exercise that combines both.
ROB AND RON’S SPEED SHOOTING 1
Sprint for the ball
How to set it up • • • •
Make sure your players are warmed up before they try this. You need 10 cones, a ball, a goal, a stopwatch and a timesheet. Create a 5x5-yard box around the penalty spot. You need two gates, each two yards wide, each side of the penalty arc, and 20 yards from the goal line. • Make another gate in the centre of the pitch 24 yards from the goal line, and place the ball here.
2
Dribble at speed
Getting started •
Initially facing the goal, on the whistle your players must turn around and sprint towards the ball. Start the clock. 1 • They must then dribble it around the course as fast as fast as they can. The choice of direction is yours. 2 • When they return to the starting area, they shoot into either corner of the goal. 3 • The clock stops when the ball hits the net.
3
Shoot for goal
Why this drill works Fast, focused, and in control, these are the things you want your striker to be. This drill demands the use of both feet and lightning quick movement, bringing in agility, coordination, the necessity to change direction and, ultimately, the ability to shoot at goal. Get your young players to train in this way and they’ll replicate the positive benefits of this in match day situations.
NOW TR Y T H I S!
•
Add a defender for your striker to negotiate a route past.
THE NEED FOR
SPEED
stest, and So who’s the fa mpare against how do they co m) lt? Usain Bo (100
•
Can the forward still make it back into the squared off area or will he cost himself time by being forced wide?
player movement shot
run with ball
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COACHING COLLECTION THE ART OF COACHING CHILDREN
GETTING THE BEST RESULTS: OUR TOP FIVE TIPS 1
Be ready when your players turn up for training with a warm-up that they can join in on as soon as they arrive. You don’t want your players standing around doing nothing - after all, you want them tuned in mentally and physically, from the off.
2
The first thing you must give to your players is the explanation of what it is they have to do, make sure they understand what the exercise is about. Build their knowledge and you’ll build their enthusiasm at the same time.
3
Try to keep your coaching points positive. You will need to highlight errors or weaknesses, but try to do it in a way that praises the elements they do well. Kids can be wonderfully resilient at times, yet also very sensitive to criticism on other occasions.
4
Make sure every one of your players is important to the team and gets to start matches. Don’t have players sitting out every game because you don’t think they are good enough. If you have a player who clearly isn’t up to the standard of others, it may well be that he’ll play regularly at another side who are at a slightly lower level.
5
Use a whistle or call out, but make clear instructions at all times. As soon as your direction starts to flag, so will theirs!
You will need to highlight errors or weaknesses, but try to do it in a way that praises the elements they do well.
SAID LIKE A PRO We ask some of the game’s professionals about their training ground gripes, past and present. This week, it’s Millwall goalkeeper David Forde... “Being a goalkeeper makes training very different compared to players in other positions. In some respects, the work we do is a lot more focused on a few key elements, and some of the best coaches I’ve worked with – the likes of Don O’Riordan, Kenny Brown and Peter Nicholas – have been the ones to have really brought home to me how important concentration is for a keeper. There has never been a drill I’ve particularly disliked, which is just as well as training has barely changed from when I was a kid turning out for Galway! What I will say is that playing in goal means you need to get on with your fellow keepers and coaching specialists, because you’ll spend a lot of time just with them. So coaches must never underestimate how important those relationships are within a squad – it’s not just about making sure the strikers share the goals around!
I think the game, as a whole, remains in great shape, despite England’s current woes. That said, it’s obvious people are looking at the way we train and develop young players. It’s hard to switch a whole history of football where the mindset is fixed on how the game has been played for decades, so whatever we do, it needs to be done gradually and carefully.”
“Coaches must never underestimate how important team relationships are.”
WIN! AN ENGRAVED ACME BRASS WHISTLE What’s a coach without a whistle? And what’s a whistle without the world-renowned ACME name attached to it - a company that has been producing the world’s biggest range since the 1880s, having sold over 200 million of the famous ACME Thunderer alone. Here’s your chance to win ACME’s top-of-the-range model. It’s handpolished in brass and we’ll engrave your name into it. What’s more, we’ll throw in a handful of plastic ACME whistles that you’ll feel less annoyed accidentally dropping in a muddy goalmouth! To win one, just tell us: How far away could ACME’s founder Joseph Hudson be heard when he tested his first whistle on Clapham Common, London, in 1883?
A: 10 yards B: one mile C: 10 miles Email james.evans@coach-soccer.com with your answer. Competition closes August 20. Full details available at www.greenstarmedia.net/terms
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COACHING COLLECTION
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DAVID CLARKE’S TOUCHLINE TALES This is a great game for angles of defence and changing roles in attack.
ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU GO BANANAS... I always try to put a few pieces of fruit in my coaching bag when I set out for an early morning match. After all, children can have very particular habits when it comes to eating breakfast before putting their bodies through a grueling hour of match action. When I first started coaching, I had a group of players that I’d brought together for a weekend tournament. The rules meant everyone had to be at the ground for 8.30am. Inevitably, this didn’t present enough time for some to have a proper pre-match breakfast – which caused me a problem. My star striker turned up, and promptly announced he was starving. Okay, fine, but whatever I suggested he ate he turned his nose up at… until I suggested a bacon burger – “can I get chips with that?”
Fuelled up on burger and chips my star striker was good, very good. He ran, ran and ran. We played game after game until we were in the semi-final. But when the energy from the burger and chips wore off (and having seen that the rest of the team had performed well just on bananas) fruit suddenly became an acceptable option! And we went on to win the trophy. All my players were at their peak throughout the tournament but I’m sure other teams were not. Food is as essential as a warm-up for match day preparation. My players now accept the fruit option, and sure enough, they win more than they lose. Great coaching, or great nutrition? You decide!
So, this is an important tournament and he wanted to eat burger and chips at 8.30 in the morning. I wasn’t impressed but he wouldn’t eat anything else, and if he didn’t eat anything how would “This was an important he be able to play five or six games over a few tournament and he hours? He wouldn’t. So he ate the lot.
wanted to eat burger and chips at 8.30 in the morning...”
Flick through the pages of any coaching manual and you will not find any information on what to do in this instance. So you’ll have to go with me!
SCW SURGERY THIS WEEK’S COACH: CAROLINE McROYALL GROUP: GIRLS
Caroline McRoyall is a Surrey FA County Development Officer and FA Level 2 coach
Q
How can I achieve for my players a sensible balance between training fitness and coaching ball skills? Vanessa Matthews, Scarborough
A
This would depend upon the age you are coaching. Young players can generally get all the fitness they need through games and activities with a ball at their feet, so don’t worry too much about intensive drills. At the end of the day, sessions should be fun and enjoyable for players below about 14, and without any specific fitness aims. For older players, it will depend on other activities they are involved in. If, in general terms, the majority of the team take part in other sports through their school or college, and have a healthy lifestyle, they will not need specific fitness sessions. For older Academy players, many teams might have one night specific to fitness work
and another for training, ball skills, teamwork, tactics and so on.
times people run out of the basics – balls, bibs, cones etc.
So it depends on age and level of competition as to the amount of fitness sessions you include. You should discuss this with the team to agree on what’s needed. The older players get, the more they will want to take responsibility over their own fitness anyway, leaving you to concentrate on coaching. Indeed, this is particularly true of girls, who constantly have pressures from outside the game.
The biggest aid though is organisation and expecting the unexpected. By that, I mean you should prepare for your sessions thoroughly, having a coaching plan to refer to, not to mention a back-up should you not have the expected number of people in attendance.
Q
What’s the best football aid that you would recommend for my girls team? Tom Mugglestone, Truro
A
There are a variety of aids that are useful in coaching, Obviously you need to have the right equipment available for your sessions; it still amazes me the number of
A tactics board is also useful to clearly show players the session and how that relates to match play scenarios. But like anything, football aids and tools are only really a supplement to the hard work that goes on in the head and on the ground. Next week we’re speaking to Doncaster Rovers’ Director of Football and Academy expert, Mickey Walker. If you’d like to ask him a question, email it in to us at james.evans@coach-soccer.com.
Soccer Coach Weekly is published by Green Star Media Ltd, Meadow View, Tannery Lane, Bramley, Guildford, GU5 0AB, UK. Email: james.evans@coach-soccer.com Tel: +44 (0)1483 892894 Fax: +44 (0)1483 894148 Editor: James Evans Publisher: Kevin Barrow Managing Director: Andrew Griffiths Customer Service: Duncan Heard Contributors: David Clarke, Paul Dargan, Steve Southern, Steve Watson © Green Star Media Ltd. All rights reserved.
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TACTICAL TALK
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MOVE OF THE WEEK
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ThisAugust is a great game for angles of defence and changing roles in attack. 14, 2010
Stamford Bridge, Premier League Chelsea v West Bromwich Albion, Frank Lampard (4-0) West Bromwich Albion’s return to top flight football couldn’t have been much more of a confidence killer after being hit for six in west London last weekend. The television pundits bemoaned Albion’s defensive naivety, but in terms of the fourth goal at least, it was very little to do with defenders (or the ball, for that matter) and very much Chelsea’s immaculate movement in unlocking the door.
•
MOVE MECHANICS
Three players check back to make the move possible: Ashley Cole down the wing before cutting back to remain onside, Nicolas Anelka in finding a route past his close marker,
• • • •
and Frank Lampard selling a dummy in the centre that puts him in on the keeper.
•
It’s Cole’s quick thinking that is the key moment. He may well be expecting a wing pass from Anelka, but upon realising he won’t receive one, his dart back provokes the defender to follow, both players approaching Anelka.
•
But Cole stops, Anelka threads the pass to the left-back, and within a split second his England teammate Lampard is in, as three Chelsea players have negotiated a route past seven opponents.
Distance the ball travelled No. of players No. of touches Time elapsed
CHELSEA CHECKING OUT
Cole gives his marker the slip, receives Anelka’s pass into feet, and feeds Lampard to score
Caption Here
30 yards
3 7 5 seconds
NOSTALGIA NOD NO.2: 60 SECONDS What was it? A playground or park game using one goal, one goalkeeper and a minimum of two outfield players. The goalie’s job, as well as timekeeper, was to maintain a clean sheet for 60 seconds. If he made it down to zero, or caught a shot, the last outfield player to touch the ball would go between the sticks. Goals could only be scored by the use of volleys, with the players having to create chances for one another. In terms of progressing the game (usually when the goalkeeper was struggling) some variations included reducing the time, while others decreed that increasing numbers of goals had to be scored as the rounds progressed. Injuries? Reluctant goalkeepers, often with seconds remaining, would suddenly develop the ability to spring around the goal, desperate to keep the ball out.
60 SECONDS Strikers meanwhile would contort limbs attempting to convert hastily contrived set-ups. Playground politics: Both the goalkeeper and outfield players had the potential to stretch the spirit of the game. Keepers frequently lost all ability to count properly, while the players in front of him, usually in the last few desperate seconds of the allocated minute, would seek to carve out chances barely a yard away from one another, or the goal!
Volleys against the clock
Winners and losers: 60 Seconds echoed what is great about football. Great strikers are often very average goalkeepers and vice versa, and everyone inevitably had their moment in the sun, as well as their moment in goal! Often heard: “Set me up! Quick! I’m here. Come on... no, not like that!”
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GAME ON
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SMALL-SIDED GAME
HALF FIELD POSSESSION
A great game for coaching in the event of ‘possession overload’ situations.
HALF FIELD POSSESSION
How to set it up • Pitch size: 30 x 20 yards (minimum) up to 40 x 25 yards (maximum). • •
The pitch is divided into two halves, with no goals.
1
Two teams of four players
Players must keep the ball from their opponents
The rules •
To start, pass a ball into one of the teams, and call for a player from the other side to go into that half and defend.
•
If the team in possession manages to make five passes, call for another player to go and defend in a 4v2 situation.
•
If possession is lost, the game transfers to the opposite half and the roles are reversed.
•
The player guilty of losing possession must now run and defend in the other half.
•
Each team scores a point for stringing together five passes when all four opponents are in their half.
2 The pressure increases as more players enter the half
Why this game works •
Keeping the ball when in possession is a vital part of any successful team. In this game, the players with the ball must be able to take advantage of overload situations and learn to hold onto it when team numbers become equal. In addition, the game tests the ability and versatility of your players in terms of turning, passing, creating space, shielding and pressing.
3 When a successful tackle is made, switch roles into the other half of the pitch
Let us know how you get on. Soccer Coach Weekly is always keen to hear your feedback, so email in to us at
james.evans@coach-soccer.com
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