Saturday, August 22, 2015

Keys To Effective Soccer Practice Design


Interview with Tom Sauder, author of best selling Print & Go Soccer Practice Plans


If you had to narrow a great session down to 3 factors, what would they be ?


Maximum number of touches on the ball for each player


Holistic session incorporating skill, tactics, fitness, mental elements all culminating in a game situation scrimmage at the end, and united by a theme (i.e. counterattack, zonal defending, etc.). Players need to know the relevance of each drill to playing the game and running a bunch of random drills doesn’t work.


Injecting a reasonable amount of humour and fun to give a mental break from the concentration and focus required for each drill.


In your mind, how important is it that youth soccer players do no spend a lot of time standing around in line or listening to coaches talk at length? What are some ways coaches can eliminate this issue and get players engaged and moving?


As I said earlier, maximum touches and constant movement with or without the ball are critical. To really develop soccer skills youth players need about 4,000 touches on the ball per week. I have seen practices where in an hour a player gets 30-40 touches. They stand in line, listen to the coach or are in extended scrimmages and aren’t involved. Our practice plans get between 600 and 800 touches per hour. In a situation where a competitive team practice 5-8 hours a week the 4,000 touches would be achievable.


The ways to accomplish this are:


Be prepared for the practice. Set up ALL your drill grids/cones before the practice starts so that no time is wasted between drills. Sometimes the movement or addition of a few cones in a few seconds gets the next drill ready


Spend no more than 30 seconds (60 seconds for very young children) explaining/demonstrating the drill and then step outside the drill grid to observe. The coach needs to really rehearse and be mentally ready to be this efficient and effective. When a correction is necessary, stop the drill and in 30 seconds explain what went wrong and how to fix it. Then step out again. “Teaching/talking” time should be no more than 60-90 seconds per 15 minute drill.


Break each exercise into as small a group as possible, each group running the same drill. My favourite example is shooting drills. I still see 11 kids line up in front of a goal for shots. In 10 minutes every child is lucky to get three shooting (ball touches)opportunities. That’s boring and ineffective. Instead I suggest setting up 4 goals with three kids each. One in goal (you find new goalies and train existing ones)and two take shots. Have a volunteer behind each goal to retrieve the ball and throw it back to the shooter (needs to control ball and dribble it to starting point – more touches). While the first shooter gets their ball back and gets ready, the second player shoots. Then rotate the goalie after two shots each. Everyone is busy all the time. There are variations so shooters sprint (fitness training) to retrieve their ball and dribble (skill, more touches) it back to get ready.


How important is training at game speed, and what are some ways coaches can get their players to increase the reality and intensity of sessions?


Training at game speed is important, but not at the expense of holistic development. I always stress accuracy over speed when starting a session/drill. Accuracy is achieved by having no/low pressure and slowing it down. Once accuracy is achieved game speed and game situation execution become important. This is accomplished by adding pressure in the form of adding players to the drill, demanding faster movement (i.e. you have 5 seconds to get a cross into the target area, starting at midfield), reducing the number of touches per player when they have the ball (my favourite is two touch soccer), and by reducing the size of the grid. Small sided games that incorporate the tactics/skills at the end of the practice are useful. Full field games with a focus work as well, for example switching the point of attack from left defense to a cross from the right wing by stringing together  3-5 passes. Exhibition/test games are best to put it all together. Keeping score or setting goals during drills introduces competitiveness and it is amazing how quickly players turn into game mode. Just say that the losing team in a 4v4 scrimmage has to get water bottles for everyone and nobody wants to lose. Our practice drills all have progression options explained and coaching points to correct drills that aren’t working to expectations.


Access of 500 soccer drills and 80 practice plans for all skill levels and ages at:


www.soccerpracticebooks.com

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Children Soccer Development - Best Practice

 
Question:

I am told that the best way to develop young players is to have them PLAY IN THE SAME AGE GROUP. I believe that it is more important for them to PLAY IN THE SAME SKILL GROUP. Who is correct?

 
Answer:

We believe soccer is based on four pillars, at the individual AND at the team level:

 
  1. Technical Skills 
  2. Tactical Understanding 
  3. Physical Conditioning and Game Readiness 
  4. Mental Understanding and Game Readiness
 
Underneath each of these pillars are various attributes, such as:
 
  
Technical - ball receiving, passing accuracy, ball control, shooting, heading, 1v1 moves, etc.
 
Tactical - formations, own position, other positions, running patterns, pressuring, balance, etc.
 
Physical - speed, strength, agility, flexibility, etc.
 
Mental - maturity, emotional control, anticipation, decision making, reaction, movement without the ball, etc
 
It is the combination of all of these that make up a player and a team. It is important that each child gets the opportunity to develop. By definition then, they should all get the opportunity to get as many touches on the ball during practice and in games as possible.
 
Some people think that grouping children by age is the way to ensure that all the players are fairly evenly matched. Age mostly addresses mental development and physical development. Only if kids have grown up playing the same number of hours every week since age 3, one might infer age is an indicator of skill and possibly tactics. But even the mental and physical development assumption could be wrong. A lot of organizations play boys and girls together and group ages, like 4 & 5 year olds together. A smallish 4 year old girl and a physically advanced 5 year old boy are significantly different and chances are that in a game, the 4 year old girl doesn't get much action. Now if you only play boys together and we are talking U 13 then age may be a reasonably grouping. If you add that this is a competitive U13 then skills and tactics should match. 
Other people think that skill should be the matching factor. Probably be more appropriate at the youngest ages. But skill alone could be detrimental. We have seen 7 year old boys who have more skills than some 11 year old boys. But in a game, the 11 year olds would likely dominate simply because of sheer physical advantages.
  
In the end, the goal should be to have balanced teams with children that will have a fairly equal chance to get touches on the ball. The best organizations use this approach:
 
  • They split boys and girls at a very early age, some as early as age 4/5 - U5. 
  • They group them in single age groups, not combining ages. The difference between a young three year old and an older 4 year old in a combined U5 team could be huge.
  • They asses the abilities of players in pre-season evaluation sessions and identify the exceptionally talented players - the ones that would be good enough to control the ball most of the time in a game. They then selectively put these exceptional kids in an older age group to level the playing field. Messi was such a kid - playing 2-3 age groups up. 
  • Finally, at age 10 and up they split their teams into recreational and competitive/travel.
 I hope this answer gives you some idea about the complexity of trying to do the right thing for the children.

Coach Tom
 
 
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Saturday, June 09, 2012

Possession vs Fast Break Soccer

The final results are in after compiling statistics from 306 games from the Germans Bundesliga's 2011/2012 season.

The teams with the majority of posession:
  • averaged 56% possession
  • averaged 6.0 scoring chances per game
  • averaged 1.33 points per game (win=3, tie=1, loss=0)
The teams that had less possession:
  • averaged 44% possession
  • averaged 4.7 scoring chances
  • averaged 1.41 points per game
The non-statistical observation was that two teams, Munich and Dortmund, had over 60% possession in many of their games and won. We suggest the same would be true with high possession teams like Barcelona. These teams are so good that it doesn't matter what style they play, they will win.

What the analysis suggests is that dominating possession is no guarantee for winning games. Quite the contrary, fast break soccer, meaning quick transition, is a recipe for success.


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Friday, December 30, 2011

Possession Soccer Does Not Equal Winning


We have analyzed published results of a major European soccer league after the first half of the season. For each game we reviewed the ball possession (%), goal chances, and wins/losses, awarding three points for a win and 1 point for a tie. The results conclusively prove that domonating possession does not guarantee winning games. We found quite the opposite:

The teams that had 50% or more of ball possession generated 5.93 scoring chances per game and achieved 1.24 points per game (winning 32.7% of their games). The teams that had 50% or less possession generated 4.61 scoring chances and achieved 1.51 points per game (winning 41.8% of their games).

The results indicate that possession leads to more scoring chances but not to more wins. Why is that? We have long held the opinion that the quality of the chances makes the difference. Why would more possession generate poorer quality scoring chances? Extended possession allows the defending team to organize their defence. Therefore the attacking team has to work hard to find openings and quite often is forced to take shots from difficult positions, longer distance, or poor angles. A team that believes in fast break attacking after gaining possession does not allow the opposing defence to get into shape and balance. Hence the final passes set up shots for players with a clearer path to net. Therefore a fast breaking team will create better quality chances, score more goals and win more games.

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Fast Break Soccer - Competitive Pro

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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Dynamic Warm-Up For Soccer

We have developed a dynamic warm-up routine that can be used in conjunction with our soccer practice and soccer drills books or on it's own. It is on one page and can be taken to the field. The page also has a link to a web site that shows video clips of all the exercises. Click below to access it:

Dynamic Warm-Up Routine: Soccer


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Thursday, August 25, 2011

soccer coaching supplies | soccer equipment

We have partnered with amazon.com and several other suppliers to offer one-stop-soccer shopping on our web site.

Click on:

Soccer Shop

Monday, July 04, 2011

possession soccer or fast break soccer ?


There has been a lot of international soccer in the past few months, starting with the Champions League final between Barca and ManU, through the U21 Euro, the CONCACAF Gold Cup to the current FIFA Women`s World Cup.

While the soccer has been entertaining and at times of excellent quality, the "expert commentating" has been lacking, in my opinion. Even downright annoying.

Watching Barca playing the typical Spanish national team style of keep away (possession) soccer has all the commentators in a rage that this is how soccer needs to be played. and they criticize any team that doesn`t. The best example are the Canadian commentators slamming the Canadian women`s team.

There are two main issues to consider when talking about soccer styles of play. First is the skill level of your team and second is the attractiveness of the play.

Very few teams, including ManU, Germany, Holland have the skills to play the Spanish possession game at this very high level. Even if they did, should they?

From a results perspective there is no correlation between time of possession and winning. What seems to matter is whether or not whatever possession time you have is effective, i.e. are you generating chances and converting them or just pushing the ball around. Again, if you coach Barca, it doesn`t matter which style you play, you`d win anyways.

Contrasting the Barca - ManU game with another very entertaining game, the Gold Cup Final between Mexico and the U.S., is a good way of understanding soccer.

Mexico and the U.S. played fast break attack soccer. Play was direct and vertical and lots of scoring chances were generated. 6 goals were scored and there was never a dull moment. Fans were on their feet. Barca and ManU, to be honest, was a very boring match to watch, despite the goals scored.

Yes, Barca players have a high level of ball skills and can play keep away soccer and it works for them. But it doesn`t mean that this should be the standard of soccer. All soccer players need to continue to develop their skills and then apply them in a way that makes the game exciting, fast, and fun to watch.

Imagine if a team like Barca played a fast attacking game - scary....


Our Practice Books And Resources


Kids Soccer Drills & Practices

Youth Soccer Drills & Practices

Competitive Soccer Drills & Practices

Fast Break Soccer - Competitive Pro

Soccer Goalie Drills & Practices

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Soccer Systems Of Play

Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training