Winning Soccer Games - Mental Training

The mental aspects of soccer are the third corner stone of winning soccer games. Previous articles dealt with technical and tactical skills, the fourth and last article will deal with physical fitness.

Mental preparation is more than a pep talk before the game. It is a strategic and comprehensive program to get individual players and the team to perform at its best. We will outline all of the elements a coach needs to consider in developing the appropriate mental strategies. Examples will be provided to enhance certain points and concepts.

The People Involved

The following individuals or groups need to be considered:

Individual Players

Each player has their own ideal performance state (IPS), the mental state that allows them to perform best. As coach, you need to identify what that state is. The level to which you need explore this depends on player age, competitive environment and team goals, factors which will be reviewed further down. Suffice it to say that the IPS of a 5 year old in a fun league might just be to feel happy with his friends while that of a college athlete prior to a championship game might be an intense state provoked by visualizing his most aggressive play in the last game.

The Team

Although players have their own IPS, they need to function together as a team. Team dynamics play a key role. How do you get a group of individuals to work together and help each other as a team? As coach, you need to sense the "team spirit" at any one time and you must decide what you want it to be like. For example, if your women's regional team performs best after a 10 minute "social time" prior to warm up, then build that into the schedule. If your team responds to loud and vocal pep talks, deliver them appropriately at the right time.

You - The Coach

How you act and project yourself means more than the words you say. If you want the team to approach a game in a relaxed fashion, you must project a relaxed state of mind. Do not be tight, stern, clenching, rather usem open body language, smile and speak calmly. If you build your team on respecting each other and others, don't be the one yelling and screaming at the referee.

Game Officials

This one is easy. Game officials hardly ever change a call and never respond well to an irate coach. So regardless of how you feel about the official's performance, remain calm. Your best opportunity to take positive influence is to approach the official calmly and factually at half time. If the official doesn't want to talk to you, suck it up and move on.

Parents

If you are coaching non-adults, you likely will deal with the parents of your players. The key to remember is that most parents look out for the interest of their kids. That is natural, they don't have your insight into each player, the team dynamics, etc. Be prepared to prepare the parents. Have a pre-season meeting laying out expectations and accept their input. Lay some ground rules (such as "I will not let the line-up be determined by parents") and set boundaries (appropriate behaviour by parents during games is required). As the season goes on, take time to communicate with parents as a group, as individuals - in writing and in person. Always take time to listen to a patrent's concern.

Media

At high levels of competition, you may deal with media after games, during games or even before games. Develop a strategy of how you want to deal with media - short and factual, humurously, sternly, not at all. Be sure that your media message is consistent with the rest of your messages.

You may ask what all these external people have to do with the mental preparation of your players and team. The connector is the consistency of your message and your behaviour. Your players will observe you and will get feedback from what you say to others and how you behave. If you want your team to play a confident and composed game, then you better portray a confident and composed image at all times.

Player Age

Mental training for different age groups needs to be different. We break these into four groups:

• kids (4-8)
• youth (9-12)
• teens (13-18)
• adults (19+)

There some general mental training concepts for each age group:

Kids (4-8)

Kids just want to have fun. Your job is to motivate them to come to practices and games, and to come back next year. Ignite a passion for the sport in them. Engage kids in fun games that at the same time teach the required skills. Do not run drill that have them standing idle a lot. Let them play different position in games - do not shoe-horn them into certain roles. Add lots of social time around the required practice and game events. If it's hot, have a water gun fight duriong or after or in the middle of a practice. Bring snacks for games. Have a pool party. They need to feel good about the whole soccer experience. be mindful of the fragile egos of the little ones. Don't ever make fun of the chubby boy or treat the shy girl by putting her in the lime light.

Youth (9-12)

Here you can be a little more structured in your approach. You will likely have a mix of those who have played for some years and those who are new to the game (in a recreational environment). You may also have a team of U12 in a competitive league. At this age, the concept of winning and success is taking shape in addition to having fun. The seeds of the idea that winning is a big part of fun are sown. You still ned to be sensitive about the emotional state of individuals and how you deal with them. You can start to talk to these youn athletes about the goals they have. You can observe how they respond to individual input and feedback from you. You can engage the team in short conversations about setting some goals for the season. They will start to understand your review of the last game and how you see them do better or as good the next time. They will develop an interest of how peractices relate to games. Team harmony is still developed through social interactions outside a game or practice event.

Teens (13-18)

Arguably the most difficult group of athletes to deal with. Why? You are dealing with all the joys and challenges of puberty in addition to trying to advance their soccer skills. Hormones are running interference, rebellions are common. Expect to be challenged by individuals or little groups that may form within a team. You need to be very aware of your individuals and what goes on intheir lives and you need to decide how you will deal with them. If you're too tough, they may rebel and quit on you (mentally). If you're too lenient, they may take advantage of you and goof around. Your sensors and diplomatic skills are most taxed with this group. A middle of the road approach often works. Show you team respect. Lay out the ground rules and get their buy-in. Be firm when you need to be and relax when you can afford it. Explain a lot about what you are doing and why so that they will respect you. They will look at your competence and respond to you based on their conclusion.

Adults (19+)

Most likely you will be coaching adults in a competitive setting. Even more so than with teens, your skills and competence will be scrutinized. Engage your team in your thinking, your approach, your strategies for the team. Set goals together and treat them as contracts. The focus here can and should be on individual and team performance, how to optimize each. They understand intuitively that winning is fun and losing is not. Develop communication strategies with your team dealing with losses, winning streaks. The IPS should be explored in depth and each player should have a plan to get into the best mental state before each game. Address the team before a practice, after a practice, before and after games and review objectives going in and results obtained. Be professional with your players and tam and do not over coach them. They don't need endless demonstrations of a drill, they should have the capacity to understand and respond to a quick correction. If you are close to the age of your athletes, avoid the trap of wanting to become a "friend" of every player. Maintain a close and cordial distance. Have rules about behaviour, public conduct and be clear what the consequences of breaking the rules are. Encourage direct communication between individuals, the entire team and you. Choose mature captains and use them to buffer the team from you so that you don't have to deal with all issues all the time.

Competitive Level

We touched on it earlier in some of the examples. Competitive level of your team sets the tone for expectations and mental training. If you coach teens in a recreational league that does not practice or rarely practices, don't treat the team as if they were playing for the world cup. The less competitive the league, the more the elements of fun and social interaction take precedence. If you are a coach who is driven to win, dp not coach recreational soccer. On the other hand, if you are not driven to win, do not coach teams that compete at regional or national levels. This seems obvious but failure to recognize the competitive environment has led to many frustrating and unsuccessful situations.

Gender

Coaching male and female athletes is different. Books have been written on this topic and we couldn't do it justice here. At the risk of offending someone, we will state some observations:

Females need social time with each other, Team bonding and harmony are important. Developing relationships throughout the season is a definite goal of most. Public criticism of females is an absolute no-no. When the team is in harmony, individuals perform best, so spend time on creating that harmony and positive environment with females. Females also tend to respect the coach more and are easier to instruct. They appear to try harder to imlement instructions and are less likely to improvise. Tactically they are easy to coach because they seem to have a built-in capacity to support each other on the field.

Males also need social time, but that social time is closely related to the game of soccer, alot of it occurs after the game. Males work more as individuals and can be more concerned with individual performance than team play. You need to be astute in providing lots of opportunity for individual improvement. Take more time practicing tactics and team play. Males generally can handle direct and to the point feedback, positive or negative. they are motivated by opportunities for improvement. They will require more discipline, particularly in the teen age group.

Situation

Have a strategy for preparing your team for practice, for a game, for a road trip. Different situations require different game plans in terms of mental preparation. Discuss with your team on how to deal with media. Prepare for half time speeches during a great and an awful game. How do you get the most out in what is left in a game and the next game. Consider short and long term. Be prepared for dealing with unfriendly opposition (players, coaches and fans).

Strategy

How do you pull all of it together to have the best mental training for your team? Develop a strategy !!!

Consider all of the factors discussed earlier and then:

1. understand the vision of the organization (club, league) in which you are coaching and be consistent with that vision.
2. develop a specific mission for your team, with the input of all critical stakeholders (players, parents, club officials)
3. Set specific short term and long term goals for your team. Here, engage mostly the players because they need to make it happen.
4. Develop strategies for yourself, each player, the team on how to best deliver the goals. Follow through on implementing the strategies.

Above all, be consistent, fair, respectful and professional - and communicate at the right frequency delivering the appropriate messages at the right time.

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Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

Winning Soccer Games - Fast Break Soccer

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The practices, drills, coaching points and game applications are designed for your team to score more goals and win more games. Check out this great resource by clicking on the book or the text link below:

Fast Break Soccer

Winning Soccer Games - Tactical Ability

The last article dealt with technical skills of individuals. Today we will look at tactical factors that will contribute to your team's success. All of this information and more is dealt with extensively in our book:

Soccer Systems Of Play

Formations

Every team needs a basic formation or system of play. These are referred to by numbering, such as 4-4-2, 3-5-2, 4-2-3-1, etc. In a three number description, the first number specifies the number of defenders, the second specifies the number of midfielders and the third the number of forwards. In a four number system the second and third numbers specify defensive and offensive midfielders respectively.

Picking the right formation for your team is critical. There are two main philosophies on how to pick a formation. The first is based on the coach's preference and expertise. the coach picks a formation and then recruits or trains players to play it. The second is based on the abilities of the players available and the likely competition. Here the coach looks at skills and tactical understanding and the relative strengths of the team and then picks a formation. Players still need to be trained to play it well.

The first method works well in situation where coaches have time and ability to recruit players who know the coach's system of preference. The second method works well in situations where a coach has a limited numbers of players to choose from, a short pre-season for training and limited recruiting options.

The book mentionned above goes into more detail as to the type of players needed for each system, coaching requirements, strengths and weaknesses.

Individual Tactical Understanding

Individuals need to understand their role on the field and the roles of their team mates. Let's look at some key elements with examples:

A central defender needs to know when to mark, when to join the attack, when to hold the ball, when to clear it, when to pass it. They need to recognize the spaces available for the opponent and how to close them down. they need to recognize spaces for themselves when they have the ball and passing options. They need to know when to cover for an overlapping outside defender, when to go up for a set play (corner) and when to stay back. they need to recognize the opponent's system of play and strengths and weaknesses and adjust their own play and that of other players if necessary. They need to communicate frequently, clearly and directly (note - tie in to mental fitness).

Outside defenders require similar understanding.

Midfielders are the engine of your team. They need to be available to receive balls from defenders and they need to supply the strikers with quality scoring opportunities. They need to recognize space and time for their own opportunities to go in for a shot. When transitioning to defending, they need to hustle back and challenge the other team (i.e. shut off their engine) and close spaces. they are two way players and transition from offense to defense and vice versa more than anyone else. They need to have the ability to perceive plays, players and space aroud them, to anticipate opportunities and runs and to deliver the ball accordingly. They need to make decisions quickly (do I hold, do I pass quickly, do I have space to run with the ball). Central and outside midfielders have different responsibilities and roles.

Strikers need to be keenly aware of their position relative to defenders to take advantage of space and to avoid off-sides. Their main tactical ability relates to timing of runs and direction of runs. they need to have extremely quick decision making ability and anticipate play. The main focus is to get into good scoring positions. Also, they need to be able to defend by pressuring opposing defenders in possession. The key is to decide when to challenge hard and when to drop back and wait for the opponent to play. They need to recognize opportunities to hold the ball and lay it off to an overlapping midfielder or defender. When they receive the ball they must be aware of available space and decide if they have room to turn and then take a defender on 1v1 or pass. If they are marked tight, then turning into the defender likely results in loss of possession. Strikers also need to know when to retreat, i'e. hold the ball and dribble toward own goal to look for support or create space to turn.

Goalkeepers are in the best position to see the play in front of them. They can vocally help everyone on their team with positional play. In terms of goalie specific tactics, distribution of the ball is the most often used tactic. Do I punt the ball deep, straight or to the side. Do I throw it quickly and long, wide or central? Do I roll it out to a defender to build an attack. Do I ask for the ball back on my feet. If I receive it back, do I kick it out or pass it out? How much time and pressure is there? Same is for goal kicks. On set plays, goalies need to position their defenders, walls and organize marking.

Individuals Combining As Units

We define units as the group of defenders, midfielders and strikers. In essence, each team is made up of these three units. Coaches and players need to know how individuals within the units interact with each other. We alluded to some of these interactions above. Just a few more examples:

If an outside defenders needs to step up and challenge an opposing overlapping midfielder, the central defender needs to pick up whoever the outside defender was marking. the other defenders need to recognize that movement and shift positions to provide cover. Playing with the off-side trap is probably the area of soccer requiring the highest level of synchronization. One of the outside defenders needs to take charge because they can have a view across the defensive line and communicate to all others to move up and get "in line". Central defenders would have to look to both sides constantly to organize the line - not possible.

Midfielders need to know when to cover for each other when one or more are joining the attack. They need to be aware of where the gaps are when transitioning to defense. For example, if a central midfielder went deep for a shot and the opposing team transitions fast through the middle, then an outside midfielder may need to shift to the middle to cover.

Strikers need to know when to make diagonal and crossover runs with each other to lose defenders. they need to know if they should flick a ball on to a sprinting team mate, or if they should play a diagonal ball wide for their partner making a diagonal run.

Units Combining As a Team

The final step of integration is to get the three units combining with each other. For example, outside defenders can make runs all the way to the opposing end and cross the ball, acting as wingers. When that happens, a midfielder needs to be prepared to cover if the opponent breaks out quickly. Strikers may have to follow an aggressive opposing defender all the way into their own defending third in a situation when the other team is pressing hard. that may mean that on your team's next transition forward a midfielder takes that striker's role so that your whole team doesn't have to wait for the striker to move back up.

There are endless examples and we only present a few to illustrate the concepts.

Game Tactics

Bringing it all together in a game is what makes the difference. Players and coaches need tio work together in developing a game plan based on your team's abilities and the anticipated play of the opponent. Teams must be flexible and adaptable. If the original game plan doesn't work, the coaches and the players need to communicate "on the fly" to make adjustments. In really great teams, the players will do it on their own if the coach isn't seeing what they see. They need to change formations within a game, they need to change positions within their units and between units.

Coaches and players need to be on the same page regarding the objectives. Do we need to score a goal or defend the current score?

Teams that are better prepared tactically will win more games.

Winning Soccer Games - Technical Skills

Today we will start breaking down one of the four soccer building blocks identified in our last article - technical skills. Our focus is on out players at this time. Goalkeepers will be mentionned in a generic sense, although they deserve the same treatment in all four building blocks. We will deal with goalkeepers in detail in the future.
The key technical soccer skills are:

• ball receiving (ball control)
• passing
• dribbling (running with ball)
• 1v1 moves
• shooting
• heading
• tackling
• jockeying
• goalkeeping (generic comment)

Breaking these skills down further:

Ball Receiving:

• approach to ball (attacking ball, waiting for ball, running into space for ball, jumping for header)
• first touch (stopping ball, directing ball for second touch to dribble, shoot or pass)
• decision making (prior to receiving, decide what to do - this is a tie in to the mental fitness building block)
• body position
• part of body to be used

Passing

• weight of pass (i.e. strength) appropriate to distance of target
• direction
• on ground/off ground
• straight or bent
• cross
• to target or into space

Dribbling

• keeping ball close to foot or pushing it ahead
• speed
• head up
• parts of the foot (instep, outside, laces)

1v1 Moves

• body fakes
• direction
• speed
• deceleration going into move, acceleration coming out
• change of direction or straight
• type of move (stepover, scissors, cut back, Cruyff, etc., etc.) - each player should develop a couple

Shooting

• picking target (look up before shot)
• approach to ball (angle, backswing, hip rotation, striking ball, follow-through)
• power (hard shot or more placed shot)
• part of foot
• low or high shot
• straight shot or bending ball
• dead ball or moving ball
• left or right foot

Heading

• approach to ball (jump, stand, dive, momentum generating arch-back)
• part of head (forehead straight for power, side of forehead for direction)
• target - high, low, straight, side

Tackling

• angle of approach
• standing tackle or slide tackle
• eye on ball
• timing of tackle

Jockeying

• distance from player
• angle
• speed of movement
• eye on ball

Goalkeeping

• agility
• flexibility
• leg strength
• vertical leap
• reaction speed
• reflex
• diving position
• ready position
• communication
• catching
• foot saves
• ball control

How do all these tie in to winning games?

First, you need establish a benchmark for your team relative to age group and level of competition.

Each age group has a certain level of skill that players should be able to perform. For example, 6 year olds don't need to be able to do diving headers, 16 year olds do. Establish the level of skill expectation for your age group. How do you do this? Typically coaching certification programs will lay this out for you. Alternatively, research books and the internet. You can look at our coaching books and web site and the drills give you the expectation for each age group. Finally, you can travel in your area and observe games and practices to see what players are actually capable of.

You may want to make a chart for your team. List all skill areas of interest down the left hand column. The next two columns are labeled basic and advanced. The next columns have the names of your players. You now have a grid. Under the basic and advanced columns write in the level of performance for each skill. For example:

Short Pass (5-15 m)

Basic: within 30 cm of target, moderate difficulty for receiver to control.

Advanced: right on target, easy to control.

Then rate each player on a scale from 0 (cannot perform basic skill) to 10 (can perform at an advanced level consistently).

Then look at your results and see in which skill area your team is weak in total.

Now observe your competition and rate them.

You now know which skills your team needs to improve gainst the "absolute" benchmark and against the competition. They may not be the same. You now need to decide which gaps to fill first based on what you think will lead to the best improvement of your players, team in total, and competitive results. A suggestion is to start with those skills that rank below both the benchmark and the competition.

You will want to consider the linkage to the other three building blocks. For example if your 1v1 moves are weak, but your game approach is to play a fast/short passing game, you may not need to improve 1v1 moves a lot. We will deal with this linkage in future articles.
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Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

Soccer Coaching - How To Win Games

We received a very simple question via e-mail from an interested soccer fan:

How do teams like Real Madrid, Man U. win games?

This soccer fan had researched everywhere and did not find an answer. So we asked ourselves: How do they win? Is there a secret recipe? Is there a magic formula?

After some thought we decided that the four fundamental building blocks of soccer provide the answer. these blocks are:

1. Technical Skills

2. Tactical Ability

3. Physical Fitness

4. Mental Fitness

We believe that the team, in any contest, that on that given day exhibits the better combination of those four areas will win the game. Yes, there is luck on occasion, but we believe that less than 5% of games are won by luck.

No team will ever deliver 100% in each of the four areas at any one time, so it is the relative strengths and the total combination that determines the outcome.

In future articles, we will examine in depth each of the four building blocks and how they work together. We will look at training to overcome specific weaknesses in your own team and how to react to the opponent, who may be better in some or all areas.

Stay tuned !!

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Soccer Goalie Drills & Practices

Indoor Soccer Drills & Practices

Soccer Systems Of Play

Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

Soccer Coaching Learnings From Euro 2008

Now that Euro 2008 has ended with a desrving victor, Spain, it is useful to examine any new trends and learnings from the tournament. Our team at http://www.soccerpracticebooks.com/ watched and analyzed every single game of the tournament. Here are our observations:

Formations

The trend away from the standard 4-4-2 continued to more teams playing with one striker, mostly in a 4-2-3-1, with the occasional 4-1-4-1. The idea is that the three offensive midfielders can alternate in the support of the lone striker and therefore create a more variable and unpredictable scoring threat. Germany is a key example of this with any of Ballack, Schweinsteiger or Podolski joining Klose in the final attacking plays. The downside is that if the opponent shuts down these midfielders, then the lone striker is a bit lost. Also, there can be a loss of variability because in a two striker system one of them often goes wide for a cross and doing so opens up the space in the middle. Finally, when opposing defenders have the ball and start playing out of the back, then one striker isn't always enough to pressurize the defense and not always did we see the offensive midfielders step up. They tended to focus on the opposing midfielders.

The two defensive midfielders provide backing for the attacking midfielders during transition to defense, and have responsibility to start the attack from their own end.

The 4-1-4-1 is mostly a response to the 4-2-3-1 putting a defensive midfielder to cover the central attacking midfielder from the 4-2-3-1.

In our view, the system you choose depends on the ability of the players you have. What is important is that your team stays disciplined in all areas of the field, that the transition to defense and to offense works and that the attacking play is variable enough to cause problems for the opponent. We advocate that any team is capable of playing more than one system and is able to adjust in a game when the starting formation doesn't work.

Tactics

The trend to minimize ball contacts continued. There was a lot of one touch and two touch soccer being played. It seemed like the more skilled the players, the less touches on the ball and the more quick passes. Exception being when they went into 1v1 situations. Some game statistics had over 600 passes per game.

One or two touch passing is not to be confused with tactics, however. Some teams played a lot of one touch passes in a slow build style, looking for opportunities for final penetrating passes or combinations into the scoring zones (Spain and Holland), we call this horizontal/vertical soccer. Other teams played as quickly as possible into the attacking third, we call this vertical soccer (Germany and Russia). Again, it is a matter of choice for the coach.

There was a general preference for quick transition play with the entire team moving fast. Almost all teams transitioned to defense very quickly, getting all players but one striker goalside as fast as possible. Transition to offense was equally fast, however the horizontal/vertical teams only broke fast on counter attack opportunities, otherwise they played the possession game. Vertical teams broke fast to the other half, no matter what.

Skills

overall ball skills are improving everywhere, and countries that had a lull in the 1990's are producing higher skilled players again, Germany being the prime example. Like aerobic training is the foundation for speed, so fundamental skills are the foundation for tactics. We always recommend, regardless of age of players, to train skills.

We offer soccer practice books that are up to date on all these development, check them out:

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Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

Soccer Coaching - Complete Player Development

There are four areas coaches need to train in order to develop individual players and hence their teams:

• Technical Skills
• Tactical Skills
• Physical Fitness
• Mental Fitness

The coaching approach and time spent on each of these areas in practice and throughout the season depends on the age and competitive level of the team. below are some suggestions.

Technical Skills

Ball control (receiving and controlling), passing, finishing, heading, tackling, etc. are the fundamental skills each soccer player needs. The younger the player, the more time needs to be spent in practice and outside of practice.

• Ages 4-8: 80% of practice time
• Ages 9-12: 60% of practice time
• Ages 13 +: 40% of practice time
• Competitive: 25% of practice time

As players get older and more competitive, the intensity and complexity of drills must be increased.

Tactical Skills

Areas of training are combining with team mates, playing in units (defenders, midfielders, attackers), transitioning and combining between units, playing in a specified formation as a team.

• Ages 4-8: 5%
• Ages 9-12: 20%
• Ages 13+: 30%
• Competitive: 40%

The requirements for the youngest group should start with the basic idea of scoring goals and preventing goals and the direction of the goals.

Physical Fitness

An aerobic base is essential for all soccer athletes. With the youngest groups this is easiest developed in fun games that involve some running. As players get older, we believe fitness is trained best in conjunction with technical plays, sprint and shoot drills for example. Only at the competitive, senior and professional level would fitness training without soccer balls be appropriate. This would involve strength development (weight room), resistance sprints (held back by elastic cord or parachute), etc.

• Ages 4-8: 10%
• Ages 9-12: 15%
• Ages 13+: 20%
• Competitive: 20%

Mental Fitness:

The mental fitness aspects again vary as children and players develop. The key for the very young ones is to get them to enjoy the sport, develop social interaction with others and instill a love for the sport such that they want to come back. With the next age group, coaches need to start on focus, discipline, communication and interaction for the purpose of achieving team results. In these younger groups, the coach builds mental training into practices in such a way that the players are passively trained, i.e. they may not be aware that they are being trained. Monitoring behavioural results and adjusting techniques are the coach's job.

As we progress to older age groups and more competitive play, the coach still develops the mental training program, however, players are now actively engaged. Open discussion about expectation, measurements, results and improvement plans are held with individuals and the team. Players receive their own exercises such as visualization, goal setting, performance self monitoring, team environment building events, etc.

• Ages 4-8: 5% - largely within drills and team pizza party
• Ages 9-12: 5% - some instruction, team events
• Ages 13+: 10%
• Competitive: 15%

All of these elements are carefully trained and balanced in the practices you can obtain by clicking on the links below:

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Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

soccer drills - effective design

What Makes Excellent Soccer Drills?


Excellent and effective soccer drills must support the theme of the practice session. They must be targetted in complexity towards the age group and the competitive level of your team and players. They must motivate the players. Young kids need fun motivational games, older and more competitive players need more challenging exercises since they are motivated by accomplishment and competition.

Effective soccer drills must be easy to explain and demonstrate. They must be designed for the space and equipment available and must be adaptable as the players go through them (add or reduce the complexity). They must always show improvement in players performance from beginning to the end of the drill.

Excellent soccer drills must be relevant to game situations and players must easily understand how they can translate what they learned to a game. You can test this in the end-of-practice scrimmage. They must keep players' attention and interest and must keep players moving with a ball as much as possible and must always end with a success.

Our Practice Books And Resources

Kids Soccer Drills & Practices

Youth Soccer Drills & Practices

Competitive Soccer Drills & Practices

Soccer Goalie Drills & Practices

Indoor Soccer Drills & Practices

Soccer Systems Of Play

Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training

Soccer Tactics - Transition Play

In previous articles we have discussed the relative benefits of a possession vs a fast break approach to the game. Today, we'd like to briefly review what we believe to be the "engine" of modern soccer tactics:

Transition Play

Stepping back for a second, the aim of the game of soccer hasn't changed since its inception: Score goals and prevent the opposition from scoring on you. Sounds simple, but with today's athletic ability, technical ability and sophisticated training methods, its not so simple anymore, or is it?

Looking at the game from a different perspective, one can say that soccer is a game of constant change of possession. So one team is always defending trying to win the ball, while the other wants to move the ball into scoring position and score. Unless the team in possession scores, there will be a change of possession. After change of possession, both teams will need to transition:

The team that lost the ball now needs to transition from attacking to defending, trying to force a turnover. The team that was defending now needs to transition to attacking. How best to do this?

The simple answer in today's soccer is:

AS FAST AS POSSIBLE

Speed is of the essence. Looking at it from both teams' point of view:

Transitioning to Defense:

You want your team to immediately pressure the ball and not let the opponent get organized into an attacking mode. This is best done by putting a challenging and a support player on the opponent with the ball and everyone else to close down passing options by marking players and closing down passing lanes. This requires mental and physical speed. Mentally, your players need to react extremely quickly to a change of possession, perceive the position and movement of opponents and anticipate possible plays so they can prevent them. This requires lots of training sessions, co-ordination of positional responsibilities and communication. Physically, players need to be able to get to their destinations as fast as possible, sprinting and not jogging is the requirement.

Transitioning to Offense:

Your team has won possession of the ball. It should already know what the opponent wants, i.e. see comments above. Your goal is to get the ball moving towards the opponent's goal as quickly as possible, before the other team has done its job of marking and closing down options. In this transition, your players also need to react quickly, perceive where the spaces and opponents movements are, anticipate plays and make the runs and passes quickly. This requires technical accuracy (passing in particular), physical speed and mental speed.

If you train your team to be fast in both transitions, faster than any opponent you can imagine, and train to execute accurately at high pace, you will be successful.


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Soccer Goalkeeper Evaluation

How can you determine if one goalie is better than another? Whom should you pick after team tryouts are complete? Who should start?

Here is one method to objectively evaluate your goalkeepers. It is based on a weighted point system. Give your keeper a score for each attribute between 0 and the maximum number of points for that attribute. Add up all the scores for each keeper and you have a rating based on complete soccer goalkeeping skills. If you would like to assess different values to each attribute based on your preference, feel free to do so.

Soccer Goalie Attribute Rating Systems:

1. Reaction and reflexes on goal line (20 points)


2. Domination of penalty box - catching crosses (20 points)


3. 1 v 1 ability (speed, angles, save %) and challenging (20 points)


4. Organizing the team from the back - vocal (10 points)


5. Playing with confidence and being a presence (10 points)


6. Flexibility (10 points)


7. Upper body strength (10 points)

Total Maximum Score: 100 points

How do you assign the scores? You can use your observational ability over time or you can use specific measurements. For example, count the number of saves a keeper makes on the line facing shots from various distances and angles. Number of crosses caught in traffic and without pressure (low and high). 1v1 situations saved. Game observation regarding team organization and presence. Flexibility tests and bench pressing strength.




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English Soccer Goalkeepers

This will be one of our shorter articles, but perhaps one of our most controversial ones. One may ask why England is struggling at the national team level, indicated most recently by failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

One theory is to look at the number of English players in the Premier League. In 1992, 75% of all players were from England. In 2007 that dropped to 38%.

Now that may not be unusual in the top leagues today; Germany has a high % of imports in the Bundesliga, and they have enjoyed moderate success. Italy, France and Spain also have imports in their leagues, but more nationals??

Now here is the interesting difference between England and Germany, for example. Premier League teams have an unusual high % of import goalkeepers. And that is where we will challenge your thinking, if you're an England fan. Could it be that the goalkeepers are more important than experts give them credit for?

Where are England's Kahn, Lehmann or Buffon? Aren't critical goalkeeper mistakes in world cups (Seaman), qualifiers and friendlies becoming routine? Why start a national rookie against Croatia?

Our suggestion: ENGLAND - DEVELOP WORLD CLASS GOALKEEPERS.

Godspeed


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Soccer 1v1 Skills - A Necessity

We want to share a statistic from a major European soccer league with you. Tracking close to 150 games they measured the amount of 1v1 situations each of the teams won in a game. They then correlated the 1v1 success to wins, ties and losses. The results are:

The team that won the majority of 1v1 battles:

• won 48% of the games
• tied 23 % of the games
• lost 29% of the games

One way of looking at this statistic is to say that if you win the majority of 1v1 situations in soccer, you have a better than 70% chance of not losing the game.

We think this is incentive for coaches to train 1v1 situations. Our soccer drills and practice plans emphasize 1v1. Also, click on the soccer skills training link below to access the Coerver Coaching system and other soccer skill training resources.

Our Practice Books And Resources

Soccer Systems Of Play

Kids Soccer Practices

Youth Soccer Practices

Competitive Soccer Practices

Soccer Goalie Practices

Indoor Soccer Practices

Soccer Fitness Training

Soccer Skills Training