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Soccer Edition 82 Welcome to the Soccer Newsletter. Today's subject deals with possession and penetration First I would like for people to take a moment to participate in the latest online survey. You can find it at http://finesoccer.com/survey.htm. You will also be able to see the results of the most recently completed survey dealing with the offside rule. It seems that many players (and teams) make the transition from bunch ball (we all have seen little kids playing soccer where all of the players surround the ball and start kicking at the ball and any other moving object) to kick ball (this is where they just kick the ball down field to another player and then that player kicks it even further down the field until either a goal is scored, a goal kick is given up or they are dispossessed of the ball. The next step in this progression is where they actually learn to spread out some and actually pass the ball around and are able to retain possession of the ball. It is at this point that most coaches, players and fans seem to think they have become a good team. However, what these people seem to have forgotten is that the way to be win in soccer is NOT to string together X number of passes in a row but rather to score more goals then the opponent. Until the laws of the game are chanced so that a team gets point for the number of passes completed in a game, then the idea of getting to goal must get back into peoples minds. It's kind of funny but when kids first start playing soccer and they are all going after the ball and bunching up, they KNOW they want to get the ball and score. Then when they start playing kickball and are just knocking the ball down the field towards goal, they REALLY KNOW they want to score. Then when we, as coaches, teach them that possession is what really matters, we teach them to stop looking at the goal first and instead they should knock the ball around and play pretty soccer. In other words, we are teaching them to go against the best way to win! Am I saying that we should teach the players to go back to bunch ball or to go back to kick ball? No not at all but I am saying we need to start to make the next step which is possession to possess and instead go to possession to progress and then possession to penetrate. So many coaches seem to spend a great deal of their training sessions playing various types of keep-away games (such as 3 v 1 or 5 v 2 or something like that) that they forget to teach their teams WHY they need to possess the ball. The reasons to possess the ball include keeping the ball away from the opposition (if we have the ball, they can't score), to killing the clock (with 5 minutes left in a game that we are winning 1-0, we might try to retain possession in order to take time off of the clock to make it easier for us to win) to looking for opportunities to penetrate and attack. It's this last part that teams seem to forget sometimes. When a ball is going to a player, this player should have already looked up and seen what her opportunities are before the ball arrives. The first option should be to look to goal. As a coach, one of the things you want to condition your players to do is to look far first which simply means don't look to the player closest to you when you receive the ball but rather, look down the field first to see if you can get to goal. If you can't get to goal yourself, the next thing to do is to look for a player who can get to goal. The first option would be to look to the player closest to the goal you are attacking first, then to the next closest player to the goal and then the next and the next. If none of the players closest to the goal are good options, then the next thought is to find another player who is open so that she can look far first. In other words, look to possess to create opportunities to penetrate rather than to possess simply for the sake of possessing. An idea of an activity that can be used for possession to penetrate can be found at http://finesoccer.com/finesoccer_drill_26.htm. Another excellent activity (although much more confusing one) can be found at http://finesoccer.com/finesoccer_drill_46.htm. This activity works on possession with a purpose and puts a team into a position to look to attack off of their possession. To summarize this newsletter, look to possess with a purpose which should frequently be to penetrate and get to goal, and the best way to do this is to look far first to get to goal quickly. Please do understand that I am NOT advocating simply kicking the ball far downfield and then running after it. Instead, I am saying we need to develop players who can play an accurate ball to another player who is putting herself into position to get to goal quickly. Any comments, questions or suggestions should be sent
to comments@finesoccer.com or
posted to the FineSoccer
Forum at http://finesoccer.com/forum.htm. Remember that all previous newsletters are archived at http://finesoccer.com Have a great day! Lawrence |
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