Coaches Corner
The Soccer Field Explained...
...This is a great little graphic video that explains the parts of the soccer pitch or field and some of the rules relating to the game.
Click here to view.
The Offside Rule Explained...
This is a great little graphic video that explains the Offside Rule.
Click here to view.
New Coaching Guide Available From U.S. Soccer; Best Practices For Coaching Soccer in the United States
Click here to access.
Pre-Practice Activities
Fun games for skill development
Too often, when young players (and sometimes not so young players) get to the field for a training session, the first thing they do is start shooting on goal. Personally, I have always felt that is a terrible thing to do for many reasons. First, they haven't warmed up at all so they start right off trying to hit the ball as hard as they can and end up pulling muscles. Second, one or two players are shooting and the rest are standing around waiting. Third, if two people shoot at the same time, there is a great risk of injury to the keeper (or whoever is standing in goal).
There are some great alternatives to the players lining up and shooting. It would be nice, if the players all know how to warm up properly so that, when they first get to the field, they don't have to wait for the official start of practice to warm up. Whether it's a short jog and then some stretching or a more dynamic stretching activity. If the players know what to do when they first get to the field, it can save time and also encourage good habits for the future.
Once the individuals are warmed up (and they should be able to do this on their own so that when the first two arrive, they can warm up, and start doing something fun) there are a few different options that work well.
One option is to set up a small sided field so that when the first two players are warmed up, they can play 1 v 1. When two more players arrive, they can play 2 v 2. As more players arrive the field can be made larger and more players can be added. If the coach is there early, and isn't busy, they should join into the game as well. If too many players are there early, break into two games.
Another option is to play “pig” (or some other variation). This is a juggling game where the players stand in a circle and juggle amongst each other. Whoever takes a bad juggle (resulting in the ball hitting the ground) gets a letter. The first bad juggle by a player results in a “p”, the second results in an “i” and the third results in a “g”. When a player gets all three letters they are eliminated. The last player left playing wins. This game will result in arguments regarding who should get the letter (if the ball drops between two people, they will usually argue who was at fault) but that is part of the beauty of the game because it forces players to work things out).
The idea is to create an environment where players want to get to the field early, and they get a lot of touches on the ball and have fun doing so.
Team Game Follow Up
As a coach, there is a tendency to want to review the game with the team as soon as the game is over (and this desire seems to up dramatically when the team has played poorly). However, it's important for the coach to realize that this is the absolute last thing most players want to do at that time.
When the game is first over, the players should get something to drink (whether it's water or some type of sports drink) in order to begin re hydrating, and then start right in with a cool down session (similar to the warm up dynamic but typically in reverse order so that it slows down and instead of increasing the pace) and take a fair amount of time doing this. Next have the players take one more drink, have a very short discussion (time and date of next practice, next game etc) and then let the players leave.
The main argument for discussing the game immediately after the game is that it's fresh on the players minds and because of this, they will remember all of the details. While this is true, the problem with this is that while they might remember the details, they will have so many other things going through their heads, that they don't concentrate enough to take advantage of these details. So often, when I see coaches talking to their players immediately following a game, the coach is talking and the players are looking down at the ground, or looking in other directions.
When coaching youth players, it's important to realize that there are usually family members waiting for the players. Or, their friends are waiting for them.
Even if this is a tournament where there are two games a day, the coach might think after the first game the players have no where to go so that is a great time to talk to them about the game. However, it's been my experience that it's much more effective to wait and have this discussion prior to the second game rather then after the first game. This allows the players time to get away, “decompress” and be ready to focus on things they can do to improve.