Went through the second practice last night with my U-10 boys’ teams. We’ve changed the way we run practice, so instead of having the ‘A’ and ‘B’ team mixed together, we’re now having them come in at different times. The half hour overlap is a bit troublesome, but not too bad. It was hard last night as all of the other coaches (there’s four others that either coach or assist with these teams) all had work, vacation, or other commitments so I had the teams by myself. I was able to observe a top coach from our area work on Monday night with the U-13 girls I’ll start coaching soon and decided to adapt some of his session into my own focusing on 1v1 attacking. While I know that players this age need work primarily on their technical skills, I was inspired after reading about PSV’s philosophy that the U-10s must learn to “dominate the 1v1.” So with that in mind, here’s my session on 1v1 attacking:

Warmup
All players with a ball in pretty large space, focusing on proper dribbling technique for close control.
After some work alternating feet to work on the weak foot, I brought the boys in and demonstrated a 1v1 move (ex. stepover, Cruijff, etc.) to beat an opponent.
Then had the boys dribble around and practice the move. Would repeat the cycle for a new move. Of course I was giving individual feedback and suggestions and would talk to the group each time I stopped for issues multiple players were encountering. Also stressed keeping the head up to see where they were dribbling. We did this for about 20-30 minutes (mostly because players were coming ten minutes late and the ‘A’ team only had six players total anyway) before giving the boys a water break and moving on to a 1v1 ladder competition.

Plus: Boys were warming up, moving around getting lots of touches on the ball and working both feet. Working on basic 1v1 moves and getting feedback to improve technique.

Minus: Players got bored of the activity and were eager for something different.

Improvement: I had tried to leave an unstructured space so they would have enough room to do the moves. In retrospect I would probably just make a large space so they would still have each other as traffic to avoid while giving space for them to find to perform the moves. I thought they got bored kind of quickly because they’ve seen these moves before, but they don’t execute them very well on the whole. This is a problem I’ve encountered with all ages, from U-10 boys and girls up to college players. How do you convince or show players that they need to work on the fundamentals that they think they’ve mastered (when they clearly haven’t)? Sure the players think they’re not challenged enough, but they aren’t performing the skills at an adequate level and seriously need to improve to be among the best at their respective age. This is a problem I need to solve to become a better coach. I would think putting them in an environment where they can perform the skill under pressure and are unsuccessful would provide the opportunity for them to realize they can improve. Maybe I need to set that up and do more of the coaching at a later stage in the practice where they come to the realization themselves?

1v1 Ladder Competition
Now that I had shown them some moves, I wanted them to go 1v1 against each other for game like practice. The introduction of the ladder realizes a competitive element that should make the boys strive to move up to the top. They still enjoy it either way, but it’s more fun if you’re successful. And if you see yourself constantly losing, then maybe you realize it’s an area you can stand to improve upon. Saw some good things with regards to attacking 1v1 and some players shielding the ball well.

Plus: Players willing and eager to go 1v1. Seemed to be having fun. I was able to stop and give some instruction with regards to keep the ball safe while dribbling past an opponent but otherwise didn’t give too much coach intervention. Some players shield the ball well and others would have scored more goals (stopping the ball on the line) if they were able to shield the ball a little better.

Minus: Maybe not enough use of moves. Players prefer to use change of pace to beat an opponent, which is fine, but one dimensional. 1v1 defending was not very good.

Improvement: I think this went pretty well. I have a tendency to over-coach because I see so much that I can positively influence in all of the players. But I stepped back and let them play more, which is what they need. They’re improving by doing the activity, which is the ideal scenario. I did well to adjust the field size based upon the success/failure players were encountering. Also made use of player input when coaching (ex. asked them when dribbling past an opponent, which foot should the ball be on? And then helped them work through why it should be on the foot farthest away from the defender) Maybe I would call all of the players together at the end to see a final 1v1 between the top two players. This would add more importance to being the best and would maybe stimulate the competitive spirit of the others so that they will be the best next time. Then again this might not work as well due to their age.

With the ‘B’ team I used a 1v1 activity I found in a book I recently purchased. It ended up being a bit too confusing for the players as they have a teammate who basically does nothing half of the time. I’m not a fan of how that works, maybe I would do something more along the lines of having a continuous 1v1 with three goals (like this activity used) where the players switched after each goal and let the scored-upon team start by dribbling the ball in from the endline. So even though the same two players would be going against each other, they would alternate turns to start attacking and defending. After a period of time it would make sense to change teams around in some fashion (when using two fields you could just switch the pinny teams from the two fields). Unfortunately due to the fact that I was the only coach around and the ‘A’ team was arriving and needed to warmup, I didn’t get to spend as much time with this group as I would have liked. I let them finish with ten minutes of 3v3, although I would’ve liked for this time to be longer. I realize that it takes longer to get through each activity and still get what I want than I originally plan. I probably should run the practices a little tighter with regards to time spent per activity and move on to something different after the set time while still being cognizant of how they are progressing with the skill being focused on.

With the ‘A’ team I let them finish with a half hour of 3v3. They had cooperated well and they get the most joy out of scrimmaging. Plus I didn’t like how the one activity had gone with the ‘B’ team, so I scrapped it. I tried to give some instruction to the group while they were playing (’coaching in the flow’ in USSF parlance), but mostly in terms of asking them to think of how they could create more space for themselves or get open for a teammate to make an easy pass. I stopped it once when one player was trying to play a kick-in and his two teammates were hiding behind defenders and went about it by asking the passer if he could easily get the ball to his teammates and where he’d like them to move. I thought this was a good way of letting the players find the answer without telling them. Maybe (although their limited attention span makes this somewhat difficult) I would have the teammates switch spots with the passer to see what he sees and realize how they were in poor positions (stole this idea from Laureano Ruiz’s Spanish Soccer Coaching Bible). I was pleased that I was able to use more guiding technique this practice instead of always telling players the answer. It will hopefully make them better players and problem solvers in the future.

I still need to find more activities that stimulate them and that they enjoy playing. When I ask them for feedback they tell me they like scrimmaging the best. I’ll have to try more small-sided games and see how they like those. I still need more work as a coach and to do a better job with these guys. The age specific characteristics are harder to handle than I originally imagined. It’s all good experience for me and will make me better in the long run. I find that reviewing each practice like I am on this blog and thinking through things that go well and things that need work is really helping me to eliminate repeat mistakes. I recommend all coaches do so if they don’t already.

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