Coach Rick invited me to run a session for
our club’s U13 Girls team tonight.
It was good therapy for me and I think the girls got something out of
it.
I was supposed to visit Coach Rick’s team
on Wednesday but we had a funeral visitation for a friend. I was not happy with myself for my U13 boy’s
game this week and this was a good outlet for me tonight. The girls were all known to me and they were very attentive and co-operative for 90 minutes.
Rick asked that I address his team’s lack
of willingness to attack with the ball at their feet, 1v1 and in open space. He said he has been trying to get them to accelerate after beating a defender or attacking open space.
My plan was to just do a lot of dribbling, ending in a game that focused on dribbling with intention. I was using this session to build confidence with the ball as I hope to return for a second time.
I told the girls was that we were going
to look to improve their ability to attack with the ball on their feet.
Coach Rick ran them through a dynamic warm-up and I got them dribbling in a grid then followed that up with some keep-away. I didn't coach this much as it was a warm-up, but I did use it for diagnostic purposes.
We then did lots of dribbling for 50 minutes.
I started off with 2 lines of agility poles. We had them dribble through the cones unstructured, left foot only, right foot only, inside of the feet only, outside of the feet, then unstructured again. They always came back through the poles but the last 5 times they ran back sprinting straight with the ball.
I noticed during the dribbling warm-up and now through the poles the girls were very straight legged when using the outside of their feet to move the ball.
The next exercise we set up a 10x40 grid marked off every 10 yds, the result being 5 sets of cones. One player stood at the end end facing west with the ball and the remaining 4 had a ball in their hands facing east. The player with the ball dribbles towards the other 4, attacking each one at a time and getting the ball back behind them making their way through the grid. The 4 players are passive defenders. As each player is passed they move forward to the next cones. When the dribbler reaches the end, the next player goes. So the 5 players are circulating through the grid.
Coaching points:
- See the ball, defender and space behind them
- Keep the ball close and get behind the defender
- Don't be "stiff"
We started the 4 girls moving down the grid at a walking pace and elevated that to a jog to make it more challenging.
We then worked with the girls to show them three 1v1 moves that all begin with a double-tap of the ball with the outside of the foot. Some of the girls were struggling again with the outside of the foot.
To use the outside of your foot effectively, you need to bend your knee, toe down, ankle locked, dip your shoulder and go.
We then let the girls get into 1v1 challenges in 10x20 grids. I coached the 1v1s a little, but my main thing was to accelerate after you beat the player, or if you win the ball . A lot of players beat defenders and keep going at the same pace.
We ended the game with a squad practice game setup in a grid 44yds wide by 25 yds long. The goal of the game was to score by dribbling across the 44yd line.
I was unsure of how things were progressing to this point but I saw during the game the points were well taken by most of them. Some of the girls attacked open space to score or take players 1v1 and accelerate past defenders. A few were content to pass the ball off.
I was happy with the organization of the plan and the 2 coaches of the team, Rick and JP, were great in helping to keep the practice moving. Coach Rick knows enough about soccer but I discovered that he has a very good understanding of human kinetics and offered some very good points during the session. His voice, mannerism and personal fitness level gives him credibility with his players.
Did they improve? I feel they did, but they need to dribble more to gain confidence with the ball at full pace. I also think we need to keep these girls competitive at training . The grass was a decent height but the field had some imperfections that are not conducive to a lot of dribbling. But it was good enough.
For the final exercise, I chose a squad practice over a Small Sided Game (SSG) because I wanted to emphasize the penetrating runs with the ball. A SSG would have been a normal game and I would have to coach instances where they could have dribbled and attacked. With the game we played, the necessity of dribbling at speed came out on its own, without me having to coach it too much.
If I was to work with this group again I would make things more
competitive by having more contests/races with the ball and disallow
forward passes during the game. I would squeeze that in between 2 SSGs to make it a Game-Analytical-Game (GAG) setup. Penetrating runs are just as mental as they are technical, so we need to have more situations at training to build that confidence,
I trust I left coaches Rick and JP with some ideas and things to look for with their players.
I am feeling more and more that visiting a team has to be a 2-3 session commitment. If I went back to this group I would hit the ground running with a lot more productivity.
