U13 - More passing and receiving

Tonight we ran a field size passing drill again that involved a lot of passing, receiving and dribbling. the boys kept moving and worked well enough.

I was stressing the receiving tonight.  One of the most important coaching points when receiving the ball is to attack the ball, moving towards it so your feet are already moving.  You significantly increase your success rate when receiving a ball with active feet.   We worked on receiving the ball with the inside and outside of the foot as well as letting it go through your legs and playing it behind you.

Before getting into our game I set up a 1v1 exercise.  I wanted to get them in the mindset of soccer  at the older ages, with respect to 1v1. I didn't deal with the technical ends of attacking and defending 1v1, but the mental/attitude end of the deal:

• When you get beat 1v1 work hard to win the ball back.
• When defending 1v1 be ready to win the ball and counter-attack
• When you win the 1v1 accelerate as he is most likely going to be coming to win the ball back.
• Compete hard to win every 1v1
• When the attacking player turns his back, force him backward with great intensity and create a sense of panic in him

A small roster size hurt training again as we had 4 of our regulars missing (broken toe, flu, indoor league and ski trip).  Three players from our other U13 team were there and were great to have out. 

We have to work on improving the speed at which our passes are played.  The boys are improving with their decisions and getting a little more creative in games, but there has to be more of a threat in their passing.

For our next session we are with all the players on both teams, then back to separate sessions again.

I made a bold move tonight.  We were short players near the end as some had to leave early for hockey, so the coach jumped into the game ... and got schooled by his own son.