Westside Coaches Newsletter

Evaluation info now posted

2010-01-25T09:24:00.001-08:00

Even though it's only January we are in full swing for Evaluations for the 2010/11 teams. There are some substantial changes to the Evaluation policies, which have now been posted on the three clubs' websites and emailed out through age group coordinators.

Additionally, we have sent out the forms for you to rate and give feedback on the players on your team this current season and put out the Coach Application Form for next season.

Players and parents who would be heading into U13 next season should be aware that Metro soccer has added a level of play called U14B. This is essentially U13 Metro and the clubs have voted to support it this season and will not be running a Joint U13 Gold 1 team.

All coaches and age group coordinators are also being asked to attend a Pre-Evaluation meeting to go over the Evaluation process and the plan for how many teams and which level of play they will play at next season. Info on where and when those meetings are will come from your age group coordinator.

From the vaults

2009-12-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

No shin pads, shorts with a certain Speedo quality, the Rowdies, the Caps...it can only be Soccer Bowl '79 featuring the best opening sequence to a sporting event ever! Click here to see the first ten minutes of Jim MacKay and the ABC broadcast of the game.

Case Study: Game specific strategies used at the Super Y Finals in Florida by the Coastal U13 girls

2009-12-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

I recently got to take my Coastal WFC U13 girls (bit misleading as they all play U14 and U15 right now but the USL Y League is based on American age groups which run August 1 to July 31, and the league was actually last 'season' with the finals being held at the start of a new American 'season') to Tampa, Florida for the North American Finals of the Y League.

It's a very competitive tournament with top clubs from all over the US competing for championships at the U13 to U17 age groups in a round robin format. Group winners and the best second place team of the twelve teams in our age group (3 groups of 4 teams) advanced to the semi finals.

My assistant coach, Dennis Kindel, and I took the approach that we would likely have to scrap hard for every opportunity, goal and point we got so we set about planning for each game based on the bits of info we could garner from league stats (team records, goals for and against as well as scoring stats for each team were available to us) and from scouting reports by Coastal Technical Director Mark Rogers.

We decided, based on some guesswork, that our first opponents, Parsippany SC from New Jersey, would be our strongest opponent in the round robin phase and that we would adopt a cautious approach. Losing a game essentially makes it impossible to advance. A draw keeps you breathing.

So we focused on the following:
* keeper controlling her box, ready to come out for long balls over the top
* shape of back four, particularly outside backs not getting caught in behind
* central mids winning majority of 50-50s in the middle of the field and quick outlet passes to maintain possession
* strikers recognizing chances would be few and far between and ready to capitalize

What we expected from them:
* Superior technical skill
* More depth through their lineup
* More physical than we're used to

Our expectations proved correct. What did surprise us was the ferocious pressure they put us under. They over-committed players around the ball to win it back, counting on our ability to pass through it not being good enough. They were right as we spent the whole first half struggling to cope with their pressure and regularly turning the ball over. When we tried to play long balls out, their defenders dealt with them very well.

Fortunately, in the second half, as we got used to the heat and the pace, we found their legs and Parsippany looked less and less like scoring. It ended 0-0.

In our second game against Match Fit Acadmey, we figured we could play them straight up and knew we'd likely need a win if we were to advance out of our group so we gave the wide mids more license to play further up the field.

We went up 1-0 on a corner. It was gratifying in that we had spent a fair bit of time detailing the timing and the runs and it paid off. Unfortunately, in what was again a very heated, physical game, they leveled on a phantom goal that never crossed the line and the game ended 1-1.

That meant we had to win our last round robin game by two and hope the other game ended in a draw. We were playing a team from Boston that had only conceded three goals in their twelve league games but had found it a bit tougher in Tampa losing to our two previous opponents by identical 2-1 scores.

There was a brisk wind and we fortunately won the toss and took the wind at our backs in the first half. Naturally we played a very attacking formation with wide mids pushed up, an attacking centre mid with instructions to get in the box as much as possible and fullbacks instructed to swing balls into the box when they got the chance to take advantage of the wind. In the end though it was our corner kick that got us both goals and we were up 2-0 in 20 minutes. The game ended up being the most physical of all the games with the Boston team clearly frustrated. It ended with one of their players getting a red card for repeatedly, and maliciously, kicking one of our players while she lay on the ground.

We'd got word that the other game ended 0-0 with five minutes left in our game so we worked to control the pace of the game (yes, that's coach-speak for slowing it down whenever get got a chance) and deny them chances to knock long, looping balls into our box to take advantage of the wind. They ended up getting one good chance but we held firm and claimed a spot in the semi finals.

Now it would get really tough. We were playing Northern Virginia Majestic. One of the top girls clubs in the States. They had gone 12-0-0 in regular season play, scoring 35 and conceding 1. In their round robin, they beat our Northwest division mates, Coquitlam Metro-Ford 4-0 (they qualified for Tampa as the second place team in our division) and handily beat their other opponents without conceding a goal. I talked with CMF coaches and found that they had exceptionally fast (supposedly two of them ran the 100m in just over 11 seconds) wide mids that they were fond of releasing in behind fullbacks.

We knew they'd be a superior team in most aspects of the game so we set out to deny space and frustrate them. We told attacking players not to pressure at all and just jockey them back to the half way line. Our wide mids picked up tight on their wide mids allowing our outside backs to sit free and further back in the spaces they would likely want to play balls into and run onto. Normally we keep a high line and have our keeper ready to deal with long balls played over the top if necessary but we took the opposite approach here and collapsed back in to take away what seemed to be their key threat. We wanted them to have to go through the heart of our team (centre mids and centre backs) if they were going to score as that's where we were strongest defensively. If we could keep it level until half, they may start getting frustrated and take some chances that could result in counterattacks by our fast strikers.

It seemed like a great plan!

It was 1-0 for them after two minutes. One of their girls took advantage of us dropping off a bit too far and unleashed a shot from close to 30 yards that caught our keeper a step too far off her line. It was something that our girls normally don't have to contend with: a quick release (she took one step towards the ball before hitting it) with enough power and accuracy to go in from that far out and beat a very good goalie.

We were rattled and it was soon obvious there was a big gulf in ability but they held firm to the plan for the most part and we kept it 1-0 until the half. We knew we couldn't open up against them too early so we told them to keep dropping off for another 15 minutes in the second half and then we'd try to open up and get behind them (we caused them some problems 1v1 in the attacking third in the first half). Unfortunately our right back bit on a ball she thought she could come forward and win and five seconds later she was ten yards behind in a 50 yard sprint to a ball played into the space she left and their player ran it right into our box and powered it by our keeper.

Exactly what we were trying to avoid.

After that, the game slipped a notch as they went into second gear and didn't press as much and we tried to find way through without much success. In the last ten, another speedy winger got in behind us, clipped a great cross over and they headed home a very nice third goal. It ended 3-0 and we were out. They went on to win the final 3-1 against Rage SC, a team from Pennsylvania.

So did having fairly specific strategies help us in Tampa? I'd say they did help but would have to acknowledge we had a fair bit of luck against Parsippany (we almost scored an own goal - it hit the post) and even if we'd been able to negate the speed on Majestics we would have struggled to keep their other players at bay for the entire game. They were just too good.

Also, while it was nice that we scored three goals on corner kicks, those were the only goals we scored so you can only expect to go so far if you can't score from open play. And even though these were very motivated, capable and coachable 13 and 14 year old girls. They're still 13 and 14 years olds so to expect strict adherence to specific plans for entire games is maybe asking too much. At some point they had to rely on natural ability and inherent instincts rather than a strict game plan. As you play better and better teams your ability and decision making becomes second best to your opponents and you get punished.

What did the girls get out of the trip? Well, for starters, as a big believer in giving kids the opportunity to travel with sports teams, they hopefully have many formative memories of the experience that will make them more curious about the world in general in addition to opening their eyes to what standard of soccer is out there at their age group. They definitely got a chance to see that they may be big fish in the local pond but there's hundreds of similar ponds out there and many have much bigger fish than us at the moment.

Worst miss ever

2009-12-01T10:40:00.001-08:00

Ever had one of your players do everything right when they're closing in on goal and then blow the shot? Bet it wasn't as bad as this one!

More updates coming soon.

Westside Coaching Seminars - downloads

2009-11-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

Steve and I were running the Westside Coaching Seminars today. Weather wasn't great but fortunately both mine were classroom topics. The first was Reducing Goals Against (for U11 to U14 teams) and the second was International Travel with Youth Soccer Teams which was based on taking my U14 girls team to the Dana Cup in Denmark this past July.

Both the PowerPoint (Mac but should still work on PC's) presentations can be downloaded below. The Goals Against one is small but the Dana Cup one is about 47MB.

Reducing Goals Against
International Travel With Youth Teams

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Game feedback

2009-11-12T00:48:00.000-08:00

One of the things I do for Pt. Grey and Kerrisdale coaches is make myself available to coaches at their games. At the games I can either discuss what I'm seeing with you as the game is going on and suggest adjustments or take notes on my own and put together some practice plans. I did this recently for a U12 Gold 2 team. Here's what I saw and came up with:

Chronologically through the game, here's my notes:

- keeper playing too deep (ie. too close to his goal line)
- defenders backing away from crossed balls rather than going to meet them or put pressure on attackers receiving crosses
-results in shots on goal being allowed
- first goal: keeper badly overplayed near post and left too much space at far post for them to shoot at
- defenders in general not putting pressure on attackers; giving too much time and space to spray balls around
- good job with covering defenders; decent shape at the back with second defender providing support (well balanced)
- when in possession too many players get ridden off the ball too easily by defenders
- lack of off the ball movement in attack; too much standing and watching what the person with the ball is going to do
- good pressure on opposing defenders from first person in but no back up from second and third so decent players can play through the initial pressure
- keeper improving positioning as game goes on; came off his line quickly to clear two balls with his feet outside his box
- continuing to defend way too deep and not stepping up to attackers as they approach goal
- both 1v1 defending and 1v1 attacking really need work
- group defending good
- ball movement in attack is good despite limited off the ball mobility
- work rate fading as game progresses
- many players need considerable improvement striking the ball, especially balls moving away from them
- by the end of the game defenders were dropped back so far they were almost on top of their keeper

Based on this here's what I would work on in training

Session #1: Focus on 1v1 defending

Warm up: incorporating movements related to defending; jockeying, side strides, etc

Drill: King's court - a series of 10x15 yard boxes with two players in each.
- They take turns playing the ball to each other, closing them down and preventing them from dribbling past them to the far side of the box.
- Defenders get points each time they either knock the ball out of bounds or win the ball in a tackle
- Let them play for two minutes, stop, get scores and whoever wins moves up one grid towards the end. The grid at the end is the "King's Court". Whoever wins in King's court is the "King." Whoever loses goes to the "dungeon", the grid furthest away and has to start working their way up a game. Those who lose in the other courts just stay where they are.

COACHING POINTS:
1. Close the gap quickly but slow as they get to within two or three steps away, get low, get balanced and focus on the ball.
2. Over play the side you want to take away from the attacker and force them to the other side. In a game, for example, they would take away the most direct path to the goal and push them to the other side
3. Wait for a bad touch and from a balanced, crouched position quickly move to the ball separate the attacker from the ball

Conditioned game: 3v3 with a joker (on both teams) in a 20v20 grid; teams score by dribbling the ball over the end line.

Because of the small space and the fact they are always out-manned when they don't have the ball, this game forces defenders to get to the ball carrier quickly and prevent forward movement.

If it's proving too easy for attackers to score, remove the joker or make 'goals' at each end that the attacker have to dribble through rather than giving them the entire end line to cross.

COACHING POINTS:
- be aware of losses of possession and have them 'switch on' quickly to defending so the attackers can get easy points.
- encourage them to apply pressure quickly when they have a chance to make attackers play with their backs to goal and don't let them turn
- encourage second and third defenders to communicate to the player defending the ball carrier and give him information about which side to cut off
- once they commit to a tackle and win the ball, make sure they don't give it away right away; look for safe, easy options to build an attack rather than something they lose possession on and end up defending again right away

Scrimmage:
- bonus points for examples of good defending (your discretion)

Session #2: Focus on 1v1 attacking

Warm- up: Each player with a ball in a 30x20 area (approx) and lead them through a series of moves that all incorporate a change of direction and a change of pace. No defenders just individual work on moving with a ball as if they were approaching a defender.

COACHING POINTS:
1. encourage creativity and explosive change of pace once they've been going for awhile and are pretty warm.
2. explain that lateral movement unbalances defenders and enables them to go past them more easily

Drill: King's court (same as first session but now the emphasis is on attacking)
- Players get one point for dribbling past the defender and over the end line; two if they're able to demonstrate they can do this with close control and actually stop the ball on or very close to the end line
- Same rotation after each two minute game

COACHING POINTS
1. take a positive first touch (ie. first touch goes forward and creates momentum) that confronts the defender and forces them to react to you and not vice versa
2. use a change of direction to unbalance a defender followed by explosive change of pace to go by them
3. once by them get arm up to fend them off and get the ball positioned so their body is between the ball and the defender as much as possible

Conditioned game #1: inverse of conditioned game in session #1 (ie players score by dribbling over line)

Conditioned game #2: 2v2 in 20 (long) x 25 (wide) area with full size goals at each end.
Divide players into two teams. They play 2v2 and when their shot either scores or misses the goal but crosses the end line, their opponents are off and two new opponents come on. Players only go off when the ball crosses their own goal line.

COACHING POINTS:
1. Encourage them to recognize and exploit when 2v2 turns into a 1v1 opportunity and get them to challenge defenders, carve out a shooting angle and get their shot away
2. Players who are off and awaiting their turn have to be tuned in and ready to jump in quickly so they can take advantage of transition and get their strikes in.
3. The small space places a premium on having a good touch and change of pace over 5 yards; get them to focus on close control and a quick first step going by the defender

Game:
- bonus points for beating an opponent 1v1 in the normal course of the scrimmage.

Session #3: Finishing

Warm-up: basic soccer movements with and without a ball in a 30x 30 grid. Have one ball for every two players and put them on a three touch maximum where they receive a pass, take their touches, pass to someone else and then go look for another ball from someone else. After each pass, incorporate runs of different lengths, checked runs, backwards running, side strides etc. As the warm-up progresses increase the length of the passes.

Drill: Man Utd Shooting Drill
Put two goals 20 yards apart, facing each other and make two lines that stand three yards off each goal's right post. Each player has a ball and they move towards the opposite goal, take a shot, retrieve their ball, join the other line and repeat the exercise. They continue in a loop.
- First few minutes just have them touch the ball five yards in front and hit it on the run
- Next, have them take a touch inside (45 degrees) followed by a quick touch outside and then a shot on a goal. This mimics moving the defender inside before going outside to open a shooting angle
- Next, have them pass to the player at the front of the opposite line at the same time so they exchange balls, have to control the ball and get it in front of them with their first touch and then shoot with their next touch
- Have them switch the lines to the left post so they have to do the same exercises but shooting with their left foot.

COACHING POINTS:
1. Small, quick steps to the ball with the last step being a longer explosive step to the ball that places the non-kicking foot next to the ball
2. Eye on the ball, after a quick look to the goal and goalie
3. Hit the ball not so much with the laces but with the area of the foot to the inside of the laces
4. Follow through completely in the intended direction of the ball
5. Tell them that three quarters of their success when shooting is determined by everything they do right up to the moment before their foot contacts the ball (ie. approach, balance, non kicking foot, angle of leg kicking the ball, part of foot that will contact the ball); get them to focus on this.

Conditioned game #1: 2v2 game described above

Conditioned game #2: King Louie
Two teams of four or five each put into a 20x20 grid with goals at each end (similar to 2v2 game) but with a halfway line dividing the area. Each team puts 3 or 4 players in their own end and one player in the opposing team's half creating a 3v1 or 4v1 in each half. Teams move the ball around and away from the defender until they can create a shooting opportunity. The lone player in each grid can score on rebounds and if they dispossess their opponents. Change the lone player every few mintues.

COACHING POINTS:
1. Body positioning that allows for a first touch to set up a strike at goal.
2. Use body to shield defender when shooting (ie. keep ball to the outside of the defender)
3. Reinforce proper striking technique
4. Lone striker (poacher) should be encouraged to focus on quickness to ball and getting 'garbage goals' as they all count!

Game:
- Keep goals relatively close together (but not as extreme as the 2v2 or King Louie games) and add a joker to increase the likelihood of scoring chances.

Warm up activity: Sequenced keep ups

2009-11-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite warm up activities is what I call sequenced keep ups. Regular keep ups are great and serve their purpose well. They force players to react quickly and be ready and able to use any part of their body, often without much warning.

But by applying a sequence to the keep ups, by making players taking certain touches in a particular order you force a much more precise touch and force them to plan ahead rather than reacting to where the ball happens to go.

If you tell the players, "Right, first touch on your left thigh, then your head, then your right thigh." it forces them to think through the type of touches they'll need to take in order to get the ball to those body parts in that order. It adds direction and appropriate weight (light touch or heavier touch) to each contact of the ball and forces players to prepare their body by quickly adjusting their balance to take the next touch where it has to be taken.

There are loads of sequences you can have your team do. Remember though that the key is to be specific with what part of the body they can use for each touch.

For younger players or those still developing basic technique, try these:
* right foot, bounce on the ground, left foot, catch (and reverse order)
* right thigh, left thigh, catch (and reverse order)
* right thigh, right foot, catch (and then on the left)
* head, bounce on the ground, right foot, left foot (and reverse order of touches with feet)
* right thigh, left thigh, bounce right foot, catch (and reverse order)

Some intermediate sequences:
* right thigh, right thigh, left thigh, left thigh, catch
* right foot, right thigh, head, catch
* right thigh, head, left thigh, catch
* right shoulder, bounce on ground, right foot, catch (and same on left)
* head, right thigh, right foot, catch (and same on left)

And some advanced sequences:
* round the world : right thigh, right foot, left foot, left thigh, catch
* foot over: right thigh, left thigh, right leg swings over the ball as it bounces and then right foot brings it up to hands to catch
* should, head, shoulder, catch
* right foot, head, left foot, catch
* and lastly, the pyramid: right foot, right thigh, right shoulder, head, left shoulder, left thigh, left foot, catch.

The pyramid is the ultimate one that we work towards. Here's a video below of the Pt.Grey Roadrunners 15 Girls Gold team doing the pyramid (they've been doing these exercises for three years and this may have been the first time that three girls got it in the same session).

Functional Play: what is it and why is it important

2009-11-06T12:48:00.001-08:00

Most coaches are familiar with the idea of technical skills and tactical play and have a good idea on how to work on these aspects of the game in training. Technical skills are essentially kicking the ball (passing and shooting), heading it, controlling it, running with the ball and being able to do these things in different ways with different parts of the feet and body.

Tactical play revolves around the idea of movement and team shape. What do you want to do as a group when you are attacking and defending. How are you going to break teams down and avoid having teams break you down.

But what is functional play? For me, functional play is looking at specific aspects of the game that can have a disproportionate effect on the outcome and learning to handle these aspects to your team's advantage. The aspects that are relevant to coaches change depending on the age and level you are working with. For example, at U11/U12 the ability to take proper goal kicks that don't result in goal scoring opportunities for the other team is very important. Not so much at U16 where most players have the ability to hit a dead ball at least 30 yards when they're under no pressure.

So for U11/U12 coaches, goal kicks are a relevant kind of functional play that is worth spending some time on.

For teams playing 11 a side for the first year, you'll probably want to focus on issues relating width and depth so your team can get a jump on utilizing the space available on a full size field.

I coach a USL Super Y league team in the spring and summer with Coastal WFC. It's a high standard of play falling between Whitecaps Prospects and Metro on the BCSA Pyramid of play chart. Because it's a relatively short season, I felt it was important to quickly identify areas of functional play relevant to this level of play and bring a focus to them in training. So after a few exhibition games and training sessions, I put together this sheet and sent it out to my players so they would know what the emphasis would be in training and that I felt it would lead to success in the games.

Looking at it now, I'd say 80% of the content is relevant to our U13 to U18 teams. Denying second chances, effective clearances and winning your fair share of 50-50 balls in midfield (see the article on Lyon scoring against Liverpool for an example of this) are crucial aspects of the game but seldom something that I think most coaches work on in training.

Feel free to identify some aspects of functional play that your team is struggling with in the comments and I'll try to offer some training solutions to address them.

Endorsement: The Damned United

2009-11-04T11:16:00.001-08:00

So once you've finished running your training sessions this week and coached the game at the weekend and maybe done our certification course you're probably looking for a bit respite from the game and the chance to see a good flick.

Well, The Damned United won't give you the respite your looking for but it is one of those very rare things: a well made soccer movie. It played at the film festival recently where I saw it with an old friend and diehard Leeds fan whose dad was one of the youth team coaches at the time the film is set. It chronicles the early career of Brian Clough, one of the most famous managers in England as he earned his stripes at Derby County and then went on to manage Leeds, replacing their most successful manager ever (Don Revie) for a very frustrating, tumultuous 44 days. The trailer is here and here's some tips on what not to say at your first training session with your new team and great clip of the pre-game talk before what was a massive game for his Derby squad: first game in the first division against the current champions (Leeds).

Supposed to be coming back to Vancouver for general release soon.

Will soccer in Vancouver ever get like this?

2009-11-04T10:40:00.001-08:00

Occasionally I get parents asking me about soccer scholarship opportunities for their kids. Most just want to know the lay of the land and what's worth pursuing or if I can write a letter for them. The reality is that Vancouver is still considered a hot bed for youth soccer players, particularly girls, and there's several showcase games arranged every year for top Grade 11 and 12 players to participate in in front of dozens of, primarily, US college coaches.

So it's realistic for higher end players (ie. Provincial team and NTC players) to get full ride scholarships to the States and partial scholarships to top Canadian universities. It's also somewhat competitive given the rise of these showcase weekends but it's nothing like the industry surrounding high school football players and their attempts to get scholarships. Here's an article about a kid who's been at three high schools in three years from North Carolina to California, spent thousands of dollars (including three grand just for an initial assessment from one private QB coach) in personal coaching and now has a documentary crew following his every move during his senior year at high school. Could it ever happen here?

Update: one of the college showcases running in Vancouver just put out a press release

RSS now available

2009-11-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

I've added an RSS subscription option at the bottom of the page so you can get content here via an RSS feed. You can choose to get articles and/or comments.

CCS course starts tonight

2009-11-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

We start the last of the three Community Coach certification courses tonight as the CC Senior course gets underway. I'll be trying to get some photos and maybe some video so those who haven't taken any of these courses can get a sense for what it's like and how much Steve likes to say 'basically'. ;)

Looking forward to working with the 20 coaches that have signed up!

Westside Coaching Seminars

2009-11-01T22:05:00.001-08:00

We're pleased to be offering a series of coaching seminars again this season. This year they will all be on the same day, November 15, and will run the whole day at Dunbar Community and the grass field outside (Memorial West). Steve K's done most of the leg work getting these off the ground again and will be running two of the sessions as will I.

Look for sessions on working with your goalkeepers, speed and agility, nutrition, injury prevention as well as Steve's sessions on team shape and set pieces and my sessions on practical ways to cut down on goals against and travelling with youth soccer teams.

Download a pdf of the day's schedule here.

The FIFA 11+ warm-up exercises

2009-10-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

In response to concern about increased joint injuries, primarily knee, FIFA developed a series of warm up exercises in conjunction with sport scientists. They've been well-received and as a coach of a teenage girls team (teenage girls in particular are experiencing an incredible number of ACL and MCL knee injuries which can keep them out of play for up to a year) I've decided to use these exercises at every training and game this season.

The longer version is designed more for training with a shortened version to be done before games. Last week I used by digital camera's video function to get some footage of them doing them. Unfortunately the combination of it being dark and the floodlights creating quite a bit of 'solar flare' and the fact that it's not exactly HD to start with means it's not the best quality but here's three minutes of the Pt. Grey Roadrunners U15 girls gold team running through the FIFA 11+. You can download a pdf of the exercises here .

Another drill for Jeff's team

2009-10-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Jeff was looking for ways to stop his U14 boys bronze team from bunching up in the middle of the field. I posted one conditioned game a few days ago that emphasized maintaining depth. This one concentrates on keeping proper width. Download the pdf here.

Once you've tried each of these what's left is to combine them. Create a field that has both the thirds of the first game and then add wide channels. This further reinforces proper spacing and shape when you have the ball.

Response: U12 girls gold game readiness problem

2009-10-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

This was brought up by one of the coaches (if you guys don't put your names I'll just keep you anonymous even if I know who you are - I'll assume you prefer that) in the comments section below.

I've interspersed my thoughts in bold.

Having a few issues with my U12 girls.
We've gone from being able to play with the top teams to falling off in performance.
Few issues, one is our starts. We have tried everything, physical drills during warmup, thinking drills, sprints, tactic talks, we start slow, every game, which is compounded by the fact we don't respond to adversity well.
So with a slow start, if we escape with just giving up some chances and get going, we're OK, but if we get scored on once, it drops their heads and we can easily get scored on again.

Players at this age, and I've found it particularly true of girls, tend to focus far too much on their opponents than themselves while getting ready for games. They check out their kit, they look at them warming up and generally have a tendency to get distracted when they should be mentally and physically getting themselves ready. It's one of those insidious things that creeps through a team in the sense that once two or three girls start doing it then several more are dragged in. Soon, getting them to focus on what you're asking them to do becomes difficult.

The first thing to do is call them on this. Tell them what the other team is wearing or doing is irrelevant and they need to concentrate on themselves and their team. Once they're aware that you know their focus in warm up is wandering some of them will check themselves and bring the focus back to where it should be.

You've mentioned trying a variety of warm up activities but the one that is maybe missing is to try to re-create a game within the warm-up. In other words, have a scrimmage in warm up. I like to split my team in half and have one group do a simple shooting drill while the others play a 4v4 with no goalies using small goals. Given that they've already had some touches on the ball and a stretch I expect the 4v4 to be 'game speed' and they are told that repeatedly if the pace lags. They only do this for 6-8 minutes and then switch over to do the shooting so it shouldn't tire them out.

The hope is that the muscles and brains are brought up to speed just before the game starts and it reduces the chances of a slow start.

That said, I think another important component of warmups is to try to standardize what you do so players aren't having to learn new warm up procedures each week. This just creates down time and is an inefficient use of the limited time you have to warm up. Find a warm up that works for you, get them familiar with it and stick with it so they know what to expect.

Last week we played a strong team but one we beat last year, and despite all sorts of warnings and a strong warmup, they scored on us in the first 20 seconds. Then again 2 mins later. We battled back for a while, made it 2-1, but lost concentration again and two minutes after our goal we went down 3-1.

Then we regrouped at halftime, tried to correct them, then they scored in the second minute of the second half and it was game over. We ended up losing 5-1, but it was the fragility and lack of hustle that bothered me.

I think at U12 gold it's fair to tell them that part of the responsibility of starting a game is that you are responsible for being ready to go from the first minute. You can kindly say that you know there's going to be some games where not all of them, for various reasons, are going to be ready to accept this responsibility at the start of every game but that it then becomes incumbent on you to make adjustments to ensure the team is not affected by this. Those adjustments, you can explain, would mean you may need to make some quick substitutions to bring in players who may be more ready to go at that moment. Explain, it's not a punishment but when games are broken down and analyzed, most goals are scored in the last ten minutes (of a 90 minute games) but the first ten minutes is also a period where a high number of goals are scored and having eight mentally and physically prepared players is the first step to preventing early goals against. Then follow through the next time an early goal is scored. Just make sure you take off at least three players so it doesn't seem like individuals are being hung out to dry.

The girls were caught off guard by the cold, many were very underdressed, but this malaise has been happening more frequently after a strong start.

Definitely worth mentioning to parents that you expect players to come dressed for the weather and prepared for changes in weather. There's probably some of your girls who just weren't ready to go because they were cold when they arrived and couldn't shake it in the warm up.

We've had a good run the last few years, but now we're in the top gold division and every game is a tough game and the girls look fragile.

You guys are no longer a big fish in a small pond. As you move away from the 'house' leagues we have up to U10 on the west side and into a Vancouver-Richmond league at U11 followed by a U12 gold league that then brings in teams from a few other areas before a full blown Lower Mainland league at U13 gold, the competition gets better and the results that were once taken for granted become harder to come by.

So you're right, part of the problem is that any slow starts or mistakes are more readily punished so the slow starts are more noticeable.

One thing we're thinking of for this weekend is to play kids in different positions. Play our strikers at fullback, our CM at CD, our CD at striker etc.

You may just want to let girls know when they get there that starting lineup is going to be announced right before kickoff and it's going to be based primarily on who looks like they're ready to go. You don't necessarily have to do that but it will get a buy in from at least some of the players to warm up like they want to start.

Could be very dangerous but frankly it's something we should be doing anyway as kids should be learning all positions, but it's tough when every game is against a team that can punish you, and this could easily go the other way.
A lot of the teams we play now show up an hour before the game, with the taskmaster coach, all in their unified warmups with matching bags. Our girls who are all good athletes, show up in their little hoodies and want to talk about Twilight and school, so focus is an issue too. We also have a lot of kids involved in school sports, dance etc. As coaches I know being more strict and serious is an option, but they are 11 and the game should still be fun.

Yes, it definitely does still have to be fun. These are key development years (U11 to U14) and if we want players to attend training and to want to improve then we have to make sure that through that work runs a current of fun and humour.

We also have problems retaining possession and passing the ball, despite working on these kind of drills every single week.

You've got a whole grab bag of problems don't you ;) They're U12 girls so don't worry about problems surrounding retaining possession. You'll be working on possession and the different types of passing and movement necessary to keep possession as a group for many years. It's still the bulk of what we do with my U15 girls gold team.

Thanks, I know I'm making you earn your money on this one!

Getting players to stay spread out

2009-10-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

In the comments section, Jeff asked:
"Gregor - My question is... What drills can you recomend for my team (U14 Bronze) that will help the kids not bunch up? I find that there is always 2-3 kids on the ball (like mice on cheese)."

Obviously this relates to positional play and if it's still happening at U14 then it's time to really dedicate a substantial amount of time in training to correct.

Essentially, you want to focus on conditioned games that define particular spaces and limit who can go in those spaces. You are forcing players to restrain themselves from all going to the ball and getting them to pay more attention to maintaining proper attacking and defensive shapes. Two thirds of all goals are scored in transition (going from defense to attack and vice versa) so while it may seem like a good idea at the time to kids for them to all get right up by the other team's goal to increase the chances of scoring...it's all going to end in tears when the keeper makes a save and kicks it over eight of their heads to teammates who are well positioned to take advantage of them over-committing to the attack.

I've got two things for you. The first is a link to something I wrote four or five years ago about how to start teaching kids how to play positions. It's still on the Pt. Grey website as a pdf here.

The second is a conditioned game that I've drawn up in Excel and Word that does just what I've said is important above: limits players from going into particular spaces so they hold a decent shape at all times. Since I can't seem to upload attachments on this blog I've put it on the Pt. Grey website here for people to download as a pdf.

This game addresses spacing issues related to bunching by forcing 'depth' on the players. If you find that your players are having problems that are more related to abandoning wide positions to all be in the middle of the field you can run the same game but instead of dividing the field into thirds, simply create two wide channels on each side of the field and have players confined to those areas. I'll draw that one up in the next day or two.

What does your team need help with?

2009-10-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

So it's one thing to analyze how goals are conceded at the highest level and draw comparisons to what we need to teach kids but often the tasks at hand when working with youth soccer players are generally more basic.

In the opening session of the Community Coach Youth certification that we ran on Wednesday night, two questions raised by coaches confirmed this. One asked simply, "How do you make the players care?" The question was geared towards motivation and how to run sessions that make players want to improve but it definitely got some laughs.

The other question was dealing with technique: how to teach players to drive the ball with pace while keeping it low.

So what this strikes home is that we know there are a lot of questions out there and we know we can help provide answers to them. We want to encourage you to ask those questions; either on this blog in the comments section or by emailing me (gregoryoung at shaw ca). This newsletter's goal is to be relevant to the coaches we work with and be a conduit for giving you the information and help to move your players forward as a team and you forward as a coach.

We look forward to hearing from you.

A good refresher on the offside rule

2009-10-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's the most complicated, debated rule in the game: offside. Unsure about how it works or what some of the exceptions to the rule are? Here's a great animated summary of the rule. Click here.

CCY course starts tonight

2009-10-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

We're very pleased to say that following on the heels of 30 coaches taking the Community Coach Child course we offered in September, we have another 27 coaches who will take the Community Coach Youth course starting tonight at UBC Warren field.

This is a 16 hour course aimed at those who are coaching U11 to U14 players and BCSA require it in order to enter a team in the BCSA Cup (aka Provincial B Cup).

Tonight the coaches will be working with a Pt. Grey U14 boys gold team, a Pt. Grey U11 girls gold team and a Dunbar U16 girs silver team as we run through training sessions for various age groups and modify them for different levels of play. The course continues on Sunday and wraps up in the classroom next Wednesday.

The third component of the Community Coaching badge, Community Coach Senior, will be offered in November. There is still space left in this course. Click here for information and to register.

Even the best teams can defend horribly

2009-10-21T02:31:00.001-07:00

The goal we're discussing is near the end of the video at 1:30. Unfortunately, a lot of the build up described is edited out.

Liverpool were playing Lyon today at home in a Champions league game. With the game tied 1-1, heading into injury time, they gave up a terrible goal. At first it just looks like great play by Lyon but it was an entirely preventable goal given away through a combination of laziness, poor technical defending and ball watching.

The problems, for Liverpool, start once the Lyon keeper, Lloris, punts the ball towards his left midfielder who then plays an awkward ball inside to a central midfielder.

Lucas, a Liverpool central midfielder, presses the Lyon holding mid when the dodgy square ball is played inside. It's the right decision because if he forces a turnover there Liverpool are 3v2 in the attacking third. It's the last correct decision Lucas makes though before the goal is conceded.

The critical play in the goal is the determination of the Lyon holding mid to not give possession away on the edge of his defensive third. He dives in and pushes the ball to his outside back who quickly moves the ball to the wide mid Govou.

At this point Lucas should have recovered and got goal side of his mark. He doesn't. Instead he drifts over to where Insua (Liverpool's left back) had pushed up high to force Govou to shield the ball and play with his back to goal. Insua then makes two brutal errors.

He lets Govou take a touch away from him and get his body turned so he can play the ball into the acre of space created by pushing up so high on Govou. Who does Govou play the ball to? The midfielder that Lucas should have been tracking but gave up on because it looked easier to wander over and make it look like he was closing down Govou from the side.

So it's bad enough that this mid is now charging towards the box having been played through by Govou. What makes it totally unacceptable is that Govou, who played the whole game, explodes past Insua first (who only came into the game 15 minutes earlier and couldn't have been too tired) and then Lucas and actually gets around the player he passed to and gets the ball back on the overlap before playing a beautiful ball across the face of the goal for Delgado to send into the net.

The last culprit on the play in Jamie Carragher. Perhaps the most experienced defender on the field for Liverpool. If you watch him as Govou bursts into the box, you'll see that he never shoulder checks to see if anyone is screaming in to seal the far post which of course Delgado does. He ghosts in behind the ball-watching Carragher and slots the winner from a couple yards out.

Absolutely shocking defending that I wouldn't accept from my U15 girls team. Here's the mistakes summarized.

1. Lucas doesn't track his mark's run
2. Insua does half the job closing down Govou but lets him turn and play a threatening ball in behind and then can't be bothered to track him as he takes off. Both Lucas and Insua aren't even in the box yet when the ball goes in while Govou has overlapped and played the decisive ball across the goal from about eight yards out.
3. Carragher is totally unaware of the danger at the far post and allows Delgado to score unmarked.

What lessons can you draw from this for youth soccer players? Some very simple ones.

1. See the importance of Lyon's holding midfielder being tough enough to not surrender possession in a dangerous part of the field despite being given a difficult ball and being under pressure. His ability to keep the ball allows Lyon to start an attack rather than having to defend a 3v2 in their defensive third. Possession is not just nine tenths of the law, it's nine tenths of soccer as well and this willingness to not allow Lucas to snipe in and dispossess him is a huge swing.

2. Show midfielders the importance of tracking runners so that when a ball is played to their mark they are at least in a position to delay and prevent critical passes being played or shots being taken. Lucas tried to make it look like he was doing something positive but he knew he was ducking responsibility and allowing his mark to get further away because he couldn't be bothered doing the work late in the game.

3. Outside backs have to know that if they jump up that high to close down a midfielder they are likely leaving a big gap in behind themselves and it is a logical place to play the ball into. If they are going to go they have to get there in time to stop the opponent from playing the ball into that space and leaving them for dead. Further allowing their mark to blow by them and join the attack is criminal.

4. Defenders cannot ball watch. They have to check across their line every few seconds to see if someone is jumping up into the play from midfield, if someone is make a blind side run from behind them or simply pulling away from them in the hopes of getting a ball delivered over their head.

Your comments on the goal, the article or the blog in general are welcome.
Gregor